Uninvited: Underground
by You-Know-Who and Drucilla

Disclaimer: Holtz and Tara and Sahjhan aren't ours, they belong to the esteemed Joss Whedon. We wish they belonged to us. The drugs belong entirely to us, though, it's how we come up with crazy stuff like this. And for those of you who were wondering the two big questions: 1) Wait and see, it's not what you think and 2) Tara didn't have time to come up with a spell. You try getting attacked by and then rescued from seven vampires within the space of as many minutes and see how well you're able to concentrate.

"No one can blame you
For walking away
With too much protection and
No love injection
Life can't be easy
It's not always swell
Don't tell me truth hurts little girl,
'Cause it hurts like hell
But down in the Underground
You'll find someone true
Down in the underground
A land serene, a crystal moon
It's only forever,
Not long at all.
-- David Bowie, "Underground"

Holtz laid the girl carefully out on his bed, moving slowly so as not to jar her further. He wasn't sure how injured she was, but she'd lost consciousness when he'd moved her and there was a lot of blood, so it was probably safe to assume that she was at least moderately injured. He probably shouldn't have brought her here, but he couldn't think of anywhere else to go, and he didn't know what this century had in terms of everyday doctors.

The demon walked down the stairs, and Holtz straightened up, tense, as he always was around Sahjhan. Something about that creature made his dagger hand itch. "What do you have for me tonight?" he asked in a neutral tone.

Sahjan grunted, looking at Holtz and then the girl a bit confusedly. He sighed heavily. "Plenty of things. " He pulled a small stack of papers from out of his robe and handed them to Holtz. "What's with the girl?"

Holtz looked through the stack of papers, more interested in them than in explaining why he brought home a victim of a vampire attack. "A coterie of vampires attacked her. She was injured. Good. This is promising, at least."

Sahjan scratched his head. "Ah ha."

Holtz didn't like the tone of that 'Ah-ha'. He looked up at the demon questioningly. "You have something to say?"

The demon shrugged. "Not really. Yet."

Holtz stared at the demon for a long while before turning back to the sheaf of papers in his hand. "Good."

"Yeah," the demon said shaking his head. He supposed it made no difference so long as she left soon.

Holtz wandered over to the girl, still reading. "I'll need bandages, alcohol. Supplies. She's been badly injured." He said it all in the same tone as he requested warriors for the cause a few days ago. Neutral-voiced, calm, implacable.

The demon gave him an odd look of disgust as Holtz continued to read. Who did that man think he was, anyway? He was a demon, not Florence Nightingale. "Okay. Bandages, alcohol." Sahjhan said unenthusiastically.

Holtz set the papers aside and carefully examined the girl. Her clothing was ruined, so it wasn't too much of a job to push aside the shirt at her ribs and check, carefully. "And a nice dress..." he said almost absentmindedly. Her clothing was ruined, and he couldn't very well give her his as he didn't particularly have any to spare, and it wouldnt' have fit anyway. And he couldn't send her back out looking like this.

A nice dress? The demon muttered under his breath about the wonderful job Holtz was doing of showing no mercy and stalked off to go get what he had requested. Holtz made her as comfortable as he could, then sat in a chair nearby and watched her, waiting for the demon to return with the requested items, waiting for her to wake up and tell her who he should return her to... waiting for something to happen.

***

Tara groaned softly opening her eyes, vision still clouded a while later. She was a bit surprised to be on something soft and looked around rather uncertainly. The man who had rescued her... she guessed he rescued her, because she appeared to be on his bed in his... underground crypt? Wherever she was, he was sitting a chair, watching her from the shadows by a pillar. She wondered what on earth she should say to him. She doubted he was going to speak first though. She examined the teeth mark on her neck with her hands and finally came up with something. "Ummm...Thank you again for....saving me."

"You should rest," he said quietly. "You've been badly hurt."

She managed a small nod. She felt a bit silly for not dealing with the vampires herself, but she hadn't been thinking clearly at the time. She wondered if she ought to at least introduce herself. "I'm T-Tara..." she managed. "Do... do you have vampire problems often.... here?" She flushed slightly as the question was a bit foolish. But it worked for a conversation starter. Or so she hoped.

