Chapter 9

Blind Three Way Girl Fight

The next evening, Anne (a.k.a. Buffy) took off her second shift, so I only saw her in passing as she left and I came in. So much for me trying to catch her during break time this night.

After I finished my shift (Mitch was actually a little more frisky, and not in a good way, since Anne took a shift off), I hurried out the door and tried to figure out the fastest way to find Anne, or Clytemnestra, whomever I could find first. Disregarding Anne's advice last night hadn't worked so well, so I decided this time to take to the roof tops.

It really didn't take me long after that. I moved around in outward concentric circles from the Diner, and on my third circle out, I came across some sounds of struggling in an alleyway. Even before I looked over the edge, I heard the sound of a vampire imploding. Anne was fighting about 8, no make that 7, no 6, big male vampires. No sign of Clytemnestra, however.

My first sign of her was when someone shoved me in the back so hard I hit the wall on the other side of the alleyway on the way down. I landed in a cloud of dust. As I coughed and tried to squint through it, I saw Clytemnestra, hood down, land in the alleyway. Anne was being restrained between two very large vampires, while a third one, even bigger than the other two, was hitting her in the face and head with all his considerable might. If Anne had just been human, any one of those shots would have knocked her head clean off.

As it was, Anne recovered and kicked the huge vampire in front of her in the balls. Hard. While he was bending over, I jammed a wooden stake into his heart. The dust cloud he made was blinding, and I realized that was why Clytemnestra had chosen these guys for her attack. More so even than their strength, she recruited them for the dust clouds they would make.

It was brilliant. She was using big vampires as dust bombs.

When I recovered my vision, Anne, still blinded and choking, was yanked out of the remaining two big vampires' hands by Clytemnestra. I grabbed the closest of the two big vampires and threw him away. The other one turned with a startled look on his face while I jammed a wooden stake into his chest. This time, I closed my eyes as he dusted.

When I opened them again, Clytemnestra was choking Anne. Anne was stronger than a typical vampire, but probably not as strong as a master vampire. Anne's face was almost purple.

I moved to help when something hit me hard in the head, knocking me about 30 feet down the alleyway. I opened my eyes to see the last of the big vampires snarling as he ran at me full tilt. My head ringing, I danced aside and tripped him. Clytemnestra was struggling with Anne, who obviously still had some fight in her, but I suspected she wouldn't for long.

The remaining big vampire then yanked my hair from behind, and having had enough of him, I picked him up and slammed his back across my knee. That startled him into letting go of my hair, but the pull still hurt, and some of my hair came out. It would grow back, although in this case no faster than it would grow for a mortal woman.

Irritated and desperate, I staked him as he was getting up, and I got another cloud of vamp dust in my face. Choking, I ran through it and into another, smaller one.

This one was different, though. It was like an explosion of dust, and while there was dust, there was still a scream. Anne was straddling a jerking, dancing skeleton as it emitted a constant cloud of greenish dust. When Clytemnestra's skeleton stopped dancing and laid still, Anne backed away from it, her eyes wide.

"God, please, not another Mas..." she started to say when the skeleton itself crumbled into dust, and blew away.

I don't know how long Anne stared at that spot. I don't know because I took the opportunity to make like a bunny, and run away.