"Bad dolly, you're supposed to be napping!" The words came out sharp, biting. Her eyes narrowed at Dawn, appraising, surveying the the condition of the girl who was the point of this whole game.
Assessing that Dawn was in no shape to move very much or talk just yet, she huffed, "No cakes for you", before turning her attention back to the other girl. Giggling madly at the reactionary gasps of her captives, Dru decided to have a little more fun with Janice for the time being, and flashed a bit of fang at the already terrified teenager.
Having been around vampires as long as she could really remember clearly, even if most of those memories were fake ones, Dawn caught the show out of the corner of her eye, her head still swimming, but was not really phased much. But being left out of the whole 'Slayer loop' therefor the more naive of the two, Janice's eyes went wide as plates and her mouth gaped open in shock, giving her a weird kind of resemblence to a fish snatched out of its aquatic home and placed in the Sahara.
Dru could smell the sudden wave of fear roll off the girls and it hit her with a pleasurable wave in her lower belly, making her whole body hum. She did love it when they ran round like the frightened little lambs they were! It made the game much more fun. If only her Spike were here to enjoy it with her, it would be so much better. He always did know how to make the little girls cry so prettily, she mused.
Somehow amidst her panic, Janice managed to pull it together enough to shake her head to clear it a little, putting the odd sight of the womans changing eye color down to a flash of moonlight, or perhaps shock or a concussion. Either way, she was determined not to leave her unconscious friend here to deal with skankarella alone. No matter how petrified she suddenly found herself.
"Look, lady, please just leave us alone, we didn't mean to.."
In a flash Dru was standing mere inches from Janice, long bfore the girl had time to wonder how she'd gotten there since she didn't se her walk the five or six steps she would've needed to take. "Hush now, little one.." The vampiress commanded softly, her tone sending shocks up the tenagers spine. She gave her a bright smile that was rife with childish glee and ran a slender, claw tipped finger down the girls cheek. Janice pulled away and batted at the offending fingers that had traveled downward and grazed her collarbone.
"Hey, hands off the merchandise, you freak! I don't know what your problem is, but I don't really swing that way."
If this had been any other situation it would have at least gotten a wry grin out of Dawn, as she watched from her place on the ground where she lie, trying to steady her breathe and make her limbs work. She briefly wondered if the hard landing she had taken on the ground might have been enough to paralyze her. Quickly discarding the notion. She probably just needed a moment to rest, then she could figure out how to get them out of here. Hopefully with all limbs intact, and bite free.
She almost chuckled, or at least she would have if her lungs didn't feel full of lead, as she watched Janice square her shoulders and stalk up to the master vampiress. If anything could be said for Janice, it was that she had guts.
Unfortunately she'd chosen the exact wrong moment, and creature, to display them. Dawn knew that as crazy as she appeared to be, this vamp would enjoy ripping out said guts and skipping rope with them. She had enough memories, all be them fake ones, of things she really didn't want to even think about, much less experience just because Janice couldn't keep her mouth shut.
Right now though, Dru seemed intent on babbling them to death, alternating between angry ranting and wailing like an injured cat, about things neither girl understood. But it bought Dawn some time. Dawn looked at Janice who was still standing there eying the scene incredulously. Trying to read between the lines of the womans insane babbling, which was pretty much impossible.
She met Janice's eye briefly. Knowing every second counted, and the truth would only wind up getting them into more trouble, she didn't even try to explain. She'd had minimal experience with vamps, mostly due to Buffy s lectures and what little training she could glean out of Spike when Buffy wasn't looking, but Janice had not even that much and was just ripe for the plucking if this one's attention wasn't diverted from her.
Eying a low hanging branch a few meters away, Dawn looked at Janice again and yelled out in a voice as commanding as she could muster, hoping for once in her life, Janice would do as she asked without being a pain about it. "Run, Janice! Go to my house and tell Tara I'm in trouble here. Please, don't ask, just do it! Tell her it's Dru, she'll know what to do. RUN!"
She prayed silently that Spike had remembered to charge his phone earlier and that he had it on him. She briefly considered telling her friend where to find Spike, but sending her from one cemetery to another, would be a bit like sending her out of the frying pan into the fire, and if Janice chose the wrong crypt and ran into the wrong vampire, they could be in worse trouble. Plus, how would she explain that why a 'family friend' lived in a crypt anyway?
"Oh yes, yes please run!" Dru crooned excitedly. Her hand was still locked round Dawns neck but not tight enough to choke her air off, just enough to completely restrain her movement. Dawns hands frantically clawed at the hand pinning her down, but it wouldn't budge.
"It has been so dreadfully long since anyone has played run and catch with me!"
