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5 days later; Thanksgiving Day
Spike collapsed. His eyes were purple and sunken with a white face surrounding them. He looked over at Kara. She looked as though she did when mother was still alive. Her body looked frail, with her sunken eyes.
Kara couldn't go any farther. They had been on the run from many of Spike's enemies, so they hadn't had any food or sleep for days. The last of her energy ran our and she collapsed. Unconscious.
"Kara..." Spike said, his voice cracking. "Kara. Come on get up. We've got to move just a little farther."
No movement.
"Great." He picked her up. She was heavy for him. "If I wasn't so weak, I could pick her up with one hand." He told himself.
Then he smelt it. Turkey! Though human food tasted like dirt, it smelled great. He just needed to get Kara there and get her fed.
"Then," he thought. "She can lure a human to kill itself, then I can eat."
The though of blood gave him a boost of energy. He forgot about the sun and walked out of the shade. As soon as he was fully in the sun, he dropped Kara and cowered back to the shade.
The ring. He thought. He quickly looked at his right hand. The Amarra was still there. He sighed in relief. Walking boldly out into the sun, he picked Kara up again. His energy dropped suddenly, and he was left to drag his sister along. By the time he got to the door, he wanted to sleep. Knocking, he yawned. The door opened and the aura of a slayer hit him immediately. He tried to keep himself from hissing at her.
"What do you want vamp?" The girl instead hissed at him.
"My sister. She's really weak and needs food. Real food, not blood." Spike added as he saw the look on the guys face, who stood behind the slayer.
"Too bad. If she dies, then it's one less demon I have to kill. Same with you." She sneered. That was pissing him off.
"Just give her some of your damn food!"
"Make me." She folded her arms, still sneering.
Kara. I'm really sorry about this, but I'm going to chuck you at her, okay? Spike though.
No. Just tell her that you can't hurt anyone. Kara replied. He growled.
"Look. I took a little trip to the vet's and now I can't hurt the other puppies anymore." Spike said returning the sneer.
"Yeah. Sure. If I believe that, then all the other demons would come to me with that excuse for food." The slayer began to close the door, but Kara's foot popped out and stopped it. The slayers face dropped a bit in surprise at how the demon's foot had crossed the threshold. Obviously she wasn't a vampire.
"Look." Kara said softly. "We've got information on the guys in ca-mo that have been doing your job. Tie us up if you have too. Spike has a chip in his head that won't allow him to hurt human flesh and I don't even eat humans."
The slayer's face tightened. "Fine. Michael. Help me tie them up. You get the girl and I'll get the vamp." The man behind her cautiously took the vampires sister as the slayer grabbed Spike and rolled her eyes. "Michael."
"Yeah?" He turned to look at her. "Oh." He said realizing what she wanted. "You can come in." He told the demon.
"I have a name you know." Spike sneered.
"Oh really? What name would that be? Jackass?" Buffy asked.
"No." He said proudly.
"You're close though." Kara said aloud. Michael and Buffy smiled, while Spike glowered at her.
"It's Spike." He winced as she tightened the last top on him. "What's yours?"
"It's none of your business." Buffy snapped.
"Buffy." Kara said quietly.
"What?! How did you know.....?" Buffy was shocked.
"My sister knows all." Spike shrugged.
I can read your mind. The girl's voice entered her head. My name is Kara. It's nice to meet you.
"Ah! GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HEAD!" Buffy ran out of the room with her hands over her ears. Michael followed her out, worried.
"What the hell did you do?!" Spike turned his head to his tied up sister next to him.
"I just talked........in her head." Kara said shyly. He shook his head
Great. He thought to her. Now our secret weapon is known.
I'm sorry. She replied.
He smiled at her and said don't worry about it. We can come up with another idea to use. Kara smiled back just as Buffy walked in.
"Okay. We'll make a deal with you guys. No more speaking in the head of anyone. Do not hurt anyone or you'll be killed instantly." Spike was about to argue, but was shushed by Kara. "You do those and we'll give you food. Deal?"
Spike opened his mouth to disagree, but was interrupted by Kara, who replied, "deal." He looked at her with disgust, but remembered how desperate they were. He nodded to Buffy who was eyeing him carefully.
A few minutes later, Kara was eating pieces of bread as Spike gulped down pig blood. Someone knocked on the door and Buffy set his glass of blood down and quickly opened it.
"Willow! Xander! Did you bring the shelled peas, pie, rolls, and salad?" The two nodded then shook their heads.
"Um.....we've got frozen peas, cause we didn't have time to De-shell them, we burnt the pie......bad.....so we bought some. But the other two things turned out fine." Xander explained as Buffy examined the food.
"Okay. Enough jabbing about your food. I want my blood." Spike retorted.
"Your..." Xander turned around. He jumped and screamed when he saw Spike licking his lips for more blood. "What the heck is this? I though our Thanksgiving was for humans. Not demons!"
