Chapter Nine
Note: Another note, I know, I'm sorry but I had to. Thank you to everyone for the reviews. They inspired me to write this chapter. Thank you for making my birthday that little bit brighter.
Also, I'm really sorry this is so late. I've been busier than I thought I would be, and I didn't like where it was heading so I had to re-write it.
* * *
Sanna wasn't sure how the next few days had slipped past her without her notice. She'd managed to make sure no one else found out her secret, though Xander kept giving her strange looks. She didn't think he knew she wasn't Tash but he was probably thinking along the lines of demon possession, which might be a bit of a bother.
However, Xander had become the least of her problems when Mick kept trying to bring her out on patrol. She'd slipped out of it every time, mostly with the help of Connor and Angel. Angel had just told Mick he'd take her out and then sent her back to her room. Connor wasn't quite as nice. He decided as Dawn's daughter she should know how to kill a vampire, otherwise the next time she got kidnapped, she would be even more helpless than a normal human. It worried Sanna that he had said 'when', rather than 'if'.
So she wasn't in the least prepared when Mick stormed into her room in the middle of the night and dragged her from her bed. She squealed and slapped until he put a hand over her mouth. "T, shut up. We're patrolling. No excuses. Get dressed. I'll be waiting outside." He left just as quickly as he'd come and Sanna was left in the middle of the floor, breathing heavily as she tried to blink the sleep from her eyes. She glanced down at her pyjamas and blanched. She should really sleep in more than a tank top and underwear, especially when attractive young men made a habit of barging into her room.
She scrambled to Tash's wardrobe and grabbed a pair of jeans and a jumper to pull on over her pyjamas. She pulled her hair up into what had to be the smallest ponytail ever and pushed her wand through it. She rummaged and found her favourite sneakers she'd brought with her from the UK and shoved her feet into them. Mick made her nervous and whenever she was nervous, she rushed. She pulled open her door and yelped when Mick was right there.
"Stake?"
She pulled out her wand and smiled.
"Seriously. That's a twig."
"It's my wand. It will do."
Mick looked like he didn't believe her and Sanna couldn't help but share his doubt. She had a feeling he was going to have to pull her arse out of the fire at least once tonight. "Whatever. Come on, before Connor comes and ruins our fun. Again."
Sanna couldn't tell him that Connor had been doing her a huge favour when he'd 'ruined their fun'. But if she told him that, she'd have to tell him that she wasn't Tash and she wasn't about to let that happen.
Before she knew it, Sanna found herself in the passenger seat of Mick's car, sitting outside of one of the many cemeteries within LA. Mick was standing next to her open door, fingers tapping impatiently on the ledge. "You going to get out, T?"
She glanced out at the cemetery, seeing in it the shadows and potential danger, before looking back to Mick. He must have seen something in her face because he sighed and let his head fall to the door with a thump.
"I swear to Zeus, if you do not get out of this car and start acting like Tash again, I will not be held responsible for my actions."
"All right, all right, calm down, slayboy." She didn't move. She tried to get past the mental roadblock. She tried swerving around it, jumping over it, driving straight through it, but it seemed impossible. Her arms refused to undo her seatbelt and pull her body out of Mick's truck. Apparently, there was a part of her brain that was smarter than the rest.
Her arms were let off the hook when Mick reached in and did it all for her. She stood on the footpath and looked at the cemetery with trepidation. Mick didn't seem to be taking any chances because he grabbed her hand and pulled her toward it. Sanna let herself be dragged along for a moment but pulled her hand free when they reached the entrance and glared, ignoring the warm tingles that she'd felt at the contact.
"I am not incompetent."
"Then start acting like it." He stalked off towards the closest mausoleum and Sanna had no option but to follow him. Tash and their parents had better bloody appreciate this.
Up until this week she'd never been in a cemetery at night and after this was all over, she was hoping never to again. In the daytime, they were filled with memories and they were simply a way to feel closer to those who had passed on. Under the light of the moon, they were just downright creepy. She let Mick lead, hovering a step or two behind, eyes zipping from one place to the next, trying not to get caught off guard. She kept seeing things that weren't there, realising it was just a bush behind a gravestone or the silhouette of a monument. For a moment, she thought a demon was leaping out at them before seeing the angel statue dedicated to one Lucy Preston, who died at the age of 16. Sanna stopped in front of it. It was chilling to think that someone who was the same age as her had died. It didn't sit well with her at all. She really didn't like cemeteries.
"T?"
Sanna jerked out of her reverie to find Mick standing behind her, face expressionless.
"Sorry. I was just thinking."
"You're shivering."
"No, I'm not." It was a stupid thing to say but she needed to snap herself out of this strange mood. "Come on. I'm sure there's something we can find for you to hit."
