Tara glanced at the clock, her hand poised unsteadily two inches over the phone; it was only eleven, of course she'd be awake. Tara picked up the receiver and dialled the phone number she'd managed to memorise already and waited for the long distance call to connect, hoping Merrick wasn't too worried about his phone bill. When she heard the ringing she held her breath unconsciously, and continued to hold it until she heard a voice on the other side after four rings.

"You do realise it's four in the morning, this had better be good."

The sigh Tara had started to release at the answering of the phone halted mid breath and cursed herself.

"Oh my God, I-I-I'm sorry. Dammit I forgot about the time zones." Tara buried her head in her hand and cursed herself in her head with every vulgar swear word she knew, which was a surprisingly large number.

The laughter at the other end of the line made her raise her head, her eyes teary and her expression resembling a kicked puppy.

"Don't worry, I'm usually up at four in the morning for some reason or another, it's pretty much the only time I can write songs. Today it's jet lag. So I've come up with the genius idea of staying awake until tomorrow night and then sleep to get my sleeping pattern back into whack. It'll work... I hope..." There was a crunching sound as though Morgan was eating crisps or something and Tara chuckled.

"Ok sweetie, I'm sure it'll all turn out fine..." Tara was no actor and could not easily keep the scepticism out of her voice.

"You doubt me do you? Well, I'll show you. Anyway, what did you want?"

"Oh." Tara hadn't anticipated what she'd say after making the call, just making the call had been the focal point of her thought since Merrick left. "Just to, you know, talk?"

"M'ok, talk then."

Tara went silent, without a clue what to say to this girl and feeling very awkward on the phone, finally she just blurted out.

"Merrick hit you with a sword?" She once again mentally kicked herself for being an idiot.

"Yeah, who told you that?"

"Um, M-M-Merrick" Tara did not want to continue this topic but couldn't just change the subject now.

"Oh he did, did he?"

Tara was saved from making more of a fool of herself by an urgent knocking at the door and was about to tell Morgan she had to go when she was saved the trouble.

"I heard, I'll speak to you again sweetie."

Tara said her goodbyes and hung up and headed for the door, looking through the peep-hole to see who'd be knocking on Merrick's door. What she saw was a tall man seeming to be around mid 30's, he looked like he hadn't shaved in days; or slept for that matter. Tara didn't know why she opened the door, but she did. It might have been his eyes, welcoming pale and bluey-grey, with an unmemorable face that was soft and open, yet rugged and harsh at the same time. The kind of face and eyes you could spill your heart out to and then forget what it looked like after it left. Or it might have just been plain old female curiosity, we'll never know. But we all know what happened to that cat.

But Tara was no cat and would not let curiosity get the better of her, she left the security chain on when she opened the door and enquired the purpose of the call.

"I'm a friend of Merrick's, he's in trouble." Came the reply, in a breezy Australian accent that made Tara think of dolphins, and the sea, and that she could trust this person.

"And when you say friend..." Tara was determined to keep her wits about her, she wasn't going to give Merrick another excuse to think she was useless.

"I mean I know him, Merrick doesn't really have friends."

Tara hesitated and thought through, she was sure she could trust this person; but there was something nagging her not to.

"Look, Merrick needs help, and time is somewhat of the essence. So grab your coat and let's go, or slam the door in my face. You have five seconds to make a decision. Five. Four. Three-"

"Ok Ok I'm coming." Tara ran to the bedroom and threw on her coat and ran back to the door, pulling off the security chain. She was about to step into the hall when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"You'll need weapons." Tara nodded in agreement and ran back into the house and started looking in Merrick's weapon cupboard, the stranger rolled his eyes at this.

Tara selected two stakes from Merrick's collection and then decided to take a hip flask sized bottle of holy water for good measure, she then proceeded back to the door, this time meeting no resistance. She closed it and then realised she couldn't lock it because she didn't have the key, but decided if Merrick really was in trouble then he wouldn't mind her leaving his door unlocked to go save him. If he wasn't really in trouble then leaving his door unlocked would be the least of her problems.

