Chapter One: Tall, Light and Handsome

She who hangs out in cemeteries...

"Why don't vampires hang out in malls? It would make my night that much more fun..." Buffy muttered to herself as she moved through the tombstones.

The night was chilly in Sunnydale, a light breeze caused a rustle in the trees. Buffy rubbed her arms together trying to stay warm.

At least I could get a little window shopping done.

The sound of a stick breaking caused her to pause mid-step. She put down her arms and scanned the tree line. A dark shadow moved across her vision to the right, the opposite side of where she had heard the sound. She heard a rustle behind her, too loud for the wind to have caused it.

"Sounds like a party tonight," she said as a vampire stepped out from the trees, "do you think I'm invited?"

The vampire slowly advanced, snarling slightly at her jest. Buffy removed a stake from her sleeve and advanced towards the vampire cautiously. She moved to the right, keeping an eye out for the other vampires she knew were lurking about.

The vampire lunged at her, attempting to tackle her at the knees. Buffy saw the attack coming, and somersaulted over him, springing back on her feet before he even had a chance to turn around. "You know, that wasn't very polite..." Buffy started as another vampire grabbed her from behind. She head- butted him and flipped him over her head.

The two vampires, now in front of her began another approach. Aware that other vampires might still be lurking in the forest behind her, Buffy attempted to move around the vampires so that her back wouldn't be to it. She stepped towards her first attacker, landing two solid punches to his face and a roundhouse kick to the second. Before having time to recover, she staked the first and started her approach on the second.

"The wasn't very nice of you Slayer," a voice said from behind her.

Buffy stopped her advance and turned around, suddenly noticing that there were more vampires then she initially realized. She eyed the vampire who had spoken. He was tall, and clad all in white. He rose his hand, signalling to the vampire now behind Buffy not to attack. The vampire skirted the Slayer and stood beside his supposed leader.

"I liked Tomas. He was smart, although I guess his hunger proved too much for him tonight," the vampire chuckled.

As Buffy gazed at the vampires before her, she guessed that there were at least 8, although she couldn't see far into the dense forest behind them.

This party might just be a bit too rowdy for me tonight she thought.

"Just so you know, your fashion sense is horrible Mr. Tall vampire-undead-guy. First of all, you're a vampire, and vampires don't like the light...so why are you all dressed in white? Second of all, it's after Labour day, and everyone knows not to wear white after Labour Day," Buffy said while trying to figure a way out of the situation.

"I heard that you liked to make jokes, although the joke does seem to be on you tonight, doesn't it Slayer? Obviously there are more vampires than you can handle, which means a bad night for you. Aren't you curious as to why you're not dead yet?" He asked, completely ignoring the remarks about his clothing.

"Fine. I'll play along. Why am I not dead yet?" Buffy responded, feigning a bored tone and attempting to buy a bit more time. She noticed the vampires behind the leader pressing forward, although none of them dared attack her just yet. The fact that such a large group of vampires were massed together was odd, let alone the fact that they were successfully working together.

Buffy took a few steps to the right as the leader spoke. She flipped the stake around in her hand as he began. "You are not dead because I do not want you to be dead," he said gazing back at all of his followers and nodding at each of them.

"I am Lord Rahl, leader of the..." he said turning back to face her. He looked down, suddenly noticing the stake now protruding from his chest. "How...?"

"You know, I don't really care who you are...uh...were..." she said drawing her second stake from her back pocket. The vampire exploded into dust as the other vampires leaped forward no longer under the control of their leader.

Just as she landed her first kick, Buffy noticed a large figure moving out of the trees. Not having time to figure out what it was, she turn and punched a vampire approaching from behind. A female vampire grabbed her hair from behind, forcing her head back and causing her to cry out. "Watch the hair!" Buffy said reaching behind her and grabbing the vampire's hands from her scalp. She flipped the female over her head and staked her on the ground. Two vampires jumped on to Buffy's back and attempted to pin her on the ground. She tried to fight them off, but more vampires soon piled on.

Buffy managed to stake another one and landed a kick to another one's knees, but she wasn't able to regain her footing. "You know Slayer, I'm glad you killed Lord Rahl. Now I don't have to wait to eat you," the vampire directly on top of her said. He moved in to bite her, roughly forcing her head to the side. Buffy managed to get one of her hands free and grabbed the vampire by the neck keeping him mere inches away from his goal.

All of a sudden, the vampires on top of her were pushed off, falling to the right. Buffy quickly jumped up and staked two who had already gotten to their feet. She spun around kicking another one in the gut. The sound of tearing could be heard behind her. She saw a vampire's body explode into dust on her right, his head following suit a few moments after. She tried to turn and see who had killed him, but was caught off guard by a punch to the face. She landed her punches to the vampire in front of her, as she heard the sounds of fighting behind her. She quickly staked him and turned around to face the others.

The other two vampires were gone.

"Thanks for the help" Buffy said, scanning the tree line, trying to figure out who had helped her. Her gaze suddenly stopped on the shape not ten feet from her.

"Oh..."