Camp KillalotBy Karen
Dawn shifted uneasily from foot to foot and rolled her shoulders back trying to ease the ache in her lower back. They had been standing in the cabin facing the vampires for over ten minutes now and still neither side had moved. She glanced at Connor out of the side of her eye and saw he was looking just as puzzled as she was"Erm, guys? I hate to ruin the whole menace moment you got going on, but do you think there's any chance we could pick things up a little? Cos', you know, starting to get a little crampy."
Dawn shrugged apologetically and tried hard to look as harmless and as innocent as she possibly could.
"You killed the others."
She couldn't stop the flicker of a guilty look that crossed her face
"Well, sorta. They tried to kill us first!"
Oh nice, Dawn. Real mature!
Connor cleared his throat and entered the discussion
"Let the human go. We dropped our weapons and we cannot harm you."
The vamp holding Ken flexed his hand slightly drawing a strangled whimper from his hostage and aimed a level look at the two teens
"I don't think so. I think you could still do considerable damage even without your little sword."
Dawn waved a hand through the air
"What, us? Nah, got lucky with the shiny stuff. Totally helpless now."
She beamed another innocent smile at him whilst Connor tried very hard not to look too annoyed at the description of his preferred weapon. The vampire shook his head
"No, I don't think so. Something doesn't smell right about you. What are you?"
The two teenagers both glanced at the group of terrified humans who were herded against the wall of the cabin and shifted uneasily. Dawn felt a slow flush start to creep up her neck
"Do you think we should be talking about this in front of the...mmmphf?"
She jerked her head towards the boys and the vampire looked amused for a moment
"What? Oh, the sacrifices? Oh, they'll be dead soon enough don't worry."
A chorus of frightened protests rang out at his words but two of the vampire henchmen bared their fangs and did the glowy thing with their eyes and the boys shrank back against the wall once more.
The leader tightened his grip around Ken's throat again and forced the boy to move a few steps forward
"Tell me who you are or I rip the throat out of this one right now."
There was another swift exchange of glances between Connor and Dawn and then the young girl said petulantly
"Oh fine. Miracle Child aka The Destroyer, The Key aka the Slayer's sister. Happy now?"
She folded her arms and glared defiantly at the vampires and Connor scowled at the floor feeling a slow blush start
"The Destroyer would have been fine. Did you have to bring up the Miracle Child thing?"
Dawn turned to face him angrily
"Excuse me, Sir Broodalot Jr? Did you say something?"
Connor's frown deepened
"Don't speak to me like that. You are such a bitch sometimes. It's all your fault we're in this mess. God, you're just like your sister."
Dawn gasped in outrage
"What? Don't you dare say anything about my sister! She saves the world, like, all the time. How many times has your old man tried to end it now?"
Connor placed a hand on her shoulder and shoved her back a pace
"My father is decent and honourable. At least he cares more about other people than he does about, oh, shoes!"
Dawn's eyes flashed angrily
"What, so it's a crime to look good now? Well, it must be considering what your Dad wears. Can we say bland?"
Connor shoved her again, harder this time
"Watch your mouth, girl. I'm about to die because of you." "No. You're about to die because I'm going to kill you!"
Dawn leapt at Connor hands outstretched in two claws and closed them around his throat. He fell back and flipped her over his head so she landed on one of the beds and then jumped to his feet
"You even fight like the Slayer. Badly."
Dawn screeched with rage and scrambled to her feet on the bed and then launched at her tormentor. Connor took a step back and braced himself and then, as their hands connected with a solid smack, spun and threw her with all his might into the vampires behind them. He stooped and snatched up their fallen weapons and then followed his companion pausing briefly to snatch Ken up from where he lay in a dazed heap on the floor and throw him to temporary safety with the other boys.
Dawn fought to free herself from the tangled, and seriously pissed, heap of vampires she'd crashed into and desperately tried to draw some air into her winded body. She wheezed as a vampire grabbed her by the throat and, snarling, leaned in to rip her throat out with discoloured fangs. She pushed desperately against his chest with weakened arms and then suddenly was blinded by an explosion of ash. She spluttered as some of it went into her mouth and then was lifted to her feet and pushed to the side.
Connor paused to make sure that Dawn was safe for the time being and then went into overdrive to cull the vampires before they overwhelmed him in the small space. He thrust back with his sword and managed to nick on vamp on the side of the neck but unfortunately the vamp moved too quickly and decapitation just wasn't an option.
"Dawn, stakes!"
Dawn pushed away from the wall and her gaze fell on a wooden chair. She ducked and rolled under the arms of a vampire and came neatly up by the chair. As she stood she took a firm hold of the seat and whacked it into another vampire's face and then carried the swing around so it smashed into the wall. Two legs and the seat fell to the floor and she tossed the chair back aside and snatched up the two jagged bits of wood jumping into the fray once more. Connor was backed into a corner with four vampires snarling and pressing too closely to allow the boy any room to do any damage with his sword, Dawn took a step back as the vampire she had hit with the chair reared up before her once more and then she slammed the stake home into his chest. Without pausing she ran through his ashes and raised her stake once more to take out another vampire from behind.
