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Seclusion wasn’t exactly what Waverly had wanted when she made her plans to break Champ’s heart, but the way his eyes had widened when she confronted him in the bar had put a wrench in her plans to end things publicly. Everyone in town knew how often he stepped out on her for someone else, someone who could fill the needs she couldn’t, and maybe she wanted everyone in town to know that she was perfectly capable of hurting him the way he had always hurt her. But then his eyes had widened, his lip had quivered—actually quivered!—and Waverly’s resolve crumbled.
So, instead of tearing his still-beating heart from his chest in front of everyone like she had fantasized, she had simply asked him to follow her outside. Then she had rolled her eyes when he winked at the rest of the patrons in the bar. Just loud enough for everyone in Shorty’s to hear, Waverly said, “Yeah, don’t get your hopes up too high there, cowboy.”
They had wound up down the road from Shorty’s, closer to the railroad tracks and away from the nosy inhabitants of Purgatory that wandered the streets at night, but close enough to civilization that she could make a quick getaway if things turned ugly with Champ. Not that she thought he would harm her, but the thought of how his lip had trembled reminded her that he was a crier, and she feared her resolve would fail her yet again if she didn’t have somewhere she could escape to after she crushed his feelings. God, she hated being such a softie sometimes.
“Champ, we’ve been seein’ each other for a while now, right?”
He nodded and took a step closer, his suggestive smile gleaming in the moonlight. Waverly stopped him with a hand to his chest. She let it rest there to prevent him from advancing any further as she prepared herself to go in for the kill. She thought of the moment she had busted into her own apartment, shotgun at the ready, and caught him with her own sister in her own bed. She thought of all the other girls he had paraded through her bedroom without a thought to her feelings. Her eyes hardened.
“All this time we’ve been together, and you didn’t stop to think for one second that I knew about all the other girls you’ve screwed behind my back?” Rage filled her small frame with each word she spoke and burned behind her eyes. He opened his mouth to defend himself, but before he could get the words out, she gave him a hard shove. “And to top it all off, you went after Wynonna. You were going to screw my sister?!”
“Babe, please, I—” he started, but then his gaze flickered over her shoulder and the color drained from his face. His mouth fell open and he took a step back. “N-not you. No no no no.”
Waverly furrowed her brow and turned around to see what had Champ so spooked. She stumbled back a step when she saw the man standing further down the train tracks, his eyes embers burning brightly against his stark white skin and the glow pierced the dark night. Tattoos were scrawled over his bald head and a forked tongue darted between his lips.
“Oh, come on,” she said, and resisted the urge to stomp her foot. Of course a Revenant would interrupt her attempt to break up with Champ. She looked over her shoulder and wasn’t surprised when she was met with the silhouette of her ex-boyfriend’s retreating form as he sprinted back to the bar, stumbling over his feet as he ran. She shook her head and turned her attention back to the Revenant.
Regret crept into her head as she took a cautious step towards town. The railroad tracks had seemed so much closer to Main Street when she had dragged Champ out there. Now, with a creature that could easily place itself between her and salvation in seconds, it felt like she was miles away. Her phone was in her pocket, but she doubted the Rev would let her make a phone call.
“Waverly Earp.” Great. He knew her name. “An old friend would like to say hello.”
“Sorry,” she said, “if they don’t have my number, I probably don’t want to see them.” She took another tentative step back towards the bar before her fear got the better of her and she broke into a sprint. If she could make it to Shorty’s, she’d be okay. As powerful as the Revenants were, they still preferred to keep their identity hidden so they could lure victims away with less trouble. At least, that was her theory, and right now she really hoped she was right because she really didn’t want to die tonight.
She had just reached the corner of Main Street when she ran into what might as well have been a brick wall. She fell onto her ass and found herself staring up into the bright red eyes of her pursuer. She really hoped Champ had had enough sense to call Wynonna, or tonight was going to suck.
“Come along, darlin’,” he growled through his teeth, “they just want to talk. Come easy and you won’t have to get hurt.”
“I don’t think she wants to go with you, Mister.”
Waverly’s heart leapt into her throat at the sight of Nicole cautiously approaching the two of them from down the road, decked out in her uniform once more. And if this were any other creep, Waverly would be happy to see her—elated, even—but the creature in front of her hadn’t been a man in who knew how many years and the last thing Waverly wanted was to see Nicole’s pretty head torn clean from her shoulders. So, she improvised.
“Everything’s fine, Officer Haught,” she said as she clambered to her feet. “He’s just a little excitable. I’m sure he’s gotten it out of his system now though, so he’ll be on his way.”
Nicole shifted her weight from one foot to the other, and Waverly cursed herself for being so transparent. “I think I’ll stick around until he’s gone,” she finally said. “Maybe it’s time you get back to whatever friends you came here with.”
“Maybe you should mind your own business,” the Revenant growled, his red eyes flashing, and Waverly barely had time to call out a warning before he turned on his heel and sprinted to the officer’s side, his body a blur in the dark. Thick claws wrapped around a delicate neck, pricking the skin, and his forked tongue darted from his mouth, flicking against Nicole’s cheek.
“Stop!” Waverly cried out, but the demon ignored her and heavily slammed Nicole to the ground. “Listen, jackass, let her go, or I… I won’t even consider going with you.” It was the only thing she could think of off the top of her head.
“Waverly, just run,” Nicole said through gritted teeth as her hand wandered down to the holster at her hip. She cried out a moment later and Waverly could see the claws digging deeper into the skin at the base of her neck.
“Shut up!”