Walking down the stairs with this stranger Tara did a mental back flip and kicked herself in the ass, she hadn't even asked his name. She rolled her eyes at her own stupidity and rectified her mistake and asked for his name. She did not get an immediate answer, rather he smiled and then his jaw tensed, as though he was debating with himself whether or not to tell her.

"Where I grew up, we didn't have names. They gave us code names. They called me Taipan. So, I figure you could call me Tai, or Pan. But I'd prefer Tai."

Tara could not decide whether to find this hilariously funny, or deeply sad; so she decided to keep both down and just nod in acknowledgement.

When they got out of the apartment building Tai headed straight for an old, average looking black sedan and opened the drivers side door, Tara was beginning to think that he liked being unimpressive and that he actually worked at it. She had a million questions she wanted to ask him but she knew that if she did ask she wouldn't get a straight answer. He gunned the engine and pulled out without looking and was rewarded with blaring car horns, but he ignored these and floored the gas, screeching into the late night traffic of the city of angels.

Tai seemed to know the city very well and took side streets and alleyways with hardly a pause to think, avoiding traffic wherever possibly. All in all this cut their journey time in half and they soon screeched to a halt outside an old building site, closed and dead for the night.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Merrick was jarred awake by a heavy boot smashing into his jaw, he opened his eyes and tried to move but was rewarded with a pain in his chest and the clinking of chains.

"Easy Jacques, I want him awake, not more unconscious." Said a familiar voice.

Merrick looked up at Baybars, and then to the vampire he was addressing. A tall, unpleasant looking creature with filthy black hair and dirty fingernails. Merrick wrinkled his nose in disgust.

"Jacques? I'm going to kill you first."

Jacques raised his boot and was about to kick Merrick again when a feral growl from Baybars stayed him. He sniffed and took a step back, allowing Baybars to kneel down in front of Merrick.

"I don't think you're in any position to be making threats are you?"

Merrick flinched from Baybars.

"Did no one ever teach you about breath mints?"

Baybars smiled and leaned in closer to Merrick.

"I'm going to enjoy torturing you." He leaned back on the balls of his feet and stood up, walking away from Merrick.

"You know, I sorta saw this being the other way around in my head." Merrick turned away and looked thoughtful, as though he was trying to work out how this had happened.

Meanwhile this entire scene was being watched by Tara and Tai, crouching behind two barrels high above. Tai turned to Tara and whispered to her.

"I'm going to need you to cause a distraction."

"WHAT?!" Tara looked shocked, as though Tai had just asked her to run around naked "how on earth am I supposed to do that?"

"Oh come on, use your imagination." Tara looked at a complete loss, moving her mouth but making no sound as the words simply refused to come out.

"Make something go bang, I don't know. Anything, I just need them distracted."

Tara looked thoughtful for a moment and then smiled, she sat on the floor and closed her eyes, then began muttering under her breath. After about half a minute of muttering she breathed out a cloud of what looked like silver mist which soon vanished into the rest of the air around it, she smiled at Tai who gave her a questioning look.

"Give it a minute."

And a minute was given, then suddenly tiny but very bright white light began popping down amongst the vampires below, like someone was setting off small, silent fireworks. Tai grinned widely as he saw the confusion this caused.

"Amazing. Really well done, now stay here and keep your head down." He kicked over a dustbin and jumped on the lid as it fell off. Using his weight for momentum and the lid for balance he began riding it down the slope like a snowboard, he pulled a gun from inside his jacket and took aim at one of the vampires. The vampire saw this and smiled, and was still smiling as Tai pulled the trigger and a bullet slammed into his chest. But the smile faded as he burst into dust. Tai had pulled a second gun out and was aiming at another vampire, but this one, seeing his companion dusted by one of the bullets decided that he was not going to make such an easy target and dove out of the way as several bullets slammed into the floor directly behind where he was just standing.

