"Pack your bags, we're going to Sunnydale, California," Gibb's told his co-workers as he sauntered into the offices, placing the cup of coffee on his desk. His three team members, Tony DiNozzo, Timothy McGee and Ziva David looked up, a slight perplexed expression across all of their faces.

"Why exactly are we doing that, boss?" DiNozzo questioned, curiously. Surely they wouldn't be handling a case in California; it wasn't an area they were assigned to.

"Marine's been murdered," Gibb's stated as he swallowed a mouthful of hot coffee. He shuffled some paperwork around on his desk until he found the piece he was looking for.

"Er, boss, shouldn't black ops be handling that then? They are closer," McGee asked, glancing away from his computer. DiNozzo nodded in agreement, it was exactly what he was thinking too.

"For some reason it's been sent here, there's a small headquarters ready in Sunnydale so we're taking Abby, Ducky and Palmer as well," Gibb's replied. He looked over to Tony who hadn't shown any sign of getting up. He simply sat spinning in his chair, unlike the others who were preparing for their leave. "DiNozza!" He yelled, startling the agent who wobbled in his seat before jumping up. He ran a hand through his ruffled hair and looked up at Gibbs.

"Yeah, boss?"

"Go get Abby, Ducky and Palmer," Gibbs stated, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. DiNozzo really wasn't awake today; that would soon change.

"On it, boss,"

.

The constant clicking of Abby's black platform boots echoed through the building the team were going to be working in during their stay in Sunnydale. It wasn't a particularly big building, but it carried all of the essentials; a morgue, computer systems, and the second floor which held the rooms the team would be staying in over the next few nights.

The man who had accompanied the team to the building stopped in his tracks, sliding out a small card from his jacket pocket. "Here's my card if you encounter any problems with the building. Greg will show you the crime scene; he's our leading investigator here. Good luck," He stated, before turning away and walking towards the exit of the building, "In a town like this, you're gonna' need it," He added in a murmur as the door swung shut behind him.

It wasn't long until another man appeared through the doorway, dressed in a dark grey suit. His short black hair was slightly ruffled, and his dark eyes were weary. The man looked completely drained of energy, yet he still managed to present the team with a friendly smile. Gibbs took a mental note on his body language, he seemed like quite a relaxed man, strolling into the room and holding his hand out to shake his own. Gibbs took it, returning the act of appreciation.

"Hello NCIS, I'm glad you made it here in one piece. I'm Greg; I suppose you'll want to see the body before the sun sets so we better get going," He concluded, gesturing for the team to follow him as he headed straight back towards the exit, leaving no time for discussion. It was this that made Gibbs realise that this man wasn't one to wait around, he preferred getting the job done as soon as possible.

"Just show us the way," Gibbs responded, matching the man's pace with his own as they wandered up towards the cars.

"Keep up," Greg instructed before disappearing into the car he had only just arrived out of.

Gibbs pulled the car into a stop on the side of the dust road through a clearing in the forest. Ducky followed behind in the van, ready to transport the body back to the morgue once necessary. The police tape already surrounded the area, and right in the middle of this seclusion lay the body of the marine, all signs of life drained out from the man.

"Poor fellow; not surprised though, not here. Things like this always happen here; never can find the killers though," Greg stated, his eyes focused upon the corpse.

"By that you would mean?" Ziva began, as she pulled the gloves onto her slender fingers and began observing the scene.

"You believe in ghost stories?" Greg asked, raising his eyebrow at the female.

"No," Gibbs cut in, giving Ziva no chance to respond. He didn't think it was right for any investigator like himself and his team to believe in ghost stories, it only prevents the true search for the real murderer.

"Trust me Greg, we'll find the killer," Tony stated, smiling playfully and chuckling to himself. "Right, boss?" He added before catching the look in Gibbs' eyes and commencing the search for evidence silently.

"Such a shame, a young man like yourself meeting such a premature end," Ducky murmured as he crouched down towards the body. "Mr. Palmer, would you mind assisting me?"

Jimmy Palmer hurried over to the doctor and kneeled down beside him, beginning the usual routine for the dead body, checking for obvious wounds and signs of defence, and calculating an approximate time of death. Ducky's hand shifted over to examine the neck of the victim where a faint swelling was situated. A small patch of dry blood covered the skin in the area by the jugular. It was a mess. His fingers calmly and gently pressed against the skin, feeling two small wounds into the neck. It appeared to be two rounded holes.

"What do we have here?" He mumbled quietly to himself, curiosity overtaking the old doctor once again.

