A/N; Am I great, or what? That was a pretty quick update don't you think? I felt kinda bad for leaving you with a cliffhanger like that, so I worked extra hard to finish this chapter quickly. I hope you like it! Sarra Torrens and LizZin, you guys (sorry, girls) rock! You are my muses right now, thank you!

Leave a review and make my day! Plus, reviews make me update faster, neat huh? Everybody wins!

Here is chapter 20, enjoy!

----------------------

Rona's face was grim with determination. She bent down and took out a dagger that apparently had been strapped to her leg under her baggy pants. Before Jones got his breath back enough to say anything she spoke, without taking her eyes from the man coming towards them.

"You run." she stated calmly. "I'll hold him of for as long as I can."

Without giving either of them a chance to say anything about it, she rushed towards the approaching figure with the dagger in a secure grip, preparing to attack him. Before Jones could stop her or even get a word out, the other girl had grasped the hand Rona had let go of and dragged him away from the scene, in a much slower pace than before but still in a dead run.

When Heathers parents arrived just seconds after Dawn had dragged the sergeant out of sight, Rona was doing her very best to hold of the crazed swordsman. Without a thought, they both jumped into the fray, but not until Paul Horner had managed to skewer Rona through her stomach. She fell to the ground, the rain washing her blood from her damaged body.

***

There were no thoughts, only action. They were built for this, created for the soul purpose of the fight. The slayer and her vampire threw themselves into the brawl as soon as they had laid eyes on the fighting pair. Nothing registered but the basic instincts of the born hunters.

Hit! Hurt! Kill!

Even though it had been over a year since they last fought together their bodies remembered their old dance well, and Buffy and Spike quickly fell into that comforting old routine they had created when they first realised realised they actually were fighting on the same side, when the chip in Spikes head had made it impossible for him to harm humans and forced him to take out his violent frustrations on the demon populace instead. When she ducked, he hit, when she punched high, he kicked low and when she missed, he was there to make the hit for her instead. They were a formidable pair, no matter if they fought with or against each other.

Although their opponent appeared to be fully human he was not making it easy for them to win. It was painfully obvious that he had some sort of supernatural aid, because he nearly matched them in speed and strength, not to mention he had the advantage of a sharp and very deadly weapon. Buffy registered that Rona had fallen, but she was too occupied with trying to avoid the sword her opponent wielded with unnerving expertise to be able to see if the younger slayer was still alive. Nothing mattered except for avoiding the sharp sword edge and to try and disable the enemy, and she didn't recognise who she was fighting at first. When she finally did, the shock nearly caused her demise.

'What the... Paul?!'

The thought appeared in her head and she froze for a fraction of a second, but that was enough time for the possessed watcher to take advantage of, and the sword arched towards her. Hadn't Spike been there the weapon would have pierced her lower abdomen, just underneath her navel, but he was there, and when he saw her falter and registered the intent in the crazed man's eyes he barrelled into the sword-wielding maniac and shoved him aside. Instead of making Buffy a slayer shish-kebab the sword just grazed her upper thigh, causing a painful but thankfully not deadly wound.

Both men hit the ground, but Paul was the first one to recover and make it up to his feet. The vampire was still on the ground, a very easy target for the broadsword's sharp edge. The watcher raised the weapon, preparing to take Spikes head of with one swift stroke...

And then his eyes rolled into his skull and he fell to the ground.

Buffy had recovered from her shock quickly, and as soon as she saw Spike and their opponent on the ground she had began searching the immediate area for a weapon on her own. Frustratingly enough, the ground seemed bereft of any handy rocks, thick branches or sharp objects she could have used as a weapon, but when her eyes fell on Ronas prone body she saw the dagger still clutched in the girls hand. It was almost as long as her forearm, and the handle was thick and heavy, made of metal encased in leather. She picked it up, noticing with an overwhelming sense of relief that the girl was still breathing. With lightning speed she rose to her feet and spun around just as Paul stood up as well and turned towards Spike with the intent of decapitating him. Before he could follow trough on that resolve she brought the dagger down n his head, heavy handle first, and he slumped unconscious on the ground.

Spike looked up and smiled at her, showing his gratitude. She smiled back for a brief second before turning back to Rona. She kneeled on the ground next to the still unconscious slayer and examined her wound with a critical eye.

"This is bad", she told Spike without looking back at him. "I'll stay with her and call an ambulance, you go get Dawn and Heather. He was the thing that was after them, right?"

"Yeah, that's him." Spike had risen to his feet and was now looking down at the man Buffy had knocked to the ground. "He reeks of the blood we found back in the house. You sure you want me to leave you here with him?" He looked at her with a questioning and worried look in his eyes.

"Does he look like he's about to wake up any time soon?" When that didn't ease the concern on his face she smiled at him. "We'll be fine. Go get Dawn and Heather, and that police-guy. Rona needs to get to the hospital." She had whipped out her cellphone from her pocket, the one that Giles had presented her with that very afternoon.