Seeing her friend in real trouble made Janice forget all about trying to figure out what this stranger was saying and sent the teen into motion at last and she bolted off in the direction of the gate they'd spotted earlier. Her heart was pounding, sweat breaking out over her forehead and upper lip.
'What the hell was that? she wondered, panic hurrying her steps, her trainers squeaking against the grass as she ran, willing her legs to carry her away from the woman before she got bored with Dawn and came after her.
Little did she know, the woman had no interest in her whatsoever at the moment, only a very big score to settle, and Dawn was the only tool she needed to accomplish her goal.
Her whole body aching too much too allow much movement, Dawn craned only her neck, glanced around, and spotted her cell phone. It was lying on the ground barely three inches from her outstretched hand, probabl having fallen out of her backpack at some point. She tended to leave the front zipper open. Without even thinking about it, Dawn used every ounce of energy she possessed to lunge for it and quickly punched in a number on her speed dial. It only rang twice before there was an answer.
"Hello?"
Silently promising to thank whatever forces that Spike was carrying that damn cell phone he hated so much tonight, she tried to think of something quick to say but coherent thought was rapidly leaving her, so all Dawn could think to do was scream. "SPIKE!"
With his sensitive hearing, the shrill scream made Spike drop the phone before he got a chance to ask who it was. But the voice had a familiar quality to it, "Who is this?" He asked once he recovered the phone and control over his faculties a little.
He heard lots of shuffling and the phone being jostled, making him pull it back and look at the digital display. Janice..wasn't that Dawns little friend?
His voice was a little less calm when he spoke again, and tried in vain to control the shaking that was beginning to settle in his hands, at the thought of his Bit in the kind of trouble to garner those kind of screams. His eyes flashing a dangerous yellow for a moment but he pushed the demon back. Time enough for that later once he knew what or whom to kill. Sod the chip, if it were human, he'd find a way.
"Hello?"
No answer came but the screaming continued followed by a voice that was too far away to make out through the phone, even with his enhanced hearing.
All he knew was one of his girls was in trouble. That was enough to set him shooting to his feet, searching out what he'd need to leave the crypt as he tried in vain to get a read on where they were. Last he'd heard Buffy was still out of town so that only left..
"Help! Spike, for gods sake HELP ME!" Dawns scream was garbled in her own throat the as her face met the ground courtesy of a powerful blow to the temple, phone wrenched out of her hand with strength she couldn't have hoped to match. Snapping it shut she threw it on the ground and trounced it underfoot.
"Nasty thing! Telling all my secrets. Some secrets aren't meant to be shared with others..not until the stars say so."
That vice-like hand was at her throat again, choking but not hard enough that she couldn't breath at all. Just enough to make breathing strained and every breathe a gasp.
Across town in another cemetery, Spike was now completely sober. Hearing and recognizing Dawns cry for help through his beer induced fog had quickly forced his mind to the surface.
He was now hopping up and down on one foot dragging on his pants, and alternating between yelling into the phone and listening to the gruesome sounds emitting from it. Which consisted of little more than Dawns painful screams, gasps and heavy breathing. Normally an enticing mixture but sure as shit not when the Nibblet was involved!
He had to try very hard to control his demon, who also considered the Summers girls family, and even that proved unsuccessful as his face shifted briefly, before he managed to shake it off.
"Buggering Hell...sit tight Bit, I'm on my way!" He yelled into the phone, then hung it up and stuffed it into his pocket.
He dragged his Doc's and a t-shirt on and grabbed his duster and keys as he flew out the door and headed to Revello Drive.
As Janice ran, her panic increased with every pound of boot to pavement. She wanted to help her friend, she really did! But what if she got to Dawn's house and told them what happened, and Tara made her call her own mother? It was the type of thing Tara would do, make sure her mom wouldn t be up worrying about her all this time, even though anyone who knows Janice s family knows they d hardly spare her a glance, much less listen to her side.
They d simply ground her because it was what was expected of them and then go about their business. Janice couldn t let herself be grounded; there were two parties over the next few weeks that if she missed, her social life would be toast! Dawn would be okay, anyway. She was tough enough to get away from that woman; she wasn t that much smaller than she was.
What could happen, anyway? If all else failed Dawn could just trick the woman, then kick her in the shin and take off, right? She turned left and made her way quickly and quietly up the driveway and into her bedroom window, that thought firmly wedging itself in place of the guilt stirring in her belly, and having successfully talked herself out of doing anything more to help Dawn. After all, she'd helped her call for help, what more could she really do that wouldn't get her in trouble, too?
She was asleep within fifteen minutes. Oblivious that this single selfish act, had changed Dawn's life irreparably.