Spoilers: Possible slight spoilers for Season 1 of Buffy
Content Rating: 15
Type: Vampyr Centric
Characters: Craig Marduk, Sophia, Mr. Trick
Summary: As Sophia, an ancient and legendary Vampyr, uses wealth and social status to gain her desires, Craig Marduk battles to stop her.

Moving faster than Craig had ever seen anyone, or in this case, anything, move, the mysterious creature kicked Craig in the gut, sending him reeling. This creature was fast, strong and almost seemed to be a shadow. It merged with the darkness in the dimly lit warehouse, making it hard to keep track of, in turn resulting in Craig being on the losing end of several stiff blows.

Craig, part of an elite team of ‘hunters’ set up by the Watcher’s Council was his team’s leader and for a normal human, extremely good at his job. About 6’4, well built and fast for his size, he was chosen for the group because of his physical assets and what had been determined as ‘desriable battle skill’; he assumed that meant he could kick ass, but he wasn’t 100 percent sure on that. At the present moment he was more worried about staying alive than determining why the Watcher’s Council had chosen him for the job. He certainly wasn’t part of a long line of Slayers. He’d heard the lucky ladies were gifted with preternatural speed and strength, which he figured would be a very desirable thing to have in a fight such as this one.

“Bollocks!” now reverberated through the warehouse as one of the creature’s clawed hands scratched across his chest.

Dodging another blow from the shadow-creature, Craig rolled to his left, only to nearly get jumped on and straddle by the demon, which by now seemed to be getting very frustrated at its inability to tear Craig apart, limb from limb.

“Right. I’ve had enough of this…”

Frantically trying to reach into his bag, Craig fumbled around trying to find something. It was rather hard with a creature you could hardly see sitting on you, trying to strangle you.

“I have a better idea,” mused Craig, trying to sound sarcastic and failing miserably. Then, pulling his hand out of the bag he raised it to the demon’s forehead…holding a pistol. Cocking it’s head to the side in bemusement, the creature let out a sound which Craig interpreted as laughter, but either way it didn’t matter anymore as he pulled back the trigger, sending two bullets ripping through the creature’s forehead, decorating the wall in green blood.

Prying the hands from his throat, Craig froze as he heard footsteps coming his way. Looking to where he thought the sound was coming from he didnÂ’t believe what he saw. A beautiful redhead, tall, slim, dressed in simple but flattering clothes and displaying a healthy amount of cleavage was walking towards him and all he could do was drop his jaw and stare. He would later come to regret that as the womanÂ’s face suddenly became a demonic visage worthy of the worst nightmares. In a fluid motion that could almost have been performed in a ballet, the demonic woman launched a foot into CraigÂ’s chest, in turn launching him into the air and sending him crashing into a wall and knocking him senseless.

“Do not interfere in matters which do not concern you again, human,” came the seldom used voice in a tone one would expect from a melodic singer, not a vampyr.

The only reply that Craig gave was a cough, spitting blood onto his pristine leather coat. The bitch will pay for that, thought Craig before he passed out.

***

“Wake up, Mr. Marduk, come on, be a good chap now and wake up. We need to speak with you,” was the first thing Craig heard as he started to wake up. He was sitting in a hospital bed, surrounded by what looked like Watcher’s Council Muppets.

“What do you fuckers want?” was all Craig could think to say.

“Why, that’s rather rude of you Mr. Marduk, we only wish to speak with you,” came a rather meek English accent from a small, round bald man who was wearing big thick glasses and a very bad wig.

Craig was getting annoyed now. His head felt like heÂ’d been thrashed against a wall, which he had, and the WatcherÂ’s CouncilÂ’s lackeys were always good at giving Craig a headache anyway, without the one he already had.

“When the pounding in my head stops, I’ll worry about the pleasantries. What the fuck do you want? I just got my ass handed to me on a plate, can’t the council give me 5 friggin minutes to recover?” came the reply, angrily.

“My name is Mr. Smith and I’m here to inform you that you have been called off your last assignment,” said Smith, looking very unsettled and even slightly scared now. The others stood with him, all wearing plaid suits and grim faces looked unsettled too, but none look as agitated as Smith did.

“Well jerk me the fuck off! I think I pretty much settled that assignment when I put a couple of bullets through the demon’s forehead!”

“Ah yes, well… okay. But now you have a new assignment. We have identified the vampire that err, kicked your ass, as you so splendidly put it, as Sophia,”

CraigÂ’s jaw dropped and he had to concentrate to pick it back up. Sophia was a vampire legend, one that he had always assumed was complete rubbish. It was said that she was one of the oldest vampires still walking the earth, yet she retained the beauty of the 20 year old woman she was when she was sired. The tales told of her killing entire villages for something to do, but none of the tales were any more recent than the year 1100 A.D. If she was in New York, it had to be for a good reason and Craig wasnÂ’t sure he wanted to find out what it was.

“Mr. Marduk? Will you accept the assignment? You’ll be given a Watcher to work with of course. This is a very big occurrence. If the current slayer wasn’t battling the Master at the moment, we would call her here to deal with it, but her Watcher has informed us that she is… predisposed,”

“Err, yeah, I’ll take the assignment, on one condition. I am in charge of this one. The Watcher is here to do just that, to watch and to give advice on all the book stuff. I do the fighting and I say what goes, is that clear?”

Smith turned and spoke to his colleagues, who clearly did not like this request at all, but when he turned around again, Smith simply said, “Your Watcher will arrive at your loft in 3 days. We trust you will be fighting fit by then,” and with that the whole party turned and left.

MeanwhileÂ…

Sitting in her penthouse suite, Sophia sipped from the wine glass she was holding. To anyone who wasnÂ’t familiar with the sight of blood, the contents of the glass would indeed have appeared to be a fine red wine. The man stood opposite her was familiar with it though, and he had a glass of the same substance, blood, in his own hand.

“Are the preparations in order, Mr. Trick?” came the soft voice of Sophia.

“They are,” replied Trick, bowing his head slightly.

Mr. Trick was a tall, extremely well dressed black man. A moustache covered his top lip and an earring in one of his ears reflected the dimmed lights in the room. He was a problem solver. He used his financial wealth and technical expertise, which he’d gained in his human career, to solve the problems of the ‘master’ vampires. Old vampires that could easily control younger and weaker vampires. The masters were like the alpha leaders in a wolf pack, only fiercer. And Sophia had a big problem… a very big problem. But, never the less, Mr. Trick was close to solving it. More than one person would die, but when Sophia’s problem had been solved, she would reign as the ultimate vampire. The strength and speed of a vampire, the magic of generations of gypsies and knowledge of the Watcher’s Council. These things and more would elevate Sophia to a position of unmatched power in the vampire world.

Even The Master would tremble on his knees before herÂ…