EXTINCTION

 

 

Name: Chris

E-mail: RealWorldHB@aol.com

Feedback: HELL YES!  Gimme feedback!!!!

Disclaimer: I own nothing here, but certainly if I find you with this story, bad things will happen...

Rating: R/NC-17

Content: Extreme violence, gore, sometimes language and minimal sexual scenes.  But mainly VIOLENCE AND GORE!

Spoiler Warning: Spoiler for all seasons (1-5), this collects pretty much most of the good stuff from those seasons and jams it down your throat.

Summary: This takes place in Season 7.  This is the last season, and in so its going to be big.  Buffy has a new foe on her hands in the shape of a dying vampire coven.  They are trying to raise something called Thamogron, and it is up to Buffy and the Scooby Gang to stop them, even though they have no clue who or what Thamogron is.  Also thrown into the mix of that battle are dozens of side stories, including a male Vampire Slayer (in with the mythology around Thamogron), a vampire/lizard hybrid thanks to the Initiative in Colorado (they moved), a certain Hell Goddess' return from the dead, Faith's return to Sunnydale, and a prophecy dating back to before the first season that Buffy will be the destroyer of the world.  Every storyline ties together eventually into the devastatingly evilness of Thamogron and what it plans on doing to our world and others...

Notes: I have written a 238 page screenplay based on this story (or well, the story is based on this screenplay), but it is just the Thamogron storyline and nothing else (cept the Faith and male Slayer ones).  But I must stress that this is my life's work, and I will be BEYOND pissed off if I see anyone using this.  It is mainly for entertainment value, not for someone to rip off and use it as your own.  If you have to use it, contact me and I just might let you use it but please, for the love of God don't just steal it!  Cuz if I see you've stolen this, hell will be unleashed!

 

Chapter 2

Recollection

 

1773

20 miles from Paris, France

 

                The small tavern was literally shaking with commotion.  “He’s about to beat Monsieur de Renaud’s hand without a shred of doubt!” an old man boasted.  He sat with two other men at the bar as dozens of drab looking men and women encircled a table off in the corner.  The fire in the hearth next to the table roared with yellow flames that danced wildly as a gasp came from the audience of the table.

                With a tug of his lace cuffs, Blaine glared at his partner in a tension filled game of cards.  Blaine’s crystal blue eyes seemed to take in every detail of the man sitting opposite him.  With a sigh, Blaine tossed a golden coin into a hefty pile of coins in the center of the hard wood table.  The flash of the gold caused Renaud’s green eyes to close in the defense.  His fat fingers twiddled in thought, he knew his hand had promise but was it worth another coin?

                Blaine de Kristof sat there with a faint smile on his face as his hands grasped the deck.  “Renaud…” Blaine called out in a soft tone.  Renaud’s eyes darted into the lock of Blaine’s as his lips curled into an evil grin, “Renaud it is your turn.” He stated.

                Renaud sneered at Blaine as he picked up a coin and tossed into onto the pile.  Placing his cards face down on the table, Renaud said, “Call.”

                Blaine sighed, “How many Renaud?  And please do respond with a little more haste.”’

                Snapping at Blaine, Renaud screamed out, “Three you damned aristocratic fool!”

                “Ho ho!” Blaine chuckled as he drew three cards and slid them to Renaud.  “I take none”, Blaine said with great pride.  A gasp cam from the surrounding villagers as the wealthy stranger sat there, lapping up their attention.

                A bead of sweat formed on Renaud’s brow as he discarded three and then drew the new three cards.  Slowly, Renaud held his cards in a stack infront of his eyes.  His heart racing, Renaud slowly started to unveil his hand to himself.  The first card was an old card; the ace of clubs and behind it was the last remaining card of his former hand, the ace of hearts.  Renaud drew in a steady breath as the bead trickled down his greasy face.  His fat index finger slid past the second card to reveal the six of hearts, the seven of spades and, finally the six of diamonds. 

                Renaud let out a calm sigh of defeat as he tried to watch Blaine, hoping the man was bluffing.  Meanwhile, Blaine sat there with his cards in a stack on the table.  A glare turned upon Renaud from Blaine’s cold eyes as he slipped his tongue through his lips to dampen them.  “Shall I show first or will you my dear Renaud?” Blaine asked calmly.

                Renaud stiffened, and with a look of defeat expressing on his worn face he showed his cards.  The sight of the large Frenchman’s cards brought Blaine’s calmness to an end.  With a horrid laughter escaping his mouth, Blaine turned his cards over and spread them out onto the table to expose a flush of spades.  The crowd exploded into shock as Renaud let out a raging cry and stormed out of the tavern.

                Surprised by the discrete exit of his large opponent, Blaine stood up from his chair and pulled out a blue velvet purse from his crushed red velvet coat.  He slipped the elegant coat over his white frilly dress shirt as a greedy look overcame his eyes.  With his hands, Blaine slid the coins into the bag and took his leave.  Tossing two comes for the waitress; Blaine stepped away from the table and through the tavern doors into the pitch-black night.

                “He didn’t even try to fight me for the winnings!” Blaine said, disgusted at the easy win.  Blaine reached into the lace cuffs of his shirt and withdrew two cards.  Looking at them, almost laughing at the trick he played within the tavern, Blaine let the cards fall onto the dirt ground.  The ace of diamonds and the ace of spades slowly drifted downward as Blaine rushed past and away from the lamps of the tavern and towards the lights of Paris.

                As he got into the darkest part of the small village, he could hear a low cry of something wounded.  “Help…” a gasp shrieked out at Blaine as he passed an ally.  Beating faster and faster, Blaine’s heart pumped the mind numbing fear throughout his body.  The thud of a fallen human onto the dirt sent Blaine’s skin crawling in disgust and fear.  But the sound of tiny footsteps came closer to him, and his eyes raced wildly, as if trying to cut through the blackness to see the thing that approached him.

                Fearfully, Blaine yelled out, “Wh-who’s there!  Renaud?” he screamed, searching the darkness for a face to put with these horrid steps.

                “Oh no, no, no Monsieur!  Renaud is dead, and you will too be as him” a woman’s voice called out from the darkness.  Blaine reached for a matchbook in his coat, but it was too late.  The woman snarled as she leapt for Blaine, but he took off running toward the tavern.  Playing in his mind, the words “Light!” screamed to him within, he knew he had to get into the light.  She was laughing at him, the woman.  She was enjoying his feeble attempt to escape with his life and she knew he knew that there was no use.  That was what made her laugh.

                Blaine was almost to the tavern; barely he got into the dim light of the distant lamps as the woman tackled Blaine to the ground.  In the faint glow of the light, Blaine could finally see his attacker.  She was young, she was Russian and she was rich by the way her overly beautiful dress looked to his scared eyes.  Her name was Aalysha; her face seemed to glow as she held Blaine to the soil.  Blaine’s own face seemed to glow as the struggle kept on, but his from the fearful sweat dripping from his screaming pores.  Aalysha’s dark brown hair and dazzling brown eyes seemed to peer right through Blaine’s flesh and directly into his soul as she watched him.  Just as Blaine let himself believe that this was merely a game, Aalysha’s face protruded into that of a vampire.  His scream barely escaped his lips as her fangs inserted into his flesh.  The agony of the wound and the sucking of Aalysha’s powerful lips let Blaine know that he was about to die.

                As if she could hear him, Aalysha stopped her feeding to shake her head.  Her eyes met with Blaine’s own teary pair, “Do you fear death Monsieur?  A powerful young man like yourself, and still you fear?  You, unlike Renaud will not die, if you truly wish.  You’re vicious nature is a gift and the twisted evil contraption in your head you call a brain is a godsend, and they both will be wasted by death!” Aalysha stated.

                Blaine began to cry, he attempted to speak but the words only came out as a whimper.  Aalysha frowned, stroking Blaine’s beautiful black hair back from his paling face.  “You wish to live, don’t you my dear?” she asked, saddened by the pain Blaine expressed.  Blaine nodded, and her sadness lifted from her like a veil.  She pressed her face closer to the wound on Blaine’s neck, “Then, my beautiful devil, I will allow you to live forever!”

 

 

Present Day

Sunnydale, California

 

                The darkness, it was so kind to a vampire and yet so ruthlessly unforgiving.  It would give him escape and shielding from the living world, but the darkness would bring with it the thirst.  Needing the warmth of the blood to survive in the cold dark, the vampire must kill to get its meal like so many other beings on the Earth.  But with the kill, an encounter with a resistance, a Slayer could bring his undead life to an awful and unsettling end.

                Although she was near, Blaine did not care.  He watched a young man feed an old, homeless dog as he pasted by a dirty alleyway.  Blaine stood in the darkness, savoring the kindness of the boy.  His unsettling smile transformed into the demonic face of the vampire as he caught the boy in his arms.  As the blood flooded into the anxiously awaiting mouth of Blaine, all he could think about was she.  The object of his vengeance, the Slayer.  But it wasn’t only her he wanted revenge upon, but her organization as well.  The Watcher’s Council.

                Like the rapper to a candy bar, Blaine tossed the boy to the sidewalk and passed the shadows of the darkness.  He stepped into the light of a near by movie theater as his crystal-like eyes sought out for another kill, but this one would be strictly for entertainment.  Boredom was a vampire’s true enemy.  With boredom brought the carelessness that would bring the vampire certain death.  The kill was a work of art, but often the carelessness destroyed and corrupted the beauty that was the kill.

                As his eyes searched the faces of the movie theater, two of them caught his attention immediately.  Blaine followed them into the movie theater, moving so quickly that the ticket taker couldn’t know for certain what just crossed his path.  Stopping so suddenly that his heavy polyester trench coat was thrown open and startled an old lady, Blaine made his way towards the two faces.  They still hadn’t noticed him, how obliviously stupid they are, he thought clearly in his mind.

                Lill, a twenty-something Asian woman dressed in a short sky blue dress was escorted by a tall African man, Valentine.  Valentine’s shiny baldhead reflected the light above as he made a path for Lill into the theater.  But before her healed foot could enter, Blaine grabbed her arm and the two slid against the wall in a terrified embrace.  Lill snarled as her vampire face rose from her silky white skin but quickly fell as she sighed at the sight of Blaine.  He laughed as he kissed her on the forehead, then with his cold eyes he peered at Valentine, very displeased in the bodyguard.  “You two are supposed to be home… right Val?” he snapped.

                Valentine’s dark eyes twirled in their sockets with a bored sigh following them.  “She said she would stake me if she didn’t get out sir, sorry.”

                Blaine scoffed at Valentine, “You could easily take her down if she tried Val!  Well, now that we’re here… what movie are we going to be seeing my lovely Lillian?”

                Lill smiled as she wrapped her arms around Blaine’s neck.  “It’s called Rose, definitely your kind of movie Blaine.”

                Blaine smiled in return, “Oh really?  Why is that?” he asked playfully.  Valentine entered the theater as Lill waved him away.

                “Because… the main character is obsessed over something he can’t have!” Lill says with anger in his voice.  She pushed him backwards as she stepped into the theater, the door slowly closing behind her.  Blaine stood there as his smile faded away.  She was a real pain, he knew it and yet he still wanted her.  But he left the theater quickly after that, passing the ticket taker once more, driving the poor boy crazy.  Blaine laughed; mortal eyesight was a fun thing to play with.

 

 

1799

Romania

 

                The farmland of Romania stood still in the humidity as the sky burned with red from the sunset.  The heat of night began to boil the countryside as a carriage sped down a dusty dirt road through the heart of the fields.  A farmhouse complete with a barn and a main house stood not even a mile away the carriage rolled on.  A pale, wrinkled old man sweating horribly whipped the six midnight black stallions as he urged them to go further.  He turned to see a path beginning up ahead that lead to the farm, and so he snapped the horrible whip once more, pulling the reins to turn the raging steeds.  The old man pulled out a bloody handkerchief and blotted his dripping forehead with it.  He pulled away his coat to wipe a scabbed over bite mark still pink on his neck.

                With a great neigh, the horses galloped down the narrow dirt path as they approached the barn of the farmhouse.  The old man sighed as he pulled back on the reins with all his elderly strength, forcing the unstable steeds to halt in their tracks.  The old man, exhausted by the heat called out “Water…!” as he steadied himself while he got to the ground.  He ran to the barn and at once pumped himself an immense amount of water from a nearby water pump.

                A movement from inside the carriage shook it slightly, as the wooden shutters on the carriage windows opened.  Throwing open the door, two elegantly dressed figures stepped down from their quarters to the burning soil below.  And there they stood, Blaine with his arm around Aalysha as they observed the Romania countryside.  “Beautiful… it gets more grand everytime I come here!” Aalysha exclaimed.  Her deep brown eyes took in the sights as her dark red lips brooded.  “What a grand new hunting ground we have now my dearest Blaine, what treasures await us!”

                Softly, Blaine planted an innocent kiss on Aalysha’s cheek.  He pulled back away from the kiss and smiled, their eyes locking adoringly.  “What do you say we feed dear?”  Sharing a sadistic grin, the two laughed at the thought of their victim.  As if thinking one, unison thought they proceeded around the carriage to meet with the old man.  He still drank the water relentlessly; the heat was unbearable for him the two vampires thought.  The old man looked away from the cool drink as he saw the pale images of his wealthy passengers in the corner of his faded hazel eyes.

                Stammering to stand, the old man shook in fear of the two.  “Dear lord, forgive me!  I am a disgusting sight, it is just…” the old man trailed off in thought.

                Blaine dismissed the words with a raised palm, “It is certainly alright my dearly decayed friend.  Drink all you want, we are going to venture on foot from here on.  How far is the nearest town you say?”

                Overwhelmed by the thought of these beautiful creatures in the dirt road on foot, the old man gasped.  “No!  You mustn’t bother yourself with walking my lord; I will take you there now!  Forgive me for not doing so in the first place, take mercy on me!”

                Annoyed, Aalysha moved forward with a groan.  Her arms pushing away Blaine’s grasping hands, Aalysha moved forward with evil intent.  The old man’s eyes struggled to watch as Aalysha’s movement gained the speed of beyond anything he could follow.  A scream escaped his wet lips, as Aalysha’s deadly embrace held him.  The old man’s fear seemed to intoxicate Blaine; it was as if it radiated from his worn out vessel of a body.

                The fangs entering the folded flesh, Aalysha sucked upon the wound to draw in the warm blood.  A sigh escaped the old man now, and Blaine seemed to let loose a sigh at the same time as he.  Blaine folded his arms across his chest, bored and a little bit appalled by the coming death of the old man.  As he awaited the old man’s death, the sound of laughter rang in Blaine’s supernatural ears.  Was it possible that as pain clouded over the old man’s mind that someone could be having fun at the same time?  Blaine shuddered at the thought, but yet he wanted to seek out and destroy this source of laughter. 

                Aalysha dropped the lifeless body of the old man, and with her pink tongue she ran it around her blood stained lips, careful not to waste a single drop.  Her eyes saddened as she looked around toward her frustrated lover, “What is it?  What brings you distress my dear?”

                Blaine shook his head, straining to keep his ear on the laughter.  “Shhh!” Blaine spoke ever so softly as his index finger rose to silent the confused Aalysha.

                There they stood, in the nightfall of Romania straining to hear in the silence.  And there it came once more, the laughter of three mortals in the barn next to them.  Aalysha giggled at the thought of another kill, but Blaine’s eyes pierced into hers with rage.  Aalysha waited for Blaine to make whatever move he wanted to make, she knew his powerfully evil mind was conceiving a plan.

                He rolled his eyes at Aalysha, “You mustn’t rely on killing as your only reaction to human life.  Learn to play with them, make their poor little minds swirl with fear.  It can be entertaining my dear, let me show you what I have learned.  Will you allow me to do this Aalysha?”  A smile formed onto Aalysha’s lips as she extended her hand delicately to Blaine.  He snatched up her hand greedily as he grinned in pleasure.  He tenderly held onto the hand as he led her towards the barn doors.  It was time to play.

