We see Jehonas backing up a few steps, transferring all his strength to his arms, then lunge forward, using the momentum and tossing Buffy out the window like a sack of potatoes. EXT. HOSPITAL/ROOFTOP PARKING STRUCTURE - NIGHT Buffy sails across the black sky and lands hard onto the ground, rolling a few times, coming to a stop. INT. HOSPITAL - AN OFFICE - NIGHT Police officers rush into the room, to find Jehonas standing at the edge of the window. TIGHT ON JEHONAS, his hands gripping the sides of the window tense and ready. He glances back, smiling, and catapults himself off the window into the night. EXT. HOSPITAL/ROOFTOP PARKING STRUCTURE - NIGHT Jehonas clears the impossible distance, landing with no more than a thud near Buffy's body. He heaves her up and drags her behind a structure just as officers with automatics open up on their positions. Buffy grips her shoulder, clutching it in pain -- BUFFY (gasping) My shoulder -- dislocated -- Jehonas places a hand on her shoulder, another around her elbow and without any consideration to discomfort -CRACK!- brutally pops it back in place. Buffy SCREAMS again. More bullets splatter near them, startling her. She picks up her head, weak. BUFFY (gasping) You -- threw me -- JEHONAS I'm sure it's nothing you can't handle. Buffy doesn't even hear him. She surrenders to unconsciousness and falls into his arms. He scoops her up once more and heads for -- HIS '69 OLDSMOBILE 442, which is parked nearby. Midnight-black. The definitive high- performance heavy-metal muscle machine with an engine big enough to power an Apollo rocket. INT. JEHONAS' OLDS - NIGHT Jehonas sets Buffy down in the passenger seat, climbs behind the wheel, keys the ignition. The engine ROARS to life, belching fumes through the dual exhaust. Jehonas floors it, burning serious rubber as the Olds vanishes from sight. BACK AT THE DEMOLISHED MORGUE WINDOW as the policemen stare numbly in open-mouthed astonishment. CUT TO: EXT. CITY STREETS - DAWN Jehonas pilots the Olds down the streets, moving through a series of increasingly degenerating neighborhoods, coming at last to the sprawling warehouse district. EXT. ABANDONED FACTORY - DAY The Olds approaches a mammoth industrial facility that's been cordoned off by cyclone fencing and razor wire. Ultra-violet floodlights illuminate the area, while an army of security cameras keep a watchful eye. INT. JEHONAS' OLDS - DAY Jehonas glances at Buffy, silently cursing himself for giving into his emotions. He hits a remote secured to the sun visor. EXT. JEHONAS' OLDS/ABANDONED FACTORY - DAY A gate grinds open. We follow the Olds as it cruises around the back of the building, heading down a concrete loading ramp. At the bottom of the ramp, a heavy iron door rises. Jehonas' Olds disappears into the darkness. INT. ABANDONED FACTORY - INDUSTRIAL ELEVATOR - DAY More UV lights flicker on. We're in a massive loading elevator which HUMS as it ascends, eventually reaching its destination with a BOOMING CLANG. The doors at the rear glide open. Jehonas guides the Olds out. INT. ABANDONED FACTORY - WHISTLER'S WORKSHOP - DAY Set up in an old ironworks, the place looks like a cross between an auto junkyard and an armory. Equipment is strewn everywhere -- lathes, mills, old furnaces, gutted vehicles, an ad hoc surgical theater -- all of it jerry-rigged in a brutal, oily-tech. In the backdrop, Pink Floyd blaring over speakers and amps. The Olds pulls to a stop. Jehonas climbs out. JEHONAS Whistler!! He opens the passenger door, checks on Buffy. JEHONAS Whistler! Sees she's still breathing, he pulls Buffy out, carries her in his arms. No response from anyone. JEHONAS Karen! A young woman emerges from the worktables beyond. Karen Walker (30s, beautiful, brown-haired) in a white lab coat reaches Jehonas. She looks over Buffy. We hear the music stop. KAREN How long? JEHONAS Not long. WHISTLER (O.S.) Are we bringing home strays now? Abraham Whistler (60s) hobbles out of the shadows, leaning heavily on a cane. Gimlet-eyed, bitter, his right leg encased in a metal brace. Though his face is lined with wrinkles and his hair has long since gone gray, we sense he could kick the living shit out of any man half his age. JEHONAS She's been bitten. WHISTLER You should've killed her, then. JEHONAS She hasn't