Buffy rolled her eyes as she gave Spike more blood out of the mug. "He's not here for Thanksgiving. They're here because they have information about those men that are doing my job."
Xander and Willow nodded. "Okay." Buffy said setting down the empty mug. 'Now we just need to...." She was cut off by an arrow that flew past her head and into an Indian doll on the table. Buffy's head snapped to a window on the upper level where a man in black was loading another arrow.
"Holy shit! They're everywhere!" Xander yelled. Men filled every window in the room. Buffy, Michael, Xander, and Willow ducked behind the couch and table as more arrows flew towards them.
"Hey! What about..." Spike was cut off as an arrow entered his leg. "That hurt you know!" He yelled back at the man that shot him. The man kept a straight, unemotional face and loaded the bow, aiming it at Kara this time. It hit her in the side and a few others hit her in the torso. Her face twisted in pain.
"Don't shoot her again you morons!" He yelled at them again, resulting in an arrow close to the heart. "Hey! Watch....wait a minute. You can't kill me no matter how hard you try! Ha ha ha! Bring on all you've got!" He was cheerfully jumping in his chair, but no one payed any heed.
The sound of a breaking window came from down the hall. "They're getting in from the bedroom!" Michael yelled. He ran out from hiding and down the hall where he was met by another man with a small knife. The rest of the bow men followed, by crashing in through the windows, pulling out small hand weapons as they did.
The slayer and her group jumped out from the couch with weapons and met them head on. It was a fair fight in numbers, but the men had the better half of the deal. No matter how many times they were cut, their bodies came back together.
A man began to walk up to Kara. Spike moved his chair in the way of the man, only to be picked up by him and thrown across the room. The blow knocked him out. Kara's eyes went wide with fear.
"You.....you tried to save my kind." The man told her. "You shall now be rewarded. We will spare your life and one other. Choose." Kara just stared at him wide-eyed. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Buffy sneaking up on the guy. She had obviously figured out how to kill them. A knife that Buffy was holding had come from another Indian man. She watched as it came down on his head, making him disappear. The weapons, including the arrows shot, disappeared. Though Spike and Kara still had their wounds.
As Buffy met and her friends cleaned up the room, a faint glow came from Kara. Her eyes were closed and the glowing came from her wounds. Everyone was staring, including Spike who had just woken up. When Kara opened her eyes again, the first thing she saw were the surprised faces and an ax held to her neck.
"What the hell are you?" Buffy demanded, pushing the ax farther in.
Michael came out of the room with a book in his hand. "She's an Emear. Able to change or mimic into something else. She's also able to use her power to heal herself and others." He looked up at Kara, then to Buffy. "She's also able to read and talk into minds. The only way to block it is to put up walls. Like she did to you Buffy."
Buffy folded her arms across her chest. "What does it eat?" She asked sternly. She glanced at Kara who was staring at the ground.
"Anything. Human food, blood, animals, just about everything." Michael replied looking back in the book.
"Then why the hell didn't it go into town and steal some food then?" Buffy demanded. Now Spike and Kara were looking down. Xander's eyes squinted at Kara's neck.
"Buffy..." He said.
"Not now Xander." She continued her glaring.
"No. Look." He walked over to Kara and lifted her hair off the neck. There were bit marks on both sides of her neck.
"You fed on your sister?! That's disgusting!" Buffy slapped Spike.
His head snapped up, returning her glare. "I didn't mean too. She made me."
"Ha! Oh, sure. She just took over your mind and controlled you." Buffy smacked him again and a faint growl could be heard in his throat.
"Actually, Buffy." Michael said looking in the book for a third time. "It's possible. If the person or thing has a weakened mind, then it's possible for the Emear to take over."
There was an awkward silence before Spike grinned at Buffy and said, "told you so." Buffy smacked him for a third time.
"What was that for?" He snapped back, but a grin still held onto his face.
Buffy turned to Kara. "Why did you let........make him.....eat?" Kara slowly looked up and into Buffy's eye.
If it was your brother starving what would you do? She asked in Buffy's head.
"Let him die if he was a vampire." Buffy answered plainly.
"You don't see the point of what I'm saying. No matter what he's family. He's my blood." Kara replied. The conversation was left at that.
With the siblings tied up, Buffy and the rest set up for Thanksgiving dinner. Kara and Spike sat on the left side of Gyles, who was at the head of the table. Willow and Xander sat opposite of the two, leaving Buffy at the other end of the table.
Halfway through the dinner Kara said, "ask." Everyone but Michael looked at her confused.
"My book says........that your kind is to be the worst." He looked at her questioningly.
