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Bombay, India…

Ajaya Gupta scowled across the library at the three loud college boys. They paid her absolutely no heed and continued whooping loudly at the back issues of PlayBoy that they’d recently discovered were in the school’s stacks.

Ajaya sunk deeper into her chair, turned up the volume of her earphones, and tried to bury her mind in the schematics of the new manned probe to Jupiter. This was to be the first time humans would travel to the outer solar system, and the scientific community was abuzz with the news.

And she was just as elated. Or disappointed. She couldn’t decide which. The problem was that she wanted to be the one to design the shuttle. Unfortunately, the mission had come a good ten years too soon for that. And she had jumped a whole two grades and everything. It was grievously unfair.

She continued to read the article, dangling on every word about the design schematics. She fidgeted with the glasses on her nose as she did so. For some reason, about a week ago her vision had started to get blurry with her glasses. Imagine her surprise when she had taken them off to inspect whether they were dirty and discovered that her vision was perfect without them.

At first she had thought she was dreaming. After all, many of her dreams in the past had centered around getting rid of the coke-bottle apparatus that had gotten her so mercilessly teased all throughout grammar school. She’d pinched herself to make sure. It had hurt; she wasn’t dreaming.

But just as she’d had this revelation, everything had gone blurry again, and she’d needed her glasses to see once more. Since then, her vision had been flipping back and forth at an erratic rate.

It pissed her off to no end. Because of her extreme prescription, she already wasn’t able to get corrective surgery until she was 21…which was still five years away. But now that her vision was fluctuating, the doctors would probably say that she had to wait ever longer until they figured out what was going on.

It seemed like she’d be stuck in this prison forever.

However, moping wouldn’t get her anywhere. And it certainly wouldn’t get her engineering project done in time. Her professor had been rather adamant that analyzing the new craft’s propulsion system was too difficult a task for an undergraduate freshman. Thus, she absolutely had to prove him wrong.

She continued making her way through the report, taking notes as she needed to, and became completely oblivious to the world around her. Hours ticked by, the annoying group of guys was finally ushered out by several stern librarians, and the stacks begin to close down one by one, yet she still didn’t notice.

Nor did she notice the four people who burst in the doors right as the night watchman was about to ask her to leave. He rushed over to them, pointing to the closed sign, but none of them left. In fact, they all moved closer to him, circling as they went.

It was at this point that he noticed something was wrong with their faces. He opened his mouth to scream for help when the tallest of the four caught him by the neck and lifted him several inches off the ground.

“Well, well, what have we here?” the lead vampire said in a rough American accent that belied his Indian appearance, gesturing to the thrashing guard.

“A new toy?” suggested the small, Chinese female.

“A punching bag?” the Indian man added.

“Lunch,” the large, blond vampire that had him by the throat decided.

“Or perhaps all three rolled into one,” the leader gave the guard a fangy grin. The girl with the blaring earphones sitting across the room with her back to them then caught his eye. “And what’s this?” he nodded to the large, muscle-bound vamp who instantly snapped the guard’s neck. “Doesn’t have much of a survival instinct, does she?”

His three companions grinned as they fanned out to trap her.

Ajaya had just finished the section on fuel efficiency when a strange tingle ran down her spine. She looked up in surprise just as a clawed hand caught her by the front of the shirt and lifted her several feet off the ground. Her feet kicked helplessly in the air, and she screamed when she saw the vampiric countenance of her captor.

“Now, this one looks like she’ll be more fun,” the leader said.

“Very fun,” the female purred, reaching out one clawed finger to trace Ajaya’s chin line. A trail of blood followed the path of the green-painted nail. “So small and pretty… Can we have some fun with her, Anish?” she implored their leader.

The younger Indian male muttered under his breath as the female he intended to make his mate one day yet again demonstrated her preference for her own sex.

“We’ll have lots of fun with this one,” the leader – Anish – assured her. “Won’t we, pretty one?”

Ajaya’s struggles continued tenfold as the vampire caught her about the waist and pulled her flush up against him. He was too strong for her thrashing to do any good, though.

“Sweet, too…” He licked lightly at her jugular, savoring the moment.

At that moment, pure, unadulterated terror swept through Ajaya. All she knew was that she had to get away. She wasn’t even aware that she had made a fist until it collided with the vampire’s face…and sent him flying all the way across the room.

Ajaya stared at the collapsed vamp in astonishment. Surely she hadn’t done that!

The other three vampires were also looking at their leader, dumbstruck. And once he managed to pull himself up into a sitting position, the same expression appeared on his face.

For a minute they all just stood there, gaping at each other. To an observer, it was pretty damn funny.

Then, the leader finally managed to pull himself together and called out, “Slayer! Get her!”

“But I’m not…” Ajaya protested as all four vampires turned to her, fangs snapping.