Holtz blinked at her. Even in his time, in his place, vampires hadn't been commonly known of. For him to have rescued a girl who apparently knew about them and had had some experience with them was more than chance allowed, or so he thought.

Tara had hoped for more of a response, but supposed that would do. She decided maybe he prefered the silence.

"No more than any other city," he said suddenly, realizing that she was probably expecting a response of some sort. He lapsed back into silence again, though, not particularly inclined to make friends.

Tara nodded. LA was a large city. Perhaps the lonely, angsty depression of it all attracted lots of vampires. That and Sunnydale wasn't too far away. She waited for him to say something again, but evidently he really did prefer silence. It wasn't too reassuring considering her situation, but it did mean she didn't have to explain herself or plead for her life or something. She decided maybe it was better to be quiet after all.

At that point Sahjan returned muttering under his breath about nice dresses carrying several large packages. Tara blinked, startled, and tried to turn around to look at him. The movement jarred her ribs and she sank back onto the bed, gasping for breath from the pain. Sahjan sighed at her and set the packages down next to Holtz who had practically teleported to her side and was gently forcing her to lie down again. "I told you," he said quietly, "you're hurt. Don't move."

Tara clutched her chest and attempted to reassure herself with the fact that if need be, she could use magic to get away from the demon. "O-okay," she managed weakly.

The demon rolled his eyes at Holtz's display of concern and made a come-here gesture. "Can we talk?" he said to Holtz with ill-masked irritation.

Tara looked uncertainly between the two of them. The man didn't seem to think the demon was a threat which confused her even further. Then again, she reminded herself, technically Spike was a vampire, and the Scoobys used his help all the time, albeit disgustedly. Thinking about the Scoobys hurt as much as her ribs, though, so she stopped. She also doubted the demon would have gone shopping for his enemy as she noted the packages next the man's chair. She swallowed back a small chuckle and winced.

Holtz gave her one last glance-over and walked a little ways aside with the demon, looking mildly annoyed. Whether his annoyance was directed at the demon, the girl, or the whole situation, his expression didn't show it in the slightest. Sahjan crossed his arms and waited slightly impatiently.

"How long is she staying?"

"As long as is necessary," Holtz said with finality in his voice.

The demon scowled. "Isn't that wonderful," he added sarcastically.

"Look, Little Miss Sunshine is welcome to stay but don't you forget the arrangement here, buddy. I'm a demon not your manservant," Sahjan said in an agitated whisper. "And she better not become a distraction."

"I won't be distracted," Holtz said in tones of profound disgust. "In case you've forgotten what Angelus did..."

"No, I certainly have not," the demon said througily disgusted as well. "Just don't you forget. No mercy and I mean it."

"I know what I swore," Holtz said, and ended the conversation by walking back to the young woman.

The demon nodded "Good." He left shaking his head. He decided to get a stiff drink after all.

Holtz ignored the departing demon and turned his attention instead to the injured woman in his bed. The sooner he got her out of here, the sooner the demon would cease to be annoying... more annoying. And the sooner he could go back to devoting all his attention to hunting down Angelus. Tara had by this point dozed off due more to the excrutiating amount of pain she was in. Holtz sighed. Fine. If she was unconscious, that made his task that much easier. He was no surgeon; all his medical skills he had acquired in the course of hunting down vampires, having to patch himself and his men up constantly. Gently, as carefully as he could, he began to clean and bandage her wounds.

It had been a long time... even allowing for the 227 years he'd "slept"... since he'd done this to or for anyone. His hands remembered the skills, but sometimes he had to stop and think about what was next, or how to lay the bandages. She was, he was realizing as he looked more closely at her, quite young. Perhaps the age his daughter would have been.. perhaps older. He shoved the thoughts away almost violently. That was then, this was now.

Holtz managed to finish bandaging the girl, setting broken bones and the like, without her waking again. He couldn't decide if that was good or bad: good, because it meant he didn't have to feel obligated to make at least monosyllabic conversation, bad, because it meant he couldn't find out where she was from and return her. He sighed. She would wake eventually, and then he could question her. In the meantime, he would sit back, and watch, and plan. He still had work to do.