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"Maybe all the vamps took a holiday," Buffy suggested as she and the trainee walked around one of the many cemeteries Sunnydale had. "Isn't it like the vamp passover or something?" Jessie raised an eyebrow at her and walked on, reading the headstones.
"Why do these only have names? No messages...no dates..."
"Because when you have as many deaths as we do, it costs a lot for inscriptions."
"Oh. So, what do you do when it's dead like this?"
"You don't want to use the word 'dead' around here. I go back to the library, home, or to the Bronze. It's the only good place in town to go to." They stood in silence for a few minutes, just listening to the wind blow through the trees, when Jessie's slayer-sense went off.
"It's about to pick up... Why don't you guys come out to play instead of hiding?" The S-I-T asked into the woods, pulling a crossbow out of her bag.
"Where'd you get that?" Buffy asked, pulling a stake from the pocket of her leather jacket.
"Freddy's sister is my unofficial watcher. She's got like ten of them in her locker alone. Now help me tell how many of them there are." Her eyes darted around the darkened area, her arms raising the crossbow slowly. Suddenly, a vampire jumped out it's hiding places, followed by six others, and instantly surrounded the slayers.
"Oh damn," Jessie whispered, backing up into Buffy. The several in front of her grinned, showing their fangs. "Keep smiling Fang Face. You'll be roasting your ass off soon." She lifted the bow up and fired, nailing one in the middle of the head. "Oops."
The full circle charged them at the same time, four on one, three on the other. Jessie got the crossbow knocked from her hands and was thrown into a headstone. Buffy was having better luck. She quickly staked the first attacker and took on the others. Two charged her at the same time, the slayer ducked, and they ran into each other. Then it was one-on-one. The vamp threw his fist at her jaw, connecting. She wobbled slightly and got back on track. She punched him in the stomach, kneed in the jaw, got behind him, pulled up his arm and snapped it. The vampire screamed in pain, and was dust. The slayer looked to her cousin, who was having slightly more trouble fighting a fairly strong looking vampiress.
"Buffy? I could use a little help here!" Jessie called, blocking a punch, but taking a heavy kick to the face. A clap came from behind a large tombstone, and the vampiress and the others stopped their attack. Buffy staked the vampiress in her distracted state, and started on another when a voice called out. "You know, when the whistle blows, you stop."
From out behind the stone came two figures, both tall. One was male, with platinum blonde hair, and the other was female, with jet black hair.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't Peroxide Boy!" Jessie quipped, getting up.
"Spike, look. It's the little girl," The female cooed. Buffy shook her head at them.
"Spike! I told you to get lost and stay lost!"
"Personally slayer," Spike shot back, walking to them, "Dru and I like it here. We went to London. Trash hole. Paris, not the same as it used to be. Brazil? Too damn hot and religious. Did you know that Rio had this big statue thing of the bloody Christ?!"
"Duh!" Jessie said.
"I see you survived. Still got your little sling-shot?" Spike laughed again at her.
"No. That was then," Jessie picked up the crossbow and aimed at Drusilla. "This is now. This is so better than that flimsy little stick." She fired, but one of Spike's henchmen stepped in front of it, getting the bolt in the heart. Spike chuckled, then vamped-out and growled loudly.
"You are going to wish you hadn't done that! I'm gonna rip out your throat and and pull your spine and brains out from the hole!" He growled again and ran at the slayers.
Spike ran right into Buffy knocking her down.
"Oh, perfect," Jessie muttered under her breath. She staked the remaining three henchmen and ran off to help her cousin. Spike had the slayer on her back, nailed down by his knee, trying to bite her. Noticing Drusilla, watching her love trying to get a bite into her neck, Jessie got an idea.
"Jessie? Little help?" Buffy asked, fending off Spike's fangs.
"Oh Peroxide Boy?" the younger slayer called. He turned to see Jessie, holding Dru by the neck and holding a cross in front of her face, making her cringe. "You try to bite, and your girlfriend goes poof!"
"Spike?" Dru whimpered.
"Jessie! Look out!" The S-I-T spun around, Drusilla and all, to find a large vampire with a 2-by-4 behind her. The wood came down, but missed Jessie and got Dru in the head, knocking her out.
"Nice going. I think you were supposed to get me, though," She told him. She grabbed the plank from his hands and smashed it over his head.
Buffy wrestled Spike off her and the two went at it again. Spike threw a hard kick to her stomach, making her double over. He took this advantage to pick her up and roughly throw her into a black tombstone, knocking it over.
The vampire battling Jessie got his balance back and picked up a piece of the broken two-by-four, swiping it at her.
"Whoa, hello! Hey, that almost-" the board connected with her head and she fell to the ground. The vampire smiled down at her and started beating her with the board. Jessie tried to get up under the weight of her attacker's foot, but the board stopped each attempt. Unknowingly, the demon had stepped on Jessie's fallen crossbow, and set off the trigger, sending a bolt straight into his back. The board tumbled to the ground, whacking Jessie in the head and her into semi-unconsciousness. Before she blacked out entirely, the voices of the demons behind her filled her ears.
"Spike? I felt. . . I felt My Angel again. My Angel is back. My Angel can come back and play tea with me. . ." dawdled one. There was a silence before another continued.
"If that bloody bastard's back . . . I have an idea." There were footsteps, the sound of marble
breaking, a thwack! And a soft groan. Then the footsteps walked past the downed slayer and drifted
into the night.