Chapter 23

June 17, 2003

Dani needed out of her house. She wasn't sure why, but she just needed, to run and stretch her muscles. She had tried training in the basement, but for some reason it wasn't enough this evening. She went to her room and slipped on her dark-gray baggy hip hugging sweat pants. She rolled the top elastic fabric of her sweats twice and then slipped on her black tank top; once she had it on she took another look at it and realized it was Will's. She just shrugged, not caring; she had her black sports bra on underneath it so she would be fine. She slipped on her black sketchers and silently slipped out her window. It was times like these that she was happy; she had inherited most of her fathers' vampire abilities after he was turned. She landed on her feet flawlessly and stood up straight and began casually walking as though she hadn't just dropped from the third story window. She sighed and rolled her shoulders and stretched her neck as the feeling of confinement rolled off of her. The night had been her best friend, other than Will, since she was six.

She didn't even stop when she felt her father move in behind her. It was then that she realized why she had liked night so much. Having the darkness envelope her in a caring, protective, embrace was symbolic for her fathers comfort. Her father was a man of the night, and it was the night that gave her the feeling of complete and utter peace. She back flipped to stretch her muscles some more, and was glad she had worn her hair up into a ponytail, she could see and didn't have to rely on her senses to see how mesmerized her father was by her effortless abilities.

She stopped dead in her tracks when she came upon the spot where her grandmother should have been buried. She began to panic and ran through the entire cemetery looking for the headstone. She put her vampire sight into overdrive as she kicked down the doors of crypts looking for Joyce's final resting place. Finally she gave up and shoved her father, who had effortlessly kept up with her pace, up against the wall of a crypt and ground out her question through clenched teeth. "Why isn't she buried in the cemetery? Where is she?" she nearly growled at him. Spike looked at her with awe and confusion. He had no idea how she knew he had been there, and he had no idea who or what the hell he was talking about. " What are you talking about, love? Who?"

Her mind began running a mile a minute. She was born in 1886, things changed because her mum and dad were married and had had her and her three brothers. She looked up at the modern version of her father, with wide frightened eyes. A look, had anyone else in her family seen, would think the world was coming to an end. Not much scared her but this, this terrified her. She loosened her hold on him and moved backwards against the opposite wall.

Spike looked at the girl with concern evident in his eyes. He had never seen anyone look so scared and for some reason it hit him really hard, almost like he had a reason to protect her from all her fears that shown so clearly in her eyes. "Luv?" "She's not going to know everything. It's changed from what she knows. But her memories were always changing. We're bleeding fucked!" she ended in a desperate tone. Spike looked at her oddly for a moment. He had heard her speak before; it was almost as though her fear had let her strong English accent escape. "Your English." he said, completely stating the obvious. " Born anyway. Grew up in Cantaria," she answered him with a shaky voice. "The dimension that is slowly coming to extinction? That Cantaria?" he asked in surprise. She nodded casually before answering. "It's on its way to a revolution, but yeah that one. We got back here about three months ago." she inwardly winced as she realized she had let that last bit of info slip. If the others found out soon who they were, her mum was in deep shit with Aunt Buffy. Especially, since they had gotten back to this dimension a full 2 months before 16-year-old Dawn was even sent back to 1880. Luckily he seemed to have momentarily missed that part of her confession. " How can you be sure Cantaria is on its way to a revolution?" he asked, doubt completely evident in his eyes, facial expression, and tone. "I head the military and the resistance against the invaders of Cantaria," she stated matter-of-factly. She loved the look she saw in his eyes. Maybe it wasn't the proud father look she had wanted all her life, but it was close.

Spike looked at her in awe. She was just a teenager, yet she already had one hell of a hard job a head of her. " And your how old?" She couldn't help but chuckle. " 15. The job isn't that hard. Especially when battle tactics and battle itself comes naturally to a person. I've been doing this since I was eleven. My mum didn't like it too much, but she knew I had to do it. -Now my turn at 20 beggaring questions! Do you and you friends always fight what goes bump in the night?"

Spike was about to answer when it was obvious that they had both felt someone's presence. He wasn't sure about it, he couldn't tell what it was, but she didn't seem to be put out by the presence, she actually seemed to be happy about it. She pushed open the crypt door and stopped dead in her tracks. He followed and saw Connor beating the shit out of a blond boy a little younger than her.

Dani growled as she saw Will getting his ass kicked. He had this thing about fighting humans, he just wouldn't do it. She ran full speed and caught the boy's ankle mid kick and spun him to the ground, twisting his ankle in the process. He looked at her in surprise as she held Will, who was badly hurt, in her arms.

Connor turned to Spike, "He's not human!" Dani spun her head around and looked at the boy menacing ling. "Neither are you or at least not completely! So where do you get off kicking his ass! It was that tiny percentage of you that was human that kept your head on while he was getting beat up! He won't hurt humans, I, on the other hand, could care less if your human or not, especially when it comes to my brothers!" she screamed at him with the added touch of her vampire-like growl in her voice.

Connor watched as the boy groaned and clung to her. She leaned down and whispered something into his ear. He looked at her reluctantly, but both he and Spike could see that he would be compliant of her request. She held him close and continued to rock him back and forth, neither knowing what she had asked or what was transpiring unbeknownst to them, right in front of their eyes.

She knew he hated shifting, but she could sense his bodies need to in his weakened state. She his face in her shoulder and didn't even flinch when he bit her. She had been keeping his secret since he was born. He had only let his fangs drop around her. She had felt privileged and knew mum would freak, so the two kept his vampire abilities to them selves. Will didn't need blood to survive, unless he was in a weakened state as such that one he was in now.

When she felt his fangs retracted she held him until his emotions where normal again and her neck was healed and the mark was no longer visible. "How was your run around the cemetery?" he asked her quietly with a slightly amused tone. She knew he was trying to lighten the moment, but tonight that just wasn't possible. "Eventful, to say the least. Things have changed. She's not going to know what's going on." She answered him copying his tone exactly. He pulled back and looked at her with wide eyes. He didn't have to ask her what she was talking about, he already knew. They were so screwed.