Title: Damned of the Voyage
Author: Jake
Summary: Before there was Buffy, people just dealt.
Rating: PG-13 for violence, death.
Disclaimer: The Buffyverse belongs to Joss Whedon. This little corner of it belongs to me.
The head of security was feeling a mixture of intense emotions. Chief amongst them were hatred and fear. Hatred for the stealthy monster that had claimed a third victim in the past nine days. This time it was a child, defenseless like the two elderly victims before her. The demon was preying on the weakest of them.
But his fear was the greatest emotion. The long trip had been entirely uneventful until the last stopover. That had to be where the monster stowed away amongst them. But how? And where? Answers were nowhere in sight.
It was clearly a vampire feeding on them. The security force had searched everyone and everything. All the voyagers, especially the newcomers from the stopover, had been seen in daylight and had been exposed to garlic and to numerous religious symbols. All the large packages had been searched for stowaways. Even the wealthy among them had all cooperated fully without rancor.
The day after the blood-drained remains of the pre-teen girl were found and cremated, the voyagers arrived at a village that specialized in serving travelers. The security chief knew this village well, and he also knew the wizard who lived here. He told the voyage captain what he intended to purchase from the wizard and the captain readily approved the expense.
That night, the villagers and the travelers all shared a big feast. As he had arranged with the captain beforehand, the security chief along with his men and the wizard left between meal courses to go cast the spell in darkness away from the village.
They were shocked when they heard screams from the village. The feasters were terrified. The wizard's reveal spell had found the monster. It was amongst them all along. The security force raced back to the feast. The monster's human disguise was stripped away by the wizard's magic. One of the village warriors had run a wooden spear through the demon's chest but apparently missed the heart. He was killed immediately afterwards. But when the security force ran their own wooden spears through the monster's chest, there was no question about hitting the heart. This was no ordinary vampire; there was no dust. The demon grabbed another weaponless spearman and ripped his throat out. Now human bodies were piling up.
One of the security force used torches to set the demon's clothing afire. The clothing burned but the flames did not stop the monster at all, and the torch wielder died horribly. In desperation, the security chief drew his sword. When his men distracted the demon with another pointless spear assault, he swung his sword from behind. Only then did the screams die down. Only then did his men stop dying.
He stared down in wonder at the once again human and beautiful severed head of Amara.
FIN
Notes: This is another story in the "Official Sponsor" series, based entirely on my fic THE GEM OF AMARA.
Author: Jake
Summary: Before there was Buffy, people just dealt.
Rating: PG-13 for violence, death.
Disclaimer: The Buffyverse belongs to Joss Whedon. This little corner of it belongs to me.
The head of security was feeling a mixture of intense emotions. Chief amongst them were hatred and fear. Hatred for the stealthy monster that had claimed a third victim in the past nine days. This time it was a child, defenseless like the two elderly victims before her. The demon was preying on the weakest of them.
But his fear was the greatest emotion. The long trip had been entirely uneventful until the last stopover. That had to be where the monster stowed away amongst them. But how? And where? Answers were nowhere in sight.
It was clearly a vampire feeding on them. The security force had searched everyone and everything. All the voyagers, especially the newcomers from the stopover, had been seen in daylight and had been exposed to garlic and to numerous religious symbols. All the large packages had been searched for stowaways. Even the wealthy among them had all cooperated fully without rancor.
The day after the blood-drained remains of the pre-teen girl were found and cremated, the voyagers arrived at a village that specialized in serving travelers. The security chief knew this village well, and he also knew the wizard who lived here. He told the voyage captain what he intended to purchase from the wizard and the captain readily approved the expense.
That night, the villagers and the travelers all shared a big feast. As he had arranged with the captain beforehand, the security chief along with his men and the wizard left between meal courses to go cast the spell in darkness away from the village.
They were shocked when they heard screams from the village. The feasters were terrified. The wizard's reveal spell had found the monster. It was amongst them all along. The security force raced back to the feast. The monster's human disguise was stripped away by the wizard's magic. One of the village warriors had run a wooden spear through the demon's chest but apparently missed the heart. He was killed immediately afterwards. But when the security force ran their own wooden spears through the monster's chest, there was no question about hitting the heart. This was no ordinary vampire; there was no dust. The demon grabbed another weaponless spearman and ripped his throat out. Now human bodies were piling up.
One of the security force used torches to set the demon's clothing afire. The clothing burned but the flames did not stop the monster at all, and the torch wielder died horribly. In desperation, the security chief drew his sword. When his men distracted the demon with another pointless spear assault, he swung his sword from behind. Only then did the screams die down. Only then did his men stop dying.
He stared down in wonder at the once again human and beautiful severed head of Amara.
FIN
Notes: This is another story in the "Official Sponsor" series, based entirely on my fic THE GEM OF AMARA.