Here We Come To Save The DayBy Karen
Chapter Three“Druscilla.”
Dawn jumped off her stool and in front of Connor as the black haired vampiress reached out one white hand towards the uncomprehending boy. Dawn struck out at the hand and growled a single vicious word
“Mine!”
Druscilla snarled and just for an instant her demon face flickered across the human one and then she spoke in the singsong voice that always made Dawn’s hackles rise
“Little girl, little girl, all bad. I will be very cross if I cannot have him.”
Dawn planted her feet even more firmly and looked unimpressed
“No, you’ll be a big cloud of dust if you don’t back the hell off.”
Connor leaned in and whispered
“Who is she?”
Druscilla swayed closer and whispered
“Your big sister and I’ll wrap you up and keep you warm and feed you every day.”
Connor eyed her warily and gave an unsure smile
“Uh….thanks?”
“I’ve never had a baby brother. I had sisters but Daddy ate them all up, just like the big, bad wolf. Chomp, chomp!”
She clapped her hands together and closed her eyes as she continued to sway
“Their screams filled my head for days, all bright and tingly.”
Connor looked at Dawn in startled horror
“Who ate what?”
Dawn kept one eye on Dru and half turned so she could see him out of the other one
“Angelus killed her family and turned her. She’s his childe and Spike’s sire.”
She turned back to Druscilla and said in disgust
“Which would make her my grandmother as Spike’s claimed me as his kid.”
Druscilla’s eyes snapped open
“William has claimed you, little girl?”
Dawn nodded sharply
“Yeah and, for the record, he prefers Spike. Jeez, anyone else would get to lock their batty relatives in an attic or in a care home but not me, oh no, mine run around coming on to teenage boys and biting people.”
She placed her hands on her hips and moved to block Druscilla as the crazed woman swayed towards Connor again
“And speaking of locking people up…..what the hell have you done with Spike and the others? Where are they?”
Druscilla began to keen at the forceful tone and clutched at her hair
“Little girls should be seen and not heard. Bad girl, I shall have to punish you. I’ll lock you in your room and give you only water and stale bread and you shall be nicer to your granny and give me kisses.”
Dawn raised an eyebrow
“Don’t count on it.”
She glanced back at Connor as he shifted uneasily and eyed Druscilla with trepidation
“Is she souled?”
“Nope, nuttier than your average bag of peanuts, but not souled.”
Connor flexed his arm and a stake appeared in his hand
“Then we should kill it and move on.”
Dawn winced as Druscilla began to wail again
“Whoa there, Lone Ranger, we need to find out where the others are first. Dru. DRU!”
The wailing cut off immediately and the vampire stared at them with a mixture of cunning and deep hurt
“Bad children.”
She raked sharp blood red nails through the air and hissed like a cat. Dawn scowled, hissed back and spat
“Oh cut the crap Dru, I never bought into the whole broken bird act you got going on. Where’s Spike and my sister?”
The vampires looked startled and smiled winningly at Connor as she said
“William and the Slayer gone and left the shiny little girl? Are you all alone children? Do you want to come and play with Miss Edith and me and learn to be bad doggies? Ruff!”
Dawn wrinkled her nose
“Eww, and also, NO! Dru, tell us where they are or I swear I’ll kick your skinny, British ass all the way to hell.”
Druscilla straightened up and for the first time looked at Dawn with no trace of her usual naïve expression
“You shouldn’t talk to me like that. I could get very angry.”
Connor stepped up and stood shoulder to shoulder with his girlfriend
“What a coincidence, so could we. Where have you taken my father?”
Druscilla frowned
“Daddy? Have you lost Daddy? How very careless.”
The two teenagers exchanged looks and Dawn said carefully
“Dru, haven’t you seen them?”
The taller woman began to sway again and pluck nervously at her habitual long white dress
“I lost Daddy and I couldn’t find him again. He came back and then the nasty soul came and made him go away again.”
Dawn nodded soothingly
“I know Dru, but have you seen Daddy recently? Like, oh I don’t know, chained up in a nasty basement somewhere?”
Druscilla shook her head and her eyes widened until they dominated her face
“Daddy’s gone, he came and he made the fire come and then he went away and he was lost. I tried to find him but he was gone.”
Dawn sighed
“I know the feeling.”
Somewhere dark and getting steadily damper.
