4.

The Good Vampire

Considering how warm the day had been, the night was cool, mist rose from Jackie's mouth as she breathed.

It was starting to get darker early now; the light of the day was already disappearing from the horizon.

Walking home from another long day of school wasn't too bad, it gave her time to think and as a plus she didn't live that far from school.

Still, she willed herself to get home quickly, she hated to admit it but sometimes the evening scared her.

The darkness of the sky showed no stars at this time, yet a round full moon shone down on the ground, making eerie shadows of trees, their branches looking like long bony fingers reaching out to Jackie.

She shuddered at the thought and hurried on, pulling her jacket closer around herself.

Snap

Jackie spun around wildly. No one was in sight. Could there have been someone following her that had stood on a twig?

A few cars swept by, their headlight illuminating the footpath where she walked.

No one was hidden, just long fearsome shadows, dark and creepy.

Cautiously, Jackie moved on, her heartbeat quickening as her steps did.

It was nothing, she told herself, her own pitiful confidence not fooling her, it was nothing.

She listened carefully, aware of any movement around her. Her muscles tensed.

Snap

She quickened her pace, her heart really racing now.

Crunch, crunch.

Footsteps, crunching on leaves, slow and even sounding dreadfully close behind her.

Fearing the worst, Jackie broke into a run, daring a look over her shoulder as she tore down the path.

The path was empty.

Jackie slowed to a stop, staring back down the suburban street path, feeling a fool.

How old am I? She questioned herself, ashamed of her stupidly and how immature she was acting; glad no one was around to see her display of being an idiot.

Shrugging, she turned to continue her walk and ran straight into someone standing right in front of her.

Jackie was so surprised and frightened she fell straight over shrieking and landing on her backside in the middle of the footpath.

She wriggled backwards, feeling as if her heart had leaped into her mouth. She glared up at the person who had scared her wits out of her.

Her obstructor stood above her, he hadn't fallen over, or in fact appeared to have moved at all.

His hands were deep in the pockets of his long leather coat that flapped slightly in whatever breeze had picked up.

Dressed completely in black, Jackie could see a dark shirt and leather pants beneath his coat.

The moonlight shone off his white-blonde hair, his pale face held high cheekbones, making him look gaunt and skeleton like.

His presence, even without saying anything or wielding any weapon was fearsome. His icy-blue eyes seemed to bore a hole right through Jackie as he looked down at her.

To Jackie's surprise he held out a hand to her.

"You right?" he questioned without apologising, his strong English accent standing out as unusual to Jackie, not being used to it.

Unsure of whether she should actually take this stranger's hand she got up on her own account brushing herself off as she stood before him.

A little embarrassed, Jackie was eager to get out of there.

"Excuse me," she muttered brushing past the man as she walked past him.

"Wait, you're not just gonna blow me off like that are ya?" he quickly called after her, making Jackie stop in her tracks and turn back.

She turned to face this man again. She did not feel she was the one to apologise for what had happened but did not want to start a fight.

"I'm very sorry," she said, using her best and sweetest voice she could muster up.

Spike frowned; he'd meant to provoke her to make her get angry. He'd been expecting, perhaps even hoping that she'd have turned around and told him to sod off.

"I'm very sorry," in a little girly voice was not the way to win battles, this girl was not tough at all. What kind of Slayer had he come across?

He looked her up and down. Kind of short, not that he minded, anyone shorter than he, he considered a plus seeing half the time he felt as though he had to look up at people.

Her long brown hair fell about halfway down her back in a pony tail. She blinked her blue grey eyes innocently and him, as her cheeks reddened he realised that she'd become embarrassed at his staring.

She got embarrassed also? Could this girl even be a Slayer? Had he gotten it wrong after all?

Spike was about to open his mouth to say something else to provoke her into doing something else when he realised she was no longer in front of him.

He turned and saw her walking briskly off down the path behind him.

He ran after her.

"Wait, wait!" he called after her, jogging to catch up.

"I apologised okay," she snapped walking quicker still.

"I don't care 'bout that," he said, brushing the topic to the side.

"Then why are you still following me?" she asked, stopping and turning to face him.

Spike, still puffing was not sure what to say. Blurting out that she was a Vampire Slayer would make him sound insane.

He said the only thing he could think of saying.

"You're in danger, love."

She looked at him curiously for a beat, her head cocked on the side as if he was a puzzle she couldn't finish.

"You don't even know me," she said her tone dangerously soft and walked off again.

"Oh yeah!" cried Spike after her. "Bet you're wondering why you've become stronger all of a sudden, 'aint ya?"

Jackie stopped in her tracks. He'd read her like a book, a perfect stranger who she'd never met before in her life.

"It's not every teenager who can crumple a car with a football can they?" he mused.

The girl, although metres away from him, seemed to radiate heat like anger at his statement.