"How right you are, sweetheart."
The two teenagers froze at the unknown voice. Together they turned slowly to find four vampires, all vamped out and ready for a fight. Mick stepped in front of Sanna and she wasn't going to argue, shrinking behind him.
"Awww, how cute. What, no quips? You kids these days are usually full of something you think is hilarious."
Mick stared down the one who seemed to be the leader, a grin spreading across his lips. "You know what's going to be hilarious? When I push you into that tree right there and you blow away on the wind to ruin someone else's night."
The vampire snarled and launched himself at Mick. The next few moments were a blur to Sanna. She vaguely remembered pulling her wand and hexing the one standing on the far right. She barely had time to register that he turned to duat before the next was on her, pushing her to the ground with a laugh that oozed slime down her spine. She struggled in vain to get him off her, to pull her wrists from his grip, to do something. All he did was laugh at her. She swallowed back the scream of terror that was clawing at her throat but she couldn't stop the frightened tears welling up in her eyes.
He laughed again, which only made her struggle harder. She was not going to let this happen. She refused. She was the daughter of a dragon tamer and she would not be bitten by some sleazy vamp in some cemetery. She tightened her grip on her wand and as he reared back to bite straight into her neck, she surged forward, pushing her wand straight into his chest. She felt his teeth graze her neck before he burst into dust all over her. She sighed in relief and accidentally inhaled, starting a coughing fit. She rolled over and resisted the urge to vomit. She pushed herself up onto all fours and glanced up to check on Mick.
He was fighting the leader. Sanna couldn't see the fourth vampire anywhere which probably meant he'd gotten the sharp end of Mick's stake. Sanna could only watch as the vampire kicked the stake from Mick's hand and delivered the uppercut to Mick's jaw. The boy stumbled but regained himself quickly. He sent a high kick into the vampire's chest, sending it hurtling back into the very tree Mick had pointed out earlier. Sanna saw the broken off branch pierce the vamp's chest and could almost see the breakdown of his body as he turned to ash.
Mick hadn't even stopped to watch. By the time the vamp was gone, he was already by Sanna's side, checking her over for damage, hands running over her shoulders and arms, his eyes everywhere else.
"T? You all right?"
She blinked at him and spoke very slowly. "I have vampire in my mouth."
Mick didn't do what she expected - he laughed. A full body laugh, which sent him falling back onto the grass, holding his belly.
"Hey," she snapped, cheeks blooming red. "It's not funny."
"You're kidding, right? That's gold. A class comedy. You haven't done that in gods know how long."
"Just shut up and get me some water," she grumbled, folding her arms where she sat.
He snickered, pushing himself to his feet and offering a hand to Sanna. "There's some in the car. Come on, I think you've had enough."
She let herself be pulled to her feet and dusted herself off, refusing to think what that dust had been five minutes before. Sanna couldn't remember the last time she'd been this embarrassed in front of a guy she liked. Scrap that, she couldn't remember the last time she'd been this embarrassed full stop. Tash was not hearing about this if Sanna had anything to do with it.
* * *
The next few days flew past faster than Tash could count them. It had gone unsaid between Charlie and her that they would not mention the dinner with Veronica for fear of starting a fight and saying something neither of them could take back. Tash still tried to spend as much time with him as possible but there was tension there that hadn't been before that stupid dinner with that annoying floozy. The whole avoidance thing was driving her nuts. She was used to the Scoobies who just knocked her off her high horse and went back to their business. All this moping and hiding had thrown her for a loop, and that in itself frustrated her. She wasn't used to it and she didn't know how to fix it.
The sleepover had done its best to distract her from her Charlie problems. It had gone well, or so Tash thought. There hadn't been any vampires to slay and no one had turned out to be a demon so she was suitably impressed. It could have been smoother, what with Tash stumbling over facts and Teddy running as much interference as he could. There was only so much he could do when her cousin Cassidy had started mouthing off. Tash hadn't wanted to hit someone as hard since... well, since she met Sanna. The only thing that stopped her from kicking Cassidy's ass was that Sanna and he usually got along. It bothered her that the animosity between them could have tipped someone off that something was wrong.
It was a week since Sanna and her had made the switch and rather than the elapsed time making reassuring Tash, it just made her more anxious. She refused to let her guard down. Who knew when the littlest thing came and along and blew her cover out of the water entirely? It was unlikely Grandpa Arthur and Grandma Molly were going to notice anything, considering how excited they were to have family in the house for longer than a weekend. She was only really worried about Charlie and Victoire, who was still hanging around the Burrow, which was still a mystery to Tash. She decided to get to the bottom of it. Mysteries didn't tend to end well for Scoobies.
