Two-hundred-dollar boots tabbed on the headstone impatiently. "Come on, bitey." Muttered their wearers.

After a moment, a hand burst through the false-grass and clawed around at the air.

Evan the Vampire Slayer jumped down from the headstone and yanked the vampire out from the grave, "Dead." She muttered, plunging a stake through his heart with her free hand.

"Evannah are you out here?" came the voice of a tall blonde jock.

"No, I'm inside, Chris." She snapped back.

Chris came jogging up to her, "Come on, Evannah…"

"Evan." She corrected shortly.

"Fine. Evan, let's get back to the other cemetery! Plenty more vampires there!" he announced.

Evan glared at him, "The other Slayers are too."

"Come on, Evan! Get in with the action."

Evan rolled her eyes and punched him into a headstone, "Listen, Chris. I'm not about action. Vampire Slayer. Not Vampire Beat-Them-Up-Because-It's-Fun. I kill, not fight." She pulled him onto his feet, "So follow around Katrina or something, she beats more than she stakes."

She picked up her abandoned bundle of stakes and tucked them into her trench coat before running away.

&&&

Evan yawned; opening her locker and boredly watching her plastic bottle of holy water and her cross clamber to the floor. She rolled her eyes and stuffed them back in – at least her battle-axe had a mount.

She dragged out her trig textbook and put it in her backpack, checking the concealed pocket for her stake.

"Evannah! I've told you not to keep those things in your locker! What does that show the other students?" the librarian – Mr Zachary Giles – and her Watcher whispered angrily at her.

Evan glared, "Evan." She snapped back, "And they already think I'm a homicidal maniac – it's not going to make a difference." She replied, slamming the locker door shut.

"You've already missed half of your lessons! Is that effective time management?" he asked.

She rolled her eyes, "I'm not Miss-Perfect-Katrina-Bailey, okay? I skip class and I ignore almost everything you say. I took out a nest this morning."

Mr Giles looked surprised, then angry, "You took a nest out on your own? What were you thinking?"

"'Die, Vampires, Die' and something along the lines of, 'I'm hungry'?" Evan asked.

"Evannah Warren-Myers!"

"EVAN!" she snapped back.

"You do not take out a nest on your own, you here me? Next time, you will consult with me first and you can take the other Slayers!"

Evan glowered, "And let the fight drag on for hours? Puh-lease! I kill more than they do in half the time! I work alone. Always have, always will." She sped up her walk.

"You're not Slaying, Evannah, you're killing." Mr Giles called after her, standing in place.

"It's a Kill or Be Killed world, Zack!" she snapped back.

&&&

"Hey, Evannah!"

Evan glared at the battle-axe in her locker, 'why now?' she thought disdainfully.

"Hey, Evannah, I was calling you."

Evan turned and glared at Katrina, "I heard. I ignored. I'm leaving." She replied, trying to side step the petite redhead.

"Come on, Eva, Giles wanted me to patrol with you tonight. So I was thinking, I tell my mum I'm sleeping over your house, you tell yours you're –"

"A world of no."

"Well, if you'd like we can just –"

"I meant to the patrolling."

"Oh, are you going out? 'Cause I didn't know that it was your night off –"

"I meant with you."

Katrina frowned her precisely waxed eyebrows, "Evannah, Giles specifically told me that you and I were to go patrolling tonight."

Evan shrugged, "Screw him. I didn't listen to him when I was fourteen I'm not listening to him now. I don't patrol with others. You guys are all about the fight before the kill – I'm just about the kill."

"It's not like that, Evan. You're going to get yourself killed! We beat down the vampires because otherwise they're too dangerous to stake."

"Too hard, you mean? I've done it. I always do it. Straight from the grave into the stake."

"Oh, I see. You take them when they're all disorientated from digging themselves out. Is that really a fair fight?"

Evan whirled on Katrina, "Fair fight? Who cares? They're dead! DEAD! DEAD! DEAD! That's the important thing. It's kill or be killed, and I kill."

Katrina opened her mouth to say something, but Evan shoved her into a locker and sprinted out of the school.

&&&

'Kick left! Punch right! Kick right! Roundhouse!' Her instincts screamed. Evan stood alone, surrounded by twenty vamps. She grabbed her stake and dusted two, loosing it with the second. She ducked one trying to grab her and used the wooden heel of her shoe to dust him. She back-flipped off one of her attackers backs and landed behind a headstone, coming back around with her battle-axe.

She swiftly cut the heads off five vampires. 'Twelve left.' Her mind told her. She ducked a swing and cut his legs off, stoping him from getting around as she stepped on his chest, piercing his heart and keeping her balance as he turned into dust.

She was on autopilot. Decapitate. Stake. Decapitate. Decapitate. Stake. Stake. Stake. Damn it, broken shoe. Back with a vengeance. Decapitate. Decapitate. Decapitate.

They were gone. She rested the battle-axe on her shoulder and headed over to her weapons bag, grabbing out her stake.

"Very impressive."

Evan whirled around to see a female vampire sitting atop a mausoleum, grinning down at her, vamped-out. "You'll be impressed dust in a minute." She warned, dropping her axe. It sliced through the leather of her shoes and cut her foot, but she ignored it and sprung up a tree, and leapt on top of the mausoleum.

"Well, I don't know about the dust, but I'm impressed again. You're a skilled Slayer…who is your watcher?" the vamp asked.

Evan glared, "I didn't learn a single thing from my watcher."

The vampire stood, smiling again, "So you have one. Well, missy. Let me teach you a lesson."

Evan kicked her down, "No, let me! It's kill or be killed, bitch and –" she gasped in a breath as a searing pain went through her stomach.

The vampire grinned as Evan fell to her knees, "And you just got killed."