 

 

                Allison Lonn’s bare skin shone with a deep caramel color, the work in the fields tanned her to perfection.  Her sister Ferris, still in her work clothes had the same tone to her skin as they stood up in the hayloft of the barn.  The air smelled of animals as the two giggled while their eyes watched something below them.  Ferris whispered something to her half naked sister, and exploding into laughter, Allison covered her small but round breasts.

                Down on the soil below, Zachary Tuller watched the sisters in the hayloft above him.  The stable boy had just come in only a few minutes before to clean up after the animals, but the sisters had stopped him as they laughed.  A pitiful smile crossed his sweaty face; Zachary spat into his dirty hands and ran them through his shaggy black hair.  With a calming breath, he moved up to the ladder and began to climb.  He stopped for a moment, his slender yet strong body only a step or two off the ground.  Glancing upward, he asked “Alli… may I come up?”

                Allison, meanwhile, led her older sister down the back ladder.  From the echo of Zachary’s question, Ferris quickly made her exit.  Turning to face him, Allison withdrew her arms from her chest as Zachary stepped up onto the floorboards of the hayloft.  With a passionate grin, Allison entered into Zachary’s strong arms.  Kissing and caressing eachother, Allison threw back her long raven hair and met Zachary’s lips in a kiss.

                A smash of the barn doors split the couple backward, as they stood, fearful of the tremendous racket below.  Lost of both words and breath, Zachary leaned over the edge of the hayloft to observe a cow nosing the barn door open.  With a worried cry, Allison reached and pulled back Zachary, “What if it is my father!” she whispered.

                Zachary laughed at her, “It is just a cow wanting to get in from the heat, that’s all.  Nothing more Allison, relax…” he put his hands on her shoulders.

                Allison let out a sigh of relief as the two met their lips again in a passionate kiss, moaning from the intensity of the moment.  Allison pulled at Zachary’s work clothes, removing them leaving him in his long trousers.  She moved her head closer to his body, kissing his muscular stomach as Zachary unbuttoned her pants.  As the last button slipped from the garment, a great crack shot through the barn.  Quickly the two raced to put on their clothes as what seemed to be voices came to them from every corner of the room.  Thousands of dismayed voices whispered amongst themselves, horrified at the very sight of the sexual desire the two young lovers expressed.  Fully clothed once more, Zachary stood infront of Allison, attempting to protect her from the shocked voices.

                Both their heads dashed from one direction to another, attempting to put faces with the mysterious voices.  Zachary was lost for words, trying to call out to the voices but afraid of what could happen if he did.  Driven to the very point of madness, Allison moved out from behind Zachary.  “Leave us alone!  Do you hear me, leave us alone I beg of you!” she screamed out.

                Immediately, Blaine seemed to appear then all together vanish right infront of their eyes.  Gasping in fear at what they saw, Allison and Zachary held onto eachother in sheer terror.  The voices began to get louder as Zachary pulled Allison forward with him, “I’m getting you out of here now!” but they stopped, both dead in their tracks.  The voices drained into the crying of children, the horrible sound rang within their ears, sending them both hysterical as images flashed before their eyes.  Images of their death, the severing of their bodies as something unseen devoured their corpses.  Blind and deaf to all surroundings, the two wandered about the hayloft.  Paler then ghosts and their eyes larger than softballs, Allison and Zachary moaned in horror as the cries and the images overcame them.

                As Allison walked off towards the edge of the hayloft, she passed Blaine and Aalysha.  Aalysha held tightly to Blaine in awe, her jaw hanging as she watched the two lovers lost in a fictional world of death.  She shook her head, horror invading her own mind now.  “How are you doing this darling?”

                Blaine watched his victims with glowing eyes, fixated on them as he transmitted the images and sounds.  “Something I learned along the way…” he stated simply.  His eyes closed for a moment, shutting off the glow as his victims were released from their frightening worlds.

                Allison awoke to find herself falling over the edge of the hayloft, screaming as the ground approached her quickly.  Before she could even touch the soil of the ground, Blaine caught Allison in midair.  Screaming and kicking, Allison tried to free herself as above her Zachary tried to rush to her aid.  Aalysha caught the boy and trapped him in her embrace; he struggled to free himself, screaming for Allison as she cried out for him.

                Summoning their vampire faces, Blaine and Aalysha roared as they punctured their fangs deep into the young flesh of their prey.  Pants of torturing pain escaped the shriveling lips of Allison and Zachary as the vampires drained them.  Blaine’s eyes pressed closed, the climax of the drainage coming closer then he could bare.  Taking a split second to decide what to do, Blaine ripped his fangs out of Allison and let her drop to the ground sobbing in horrible pain.  Blaine wiped his mouth and blinked as he looked up to his feeding mate.  Snarling, he roared out to Aalysha, “Drop him now!”

                Aalysha dropped Zachary and growled at her lover, “You’re really becoming quite a nescience my dear Blaine!”

                “Sorry, but do you want to play a new game?” Blaine asked, giving Aalysha just enough intrigue to ensure her involvement.  And the boredom appeared to lift from Aalysha as excitement pulsed throughout her strong body.  “Oh I knew you’d be good at this!  What now?”

                Blaine grinned as he bent down, stretching towards Allison’s bloody throat.  “We can make ourselves a family.  The love birds would make such a wonderful addition to the undead life that lies ahead…” Blaine spoke to both Allison and Aalysha.  Aalysha curtsied toward her lord, then turned toward her dying Zachary.

                The crimson covering Allison’s neck seemed completely appetizing to Blaine, but he knelt down closer to the dying girl.  Allison’s teary eyes turned toward Blaine’s yellow demonic eyes and she sobbed.  Blaine placed a finger to Allison’s lip, “Do not be afraid of me.  I’m offering you life, my little one.  You know you’re about to die, don’t you?”  Allison’s lips pouted as she tried to crawl away from Blaine feebly.  Blaine took a hold of her arm, “I’ll take that as a yes”, and he ripped open his wrist and placed it towards Allison’s lips.  “If you wish to live my dear, I suggest you drink!” and with that he pressed the wound into her mouth.

                As his blood touched her dry tongue, Allison’s second life kicked in.  Her body reared upward as her arms wrapped around Blaine’s as she sucked in his essence.  At that moment, Allison died and the thing that was her vampire form was born.  Her hair thickened, bleaching itself to a blindingly bright white as her eyes opened to reveal two bright violet jewels in place of her brown irises.  Painful to Blaine, the siring sent the agony like electricity etching throughout every orphis of his body.  With all his remaining strength, Blaine pushed Allison off him and onto the ground.  The hit of the hard soil knocking away the life within her limbs as her death finally hit her.

                Up in the hayloft, Aalysha bent down over Zachary.  His eyes clouded over with death, she slapped him across the faced a few times to know the life back into him for the time being.  Sighing she said, “Wake up kid!”  Zachary moaned in response as Aalysha sliced her wrist and shoved it into Zachary’s lips.  As with Allison, life re-entered Zachary’s body.  His hair whitened in some places as his eyes went almost clear.  Zachary was reborn into the immortal world by Aalysha’s blood, as was Blaine.  Disgusted, Aalysha pushed Zachary to his death onto the floorboards of the hayloft.

 

 

                Outside, Aalysha and Blaine walked away from the barn and toward their carriage.  They held the new vampires in their outstretched arms as they pranced excitedly.  Next to the carriage laid the dying body of Ferris, and as Aalysha and Blaine tossed the slumbering two into the carriage they turned toward Ferris and then one another.  Without thinking, Blaine picked her up into his arms and threw her into the carriage with the other two.  Blaine shared a look with Aalysha, “And baby makes five!” he joked.

                Blaine leapt onto the top of the carriage, taking hold of the reins of the horses as he extended a hand to Aalysha.  Finding a seat next to Blaine, Aalysha sat down and adjusted her breasts as Blaine urged the horses onward.  He whipped the reins as the steeds galloped away from the barn, leaving the unknowing farm with three of its workers.

                Blaine turned to Aalysha with a silly grin, “What shall we name them lovely Aalysha?”

                Aalysha grinned back as she looked toward her open wrist.  A small slash slowly bleeding on her milky white skin.  Blaine watched as blood seeped from the wound and then took a look at his own wrist.  The skin was torn open by Allison’s persistence, blood dripped from the gruesome wound freely.  Aalysha nodded, “The boy left only a single slash on me… the girl tore into your skin like an animal.”

                Blaine glanced at Aalysha, “Slash and Torn… I like it!”  Blaine broke out into a fit of laughter as Aalysha snuggled against his shoulder.  He whipped the horses once more as he laughed, “Absolutely… grand…” he trailed on as the new vampire family rode off into the darkness.

 

 

Present Day

Sunnydale, California

 

                 The night sky twinkled above the city of Sunnydale, the nice Fall evening breeze blew away the clouds for a wondrous view of the stars.  It was only an hour since the sunset, and already trouble stirred.  Below the starry sky, Buffy patrolled through the Sunnydale Cemetery.  It was a normal night for her, vampires rise and then they get dusted.  She actually was bored of the mind numbingly easy kills she had already, even though there had only been two.  Buffy sighed as she strolled through the section of the cemetery with all the headstones standing in a vast field.  It always amazed her how many people died in such a relatively small town, the field went on for at least two miles and she couldn’t help but feel sad for all those that had died.  But now that she had come to Sunnydale, she made it her mission to stop evil before it killed.  She had to face it, though, that she might never be able to be there.

                The thought stuck in her head for a moment as she passed through the aisle of one row of headstones.  Buffy made an effort to keep on the look out as she walked through the cemetery, but she found herself looking downward at the granite headstones.  Henry Robles, born 1973, died 1993.  He was young when he died, she thought.  A vampire, or something else supernatural must have had Henry for dinner that night in 1993; she knew it in her soul.  But Buffy tried to get the idea of death out of her mind; she had to keep it clear.  How else was she going to fight whatever was following her.

                She first felt a gaze on her as she walked toward the entrance of the cemetery, and now she knew something was watching her.  It kept up with her pace, she knew even though she couldn’t hear it, that the thing was keeping in her very footsteps as well.  The thought that it could be Thamogron crossed her mind a few times, but somewhere inside herself she knew this wasn’t whatever Thamogron is.  She had Giles and the gang doing constant research on Thamogron, but they hadn’t pulled up anything yet.  It had only been a week; she knew something would pop up sooner or later. 

                The snap of a twig threw Buffy back into the world of danger around her, she felt dizzy as she awakened to the sudden shock of the things clumsiness.  Buffy stopped; she had had just about enough of the mystery of whatever was following her.  “The whole lurking thing isn’t very original, so come on out!” Buffy demanded.  More footsteps rung in her ears, she wasn’t certain if it was the thing following her or something new.  She drew a stake and readied herself for whatever it was, her instincts and her senses mapped out the darkness around her.  They were moving from the back, these things were trying to sneak their way into taking Buffy down.  She laughed; they couldn’t be more then a week old if these were their sneaking talents.

                They made a move.  Buffy turned around and caught one of them by the neck and staked her.  The raven-haired girl gasped as her body shifted into dust and she let out one final scream.  Two others appeared now, and stood watching their companion lay in a heap on the glistening grass.  “You staked Ferris!” Slash exclaimed as Torn grabbed onto his arm in horror.  A tear rolled down Torn’s pale face, she looked at Buffy while she let her vampire features come to face.  “You’ll pay for that”, Torn snarled.  With that, the two fled into the darkness. 

                Awkward couldn’t begin to describe what had just happened infront of Buffy.  She let her guard down and put the stake back in her pocket, she was absolutely stunned by what had just happened.  The sheer remembrance of the events only moments ago made Buffy laugh, those vampires had to have been the dumbest things she had ever faced.  But the laughter dried in her throat suddenly as a new thought came into play.  “They weren’t dumb…” Buffy gasped.  “They were pawns…” she said, as the eyes still fell upon her.  The vampires she faced were being ordered by whatever was still watching her.  Buffy made up her mind right there and then; patrol was over for the night.

 

 

1801

Auvergne, France

 

                The dark blue evening sky added to the magic of Auvergne’s annual village fair.  The small village was ablaze in laughter and merriment.  The townsfolk danced around in joy, the year had just begun and it was time to make the best of it.  The men joined together near the tavern to enjoy lavish beverages as their women went around with the children in the town to watch the locals and wandering travelers perform.  A puppet show of Faust played on the streets, the children of Auvergne watched in awe as the little wooden figures seemed to move all on their own.  But in reality Gerard, the husky young toy maker moved their wooden bodies by manipulating their strings.  The children didn’t care, they watched relentlessly.

                A beautiful young girl, Jolie ran past the puppet show and she disrupted some of the children as she did.  Jolie looked back at them, but didn’t stop.  She ran through the crowded little dirt streets as Armand, her lover chased after her.  Jolie let out a horrible scream as Armand caught her by the arm and threw her into his arms.  The residents of the village watched curiously as the stand off occurred in the middle of the road.  The lovers’ eyes both raged in anger, Armand’s anger toward Jolie for leaving and Jolie’s for being caught.

                Jolie wrestled her way out of Armand’s grasp and backed away from him with her index finger held high.  “Don’t you touch me, you sicken me!” Jolie screamed out.

                Armand’s lips rose up in hate, his skin reddening from embarrassment.  He looked Jolie straight in the eye, “You don’t know what you are talking about Jolie, you don’t know what you saw!”

                Jolie scoffed, “I know love when I see it!  You were making love to Aimee in our bed!  Our bed, you bastard!”  Jolie fled from Armand once more, but this time he did not attempt to chase after her.  There would be no redemption that could save him in the eyes of Jolie or the rest of the town now, he knew it.  Armand turned around very glumly and walked away, no dignity left to even make eye contact with anyone as he retreated.

 

 

                A dim flame danced in a near by lamp as the cold win outside of the local Inn rushed within as Jolie entered.  She pressed her body weight against the rather large wooden door to close it as a thump from within the shadows of the Inn startled her.  Jolie turned around, gasping still from the sudden fright of the strange sound.  “Nicolas?  Is that you?” she asked as she stepped forward on the cobblestone floor.  The lamp sat on the front desk of the small little Inn and yet a field of darkness hung around the area very oddly, Jolie just about left the Inn from the fear she felt in this place.  “Nicolas?  Are you alright sir?” Jolie asked as she approached the desk.

                She could see someone sitting at the desk, but whomever it was she could not make out a face.  Thinking it to be a slumbering Nicolas, Jolie stood infront of the desk and tapped the person on the shoulder.  “Nicolas, wake up!  I need a room please… Nicolas?” Jolie grabbed the lamp and raised it to examine that she thought was Nicolas.  The light broke through the darkness and shed the identity of the sitting person.  Jolie gasped and stepped backward as Slash sat there, very stilly as blood surrounded his lips.  Jolie’s innocent little mind couldn’t understand what was sitting before her, but she knew enough to run.  Jolie dropped took off toward the door with the lamp in her hand, but Slash appeared resting against the door. 

                Jolie screamed out and dropped the lamp to the ground, extinguishing the flame within as it fell.  She ran back to toward the front desk, trying to run for a room.  Jolie quickly found herself in the embrace of Slash as the darkness blinded her from his vampiric face.  Slash held her in his powerful hands as he ran one of his fangs across the side of Jolie’s neck.  The wound opened up and blood seeped through to touch Jolie’s milky skin as Slash delicately dabbed his tongue at the red fluid.  Jolie squirmed slightly as tears poured from her eyes, she was screaming now in French the prayers for assistance from God.  Slash couldn’t understand her language, but he could sense what she was saying. 