Tash found her on the couch downstairs, sitting next to Grandma Molly's knitting. Tash didn't say anything at first, just settled down on the chair opposite. They both watched in silence as the needles brought a bright blue jumper to life. Well, the arm of one. Maybe it was a scarf.
"Hey, V," Tash started, keeping her tone light. "I thought after the sleepover you'd head home. Not that I'm not loving hanging out but I just wasn't expecting it, you know?"
Victoire sat unmoving, still staring at the knitting.
"V?"
She opened her mouth to say something but seemed to change her mind, hesitating. She sighed. "It's nothing."
Tash rolled her eyes. "Yeah, that sure sounds like nothing."
"Really. I just would rather stay here. It's nothing."
Tash frowned, leaning forward. That really didn't sound like nothing. "V, come on."
"It's just Dom, all right? Sometime last year he obviously learnt how to be a real Slytherin because he's just being a... a tosser!"
"OK, OK. Fair enough. Do the parentals know?" Victoire gave her a strange look. "What?"
"The parentals?" She asked sceptically.
Right. Damn. "Your parents. Have you told them?"
Victoire snorted. "Yeah right. Like my dad could believe that Dominique is anything less than the perfect son."
"What about your mum then?"
The blonde shook her head. "I've told her but she says she can't do anything unless she knows for sure it's going on."
Tash made up her mind right then and there. "Right. We're going to invite dear old Dom down for a day. If the adults won't give out the punishments, we will."
Victoire said nothing, just stared at the knitting. Tash was sure it was going to be a jumper now.
"V, you on board or not?"
Her cousin seemed to have decided on something because she nodded decisively and met Tash's eyes. "I'm in."
Tash grinned wickedly, moving Victoire over and sat next to her, ideas flowing. "All right. Let's get planning, shall we?"
Charlie found them several moments later in the same spot, heads bowed, talking fervently, heads nodding and shaking and hands waving in the air. It always worried him when Sanna got that look in her eye. It always meant that someone had done something stupid enough to get on her bad side.
"Sanna?" He watched her freeze and plaster a fake smile on her face.
"Hey dad. What's up?"
"I was wondering if you wanted to go out for lunch. Just you and me. Maybe grab a few school things after."
Tash glanced at Victoire before nodding. Now that she had something to think about, hopefully it would keep her distracted from the problem itself. "Sounds great. We going now?"
"As soon as you're ready."
"OK, just let me go put some lip gloss on or something."
"Lip gloss? Sanna, you're not turning into a girl, are you?" Charlie looked worry.
Tash punched him lightly on the arm as she passed him. "Play nice or I'll tell Veronica you don't know what a girl looks like." She ran up to her room, masking his retort with the sound of her footsteps on the wooden stairs. She was hoping this was his way of getting past the whole dinner fiasco. It would be nice to talk to him without having that hanging over their heads.
* * *
The Romanian Weasleys burst into the Burrow, bringing a cacophony of screaming with them.
"Susanna Carmen Weasley, you're going to calm down right now."
"No, Dad, I'm not going to and you know why? Because you are making a huge mistake!"
"We're not going to have this argument."
"Really? Then what the hell do you call this? I'm pretty sure I would call this an argument."
"This isn't something you can veto, Sanna. This is my life and I'm making my own decisions."
"You're making the wrong ones!"
"I've thought about this, Sanna."
"You mean like you thought about divorcing Mum?"
The silence was deafening.
"Go to your room." Charlie's voice was deadly quiet.
"Dad-"
"Go."
"Fine. When you wake up one day in your little happily married life and find your bed and your wallet empty, don't come crying to me."
Tash sprinted up the stairs, tears rolling down her cheeks. Her feet slipped as she hit the first landing and she fell to the floor, banging her hands and knees before scrambling up, vision blurry. She slammed the door behind her, threw herself onto her bed and screamed as loudly as she could into her pillow.
Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid man!
She fumbled for her locket. "Sanna. Sanna, Sanna, Sanna, Sanna, Sanna."
"Tash, what's wrong? What happened? Why are you crying? Please stop crying."
"Why is he so stupid?!"
"Tash?"
"He's marrying that whore!"
It took all of two seconds for Sanna's face to drain of all it's colour before it returned with a vengeance, bringing with it an unstable look to her eye. "No, he isn't."
"Trust me, Sanna, I tried. It didn't work well."
"Stop crying, sistermine. We'll think of something."
"If Mom was there, she'd smack some sense into him. Goddess knows I've seen her do it."
"We just thought of something. I'm bringing Mum."
"Sanna, I'm not sure..."
"Don't worry, Tash. Just give me time to round up the cavalry."
Tash put her faith in her sister. "Hurry, San."
Sanna's holographic head nodded. "Hold on, Tash. We're coming."