Part Four –Band of Brothers?

Dawn’s scream had carried towards the rear of the house. Ian and Willow heard it and instantly ran back to see what had happened. Willow was terrified that Dawn was dead. Fortunately, she wasn’t. When they reached the front of the house, they saw a group of ten people, male and female, mingling around the front door.
Dawn was being held with her arms tied behind her back by a teenage boy wearing a hood. Her sword was not far in front of her, resting on the ground. Ian recognised the face of the man facing Dawn.

“Nelson. It’s all right, she’s with me” he said.
Nelson turned around and saw Ian Xavier standing to one side with a red haired young woman beside him.
“All right Darren, let her go” he called.
Darren let go of Dawn. When he did, Dawn frantically picked up her sword and wielded it to ensure that she wouldn’t be caught off guard again.

“Ian, what are you doing here?” asked Nelson “You know that you shouldn’t come here during the night.” He said before looking at Willow.
“ I suppose this is your new girlfriend is it? I’d have thought she was a little too old for you and too old for being taken to a deserted house to have sex”
Having heard this, Willow moved away from Ian and went over to Dawn. Neither of them was pleased with this revelation.
“No, it’s nothing like that” countered Ian, fully aware that Dawn and Willow were looking at him disapprovingly.
“Their names are Dawn and Willow. We need your help Nelson. We’re in a bit of trouble you see” he continued.
“I’m sure you are Ian” Nelson replied jokingly. The rest of the cult sniggered.
“Nelson, can we go inside? I’ll explain everything in there”
“All right. Let’s go inside”
Nelson gestured to Darren to unlock the front door and they all went inside. As they did so, Dawn and Willow exchanged worried glances.

The interior of the house was a wreck. It was clear that it had been deserted for a considerable length of time. There were Spiders’ webs spun across the length of each wall; the floor was coated with at least an inch of dust and of course there were no lights – not even the traditional light bulb suspended from the ceiling. The electricity had long been cut off. In short, it wasn’t the most welcoming place to come in order to avoid the Vampires.

Darren forced open the door to the lounge. Inside was a fire burning brightly in the centre. The walls had been decorated with various implements that were no doubt used by the cult in their rituals. Once inside, Willow and Dawn found a corner away from the cult and sat down.
“Well, here we are” said Willow miserably.
“We must get out of here” said Dawn “We could slip away whilst they are not looking. They seem more interested in the fire anyway.”
“And go where Dawn? We haven’t got a clue where to go next”
“Oh all right! We are heading back to our house to collect our things and then we’re going aren’t we?”
“Definitely. I won’t want to stay here any more than you do Dawn. We can’t beat the Hellmouth with this bunch of teenagers – we don’t even know that they’re on our side”
“So we just wait then?”
“Yes. Let’s see what Ian does”

Nelson directed Ian into a room leading from the lounge. Once inside, he picked up a gas lantern and lit it before placing it on the dusty, wooden table in front of them.
“So what exactly is the problem Ian?” asked Nelson
“Remember the last time we spoke like this?” replied Ian
“Yes. I remember you saying something about a group of people defeating a Hellmouth thing in San Francisco”
“Correct. Well tonight was the night when they went to face it. They lost and the two ladies who accompanied me here have been fleeing from it. One other thing happened – the Vampires came to me house earlier and killed my father. I was fortunate enough not to be discovered myself. The vampires are still out there and they’re still chasing us. Until sunrise, they won’t give up. That’s why I need your help”
“Fascinating. My cult and I will finally be able to meet some vampires at last. It’s been a while since any have been spotted around here”
“Nelson, we need your help to defeat the Hellmouth or we’ll never be safe”
“Ian, we are a vampire worshipping cult remember, we won’t be siding against them”
Ian didn’t reply. Instead, he sat there thinking of a way to convince Nelson to join forces with him.

Back inside the lounge, Dawn had reclined her head and fell asleep again. Willow saw this and decided to stay awake in order to protect them both.

Buffy, Anya and Willow were due to be discharged from Hospital. Xander had left the house to go and collect them, leaving Dawn alone with Andrew and Giles. This left Dawn with little to do apart from worry about her sister. Giles was in the lounge, thus insuring that she couldn’t watch TV as he didn’t like it being on. In fact, if it had not been for everyone else wanting a TV so badly, Giles would have got his way and there wouldn’t be one in the house at all.
“You should be concentrating on the Hellmouth – not the TV!” he kept repeating whenever it was on.

