Tara's eyes blinked open but she couldn't see anything for a full minute while they got used to the light pouring from her window, she was so exhausted last night she forgot to close the curtains. She pulled herself into a sitting position on the bed and leaned back against the wall, trying to make sense of last night; it was then that she heard the front door open and close. Her curiosity getting the better of her she dropped her feet out of the bed and into her slippers and made her way to her bedroom door. She opened it slightly and peered into the living room, empty.

Tara pushed her door open and let it bang against the wall, she walked into the living room and, realising Merrick had left her alone folded her arms.

"Thanks Merrick. See, now you've got me talking to my-" She dropped her head to her hands and sighed "shut up Tara."

She sat heavily on the couch and leaned back, her thoughts drifting inevitably to Morgan.

The Day Before

After Morgan had forced Tara to drink the medicine, she said she had to go to the shop and left, leaving Tara alone in this incredible apartment. Needless to say she wasted no time in beginning her exploration and finally found herself in the kitchen. It was a modern, brightly lit kitchen with very little in it, the microwave oddly being the focal point. Tara backed out of the kitchen and must have been too absorbed in her thoughts to hear the door because when she turned around she found herself face to face with Morgan and a bag of groceries. The two girls stood there for a very long moment looking at each other before leaning in slightly as though to kiss but stopping and Tara stepped aside to let the girl into her own kitchen, blushing madly.

Later the two sat on the sofa and Morgan played Tara some of her songs, the two stealing glances at each other when the other wasn't looking.

You were worth all of my blood shed,

as guilty as you were, you struggled for the best

But I never understood, I couldn't work you out

you did everything you could and I know that now.

Tara looked up as the song finished and noticed a solitary tear in Morgan's eye.

"That was amazing, who's it about?"

Morgan smiled at Tara.

"A girl, a fiasco, yet oddly one of my less costly mistakes."

Tara smiled at this and turned away from Morgan, not wanting to spoil the moment, she looked around the room and after feeling she'd left and adequate length of time for old emotions to settle she turned back.

"Why do you have to many?" Morgan raised her eyebrows and Tara blushed realising the stupidity of what she'd said.

"G-g-guitars I mean." She mentally kicked herself repeatedly for this, stuttering in front of this girl like that, she was going to think she was some kind of weirdo or something. Although quite the contrary, Morgan thought this was incredibly adorable behaviour from the young witch, she smiled.

"ah, because they're pretty."

Tara looked at her questioningly.

"Some girls have lots of shoes, some have lots of earrings. I have guitars; lots of them." Tara chuckled at this and so the morning and early afternoon passed by with snippets of conversation between songs, each gradually getting to know the other a little bit more until Merrick arrived and he and Morgan went to have their 'talk'. The rest, as they say, is history.

Present

Tara snapped back into reality and leaned forward, why did she miss this girl already. She decided it was time for a coffee and headed for the kitchen.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After Merrick left his apartment he headed down the corridor only to be intercepted by an old man wearing very big sunglasses sitting at the bottom of the stairs.

Merrick looked at the old man and sighed.

"what do you want Methuselah?"

"Do you know who's in town?"

"I'm sure you're going to tell me"

Methuselah got up and leaned down to whisper in Merrick's ear.

"Baybars."

"Didn't he die in like," Merrick stopped to think "1277?"

"Yes, poisoned. By his own son no less. But it seems he's here now, I'm curious to find out how."

"I'm not your errand boy Methuselah." Merrick headed for the door, meaning to end the conversation there, but Methuselah was having none of it and put his hand on Merrick's shoulder.

"We'd also like our book back."

"Ah I was wondering when that would come up."

"You lost it, all you had to do was bring it from one place to another and you couldn't manage that. Now you could have an opportunity to get it back we would very much like you to take it."

"You honestly think he has it after all this time?"

"Well it's worth asking Merrick."

Merrick turned around and started walking up the stairs, Methuselah pulled of his sunglasses and called after him.

"Where are you going?"

"I'll have a better chance of finding him at night, I'm going to prepare."

Merrick continued up the stairs and let himself into his apartment, Tara was sitting on the sofa with a steaming mug of coffee and looked up at him when he walked in, he smiled at her in passing and she returned it.

"How do you know Morgan?" She shot of the question as though she was afraid she wouldn't ask if she waited any longer.

"I hit her with a samurai sword, thought it was funny at the time I guess. She helped me with some stuff and I helped her with some stuff. She's probably the closest thing I have to a friend." He headed to his cabinet and selected a rather old looking curved katana and headed for his bedroom.