Tara watched this with a mixture of awe and curiosity, she was impressed by this unexpected display of skill from Tai. However in her musings she forgot she was in battle and wasn't paying attention around her and was brought hastily back to reality by a deep snarl to her left. She stood up and saw a vampire approaching her, looking very hungry. The vampire lunged at her and she flinched. But she hadn't forgotten Merrick's lesson, she used the movement to grab the bottle of holy water from her back pocket and as the vamp reached her she swung it full force and smashed it against his head; he reeled, howling in pain. Tara grabbed the stake and with a triumphant shout plunged it into her opponents chest. But he didn't burst into dust, merely more shouting in pain and Tara looked confused, but she realised her mistake: she's missed his heart. She grabbed her second stake and this time didn't miss, and the vampire burst into dust and both stakes clattered to the floor. She grinned at her victory but it was short lived as a second vampire grabbed her in a body lock from behind and she screamed.

Merrick was watching this from below and smiled when he saw Tara dust the first vampire but his smile faded when he saw her grabbed from behind. He strained and scrunched his face with effort, then there was a loud crunching pop and he slipped his dislocated shoulder easily out of the chains. He then reached around and found the large padlock that was holding the chains and with a swift tug broke it and the chains fell uselessly and he stood up. The vampire known as Jacques was on him immediately, and Merrick threw him against the wall, he then broke off a piece of wood from a nearby fence used it as a makeshift stake to kill him.

"Told you I'd kill you first didn't I," he said to the cloud of dust.

He looked up at Tara struggling with her assailant and saw his opening as the vampire released from the body lock and turned her to face him, he had a window of merely a second before she'd be in front of him again and Merrick threw the piece of wood so hard it became a blur and hit it's target directly, causing Tara to be obscured momentarily by a cloud of dust. Merrick saw Tai finish off his second vamp and did a quick dust-pile count.

"Baybars." He muttered.

He looked around and saw a coat tail disappear into a doorway three floors above and went after. He ran toward the pillar he was tied to previously and leapt off it onto a second and then onto the floor he wanted to be on. He then took off at a run to the doorway the coat went into, he looked around the room when he got in, it was full of clutter but Baybars was nowhere to be found. Suddenly the wine of an electric engine cut the silence and Merrick turned to see a forklift truck speeding towards him, he was thrown against the far wall by the force of the impact and the truck kept coming, Baybars at the controls. Merrick frowned and ran at the advancing truck, but he jumped at the last minute and landed on the trucks roof, grabbing the edge he used his continued momentum to swing through the door less cab of the truck and kick Baybars in the side of the head, sending the vampire out the other side, Merrick followed and landed feet first next to Baybars. He dragged the vampire to his feet and threw him out the door, Baybars fell the three stories to the ground and landed with a thud. Merrick walked out the door too and put his hand on the railing, which he vaulted, landing only centimetres from Baybars' head. He grabbed the former sultan of Egypt and dragged him to the pillar.

"Where's the book Baybars?"

Baybars looked defeated and let out a sigh.

"I burned the damn thing, I couldn't translate it and neither could any of my advisers, so I burnt it."

"I thought you would, but I had to ask." Merrick crouched down so he was level with Baybars "why'd you do it? Why'd you sell your soul?"

"I thought it'd be worth it."

"Eternal life never lives up to it's expectation, especially after the first couple of hundred years." Baybars nodded his agreement and Merrick continued "sometimes I wish I had never taken it, the gift as I thought it at the time. A naïve dying boy who wanted to live forever. My gift became my curse and I wish I could take it back. I'll make it quick."

He got up and picked up a jagged piece of wood and approached Baybars, who did not once flinch or look away. When it was done Merrick turned to Tara and she saw, for the first time since she'd known him, how wise and tormented he really was. But it lasted only for a moment and his face was once again impassive. He was a blur of movement as he knocked Tai's gun from his hand and pinned him against the wall.

"Now, who the hell are you?"