For the first time in a long time, Ashlyn had been caught off-guard. He came out of nowhere, somehow able to mask his scent from her. Jackson was becoming extremely crafty and extremely irritating. For two weeks now he had been trying to do what all the other vampires before him had failed to do - taste Ashlyn's intoxicating blood. While she was slow to react to his initial attack this evening, it didn't take long to recover from her lapse in concentration.
Jackson had her pinned underneath him. Of course he was much stronger than her and she could see in his eyes he thought he'd finally won. She wriggled and squirmed, trying to free herself as his fangs popped out and he lowered his face only centimetres from hers. He let out a half growl, half moan as he licked his lips, staring at the pulsing vein in Ashlyn's neck. She knew he would savour his 'victory' as they all did; a great weakness. She was playing him and he didn't even know it. The instant he tilted his head forward to take a bite from her neck, she vanished from underneath him and watched him fall flat on his face from where she now stood, meters behind him. Now Jackson was pissed, and the real fun was about to begin.
He stood up and lunged toward her. She waited until the very last second to act. As his fingertips brushed her jacket, she vanished again. They continued this way for almost five minutes; Jackson never managing to get any closer than that. Ashlyn was becoming bored of Jackson's sad attempts very quickly and decided to finish it. She found a small tree nearby and broke off one of the shorter branches.
"Sorry Jackson, but you're really boring me tonight," she called out as she jumped behind him; one arm around his throat, the other controlling the branch she held to his chest. "Although, I am intrigued as to how you managed to hide your smell from me. Would you care to enlighten me?" When she recieved no answer, she pushed the makeshift stake into his chest, a few millimeters short of his heart. "Tell me!" She shouted.
"Only if you let me go." Ashlyn did not reply to Jackson, only twisting the stake around, making him cry out in agony. "Okay, okay! It was magic. Now please let me go! I promise I'll leave you alone!" She knew he was lying. As she drove the stake into his dead, unbeating heart, she vanished, not wanting to get vampire blood on her clothes again. Jackson exploded into a shower of blood and pieces of torn clothing. Ashlyn didn't want to leave this mess in the park for a small child to find the following morning, so with a wave of her hand the remains of vampire vanished and landed in a near by dumpster.
Magic? She knew it was definitely out there, but why a witch would help a vampire was beyond her. Unless of course they were forced to - hypnotised. Ashlyn didn't know of any witches in her town, but she was going to make finding out a priority.
~
"Run into trouble again did we?" Adam said through a smirk as Ashlyn walked into their living room.
"Oh, you know me too well," she laughed. "It was Jackson again. But I didn't let him get away tonight. One less fanger I have to worry about now."
She threw her keys on the table and sat down next to Adam on the couch as she recalled the nights events. "Are there even any blood suckers left in this town now, Buffy? In the last two months you've taken out, what, eleven of them?" Adam asked teasingly.
Ashlyn was relieved to say, "as far as I know, he was the last - for now. And I'm glad because I'd really like to spend some time with my best friend doing normal shit before he goes back on tour next week."
"Yeah about that, Ash. My manager called me not five minutes before you came in and told me I'm doing 2 charity shows in some city a few hours from my first concert. He's booked me a flight for midday tomorrow." Ashlyn was disappointed that their time had been cut short and Adam could see that in her expression. They stayed up for hours just talking and hanging out, knowing it was really their only chance. At 4am, eyes were drooping all round and they called it a night.