It was at this point that the aforementioned – albeit obliquely so – observer decided to step in. With a quick back flip, the black-clad figure sprung from the top of the bookcase and landed right in the center of the vampires, back to Ajaya.

“Keep your back to me!” a female voice demanded when Ajaya turned around to look at what appeared to be one of the ninjas from those old movies.

Without thinking, Ajaya obeyed…and then promptly fell to the ground as the young Indian vamp caught her squarely in the stomach. Behind her, her companion neatly ducked the massive fist of the blond vamp and followed through with a hand straight to his chest…a hand holding a wooden stake firmly in its grasp.

The blond vamp looked down in astonishment for a second before exploding in a whirlwind of dust.

The ‘ninja’ managed to slip a stake into her other hand as well as the female and young Indian vamps rushed her from both sides simultaneously. She held her ground until the last second before leaping high into the air and grabbing hold of an overhead pipe.

Below her, the two vampires collided with each other with a loud thump and went down. Unfortunately, the ninja’s grip on the pipe meant that she had had to drop one of her stakes. It clattered to the ground, landing right by Ajaya’s hand just as she was getting to her knees.

The wind was still slightly knocked out of her, but she managed to look up in time to see the leader rushing at her. That same strange force seemed to take over her limbs in that instant, and without thinking she caught hold of the stake while simultaneously rolling to the side, out of the vampire’s path. Her arm jabbed out right as he passed her, and she gapped in astonishment when she discovered the stake was firmly planted in his heart.

He fell to dust before her just as the ninja dropped to the ground.

“That your first?” her masked helper asked.

Ajaya nodded dumbly.

“Pretty good for your first try,” the ninja quickly dispatched the two unconscious vamps. “You could never have taken all four, though.”

Ajaya shook her head.

“Hey, are you OK?”

Ajaya snapped back to reality at the concern in her companion’s voice. “Yes,” she smiled softly, “thanks to you. I don’t know what I would have done if—”

“You would have fought bravely,” the ninja insisted, helping her to her feet. Ajaya was surprised to discover that the woman was not much taller than she was. “Just like any Slayer.”

“But I am not the Slayer,” Ajaya finished her sentiment from earlier.

“I think Dusty there would disagree with you,” the ninja gestured to the pile of ashes. She made her way over to the bookshelf she had come from and gracefully leapt to the top, making no noise as she landed.

Ajaya just stood there, mouth gaping.

The ninja turned to face her again. “Are you coming or what?” she demanded.

“Coming?” Ajaya asked confusedly.

“Danger’s not over yet,” her black-clad savior explained. She nodded to the open air vent above her. “This is probably the only safe way out of this place.”

Ajaya was about to ask ‘what danger’ when she realized that now probably wasn’t the best time for questions.

“Just a minute,” she demanded as she ran over to her bag and shoved all the scattered papers back inside. She put the stake in as well, before zipping it shut and slinging it over her shoulder.

The ninja was starting to look impatient when she carefully climbed her way up the bookcase, using the shelves as rungs on a ladder. She was actually quite amazed that her usually gangly and clumsy body made the climb so fluidly.

“C’mon,” the ninja said, pulling herself up through the opening in the ceiling. Ajaya would almost have sworn there was a hint of a smile in her voice.

Taking one look back at the destruction behind her, Ajaya warily followed.

Valencia, Spain…

“It is time for you to face your first test,” Mr. West informed Isabelle.

“You’ve said that like nine times already,” she yawned in a bored manner. “How many first tests can there possibly be? I mean, shouldn’t there just be one?”

He frowned at her. “This is a Sacred Duty! You must take it seriously!”

“So says you,” she muttered under her breath sullenly.

“I will pretend I didn’t hear that,” he huffed before turning his attention once again to the park across the street. “They will come soon. You must go.”

“And thanks so much for driving me all the way to my death,” Isabelle sulked as she slammed the car door shut behind her. She stalked over to the park to take on the vampires while her Watcher stayed nice and warm in the car with the nice invite rule keeping him safe and sound.

Isabelle cursed her situation as she had every day in the past five years since the Watcher’s Council had officially adopted her. Friends, school, fun…life, all gone in an instant. It had really sucked.

For a long time Isabelle had hoped that the Calling would pass over her, and she’d be able to live a normal life again. That was until the stupid Slayer had decided to get herself killed last week. And what could those sudden twinges and flashes of power that Isabelle had suddenly experienced possibly mean? Why, only that she was doomed to a short, miserable existence.

She trudged into the circle of trees to find the area completely deserted. Apparently, the vampires hadn’t decided to show for their little transaction yet.

“They could at least have the courtesy not to make me wait,” she crossed her arms over her chest defiantly and plopped down on one of the park benches.

“I mean, if I’m going to die a bloody death, can’t it just hurry up? No need to prolong my agony…”

She stopped abruptly as a tingle raced down her spine. Mr. West had remarked several times already how abnormally strong her Slayer Sense was. And right now it was warning her about some major vamp action.

