Here We Come To Save The DayBy Karen
Chapter SevenAfter making a quick stop at a looted pharmacy to collect some painkillers for Dawn, Gunn’s very battered pride and joy screeched to a halt outside the Bronze.
“Ok, you SO need to learn what a brake is for!”
Connor scowled and jumped out the driver’s door
“Excuse me? At least when people take a ride with me we all end up still conscious.”
Dawn folded her arms and glared at her boyfriend over the hood of the truck
“If they can survive the g-force and nosebleeds.”
Connor folded his own arms and matched her glare for glare and then they both turned round to stare at Druscilla as she wagged her finger at them and sang
“Birds in their little nests agree….”
There was a brief silence and then Dawn shook her head impatiently
“Whatever, can we just get in there and kill something already?”
Druscilla clapped her hands together and squealed with excitement
“Ooo, my favourite game, and afterwards we shall have tea and cakes and bathe in the blood of the children.”
Dawn rolled her eyes and stomped round the back of the truck to join Connor in sorting through the weapons
“No Dru, we’ll not be bathing in anything except demon entrails. No snacking on anything with a soul or we’ll be sweeping your ashes up come morning.”
“Princess wants to play.”Connor glanced at the pouting vampire and shook his head in exasperation
“You can play. Anything with bumps or scales is fair game. Go nuts.”
Dawn smirked
“Already there, babe, already there.”
She gave a genuine smile as Clem edged up to her
“I’m not so sure about this, Spike’s not gonna be happy if I let you go in there and get killed.”
“Clem, I’m not going to get hurt. Trust me, I know what I’m doing.”Dawn shoved blessed stakes into both deep pockets of Spike’s duster and said firmly
“I’m going in there and I’m gonna help Connor save the humans. All I need you to do is be on herding duty. Ok?”
The fleshy demon blinked nervously
“What?”
Dawn patted his shoulder and grinned reassuringly
“All I need you to do is get everyone out once the fighting starts ok?”
“I guess.”Dawn nodded and ignored his doubtful reply
“Good. Connor let’s go.”
As far as the demons in the club were concerned things were going great. A bunch of helpless, terrified humans and no Slayer turning up to turn the air dusty with their remains, it was vamp Christmas, Hanukah and every other major religious festival they could think of all rolled into one. Until the door, that had been securely locked and bolted, was kicked in with enough force to send splinters clear across the room into the stage and two teenagers stormed through the ruined opening.
Dawn held her axe casually over her shoulder and surveyed the packed room. Bodies littered the floor and everywhere she looked were bleeding, terrified people surrounded by demons. She scowled and shouted into the silence
“Ok, everyone stop what they’re doing. Party time’s over.”
“DAWN!”Her head snapped round at the desperate shout and her mouth fell open in surprise as she saw her two school buddies, Kit and Carlo, pressed back against the wall behind a line of demons
“What are you two doing here?”
Carlo shrugged and eyed the demons surrounding him, saying in his typically laconic way
“Just hangin’. A little dancing, a little study, a little blood crazed mayhem. You?”
Dawn touched the impressive bump on her forehead lightly
“Pretty much the same. Be ready.”
Connor glared around him and then glanced back as he heard a growl and saw Druscilla rip the head from a fledgling’s body. He raised an inquiring eyebrow and she shrugged and licked her fingers one by one staring hungrily over the room
“He was rude. Princess doesn’t like bad, rude men. They make my head hurt.”
Connor shrugged
Fair enough.
He turned back to the still silent room and said firmly
“Let the people go. Now.”
A small, dark haired vampire swaggered forward and hooked his thumbs into the pockets of his rather grubby jeans
“Oh yeah? Who’d ya think you are? Moses? And who’s going to make us? You and your mobile hottie show? I’d like to see that.”
Connor scowled and spat
“Blasphemer.”
Dawn grinned widely
“ Jehovah, Jehovah.”
There was a long puzzled silence and finally Connor whispered
“What?”
Dawn frowned in exasperation and sighed heavily
“You really need to spend some time with Spike and Xander and let them put you onto the finer things in life. It’s in a film ‘Monty Python’s Life of Brian’. They’re stoning a guy and call him a blasphemer and he does a little dance and chants ‘Jehovah’.”
She trailed off and muttered mutinously
“It’s funny, ok?”
Druscilla giggled behind them
“No one is to stake anyone until I blow this whistle!”
“What whistle?”Connor looked around in confusion as Dawn rolled her eyes and grinned at Druscilla
“It’s another line from the film. Nice one Dru.”
The vampiress bobbed a curtsey
“Thank you, dearie.”
“Hello? Can we get back to your painful and bloody deaths please?”The three of them turned back to the little vampire and Dawn nodded
“Oh sure. Sorry about that, where were we? Oh yeah, you were saying you’d like to see us make you let them go.”
Her hand came out of her pocket and she threw a specially weighted stake with pinpoint precision into the demon’s heart. Connor sighed in sheer admiration as the vampire exploded into ash and sighed
“God, I love you.”
Dawn’s mouth fell open in shock
“What?”
Connor blinked and looked nearly as surprised as Dawn at his heartfelt admission, then he blushed a deep rose red
“Nothing! I didn’t say anything.”
“Yes you did. You said you loved me!”Connor backed up a step and bumped into Druscilla
“No I didn’t!”