Tara was taken aback by the offhand way in which Merrick said this statement which revealed more about him to her than anything he'd said or done over the past week. It was almost as though he didn't think it was something important, she decided not to pry and watched silently as he went into his room and closed the door. She heard metal scraping metal and knew he was sharpening the sword, she almost felt sorry for whatever was going to meet that blade tonight.

A sunset in Los Angeles would be a beautiful thing if people weren't too wrapped up in their own superiority to take a moment out of their lives to watch it. Tara wasn't such a person and did take those few moments and was standing at Merrick's window watching the sun set over the city of angels when Merrick's door opened and he walked out dressed all in black and wearing a long coat, he was tucking the sword inside the coat. They locked eyes for a moment but neither said anything and Merrick once again left Tara alone.

Searching for a nasty thing that should be dead in LA at night is like looking for a needle in a pile of needles, Merrick walked down a hundred alleys and saved a hundred slutty girls in short dresses from hungry vampires who didn't really care how much leg they could see. But finally he got lucky, he was walking down another alley when he heard footsteps behind him and turned to see the very man he'd been looking for, it seemed Baybars had found him.

"It's been a long time."

"Yes, black suits you a lot better than red an white Merrick." Baybars it seemed had lost none of his middle eastern accent over the years.

How do you know my name?" Baybars chuckled and Merrick waved his own question aside "Never mind, I don't really care. I would like to know how you're still alive though?"

Baybars answered this question by turning his face into a ridged, feral fanged mask and Merrick nodded.

"Ah, that explains it. And I don't suppose... the book?"

Baybars grinned, or did the best he could with his face in it's current state.

"I didn't come here to chat with you." He threw off his coat revealing two sabres strapped in shoulder holsters and he drew them both and threw himself at Merrick.

Merrick drew his own sword and parried Baybars' attacks, again noting how very skilled the man was with a sword. The vampire was with a sword. The fight raged on as both combatants ducked and weaved and parried and attacked, seeming to match each other blow for blow; then Merrick used and old fencing technique designed for use against an opponent with two weapons and created an opening, he kicked Baybars hard in the chest sending him crashing through a rotting wooden fence. But that wasn't it, one of Baybars' sabres came hurtling through the hole in the fence and buried itself in Merrick's chest. Merrick cried out in shock and pain and took hold of the hilt of the sabre and pulled it out as Baybars emerged.

"You shouldn't have done that Baybars, now I have two weapons."

Merrick launched the offensive this time and began throwing hundreds of different attacks at Baybars from a hundred awkward angles, and it was all Baybars could do to keep up a defence, but it didn't last long. Merrick slipped knocked his defences away with his own sword and brought his Baybars' sabre slicing up across the vampires chest, he then spun around in a move that would have taken Baybars' head off but he moved just in time and the sword only just sliced a thin red cut across his neck; but Merrick wasn't done and once again planted his foot firmly into Baybars' chest sending him this time through a window, screams were the only thing that came out this time.

Merrick jumped through the window and lowered his swords and sighed when he saw what was in front of him.

"Let the boy go Baybars."

Baybars smiled and tightened his hold on the child drawing his sword closer to his neck.

"Throw down your swords."

Merrick sighed and threw them on the kitchen table and Baybars threw the boy against the wall and lunged at Merrick, who easily dodged his sword and brought his elbow up to meet Baybars' face, closely followed by a right hook and a devastating uppercut that lifted him off his feet and placed him on the table. Merrick kicked Baybars' sword away and in the same movement spun around catching Baybars in the solarplexis with a devastating roundhouse kick, possibly the most dangerous move in karate, and had Baybars been human it would have most certainly mashed every organ in his body to a pulp and made his eyes pop clear out of his head. But it didn't, it sent him soaring into a wall where he stood stunned and gagging; and Merrick didn't give him time to recover, he grabbed him and threw him back out the window, then followed.

"You know where it all went wrong Baybars?" Merrick looked up at the sky as the first few drops of rain hit his face, then back down and Baybars as the downpour started "It was when you made me put down my swords. I'm stronger than you, and faster than you. The only reason you held against me with a sword was because of your exeptional skill, but hand to hand you didn't have a chance."

Merrick heard the whistling even over the rain and spun around snatching the arrow out of the air and flung it back in the direction it came and was rewarded with the sound of a vampire bursting into dust.

"Arrows in the back, you didn't actually think that would work did you?"

"No, it was a distraction."

Merrick turned around and found himself staring down two very big handguns, he only had time for one word.

"Shit."

Baybars fired, and kept firing, and the bullets slammed into Merrick making him stagger back with the force of them until he found his back against the wall, he drew in a ragged breath and lifted his head just in time to see, as though in slow motion, a bullet coming straight for his head.

Then.

Black.

Song lyrics belong to Kayleigh Morgan (