Chapter Four

"Buffy is going to kill me!"

"You? I'm a vampire; she a Slayer. I think I have a little more to worry about."

Carefully, Dawn re-latched the back gate and moved over to the kitchen door. Figures moved past the window and she quickly dropped out of sight before they could spot her.

"Damn, what am I gonna do? If Buffy finds out I left the house in the middle of the night, she'll chain me to the radiator."

Emily crouched down beside Dawn, surveying the building. "Look, I can't stay out here much longer. Do you think you can fit in that window?"

Dawn followed her gaze. "The bathroom window? Yeah, I can but how am I gonna reach…" She looked at the vampire and it clicked. "Oh."

Two very awkward minutes later, Dawn stumbled onto the bathroom floor. She just barely managed to right herself when the door opened.

"Oh, there you are," Buffy said. "I was just knocking on your door. Giles and Andrew are going out for breakfast -want anything?"

"Um, just a little privacy, maybe?"

"Ah, uh, sorry."

She backed out of the bathroom with an apologetic wave and closed the door. Flipping the lock, Dawn fell back against the door with a huge sigh of relief.

Further upstairs, Emily was moving into the attic. The only window had a piece of cardboard taped up against the glass, keeping the harmful daylight outside and casting the room in an eerie yellow glow.

There were two sleeping bags on a cleared space on the floor. Darwin was curled up inside one of them. Emily sat down on the empty one.

"Enjoy your night?" Darwin sat up, wide-awake and fully dressed.

She ignored the question. "Nothing to report. There doesn't seem to be any sign of the Mara in the neighborhood."

He nodded along. "So who was it I heard you sneaking back into the house?"

She almost didn't answer him, taking the time to slip off her boots before confession, "Dawn."

He gave her a severely disapproving look. "We're supposed to be protecting the Key and you're out trollopping about with her in the middle of the night? With the Mara on the way?"

"First of all, she followed me out. And secondly, as I already said, I scouted the area and the Mara haven't made an appearance yet."

"Well, did she at least admit to you she's the Key?"

Lying crossed the vampire's mind but she decided against it. "No. We just talked."

The man sighed and stood up, smoothing out his slacks. "Well, I'm going to get a fresh start on that research. I want to see if I can find more about this ritual they intend to perform. In the event they manage to get their hands on Dawn, it might be best to -"

"They'll never touch her," Emily interrupted, a near growl in her voice.

Darwin glanced down at his companion. "We've bonded, I take it?"

She said nothing.

He groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. "We're not leaving, are we?"

More silence.

"Is this just an excuse to prolong returning to Los Angeles?"

"You're the one who promised me after we left the first time I'd never have to go back to that Hell so don't you dare look at me like that," she snapped angrily.

Her tone didn't affect him. "Snippy this morning, aren't we? You didn't hunt last night."

She didn't look at him. "I can handle it."

"Need I remind you of what has happened to you these last few months? Or even the past two weeks? This is the reason we decided to simply give the warning and be gone."

The vampire still did not look at him.

Glancing over his shoulder at the door, Darwin switched to Japanese. "We've been over this; they don't need us. And obviously they don't trust us otherwise they would have told us the truth about Dawn."

Now she looked at him, also replying in Japanese, "If you were in their position, would you trust us?"

That gave him pause, taking some of the fight out of him. "I don't like this. It's too soon. I want you to understand that I am sorely against this."

The corner of her lip pulled up. "When has that ever stopped me?" she asked in English.

"Someday it might," he replied in kind. "A particularly frosty day in Hell, perhaps."

She actually chuckled.

With a sigh of defeat, Darwin ran a hand through his hair and turned toward the door. "I'd better inform our guests of our intended stay. With any luck they'll tell us to bugger off and I'll win the argument by default. I'll also pop by the store and bring you back something to eat."

Emily sat up straight, a very faint hue of embarrassment -the closest she could come to a blush -colored her cheeks. "I can find my own food."

"Clearly not," he countered, turning on her. "Otherwise you would have as you were supposed to the night before. You'll be lucky I don't bring it to you in a child's sippy cup."

Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "You wouldn't dare."

"No, no, of course not. By the by, do you prefer Strawberry Shortcake or that little Hispanic girl that runs around with the monkey and the talking rucksack?"

Emily had a knife in her hand and the arm raised by the time Darwin quickly rushed out the door.