Part 1
Away from the monstrous concrete columns serving as mass housing, another brunette fought viciously, at the peak of her power. She dodged the punches of her demonic adversary with ease, and then struck out with lethally fast blows, leaving her opponent's disfigured face bleeding fiercely. The hideous face with it's discoloured fangs and truly foul breath belonged to a well-built male, a vampire of many centuries. He stumbled, catching needless breath, trying to connect disjointed motions into a coherent attack.'Tsssk, tsssk,' the slim girlish figure scolded. 'The tomato vines are crying out to you...' She twisted the vamps arm behind his muscled shoulder, and he yelped in pain. She whispers in his ear: '... they make you blush. Their blood was always redder than yours.' She sent him flying with fluid movements, and he lied sputtering in the gutter. She walked over to him, and stooped down, raising his face and bringing it close to hers. She brought a long painted nail to rest by his eye, then ran it down his cheek to his jaw. She crooned to him with a pout: 'Shhh, shhhh, birdie's come to send the world away... No more tomatoes.'
'Errr, Dru, luv, might be time to let this one bite the dust, so to speak.' The deep English voice brought the victor back to the riverside of the Vltava, and her audience. Spike, the only other body there wearing a human face, tossed her his lighter, which she caught in a sharp snap of a reaction. She sparked a flame, and brought it close up to the sprawling vamps eye.
She shook her head, 'You really shouldn't have eaten your sister. It made her very cross, and your Mummy was so very disappointed. They're still waiting for you, you know.' The age-old vampire's greasy hair caught the flame, and Dru stepped back to survey her work.
The bleached blond Englishman in the leather duster stepped forward and slipped an arm around her waist, and she replaced his lighter on his inside pocket.
'Good fight, luv?'
'Hmmmm,' she replied, 'the pretty flames sing to me, all the old songs...'
'Nothin worth sendin off to Eurovision, then?'
'The songs of the land... His castle, he built the castle... oooh, 10000 men and a hill... We get to live in the castle? Do we? Do we?'
'Sounds good to me, I say we take the castle.' They turned, ready to depart, but instead confronted the lackeys of the newly combusted.
Spike raised an eyebrow, 'Anyone have unresolved issues or an unhealthy territorial xenophobic attitude should probably leave now.' He paused to flatten a precocious young vamp with a misplaced prejudice regarding blondes. 'Unless, of course, any of you wish to explore dustivity? No? Didn't think so. Lead away, then, let's Yankee bloody Doodle up to this sodding castle.'
The vamps paused, confused, waiting for a leader to emerge from their ranks and challenge this foreigner. But it was for a split second only, and they turned to lead away.
Anna watched from the roof of the riverside museum, an amused scowl etched into her features. Oh, she would have fun with this couple; they were major players for sure. They didn't seem to realise the other vamps had not understood a word of their imperious commands and threats. These vamps spoke Czech, and some spoke Slovak, and many knew the basics of Russian from their days as a human under a Soviet regime, but few knew any English outside of Beatles lyrics. Apart from Anton, of course, he would understand the gist. Yet obviously these vamps feared the couple, they had accepted his command with the bear minimum of resistance once this ‘Drusilla’ had dusted Constantin. Constantin, whose residence in this city had been legend since before either of these two had been sired, she was willing to wager. Time to introduce herself, she decided, she knew from experience that it was futile to try and track them to their entrance to the hidden chambers beneath the castle. She dropped silently from the building, landing squarely between the brainless minions and the following out-of-towners.
'Hi,' she announced to them. 'Just thought I'd drop by, welcome you to town... I'm an important person to know around here.'
'Are you now? In't that nice for you. An important person. I can smell you... person. I'm Spike. P'raps you could help me with this little problem, I'm lookin for somewhere half decent to eat at around here, you wouldn't happen to know anywhere, would you? Someplace small... brunette... bad shoes and a patched coat?' He walked towards her, leaning forward, and she backed away, flustered and off guard. He turned to Dru, 'Hungry, pet?'
Anna straightened, feeling the strength in her fists, the neck-snappingly brilliant talent she was born to. 'You might want to think about leaving, making this just a short stay. Or I might have to make it a short stay for you.'
'Promises, promises. I was thinking I could settle here for quite a while, such promising real estate, you see. And this welcome... I've been here less than 8 hours and frankly I've fallen for the place, it's quite... quaint.' He leant in for the kill, his face fully morphed, his brow contorted. And... She hit him.
He stumbled back, surprised, and Dru, also vamped out, giggled and danced. 'We all fall down... we all fall down...'
They took a time out, and Spike righted himself. He threw a punch, she dodged it. She went into a sidekick, and he caught that awful shoe, and spun into a right-handed back fist. Which she then blocked, freed her leg, and went at him with the punching again. And not one blow connected, as he twisted and turned, and the air swished around him. They each took a step back, circled, eyes locked.
'We gonna fight, or are we just working on this non-contact thing we got going?' She jibed.
'You're holding back,' he pointed out.
'So are you,' she replied.
'A ring a ring a ring a ring....' whispered Dru under her breath as she glided round the pair, just in front of the other vamps, who had gathered round as vultures to spectate.
'I hate to be predictable, I'm sure you must get asked this a fair bit, but I gotta know. You wouldn't happen to be a...' but Spike was interrupted at this point.
'Yes, I would. Anton,' she called out to a cleanly shaven vamp in the crowd, 'what was the word the old Englishman used?'
'Slai-yerr,' Anton growled clearly, with his thick accent. He cleared his throat. 'A Vampayer Slai-yerr. But one dyevooshka in all of creaishion, a chosen one, one born...'
'Thank you, Anton, I remember that bit,' she interrupted again. 'So, what were you saying about settling down? Need to borrow a cup of sugar?'
'Thanks ever so. But I think X marks... this spot. We're staying.'
'Well I guess I'll be seeing you around then. But if you don't mind, those sirens in the distance are after me, and I really have an elsewhere to be.' She dropped her fighting stance and prepared to leave, but his dark form blocked her way. She saw him now up close, his vampiric visage smoothed to human form, his clear brow and piercing eyes crystalline with malevolence. She felt his aura blacker than his jet nails, his slight form oozing power. She stepped forward, to walk past him, but he stayed put and now she could feel his unnecessary breath on her hair. She slipped her hand under his jacket. The silence was tangible, the intense chill uncanny, and only the river continued in its motion.
'Errr... Boss? Might very much be better if vaited,' Anton broke through, 'the sky, eet ees getteeng sunshainey.'
Spike raised his eyes to the pinkening sky, as Anna lit herself a cigarette with the lighter she had retrieved from his inside pocket. She took a pull, passed it over to him, and handed back his lighter.
'Be seeing you...' she murmured to him as he looked back down to her. She brushed past him, and he looked up to the sky again, finishing the cigarette. He turned to dot the bad-guy-parting-jibe thing, but she was gone, lost in the indistinguishable shadows she had grown up with.
Drusilla slunk up to him from behind, snapped her jaw inches from his ear, and giggled some more.
'A Slayer... this town has marzipan and pie plates to match. All the sixes, sixty-six, and a lamb in a... rhubarb patch.' Spike turned to her, the iced fire in his eyes, the passion strong in his demon blood. They kissed, oblivious to the on looking minions, who glanced nervously at the lightening sky.
'Time to head in, luv?' Dru pointed out.
'Yeah, that might be it. I dunno, though, this city... the darkness inside it.... It's got employable idiots, a castle, and on top of that, a slayer. It's just so very...' He paused for a moment, considering hi choice of word. 'I think I'd call it... spanktastic.'
