Disclaimer: I don't own any character in this fanfic, unless I make them up. This goes for all chapters.

Thanks for the review Home and Charmed. I'm glad that at least one person is reading. It seems that I can't get any of the old fans of this fanfic back, that's a real bummer.

anyway on with the next chapter

Chapter 7

It didn't take more then fifteen minutes until the police arrived. Tara decided to wait for them outside on the porch, not only because of what happened in the house, but because of her new found vampiric senses. They were going on overload, because she smelled all of that blood in the house.

The police would just come and go, asking her questions and dissappearing into the house. That was until she noticed three of them looking at her intently. Looking up she saw a man dressed all in black and he had short blond hair. Kinda like a crew cut. What was most distinctive about him though was that he was wearing dark sunglasses at night.

Looking past him she saw a young woman, probably seven years her senior. She was very attractive, she had short brown hair, and a pair of legs that seemed to go on forever.

'Whoa where did that thought come from?' Tara thought to herself. Before she could get an answer to the question she asked herself, one of the officers approached her. He was the one that she didn't get a good look at before. He was tall, very handsome, and he had spikey brown hair. All in all he kind of reminded her of Angel.

"Hey." the officer said with an easy smile. "Do you mind if I sit down?"

Tara just looked up at him and then she moved over. Giving him just enough space to sit down. Taking it as an invitation he sat down beside her.

"Listen, I'm sorry about your aunt." he said honestly. "I know how it feels to lose a loved one."

"Who did you lose?" Tara asked as unshed tears stung at her eyes.

"I lost both of my parents." he replied after a moments hesitation. " I was about your age when some drunk decided to go driving. It was real hard losing them but I learned to survive. I had to anyway because I had to raise my baby sister, Claire. Wait I'm sorry I never told you my name." he said as he extended his hand.

"My name is Redfield. Chris Redfield."

"I'm Tara Maclay." she said as they both shook hands.

"Well Tara now that your aunt is.....gone where are you going to go?"

"She's going to Sunnydale." a booming voice answered for her. Looking up, she saw the officer with the sunglasses and the short blond hair. The pretty lady with the short brown hair was standing behind him reading some papers.

"Oh I'm sorry Tara. This is Captain Albert Wesker and her name is Jill Valentine." he said as he pointed at them each in turn. "We were just in town recruiting some new members for S.T.A.R.S. and we heard the call that there was trouble in the neighborhood." he shrugged.

"So we decided to come and help the local cops."

Tara for the most part didn't hear most of what Chris was saying. She just stared at Wesker. Something about the guy just didn't seem right. Instead of the aura colors she would usually see, like red and purple, his was just black.

"Tara are you ok?" Chris asked as he shook her arm.

"What... oh sorry." Tara apologized. "Now what were you saying about me going to Sunnydale?" she asked looking intently at Wesker, who was looking just as hard at her.

"It seems that your aunt was in correspondence with a Mr. Rupert Giles." Jill said looking up from the report she was reading. "It says here that if anything were to happen to her that you would be sent to him, so he would act as your guardian."

All the time Jill was explaining this to her, Tara just stared at Wesker. And in turn he kept staring at her. After a moment however, Wesker lost the staring contest and took the file out of Jills hands.

"I've been reading the reports too." he said as he flipped through a couple of pages. "It says here that when these devil whorshippers attacked you, you managed to kill all three of them. How the hell did you manage that?" he asked as he handed the file back over to Jill.

Tara just shrugged. "I've been taking karate classes for three months." at his look, that she knew he was giving her under those sunglasses, she added. "Let's just say that I have a good teacher."

"Impressive, maybe one day when you get older you can join the S.T.A.R.S." Wesker said, still with the mask of indifference on his face.

"Captain Wesker...." a police officer shouted as he ran up to the group. "Lt. Farlend wants to talk to you sir."

"Alright, Valentine you're with me and Redfield..... you stay with her." he said as he nodded at Tara and walked off, with Jill in hot pursuit.

"Don't mind him." Chris said as he turned his head to look at Tara. "He comes off as a real hard ass but he's a decent guy." Tara just gave him a look and the two started talking.

Tara told him a little about her life and Chris told her mostly all about his.

"So Chris, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, what's up?"

"If you could avenge the deaths of your parents, would you do it?"

Chris looked at her hard and long before he replied. Almost as if he thought that Tara would try to do something crazy. But after talking to her, he quickly dismissed that thought. 'Tara's a pretty good kid, I don't think she would do anything crazy.' he thought to himself.

"I would avenge them in a heart beat." he said after a moments pause. Tara just shook her head in understanding and stood to her feet.

"Where are you going?" Chris asked as he to stood to his feet.

"I have to go and pack a bag. I can't stay here."

"Yeah, of course. I'm sure the local Santa Fe police have a hotel waiting for you anyway."

With that said Tara ran in the house and went into her room. Picking up the shopping bag that she bought earlier, she takes out her leather duster. As she throws it on the bed, she reaches into her weapons trunk. Lifting up the false bottom, she takes out a sword and a stake.

'Tara, what are you doing?' Angel whispers into her mind.

'I'm going on patrol.' Tara replies angrily as she twirls a sword in her hand.

Angel was taken aback by her sudden attitude change. He understood that her aunt was murdered but something seemed off about her. He remembered as if it were just yesterday that she used to be so sweet and shy.

Now she seemed just like.....him. 'Now it finally makes sense.' he thought to himself. For the past couple of months Tara started to change. Not just her stuttering problem, but also the way she carried herself. She was much more confident, more sure of herself. And her fighting skills could even rival his own. 'Maybe when we joined souls we became almost one in the same.' Angel thought to himself.

