Camp KillalotBy Karen
Dawn crouched low behind the wheel of the jeep and turned her head to look at Connor in the vehicle's bed"Are you sure about this?"
Connor grinned rakishly and Dawn found herself returning the smile as his eyes sparkled in the moonlight
"I used to do this all the time in Quor'toth. Besides, I've seen Charlton Heston."
Dawn's smile slipped a notch
"What?"
Connor gripped the lasso in his hands and flexed his shoulders
"I watched Charlton Heston with my dad. He does this all the time." "With cows!"
The teenager shrugged
"Demons, cows, what's the difference?"
Dawn opened her mouth and then closed it and Connor grinned again
"Don't worry. Just switch the lights on to high and floor the gas and leave the rest to me."
Dawn raised her eyebrows and turned back to face the wheel in resignation
"Ok, but if you snag a tree by mistake I'm out of here."
She placed her hand over the ignition and braced the other over the lights. Connor waited a couple of beats and then
"Now!"
Dawn turned the key and slapped the lights onto full beam, stamping on the gas pedal simultaneously. The jeep leaped forward towards the demons and humans caught in the glare of the headlights. Dawn heard Connor laugh exuberantly behind her as they sped over the uneven ground and then they buzzed the edge of the uneven circle and Connor reared up and threw the coiled rope out in one fluid motion
"Mark!"
Dawn spun the wheel at Connor's shout and veered off sharply to the left speeding away from the furious bellows and shouts behind them. She pressed her foot more firmly to the floor and felt the jeep resist slightly and then it jumped forward once more towing a furious demon behind it. She made for the side of the boating shed and fishtailed the jeep to a standstill jumping out before the engine died to run to Connor's side as he hauled their enraged prisoner in and up to his feet like a massive fish. She snatched their axe and sword from the jeep bed and handed the sword to Connor as he finished tying the rest of the rope around the struggling demon
"Nice work." "It's all in the wrist action."
Dawn laughed and then placed her axe to the demon's throats as its friends ran screaming towards them
"Back away or we off tall, dark and dusty."
The demons came to a ragged halt before them and spread out into a loose semi-circle around them and a tall, Eurasian vampire spat
"Release him."
Connor grinned
"I don't think so. Let the humans go and we'll talk turkey."
Dawn slanted a confused look at him from the corner of her eye
"We'll talk what?" "Turkey. We'll talk turkey. They say that in all the films"
Dawn sniggered
"Uh-huh. In what century?"
Connor pouted
"Cordelia watches films and they all say that."
Dawn grinned in realisation, well aware of Cordelia's obsession with old black and white film noirs
"Gotcha, Bogart. Continue."
Connor sighed irritably
"Let the hostages go and we release the demon."
The vampire stared round at his friends and then back at the humans who were still under the cold eyes of the remainder of his compatriots
"Or we could just rush you and risk his death."
Dawn nodded in agreement and said coolly
"Yup, you could do that. But who do you think has been killing off your little buddies tonight? You'll get us in the end but I'm betting you'll lose a lot of people trying."
The demon Connor held twisted sharply in the boy's grasp
"You are children! You could not have been the cause of the resistance."
Dawn and Connor exchanged smug grins and then Connor said in a voice filled with satisfaction
"I believe we forgot to introduce ourselves. My name is Connor and my parents are Angelus and Darla."
His grin widened as a ripple of unease went through the demons and continued
"This is Dawn. Her sister is Buffy. The Vampire Slayer."
Dawn gave a friendly smiled at the now distinctly nervous demons
"And my adopted dad is Spike. Anyone here heard of him?"
A vampire to her right backed up a step
"Oh shit!"
Dawn nodded at the horrified look on the demon's face
"Yep, that Spike. He's on his way here right now so if you want to live to see another sunset I'd make a run for it. Trust me, he is not going to be pleased."
The vampire who had done all the talking so far sneered disparagingly
"You think you can scare us with threats little girl? We know that no one has contacted anyone on the outside. We cut all the lines and jammed cell phone signals, no one is riding to your rescue."