Connor laughed as the three remaining vampires turned to meet the new threat. He simultaneously swung his sword to finish the job on the vampire he had nicked earlier and reached out to Dawn for the other stake. The wood slapped into his palm with comforting familiarity and he dropped his sword on the floor and smiled at the girl with midnight hair and sky blue eyes
"I think we should do this the old fashioned way, don't you?"
Dawn ran a hand over her hair and grimaced as a small avalanche of vamp dust fell out
"Uh-huh. God, will you look at the state of me. I bet I just look like a total skank, huh?"
Connor kept a weather eye on the two nervous vampires and said with sincerity
"You look beautiful."
Dawn stared at him for a moment and then smiled shyly feeling a blush steal up over her cheeks. Connor smiled back and then his voice hardened
"Right, you tell us everything you know and we'll kill you quickly."
The ex-leader of the little clique snarled deep in his throat
"We'll tell you nothing. The master will come and he will rend you limb from limb. You will die screaming and drowning in your own blood. Your eyes ripped from..."
He stopped suddenly and looked down to see Dawn's hand, attached to her stake, protruding from his chest
"I believe I mentioned I'm the Slayer's sister? Your master can kiss my ass."
He exploded in a cloud of ash and Connor sighted on the last remaining vampire as he made a break for the door and flipped the stake end over end to thud into the demon's back. There was another explosion of ash and then the room was silent. The two teenagers relaxed slightly and grinned at each other in relief
"Well, that was fun."
Dawn stretched and glanced over at the boys on the floor who shrank back at her quick appraisal
"It's alright you're safe now."
She rolled her eyes as they looked anything but comforted and turned back to Connor
"I can't believe they fell for that routine! Don't they watch Abbott and Costello? How lame was that?" "Who's Abbott and Costello?"
Dawn grinned and brushed some dust from his shoulder saying
"Oh that's right. You grew up without the benefit of Xander and Spike huh? They were two old guys who used to get in all these stupid situations and then they'd pretend to fight each other and then hit the bad guys when they were all confused."
Connor looked at her blankly
"Never mind. I'll show you later." She turned to the other teenagers in the room
"Everyone get your shoes on and prepare to leave. We're taking you somewhere safe. Ken, get your laptop."
The blonde boy scrambled from the floor and headed for his bedside cabinet whilst Connor's earlier nemesis, Taylor, stood and said shakily
"Why should we do what you say? You'll get us all killed."
Dawn looked at him and then turned to Connor
"You take this one. I'm going to make sure we're clear to leave."
Connor waited until she left the room and then turned back to the boys with a cold smile
"You will do what she says because otherwise I'll hurt you. Badly."
Taylor shook his head some of his old bravado coming back to him
"Look, man. I don't really care whatever weird ass, role-playing, dungeons and dragons thing you got going on but I ain't falling for it. I don't know how you made those guys disappear like that but I'm gonna find out. Now, I'm going to bed and in the morning, Miracle Boy, I'm reporting you and your little Xena-ho to the camp leaders."
Connor glared as Taylor stalked past him and quickly raised his sword and brought the hilt down with a sharp crack on the back of the boys skull. The taller boy dropped like a stone and Connor spared one, brief glance
"That's Miracle Child to you. Idiot."
He looked up at the remaining boys
"All of you do as she says or the next person I have to persuade loses a hand."
He stepped back as there was a sudden frantic rush to get past him and to their footwear and then winced as Dawn walked in and got a look at Taylor on the floor
"What happened to him?"
Connor shifted guiltily under her suspicious eyes
"He tripped?"
Dawn snorted
"Right. Do I look like an idiot to you?"
Connor wisely kept his mouth shut and Dawn flashed a wide grin at him
"Good answer. Ok, a couple of you roll him in a sheet and carry him. It's all clear outside, let's go."
Forty minutes later they had delivered the boys and another cabin full of girls to the sewer access where they'd stashed Marcie and were crouched in a small sub-office over Ken's laptop whilst he typed a brief message to Buffy and the gang. Dawn smiled as she looked at the words on the screen and watched them disappear as Ken pressed send
Camp sucks. Need back up. Call Angel.
"Well, that ought to make things interesting."
Connor smiled back at her
"Ten bucks says my Dad will get here first."
Dawn snorted and held her hand out to take the bet
"Please, I live with Spike for god's sake. Angel will be eating his dust."
They shook and turned to Ken as he put away his laptop. Connor smiled
"Thank you. We have to go now. Stay here and stay hidden and we will come back for you."
Ken looked around himself nervously
"But what if those things come in here?"
Connor held the door open for Dawn and she swept through it with a last cheery wave at the other boy. The Destroyer grinned back at his new friend as he turned to follow her
"They won't. They'll have bigger problems."
The door swung shut behind him and Ken stared at it for a moment or two before crouching back down on the floor and tucking under the desk
"I hope you're right."