                Frustrated at the will to live within her, Slash put his pink lips onto the wound and began to drain Jolie.  Like a fly caught in a spider’s web, Jolie struggled to free herself from Slash as he quickly sucked in every drop of her blood.  The multicolored haired vampire held her fast and held her tight until every shade of red and pink was no longer present in Jolie.  As she shriveled up, Slash let her fall to the cobblestones.  Slash picked up the undamaged lamp and brought it with him back to the desk.  He pulled out a matchbook and struck one of the matches on the table.  A flame erupted onto the match head as Slash lit the lamp once more.  With light now beginning to erase the blackness of the Inn, Slash walked toward the door.  His skin now a pale pink, the color of mortal skin, Slash could venture out into the fair unnoticed.  That was, until it came for another feeding.

 

 

                The sky grew darker as the village went deeper into night, but their spirits were brighter then any darkness.  Mimes pranced about in the dirt as they played with passing villagers and performers began to act out certain Italian comedies with Pantaloon and such others.  The atmosphere of the whole place radiated with such glee that even the most depressed would crack a smile or even laugh.  It was a chaotic scene of comedy, Auvergne was. 

                As the laughter roared from the small stage, Blaine pushed through the crowds as he led Aalysha, Torn and Ferris toward the center of the village.  He wore a heavy, buttoned up black suit as his three women delicately followed behind him in satin and velvet gowns.  Aalysha held Torn and Ferris by the waists as they walked together after their leader.  Meanwhile, Blaine kept a distance between himself and the women.  He made sure they were a few steps behind him as he pasted by the Inn.  Blaine turned at the sight of Slash exiting the Inn and he stopped, their eyes caught sight of one another.

                Slash flashed a fake smile at Blaine as he walked over to him and the women behind.  Blaine sneered, “And what has the boy of the family been up to this evening?”

                Slash shrugged, “Not a lot Blaine, just fed off of a few villagers in that Inn… was hoping to persuade you to let us get out of this cheery place and go off into the city for some… fun?” 

                Blaine’s eyes narrowed at Slash, but Aalysha let go of Torn and Ferris to go over to Slash and stand between him and Blaine.  She flashed her bright smile at the both of them, but focused her attention then on Blaine.  “Blaine, my beautiful devil… I agree with Slash.  A nice dinner in Paris would be perfect this lovely evening, do you agree girls?” Aalysha asked.

                Torn went up and wrapped her gloved arm around Blaine’s neck in a simple protest, while Ferris joined her by taking Blaine’s arm and putting it around her shoulder.  Torn smiled evilly at Aalysha, “I do not agree Aalysha… it will do us good to spend an night out here in one of the last Old World villages.  The revolution has brought this country into such a depressingly advanced state, it’s great to be back in the simple times again… right father?”  Torn looked up into Blaine’s blue eyes, his expression softened as he smiled at his girl.

                Ferris grinned, “Please Blaine, it will be fun to be in the country!  Can we stay?”

                Blaine nodded, “If Torn and Ferris want to stay then we shall stay… the fresh air will do you good Aalysha.  Now come on, let’s get to the carriage.  We can’t very well stay in the Inn any longer, thanks to Slash.”  Blaine’s eyes pierced into Slash like two sharp stakes, the two were obvious rivals in the “family”.

                Aalysha sighed and took a hold of Slash’s arm, “Fine… we can travel north a little ways, and there is a small town there with some suitable accommodations for us.”

                Blaine, with Torn and Ferris at his sides, led the way once more.  Aalysha and Slash followed closely behind as the vampires made way through the crowds again, getting closer to a huge mass of people ahead of them.  Blaine cocked an eyebrow in curiosity toward the large acumination of people for such a small town; he definitely wanted a closer look at this.  Blaine moved forward with Torn and Ferris, “What is this?  What is going on?”

                Ferris shook her head, “Looks like someone is going to put on a performance by the looks of that stage.”

                Blaine raised his head a bit, she was right.  He could see a massive wooden stage in the center of town over five yards away from them.  The stage was made of bare wood, much like the other stages around the village.  But this one stood a good five feet in the air; the others were only about three.  This stage also came with more gothic type décor.  Two giant stone pillars stood at the sides of the stage holding bowls of fire.  Blaine even saw the stage as impressive, but he led his “family” away from the crowds.  They needed to get to the carriage quickly, sunrise wouldn’t be for another eight hours or so but he wanted to get to wherever they were going before hand.

                Blaine stopped, very suddenly that the others bumped into him.  His skin crawled, something had its eyes on him, and it was watching him and the others.  Blaine turned around, his own eyes searched for the eyes and their owner.  He couldn’t see them, but he knew the eyes were coming from the stage.  It was like something was telling him where it was, he didn’t know if it was an unknown power of his or the power of another.  Alarmed, Torn grabbed onto Blaine’s arm as her eyes searched the empty stage.  “Something knows what we are father… it wants us to stay…” she said confusedly.

                Blaine lowered his searching gaze into Torn’s violet eyes; he nodded unsurely to her statement.  Blaine turned toward Aalysha for answers, but she just gasped and backed away from him.  She tried to catch her breath; her body shook as she saw Blaine’s eyes.  She saw that they showed fear, she knew that Blaine was deathly afraid of what was watching them.  She stuttered as she tried to address Blaine, “Yo-you is afraid Blaine?”

                He took a deep breath, “Aalysha… what is watching us?” Blaine asked as his eyes returned to the stage.

                Aalysha tried to steady herself, “The eyes on us, they are vampire eyes.  Nothing else is so cold then the eyes of a vampire, whoever this is has power.  It’s filling my head with thoughts, it’s demanding me to watch the stage!”  Aalysha screamed as she grabbed onto her head, “Get out of my head!”

                Slash raised a hand to his own head, “I can hear her thoughts… the vampire is a girl… she’s admiring Blaine…” Slash gasped.

                Blaine’s nerves settled, he was glad that the eyes were of a vampire.  It gave him a sense of comfort to know he was like it, but curiosity was overcoming him like a tide.  At that moment, the fire in the bowls died down.  Shadows draped across the stage, the villagers grew fearful while Blaine became excited beyond mortal capacity.  Without warning, flames erupted in the bowls.  The villagers screamed as the light revealed two figures on the stage.  One was Bella, a woman about thirty with coarse reddish brown hair done up in a bun atop her head.  She wore a blood red satin dress with ruby jewelry hanging from her ears and neck as she stood there.  Her counter part was Helious, a dark figure of a vampire with brown locks of hair hanging off his head as he wore all black with a velvet cape drawn over his shoulders. 

                The two on stage appeared to see through every mortal in the shocked audience just to observe the five immortals at the back.  And there they stood, the immortals watching the immortals.  Blaine did not blink, he couldn’t.  He just stared at Bella, and he noticed that Helious’ eyes appeared to glow.  He checked Torn and Ferris, they were seeing this as well.  Blaine took in the sight in horror; Helious had the same imaging power as himself.

                A gasp roared from the crowd, like they were seeing something that Blaine and the others were not.  The gasp turned to a scream as a dozen villagers fled while the rest watched the standing two, very uneasily.  Blaine let out a groan, “These two are simply pranksters!”  Appalled from possibly fearing the two on the stage, Blaine turned away.  But a scream from the Inn stopped him from attempting to leave, it stopped everyone.  The villagers snapped out of their trances as Armand ran toward them in panic, “Vampires!” he screamed.  “Vampires have killed my Jolie!”

                Blaine’s throat twisted as Armand pointed his long, bony finger toward him and the others.  “Them!  They killed Jolie, they did it!” he bellowed.  Blaine grabbed onto Torn, attempting to shield her away from his awful words as he approached them steadily.  Aalysha tried to run but Slash caught her by the wrist and pulled her back.  Blaine’s crystal blue eyes watched Armand as he came towards him, but Torn’s icy fingers touched Blaine’s face and gently turned his eyesight toward the stage.  Then he realized, the man wasn’t accusing him or his “family”, he was accusing the vampires on the stage.

                He laughed for a moment, it was a laugh of complete relief.  He really did not desire to face an infuriated mob this evening, and by the Gods he wasn’t.  Blaine watched the vampires on stage, and to his surprise he could read their fast moving lips.  Bella was asking Helious, “What do we do?  There is too many!” 

                Helious answered, keeping his eyes on the angry crowd.  “Just follow my lead, we will come out of this alive…” he said with assurance. 

                The villagers began grabbing anything they could, simple yard tools, firewood, and even a few of them took the time to light torches as they rushed the stage.  The vampires moved back on the wooden stage as the mob began climbing onto it, causing the floorboards to moan under their weight.  “Monsters!  We’ll send you back to Satan!” they chanted, most of it in French but a few spoke in English.  Bella grabbed onto Helious as the two simply stepped backwards on the stage, attempting to flee but also trying not to get the mob to charge them.

                Aalysha slipped between Torn and Blaine, as she held fast to his waist.  The light from the combusting wooden sticks the villagers held danced on her gasping face.  “It’s going to be a massacre”, Blaine mentioned, lost in the sight of the mortals backing the immortals toward the very end of the stage.

                Aalysha moaned in delight, “Yes, those pranksters are going to burn!  Do you want to stay and watch darling?” Aalysha asked, looking up toward Blaine’s trance-like face.

                Blaine shook his head, making perfectly sure he did not blink, he did not wish to miss anything on the stage.  “No Aalysha.  You don’t understand… the only death here tonight will be those of the villagers…” Blaine stated calmly.

                Aalysha laughed, their three young vampires moving away from the brewing conflict between herself and Blaine.  Her laughter dried up quickly, her face turned to stone as her red lips curled angrily.  She slapped Blaine, gaining his attention at last.  “You don’t seem to understand Blaine, they out number the fools!  All they have to do is set one torch to their clothing and they will die.  And you must be an even bigger fool then they if you think even for a moment that they will overpower the humans!” Aalysha exclaimed.

                On the stage, the villagers jabbed their flaming torches and their yard tools at the vampire performers.  Crying out threats and hateful words to them, the villagers had Bella and Helious trapped on the stage at last.  Surrounding them now, one man called out to the vampires.  “Monsters!  You will pay for your act of treachery, devils!”  The fear seemed to leave the vampires as thirty or more now pressed in on them.

                Helious flung back his cape, the garment fell to the stage as he vamped out.  Bella, meanwhile allowed her true face to also protrude as she let out a detestable hiss.  Helious laughed, “Pray to your God now!”, he howled threat fully.  He lunged and took a pitchfork from Armand as the fire light danced all around.  Helious snatched the four-pointed tool up easily, and he brought it down into the young man’s head.  As this occurred, screams of terror splashed with screams of pain as the two vampires proceeded in killing everyone on stage.

                Blaine took his eyes off the stage to burn his raging gaze into Aalysha’s hard, brown eyes.  “No, I understand perfectly you half-wit!  The vampire is a powerful thing, more powerful then you seem to know!”  Aalysha turned away and tried to walk off, but Blaine caught her by the face and held her tightly as their eyes locked.  Blaine snarled, “You are a disgrace if you truly believe humans can just up and kill a vampire so easily!  WE are the supreme race Aalysha!  WE overpower them and WE will overcome them!  WE will destroy humanity like the race of insects they truly are!  And it will be I who leads us to it!”

                The fear came off Aalysha like a glow, it appeared the fear hung on her like a fog as Blaine’s powerful hands held her.  She stood still, not even attempting to struggle, but all of the sudden she ripped out of Blaine’s grasp and stood there.  She stared at him in disbelievement, her mind twirled around and around, she could hardly believe what was happening right before her very eyes.  Finally, she spoke out.  “I don’t know what has gotten into you Blaine, but I will accept an apology for your words.”

                Blaine scoffed at her; it was the final statement he needed to do what he was imagining at that very moment.  “You expect me to apologize for your stupidity!”  A young boy came running past Blaine at that moment carrying a torch and a rusted rake.  Blaine grabbed the boy and twisted his neck around with one hand, and grabbed his torch with the other.  Aalysha let out a horrid gasp, as Blaine held out the torch infront of him, his eyes burning from his own fire of hatred in his heart.  “Here!  Here is your apology!” Blaine growled.

                The children watched the confrontation in silence; they could not make up their minds on what they wanted to do.  It was either go up against their leader, or loose one of their own.  Only Torn knew in her mind what she wanted, she chanted it within her head.  “Do it Blaine!  Burn her, send her back to Hell with all the other monstrosities!” she sang out in thought.  None of them dared say a word, though, not even Torn.

                Aalysha’s body convulsed in terror, she was unable to keep her eyes still to keep Blaine in her sight.  She shook her head, wanting Blaine to stop with this foolishness.  “No, Blaine what are you doing!” Aalysha shrieked.

                Blaine’s lips curled into a grin, evil and proud of his recent decision.  “You are weak, Aalysha.  This world is only meant for the strong.  Goodbye, my dear.”  Aalysha screamed out as Blaine finished the sentence, clubbing her over the head with the flaming torch.  The fire ignited into an inferno as it touched her vampire skin, sending the demon into a fit of agony.  She howled like a banshee as the flames engulfed every bit of her vessel.  Blaine turned away from Aalysha as she tried to reach for the children and him.  He didn’t even care to watch his sire turn to dust as he returned to watching the chaos atop the stage. 

                Slash couldn’t take it a second longer, he grabbed Blaine’s jacket and pulled him back so they were face to face.  At that moment, Aalysha collapsed to the Earth, giving up to the flames and shifting into dust right before Torn and Ferris’ eyes.  Blaine’s emotions drained away from his face, he just locked eyes with Slash and slightly shook his head in shame.  “Do not try for vengeance Slash, she does not deserve it!”

                Blaine threw off Slash’s grasp, while their eyes stayed in a lock.  “I know…” Slash confessed, “She was the vampire of the Old World.  Aalysha still believed that our kind is weaker then that of human kind.  But I know better Blaine, I know we are our kind’s future.  I will follow you.”  Slash and Blaine stayed there, entranced by one another as Ferris and Torn watched them eagerly.

                Blaine nodded, “That we are Slash.  And right now two of our own fight against the disgrace of humanity, what do you think we shall do about that?”

                Slash looked over to the stage, and then returned his gaze to Blaine with his vampire face present.  He grinned, “We save them.  We save our kind.”

                Blaine broke free of his emotionless state with a wide grin as he hugged Slash.  The embrace was short, as they both broke free of one another to turn their attention toward the chaotic stage.  Blaine looked over to the remaining two girls, “Get the carriage, we will handle this.  Understood?”  The girls nodded and went off running toward the stables off in the distance.  Meanwhile, Blaine led Slash onto the bloodied stage.

                A wave of battle ready villagers raced up onto the stage with Blaine and Slash.  The new members to the battle thought of the fancy dressed aristocratic figures next to them as allies, the death to those brought total astonishment to their weak minds.  “Four!  There are four of the demons, set fire to the stage!  Burn them back to hell!” someone ordered off in back of Blaine, he didn’t live too long after that.

                Blaine kicked and punched his way through the rioting villagers, breaking their limbs and ripping into their skin with his long fangs.  He turned to find Slash crushing the skull of a young girl; the sight sent a wave of emotions through Blaine’s body.  It occurred to him that he had never seen Slash kill innocence before; he liked to see such evil in the boy.  Blaine shook off the thought, “Slash, go escort our women out of here!  I will take care of the rest here!”

                Slash nodded to Blaine’s orders.  He crouched to the splintered floorboards and pushing with his inhuman strength, Slash sprung into the air.  Torn and Ferris stopped as they watched Slash fall to the mud next to them.  They gathered him up to his feet quickly, and then followed him as they all ran toward the stables.  Slash grabbed onto Torn’s gloved hand and looked at her, “Come on!  We must hurry!” Slash suddenly found himself on his back in the mud as the blade of a scythe deep in his stomach.  Screaming in pain, Slash kicked the handle of the scythe out of the hands of a giant villager.  The man was ripped to the seams with muscles as he took the broken handle and attempted to stake Slash with it.