Dawn scowled and snapped back
"First of all, I don't need anyone riding to my rescue and secondly, you forgot to take out the ISBN lines. We e-mailed them."
She sniffed and stared into his eyes defiantly
"Dumbass."
This time the ripple was more like a tidal wave of fear as the demons assimilated the fact that two master vampires and a Slayer were on their way. Connor pulled sharply against the demon he held captive and snarled
"Let the humans go and we'll discuss terms. If you don't then when my father gets here I cannot guarantee your lives will be spared."
The bound demon twisted again
"Fools! Angelus will not spare your lives! Kill the children and I will raise our master and the vampires will tremble before his might."
Dawn clubbed the demon casually round the head with the handle of her axe
"Yeah, can't tell you how many times we've heard that. Have you met our fathers? Cos' there's not a whole lot o' shakin' going on there."
She let her gaze rove over the demons grouped before her and said coldly
"We've killed gods, ancient vamps, demons and annihilated demon dimensions. What makes you think we'll have any trouble with the second rate operation you have going here?"
For added emphasis she pressed the blade of her axe against the demon's throat and ground it in until blood ran down his neck
"Your exalted leader, priest, whatever, dies in three seconds unless the sacrifices are set free."
She pressed the blade more firmly against the ebony flesh and said slowly
"One."
The Halfway Point.
The van screeched to a halt beside a black convertible and a beat up truck and Spike stuck his head out of the window
"Poof, stop sitting around on your big fat arse and get it in gear."
With a squeal of tyres and a protesting grinding from the engine the van took off again leaving Angel and Cordelia staring through the windshield at the dwindling taillights. Cordy rolled her eyes and pulled her seat belt around her as Angel snarled and crushed the gas pedal to the floor, throwing her back in her seat
"It's nice you've both mellowed and grown as people."
Angel's eyes flashed gold in the dark and Cordelia continued without missing a beat
"Or not."
She took a firm grip on the door handle and resigned herself to a terrifying hour of her very own version of the Wacky Races, vampire style.
Camp Kitchaka.
"Two."
The oriental vampire stared for a long moment into Dawn's eyes and then snapped
"Release them!"
Dawn nodded as the demons guarding the counsellors abruptly sliced through their bonds and hauled them to their feet shoving them brutally forward so they stumbled uncertainly over the grass.
"Good choice."
Connor recognised the man who had welcomed him to the camp a few short hours before and had introduced himself as Gary, the head counsellor
"Run!"
The man shook his head and trembled visibly and Connor groaned and shouted again
"Run, they won't hurt you. Lead the others into the trees and hide. Go now!"
Another counsellor stepped forward and took the man's arm. The young woman turned a frightened face to the demons surrounding them
"They'll kill us!"
Dawn groaned and snapped
"No, they won't. Go. Quickly."
The pair took a couple of hesitant steps towards the trees and, when they met no opposition, broke into a stumbling run. The rest of the humans followed apart from one young man who called nervously
"What about you? We can't leave you here."
Connor nodded and said firmly
"Yes you can. Get the others to safety and don't look back."
He paused for a moment and looked around at the demon's closing in around them
"Whatever you hear, keep running and don't look back. Go!"
The man stared at them for another moment and then abruptly turned and ran into the trees and then Dawn and Connor were alone with the demons. Dawn cocked her head as the screams from the people in the boathouse intensified as those looking out of the window saw the demons pressing closer
"Wanna let these ones go too?"
The demons snarled as one and she shrugged
"Didn't think so. Connor!"
Angel's son abruptly let go of his captive as Dawn pulled her axe back and soundly decapitated the demon. Connor gave the corpse a push as the head fell back and the rest of the body fell forward. Dawn gave a look of fake horror and pouted innocently
"Ooops!"
The demons stared in amazement at the body on the floor and then as one roared with bloodlust and anger and leapt forward. Connor threw a quick look at Dawn as they threw themselves to opposite sides and shouted
"Be careful!"
The last thing he heard before the screams of the dying and ringing of weapons filled his ears was her laugh as she went forward to meet the enemy.