Chapter 1: into every generation

Into every generation a slayer is born: one girl in all the world, a chosen one. She alone will wield the strength and skill to fight the vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness; to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their number. She is the Slayer.

That was the mantra taught to Lilith from the age of fourteen on after the previous slayer was killed in combat and she was called. She repeated it now in her mind as she sat in the cave, coughing up foul underground lake water. Her prom dress – the expensive dress her father had spent months saving up for – was covered in dirt and blood. The leather jacket she’d borrowed from James had done little to protect against damages when the master held her underwater.

“Are you okay, Lili?” Mark asked. “Talk to me.”

“We need to stop the master now,” Lilith said, getting to her feet. She looked at Alvin, who had just administered CPR. “Thanks for the save.”

“Your heart stopped beating for a second there,” Alvin said, his gray eyes wide and anxious. “It was terrifying.”

“Yeah, you were kinda – dead for a minute,” Mark said, shuddering.

“Well, no time to dwell on the past,” Lilith said. “Let’s go.”

“We can’t hold them off much longer, Barton,” Jenny said. She and Tiffany were leaning against the door of the library as vampires pushed on the other side. “Lilith better get here soon.”

With that, there was a crash as the ceiling caved in. Barton dove to the side. He was dressed in a nice suit and tie, prepared to chaperone for the school dance. Jenny was in a prom dress herself, and Tiffany was in a suit.

Through the ceiling, Mark and Alvin fell and rolled to the side, barely dodging several falling bookshelves. Lilith landed on top of the master – a vampire with a wrinkled face, a bald head, and a mouth filled with sharp fangs. The master and Lilith both jumped to their feet.

Lilith jumped in the air, kicking the master in the face. He flew backward. Then came charging, fangs bared. Mark and Alvin were both still recovering from the fall, rubbing their heads. Jenny and Tiffany were struggling against the door, and it was starting to open as the number of vampires outside increased. Barton saw what was happening and rushed to help keep the door closed.

The master shoved Lilith against a wall. “You’re supposed to be dead,” he snarled.

“I was,” Lilith said. “Or so I’m told. For a second.”

The master wrapped a clawed hand around Lilith’s neck. “Where are your jibes now, slayer? Will you laugh when my Hell is on earth?”

Lilith glared. “You’re that amped about Hell?” She slid a wooden stake from the sleeve of her leather jacket. “Go there.” She stabbed him in the heart.

At the same time as the master fell backward, his skin falling off and his body becoming nothing more than a skeleton, there was an explosion in the hallway. Jenny and Tiffany both yelled and jumped away from the door as they were hit with a wave of heat.

A ceiling tile from the part of the ceiling that had not caved in moved aside. James leapt down from the vents with a grin, clicking a lighter in his hand and holding a gas cannister. “That was so cool.” He looked at Lilith. “Hey, babe, you okay?”

“I’m great,” Lilith said, grinning. “We won. We saved the school.”

“Lilith died and everything,” Alvin said, walking over to stand with the group. Outside in the hall, they could hear sprinklers going off.

“Hey – we’ve all been there,” James said. He grinned and for a moment his fangs were visible before his face went back to normal. “Glad you’re alright.”

“I should have known that wouldn’t stop you,” Barton said, giving Lilith a fond smile. “You were amazing.”

“What do we do now?” Tiffany asked, nodding to the hall where sprinklers were steadily putting out the flames. “I’m assuming we get out of here before Snyder can blame us for setting a fire in the school, right?”

“I’d say so,” Mark said, standing. “Hey – I hear there’s a dance at the Bronze.”

“Sure,” Lilith said. “We saved the day. I say we party.”

Melanie clicked the lighter in her hands, staring at the flame with a bored expression. Ally watched with disdain. Lexy was still chatting happily about the boy at the bar who had given her his number. Cheap thrills in shady dive bars. That’s what Ally’s life had been reduced to.

“Give me that,” Ally said, snatching the lighter from Melanie. Melanie glared but said nothing. Ally adjusted her Chanel handbag, an old gift from her father. Inside was her fake ID, some cash stolen from her mother, a bottle of wine also stolen from her mother, and some hair spray and a hairbrush.

Ally had been removed from her father’s custody three years ago. Living with her mother, uncle, and brother was hell. Of course – three years of therapy and visits with social services was teaching Ally that maybe life with her father had not been perfect either. She didn’t know what to think anymore. Did it really matter anyway? Often, nothing seemed to matter. Ally tried her best to suppress such thought because she did not want to become a shadow of a person, unable to care about anything. That wasn’t her.

“Ally,” Lexy said. “Are you even listening?”

“Another day another victim,” Ally said, smirking at Lexy. “How long until you use and lose this one?”