                Torn and Ferris grabbed onto the man’s arms and legs and tackled him down into the mud.  Slash pulled the blade out of his gaping wound, he screamed horribly as the final curve of the metal exited his body.  Torn tried to go to Slash, comfort him as the pain surged through his body.  But the man grabbed her by the long locks of white hair that hung from her head.  Torn screamed, her vampire features coming out as she lunged and sank her fangs into the man’s throat.  He gasped in pain as the blood poured from his neck, the sight of the blood made Ferris thirsty.  She ripped off the man’s right sleeve and began sucking the blood from his bicep.  And there he lay, almost fully drained as the two vampires feasted on his bountiful blood.

                Blaine caught sight of the dangerous encounter, his mind raced with worry for his three children.  His eyes could barely make out something rushing toward them, he feared for the worst.  But soon, Blaine saw that it was the black stallions of their carriage that raced toward his children.  Torn saw the horses coming toward them, and she forced her sister and herself off of the man.  Ferris went running for the horses as Torn grabbed onto Slash and helped him to his feet.  The three made it to the horses, Torn and Slash entered the carriage as Ferris leaped onto the top and took hold of the reins.  She searched with her immortal vision, making out the faint image of Blaine still on the stage.  But her eyes also could see the thousands of flaming torches that made their way toward the stage.  She gasped, “They’re going to burn down the stage with Blaine on it!”  With that, she whipped the reins and sent the steeds racing toward the stage, hell bent on rescuing their master.

                Blaine had a hold of a strong man and kicked him in the chest as he kept watch over the disturbing loyalty of the horses.  With the man slowly dying, Blaine moved past him and saw Helious and Bella fighting a few feet ahead of him.  He noticed something about Helious; his eyes were glowing as he watched the young vampires approach the stage for Blaine.  At that moment it occurred to Blaine, that the vampire before him was transmitting orders to the horses.

                The glow receded as Helious let out a groan of pain.  Two villagers drove their pitchforks into Helious’ chest and abdomen, bringing him down to his knees in horrible agony.  Blaine roared in defense of the vampire, his eyes beginning to glow.  The villagers ripped their pitchforks from Helious and tried to stick him again, but suddenly they screamed.  Horribly they yelled out in fear, dropping their weapons and leaping off the stage for safety at something they could not see.  The images Blaine displaced within their heads faded as Blaine’s eyes returned to normal.

                Bella pulled a young woman’s arms right out of their sockets and let her fall to the stage as she ran for Helious.  She took him in her arms as heat exploded around them.  Blaine turned around and saw what he already knew; the stage was being set ablaze.  The heat licked his face, scolding him slightly.  Blaine turned back to the vampires as villagers still alive on the wooden stage were catching fire and screaming out.  The flames were closing in; the orange and the yellow driving forward like a wave.  Blaine’s vampire face receding as he grabbed Bella and Helious in his arms and ran off the stage.  He could feel their fear and their astonishment for him as he ran toward the oncoming carriage.

                Scream after horrible scream echoed through the air as Blaine reached the carriage.  Ferris pulled back on the reins, stopping the charging horses as Blaine made his way to the back of the carriage.  Torn flew open the doors and helped Bella and Helious inside as Blaine stood there.  He went to step inside, but stopped.  Blaine slowly turned his attention back at Auvergne, and he smiled.  “So many happy memories here… let’s do come back soon.” Blaine laughed.  Torn rolled her eyes at him as she pulled him inside and closed the doors behind her.

 

 

Present Day

Sunnydale, California

 

                Buffy moved by the lace curtains, her eyes still watching the darkness outside.  Something was still out there, something was still watching her.  Ever since Genocide stopped by to drop the bomb of Thamogron on her, Buffy had felt an ever-growing sense of paranoia.  This certainly was not helping the sense one bit.  There had been no signs of Thamogron’s resurrection just yet, but she knew it would be only a matter of time.  She knew because she felt the eyes had something to do with it, no she knew they had something to do with it.

                The eyes watching her brought an icy feeling to her, it made her terribly uneasy.  Buffy didn’t know what it wanted but she knew whatever was watching hated her.  Whoever or whatever was stalking her, it had an incredible malice towards her, but it certainly wasn’t brave.  For over three hours the eyes had been watching, but it never even attempted to do anything to her.  Buffy didn’t wish to count the rumble down in the cemetery, because she knew those vampires were only working for the coward watching her.  Buffy had to admit it, being watched was getting boring.  She wanted a fight.

                Buffy moved away from the window, just incase it decided tonight was the night for it to make a move after all.  Buffy wanted a fight, but not a surprise attack.  She sighed as she looked at her dorm room.  It was brightly decorated for just a shabby old dorm room.  Flowers sewed in lovely patterns on the pillows, paintings of waterfalls and Thomas Kinkade houses hung from the eggshell white walls, it was starting to make Buffy comfortable.  That thought was more frightening then the eyes.

                Nicole, Buffy’s overly perky roommate was out for the evening with two of her friends.  Twiddle-dee and Twiddle-dumb, two blonde twenty-something’s still trapped in the teen cheerleading era.  It wasn’t nice of Buffy to think such things about two people she knew nothing about, and let alone fellow blondes, but these two were extremely annoying.  Nicole, at least tamed her annoyance periodically but the two blondes were hollow skulled Britney Spears rejects.  They didn’t even have the looks or the implants to even pull the “reject” thing off.  Buffy laughed, she was terrible.

                Buffy lay back on her bed; it was almost 7 o’clock now.  Dawn would be at Xander’s glued infront of the TV without a doubt.  “Maybe I should go pay Dawn a visit…” Buffy trailed on in thought.  She let out a sigh as she sat up on her bed and got off with a squeak from the old mattress.  Buffy went into the closet, “First things first.”  She opened the old brown chest at the bottom of the closet, inside an arsenal for the undead rested inside.  Crosses, crossbows, axes, swords, and of course a hefty supply of stakes.  Buffy withdrew two freshly carved stakes and a cross.  The cross wasn’t the best weapon in her arsenal, but it came in handy once and awhile.

                Packing the weapons away on her body, Buffy moved over to the mirror.  She combed back a loose lock of her blonde hair from her face and looked at herself.  Something was missing, she thought.  It came to her; she grabbed one of Nicole’s pink scrunches and pulled her hair back with it in a ponytail.  Buffy smiled, quickly checking herself out in the mirror.  Dressed to kill, she thought with a smile.

 

 

                Giles packed away a recent shipment of hog’s wart in the backroom, near the training area he built for Buffy.  A rather powerful ingredient sometimes mistaken for a simple “hocus pocus” object, the hog’s wart was his personal favorite.  It didn’t sell too well, but Willow seemed to always use it in her spells whenever she could.  Giles couldn’t help but think; maybe that’s why her spells seemed to always go awry.  He laughed the thought off, grabbing another box and putting it off in the corner with the rest.

                As he packed away the ingredient, the stores’ bell rang.  Absolutely wasted by the busy day at the shop, and not to mention the annoyance of Anya, Giles dreaded the encounter with another customer.  He rose from trying to lift another box and went back into the main part of the shop to find no one at all.  Completely aware of someone in the room with him, Giles look of his glasses to inspect the store more carefully.

                A chill went down his spine, something had its cold gaze upon him, and he could feel it.  “Hello!  Show yourself, I already know you’re here so there’s no point in hiding!” Giles shouted.

                Something laughed at him in a deep, malevolent voice.  “Fool…” the words thundered out at Giles from all around.  Giles scoffed at the voice, “Ha, I’m not going to run just from a voice you know.  Takes a little more then that to scare me!”

                A flash of thousands upon thousands of images played before Giles’ mind.  He toppled over instantly as scenes of vampires ripping apart Buffy and Dawn in the middle of the shop filled his head.  Their voices screaming out to him for help rang within his ears, Giles attempted to get up and help them but he couldn’t move.  Tears fell from his eyes as he watched Buffy push Dawn away from the hoard of vampires to save her, only to separate the bunch into two packs, which now feasted upon them both.  They screamed in complete and utter agony, Buffy’s eyes looked at Giles just before her life ended and Dawn screamed out for Buffy as she herself died.  Giles gasped as he found himself sobbing, trying to reach for the two girls.  “Buffy!  BUFFY!” he screamed as he tried to get to them as the vampires disappeared, leaving the deceased to lay their in pools of their own blood.

                The voice laughed at Giles as he showed himself.  Out from the backroom entered Helious, his silky brown hair sweeping past his ears as he walked toward the sobbing Giles.  Helious’ eyes glowed white as he passed the images and the sounds of Buffy and Dawn’s defeat to Giles.  He grinned sickly at the sad English man, the glow in his eyes fading away.  Released from the horrors, Giles began to realize what had just happened.  He looked up just in time to see Helious’ foot collide with his jaw.  Giles fell to the ground, out cold for the moment.

                Helious adjusted his trench coat as he turned around and snapped his fingers.  Out of the backroom, two low life vampires entered the room and stood infront of Helious, anxiously awaiting an order from their master.  Helious’ brown eyes glared into their vampire faces, how absolutely disgusting the demonic face of a vampire was to him.  He sighed, “The Watcher keeps his books up there!” Helious pointed to the small loft above them.  “Find me the book and let’s get out of here!”

                With the order in place, the vampire thugs rushed upstairs and began tarring into the bookshelves.  Helious passed the staircase and walked closer to the slumbering Giles on the floor.  He noticed a small trickle of blood falling from Giles’ nose, “Hmm…” Helious said as he pondered.  He shook his head and walked away from Giles quickly, no time for a feeding.  And besides, if the book wasn’t here then they would need the man further down the road incase they never find the book.  Helious grinned, he hoped the book wasn’t here; he wanted to torture the poor man later.

 

 

                It was following her again; Buffy could sense the eyes on her as she walked toward her car.  A bust of a car window blasted through the quiet night, causing Buffy to put up her guard.  It laughed; she could hear the laughter of the eyes almost as clearly as her own thoughts.  This was going to be the night after all, the night when it would make a move.  Buffy withdrew a stake, she was eager to see her stalker more then ever.

                Buffy watched the parking lot like a hawk as the thing darted from one car to the next.  Another bust of a car window, followed by the explosion of a tire under the strength of the thing, and yet Buffy could not see it.  Whatever it was had amazing speed, most likely inhuman but the speed was too remarkable for a vampire.  Buffy realized she couldn’t refer to it as the eyes any longer, because it was more to her now.  She backed slowly away; she thought if she could get to her car she could make it think she was making a run for it.  If Buffy was right, it would finally stop these games and show itself.

                A strong hit to the chest sent Buffy into the bumper of her car, her back screamed in agony as Buffy tried to get up from the sudden attack.  Buffy groaned as she got up, both from pain and from boredom.  Tired of this game, she lowered her hands to stand there, waiting for the thing to show itself.  “What are you waiting for?  You’ve been stalking me all night so just show yourself and we can fight, if that’s why you’ve been following me!” Buffy shouted out.

                Buffy turned just fast enough to watch a car flip backwards from a strong blow to it’s front end.  Her eyes widened from the sight as something called out to her.  “I not only want a fight”, the voice called out from behind Buffy.  Buffy turned around to face a girl her height dressed in tight glossy black leather and a heavy leather trench coat with twisted, disgusting strands of brown hair falling to her face.  And there stood Bella, her vampiric face showing in pride.  “I want a kill”, she finished as Buffy uppercutted her. 

                Bella fell to the pavement, and in a blink of an eye she had Buffy in a vice-like grip.  She held Buffy off the ground with one hand, Buffy tried to reach for her cross but it fell from her pocket and Buffy lost the grip on her stake.  Bella looked down to see the cross and the stake hit the ground, and she laughed at Buffy.  “Please put your tray tables in the upright position as we prepare for take off!” Bella laughed as she threw Buffy into the air.  Buffy came crashing down into a car’s trunk, she quickly rolled off and back onto her feet, but the blow definitely hurt her more then she wanted to show.

                Buffy sneered at Bella, “Oh, it’s SO on now!”  Bella laughed as she disappeared then reappeared infront of Buffy to kick her down.  Before Buffy could get back to her feet, she felt the unbelievable pain of her hair being ripped out of her head by Bella.  Buffy shrieked in horrible pain as she swept her feet under Bella to trip her.  Buffy got up, took Bella by the head and kneed her in the face twice before picking her up and throwing her down to the pavement.  Buffy’s eyes raged in both pain and anger, “You know, just because your hair looks like a rat nested in it doesn’t mean you can mess with other peoples hair, got it?”

                Bella got up and growled at Buffy, but she just shrugged the weak comeback off as she ran for Bella.  Bella jumped out of the way and onto the roof of a near by Explorer, but Buffy kicked the car out from under Bella and then jabbed the falling vampire in the face.  Bella rolled onto the grass now, as Buffy stepped onto it after her.  She got up and wobbled slightly, the fight taking a toll on her heightened vampire skills.  “We-we’re going to destroy you Slayer!” Bella snapped at the approaching Buffy.

                Buffy just laughed at the defeated vampire, “How can WE destroy me when YOU can’t even get me down for more then a minute?” Buffy roundhoused Bella and drew another stake.

                Bella looked Buffy straight in the eye, “Just you wait!”  And with those words, she was gone.  Buffy didn’t even blink, and yet Bella was out of sight before it even registered in her head.  Buffy didn’t move, she waited for a surprise attack from Bella.  But she was gone, embarrassed by the failed attack.  Buffy still waited, though.  She waited until she could feel the eyes no longer.

 

 

1879

Yugoslavia

 

                Howls of the undead shot like thunder throughout the small village.  The peasants ran like bats out of hell as wave after wave of pale faced vampires rode after them.  Atop wild-eyed stallions, the fiends wore loose black attire as they pursued their prey.  Welding long swords with polished steel blades, they twirled them at the frightened villagers.  The vampires screamed and their laughter rang out as the chase commenced through the dry dirt paths of the Old World village.

                Men, carrying simple yard tools attempted to take the ghouls down.  Women cried out as they rushed their children indoor, fearful of the terror breaking out around them.  But the vampires out numbered them all, it was an army of devils that hunted and slaughtered them now.  In the midst of the chaotic battle, Blaine charged his midnight black steed into the siege.  He roared out against the howls of the army, thrashing a giant sword into the flesh of the living peasants.  His face was a grimace of anger, he relentlessly attacked even the already dead as the charge went on.  He didn’t care what he was striking down, he was furious and the innocent humans around him would receive the fury by any means necessary.

                Blaine swung his heavy blade through the neck of a young girl, decapitating her in the process.  The blood cascaded down her light yellow nightgown as her head rolled to a stop in the dirt below the hoofs of Blaine’s horse.  Blaine let out a booming outcry as he watched the child’s body collapse to the ground.  He turned his head, forcing the steed to turn with it as a pack of vampires rode past, chasing a sobbing little boy.

                Blaine’s crystal blue eyes searched for a moment, his ears deaf to the clamoring about him.  Finally, he saw what he was looking for.  Helious led the clan forward, all on black steeds like the army around them.  Bella, Torn, Slash, Ferris and the new faces of Lill, Valentine, Oni, and Risa came riding after Helious.  Blaine let out a cackle, driving his sword into the back of a running mother.  The blade sliced through her and the baby she held to her chest, and Blaine ripped his sword out of her and let the two fall to the ground.  He grinned toward his oncoming clan, whipping the reins he rode toward Helious.

                Helious’ eyes glowed white as he looked at Blaine approaching, “Is she dead yet?”

