Camp Killalot

By Karen

Sunnydale.

Spike leaned over Willow's shoulder in the Magic Box and pointed helpfully to the corner of her laptop screen

"Hey Red. You've got mail."

Willow gave him a strained smile and wished, for the thousandth time, the world's newest souled vampire would go away and kill something already.

"I know, Spike. But I have to get this information for Giles and I don't know how long I can keep this link to City Hall without them tracing me and booting me off."

Spike frowned

"Might be important. Better check it out."

Willow clenched her teeth and hissed

"I will! DARN IT!"

Spike snickered as her screen abruptly went blank and then arranged his face to show sympathetic annoyance when the ex-witch swung round in her seat to glare at him. She held his gaze for a moment longer and then flounced up and stomped off to find the Slayer to rant about the blonde's dubious taste in boyfriends. Spike grinned after her and called cheerily

"Ok, then? I'll just have a quick squint at the mail shall I?"

He dropped into the warmed seat and accessed the e-mail with a grin. Research night was hell for him and he took every opportunity he could to annoy the Scoobs into bringing the sessions to a premature end. The smile faded from his face as his brain assimilated the words his eyes were reading on the screen and he threw back his head

"SLAYER! GET OUT HERE!"

Camp Kitchaka.

Dawn crouched on the low branch and watched the line of sobbing teenagers pass below her. From what she could see they were all stumbling along in their night clothes and had their hands tied behind their back and were linked by a further rope to prevent anyone making a break into the surrounding woodland. She tilted her head and met Connor's eyes as he stood perched on the branch above her and they shared a long silent look. The boy's eyebrow lifted in a pure Spike quirk and Dawn grinned at the familiarity of the gesture and nodded. She turned her head to look below her once more and then as the last of the teenagers passed under her and the two vampire guards at the rear came into view she threw a wide grin at Connor and dropped like a stone.

Connor sighed in pure admiration at the devil may care grin vanishing in the darkness and then sniggered as he heard a thump and two pained yells come from Dawn's victims. He stepped off his branch and followed her down in time to see one vampire receive a stake through the chest and the other a solid kick to the jaw. He rolled as he hit the floor and came up level with the second vampire to strike and slam his own stake into it's back. Dawn grinned again and then took off along the line of teenagers ignoring the pleading and screams from the helpless people. Connor felt his heart rate pick up as the familiar thrill of the chase and the hunt swept over him and then he ran along the line parallel to Dawn racing to meet the vampires that ran snarling to meet their attack.

He ducked the grasping hand that reached for him and staked the vampire briskly and then without pausing continued through the explosion of ash straight into the next one. The momentum of his run took them both to the ground and Connor grunted as another vampire fell on top of him unable to check his own pace. He placed both hands on the ground and pushed upwards sharply flinging the demon on top of him into the frantically screaming teenagers and then punched the vampire beneath him squarely on the jaw. As the demon's face snapped to the side Connor flipped his stake up and then, snatching it from the air, brought it down with a solid thump into the vampire's chest. He was up and moving before the inevitable disintegration and bringing his sword round in a smooth arc to take his other vampire adversary by surprise. He smirked again at the look on the vampire's face as his head left his neck and paused for a moment to take stock as the ashes floated to the ground.

Roughly twenty young people stood panicking before him and from the quick sweep he gave them all seemed frightened but unharmed. He looked quickly up and down the line but no more demons seemed to be appearing on his side and so he took a few quick steps back and then ran and jumped high over the terrorised heads before him to come down squarely between Dawn and the last two remaining demons. He threw a quick look at the girl and his eyes clouded with concern and anger as he saw a deep gash on her cheek

"Are you alright?"

Dawn nodded and pivoted smoothly to avoid a wild rush from a large blonde vampire. As she did so Connor caught a glimpse of another wound on her back and then it disappeared from view as she dropped onto her hands and kicked out taking the vampire's legs from under it. She rolled and reared above the demon; mercilessly bringing down her axe to sever it's head.