“Peaches, can you see anything?”
“No.”
“Doesn’t that strike you as a bit odd? Us being vampires and Creatures of the Night and all?”
“I’m thinking magic restraints, subduing any special powers.”
Pause.
“Crap.”
“And don’t call me Peaches.”
“Wanker.”
“Or that.”
Willie’s Bar.
“Hey, where’d all the demons go?”
Connor stared around at the now empty bar
“We came in and there were demons and you talked to the little greasy guy…”
“Hey!”
Dawn glanced briefly at the bar when the faint protest sounded and then back at Connor as he continued
“And then I dusted the demons and now there’s no-one here.”
He scowled
“Where’d everybody go?”
Dawn and Druscilla looked at the empty bar and saw several overturned chairs and abandoned drinks. Dawn shrugged
“No idea.”
Dru smiled
“Maybe they know where our Daddy is and they’ve gone to fetch him and make him ours again.”
Connor shook his head and muttered
“Sure, I just bet that’s what they’re doing.”
He rapped sharply on the sticky bar top with his axe, ignoring the whimper from beneath it, and then wiped the blade with a disgusted expression on his face
“Hey, Billy, where did they go?”
“It’s Willie!”
Connor leaned over the bar and reached down with one strong arm and dragged the protesting bartender out from his hidey hole saying grimly
“It’ll be Man-with-no-head in a minute if you don’t answer my question.”
The little man flinched at the look in the boy’s eye and twisted free off the grip on the back of the shirt. Connor stood back and folded his arms across his chest, making sure he emphasized his well-developed biceps. Willie swallowed nervously and said
“They split as soon as you said who you were. Your old man and the Slayer used to come in here a lot back in the day and for a lot of the demons in this town you two hooking up will be like ‘Our Worst Nightmare: The Next Generation’.”
He swallowed again
“You aren’t gonna trash the place are you?”
Dawn raised an eyebrow and glanced pointedly around her
“D’you think anyone will notice?”
She turned as she sensed Dru move behind her and reach out to Connor once more
“Hold it right there, Insanity Sam. You lay one undead finger on him and I’ll make you eat it. He’s mine.”
Dru stopped and stared intently into Dawn’s eyes
“I could snap you and suck the marrow from your bones, little girl. I’ll make you scream so prettily.”
Dawn pushed her face up into Dru’s and said scathingly
“And I could turn you into kitty litter, bring it on.”
Connor stepped forward hurriedly and said
“She could help us.”
Dawn’s jaw dropped and she turned her face to him in disbelief
“Excuse me? She’s evil. And Insane!”
Connor nodded and drew her resisting to his side keeping a wary eye on Druscilla
“I know but my father said once that he could sense when Spike was near. Because he’s his childe.”
Dawn frowned
“Well, technically Dru sired Spike but go on.”
She watched out of the corner of her eye as Druscilla began to sway on the spot again, smiling sweetly at the earnest Connor as he continued
“Exactly. If the connection’s that strong between Spike and Dad then surely they’ll be a more intense bond between him and Priscilla.”
Dru stopped swaying abruptly and snapped in annoyance
“Druscilla!”
Connor spared her a quick glance
“Whatever.”
Dawn grinned at the expression on the vampire’s face and said slowly
“You might have something there.”
She turned to face the other woman again
“What do you say to a truce? You help us find your Daddy and we don’t stake you on the spot.”
Druscilla smiled beatifically
“Daddy? I can see my Daddy again?”
Connor exchanged a glance with Dawn and shrugged
“Yeah, but you have to come with us and help look. Daddy’s hiding.”
Druscilla giggled and hid her face behind her fingers
“Peek-a-boo, I see you.”
“Yeah. Anyway….”
Dawn rolled her eyes and turned back to where she left Willie moments before only to find the little man missing. She looked to the door and scowled
“Who said you could leave? Get back here.”
Willie yelped and jumped as he made a panicked dash for the door and freedom. Connor grinned and sighted with his axe and then with a quick movement sent it flying to smash into the doorframe an inch away from the man’s nose.
“We still have some questions that need answering”
Willie turned his white face towards them and trembled as all three walked towards him. Connor reached past him and pulled his axe from the wall and flung a friendly arm around the smaller man’s shaking shoulders
“Let’s talk.”
Willie stared into the smiling blue eyes above him and moaned.