Dawn rolled her eyes and snorted in a manner very reminiscent of Cordelia
“Yes you did. Everyone heard you. Right?”
She turned to the silent, and slightly baffled room
“Everyone heard that, right?”
Several humans and two vampires nodded back at her in the affirmative. She looked back at Connor
“See? Witnesses. God, you have the worst sense of timing. Could you have picked a more inappropriate place to do that?”
Connor’s blush deepened
“It’s not like I planned it! It just slipped out.”
Dawn scowled
“Well, goodbye moonlight and roses, hello to romance Sunnydale style. What do you think you’re doing?”
The entire room flinched in surprise as her voice cracked like a whip and she glared at a large Asian vampire trying to bite a struggling senior. Dawn put her hands on hips and said grimly
“Back away from buffet, fatboy. Around here you have to earn your food.”
The vampire looked from the struggling human in his hands to the bloodstained and furious girl before him
“Who’s gonna make me? You?”
Connor frowned
“Didn’t we already have that conversation?”
“Yup.”Dawn nodded and stepped two paces to the side, allowing Druscilla to step up between herself and Connor
“Princess is bored. I want to play.”
Connor exchanged a quick glance with Dawn and nodded in affirmation
“Right there with you. What do you think we ought to do?”
They looked appraisingly at the room and Dawn gave a casual shrug
“I dunno. Something violent?”
Connor gave a slow, cold smile
“I like it. Ok, I’ll go left, Dawn to the right and Druscilla…”
Dawn giggled
“Go long, hut hut. On three?”
Connor gripped his sword and yelled in time with Dawn and Druscilla
“THREE!”
They exploded into motion and Connor felt the ease of being exactly where he should be wash over him. He felt time slow as he went on the offensive and his muscles sang with the sheer joy of the battle. He ducked a rush from a screaming vampire and staked it as it flew overhead and then came up to push his sword point home through the chest of a massive, brown demon as it came at him with a roar. He twisted to the side with barely a pause and pivoted to slam one hard foot into the face of a small, screaming demon with way too many teeth.
“Just kill the vamps! We need the others for questioning!”
Connor caught a glimpse of Dawn as she swung herself up onto one of the pool tables and ran across it to fling herself at the demons holding her friends. He dusted another vampire and then rabbit punched another clear across the room
“Got it!”
Dawn swung her axe handle at the face of a snarling demon that seemed to be all teeth and fur and simultaneously slammed her boot heel into the kneecap of another vampire. Kit and Carlo made the most of their opportunity and burst through the confused mass of demons. Carlo snatched a pool cue off the floor and snapped it over the edge of the table, tossing one jagged piece to Kit
“What do you want us to do?”
Dawn staked another vamp and tackled another monstrosity to the floor. She reared up and brought her axe down with a nasty crunch
“Get the people out!”
Carlo nodded and pushed Kit behind him as a vampire ran screaming at them and shoved his makeshift stake through the vampire’s heart
“On it. Let’s go people!”
Dawn rolled to her feet and plunged into the midst of another group of demons as her friends began to shepherd people to the exit, relieved that Clem had some help in evacuating civilians. She ducked as a vampire swung at her and then reared up to impale it on a stake and burst upright through the ashes
“Ok, no more Ms Nice-Key. Let’s finish this.”
Cold, damp and confused.
“Didn’t we have a bringing about the end of the world last week?”
“Nah, that was just a raising of a power. No world endage required.”
“Are you sure? ‘Cos, those demons looked pretty serious to me and I definitely felt a tremor.”Cordelia’s voice floated out of the dark
“What day was that?”
Willow thought for a moment
“Tuesday? Oh, wait, Wednesday I think ‘cos we had to deal with that whole raid on the blood bank as well.”
“In that case the tremor was us. We put down an opening of a demonic portal and got a little enthusiastic with the magic. Sorry.”Buffy frowned
“Really? What time?”
Angel entered the conversation
“About oneish? We were back home by two.”
Spike nodded
“Yeah, that sounds about right. That was you lot? Nice job.”
Angel grinned
“Thanks. We ended up using the Hulapis bind. Gotta tell you we thought we’d gone…..”
“ENOUGH!”Everyone fell silent as the voice echoed in the small room and then Buffy said questioningly
“Jeez, what’s your deal?”
“I am your destruction and the death of your world and you will take heed of my words.”Willow’s voice came apologetically
“Uh-huh, sure. Opening of the Hellmouth and feasting of the brethren. Check. Gotcha. Sorry, this kinda happens a lot and we might not be as stricken with horror as your usual sacrifices. Is there anything else you need?”
Xander sniggered
“Thousand vestal virgins? Blessed and holy blade? Deodrant?”
“Xander, that was unkind. Apologise immediately.”
“What? Giiiiles, I don’t wanna.”The watcher sniffed and then screwed up his face as the appalling stench assailed him once more. He coughed and then said firmly
“I’ve told you a number of times about taunting other species and their habits and cultures. Apologise.”
Xander sighed
“Fine. Sorry. Happy now?”
“Ecstatic, thank you.”Chanic growled furiously
“Enough of this! Which one of you is the Key?”
There was a pause of a heartbeat and then eleven voices sounded simultaneously
“I AM.”