Connor leaped forward as the last remaining vampire, a female, jumped into the air and spun with the clear intention of kicking Dawn into dreamland. He stood between Dawn and the snarling demon and calmly skewered the beast on his sword. He staggered back slightly from the weight and then allowed his arm to drop and pushed forward once again pinning the former woman to the floor. The vampire screamed as the sword was yanked out of her chest and then her head was sliced from her body and her ashes settling onto the floor before the sound died away.

Ignoring the would-be sacrifices for the moment, the boy rushed forward and sank to his knees beside his wounded friend

"Are you alright?"

He turned her face up to the moonlight and was relieved to see the cut wasn't as deep as he first thought. Dawn pulled her face from his grasp and said impatiently

"Connor, I said I'm fine. Let's go. We need to get these people somewhere safe."

She gasped as he completely ignored her and yanked her forward so she half lay face down on his lap and began to examine the cut on her shoulder

"What are you doing? Get off me!"

She tried to push herself up and gasped again as her head was shoved unceremoniously down once more

"Connor, stop that!"

She felt a fiery blush flood over her entire body as her jammie top was pulled up and his hand ran softly over her skin

"Connor!"

Her outraged squeal finally penetrated his panicked mind and he let her go abruptly. Dawn sat up and glared at him as she yanked her top back down

"What the hell were you doing?"

He stared back at her with nervous eyes

"I..I..you're hurt. Bleeding!"

Dawn climbed to her feet and snapped

"I'm from Sunnydale. I'm always bleeding!"

She pushed her hair back from her face and glared at him as he stood up and faced her

"I'm sorry. I thought that..."

He trailed off and Dawn raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms impatiently

"I thought that..."

His temper snapped as her foot began to tap on the grassy floor

"You were injured, I was trying to help!" "What, by undressing me? Bleeding to death wasn't quite cuttin' it? You wanted to make sure I got pneumonia too?"

Connor scowled and crossed his own arms and Dawn swore for a moment she was looking at Angel

"Don't be a child." "Hah! Me, a child? Better than a perv!"

Connor frowned. He had no idea what a perv was but from the contemptuous tone of her voice it wasn't good

"I am not a perv! You're being stupid..."

He knew immediately that was the wrong thing to say. Over a year of knowing Cordelia Chase and he still had failed to learn the most important thing when arguing with a woman.

Never, ever, call her stupid.

All rationality and reason fly out the window and Hurricane Bitch pays a visit. He winced involuntarily as her eyes bulged and her face turned a dark red as all the blood rushed to her head

"Stupid? Stupid!!?"

Connor remembered his Dad the last time he had pissed Cordy off and the hang dog look of resignation on his face as the small woman had practically exploded all over the lobby floor and his father's almost silent whisper echoed in his mind

Oh crap.

LA

"Good evening, Angel Investigations. We help the helpless, how can we help you?"

Cordelia kept one eye on the magazine before her as she spoke into the phone. She would look so cute in those pants. Her eyes widened as she recognised the voice on the other end of the phone

"Buffy? What's up?"

She listened in silence for a few moments and then unknowingly echoed her stepson

"Oh crap. Connor's there. We dropped him off this morning."

Her eyebrows rose as she listened to the furious voice on the other end of the phone and her voice contained just a touch of the old Queen C as she snapped back

"Oh excuse me. I didn't realise we had to check every decision we make with you. God forbid we decide something for our own son without running it by the Chosen One first."

There was a silence from the phone and then Cordelia sagged

"I'm sorry, Buffy. That was out of line."

She listened to the Slayer as she spoke and smiled thinly

"Yeah, I know. I 'm scared too. I'll tell Angel and call you back, 'k?"

She replaced the receiver on the phone hook and took several deep breaths to calm her frantically beating heart and then stood. She walked out from behind the desk and took measured steps across the floor that gradually picked up in pace until she was racing past a startled Fred and Gunn and flying up the stairs.

"Angel!"

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