Title: The Taste of Ashes

Rating: PG

Characters: Kate, with a side of Angel.

Timeline/Spoilers: Set near the end of Somnambulist.

Disclaimer: I don't own Kate, Angel, or their world. This is probably a good thing.

She holds the wood so tightly it tears the skin of her palms, jagged timber biting into hands already scraped and slick and aching. Head and heart pound in harsh dissonance, stealing thought and breath and precious time. Her eyes are fixed on his, dark reservoirs of determination and resignation looking up at her.

Kate doesn't know what he wants her to do, and she doesn't really care. She steps forward and draws her arms back because the killing has to end and this is the only way to stop it.

No justice, no closure, just broken wood sliding roughly through flesh and muscle that died a long time ago.

Then he's standing there alone, cloaked in dust and blood and agony. His bastard progeny said her fear would taste sweet; his death is acrid and bitter on her tongue.

Her hands fall to her sides, raw and empty. For a moment they simply watch each other, shock and wariness binding them in silence. When he speaks his voice is hoarse but even.

"You missed."

Her words are coldly steady and tightly controlled, an acute contrast to her own wide eyes and heaving chest. Why is his moving if he doesn't breathe? One more way to pretend he's human, even now?

"No. I didn't."

She yanks the board out of him and tosses it to the floor, watching stoically as he collapses, cradling his bleeding stomach and not making a sound.

Then she sinks down beside him, drawing her knees up and resting her forehead against them.

She killed a vampire. A fairytale, a nightmare, a murderer.

She's lost and tired and battered, choked by grief and anger, drowning in knowledge she doesn't want...but she can't help but feel satisfied.

Reggie Sparks. Jinny Markem. Jessica Halpren. Alicia Benton.

They've been avenged, and no one will ever die like them again.