“It’s not like that,” Lexy said, looking hurt. “I really like Dylan.”

“I thought you said his name was Bryan,” Melanie said.

Lexy frowned. “Did I?”

Ally rolled her eyes. She liked Melanie and Lexy. Well enough anyway. They served the purpose of people who weren’t terrible to spend time with. And they sometimes helped orchestrate schemes to steal designer clothing from high end stores now that Ally no longer had unlimited spending money.

Still – sometimes it seemed as though Ally was meant for more. Was this really all there was? Arguing with her mother. Arguing with her brother. Zoning out during long and arduous lectures from her uncle? Sneaking out. It just seemed as though life should involve more. Maybe it was like Zack said – Orion had drilled into Ally’s head from a young age that she was special. Destined for greatness. But now that she was no longer the heir to the Nakamura estate, that greatness was gone. Replaced with cheap canned foods and the lights occasionally getting shut off.

“Did you guys hear that?” Lexy asked.

Ally and Melanie exchanged a look. Melanie shrugged. Ally, however, tilted her head. They were walking down a dark and abandoned side street. All around them were empty liquor bottles, beer cans, and debris from the abandoned houses lining the pavement.

It was dark – well past two in the morning. Ally wondered if Frigga had noticed she was gone. Probably not. Frigga was a sound sleeper, and she’d put away almost a whole bottle of pinot grigio tonight. Zack might have noticed. And he was sure to tattle. Whatever – it’s not like there were ever any real consequences. Groundings that Ally ignored.

The girls all froze as there was another sound, like breaking glass. They exchanged looks – Lexy anxious, Melanie bored, and Ally curious. Then Ally walked in the direction of the sound – the dark entrance to a condemned building covered in vulgar graffiti.

“Ally, no,” Lexy said, her voice shaking.

Ally ignored her, taking a step into the dark. There, she froze. A man and woman were embracing. Or rather – the man was kissing the woman’s neck. No. That wasn’t right. There was a ray of light, from some far away streetlight, shining in through a broken window.

The man was not kissing the woman. He was biting her. Ally took an anxious step backward, her heart racing. Then the man dropped the woman to the ground, turning to look Ally directly in the eyes.

Lexy screamed. Even Melanie gasped. Ally almost hadn’t noticed the two of them, following at her heels. She had been so enraptured in the bizarre scene before her. There was blood – a lot of it. The woman was dead. They had to call the police, they had to –

But the man was rushing them. Lexy screamed again. She and Melanie both stumbled backward. The man tackled Ally to the ground. His face – there was something wrong with his face. His forehead was wrinkled and gnarled, and his eyes were all wrong, shaped like a cat’s or a snake. Worst of all, he had sharp, horrible animal like fangs. What was this - drugs or something?

For some reason though, Ally didn’t feel any fear. Instead, she felt something like excitement. A strange instinct took over and she kicked, causing the man to fly backward. Behind her, Lexy was sobbing. The man flew into the rubble of the abandoned house, landing with a crash beside his victim.

“Ally, stop.”

Ally ignored Melanie’s warning. She ran into the abandoned building, after the strange man. She grabbed him, slamming him into the wall with strength she hadn’t realized she possessed. He grunted in pain.

“A slayer,” the man muttered. “Been a while since I’ve met one of those.”

“What?” Ally asked.

Rather than answer, the man punched her, knocking her backward. The pain wasn’t bad though. It felt like home. Ally touched her cheek where there was sure to be a bruise. The adrenaline was delicious – finally – she was feeling something real.

Ally punched the man back. She had always been strong. She jogged every morning, early. She lifted weights and did crunches. But this was different. There was a force swelling through her, telling her what to do. It was amazing.

The man punched Ally in the stomach and she kicked him in the face. Okay – she had never been able to kick that high before. Sure, she could kick, but what she’d just done was almost inhuman.

With a snarl, the man lunged for Ally’s neck. Ally punched him, knocking him to the ground. The lighter she’d taken from Melanie was still clutched in her hand. Ally dug in her bag, getting out the hair spray. Then she clicked the lighter and sprayed at the same moment.

There was a blast of flames. It hit the man and he screamed in pain. Ally had seen what happened when you lit someone on fire. She waited for the melting flesh, the sobbing, the smell. Instead, the man exploded into dust. As the flames faded, ashes fell all around.

Melanie and Lexy appeared at Ally’s side, both staring wide-eyed. “What the fuck just happened?” Melanie asked.

“What did he call you?” Lexy asked, looking at Ally. “He said something about how it had been a while.”

Ally shook her head, still staring in wonder at the falling ash. A smile spread across her face. “He called me a slayer.”