She stood up and looked around the clearing slowly. She couldn’t see anything, but that strange feeling just wouldn’t go away. She attempted to focus it in the way Mr. West had taught her, and suddenly felt herself pulled in one direction.

She took a cautious step toward it, her stake at the ready.

Another. Still nothing attacked her…

And then she heard voices behind her. She whirled around just in time to see four vamps enter the clearing. They caught sight of her in that same instant and rushed her.

Falling back on years of martial arts training, she quickly and effectively parried their blows, jabbing her stake in whenever she could. Unfortunately, training was in no way able to fully prepare her for what a Slayer’s life was really like, and her stake missed more often than not.

One vamp that was almost a fledgling she managed to dust almost immediately. The remaining three dodged her strikes and hit back just as hard.

She took a kick to the gut and fell to the ground. She barely managed to roll aside before a foot stomped down right where her head had been. She grabbed hold of the ankle and threw the vamp to the ground. In that second before he could move, she staked number two.

Number three caught her in the face with a strong left hook. Isabelle fell back to the ground, fortunately crashing right into number four as he tried to attack her from behind. He took the brunt of their fall, and it was an easy matter to stake him while he was beneath her.

She absolutely loved how bad vamps were at cooperating.

Number three now stood alone with a very pissed off Slayer before her. She was about to bolt when four newcomers joined their little party.

Isabelle groaned.

While there was no love lost between the Orders of Dareios and Aurelius, they would certainly have no qualms about teaming up to take out the Slayer. So now there were five vamps to deal with. This was just not her day.

She ducked the first blow from one of the newcomers, and wove her way through punches and kicks and slashes. More than a few struck her, and she knew she couldn’t hold up for long against these odds. Nice first test, she cursed her Watcher when her stake finally caught one of the newly arrived Dareians.

The odds were now 4:1 again, and if no more showed up, she just might have a chance. And more than anything else she didn’t want to die tonight.

She did a back flip as one of the Dareians and the remaining Aurelian dove at her at the same time. They crashed into each other and fell to the ground.

“That’s just great,” she commented. “It’s nice to see you vamps finally overcoming your Order biases and working together. Makes me think there might be hope for the world after all.” She ducked the punch of a young Dareian as she said this and staked him neatly in the chest. Three left, her mind cheered.

Fortunately, the two fallen vamps had been reminded of their rivalry by their collision and instantly turned their lethal attentions to each other, snarling and biting as they tussled on the ground.

“Aw man,” Isabelle shook her head as she aimed her foot for the last standing vamp’s head, “isn’t that a shame? And here I thought the future was looking brighter.” She gestured to the two arguing vampires.

Her opponent gave her a confused look and turned to see what she was talking about.

“A tip,” she said as she plunged the stake into his heart while his head was turned away. “Never, ever stop paying attention to the Slayer!”

He looked appropriately shame-faced before he exploded into dust.

“And now for…that.” She frowned as she watched the two vampires still trying to rip each other’s heads off. She really didn’t want to get involved in it, but…

“Sacred Duty, blah, blah…”

She staked the vamp whose back was to her and then caught the female Aurelian before she could get up.

“And I live to try to get myself killed another day,” she sighed as she moved to put the stake back in her belt.

She froze in mid-motion, however, when she felt that same presence from earlier.

“Who are you?” she demanded, whirling around. “Where are you? Come out and fight me!”

A soft chuckle echoed through the glade, and a few seconds later a man emerged from the shadows. “You’ve got spunk,” he said in slightly accented Spanish, “I’ll give you that.”

Her Slayer Sense was screaming at her more loudly than it ever had before. Her eyes narrowed as she crouched and prepared for his attack.

“Not a bad fighter, either,” he gestured to the dust that surrounded the battlefield. “But not good enough.” His yellow eyes turned to look into her determined ones.

“Who. Are. You?” she demanded.

“For now, I’m a Big Bad nasty vampire that’s trying to kill you,” he shrugged. “What more do you need to know?”

“Nothing,” Isabelle said as she struck her foot out at him once he was within range. He blocked it easily. “Just curious.”

“Ah, but you know what they say,” he tsked, diverting all her punches and kicks with the greatest of ease.

“What?” Isabelle demanded as she sped up her attacks, trying not to let the fear show in her eyes when she realized how outmatched she was.

“Curiosity killed the cat.”

He struck out at her for the first time, and his foot connected with her solar plexus. She fell to the ground, the breath knocked out of her and fighting for consciousness. Just as air finally returned to her lungs, he fell on top of her, pinning her firmly to her ground.

“But maybe this time it will save it,” he flashed her a toothy grin before his fist collided with her skull, and all she knew was darkness…

Read on and get the shock of your life... (I hope) ~_^