"Your book is right. But out of date. Our power is worse when we are mad." Kara's head turned to Xander. "Depends. It can be a whole lot worse than that though." She noticed most of the group shudder knowing what she was talking about. "Most of the time, we're just found wandering around. Emears' don't usually cause trouble. One, because most of us are having too much fun changing from thing to thing or person to person. Two there are too few of us now days and three, your book may not mention this but, we can't block each other out of our own minds, so we'd know immediately who it was and eliminate them."
Michael nodded, listening intently as Buffy gathered up his empty plate. "What can you change into?" He asked.
"Just about anything. From the largest thing to a small mouse and anything in-between." Kara replied. Michael smiled. "Also like your book says. I'm able to mimic things."
"Michael." Buffy called from the kitchen window intently.
"Oh.......um.......yeah. I'm coming. Excuse me." Michael stood up and went into the kitchen with Buffy who began to whisper fast.
"Kara?" Spike asked.
"Yeah."
"Why don't you try to get out?"
"What's the point? They don't know how to kill me. In fact, no one knows how to kill Emears'. If someone ever found out how, they were killed before the secret was let out." Spike raised his eyebrows.
"Really?" He asked. Kara nodded. "How?"
"Now is not the time to say." She said as soon as Michael walked back in. He had a plate filled with some leftovers and a mug and straw filed with more pig blood.
He set down both. Turning to Kara he untied her hands. Scooting her up, he handed her utensils. She eagerly began to eat. Michael walked over to Spike with the mug in his hand. Slowly, it came to Spike's mouth. He gulped it down before they cold take the food away from him again.
"Okay." Buffy said when they were both finished. "Michael, where are your chains?" Michael opened a chest full of weapons and pulled out four chains.
"Whoa! Hold on a sec." Spike said. "What the hell are you going to do with those?!"
"Chain you up in the guest room." Michael replied.
"Why?" Spike looked at them all questioningly.
Kara dropped her head in shame to call him her older brother. Buffy shook her head and everyone else looked at him wide-eyed.
Buffy looked back up at him and asked, "you've been alive how long now?"
"400 years."
"More like 400 seconds." She mumbled.
"What the hell is wrong with you Americans? You seem to think you're all big and mighty." Spike rolled his eyes.
"Hey! You're American too. I wouldn't be talking if I were you."
"Yeah, I know I'm American. But way back, long before you were ever born, when people said something, they actually went and did it. The twenty-first-generation is just all talk, but no action."
"Oh. You want to see some action?" Buffy snapped back.
"Yeah. Actually I would."
Buffy stormed over to his chair. She threw a punch that sent him back into the wall 20 feet away. As she began to walk over to where he lied, still tied to the chair, Xander stepped into her path.
"Buffy..." before he could finish his sentence hew was shoved back. Willow rushed to his side. None of them dared go up to her now that she was pissed. Spike didn't seem to care; he continued throwing insults at her.
"Ha! That wasn't a punch. That was a girly slap! You shouldn't be a slayer! You're a little girly girl! To afraid to hit a guy! Even a vampire!" Buffy started kicking him as hard as she could.
Everybody was too much in awe from hearing the cracking bones to pay attention to notice Kara, who now had a sliver substance surrounding her hands. The ropes around her fell and she stood. Michael, Willow, and Xander now stared in astonishment from the two events happening on the different sides of the room.
Spike was a bloody mass and had been knocked out after a few kicks to the head.
Kara raised her arm and mad a fist. Buffy was raised into the air with her arms pinned to her sides. Kara turned Buffy to herself. "That's enough." She dropped her next to Willow and went over to Spike with her hands till glowing.
She easily broke the ropes and moved the chair away. She pushed him so he was flat on his back. Putting her hands on his chest, she began to mumble a chant. The silver substance covered him. After a few minutes, it subsided and Spike leaned up on his elbows.
"How do you fell?" Kara asked with a faint smile. Her arms holding her up.
"I'm.........not hurt. What happened?" He looked at everyone for an answer. No one replied.
"I just fixed you up a bit." Kara's arms were beginning to shake.
"How?!" Spike laid flat on his back again. "That fast? How is it possible?"
"I'll tell you later." Her arms gave out and she passed out as her head landed on Spike's chest. He raised his head, looking at her quizzically.
Michael broke the awkward silence. "Let's get her into the guest room." Spike carefully slid out from beneath her head. Lifting her up, he followed Michael to the room. Buffy also followed along with the four chains.
She chained Spike to a chair in the far corner and Kara on the bed on the opposite side of the room.
"Hey!" Spike yelled at her. "If your going to chain us up at least put me next to my sister."
"No. You'll just help each other out." She snapped back.
"Buffy...... Just do it." Michael said softly.
"What?! Gyles...."
"Just do it." He left the room. Spike grinned widely as Buffy scrunched her face. She moved him next to the top of the bed, leaving the room mumbling madly to herself.
An hour came and went, Spike heard everyone but Michael leave. He was just about to fall asleep when Kara began to talk in her slumber.