turned yet. We can help her. Jehonas and Whistler stare each other down. Finally, Whistler turns and heads over to the operating theater. Karen rushes by to grab equipment from nearby. WHISTLER No promises. You watch her close. She starts to turn, you finish her off -- (beat) -- or I will. Jehonas nods, lays Buffy down on the operating table. Whistler turns on an overhead light. Buffy is sheathed in sweat, ashen. She's lost a lot of blood. Karen snaps on a pair of surgical gloves, probes the wound in Karen's neck with an antiseptic swab -- there's capillary damage around the perimeter of the wound, the tissue looks bruised, gangrenous. KAREN Localized necrosis. She's borderline. Another hour and she'd be well into the change. Whistler goes to retrieve a small bottle nearby, notices Buffy now under better light. He frowns. WHISTLER Another young one. Who's the culprit? JEHONAS Quinn. WHISTLER Frost's little errand boy? Did you get him? JEHONAS (reluctant beat) No. He got away. WHISTLER Too bad. Whistler cracks open a smelling salt capsule and waves under Buffy's nose. As she starts to stir -- WHISTLER Can you hear me? Buffy's eyes open wide. She's scared, disoriented -- BUFFY Wha -- ? WHISTLER You've been bitten by a vampire. We've got to try and burn out the venom, just like a rattlesnake bite -- Karen reaches for a massive syringe filled with caustic-looking fluid. Buffy sees the syringe, resists. WHISTLER Hold her. Jehonas forces Buffy back. Karen readies the syringe. KAREN Listen close, I'm going to inject you with an antidote made from allium setivum -- garlic. This is going to hurt. A lot. Karen sinks the needle into Buffy's neck and depresses the plunger. "Hurt" doesn't begin to describe what Buffy experiences next. Imagine undergoing childbirth while someone pumps battery acid through your veins. Buffy SHRIEKS, her body going into uncontrolled paroxysms. The wound on her neck begins to smoke as the antidote attacks the poisonous vampire venom. Buffy clutches one of the metallic bars on the bed. To Whistler's and Karen's astonishment, she bends it out of place. Whistler looks up at Jehonas as if asking him a silent question. Jehonas nods and looks back down on Buffy. She stares up at Jehonas with unflinching intensity, like a child desperately searching for assurance. ON JEHONAS, uncomfortable playing the roll of nursemaid. He'd like nothing more than to be done with this, but the only thing he can do is hold Buffy while she rides out the seizures. BUFFY'S POV: growing darker by the moment. The last thing she sees is Jehonas staring down at her -- then the night closes in. ON JEHONAS, He continues to watch with silence as Buffy starts to ease down a bit from her rapid convulsions. KAREN We won't know if the medication will affect her in time. I'm guessing she's about fifty-fifty. You okay? He shakes off a feeling and nods, he starts to head off. JEHONAS How's your research coming? KAREN (exhales) Nothing major, yet. But we're making some progress. Don't worry. She tries to smile as assurance for Jehonas. He looks back at her and nods. WHISTLER Another day, another person. They keep getting younger and younger. WE PAN BACK as Jehonas leaves. Whistler goes back to work, pumping up the volume of his stereo once more. DISSOLVE TO: INT. HOUSE OF EREBUS - MEETING ROOM - DAY CLOSE ON a monitor featuring footage taken at the vampire club massacre. Jehonas turns and stares into the camera, fires his shotgun. The screen cuts to static. A WITHERED, CLAWED HAND moves into frame, holding a remote. With a tap of a button, the monitor goes dark. PULL BACK TO REVEAL a large, minimalist conference room -- the House of Erebus, seat of the New York vampire race's legislative assembly. Gathered around a massive table are the VAMPIRE ELDERS of Erebus, representing a "rainbow" of racial colors -- names like PALLINTINE, VON ESPER, ASHE, BAVA. Two of them, the FAUSTINAS, are identical twins -- lethal-looking women with alabaster skin. Chilled carafes filled with blood are situated along the table. From time to time, a member will pour themselves a glass. At the head of the table is GAETANO DRAGONETTI, current vampire "Prince". Blood-red eyes, parchment skin stretched over skull- like features. Incalculably ancient, but still deadly and virile