                Blaine frowned at Helious, “Of course not, does anything ever go as we planned?  But keep up the good work Helious; you’ve got these imbeciles absolutely terrified!”  Blaine moved his horse past Helious to the rest of the clan, and he sat their in the saddle watching them.  Oni, a young man with blonde, wavy hair and dark green eyes and Risa, a crazy looking girl of about twenty-five with dark brown eyes and long black hair sat their nervously.  Blaine just watched them all for that moment, making them all uneasy and fearful of their leader.

                Blaine stopped his quiet watching as he saw Ferris, and his face softened.  The girl was bruised and cut up badly, cross-like burns all over her face and some of her hair cut and torn out of her head.  Blaine rode his horse slowly up to her and placed his cold hand on her face, a tear falling from his eyes.  “She will pay Ferris, for disrupting your beauty.  The Slayer will pay.” Blaine assured her.

                Bella stiffened on her saddle, “The Slayer hasn’t shown herself yet!  She’s allowing all these innocent people to die if she is here, and a Slayer could never do that.  I’m telling you Blaine, she’s not here!”

                A young man came running at Blaine’s horse with a fire poker, but Blaine caught sight of him first.  He turned his steed around and swung his mighty blade, knocking the poker out of the man’s hands.  He stood there, his hands raised and his face sweating in fear as Blaine raised his sword.  Blaine brought the blade down onto the man’s skull, splitting it in two.  The brains and blood gushed from the fatal wound as the man fell to the ground.  With that taken care of, Blaine turned back to face Bella.  “Mark my words Bella, the Slayer is here.  She knows this army Helious is playing before these people isn’t real, and she knows that I am will not continue wasting my time so she thinks not too many innocent people will die.  Well, she’s dead wrong.” Blaine stated.

                “What are you going to do Blaine?” Slash asked, pulling the reins of his horse to get it from stop squirming.

                Blaine flashed Slash an evil grin, “Kill everyone!  What else!”  Blaine went off in a cackle, pulling back the reins to make his horse rear up in the air.  He whipped the horse with the reins as it came back down on all fours and sped off with his sword drawn.  Any human he passed got the end of his sword, Blaine was determined to fight the Slayer for what she did for Ferris.  No human would ever hurt one of his clan members and live to tell about it. 

                He rode on and on, killing everyone in his path.  But the Slayer wasn’t in sight, and Blaine was running out of victims.  He pulled back on the reins once more, almost choking his horse as it stopped as quickly as it possibly could.  Blaine threw back his head and screamed, “Slayer!  Fight me!”  Blaine’s words thundered throughout the village, it echoed from the nearby rocky walls of a mountain.  Rage spread like a shockwave through the village, making the clan members uneasy.  They watched Blaine as he slumped down on his horse, defeated without even the simplest of fights.

                “Vampire…” a soft yet strong-willed voice called out amongst the echo of Blaine’s cry.  The voice awakened Blaine; he rose up on the saddle and held the reins tight in his hands.  His eyes searched the area carefully; he hoped it was who he thought it was.  A deafening swoosh filled Blaine’s ears, sending the poor vampire forward screaming.  Blaine sat back up, on edge from the unseen attack.  He turned back to see Helious sitting on his horse, an arrow stuck in his abdomen.  Helious gasped, he ripped the arrow out of him with a wet and slushy sound.  The glow receded from his eyes as the vampire lost control over the peasants.

                Like a rude awakening, the peasants stopped from running in horror of the illusions that had been played before their eyes.  Aware that the fiends that chased them were all too fiction but unaware of what had caused them, the villagers ran.  Not caring what had just happened in their village and only seeing freedom from the place as the only answer, the peasants fled.  But the vampire’s stayed; atop their horses they searched the darkness with their keen immortal eyesight.  Helious held onto Bella’s hand as he tried to steady himself from the horrid pain in his belly, and Risa moved closer to Torn as her eyes skimmed across the silent evening landscape fearfully.

                Blaine was the most eager out of all of them; he could barely sit still on his horse.  “Come on… come on!  Don’t let me down girl, fight!” Blaine chanted in a whisper.  His chanting went on and on at a maddening pace, as something charged out of the darkness.  It was near the cemetery, off only a few yards to the right of Blaine.  It was the Slayer; she rode a brown horse toward Blaine with hatred burning in her brown eyes.  But the speed of the horse fell as the Slayer pulled back on the reins and loaded another arrow into her crossbow.

                She wore a wardrobe much like the peasants, drag and extremely dull while Blaine sat there in a crushed blue velvet suit with gold buttons and looking much like he always does; like that of an aristocrat.  The Slayer stopped her horse and rose the crossbow at Blaine, without hesitating one single moment she pulled the trigger.  Blaine swiftly caught the arrow and laughed at the Slayer, taunting her.  “Finally going to take your medicine like a real chosen one?” Blaine chuckled.

                Blaine snapped the arrow with his hand as he raised his heavy sword to show the Slayer, another attempt in taunting the Slayer.  He tossed the sword down to the dirt, along with the arrow.  She let go of her horses’ reins as she loaded another arrow.  Her eyes went from Blaine to the crossbow in a mere seconds time, and as she returned them to Blaine he stood on the ground only steps away.  Blaine sneered at her evilly, but the Slayer pointed the crossbow at Blaine’s heart.  He stopped there, dead in his tracks for a brief moments time.  His vampire face came to the surface as he looked at the Slayer, watching her finger as it held the crossbow trigger.  He laughed at her, “You won’t kill me.”

                She pulled the trigger, but Blaine disappeared from sight then reappeared as he moved so swiftly her mortal eyes couldn’t follow.  Blaine stood next to the Slayer, frightening her as he held out the arrow in his hand.  He was giving it back to her.  The Slayer hissed at the vampire, low kicking him to the ground as she hopped off her horse.  Blaine slid to the dirt with an insane laughter, hoping to entice the Slayer into more interesting fisticuffs.  He got to his feet only to be kicked back down as the Slayer spun in the air, kicking Blaine twice in the lower back before touching back down to the dry dirt ground.  Blaine hit the dirt once more, but before the Slayer knew it he was up and charging at her.  His vampire face roared, as the yellow demonic eyes in his skull seemed to burn with a new and sudden anger.

                The Slayer rolled away quickly, but as she rose to her feet she withdrew a stake.  The clan vamped out in response to the entry of the new weapon, Bella’s thoughts dwelled on whether or not to lend Blaine some aid.  But he heard her thoughts, and turned toward her with a waving index finger.  “No Bella, this is our fight,” he whispered to her.  Bella nodded as the Slayer ran at Blaine, but he caught her up in his arms and held her tight.  She cursed in Slavic tongue, making Blaine chuckle, “What a mouth this one has!”  The Slayer struggled with immense strength, something that no vampire could hold up against.  Yet Blaine had her in an impossible to break embrace, forcing the Slayer to be still by pressing every ounce of strength in his immortal body on her.  His face strained but Blaine still kept a smile. 

                “I will kill you, though.  But not because I am a vampire and you are the fabled Slayer, no your death will go further then that I’m afraid.  Do you”, the Slayer broke free from Blaine’s grasp with a kick to his upper leg.  She backed away from him as she held the stake high, just itching to stake him yet afraid of another struggle with him and his strength.  Blaine grinned at the Slayer with his demonic face, “Do you know why I will kill you my lovely Slayer?” he finished finally.

                “I will kill you vampire!” she said with a heavy Slavic accent, almost murdering the English with the strong accent.

                Blaine still laughed; it was reaching the very point of madness now.  “Oh I doubt it… what is your name?”  The Slayer looked at Blaine, absolutely appalled at the unbelievable question.  He scoffed, “Just a name, other then Slayer will do much nicely.”

                She sneered at him, her pinkish lips curling angrily at Blaine.  “Kineta…” she confessed to him with extreme disgust.

                Blaine smiled, “Dearest Kineta, remember the raven haired girl you branded with a cross then soaked in holy water after beating the bloody HELL out of in Majdanpek?  See her over there?  Do you Kineta?”  A sternness came into Blaine’s almost cheerful tone as he pointed at Ferris, a sternness that made Kineta sturdier as she prepared herself for Blaine’s move.

                “I do” Kineta said bluntly.  “She was a weak example of a vampire, weaker then you.”

                Blaine smiled politely, but before she could even see it him move Blaine had her by the throat.  He knocked the stake from her grasp and held her high in the air as the clan watched in awe.  Blaine held not only his hand on Kineta but also his gaze, but he removed it to look over at his drooling clan.  He let out a roaring laughter from his throat as he returned his attention to Kineta.  Blaine could hardly believe it himself; there she dangled from his powerful grasp.  The Slayer, the chosen one, she possessed the greatest strength for a mere human girl, and yet she was helpless as Blaine held her very life in his hands.

                The smile melted from Blaine’s face, “This is for that weak vampire.”  Kineta attempted to scream, but Blaine crushed her neck with his bare hands and dropped her body to the dirt.  Blaine drew in a deep breath of air, even though he did not need to breathe.  He did this just in spite of the fresh and exhilarating kill at his feet.  He couldn’t believe it, not a single moment of it.  The kill of a Slayer brought him such a power to his ego, not to mention his thirst of more power.  When he set fire to Aalysha, the deed gave him a taste of the power, but the killing of a Slayer now brought him the whole glass.

                Blaine turned to face his clan, and they applauded him eagerly.  Slash whistled as the rest of them roared and clapped on in astonishment over Blaine’s battle with Kineta the Slayer.  Bella’s gaze narrowed into Blaine’s as she grinned at him passionately.  “That was phenomenal…” she gasped.

                Blaine pondered for a moment, what could he say to such a praise?  It hit him at that moment, something that would make them believe he is their true leader.  The one and only vampire that could possibly end the rule of humanity and bring forth the ancient times of Hell on Earth.  He took in a slight breath of air to give his words a larger impact.  “I know”, he stated.

 

 

Present Day

Sunnydale, California

 

          The door to the Magic Box slammed open, the bell hitting the wall as Buffy rushed inside.  Her mind raced as she caught glimpse of the ransacked store and the recovering Giles sitting at the table with Tara.  Buffy raced toward Giles and knelt down infront of him, catching his eyes as Tara got up to offer her a seat.  Buffy took the seat and looked at Giles in horror, “Giles are you ok?”

                Giles nodded as Tara handed him two sky blue pills for his bruised jaw, “I’ll get some water…” she said.

                Giles smiled at Tara as best he could then took a glance at Buffy, “I’m ok Buffy, just a little shaken.”

                Tara returned with water as Buffy got to her feet in worry, “What happened?”

                Tara handed the glass of water to Giles as he took the pills, “I, I just came into get supplies for a spell Willow and I want to try.  I found him on the floor and the shop like this.  He was just coming to when I got here…” she explained.

                Buffy turned to Giles for more information, “Who did this to you?” she asked.

                Giles sighed, “Tara there are some ice packs in a cooler in the training room, can you…?”

                Tara nodded quickly, “Oh, of course.”  She slipped into the backroom, but not without taking a look at Buffy and Giles before she exited.

                Giles returned his attention to his pupil, “They wanted a book, I remember hearing the man demand for the book.”

                Buffy shook her head in confusion, “What book?  Did you recognize the voice?”

                “No, and I can’t be sure of what he wanted.  The leader, the one who attacked me, he wasn’t Thamogron Buffy.” Giles stated.

                Buffy pulled back from the conversation, “How do you know?  We can’t be certain!”

                Giles shook his head, “They were nothing more then low-life thieves hired to do someone’s dirty work no doubt.  And if Thamogron is anything as powerful as Genocide said, he would just rip apart my store in a glance to find what he wanted.  Buffy… it wasn’t him, I bet my life on it that this wasn’t Thamogron.”

                Buffy glared at Giles, but nodded in defeat.  “Ok, then we have to find out what this book is he wanted.  I think you should move your books into a storage area in town, you know?  Spare yourself the pain, just incase our these guys come back.”

                Giles took a look at Buffy, taking her point with approval.  “I will Buffy, or at least the more dangerous of the text.”

                Tara returned with the ice pack, which Giles grabbed eagerly and applied to his wound in relief.  Tara took a deep breath, “You were saying something before you totally came to.  About Buffy and Dawn being dead, what were you talking about?”

                Giles sighed, “The leader of these thugs, he was most powerful in the ways of telepathy.  He sent me images, sounds, making me believe that Buffy and Dawn were being killed right before my eyes.  It, it was horrifying.  I couldn’t fight him because I was totally unaware of him and absolutely sucked into his illusion…” Giles trailed off in remembrance of the vision.

                “So this guy, he’s going to be a pain to fight am I right?” Buffy said with heavy sarcasm.

                Giles looked at her and nodded, cupping the ice pack to his jaw.  “More so then anything we’ve faced in a long while Buffy, and just think.  He was only a lackey.”

                “Um, Mr. Giles?  What kind of demon could this guy be, I mean, if he has telepathy.” Tara asked simply.

                “I’m not sure, only a few demons I know of use that power to such lengths as my attacker did.  The one thing that pops into my head is he was a vampire.” Giles said.

                Buffy’s eyes widened, “A vampire?  You mean a vampire could have this kind of power?”

                Giles nodded, “Yes, and its not altogether rare.  But it is true we haven’t faced a vampire like this before.  No, no I take that back.  Drusilla had a form of this gift.  She could see a second sight, the future really, and also hear thoughts of others I believe.  She even played out that vision to get me to tell Angel the secret of awakening Acathla those years back if I remember right.  But we still have never come up against something of this magnitude in a battle before.”

                Buffy sighed, rolling her eyes.  “Just think of the fun it’s going to be in the battlefield with this thing!  Damn, Tara?”

                Tara jumped back at the mention of her name, as usual.  Her shyness never seemed to give way, even among her friends.  “Y-yes?”

                “Is there a spell or something that can block the telepathy of this vampire?” Buffy asked.

                “Um… I believe there might be something in the older books.  I’ll have Willow look for something when I get back to the dorms, but I wouldn’t count on it Buffy.  Sorry…” Tara sighed.

                Buffy shrugged, “It’s ok.  Well Giles, I’ve got nothing else to do tonight.  Want to start fixing this place up?”

                Giles groaned, “Buffy I’ve been attacked…” he said with a harsh tone, his eyes looking up at Buffy like two burning coals.  His stern look faded as he clamped the ice pack harder to his jaw, “Let Anya take care of it in the morning.”

 

 

1940

London, England

 

          Deep within the charred structure of a now abandoned Hotel, Blaine gathered his clan.  Their current residence was safe, considering it was one of the few buildings to survive the last Luftwaffe air strikes the past evening.  Blaine knew that the head of the German air force, Hermann Goering would not attack an area again once it was mostly in ruins like this one.  The Nazi forces could not waste the firepower and Hitler supposedly wanted Great Britain on its knees as quickly as possible, if Blaine’s informant was correct.

                The year was 1940, the time when the Battle of Britain was at its worst.  German planes pounded London at night in great series’ called a blitz.  One night alone would see over 70,000 firebombs hitting the crumbling city.  The Royal Air Force was winning the battle against the Luftwaffe in a sense, but London was taking a beating from it.  The city was perfect for Blaine, and the following night would be his time to shine.

                There he waited in the middle of the dusty and blackened floor of the hotel.  As Blaine waited for the clan to assemble, he eyed the ceiling them.  A bomb must have hit near by before we arrived, he thought.  The plaster and wood looked rotted and charred, it would most likely collapse before the end of the week, Blaine thought.  Thankfully they wouldn’t be there to awaken to eight floors and a ton of rubble on top of them, as soon as their job was over the clan would go to Spain.  It was their last hope before moving to the United States; Spain was the only neutral country close enough to get to after their job.

