Dawn was pretty sure Italy didn't have a rainy season, but the seven straight days of anything from drizzle to torrential downpours were beginning to make her think finding an ark might be advisable.
Tugging the strings of her raincoat's hood tighter around her face, she made sure her purse was closed tightly--mourning the fact that she couldn't carry any of her designer purses because Buffy would strangle her if she ruined any of them, and therefore was reduced to this ugly vinyl thing-- and stepped out of the doorway she'd taken shelter in when the mist had begun to thicken.
Despite it being early evening, there were very few people out. For the first couple days, people had gone about their normal business, a bit grouchily, but not letting a bit of water stop them, but now people were getting tired of it, and more and more were holing up in their homes if they didn't have to be out.
Unfortunately, she had to be out, at least to get home from class. That it had been cancelled without warning by an instructor too wussy to get a bit wet, after, naturally, Dawn and a few other classmates had arrived, irked her, but she'd survived the Hellmouth. She'd survive the rain.
Turning down a narrow side-street, Dawn felt a chill sweep through her and glanced up to see the clouds thickening, blocking out the moon and stars. There were a few lights on in the buildings, but she knew the street well enough not to worry about stumbling over anything. She caught up to an older gentleman with a big black umbrella, shuffling along, a bag of food in his free hand, and excused herself as she passed him.
As she did, a woman passed on her other side, seeming to come out of nowhere, and a frisson of electricity went through Dawn as their shoulders brushed. She apologized and continued on her way, not looking back at the woman, not wondering anything about her.
The sound of a door opening behind her drew her attention for a moment and, as she saw the man enter a building, she briefly wished she wasn't still four blocks from her own apartment, and then everything went black.
*****
Someone was singing. A soft patter of words strung together to a familiar tune. Dawn knew them but their origin wasn't registering. The pain in her head made thought almost unbearable.
Pain.
Blackness and pain.
Someone had...hit her?
Dawn came awake with a start and a gasp. Her eyes flew open, tried to focus, and she pushed aside the pain exploding behind her eyes. There was softness beneath her--a bed--and wherever she was the light was dim. Turning her head on the feather pillow she spied a rather incongruous collection of stuffed animals next to her--dolls and puppets, all old-fashioned, some missing fur and eyes. At the sight of a paper-mache red devil puppet wearing velvet breeches and a satin waistcoat she shivered. That wasn't a child's toy. Dragging her eyes away from the devil's, she noted there were velvet hangings on the bed and a lit fire on a hearth across the room. In the shadows something stirred.
Beginning to panic, Dawn tried to scramble from the bed only to find herself naked, covered only with fine cotton sheets, and her ankle cuffed to one of the posts of the bed.
"Oh god," she breathed as fear flooded her. Her hands went to her body, trying to discover if she'd been... "Oh god."
"Your virtue is intact," whispered a feminine voice from one dark corner. It was the same voice that had been singing. "If it was intact to begin with, of course." There was a trill of laughter and the woman continued, "Are you a good little girl? Or a slut like your sister?"
"Who...who are you?" Dawn demanded, trying to be brave. "How do you know my sister?"
"Slayer. Nasty and deadly. She stole my heart from me."
Sitting up and clutching the sheet around herself, Dawn tried to see past the darkness. "Why did you hit me?"
"I was hungry." It was the matter-of-fact tone that sent terror through Dawn and made her reach for the chain trapping her on the bed. "But then I smelled you and knew who you were and decided that just eating you wasn't enough. It wouldn't hurt her enough."
"If you know my sister, you know what she'll do to you!"
The woman stepped from the shadows, an evil smile on her porcelain fine face. She wore a fashionable red dress and her long, brunette hair was swept into a heap of curls atop her head.
She looked ancient, though.
"Who are you?"
"Drusilla." As if that said it all.
And it did.
Dawn felt fresh terror flood her and she whimpered.
"I see you've heard of me." Drusilla came closer to the bed, her steps soundless, her movements both casual and deadly. One of her hands went to the black velvet choker around her neck, the center of which was a blood red stone carved like a rose. "And I know you as well. Dawn, the little sister, the lie that became truth. You're human now, but if I taste you, will I taste the power of what you were?"
"Why don't we not find out."
Drusilla laughed in delight. "Such bravado. You're much like her, but prettier. Much prettier. He is there in your heart as well. My Spike. Did you lust after him, too?"
"Ew, no! He's like... He was..." Dawn felt her face crumple. "He was my friend."
"Why do you speak of him as if he's in the past, sweet Dawn?"
"He's dead."
"Silly bird." Now standing beside the bed, Drusilla leaned forward as if to whisper a confidence. "He came back."
Dawn let the surprise push aside some of the fear. "What?"
"We do that a lot. Hell can't seem to hold on to Aurelians."
"He's alive? Spike's alive?"
Drusilla shrugged. "He's a vampire, still, and burdened with a nasty soul, for which he will be punished, his pretty bum spanked, but, yes, he's back from hell or wherever he was after he so stupidly sacrificed himself to prevent yet another apocalypse."
"Buffy will be so happy."
The smile on Drusilla's face turned into an angry frown and her hand shot out to catch Dawn's shoulder, the fingers digging into her skin until she yelped. "She'll never know. You don't believe you'll escape me, do you?"
"I believe if you don't let me go, Buffy will stake your ass to the nearest wall," Dawn ranted, twisting herself free.
"Now, you'd never allow that to happen. A childe protects her sire."
"...What?" The bravado fled quickly and Dawn cowered back in fresh fear as Drusilla leaned down.
"We'll have such fun together. Dancing and dressing up in pretty things and doing our hair in pretty ribbons. We'll have tea parties with Mr. Devil there, and slaughter orphanages full of children."
Before she could think of a response, Dawn found herself on her back, Drusilla kneeling over her, her hands holding down the squirming girl.
"And we'll kill her together, the bitch Slayer who stole my boy's heart. You'll want to, I promise."
"NO!"
"You'll never tell me 'no' again," Drusilla promised as her face shifted and her fangs descended. "My sweet girl will be obedient where my boy never was."
Dawn screamed and struggled and prayed.
And the fangs sank into her neck and everything went black again.
End