The Doctor's denial was followed by a flood of light as a dozen lanterns were uncovered all around the open glen. The horse dropped to its feet and snorted, confused. The dullahan himself pulled back, twisting in the saddle as his horse jerked the other direction. Now rider less, the horse became even more uncontrollable, rushing the lights only to be scared back by them.

"Let it through!"

Two men parted under the Doctor's orders and the horse vanished into the night. The gap closed as the Doctor face the dullahan.

"Leave in peace. We mean you no harm."

"I mean you harm, Doctor!" the dullahan snarled in response. The whip snapped but no one fell, the lights blinding. "You haven't the right to intrude upon territory claimed by another! This area is ours! We have lived here since our marriage four hundred years past!"

"You've lived here long enough, Naime. No more deaths!"

The gruesome smile on the severed head grew disturbingly wider. "Just two Doctor; the girl's and your own! Then, we shall take that thing you call a person back to the people who grew it and let them erase every last particle of her existence!"

Kathryn gave Elizabeth's hand a reassuring squeeze as the banshee spoke.

"You haven't the right to refuse her to me. I located her and my husband marked her; she is mine."

"And I said no," Kathryn quietly answered. "I placed this child under my protection before you came to take her."

"I have no objections to you trying to protect her; I plan to take you back as well."

Kathryn felt her hands go cold inside her gloves and struggled to keep the emotions from her voice. "Will you now?" She turned in order to face the banshee, her hand resting on the thing she had brought in with her. "Why should a Jahra concern a Naime like you?"

The dark eyes of the banshee sparkled coldly. "You smell…different. There is a strange, thrilling spark mixed in with the hormones you give off. You're something special, and your creators will pay well for your return on top of what they owe us."

Kathryn stood, face looking like marble. Her hand clenched the long, white tube. With a hard voice she spoke.

"I'm not going with anyone, demon. I have a life to live and riddles to solve, and I have a child to protect." Kathryn turned on the bright UV light. "If you want her, you have to go through me."

Kathryn braced herself as the banshee lunged.

The Doctor stood, the dancing light of the lanterns giving his thin face a chiseled look. "I won't let you have them. You've done enough damage in this area; it's time to find a new hunting ground."

"Wouldn't that just be sentencing another people to live in terror Doctor?" the dullahan hissed maliciously.

"Leave the planet. I can take you somewhere if you need a ride, but you must leave."

"We will stay as it pleases us, Doctor!"

"I'm giving you a chance!"

The whip snaked out and snapped next to the Doctor's ear. "And I'm giving you yours!"

The Doctor's voice matched the look in his eyes. "Do not press me, Naime!"

"No, I'll flay you open like a fish!"

The dullahan's whip flashed up as the Doctor drew a UV light from the inside of his coat.

Kathryn held the light up like a barrier and the banshee grabbed it, shoving Kathryn backward. Using the momentum, Kathryn continued rolling backwards over the bed and flipped the banshee over her. Kathryn spun around and held the light up. She could see the banshee's hands smoking from the contact.

"Why are you really here, Jahra?" the banshee snarled. "What business could a convict possibly have in this place?"

"You're the killer, not me." Kathryn was poised on the balls of her feet, back to the bed as she re-evaluated the situation. The banshee was much stronger than she looked, and taller than Kathryn by a few inches. This was going to be harder than previously thought.

Kathryn moved the UV light towards the banshee, who flinched away from it. Holding the two ends of the light in either hand, Kathryn kept it securely in front of her.

"But what are you? You cannot be one of the common breeds," the female Naime pressed, circling. Kathryn moved to counter her. "You are far too…"

"Human?" Kathryn interjected.

"Real, to be one of the usual ones. So what are you?"

The banshee dashed forward and Kathryn brought down the UV light, but the banshee danced back. She inspected the dagger that had been attached to Kathryn's belt.

"Grixzen. And I smell blood." The flat, dark eyes of the pale woman fixed on Kathryn's live green ones. "Did you kill the owner?"

"I did."

"Very strange. What could a Grixzen possibly want from a Jahra?" A smile crept across the beautiful cruel face. "Unless…"

The silence lasted for a few seconds before Kathryn broke, her already taut nerves unable to take more. "Unless what?"

In a whirl of fabric Kathryn was pinned against a nearby dresser, the UV light pressed against her chest and the pulse in her neck beating against a knife's edge.

"Unless you were so incredible that you caught their attention," the banshee said a bit breathlessly, eyes glinting. "What is it? Why would they notice you, small one? What makes you so amazing?"

Kathryn was frozen for an instant. A strange multi-colored glow started to suffuse the room. With it came…not so much an idea as an instinct.

Kathryn jerked her hands backward, snapping the light in two. The shattered ends cut into the banshee's chest and she backed up towards the window with a cry. Kathryn slashed at the creature's face, scoring it and forcing her back further.

The banshee, half mad with pain, whirled away from Kathryn and towards Elizabeth. The eight year old girl screamed and tried in vain to defend herself.

A second later the wounded woman was pulled back by a shoulder. She didn't even have time to blink before one jagged end of the UV light was run into her stomach. Her mouth opened and her eyes widened in pain and shock as she swayed.

Before the second hand on the mantle clock could twitch once, Kathryn laid her bare hand on the banshee's bleeding cheek.

Energy rushed into Kathryn. She could feel it burning in her veins, sharp and painful. She continued looking into the woman's eyes as she forced her further back towards the window.

"I'm a destroyer of worlds and a mangler of minds," Kathryn whispered so only her prey could hear. "I steal the life from things and save it until the day it will be used." The soft glow from before now saturated Kathryn's vision. She could see the life draining from the banshee's face and running through her arm. Her grip tightened. The banshee was now leaning out over the window sill.

"That is what I am, beast. What are you?"

The terrified banshee's mouth was open in dismay and disbelief. Her face screwed up for a moment before she tilted her head back and screamed again, but this time it was a name.

The Doctor and the dullahan had been moving around each other in a deadly dance, each trying to wear the other out. The mortal minuet ended abruptly with a soul-piercing screech.

"Kahzdel!"

Everyone looked up to the second story window to see two shapes, one about to force the other out the window.

"Allyn!"

The dullahan's cry was no less agony filled than his wife's had been as the banshee turned to dust at Kathryn's hand.

*Constructive criticism welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*