Towards morning. Chapter 6.doc

Hantek staggered out of the bar cursing. The Kridjatori had forgotten he was on Earth and had made the mistake of trying to lord it over a couple of vampires, starting a fight he was too drunk to finish and suffering the indignity of being unceremoniously ejected by the huge Hukan demon who acted as bouncer. His three fellow Kridjatori had not stood up for him, as Kridjatori should, but even declined to join him in leaving to find another place to drink. So now he was left alone to find his way back to the run down warehouse and the obnoxious and dangerous Strega and his equally obnoxious and dangerous pet. He cursed his lousy luck, the vampires, his erstwhile friends and the two slavers as he staggered along the dark alleyways of the increasingly dilapidated dockside area. The air, cooler and less smoky than that of the bar but by no means qualifying for the term 'fresh', seemed to increase the effects of the alcohol rather than lessen it. He staggered outrageously as he endeavoured to cope with drunkenness and the not too perfect adaptation to the lower gravity of this world.

His increased speed gave him a feeling of invulnerability from would be attackers and when he caught sight of a lone woman turning into the alley a block ahead of him, he thought his night had just gotten better. So far they had not captured even one human woman he could have vented his fury on; Hadretz and Strega more interested in the so called Slayers they had heard of than in the more mundane and fragile women to be found. What fools they were to give any credence to this silly tale of 'superwomen'! This idiotic fable had led to them waiting for Hadretz to return from seeking out the mythical Slayerswhile the rest of them sat about wasting time when they could have already had a half dozen women and demons collected and a guaranteed profit in hand.

Every one knew humans were weak, easily broken, and their women only tolerable here on their own planet where they withstood the 'pleasure' he sought from them for much longer than they could on Kridjator. Even here they were blind, witless creatures. The woman ahead had not shown the slightest awareness of the danger she was in. Why, most of them refused to acknowledge that they shared the world with demons! No wonder they were so easily captured; all arrogance and superiority with nothing in them at all to justify their conceit. Well, here was one who would learn the truth about herself and her world the hard way; only a few feet more and she would walk into a patch of dark shadow she would never emerge from alive.

Buffy watched the Kridjatori stagger after Dawn and fought the urge to race after him and attack. Beside her Spike could tell what she was thinking and murmured,

"Bit would be furious if you tried to interfere. She knows what she's doing. Just give her a chance to show off to you a little."

"Showing off might just get her killed! I can't believe I agreed to let her do this. If anything happens to her .. "

Her voice shook at the thought of losing her again.

Spike gave her a gentle nudge,

"So now you know how Joyce felt every time you left the house."

"Maybe; but she also knew how well trained I was! Dawnie hasn't .. "

She noticed the raised eye-brow and, reluctantly, had to concede the point.

"Okay, so she can fight! But that doesn't make it any easier just to stand by, you know."

"I know. I almost got myself killed watching out for her when I should have been paying attention to the bugger who was trying to take my head off with his bare hands! Here we go! Let's get closer to the action."

They moved swiftly and silently behind the Kridjatori.

Hantek couldn't understand what went wrong. He came at the woman with inhuman speed but instead of the shoulder he reached out to grab he found a sharp elbow hammered into his midriff with enough force to make him back pedal gasping for breath. Recovering instantly he leapt at her and she was no longer there; instead he staggered from a vicious booted toe kick to the side of his knee. Sobering rapidly, he bellowed; the woman thrust stiff fingers hard into his throat, cutting off the noise.

In disbelief he heard her speak in Kridjatori-common, the slave tongue.

"What is this cesspit that dares hinder me in my own place? The stench of cheap alcohol tells me that it is some lower slime that forgets itself!"

"Slave bitch! I shall kill you slowly so that your screams may be a meagre apology for your foul presumption! I, Hantek of the clan of Sarnert declare this to be so!"

Dawn kept moving, circling the befuddled Kridjatori, vaguely aware of Buffy and Spike watching from close by but focusing on the creature in front of her. That he was drunk and still unused to judging his coordination correctly gave her a slight advantage that distraction would so easily destroy. A sudden thought made her grin wickedly at him and she drew herself to her full height and manoeuvred her opponent and herself into the position she needed. A tiny movement of her head allowed a shaft of bluish neon light to fall across her scarred cheek and the words she spoke rolled out of her and echoed off the alley walls with the malevolence of a gypsy curse.

"I am Dorhn; She who slays the last dark of night! I am Dorhn; She who creates and destroys! I am Dorhn; She who has the power to bring order out of chaos and chaos out of order! What have you to do with Me or Mine?"

Hantek was shocked to his knees. As he knelt shaking and confused, Dawn set the point of a black-bladed, long-bladed knife to his throat, making sure he saw the blade first. His eyes widened and he swallowed, the knife tip nicking the skin of his throat so that he could feel a trickle of blood against his flesh. Buffy and Spike watched, eyes almost as wide and confused as the Kridjatori.

Spike muttered to himself but loud enough for Buffy to catch it,

"What the bloody, buggery hell is she playing at? He's almost pissing himself! He has pissed himself!"

Buffy muttered an irrelevant,

"What is it with vamps and that disgusting sniffing thing?"

Whatever Dawn was doing was having a hypnotic affect on the filthy beast. Buffy decided that her sister looked, no was, terrifying. The blue light, the scarred cheek, the confident stance of a fighter who had the upper hand, Dawn was all this and more. Buffy opened her mouth to speak but the Kridjatori began to babble and gush and Dawn's face and body grew rigid with shock and, increasingly, with fury. Finally the beast ran out of answers and Dawn ran out of questions. Almost casually the girl stepped up behind the Kridjatori, who stayed as still as a rabbit hypnotised by a snake, and cut his throat with one sure sweep of the knife, thrusting the jerking body away and avoiding the jet of blood.

She bent over and wiped the knife clean of blood on the Kridjatori's shirt and when she stood and turned to face them, she said thoughtfully,

"I forgot about Strega's damn bear-cat! I'm gonna need a lot of water to make my scent hard to follow."

As she looked about Spike pointed towards the end of the alley,

"There's a fire hydrant. That do the job, Bit?"

"Uh-huh. We should be able to kick it over and .."

A grunt and a creak of fractured steel and the jet of water fountained high into the air and poured on the body in its pool of blood.

Dawn nodded to herself in satisfaction and gave the others a slight smile.

"We seem to have a small problem, folks. The slavers have heard about all the slayers and it seems that Hadretz has gone off to capture one or two so he and Strega can decide if they really are as tough as they're cracked up to be. Buffy, you and Giles need to contact those closest to us and tell them to get the hell out andyesterday would have been way safer! Then we're gonna need the witch to get her powerful butt to L.A. to help with the warlock."

She shook her head, kicked an empty coke can almost thirty feet into the air and muttered,

"This is just great. Witches, warlocks, Watchers, Slayers, vamps, Kridjatori and a damn bear-cat! Shit, I knew I should've gone back to bead when the tooth paste fell off of my brush this morning! That's never a good sign."

Just a quick note to say thanks to everybody for the nice reviews. I haven't been writing long, as I'm sure you can tell, and I know I'm a bit slow but I really do want to do it right, so Ihope you will all be a little patient with me please. This chapter took longer because of a nasty detour to the dentist butchapters 7 and 8 are almost ready.