                Blaine reached inside his pocket and took out a polished gold watch as the clan finally gathered infront of him.  He grinned, the watch trick always made them move faster.  He returned his watch to his pocket as he turned his attention to the vampires infront of him.  The small collection of ten vampires had grown into a large clan of thirty-two.  The new vampires looked all about the age of twenty, some older and some younger.  The original ten kept true to consistency, wearing the modern versions of wealthy attire, but the new additions wore the clothing of common, working people of the times.  The original vampires clearly held higher ranks then the newer ones, the difference in their attitudes toward one another helped prove that as they gathered.

                Blaine watched his clan, eyeing Bella as she moved Risa and a new vampire, Edan closer to the front.  Edan was a young British man with shaggy, golden brown hair and brilliant hazel eyes.  Blaine thought the vampire was unbelievable.  The boy had been a beggar in one of the cities in England’s northern territory, a disgusting creature that Slash befriended.  That friendship lead to the siring of Edan, transforming his hideous human form into the elegant demon that stood before Blaine now.  Many of his new followers had stories much like Edan’s, where they were poor and unfortunate as mortals and were born from the Dark Gift as a daring, new being built for success in anything. 

                Blaine smiled politely, “If my informant is correct, then the heart of London will see the most air raids tonight.  When you do go out to feed tonight, stay away from that area.  Now… on to tomorrow night’s events!  We have hit other places before, but tomorrow night my brethren… we move up a notch!  It will be the largest target we, no the entirety of our kind have ever hit.  The Watcher’s Council is where our natural enemy, the Slayer gets her strength and her knowledge.  The Watcher is what trains the Slayer, what guides the Slayer, what projects the Slayer.  But the council is what controls the Slayer, keeps the Slayer in line, makes her the Slayer…” Blaine stated.  He stopped for a moment, as if regaining his train of thought.  “Well, as the Luftwaffe come across to bomb the city once again tomorrow night, we will make our move on their headquarters and slaughter anything that breathes inside!”

                The clan applauded his plan; they watched Blaine like the Jews watched Christ.  Blaine was their savior from the humans and mostly from the Slayer.  He cleared his throat, signally that he was about to continue and their clapping should cease.  “If I am correctly informed, the council will get word of the German air raid later tomorrow. The idiots have few copies or none at all of their texts, so as many of their men as they can possibly spare will be inside attempting to save as much as possible. This gives a target of over seventy humans when nightfalls, give or take a few.  The plan is simple enough, well as simple as total demolitions and massacres come these days.  We get two teams of ten to line the perimeter of the building with shock charges.  Now, the shock charges will go off as the bombing begins.  The target of the Luftwaffe is over a dozen kilometers away; the firebombs will not be in range to harm us.  However, the shock charges can,” Blaine snapped his fingers, frightening the clan.  He laughed, “They can make you go up in dust, just like that.  But these contraptions do have timers, and with the speed within us there shouldn’t be any difficulty in fleeing before they go off.  Now, they will fire and the blows of that many charges will cause the first two floors to collapse onto the subterranean levels.  Remember, this place is not what it appears to be.  Above ground, it’s a national intelligence source for the crown, below… the real twists begin.”

                “The first sub-level is the council’s security level, that’s where the radar, cameras and vampire detectors are.  This is why we fire off the shock charges, we will need that level obliterated before the second wave of our plan can begin.  Now, the remaining of us will be entering the sewage tunnels.  From there, we set a few charges and blow ourselves an entrance into the council’s heart, the archives.  After we enter, the survivors will either run, fight, die or all of the above and certainly not in any particular order.” Blaine smirked.

                “What is our goal?” a voice called out, throwing Blaine’s smile into a horrid grimace of confusion.  The clan turned and parted, allowing a tall, muscular African woman of thirty to come forward.  Her name was Tyronica, an evil looking vampire if there ever was such a thing without the demonic face.  She repeated her question, more persistent then the first time.  “What is our goal?”

                Blaine raised an eyebrow, intrigued yet somehow bothered by the question and the vampire.  “Why the question Tyronica?  Don’t you trust me?” Blaine spoke out with such phony concern that it made Tyronica laugh at him.

                “Oh, I trust you Blaine.  But this plan is just like the rest of your others, it circles around your own personal vendetta.  It’s basic child’s play, nothing else.  So I ask you again, what is our goal?” Tyronica asked once more.

                Blaine received the carefully worded speech, accepting it as a true and just statement.  He nodded, “All right Tyronica, all right.  This goal of ours is simple.  A Slayer needs guidance and the council supplies it to her.  It is true that we won’t destroy their organization entirely, but it will show them who is the better in this battle of good and evil.”

                Tyronica shook her head with a newfound worry, “This is the goal of a complete and utter fool!  We will risk our very immortal lives to show the council we are arrogant enough to attack them in a place where they obviously have the upper hand.  Our forces will be crushed with the simplest of attempts.  Do not get me wrong Blaine, you are the best thing to happen to everyone here.  But this plan, this insane plan…” Tyronica trailed off, lost in her own horror.

                Blaine took a step forward, his face twisted in curiosity.  He locked his frigid gaze upon Tyronica, watching her horrible state worsen.  Instead of addressing her directly, Blaine pulled his gaze away from Tyronica and onto the entire clan before him.  “What do you say my clan, my Torturons?  Is the plan pure insanity?  Am I loose it, have the many years of my existence caught up to me?  It is not only I who will risk my eternal life, let me remind you, but it is everyone last one of you here in this Hotel who will risk it with me.  You all have the right to step out of this clan if my plan is as hard to believe as Tyronica thinks.” Blaine stated.

                The clan stood in silence, their eyes wandering the room as their thoughts considered what Blaine said.  Torn’s face-hardened, like stone as she shook her head.  “I will follow you Blaine, wherever you go.  Even if it is into the brimstones of Hell, I will be there by your side.” Torn’s violet eyes watered, the words not only coming from her but from the empty place where her soul should have been. 

Next to her, Slash straightened his back and nodded.  “Same here Blaine.  I said to you after Aalysha’s… second death, that I would follow you.  I’m not about to stop following you now, I am with you Blaine.  In this and in anything you plan in the eons ahead of us.”

                Blaine glanced at Slash and torn with a proud smile, his children were extremely loyal, he had to give them that.  “Nice to hear some have confidence in me”, Blaine’s eyes darted to Tyronica, anger burning like an eternal flame in them.

                Bella groaned, rolling her eyes from the boring conflict brewing.  “Why do you even have to ask us?  Of course we have confidence in both you and your plan.  Tyronica speaks only for herself, not all of us.  You are our leader, we believe in you and as Torn said, we will follow you anywhere.  Even straight into Hell.”

                Tyronica snapped, a desperation overcoming her like a flood.  She ran and held onto Blaine, her hands groping at his strong arms as her eyes raced around.  “Blaine”, she pleaded, “do not go through with this plan!  It will get us all killed, it will lead you on the Devil’s Road to Hell!  Even if your clan admits they will willingly follow you into the flames, it is not fair to do this to them!  You created most of us, how could you play with your children’s existences by going on with this plan!  I can see it in my mind, Blaine do not go up against the Watcher’s Council!”

                Blaine scoffed at her, “You do not have the power to see without your incompetent eyes!”

                “No!” Tyronica exclaimed.  “I have seen the mortal scum destroying this clan and leaving you and the rest of the founders for the wolves!  I have seen this!”

                Blaine turned toward Helious as his partner tossed a stake toward him.  Blaine snatched up the freshly carved pine stake greedily with his right hand, positioning it high above him.  His lips curled, while Tyronica’s dropped in terror.  She knew now that her outburst had sealed her fate, the stake before her would certainly bring her a second death.  Hoping for pity, Tyronica took off running.  She bolted forward as the busted doors of the exit came into view, but the sudden feeling of Blaine’s gaze upon her.  “You will all die!” Tyronica shrieked out, reaching and yearning for her freedom.  Blaine scowled at the pathetic vampire as he pulled back his arm, using his keen eyesight to aim at Tyronica’s dead heart as she fled.

                Pitching his arm forward with all his demonic strength, the stake soared toward Tyronica.  Her ears picked up the faint but growing sound of the stake coming towards her.  The fine point of the stake cut through her body like it was nothing at all, the blow throwing Tyronica to the floor.  Her body shifted into dust, and it caked the floor with that dust she hit the solid ground.  Tyronica’s lunacy was forever lost now, her demon entity taking up residence in Hell.

                The clan stood silently, bitter and ashamed at their now departed comrade.  Blaine turned his back on the pile of dust to face his brethren once more.  His face-hardened, showing the dismal state the kill had brought to him.  With a slight hum, Blaine addressed them.  “If there are no more complaint or rants, you are free to feed… dismissed.”  The vampires broke apart, some leaving the Hotel but most remaining, slinking into their respective dark corners.

                Blaine didn’t bother to look at Torn as she slowly approached him in concern; behind her, Edan and Cian followed closely.  Cian was an age-revenged man, it was not mortal age that destroyed his beauty but the scars and wrinkles of immortal age.  His skin hung loosely like it were two sizes too big for him, making the vampire look as if he were melting before their eyes.  Cian’s own fading violet eyes searched Blaine, looking for some sort of answer to a question he hadn’t asked yet.  Cian moved forward, past Torn and Edan making a swoosh sound with his moth infested rags.

                Blaine watched Cian as he approached, and he caught himself shuddering at the look of the old vampire.  Cian wasn’t offended, rather he appreciated Blaine’s honesty.  As he waited for one of the vampires to mention Tyronica’s slip of sanity, Blaine remembered how Cian came to belong in the clan.  Cian was with the original ten when they escaped the First World War in France in 1916.  The group found the ancient one in the crypts of les Innocents.  He would have been easily mistaken as the rotting corpse of a long since deceased elder, if it had not been for his strong will of life.  Blaine found Cian one fateful night, draining the blood of a mourning visitor of the crypt he was occupying.  It was October of 1899, during a hot and humid night.  Blaine would never forget the vampire, but especially the urge to slay Cian that night.  He thought it was unthinkable that an old vampire like Cian would believe in the new order, the order that vampires are the supreme over the humans.

                But no, Cian had been the servant of a demon that he couldn’t bare speak of, a demon that had been destroyed almost half a decade before that night.  Whatever had happened during that fateful night, Cian was burned to a crisp but happened to survive by their lair collapsing on him.  The old vampire took a liking to Blaine the moment his footsteps echoed through his exceptional ears, he knew Blaine was something special.  And so, Blaine took the cripple under his wing and with the help of the founders of Torturon they nursed the vampire to a healthier state.

                Cian sighed, “You always dwell on things in the past, look to your future for once boy.”

                Blaine couldn’t help but smile, “You just catch me when I’m thinking of the past Cian… I almost always am looking toward the future.  You should know that first hand old man.”

                “Ah… well I will not bore you with my rants.  I am here to tell you one important thing.” Cian confessed.

                “And what would that be?” Blaine said, folding his arms in waiting for Cian’s advice.

                Cian cleared his throat with a horrible hacking cough, adjusting his loose skin flap under his neck before continuing.  “Well, know this.  Destiny is something that will always decide the outcome of a battle before it even starts, but it always decides whether a battle shall be fought or not, and then some.  It was destiny that brought my former master down, and it was destiny that brought us together.  And if it is destiny that either allows us to prevail or fall against the council, then let it be.  I won’t have a hate or a joy in me if it works out either way and neither should you…” Cian trailed off.  He bowed slightly, then turned away to hobble off.

                Blaine watched the old vampire disappear into the shadows, but forced himself to glance at Torn and Edan.  Edan sighed, “He’s right, you know.  We don’t have any control whether we win, loose or even fight tomorrow night.  But I will fight if you indeed wish to do so Blaine.”  Edan walked off, but turned to look at Torn as she stood staring at Blaine.  She looked as if her body froze in its place right there, but she quickly threw off the trance.  Torn stepped forward and gently kissed Blaine’s cheek, then turned around to follow Edan away.  Blaine just stood in the dark Hotel lobby, his mind thinking on the words he heard in just that short time from sunrise to his current time.  But one thing was certain, there would be a battle tomorrow.

 

 

Present Day

Sunnydale, California

 

                The cool Fall night air hit Buffy lightly as she exited the Magic Box.  She sighed, this wasn’t exactly the night she imagined.  But then again, when was any night ever what she imagined?  First the run in with the three vampires in the cemetery, then the unsettling encounter with her crafty stalker and now the attack on Giles.  She sighed once more, overcome with the eventful evening as she made her way down the sidewalk.  Buffy pulled her keys from her pocket and glanced toward her car a few feet ahead of her.  She couldn’t wait to relax, but the question was whether she would go back to the dorm or go to see Dawn at Xander’s to do it.  Buffy shrugged, it didn’t really matter to her.  Unless Nicole’s idiotic friends had followed her back to the dorm, then Dawn would have to put up with her big sister for the night.

                Buffy reached her car and placed the rigid steel key into the lock as a slight breeze blew past Buffy’s ear.  She froze, uncertain of what to make of the unusual breeze and the sound it brought with it.  The breeze blew past again, Buffy turned around in a panic as the breeze brought a disturbing voice with it.  It was so faint and almost undetectable but Buffy knew it was there.  The breeze blew again, and Buffy could finally understand what the voice was saying to her.  It asked her, “Will you dance with me?”

 

 

1940

London, England

 

                An explosion of red flames filled Valentine’s eyes as he moved the team of twenty Torturons down the abandoned London streets.  The Luftwaffe had begun their air raids for the night, just as Blaine had stated.  Valentine grinned slightly, so far so good.  He turned to Lill who lead Oni and Jadyn, a young red headed girl towards the head of the pack.  “How far to the building!” he growled at Lill.

                Lill turned and flashed an fake smile at the impatient Valentine, “Next street, don’t get your breeches in a twist!”  Valentine gasped at the words of the usually sweet Lill, but he couldn’t focus on her sudden rudeness right at that moment.  Valentine grabbed Oni from in back of him and pushed the boy forward, “Keep up with the pace boy, don’t make me kill you.” he told Oni coldly.

 

                Blaine slid down a sudden steeply angled tunnel, the feces and other waste products making a gross slickness to the bottom as Blaine flew downward.  The other eleven vampires followed as Blaine landed on his feet in ankle high sewage, this part of the plan would be the worst he decided.  He shook off the thought and turned toward Edan and Slash as they helped Cian get down the steep pipe.  “Everything all right back there?” he called out.

                Slash nodded, “Fine, keep going!”  Blaine nodded in reply, gripping his massive sword as he lead the rest of them down the awful smelling tunnel.  Bella shifted her backpack from the left to the right shoulder; it was full of shock charges.  The little bomb were the size of video cassettes but they weighed more then thirty pounds due to the gun powder and the old time electronics and timers.  She groaned, shifting the backpack once more to get a better hold of it on her shoulder.  “How much further Blaine, these damn charges are hurting my shoulder!”

                Blaine snarled, turned back toward Bella and snatching the backpack from her.  He slipped it on his shoulder and kept on going, leaving Bella confused by his outburst.  “What is your problem!” she yelled out.  Blaine kept going; “Nothing, let’s go!” he called back to her.  Helious gently pushed Bella, getting her to resume her walking as the group moved through the sewage tunnel.

 

 

                There was, the Watcher’s Council Headquarters; a two story brick building on a street that was filled with one-story shops and taverns.  Valentine saw the thing as an eyesore; it was an elegant building made with precision and grace but it Valentine still saw it as ugly as they stood at the end of the street.  The place was completely evacuated, or so it seemed.  He knew from what Blaine had said, that there were people below ground running a muck trying to save as much as they could.  Fools, he thought, they are going to die for mere books and writings.

                Valentine looked back at his team, making eye contact with each and every last vampire standing in the shadows there.  “Use your quickest speed, place your two shock charges next to everyone else and turn them on.  This place needs to be lined perfectly with them, or we loose already.  Understood?”  The vampires nodded in response, each of them eager to set their charge and watch the fireworks.  Valentine vamped out with a sick grin, “Time for fun!”