as a viper. DRAGONETTI Jehonas. The Day-walker. Once again adopting the role of Judge, Jury and Executioner. (beat) How many died? ELDER PALLINTINE, a 300-year old vampire dressed in a 20s three- piece suit, Dragonetti's right hand, answers. PALLINTINE We don't have an exact count as of yet. Apparently, he used a lot of silver. Dragonetti, we can't afford -- DRAGONETTI Send him in. INT. HOUSE OF EREBUS - OUTSIDE MEETING ROOM - DAY A LONE MAN in a black leather coat is busy with a cigarette in hand. DEACON FROST, a mere "Underlord" in the vampire hierarchy, steps forward. Strikingly handsome, younger, less conservative than his superiors, fueled with a passionate intensity. Amongst the vampire community he's known as an agitator. He's also the vampire equivalent of a racial supremacist, Sabbat attitude. In their world, they are divided between them and the Camarilla. The latter of the two seeks to live in peaceful co-existence with humans. The guard emerges from a door and Frost turns to him. VAMPIRE GUARD Deacon Frost. You can come in now. INT. MEETING ROOM -- LATER KOBEJITSU, the asian vampire and one of the oldest, is very ticked at Frost. We can see he is some form of an oriental elder, if not for the three-inch long talon-like finger nails, and a myriad of tattoos of his clan on his aged forehead. He uses the "secret tongue" -- the ancient vampire language which utilizes consonants human vocal chords are incapable of reproducing. KOBEJITSU (subtitled, taking umbrage) Your behavior is a disgrace to the Camarilla, Frost. If we break the treaty -- if we gather in numbers -- the human politicians will make our lives very difficult. You would understand this if you weren't so young and simple minded -- FROST takes a drag of his cigarette, seemingly ignoring everything that's directed at him. KOBEJITSU (subtitled, vampire tongue) Don't we have enough trouble from Jehonas? PALLINTINE These nightclubs of yours are dangerous. FROST Are they? PALLINTINE They draw needless attention to our kind. FROST What do you think I am? Stupid? You think I let Jehonas shoot up my clubs for the fuck of it? BAVA It would only be a matter of time, Deacon Frost. This Raquel of yours has been a center of unneeded attention. Bava takes a file nearby, opens it to reveal large glossy photos. He takes them one by one, tossing them to Frost. We see they are of Dennis. BAVA (CONT'D) Especially to the young and the easily traceable like this Dennis she seduced last night. You are fortunate Jehonas has erased any memory of the event. If he were to -- FROST Oh, so suddenly Jehonas is a good Samaritan here. PALLINTINE Regardless, we do not make any unnecessary contacts with the humans. You know our policy. FROST Your policy. Not mine. This causes quite a stir amongst the other vampires. Frost might as well have slapped Dragonetti in the face. DRAGONETTI Our livelihood depends on our ability to blend in -- (beat) -- and our discretion. FROST Maybe it's about time we forgot about discretion. Look at us. Why are we hiding from the humans, huh? We should be ruling them. Not running around making back alley treaties with them. For fuck's sake, these people are our food. Not our allies. Dragonetti looks apoplectic. PALLINTINE You're out of line, Frost. FROST Am I? Or am I just the first to say out loud what we've all been thinking? DRAGONETTI The shadows suit us, Frost. We have existed this way for thousands of years. Who are you to challenge our ways? Frost quiets down and looks at Dragonetti with a gaze. He gets up and strolls leisurely around the table, watching over the elders. FROST I'll tell you who I am. Someone who's sick of living off scraps. The coming of age belongs to us! DRAGONETTI You're not the only childe with this vision. So typical of the younger generations, how do you say in the mortal words? is getting old. You are Neonate. When you've become wizened, then perhaps you will understand. FROST Like it matters? DRAGONETTI For over 400 years I have served this House, building it into the financial power it is today. So has every member here before me -- Frost stops and sits down on the table near Dragonetti. A show of defiance. DRAGONETTI But you, Frost? You're merely an infant. FROST I'm a vampire. You're a vampire. The world belongs to us, not