Here We Come To Save The DayBy Karen
Chapter FourDawn glared at Willie as he finally stopped talking and then exchanged a grim glance with Connor. The boy stared back silently and gave an almost unnoticeable shrug
Beats Me
Dawn switched her gaze back to Willie and said in a low, dangerous voice
"Let me get this straight. A demon, who you've never seen before and couldn't describe, came in here earlier tonight and calmly announced he needed muscle for a raid on the Bronze and the Slayer was no longer a problem."
Willie glanced up and met her eyes, gave a frightened whimper at their _expression and nodded frantically
"Then he swept out and took half your customers with him, leaving the rest to throw a big party and basically plan fun times for all on the streets tonight."
The little man whimpered again and began to tremble violently
"And you just carried on serving the drinks and didn't think that it might be a good idea to find one of us?"
Willie looked up with an _expression of outraged dignity on his face
"Hey, I protect my clients interests ok? What they tell me and what I hear in here is in the strictest confidence and I don't go around blowing my….mouth……off."
He quailed under the furious looks the two teenagers gave him and muttered quietly
"Well, I don't."
Dawn started as Druscilla popped up over Willie's shoulder and licked a cold, wet trail up the terrified man's neck
"I could make him sing like a birdie and cry for his mummy. Would you like that, little man? The colours are so bright in the sky and they make your fear look so pretty."
"Druscilla stop that!"The vampiress hissed at Dawn's sharp command and raked her nails through the air and Willie gave a tremulous smile
"Thank you."
Dawn gave him a disgusted look and said scathingly
"Don't build your part up, rodent boy. I just don't want her to catch anything."
She turned to Connor
"I'm thinking our next step is to get to the Bronze. We need to find that demon."
Connor nodded and pushed back his chair to stand up and heft his sword over his shoulder and gestured at Willie
"Ok, what do we do with him?"
Druscilla floated around the table and rubbed her cheek against his shoulder, ignoring his wince of distaste to whisper
"I could snap his neck for you, little brother. Would you like it if I got you a floppy dolly? We could take him to meet Miss Edith and have a tea party and then we could play with the shiny, little girl."
Connor frowned and took a couple of steps away
"Thanks, but I don't think we've got time. Maybe we could just tie him up?"
Dawn nodded and grabbed Willie, pulling him to his feet
"I'll put him out back. Dru, get a grip. I told you he was mine, back off!"
She gave the demon a final glare and dragged the protesting barkeep out to his stock room. Connor stared at Druscilla as she stood staring at him and was reminded uncomfortably of a snake he had seen in the animal park he and Fred had visited once. He was fairly sure that the capacity to only blink once every two minutes was not normal, no matter what your species.
Druscilla gave him a deceptively sweet smile
"I don't like children that won't share. I can play very nicely daddy says so. He says that I can make the pain so sharp that it rings like a bell in the air for days. Would you like to ring like a bell, little brother? Sharp and pure and clear in the night sky."
Connor narrowed his eyes and cocked his head to one side and said slowly
"No, I don't think I would."
He eyed Dru up and down and then took a step closer to her to say in a low voice
"I think Dawn's right. Angelus broke you but I don't think you shattered. Cut the cryptic crap and there's a chance I'll leave you alive to see your 'daddy' again and if you try to touch me again tonight I'll cut your hand off and feed it to the first demon I come across. Are we clear?"
Druscilla narrowed her own eyes in speculation
"Daddy's boy but not. I see Grandmother in you."
Connor frowned and then realisation dawned
"You mean Darla?"
"Grandmother. She was as bright as the sun and as cold as the heart of a diamond."Connor nodded and said calmly
"She was my mother."
Druscilla took a step back and for the first time looked worried. Connor gave a cold smile and brought his sword down to look along the blade consideringly, saying
"People say I'm a lot like her and I don't think she liked you much."
He waited a beat and looked her squarely in the eye adding coldly
"Finally something we have in common."
Druscilla began to sway in distress and pulled at her long dark hair, whispering softly
"Grandmother loved me, I made her new and brought her back to the light of the darkness. She loved me and I was her Princess and we would play for hours in the moonlight as the people screamed……"
Dawn walked up and interrupted
"What is it with you and the screaming?"
She nodded to Connor and completely ignored the scowl that Dru threw her to continue briskly
"Ok, rodent boy's secure. We need to head to the Bronze and try and find that demon and put a stop to whatever he's got going on there."
She gave Connor a bright smile and accepted her axe as he handed it to her and turned to lead the way out and then turned and said firmly
"This time I'm driving."
Connor rolled his eyes and gestured to Druscilla to precede him muttering under his breath
"Let it go, honey, let it go."
Five Minutes Later.
Connor whooped as he leant out of the rear passenger window and swung his sword to neatly decapitate a vampire that had two elderly ladies trapped up against a grocery store window. He grinned and threw a quick salute at the two horrified women as Dawn swung Gunn's truck around the next corner
"Hurry home ladies."
"Connor, INCOMING!"The boy cursed as the truck swerved sharply and he had to grab the door handle swiftly to prevent a nasty accident involving his head and the unforgiving asphalt
"And my driving sucks?"
He grinned again as Dawn yelled from behind the wheel
"I heard that!"
"You were meant to!"He risked a quick glance over his shoulder at Druscilla hanging out of the front passenger window and suppressed a quick shiver as she growled and tore the throat out of a vampire as the truck sped past. Damn, that sound was creepy coming from the delicate looking girl. He swivelled his eyes back to the road as Dawn yelled
"Connor!"
He grinned once more as he saw three vampires running towards him in single file and pulled back his sword to swing and allow the blade to be pulled through their necks by the momentum of the truck. He laughed as the one in the back managed to turn and stare after him in amazement before imploding all over the street
"This is almost too easy. Can't we find something a bit more challenging?"
Dawn rolled her eyes at his happy shout and aimed the car at a group of Faryls that were blocking the street
"Hang on!"
She gunned the engine and made straight for them wincing as four solid thuds echoed into the night. She heard Druscilla laugh with delight as one of the demons went under the wheels and then she was staring in horrified amazement at the Faryl that had become impaled on the giant wooden stake attached to the hood
"Kill girl."
Dawn scrunched up her nose as the demon began to pull itself along the thick wooden spike, it's eyes fixed on her
"I don't think so. Connor!"
Connor glanced over at Dawn's shout and saw the demon on the hood of the truck
"I'll be right there, sweetie. Just let me……take care of this!"
He rabbit punched the blue skinned demon that had come flying out of nowhere and had a grip on his neck, gnashing it's blood stained teeth inches away from his face.
"Never mind!"
Dawn watched as Druscilla swung herself out of the window and managed to land on her feet on the hood of the truck. She took two sure steps forward and bent to grab the demon's head firmly in her hands
"Bad dog!"
With a quick twist, and an anguished scream, she snapped the demon's neck and tore his body from the giant stake to toss it aside like so much garbage. She turned to come back inside the vehicle and met Dawn's eyes for a split second, the younger girl nodded
"Thanks."
The demon's eyes flashed gold in the streetlights as she called
"My pleasure, dearie."
Dawn jumped as she snarled suddenly and then leapt onto the roof of the truck an instant before a large, furry hand came clawing through the ceiling inches from her head. She yelled in surprise and flinched down in her seat, unintentionally pulling the wheel sharply to the left. The claw abruptly disappeared as Dru attacked it's owner and then Dawn's eyes widened in horror as for the second time that night a brick wall rushed up to meet her
"OH SHIT!"
The last thing she heard before she crashed was Connor's shout of alarm and then everything went black.