 

 

                Inside the dark and awful sewage tunnel, Blaine stopped.  Helious approached his leader, “Is this it?”

                Blaine looked past Helious, counting the tunnels leading off from this large main tunnel.  “Five… six… seven… yes, this is it!”  Blaine exclaimed.  He threw the backpack to the waste below him, splashing up the disgusting material as he grabbed a shock charge.  “Get back to the sloping tunnel, keep an ear on the outside.  We can’t fire these until Valentine and his teams are threw with taking out the security level… get a move on!” Blaine ordered.  His vampire brethren complied with his orders, moving back towards the sloped tunnel. Blaine knelt down in the waste as he held the shock charge to the wall of the tunnel.  Using his free hand, Blaine reached inside the backpack to pull out a bottle of glue.  He opened it and poured it onto the charge and held tight to the small explosive.  Blaine let go to test the glue, and the charge stuck to the wall.  He smiled with a sigh, “Now it’s your turn Val… better hurry…” Blaine stated.

 

 

                Valentine ran threw the empty street, leading the vampires toward the brick building that is the Headquarters of the Watcher’s Council.  Something was wrong with the surroundings, he couldn’t quite understand what his senses were trying to warn him of.  The others began picking up the funny feeling, Lill stopped running and stood there in the middle of the badly paved road.  She searched around her as the air stood still, “Valentine… we need to get out of here.”

                Valentine stopped and turned back toward Lill, “You can sense it too, something’s wrong here… what is it?”  Lill shook her head as a hiss began to start from across the street.  The vampires looked toward the source as five flaming liquor bottles spiraled toward the street.  Valentine realized what was wrong, as the faces of two buildings crashed to the street at the same time as the flaming bottles.  Valentine jumped onto the sidewalk as a blast of fire engulfed the rest of the vampires.  Out from the buildings came fifty heavily armed members of the council’s Operations Team rushed onto the flaming street as the vampires howled in agony.

                Lill leapt towards a fire hydrant and kicked it open as the cooling liquid erupted out of the street.  The vampires horded toward the cold water as the Operative’s fired arrows and spears into their crowd.  Lill threw herself out of the way for her brethren to put their flames out as a voice thundered from the fake buildings, “Shut that blasted water off!”  Lill vamped out and turned toward the voice, roaring in anger.  The water ceased to flow from the broken hydrant, and then burning vampires proceeded to ignite more as they ran around, rolling on the wet pavement hoping for the flames to go out.

                “Let it pour boys!  Time for a little April shower!” the voice thundered out once more.  Lill saw a group of Operatives running from the false buildings carrying hoses.  She knew what they were going to do, and as much as her demon mind told her to stay and fight, she ran.  Lill found herself running for Valentine and the vampires he saved as the Operatives opened fire and begin soaking the remaining vampires with Holy Water.

                Their screams hit Lill like stakes as she ran for her own safety, tears poured from her eyes as the vampires boiled in a pile on the street.  They were defenseless against the Operatives as they came in, staking and shooting their blistered bodies.  Valentine ran off but as Lill came running he turned around.  He screamed, “Hurry Lillian!  We must get to Blaine!”  Lill pushed her abilities to the limit, flying forward and falling onto the pavement, skinning her entire body from top to body as she slid toward Valentine.  Her body pulsed in pain yet Lill kept going, she got up and took Valentine’s hand as the two survivors fled at high speed.

                The Operations Team gathered among themselves as Chester, the owner of the thunderous voice and head of the team came forward in a heavy rubber fire suit.  Two team members loaded a flamethrower pack to Chester’s back as a third placed a helmet on his leader.  Chester pointed to the manhole infront of them, “Get that open!” he screamed.  The members scrambled to open the manhole as Chester turned toward the remaining men of his team.  “Set charges to the building!  Let their leader think everything is fine, that is how we’ll get them into our trap!” Chester barked.  The team members succeeded in opening the large manhole as Chester walked over and began lowering himself into the sewage tunnels.  Second in command, Charles grabbed a crate of explosives from the false buildings and began getting the remaining men to line the Headquarters with them.  “We blow this thing in one minute!  Hurry up or we set them off with you still there, go!”

 

 

                Blaine still sat there, kneeling in the waste as the others stood there waiting.  Like a hot knife through butter, the sound of a massive explosion cut through the silence of the tunnel.  Blaine face lit up like a Christmas tree, he pushed in the timer button on the explosive and took off toward the others.  As he ran, the shock charge blew apart the tunnel wall, slightly caving in some of it but still blasting into the lower level of the Headquarters.  Dust and stench filled the tunnel as Blaine screamed out in joy, “Yeah!  Hell yeah!  Come on boys and girls, it’s time to party!”

                The vampires entered the archive level of the Watcher’s Council Headquarters, but as soon as they entered Blaine knew they were doomed.  A burst of flames blocked their exit and forced them inside the empty and quiet level.  Blaine looked around, the entire place had been stripped down to bare wood and some metal shingles.  It was a trap, the council somehow knew about their plan.  Tyronica was right, the plan was insane and it just got a little crazier with the new twist. 

                Torn screamed out, “What is going on!  How could this be possible!  This can’t be happening!”

                Slash slapped Torn, “Shut up!  Let Blaine think, he-he’ll know what to do!”

                They all looked at Blaine in fear, but Blaine just looked back at them clueless.  He shrugged simply, “We’re going to die…” he said in horror. 

                Bella went up to Blaine and grabbed him by the arm, squeezing it.  “What do you mean we’re going to die!  We have to get out of here!  You are our leader Blaine, you must help us!”

                The flames began blowing inside the level they were on, forcing the vampires deeper inside the barren Headquarters.  Blaine threw Bella’s hands off of him as sprinkler heads came out from the ceiling.  The vampires looked up in horror as the walls busted in, releasing fifty more Operatives into the level.  They vamped out, roaring at the humans as arrows flew around them.  Blaine had had just about enough of this, he lunged at an Operative and proceeded to rip his arms from their sockets. 

                Helious’ eyes began to glow as the Operative’s backed away from him uneasily.  Helious lashed out, kicking back two and ripping his fingers into another three as he went animalistic.  Blaine took on four other Operatives, as he heard Torn yet out horrible scream.  He turned and watched her fall through the floorboards.  Blaine punched his fist through the helmet of an Operative then turned his attention to Torn as he ran toward her.  The sprinkler system began to pour down on them now, and Blaine reared up with a roar as Holy Water rained down on them. 

                Blaine kept focus as his skin boiled, he crawled across the floor toward Torn as her screams rang in his ears.  Bella fell to her knees in agony as Chester came into the room and set her ablaze.  Bella’s voice gave out, unable to transmit her pain as she collapsed to the floor, letting the Holy Water douse out the flames.  Blaine pulled himself to the place where Torn fell and he gasped at what he saw below.  Torn jumped up and down, trying to keep her feet from touching the bottom of a giant room covered from top to bottom with crosses.  Blaine screamed out in pain, “Argh!  Torn!  Jump up, I’ll catch you!”

                “BLAINE!” she screamed, crouching down onto the floor.  The smoke charring feet twisted up into the air as she leapt up and caught Blaine’s arm.  The Holy Water hit Torn as she came up onto the higher level again, but Blaine threw off his coat and covered her with it.  He threw up his scalded head, “Torturons!  Retreat!” 

 

 

Present Day

Sunnydale, California

 

                The voice kept asking her the same question, “Will you dance with me?”  Buffy turned away from her car, her eyes searched wildly for a glimpse of what was speaking to her.  Cautiously, she tried to move away from her car and toward the shop.  Buffy knew she should stop and face whatever was questioning her but the lack of weaponry would give it the upper hand.  “I know what you are, Slayer… I know what you did to her… you staked her…” it whispered to Buffy.  The breeze blew past her ears again, and Buffy caught herself from screaming.  A revelation brewed within her mind, the breeze wasn’t a breeze at all.  It was the breathe from whatever was talking.  Buffy’s heart raced as she tensed up, locked in a frightened stance as the voice laughed.  “You are absolutely justified for fearing me… I will destroy you…”

                Buffy shook her head, trying to overcome the fear as the moon came out from behind a tree down the street.  The newfound light helped Buffy calm herself, “Show yourself!  Stop playing with me from the shadows!  I’ve had too many shadow games tonight!”  Buffy appealed to the voice, trying to bring it out of hiding.

                “But I’m having too much fun to stop now…” the voice stated, blowing air against Buffy’s neck.

                The hairs all over Buffy’s body stood straight up in the air, she was absolutely terrified now.  Briefly, Buffy allowed herself to acknowledge that the voice could belong to Thamogron.  Buffy shook off the notion, but the voice just laughed.  “No Buffy, not just yet…” it told her.  Buffy turned around, hoping to catch sight of the being responsible for the voice.  Her eyes searched in frantic desperation, she couldn’t take the torture of this a second longer.  “Psst!  Over here dead girl!” the voice called out.

                Buffy turned toward the voice, she gasped as the sight of the owner of the voice showed himself.  As the moonlight shone down from above, as a figure stood on the small street leading from the front of the Magic Box.  Damp from a light evening fog, the street seemed to shine with blue light from the moon as the figure stood, savoring Buffy’s withering terror.  “Hello, Buffy” the figure said, standing there enwrapped in a shadow.

                Buffy put up her hands, preparing for a fight.  “Hello yourself,” she replied as her fear shrank inside of her.

                The figure laughed as he moved so quickly toward Buffy that she wasn’t sure he moved at all.  The light on the damp pavement gave the man a slight blue tint as his identity was revealed.  There on the street, Blaine stood watching Buffy.  He smiled at her, “Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve had such blood lust?  You know, it’s been even longer since I’ve had a good fight.” Blaine folded his arms across his chest, standing proudly and standing surely that he would cripple the Slayer soon.

                Buffy hardened, showing her confidence to throw off Blaine’s pride.  “Why do you think I care?  I’m just going to stake you and get on with the rest of my night.  So why even stall with this whole Dracula routine?”

                Blaine moved his hands to his waist, absolutely amazed by Buffy’s cockiness.  “Well, well!  It’s astounding how snappy Slayer’s have gotten in a century!”

                Buffy’s eyes widened, she had underestimated the vampire’s age.  “So what happened a century ago?  That when you got your first ass kicking?” Buffy countered with a grin.

                “Ha, no.  That was the year I killed my first Slayer… this will be my second.” Blaine stated, a presence of pride in his wicked voice.

                Buffy shook her head, “Nothing I haven’t heard before.  And you know what happened to the ones who tired?”

                Blaine took a step forward, his lips curling into an evil smirk, “What is that now?”

                “They got dusted,” she said.

 

 

1940

London, England

 

                Helious let out a roar as the Operatives tackled him onto the floor, sliding his body through puddles of the Holy Water and filling him with rage and pain.  Helious used every last drop of strength he had to kick two Operatives away from him, but it was no use.  Chester waddled through the room towards Helious, pointing the flamethrower at him.  Helious dove out of the way, but the flames spewed from the gun and cascaded down onto the weakened vampire.  Blaine’s cries for retreat fell upon Helious’ deafened ears as he cried out in pain, horrible pain.  The Operatives returned to finish him off, carrying axes and crossbows.  They opened fire on him with the crossbows, unloading more then a dozen into his battered and burned body.  The Holy Water started to dose out the flames, giving him a shred of relief when the worst of it happened.  An Operative came at him with the axe, but before he could take the vampire’s skull right off his neck, Slash was thrown into him by Edan who couldn’t reach Helious in time.  The Operative’s aim altered, and instead of his head he lopped off Helious’ right leg and most of his left.

                Helious collapsed as the pain overcame him in a wave of agony.  Slash slugged an Operative while kicking down another as Edan gathered the comatose Helious up in his arms.  Edan turned, squinting at Slash as he watched an Operative run him in with an axe, another with a stake through the back.  Edan dropped Helious, he ran to Slash to throw away the Operatives but a stray arrow blew through his chest.  Edan gasped, the pain subsiding as his body shifted into dust.  Everything began to get dark as the vampire’s time started to run out like the sand in an hourglass.  Slash got one last look at his friend, their eyes meeting just before Edan fell apart into dust.  An Operative screamed, hitting Slash atop of the head with the back of an axe, knocking him out cold and onto the Holy Water soaked floor.

                Ferris felt the air and Holy Water brush by her face as a kick to the back sent her hitting the floor hard.  She scrambled to her feet, screaming as she rubbed her throbbing face.  She looked at her hands; blood covered them like a skin.  Ferris gasped, her skin was getting so burned and blistered by the Holy Water that the skin was melting off her body.  She shuddered as the sight of Helious and Slash entered her corner of her eye.  Two Operatives approached them with stakes, and she knew that it would be too late if she ran to their aid.           She searched the massacre around her until a badly beaten and burned Blaine tried to get Torn out of the place.  “Blaine!  Slash and Helious!” she bellowed out, getting elbowed in the face by an Operative as Chester turned and set her ablaze.  Blaine turned around; he caught sight of Torn’s burning and then saw Helious and Slash about to be staked.  His demonic eyes began to glow while his mind began to hope; hope that he wasn’t too late for any of his brethren, his children.  The Operatives backed away from the vampires, as their howls bounced back at them from the walls. 

                Chester turned toward his men, his eyes widening as they turned and faced him.  From his point of view, they were all vampires.  Their true faces protruding as they growled in hunger toward Chester.  He gasped, pulling the trigger on his flamethrower and pouring the liquid flames onto the Operatives.  Blaine watched in joy, as the human bastards burned, not even the Holy Water saving them as Chester kept the focus of his attack on them until their bodies charred beyond recognition.  Blaine tore himself away from the show, turning to Torn as she wept.  “Torn, please!  I need you to get everyone out of here!  Can you do this for me, can you please?” Blaine asked as sincerely as he could.

                Torn’s bloodshot eyes looked at Blaine as she slowly nodded and went to Bella, the closest to her.  Blaine quickly turned around and grabbed Ferris, Helious and Slash.  Taking them all on his back, the weak vampire hobbled toward the others.  He searched for Edan, more frantic then he could even imagine as he could feel an overwhelming pain in him.  It wasn’t from the Holy Water pouring down on him, burning his body.  It was from the knowledge that Edan was no more; the child must have been killed in the brawl.  Blaine lowered his head, but knew he had to keep going for Cian just ahead. 

                At the still burning entrance, Lill and Valentine leapt into the room and screamed at the pain.  Lill saw Torn and Bell and quickly grabbed them and led them out and into the sewage tunnel.  Torn saw Lill and grabbed her, hugging her with all her remaining strength, “Thank you!  Thank you, I didn’t have the strength to pull her out on my own!”

                Lill’s face softened as a tear fell from her eye, “It’ll be ok Torn… it’s over now…” Lill told her.  Torn burst into tears, burying her face in Lill’s burned dress as Lill rested her head ontop of Torn’s.

                Inside the room, Valentine reached Blaine grabbed a hold of him to pull him to safety.  Blaine beat away Valentine’s hand, dropping the vampires on his back to the floor.  Blaine snarled, “Get them out!  NOW!”

                Valentine picked up Ferris, Slash and Helious as he looked to Blaine, “What about you!”

                Blaine shook his head, his eyes still searching for Cian, “I have to find Cian… I can’t leave without Cian…” Blaine wobbled as he turned around to find Cian in the field of bodies as Valentine retreated.  Blaine saw Chester still burning every last Operative dead, and he was overjoyed that the monsters were dead.  But Blaine felt a pain in his side, as everything went black.  The last thing he could recall was Valentine’s arm picking him up, nothing more.  He didn’t find Cian; he couldn’t get himself to snap out of it.