"What is it, Duck?" Gibbs questioned, walking over towards the examination of the corpse.

"Take a look for yourself, Jethro,"

Gibbs knelt down beside the victim, his eyes following to where the doctor had found the wounds. He soon found the two small holes, just next to Ducky's fingers.

"Two holes?" Gibbs stated, questioningly, "Cause of death?" He asked, unable to certify whether this was in fact the injury that had killed him.

"I can't tell for certain yet, but it's definitely pierced the jugular, quite a bit of blood loss as well, if not all,"

"Oooh, can I see?" Abby chimed in, as she enthusiastically ran over to the body and bowed over to examine the neck. "Cool," She stated, smiling at the two men.

Both Gibbs and Ducky glanced up at her, confusion covering both of their faces. Neither could quite figure out how the young forensic scientist thought this was 'cool'.

"You know, in a bad way," She reassured, furrowing her brow, "It's just, it kind of looks like a vampire bite," She added. Greg shuffled nervously at the sound of the word, causing Abby to flicker her gaze over to him, slightly at a loss at his reaction. She shook her head before turning back to face Gibbs. "Don't you think so?" She questioned, watching her boss and waiting for a reaction.

"Vampire bite, Abs? I'm not so sure that's what happened here," Gibbs responded, dismissing the girl's comment. He loved Abby, she was like a daughter to him, but sometimes her judgement could be a little dicey when she became excited over something.

"I should get going now; you'll be able to find your own way back, right?" Greg asked, quickly glancing over at the sunlight behind the trees as it made its way down into the horizon.

"Sure," Tony stated, shrugging his shoulders casually, "Piece of cake,"

Greg nodded his head at the agent before heading back towards his car, increasing his pace slightly as the nerves gradually overcame him. He wanted to get home preferably before the sun sets.

"Ziva! McGee! Found anything yet?" Gibbs questioned, taking his attention away from Greg who sped off back down the road, causing a small cloud of dust to rise from the ground.

"Nothing," Ziva responded, whilst heading back towards Gibbs, hands empty. "I couldn't find anything," She repeated, her hands flying up into the air and back down by her sides as she spoke.

"Damn it," Gibbs muttered, "McGee?" He questioned, although he already knew the answer from the lack of evidence in the agent's hand.

"Me neither, boss," He replied, reinforcing Gibbs' certainty of the subject.

"Jethro, we better get this body to the lab," Ducky stated, rising to his feet and smoothing out the hat he wore on his head.

"Right, what's the time of death?"

"Well approximately 23:30 last night."

"Got it,"

Gibbs took one last look around the area. Trees stood tall around scene, the setting sun shining through the small cracks in the leaves as it descended into the horizon. The woods were situated right next to the graveyard, something Gibbs found pretty ironic, although not in a good way. After all, another marine had lost his life, something Gibbs always hated about his job. The part he loved? Well, that was getting the justice.

.

The blonde waited anxiously in the shop her watcher, Giles, owned; The Magic Box. All he had told her was that he had some news. Question was, was it good or bad? That, he hadn't said. She wasn't too pleased about that, she preferred to know what she was dealing with straight away, she hated waiting. After another few strides of pacing, the shop bell sounded as Giles entered the room. The blonde spun around to face him, a slight annoyed expression on her face.

"Giles, finally," Buffy whined, watching as he wandered over and placed a few things behind the shop counter.

"Sorry, I got caught up." He responded, apologising for his bad timing.

"Ok, what's the news?" She asked, striding over to the counter, ready to hear what she so desperately wanted to know, well the wanted part was based on the type of news she was about to receive.

"There's apparently a rising of a new vampire, one that's trying to create an army," He informed.

Yep, that was definitely not the type of news she wanted to hear. "How many have they got?" Buffy questioned, placing her hands on her hips.

"Considering it's only a recent thing, my guess is not many; otherwise there would definitely be something in the news. So far there have been two missing reports, and one man found dead,"

"Who was he?"

"A marine named David Sable,"

"Ok, so we should check out the body then, in case it wakes up," Buffy stated, one vampire she could handle, easy. A whole army, she wasn't so sure about.

"Good idea, but better wait until its dark, you don't want to get caught." Giles informed, reminding his slayer of the dangers of being seen while doing her job.

"I know; usual morgue?"

"No, actually a new team of investigators are here and they're using the building by 'Kerri's Koffee Shop'. There's a morgue in there so I'm guessing that's where the body will be,"

"Got it, thanks Giles, better go and pick up Dawn from school, otherwise she'll complain," Buffy stated, rolling her eyes as she spoke.