the humans. You know that. Dragonetti looks back at the House members. DRAGONETTI Do we have any other business to discuss? PALLINTINE Well, there's a matter of our off-shore accounts. We're having some trouble -- DRAGONETTI Have you made the transfers? FROST Careful, old fang. You might wake up one day and find yourself extinct. Frost glares at Dragonetti and calmly exits the room. The elders watch, then murmur to themselves. They are obviously very agitated with Frost's demonstration of rebellion. Dragonetti looks over his House, then FOCUSES on one particular who is seated on the far end. DRAGONETTI Your child is becoming more of a nuisance. A curtain of silence falls over the table as they turn to that particular somebody. The somebody is a vampire -- a female vampire or, a SIREN -- and in a clear and seductive voice, FEMALE VAMPIRE ELDER (O.S.) A childe at least with an ambition -- DRAGONETTI He draws from your tainted bloodline. I hope you understand fully our risk of accepting your kind into our House, and fully appreciate that we have chosen to accept you, last of Tzimisce clan. It was your wish to change, to make amends of the past. FEMALE VAMPIRE ELDER (O.S.) My sincerest gratitude -- DRAGONETTI Teach him properly, the rules of the Masquerade. I've always entrusted my elders to care for their brood. I know you are young like Frost, but don't allow that -- FEMALE VAMPIRE ELDER (O.S.) Oh don't go giving me the younger generation speech again, Gaetano. WE PAN BACK from Dragonetti and across the table, pass several Elders, to a high chair. We finally see her. She's a work of beauty. A woman (blonde, very beautiful, late 20s maybe) sitting comfortably and admiring her view. In her hand is a slender smoking pipe. FEMALE VAMPIRE ELDER At times I would even think of it as a compliment. We are so immersed in our isolation from the rest of the world we forget who we are, who we really are. DRAGONETTI We will discuss no more of this. Deal with Frost or I will be forced to deal with him. EXT. CHINATOWN STREETS - DAY Jehonas makes his way down a street lined with vending stalls -- passing MERCHANTS peddling exotic vegetables and cheap curios, butcher shops with rows of roast ducks in the window, tyro GANG- BANGERS lounging at the entrance to a video arcade. JEHONAS' POV: Even though the streets are crowded, the people seem to make way for him, avoiding eye-contact. Jehonas turns, ducking into the doorway of a hole-in-the-wall herbalist shop. INT. HERBALIST SHOP - DAY A bell atop the door JINGLES, announcing Jehonas' arrival. We're in a fairly lit room filled with baskets and bottle-lined shelves featuring things like "Toad Spleen Extract" and "Barking Deer Wine". Joss sticks burn, sending wispy tendrils of incense into the air. At the back of the shop, a YOUNG CHINESE MAN in a cardigan sits in front of a battered television, watching a boxing match. JEHONAS How's it going, Kam? KAM (re: calendar) You're a week early. JEHONAS I was in the neighborhood. Jehonas stops a moment to check out the wares. He notices one particular BOTTLE filled with a misty whitish liquid and picks it up. ANGLE ON JEHONAS' HAND as he looks over it. ESSENCE OF GARLIC. He sets it back down. JEHONAS Karen says I'm building up a resistance to the serum. He takes out a small LEATHER POUCH from his coat and tosses it to Kam. The young man nods and walks into a back room. Jehonas follows. INT. HERBALIST SHOP - BACK ROOM - DAY KAM I was afraid that might happen. ANGLE ON COUNTER, as Kam tosses the pouch on the counter top. The contents spill. Various expensive watches of all sorts - Rolexes, Omegas, Hamiltons, etc. -- along with crisp rolls of bills are seen. Kam inspects one of the watches, turns back to Jehonas. KAM Damn. You let me into your dough and I'll live happily ever after. JEHONAS Now all secrets need be revealed. KAM Your growing immunity isn't a secret. JEHONAS Maybe it's time to start exploring other alternatives. KAM There's only one alternative to the serum. Jehonas nods. They both know what that "alternative" is. Kam hands Jehonas a leather valise. He opens it - its lined with tiny ampoules of scarlet-colored serum. He pulls one out, holds it up to the light. JEHONAS Yeah. I know. Jehonas closes the valise and tucks it inside his jacket.