"You've been watching me, haven't you?" she accused, anger flowing into her face, making her turn a red that was recognisable even in the darkness.

Spike cautiously chose not to answer this question.

"Look, I know why you've suddenly got all this strength, and I'm here to help you."

Spike winced at his own words, especially 'help'.

She looked at him and uttered only one word.

"Why?"

Spike took a long, deep breath.

"You're a Vampire Slayer."

Spike recoiled slightly, expecting she's yell, or perhaps walk away. However, none of these reactions were hers.

She screamed, high pitched, fear in her eyes, replacing the anger that had been there not so long ago. It was then she turned and fled for her life.

Spike looked after her, puzzled at why she had seemed so distraught.

"What the…" he started to say, beginning to walk after her and nearly bowled over in the process.

A fearsome creature had pushed past Spike, intent on running after the girl, Spike's Slayer. So, she'd been screaming after seeing the Vampire, behind Spike.

Cursing, Spike hurled after the Slayer and this unknown Vampire. He couldn't bear to think what trouble he'd get into if he returned home without what he'd promised to bring back. Most of all, he didn't want this girl to die, whether Slayer or not, she was an innocent and didn't deserve to have her blood drained.

Spike ran, as fast as he could to the unknown Vampire, whose face was fearsome. His forehead had crumpled together, his eyes a fierce yellow with two fangs protruding from his mouth.

He bared them at the Slayer, inches away from swiping at her still screaming body.

Spike, desperate, hurled himself at the Vampire, tackling him to the ground in the process. Pinning his arms beneath him, Spike managed to get in a good punch in the head before he was thrown off and punched in the chin in return.

Upon being hit, Spike felt his own Vampire tendencies kick in, turning his eyes yellow and gathering his forehead together, bumping his smooth skin and his handsome face into an ugly, inhuman monster.

Spike lashed forward, growling like a beast as he leaped at the Vampire, punching him hard in the stomach with such force that it would have knocked the wind out of the Vampire, had he had breath. It didn't stop it from hurting though.

With his moment of hesitation, Spike looked around, searching for his Slayer, who had run for her life, terrified at the sight of a Vampire. He spotted her, not far off, running into a nearby house. At least she was safe.

Due to Spike taking time to look around, the other Vampire had struggled back up; head butting Spike and sending him to the ground.

Punching Spike in the face hard a couple of times, the coward of the Vampire finally ran off into the darkness, leaving Spike in pain on the ground.

He managed to pull himself together, cursing himself for being beaten so easily and for letting his guard down.

Brushing himself off, Spike made his way over to the house she had run to, presumably her own as she had managed to unlock the door.

She was standing in the doorway, looking as if she was about to wet herself.

Seeing Spike, she screamed again, the high pitched wail making Spike's ears hurt.

"You can stop making all the racket!" he shouted over her, surprised that the neighbouring houses hadn't come to see what the commotion was.

She stopped, surprisingly sniffling.

"You…he!' she stuttered, unable to find the right words and not even in fact able to string a sentence together.

"You're a Vampire!" she cried, pointing at him.

Spike, realising that his face was still contorted with his Vampire image, shook his head a little. His fearsome features slowly moulded back into his smooth features.

She did not seem to calm, as his features slid back into his human like ones. Spike tried to move towards her but was abruptly stopped, the invisible force field in the doorway blocking his path. He grumbled aloud.

The curiousness of the Slayer seemed to stop her from being frightened anymore.

"Why can't you get in?" she asked, making sure that he couldn't possibly reach her.

Spike, sighing, kicked in an annoyed fashion at the deck before replying.

"I can't come in unless I'm invited," he said.

Seeing her still puzzled look he explained further.

"It's a Vampire thing."

Although surprised, she seemed somewhat satisfied, realising that she had the upper hand in the situation.

"Alright then, as long as you're stuck there right now, you can answer some questions."

Spike, although annoyed at her, said nothing, allowing her to continue, something he decided, he should really stop doing, it only led to bad news.

"Why did you save me back there?" she asked slowly.

Spike felt this answer was obvious, yet he was used to women being ungrateful. It happened back home a lot.

"If I didn't save you, you'd probably be a bloodless body by now!"

He gave her a glare.

"You're a Vampire, why didn't you kill me?" she asked bluntly. Spike felt it was an insult.

"Not all Vampires are mindless killing machines," he said huffily, turning his nose up at her.

She crossed her arms across her chest, shifting her weight from one foot to another.

"So, you're like a good Vampire or something?"

Spike winced at the word 'good', but nodded.

"Something like that."

Seeming finally satisfied, she stuck out her hand to him.

"Jackie," she said, introducing herself.

Spike took her hand and gripped it briefly.

"Spike," he established himself in return.

"I invite you in then," Jackie said, satisfied, stepping back to allow him in.

Spike, the good Vampire entered the Vampire Slayer's house.