Giles laughed. "Yes, well, don't forget about the body," He called after her.

"Yeah," Buffy responded, her voice fading in the distance as she walked out of the shop and towards the car outside.

.

The door at the front of the brick building opened easily, if it wasn't locked, then someone must be inside, Buffy figured. She walked slowly through the desolate building, her footsteps echoing into the dark room. She could barely see what was around her; only able to make out the outlines of furniture. She wandered towards another door, glancing through into a new room, an office, with a collection of desks and computers. The lights were on in this room; however the poor illumination failed to give off much brightness. Buffy soon spotted a lamp light placed on one of the desks, lightening the area around it, revealing a man sat at one of the desks. His brown hair looked as if it had been run through several times with his hand, and his chocolate brown eyes looked tiredly at the computer screen in front of him. The man glanced up as the blonde wandered into the room, walking closer towards him. There was no way of sneaking past him, and she needed to get rid of this vampire, if the man had been turned, that is.

"What are you doing in here?" The man questioned, standing up from his chair as Buffy headed towards him. His gaze followed her with every movement, right up until she stood straight ahead of him, just on the opposite side of the desk.

"I'm really sorry," She stated, clenching her fingers into a fist by her side.

"For wh-" The man began, before being interrupted by the strong fist colliding into his face. He felt himself slip away into unconsciousness, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop it from overcoming him.

"For that..." She murmured, watching as the man fell to the floor. She winced as she saw the bruise slowly forming around his eye. That was going to hurt in the morning, she thought to herself, feeling slight sympathy for the man. She did have to do this though, if she hadn't, and if she had simply just left the corpse in the morgue, then there was a good chance he would've have been killed. That's one thing she didn't need, not when they lived on the hellmouth.

She drew her attention away from the brunette, and wandered over to the staircase to her right. The morgue was in the basement, so luckily there was only one flight of stairs to walk down. The doors slid open automatically as she approached, allowing her entrance into the room. The chill soon hit her, sending shivers up her spine. This was why she hated morgues, they were always so cold. It appeared empty, although the light was on, indicating someone could still be in here. She moved over to the dead body that still lay on the metal bench. He hadn't been cut into yet. She examined the bite marks on his neck. Ok, it's definitely a vampire, question is have you been changed? She drew her stake and looked around the room. The sound of footsteps approached her. Buffy swung around, aiming her stake at the small man in defence. She quickly lowered it as she realised it was the pathologist of the morgue.

"What is a young girl like you doing down here, I wonder,"

"I'm sorry," She responded, attempting to think of an excuse. She never really good at these sort of things, excuses just didn't come naturally to her. The man's eyes widened, staring straight past her. That didn't look good, Buffy noted, before turning around and taking a few steps backwards,

"Move over there," Buffy instructed, telling the doctor to hide where he wouldn't be in danger.

She spun into action, running at the vampire. She ducked as a fist swing around for her, only missing by a fraction. She sent one overpowering kick directly into his chest, sending him flying back against the table. The metal clattered to the floor, echoing through the bleak building. She shot a hand out towards his arm, blocking the attack. With one swift movement, she pulled his arm to the side of him and plunged the stake directly into his unbeating heart. The body exploded into dust, fluttering to the floor into one pile.

"Not so tough now," Buffy muttered, gazing at the pile of dust in front of her.

"What was that?" The man asked; his eyes wide in terror.

"Trust me when I tell you he's the bad guy," Buffy responded, sending a small, comforting smile towards the pathologist before heading back through the sliding doors and up the darkened staircase. She took one last glance at the unconscious brunette by the desk before exiting the building, leaving behind the pile of dust and terrified doctor.

.

Ziva wandered into the NCIS headquarters carrying the tray of coffee for everyone. She had opted on first coffee duty; after all, she enjoyed waking up early. It meant getting so much done with the rest of the day ahead of you. As she sat down on her office chair, she heard a groan erupt from behind another desk. Tony's desk. Ziva quickly became alert, wandering over to the desk and peering behind it. Tony sat up from the floor, rubbing his eyes. He winced in pain as he touched the one on the right.

"Tony!" Ziva exclaimed, astonished. "What are you doing down here? And what on earth happened to your eye?" She questioned, staring at the dark purple bruise that surrounded his right brown eye.

Tony rubbed the back of his neck, not knowing what to say. It wasn't long until the memories came flooding back to him. The blonde woman, she did this, she came into the office and punched him; but why? Who was she? What did she want from NCIS?