________________________________________________________________________

 

Present Day

Sunnydale, California

 

          Blaine scoffed at Buffy, “Do you think that scares me?  I’ve killed my share of vampires…” Blaine stopped, the remembrance of the lost battle of the Watcher’s Headquarters filled his mind.  He shook off the memory, “And more then my share of humans!”

                Buffy scoffed at Blaine this time, “Does this have a point?” she said, putting her hands to her waist.  Buffy was tired of this vampire; his mind games and word battles were worse then college.

                “Dear, dear Buffy…” Blaine said, taking a step forward toward her.  “It has a point.”

                Buffy drew back, “How do you know my name?  I don’t even know yours!” she asked, annoyed at the fact he kept calling her by name.

                Blaine bowed his head slightly toward Buffy, “Blaine de Kristof… and as for me knowing your name, Buffy Summers… I’ve done my homework.”

                Buffy was finished with Blaine, she jump kicked him to the street but before she knew it he was back up and in the same position he was before the blow.  Buffy stopped; she didn’t want to waste her strength if the vampire was that powerful and crafty, as he seemed to boast by his actions.

                Blaine laughed, “I’ve done my homework on you dear Slayer.  I know you.  And not only that, I know your friends.  Xander, Willow, Dawn… I know them all, and soon… soon they will now me.”

                The threatening statement sent chills down Buffy’s spine; she lashed out on Blaine again in retaliation.  She jumped in the air and spin kicked Blaine to the street and as quick as she could, Buffy took Blaine’s head in her hands and kicked him down with the bottom of her heeled shoe.  Blaine was back up in no time, a little bit further away this time as blood trickled down the ripped skin on his chin.  He frowned at Buffy in anger, “I’m not bluffing Slayer, as soon as I set the last piece of my plan into place, and the whole city will fear my clan.  Your friends will die, you will die, and Thamogron will shift this realm into the rightful Hell from which it begun!” Blaine preached.

                Buffy’s heart raced, she knew Blaine spoke the truth.  He was what would bring back Thamogron, and Buffy knew if he got away then he would do his damndest to live up to his words.

 

1941

Mount Aigoual, France

 

The wind howled ferociously through the small mouth of the cave.  A light mid-day Spring shower fell onto the dry grass of the mountain.  It was cold, but not cold enough for concern of other animals coming into the cave as Blaine watched the rain hit the ground.  He sighed, “It’s a gloomy day…” Blaine trailed off in thought.  Bella came up behind him, her facial scar from the burns faded somewhat.  She stood next to Blaine, not wanting to show affection or worry about him as she also watched the rain.  Blaine noticed Bella’s distance and sighed once more, “At least the last day we’ll ever see won’t be perfect…” he stated.

Bella looked at Blaine, combing back her hair with her bony fingers.  “Look Blaine, this won’t be forever.  Sooner or later we will resurrect ourselves, this is not the end of our clan.”

Blaine threw himself around, grabbing and piercing his fingers into Bella’s arms as his vampire face arose out of his human face.  “The clan is no more!” Blaine roared.  “I killed us all!  I lead us into their trap, Tyronica knew they knew about us and she even warned me!  But what did I do?  I kept going with the plan!  I killed all of my children, your children, and Helious’ children!  The worst of all is I managed to kill the children of other vampires not known to us!  I am a murderer!”

Bella broke free of Blaine’s grasp and sent a left jab into Blaine’s jaw.  The vampire fell to the dirt and hit the cave wall hard, knocking his demonic expression back into his human face.  Bella’s eyes raged as her breathing deepened as she tried to subside the rage.  She stuck out a finger toward Blaine, warning him for the wrath of words that would soon follow.  “You didn’t do anything!  That is what you don’t get Blaine!  We followed you because we wanted to, you don’t seem to understand that!  WE killed our children!  Not just you, we all had hands in it!”

Blaine couldn’t look at Bella; he was ashamed of himself and of her at that moment.  How stupid they were, how utterly stupid they all were for going up against the council.  Bella relaxed, she forced herself to.  “There is no need to dwell on the past, like Cian always said.  We have a future to look forward to.”

Blaine scoffed, “What future?  We have only dirt and worms to look forward to now.  Maybe a rodent if we are lucky!”

Bella shrugged, throwing her arms up in the air in surrender.  “I give up!  I won’t argue or fight with you any longer Blaine.  That’s Lillian’s job now, I’ve moved on.”  Blaine got up and dusted himself off, keeping his ice blue eyes on Bella in anger.  “No Bella, you’ve moved down.  Congratulations Bella… I’ll make sure you get the brunt of my dirty work if we ever rise again.” Blaine snapped at Bella.

Bella smiled slightly, “Well at least you’ve admitted there is a chance we will rise once more, but I won’t be your slave.  I am your equal in both love and hate, evil and good, life and death… our partnership is far from over my love… my beautiful devil…” Bella trailed on, walking back into the darkness of the cave.  Her words struck a chord inside Blaine, “beautiful devil” more then anything else.  That was what Aalysha had called him upon his siring.  Blaine moved past the thought of Aalysha, she didn’t deserve to even be thought of. 

Blaine entered the darkness of the cave.  How utterly black the darkness was, it was certainly the most darkest place he’d ever venture into.  He thought of what the remaining nine of them were about to go through.  In the short time he spent with the wise Cian, Blaine was told of how the vampires of the ancient times had gone underground.  It was a gruesome and unsettling thing to do, and would only happen if a vampire was gravely injured or had no will to live.  Blaine was none of those, but most of his surviving clan members were injured.  Slash would surely give up and fall victim to his wounds if they were to travel to the United States as planned.  Torn’s mental state was almost unbelievable; the Holy Water and cross burns made the vampire a basket case.  And finally, Helious would die in a matter of hours if they didn’t do this.  His remaining limbs weak and the quick healing factor of vampirism not doing a thing to help with the open wound would take the might vampire down faster then Blaine cared to realize.

So to repair his brethren, he had to take his clan underground.  The procedure was simple enough, but during the course of the deed their bodies and minds might fall victim to the world.  To go underground is when a vampire enters the Earth like a corpse, and is buried.  The vampire falls victim to the slumber and then ceases to drink blood and lies there in its grave until it no longer have the power to resurrect itself.  And so it lies there, until the time where the dream-like states of eternal sleep become too powerful that the vampire slowly begins to feed on the creatures around it to gain enough power to rise once more.  That is what Blaine was taking his clan to do, he wondered if it was as dumb as it sounded.

As Blaine entered the largest part of the cave, the bats above him screeched out.  Their cries annoyed Blaine, he hoped that once the dreams set in that those noises wouldn’t infect him like the noises that are taken in by mortal dreams.  The rock formations of the cave astounded Blaine, so complex they were.  The cave had to have been at least millenniums old, he thought.  Around him sat Bella, Valentine, Ferris and Lill, they waited in fear by their respective holes and piles of dirt.  Blaine looked past them and walked deeper into the cave toward three graves already covered.  Simple rocks found outside on the mountain marked them.  The graves held the already slumbering Slash, Torn and Helious.  Blaine frowned, a sigh of pain exiting him suddenly.  He hoped this would work; he couldn’t bear to awaken to the sight of their rotten bodies still wounded.

Blaine tore himself away from the graves to turn to his brethren finally; they had already begun to drop themselves into the shallow graves.  He sighed once more, forcing himself to move toward them and bury them.  They were his clan members, his friends, and his family; but most of all they were his reason for living.  Blaine reached Ferris and decided that it would be best to just bury each of them without words; the less pain for either of them would be the best thing.  So, he kicked the dirt onto Ferris, then onto Valentine and then Lill.  They laid their so stiff, so scared.  But they still believed in Blaine, and that helped calm their fear.

As Blaine approached Bella, she closed her eyes.  She didn’t even care enough to look at him as he buried her there in the dirt.  But as the last part of her body disappeared in the dirt, she opened her eyes to catch Blaine’s gaze one final time.  Blaine looked away, and kicked the final heap of dirt onto Bella.  And there they were, buried and awaiting their dreams of slumber as Blaine stepped into his own grave.  He smiled, “I have to bury everyone, don’t I?” he joked with himself as he wrapped his arms around the dirt pile infront of him.  Blaine took in a deep breath, the final air he would not breathe in God knows how long. But as he fell back, taking the dirt with him, the voice of Cian played in his head once again.  “Go to the Hellmouth, in the New World.  With the Book of Rathon Mah, resurrect the curse, the plague, the entity that is Thamogron.  It will guide you back onto the path of glory, Thamogron will destroy humanity and the Earth will finally be Hell once more.  Thamogron is your destiny.”  Blaine hit the bottom of his grave; the dirt covered him as he did so.  And as the sleep began to fill his mind, the name of his destiny kept calling to him.  Thamogron, Thamogron, how Blaine yearned to rise to resurrect whatever this Thamogron was.  But the sleep overcame him, the quest faded into his mind as Blaine fell victim to the eternal slumber.

 

Present Day

Sunnydale, California

 

                Buffy’s thoughts flew around in her mind; she couldn’t let this guy get away.  She tired to think of someway to take him down but if she moved too fast or failed in any other way, she might not get another chance at Blaine.  A simple plan wouldn’t do in this situation; she had to have a plan that would for certain go right, no matter how complicated.  Buffy couldn’t very well let Blaine go without a fight that was for sure.  So she stood there, her hands up and her eyes locked with Blaine’s, as her mind clashed with itself over what to do.

                Blaine just watched Buffy confuse herself, a smile stretching across his pale face.  “Got a decision yet?  Or are you going to hope I wait here until the sun rises?” Blaine chuckled.

                Buffy sneered at Blaine in utter contempt, “That is a good plan, but no.  I’m not going to fight and loose my chance at you.  You’ve handed me one hell of a predicament.”

                “You earned every last struggle, Buffy,” he stated with a cold tone.  He blinked slowly, opening his eyes as he took action against Buffy.  Blaine came in and out of her perception, throwing Buffy off guard as his speed sent her mind spinning.  Before Buffy could strike him down or even try to regain focus on the vampire, Blaine grabbed her.  Laughing, he held onto Buffy with his arm pressing firmly across her neck while he withdrew a dagger hidden in his belt.  Buffy gasped at the sudden mess she was caught up in, trying to free herself from Blaine and struggling against his massive strength.  The moonlight flashed off the polished blade of the dagger as Blaine brought it closer to Buffy, teasing her with it.  With a grunt, Blaine drove the dagger into Buffy’s chest.  She gasped once more, the pain surging through her body as Blaine twisted the knife deeper into her heart, sealing her death.  The blood rushed from Buffy’s face and exited out the massive chest wound as her body went limp in Blaine’s embrace.  He busted out in laughter, dropping Buffy to the damp asphalt and backing away. 

Blaine stood watching the Slayer writhe in pain as his eyes glowed.  He hadn’t moved, the quick and painful battle had only been a scenario Blaine concocted to fool Buffy.  She laid there, trying to recover from her realistic yet fake death.  The glow in Blaine’s eyes receded, as did he, backing away and into the shadows of the night.  Buffy raised her head as she clutched her chest where the false deathblow had been given.  She wanted to get up; she wanted to fight Blaine, pay him back for deceiving her.

                Buffy tried to get to her feet, but fell back to the damp pavement in pain from her sore chest.  Blaine laughed at her as he moved back into the darkness, almost completely absent from view.  His laughter dried up in his throat as he disappeared, but his breathing could still be heard by Buffy.  He drew in a breath to speak, “Pain is only the beginning dear Slayer… it is only the beginning.”

 

 

Present Day

Mount Aigoual, France

 

                The sudden rush of blood into Blaine sent him clawing, trying to free himself of the dirt grave.  The dozens of years he spent in the ground came flooding back into reality as the blood of the mole he caught flooded his mouth.  Blaine remembered things as the dirt began giving way to his fierce clawing, the dirt caking into his fingernails as he panicked to be free.  Voices of visitors to the cave rang in his ears; their radio’s programs putting images into his head, and the constant voice of Cian were among his memories.  Blaine couldn’t take being in the dirt, he opened his mouth to scream but it open filled with dirt.  He needed to be free; he needed to see the world he had only dreamed of for the past years of solitude.

                “Blaine!  Blaine!” the voices of Lill and Ferris called to him from above, the sound of their voices filled his eyes with tears.  He missed them all, oh how he missed them.  He could hear them digging him free, and suddenly the warmth of the setting sun touched his skin.  It wasn’t the light, but the heat that came with the blistering sun outside.  It was a bit painful to him, but Blaine didn’t care as he jumped out of his dirt grave and onto the ground.  He was free; he had his freedom at last.

                Blaine’s eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness of the cave, it wasn’t complete blackness as it had been when he was burying the clan and himself nor the chaotic darkness the grave had been, but a lighter darkness.  He looked for faces, there was Ferris, Lill, Valentine, Bella and finally he saw Helious, Torn and Slash.  Blaine scrambled to get up and see them better, he toppled a bit but Ferris helped him to steady himself.  He stepped on dead animals as he got up, the meals his clan used to raise themselves once more.

                Blaine looked at Helious first, amazed that his left leg had repaired itself to perfection.  The right leg was still missing, but had healed.  He grinned, at least Helious was still alive.  Next he saw Torn, her health in tack as well as imagined, but was her sanity saved?  Blaine asked himself that question while he spoke out, dirt flying from his mouth as he talked.  “Are you all right?”

                Torn nodded, “I’m all right…” she said.  Torn smiled, looking at Blaine again with sane eyes was worth the years of silence and coldness.

                Blaine turned to Slash, his wounds also healed.  He was overcome with joy as he saw the remainders of his clan back to full health.  “You don’t know how this makes me feel… we are all healed… that is just beyond belief in some of your cases.” Blaine stated, looking at Helious.

                Helious nodded, “I can live with one leg… it’s living at least.” Helious sighed as Bella went to him and put a hand on his shoulder. 

                Lill came forward, sadness in her face.  Blaine cocked an eyebrow at her, “What is the matter?”

                Lill pointed to a heap of dust near a rock, “Cian… he was here…” she trailed off in disbelievement.

                Blaine’s jaw dropped, “How could that be?  How could he have survived the attack?”  Old emotional wounds opened within Blaine at that moment, “Oh if only I hadn’t collapsed…” Blaine said, stepping away from the others in horror.  “He could have gone underground!  If he was here, and if I heard what I heard he could have gone underground!”

                Blaine’s rants got to Bella, she stepped forward with a finger drawn and pointed at Blaine’s throat.  “He was too proud to do that!  I heard him in my dreams!  He told me, he told all of us, that he wanted us to lead the end of humanity.  He said it was his time, he wanted to die!  He wanted to end his suffering!”

                Blaine lunged at Bella in anger, but Lill and Ferris caught him and held the raging Blaine back away from Bella.  “He could have gone underground!  He could have made him better!  It was braver then falling victim to death!”

                This time, Bella lunged at Blaine.  Her demonic face came to the surface as she roared, “He was brave!  Brave enough to admit defeat!  Braver then you!”

                Blaine threw back Lill and Ferris as he moved away from Bella, refusing to fight.  “I can’t fight with you Bella, not now!  We can resume this at the Hellmouth…” he trailed off in thought, the old quest Cian had mentioned before he fell victim to the dreams was reborn in his mind.

                Helious rose, balancing himself on his good leg.  “You heard Cian talk about Thamogron as well?”

                Bella locked her hateful eyes on Blaine, “We all did… and we all want to do what Cian asks, right?”

                Blaine looked at Bella and nodded, “We have to get to the Hellmouth… in the New World, the United States.  Cian wanted us to bring humanity down and he believes this Thamogron can do it.  So we agree… we go?”  The clan nodded, and brought a grin to Blaine’s face that so eagerly yearned for it.  He laughed, “Good thing we’ll be traveling light…”

 

 

 

 

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