When he saw her begin to dial he just nodded shortly and took of after Dawn. He had seen a glimpse of her and the git she was with when they had run of, he knew which way they'd run. He would find them soon enough.

***

Jones had been on his way to his car when the two girls and the toddler had barrelled into him. He'd spent the entire day in Parva, talking to people and visiting the crime-scenes again. He was utterly exhausted and couldn't wait to get home, but of course his life didn't work that way. Instead he was being chased by the very person he assumed he'd been looking for, the murderer with a penchant for decapitation.

Jones finally got his mind together after a while, and he stopped dead in his tracks, halting the girl running at his side in the process. They were both panting and fighting for breath, and it took him a little while to be able to form understandable words.

"I... I need to... I need to get back there..." he took deep breaths between every word, making it very obvious that he was winded.

"No... No you... don't..." Dawn didn't sound much better. She was still holding on to Heather hard, and although the baby wasn't upset or scared from the mad rush, she did look a little nauseous from all the jostling around. Dawn put her head on her shoulder and rubber her back. "I... I know it doesn't... doesn't look like it, but Rona can... look after herself..."

Jones had finally regained control of his breathing. "That was the murderer back there! I can't just leave her behind with a sword-wielding psychopath!"

"And what are you going to do, huh? I'm pretty sure you don't have any weapons on you, and what good would you do in a fight against a 'sword-wielding psychopath' anyway?" Dawn snipped. She was worn out and pretty wigged, and she didn't feel like playing nice with a stranger they just ran into while fleeing from a demon possessed murderer with a wicked-looking sword.

Jones went quiet at that. He didn't like it, but she was right. He couldn't do anything by himself, which was why he picked up his phone to call for backup. Before he could push the first button however, a shout was heard and the girl reacted in such a way that there was no doubt she knew whoever the owner of the voice was.

"Dawn!"

"Spike!" she screamed back in such a high-pitched voice Jones had to cringe and the toddler in her arms made a grimace and started crying.

Jones saw a man running towards them, and it didn't take him many seconds to identify him as the man who had punched him that morning, the father of the child in the girls arms. He groaned.

Spike ignored him completely and rushed up to Dawn and Heather. He frantically looked them over, searching for any visible injuries despite the fact he couldn't smell any blood from either of them.

"Are you allright nibblet? How's the little one?" he asked hurriedly with a hint of a frantic note to his voice. He took the baby from Dawn without a second thought, and she quickly calmed in his arms.

"We're fine Spike. We're fine, but Rona..."

"She got hit, but big sis' is with her. She called the ambulance."

"The freak with the sword..."

"Down for the count. She hit him hard, right on the noggin. She sent me to get you and Heather." He rocked the child, cooing quietly at her, and she looked at him with huge eyes, fascinated by the strange man holding her.

Jones listened in on their conversation, cellphone temporarily forgotten in his hand. He was getting more and more confused by the second, and with confusion came irritation. Finally he just couldn't take it anymore.

"What the hell is going on?!" He shouted the question, and was satisfied to see the other man start a little. Clearly he'd forgotten he was there.

Spike cursed under his breath. He actually had forgotten he was there, and that was the kind of amateurish mistake he'd grown out of over a century ago, or at least he'd thought so.

"The Bedlam-reject with the sword is unconscious. Me and Buffy got him when you and the girls had split the scene."

Jones stared at him. "Who the hell is Buffy?!"

***

Buffy stared at the body of the man she'd thought she knew. All right, not that she'd been best friends with him or anything, but she'd talked to him a couple of times, seen him around and he'd been really good with Heather. In fact, he'd been the one to save the little girl from the still unknown skinless demon, the very attack that had forced her to move out here in the first place...

God, how dumb was she?

He'd wanted her out here. Why, she didn't know. Maybe there were some unknown hellmouth nearby. It wouldn't surprise her.

Something Giles had said about Heather after the first 'attack' came back to her then. "Buffy, her blood must be extremely potent. It could possibly be used for a variety of different rituals or spells, and need I say that not one of them would have a positive outcome." Had Paul been planning to bleed her child? And why, was he trying to raise some demon-god, take over the world or something? Her vision clouded by her sudden flash of fury. He wouldn't live to see another sunrise if he ever tried to harm a hair on Heathers head.

A small part of her that was capable of rational thought recognised she couldn't kill him right away. They needed to question him first, see if there were more people (or demons) in on this. They needed to find out what kind of threat they were up against, and to find that out they needed Paul Horner alive, at least for the time being.

That didn't mean she had to like it.

In the mean time, she entertained herself with imagining exactly how they were going to get him to talk. She also amused herself by picturing Spikes reaction to the fact that someone was after his daughter. She imagined an explosion of Chernobyl proportions.

Paul let out a small grunt and stirred. She hit him again, right behind his left ear, and he slumped back into oblivion. She settled again and stroked Ronas brow. She really hoped the ambulance would arrive soon.