“Hey, hey. Calm down, big guy,” Waverly said, taking a quick step towards them. “Let her go, and I'll—”
“Don’t even think about finishing that sentence, Baby Girl. You’re not going anywhere with him.”
Waverly breathed a sigh of relief at the sound of Wynonna’s voice coming from behind her. The Revenant, however, snarled and released the grip he had on Nicole’s neck. His movements were a blur once more, but Wynonna… She somehow seemed to know exactly where he would end up, and when she threw her arm out, the Revenant came back into focus as he collided with her forearm and stumbled back. Wynonna used his momentum to her advantage and wrapped her fingers around his neck moments before slamming him into the pavement, much like he had done to Nicole moments earlier.
While the Revenant was distracted with her sister, Waverly ran to the officer’s side and helped ease her into a sitting position. The warm brown eyes that usually sent the butterflies in Waverly’s stomach aflutter were glazed over and couldn’t seem to focus. The back of her head was sticky against Waverly’s fingertips, staining them red. The cuts at the base of Nicole’s neck were no better. Red rivulets trailed from the wounds down to the collar of her shirt and disappeared beneath the fabric. A burn marked the spot on her cheek where the Revenant’s tongue had touched her. Waverly shuddered at the memory.
“He really did a number on you, didn’t he?”
“Am I dead?” Nicole asked, her speech slow and slurred. When she managed to focus on Waverly’s face, her eyes widened. “Wow, you are… Wow. Maybe you should be called Officer Hot instead.”
Waverly laughed and let Nicole lean against her. “And you’re a real sweet talker even when you’re concussed, you know that?”
“All the pretty girls tell me that,” Nicole said with a wink, only to wince in pain a moment later. As if suddenly remembering how she had wound up injured in the first place, she gingerly lifted her hand and pressed it against Waverly’s cheek. “Are you okay?”
And Waverly couldn’t help but wonder why she cared. They had only had two conversations, both of which had ended with Waverly making a fool of herself. What made Nicole stick around when a boy she had known for years had abandoned her to whatever fate the Revenant had planned for her? Maybe it was who Nicole was at her core. Or maybe she just really wanted that cappuccino.
“I’m alright. He didn’t touch me,” she assured her. “You, on the other hand, are a mess.”
Nicole smiled and the pesky butterflies came to life in Waverly’s stomach. “And you call me the sweet talker.”
A gunshot rang out in the street and jerked their attention back towards Wynonna and the Revenant, where a light streamed through the demon’s shoulder, shining brightly even through his leather vest.
“You aren’t going to win this,” the Revenant growled as he staggered backwards.
“Wanna bet?” Wynonna said before she pulled the trigger one last time, sending a bullet hurtling towards him. It bore its way through his head with a sickening squelch and the ground opened beneath him, dragging him back to the pits that had birthed him.
“That’s… That’s not something that happened back home.”
And Waverly had no clue how she could explain away the pit to hell that had opened in the street and swallowed a man whole. Luckily, she didn’t have to right away, because the sight of the street opening up and devouring the Revenant was enough to send Nicole into a blissful oblivion, leaving Waverly with an armful of unconscious cop and a concerned sister hovering over the both of them.
Great.
“Looks like you got your hands full tonight, Baby Girl.”
Waverly looked up at Wynonna with a bright smile and said in a sickly sweet voice, “Have I ever told you that you’re terrible?”
“Once or twice, but I am the one who just sent another Rev back to hell, so that kind of disproves your point,” she said as she twirled Peacemaker around her finger, only to have it clatter on the street a second later. “Damn it!”
“Absolutely terrible.”
“Watch it, kid,” Wynonna said as she knelt down to pick up Peacemaker. She dusted the gun off and returned it to its halter before turning her attention to the woman in Waverly’s arms.“You know, when I said you could do better…”
“Not one more word, Wynonna,” Waverly said, but there was a fond smile on her face as she brushed the loose strands of hair away from Nicole’s face. “She’s sweet,” she said in a soft voice, but the tender expression quickly shifted into one of alarm. “And kind of in need of a doctor. Shit!”
“Calm down. I’ve got Gus’s truck,” Wynonna said. “Help me get her that far and we’ll have her at the doc’s in no time.”
Nicole groaned as the two sisters lifted her from the ground and guided her towards the truck down the road. Her head lolled to the side and Waverly felt her bleary eyes focusing on her. “A little soon to be taking me to your place, isn’t it?”
And then she passed out again, and a flustered Waverly had to deal with a snickering Wynonna as they maneuvered the woman into the truck.
“She hit her head pretty hard, okay? She doesn’t know what she’s saying,” she said as she buckled the officer into the passenger seat. Once she was sure Nicole was secure, she gently closed the door. Wynonna’s only response was a smirk that made Waverly’s cheeks burn an even brighter red, and she ducked her head to hide it. A firm hand on her shoulder made her look up again, and Wynonna’s eyes had softened.
“Look, she tried to hold off a Revenant for you. I can respect that, even if she is law enforcement,” she said. Then she smacked Waverly in the arm. “That’s for even thinking about handing yourself over, by the way.”
“Well it’s not like I had my shotgun on me,” Waverly argued as she followed Wynonna around the truck. After her sister yanked open the door, she climbed in and made herself comfortable in the middle seat beside Nicole. Wynonna slid in beside her and started up the truck.
The hum of the engine filled the truck’s cabin and, thankfully, Wynonna chose not to comment on the fact that Nicole was leaning heavily against Waverly instead of the door, or that Waverly had decided to slip her arm around Nicole’s shoulder.
She was sure Wynonna would find a way to bring it up later.