Snapping out of his musings he noticed that she changed her clothes. She was now wearing all black and her new leather duster. As she moved towards the window, Angel called out to her once again.

'Tara, where are you going?'

'I'm going to send a message to the demonic community.' Tara said as she opened the window. With a grim look on her face she jumped out of the window. Bracing her legs to absorb the impact of the twenty foot fall, she quickly ran out into the night.

"Hey Tara, do you need any help packing?" Chris asked as he walked up to her bedroom door. When he didn't get an answer he opened the door and found it empty.

"Tara?" he said as he walked fully into the room. "Hey have you seen the kid that lives here?" Chris asked a cop as he passed by the door. The cop shook his head no, so Chris went to find Wesker.

When he found him he was in a deep conversation with Jill and Lt. Farlend.

"Sir Tara's gone."

"What!" Wesker exploded. "Damnit Redfield, you were supposed to watch her."

"She said that she had to pack some of her stuff..." Chris replied as he ran his hand through his hair nervously. "but when I went up to her room she was gone."

"Alright." Wesker said after he calmed down a bit. "Lt. do you mind if me and Valentine join you in the search party?" The Lt. just nodded his head.

"Ok, Valentine you're with me, Redfield you stay here just in case the girl comes back."

"Yes sir."

"Then let's go." Wesker ordered. Jill gave Chris a sympathetic glance and then joined Wesker and the others.

"Damnit kid, where are you?" Chris muttered to himself.

Tara stood on top of a skyscraper over-looking the city. A myserious wind blew making her duster billow in the wind like a cape. Crouching down on the edge of the roof she began to scan over the city.

As she scanned the city she began to hear everything. Well everything her new vampiric senses would allow. She heard cars honking and babies crying for their moms to pick them up. But then she heard it. What she had been waiting to hear since she'd been on the roof. She heard a woman's scream.

Standing she began to take off at a run. Jumping from rooftop to rooftop she began to run in the direction of the scream.

Kira and her friend Laura were enjoying their time off from college. They had time to catch up with old friends and hit the clubs of Santa Fe. They even hooked up with two handsome guys. As they led the way to their apartment for some drinks, three guys emerged out of the shadows.

The girls visably relaxed though when the guys who they picked up, stood in front of them and got into fighting positions. As the three guys came closer, the two guys they picked up started laughing to each other and joined the other three.

"What the hell is going on?" Kira asked as the guy named Tom started to push her down the alley.

"Well after we have some fun...." he started as he looked at her up and down. "We're going to eat..." he said as his face turned into something demonic, which made Kira scream. Laura however tried to fight back, but one of the vamps hit her on the jaw nearly knocking her unconcious.

So they wouldn't make a scene out in public, they shoved the girls down the nearest alley.

As one, the demons seemed to sense an unknown presense behind them. It was a sense none of them had ever felt before. It felt good and pure like...like...no they didn't want to think about that.

Turning , they saw a woman in a black leather coat with a cascade of honey blonde hair that went past her shoulders.

Her hips swayed and creaked in their leather pants as she shifted from foot to foot. Her boots made an eerie clicking sound in the dead silence of the alley as she walked closer to the demons. With a scowl on her face she drew her sword from the back of her duster and stopped ten feet from the vamps.

"Hello gentleman." she said slowly. "I just wanted you all to know that I'm going to personally kill each and every one of you."

With that said the vampires growled and sprang together as one. Tara grabbed one and swung him around and slammed him into another couple of minions. she slammed her foot down on the neck of one of the vampires severing it.

At the same time Tara struck out blindly with an elbow catching another vampire on the chin, dropping him to the ground. Spinning around she tried to keep away from allowing any of the vampires from getting near her back. One vampire jumped off a dumpster and clapped an arm around her neck. Tara dropped to a knee and flipped the unfortunate vampire forward unto his back. With one swing of her sword, she severed his head and he turned to dust.

Looking up she saw a vamp jump in the air and try to pounce on her. In one quick motion she did a spin, drew a stake from a pocket in her duster and plunged it into the heart of the vamp as he came down behind her. Before she was able to look up, her face was met with one of the vamps fist's. The force of the blow sent her to the ground were her sword and stake fell beside her.

"You shouldn't have done that!" Tara shouts as her eyes flash an eerie blue. Doing a flip to get back to her feet she struck out with a rainbow kick, that the vampire smoothly slid under, until she dropped down to the ground and did a leg sweep on him, sending the vamp sprawling to the ground.

Tapping into her magical abilities she made the stake that fell to the ground levitate into her hand. Leaning over she staked the vampire as he let out a final scream. Turning she looked over at the girls and saw that one vampire was still holding onto them.

This one was looking at her wide eyed and was shaking with fear. Walking over to them, the vamp let go of the girls and attempted to walk away. Using vampiric speed Tara grabbed him by the neck and lifted him off of his feet. With bone- jarring force she pushed him up against an alley wall. Leaning in close she began to whisper in his ear.

"I want you to deliver a message to the demonic community. I want you to tell them that there's a new player in town."

"Wh...what are you." The vamp managed to stutter out. Tara seemed to think about it for a minute and then Angel whispered in her mind.

"Tell them that I'm the Seraphim." she said as she let him go. As soon as she did the vamp ran out of the mouth of the alley and didn't turn back. Tara walked back and retrieved her sword and was about to walk out of the alley until one of the girls called out to her.

"Wh...who are you?" Laura asked.

"I'm the hero." Tara replied sadly as she kept walking and didn't turn around.

tbc...