"One of us will have to throw her off our trail," suggested one of the demons, aptly nicknamed N'Donnai—which meant 'fierce one' in the language of his clan.  He and the others had been reduced to hiding in the sewers like vermin, and meeting in secret, when once they had walked freely in the streets, safe from all danger.  But then she had come.  The Slayer had returned to the Hellmouth, intent on destroying all non-humans in the area.

            "Who would you suggest then, N'Donnai?  And how could any of us face her without having our heads permanently removed from our necks?  Do tell, oh great leader," sneered Kelya, a female Doshi demon and a real pain in the ass.

            "Why not pretend to be human?  Go to her school, gain her trust….  Then we can kill her and the streets and all their bounty will be ours again."

            "No, Seke," responded N'Donnai.  "That won't work, not for all of us at any rate.  The Doshi and the Seku look human enough to pass, but not you and the rest of the Layans."

            Seke, a Layan demon, shook his head.  "Fine then.  You are our self-proclaimed leader, N'Donnai, why don't you do it?  You're Seku, and you've lived among the humans before."

            "Perhaps," considered N'Donnai.  "It could work.  It has to work.  Fine, I will go kill the Slayer, but when I return, you are mine to lead again.  If anybody tries anything, I will take great pleasure in ripping you spine out through your mouth."  He looked meaningfully at Kelya, "Anybody."

            "We understand, N'Donnai," said one of the other demons present.

            "If we're all agreed then, let's get some sleep," said N'Donnai, adjourning the meeting.  Tomorrow he would begin his charade of humanity, and pray to the higher powers that he could pull it off, for all their sakes.

**

            Rey Summers walked into English class five minutes late to discover that a good looking new kid was sitting in her seat.  Oh, dilemma!  Do I tell him to get up, or do I sit in the back of the room and stare at him?  No question there, it's option B for sure. 

            She made her way to the back of the room, the desks usually reserved for the social and academic morons who actually thought that getting stoned made them more attractive to the opposite sex.  Losers, thought Rey.

            She took her seat and looked up front, but not at the blackboard.  No, Rey's eyes and attention had a different target—the new boy.  There was something different about him, something that made him seem very different from the other boys surrounding him.  It was as if…well, as if he weren't quite canny.  He was too perfect to exist in her world.  No way he would ever go for somebody like me, thought Rey.

            "Summers!"

            "Present!" she called in an automatic response.

            "Yes, Ms. Summers, we established that with the roll call ten minutes ago.  Now, as I was saying, please explain for us the irony of the final act of Romeo and Juliet."

            Stupid teachers.  Mr. Watson knew that she had no clue, and that was exactly why he'd singled her out.  "Um…well, I guess it's ironic that Romeo killed himself for nothing.  Yeah, because Juliet was going to wake up anyway, and if he'd just waited a few minutes it could have been prevented."

            Watson sighed.  "Ms. Summers, the rest of the class read the play, we don't need your Cliff's Notes version.  Can anyone explain and identify the ironies of the final act?"

            One hand raised.  "Yes, Mr. Donahue?"

            "Well, Romeo thinks that Juliet was dead, but the reader and the audience know that she isn't, so that is dramatic irony.  It's also ironic that all of this tragedy happens because the messenger couldn't do his job.  It's very sad that a petty rivalry could escalate to the point where it could cost the life of two people who only want to be together."

            "Quite right, Mr. Donahue, quite right.  All right then, for tomorrow you will read act 1, scene 1 of Hamlet.  We will discuss it in class and I will check your journals, so get caught up people."

            Rey sighed as she got up and walked to the door.  She hadn't done a journal entry for the past month.  No way she'd get caught up by tomorrow.  She was so lost in thought that she walked right into the boy in front of her.  "Sorry," she mumbled without looking up.

            "That's all right," replied a deep, smooth voice.  It was the new kid!

            "I…um…didn't catch your name," said Rey, embarrassed.

            "Nick Donahue.  You're Rey Summers, right?"

            "Hey!  How'd you know that?"

            "Watson only said it about three times trying to get you attention," he said with a smile.

            "Oh.  Oops.  I guess I was kinda in my own world."  Daydreaming about you, she added mentally.

            "I know how that is.  I gotta get to class now, but maybe I'll see you around later, okay?"

            "Sure, I've got to get to calculus anyway.  Nice meeting you, Nick."

            "Ditto," he replied.

**

            N'Donnai sat restlessly through his other six classes that day, keeping an eye out for possible prey.  Why had he volunteered to do this?  Cutting off his horns to blend in better was one thing, but actually attending human school was quite another.  He wondered how the mortals put up with it.  Firstly, it was boring, and secondly, they were just going to be eaten anyway.

            He ran his fingers through his newly cut black hair, still not used to the absence of his Seku horns, the three inch long bony growths that all Seku males possessed.  Of course, to pass for human, N'Donnai had cut them off.  They were gone for good now, and with them went some of his demonic strength.  The last of his power remained in the spines of his back, which he was careful to hide every day.

            The Seku were a notoriously short race, but N'Donnai was tall, even according to human standards, at just under six feet.  He hid his normally yellow eyes with brown contacts, and his disguise was complete.  He'd even managed to fool Rey Summers, the current Slayer.  He'd never fooled her mother though.  Buffy Summers had been the best Slayer in hundreds of generations.  Word had it that she was the very first Slayer to ever be allowed to retire from old age, and have another called in her place.  N'Donnai still bore a scar across his chest from a run-in with her several years ago, before Rey was even born.

            When the bell at the end of seventh hour sounded, he walked out to his car, only to find Rey there waiting for him.

            "Hey, Nick!" she called as she saw him approaching.  He'd chosen a human name similar to his own, but it still grated on his nerves.

            "Hi, Rey," he replied, doing his best to imitate human social behavior.

            "You remembered my name?"

            Of course I did, Slayer.  I have to know who I have to kill.  It was hard for N'Donnai to believe that this sixteen year old girl could do so much damage to the vampire and demon populations here in Sunnydale.  She just didn't seem intelligent enough to handle the demons, nor strong enough to decimate the vampires.

            "Of course I remembered your name, Rey, after all, it's not every day a guy meets the most beautiful girl in the world," he said, the flattery rolling easily off his tongue.

            Rey giggled.  "You're pretty great yourself."

            N'Donnai started.  He'd never been called attractive among the Seku.  He was too tall, for one thing, and his horns were too small and too sharp.  He was muscular, when the Seku were traditionally lean.  His kin said he looked too human.  Perhaps that was why Rey liked him.

            "Thanks," he replied, blushing a bit.

            "Do you…um, I mean….  Can you give me a ride home?" she asked in a rush, as if forcing the words through a block of nervousness in her throat.

            "Sure, where do you live?"

            "8th and Sycamore," she responded.

            "That's right on the way to my place," said N'Donnai.  "Hop in."

            "Thanks so much.  You're really nice."

            Now I've got you.  I'll drive to someplace really remote, then kill her and bury the body.  It's perfect.  N'Donnai took the long route to Sycamore Street, which passed through a forested state park.  He was about to pull over and stop the car when he was hit head on from a car that seemed to materialize right in front of them.

            He felt his seatbelt break and sharp objects cutting into his flesh before he blacked out.