Twenty minutes later, Dawn heard the front door being unlocked from her bedroom. As she did so, she walked out of her room and went downstairs. By the time she had done so, Buffy, Anya and Willow were standing by the front door. Before Dawn had time to welcome her sister back, Giles opened the lounge door and asked Buffy to have a quiet word with him and sent the others away. Xander, Anya and Willow walked into the kitchen. Dawn waited on the stairs until Giles shut the door, and then listened in.

“Welcome back” said Giles initially.
Buffy didn’t sound impressed by this. Dawn realised that Buffy was well aware of the nature of this private chat.
“What do you want?” asked Buffy impatiently.
“I’m glad that you are out of Hospital Buffy. However, things must change if we are going to avoid a repeat of the events of last week”
“Just cut to the chase Giles!”
“It’s your relationship with Zeladin. I want it to end now”
“My love life is none of your business Giles”
“But these relationships with Vampires cause nothing but trouble. Spike was bad enough and had mixed loyalties, but this Zeladin is far worse. I get the impression that he knows all there is to know about our plan and that he helped cause your injuries. If you don’t end it, we shall lose our lives Buffy”
“No! I know you are entitled to your opinion, but you can’t tell me what to do!”

Dawn rushed away from the door as Buffy flung it open and walked out, enraged. “Clearly things weren’t going well” thought Dawn, who had little knowledge of what happened whilst she was at w**k.

Dawn awoke again and saw that Willow was still sat beside her. She saw Ian walking towards them.
“Oh no, here comes trouble” said Willow
Ian didn’t look happy and he wasn’t. Dawn and Willow watched him as he sat down opposite them.
“He said no then?” Dawn asked.
“He’s not bothered by it whatsoever. I don’t think he’s taking anything seriously. He called the fact that Vampires were coming “fascinating”!” Ian replied.
“What do you expect from the leader of a Vampire worshipping cult?” replied Willow.
“Back to the Car then?” asked Dawn.
“No! There must be some way of convincing him. I’m going to try again” replied Ian.

Dawn slowly shook her head in despair as Nelson walked into the room carrying a tray on which appeared to be a dead Pig. Dawn winced at the sight as Nelson picked a knife from the wall.
“Non believers do not look upon this sight” Nelson said regally.
“Don’t worry, I won’t!” said Dawn quietly as she turned her back on the fire.

Nelson set the tray down above the fire and took hold of the knife. He then cut out the Pig’s heart and drained the blood into a cup. Then he took a sip before passing it to Darren, who also took a sip. The other cultists sat around the fire did the same.
“I bet they get a lot of upset stomachs” said Willow quietly to Ian.
“I’m sure they do. What they practice is a dangerous art – in more ways than drinking Pig’s blood” he replied.

Nelson stood up again, looked around the faces of the cult and selected three others, who then also stood up. In order so that Ian, Dawn and Willow could hear, he told the cultists who were standing to accompany him to search for vampires. He then asked the others to keep an eye on Ian, Dawn and Willow, who he referred to as “the non believers”. Darren was one of those chosen to stay behind – much to Dawn’s dislike.

Nelson and three others left the house with another cup filled with blood in search of Vampires. Nelson was, as always, optimistic about finding a vampire. His cult was not, however and found this part of the cult’s practices the most boring. It was even worse during the winter of course. Tonight’s route was very different from normal. Instead of walking in the direction of the nearby old church before entering its cemetery, they were heading towards the outskirts of the town in the direction of San Francisco.

It wasn’t long before they met what they had come to look for. One-hundred feet away a wormhole opened up and out of it came a group of twenty Vampires. The cultists could not believe their eyes – they had not seen anything like this before. As the vampires walked menacingly towards them, they bowed down, Nelson held out the cup filled with Pig’s blood in front of him.

Zeladin’s face lit up as a leer formed on his face. He had got it just right. He walked up to Nelson, who said:
“My lords, please take this blood as a gift of our dedication towards you”
Zeladin didn’t take the cup; instead he knocked it out of Nelson’s hands. He then signalled to his Vampires to attack. With swift speed and efficiency, the vampires killed the cultists by biting them on the neck.

Seconds later, the cultists had been transformed into vampires.
“I shall take you to where the mortals are hiding. Follow me” said a transformed Nelson as the group walked back to the house.

End of Part Four

Pretty engaging stuff.

The homage to Lie To Me was a nice touch.

There are a few typos. Change me house to my house and insuring to ensuring. sk

this is really good ... :thumbsup:

:thumbsup:

very good story so far, keep it up.

Haze

Thanks :)

Unfortunately I'm in need of a break. I am going to write the outlines for the remaining parts of the story and then write them up when I go back to Uni.