"Ok, so what does it say about the Lamia?" Bianca asked

"She splits open pregnant women to devour the children developing inside. Her name is derived from the lamias, the evil female demons with dragon heads at the end of their feet found in deserts." Mona explained.

"That sounds great, so are we lookign at demon toes?" Paige asked.

"I don't think so, it said it was derived from that so." Mona replied.

"Anything on how to kill it?" Bianca asked.

"No it says the page is still under construction." Mona replied

"Great." Nika sighed.

"Ok so we're looking for some sort of killer woman who eats babies." Mona concluded as she shut the laptop and pushed it away from her.

"Well since, it's the middle of the day I'm guessing we won't be finding her anytime soon, all the attacks were at night." Bianca told her slayers.

Nika stood up from her chair she looked at her fellow slayers with their forlorn expressions and said "Well I'm gonna head down town, she if I can find something to do." Nika's real motive was to try and find Vick. She realised only afterwards that they didn't exchange phone numbers or adresses.

Several minutes later,

Nika strolled, past the coffee shop where she had met Vick. She looked in the window and Vick was not inside so she kept watching. She was disappointed, she did like what she saw of Vick, not any visible hideous deformities or anything. Then her heart skipped a beat as she gazed across the street. There he was.

Vick looked across the street and saw Nika, he smiled and then waved at her. A car passed and he sprinted across the street.

"Hey, Nicole?" Vick struggled tryign to grasp her name.

"Nika." She corrected.

"Right, sorry about that." Vick smiled.

"So, coffee?" Nika shot Vick a coy grin.

"Definately." Vick replied.

The pair walked into the moderately full cafe, and took a seat. Even though it wasn't full it still had a lot of different noises. The different people talking amongst their tables. Some sat alone and typed furiously on their laptops, exactly what Nika thought she'd find in a cafe, it was perfect. Espescially for a first date, was it a first date? Did coffee and small talk qualify? Of course it did, Nika assured herself.

Nika and Vick looked across the table at each other,

'Here comes the awkward small talk.' Thought Nika

"So why'd you leave Norway?" Vick asked.

"Um, a couple of reasons... I'm not quite sure I'd like to talk about them though."

"Ok, cool. I understand. I like a little mystery." Vick smiled.

"Well, trust me I'm plenty mysterious." Nika assured Vick.

It was true, Vick could never know what Nika was. For his safety it was best, she couldn't take him home to meet Bianca and the others, that could be too risky.

"So.. there goes a little conversation out the window. I'm dry for questions right now. "Vick laughed.

"Ok well, I'll play grand inquisitor then." Nika smiled. "So what do you want to do when you're done school?"

"Hell, I don't know really. Maybe do something do do with writing. I really love that, gets me through the hard times." Vick explained.

"Like novel writing or poetry?" Nika asked.

"Little bit of both I guess."

"Could you read me one of your poems?" Nika batted her eyelashes.

"Um ok, I guess so. Light or dark?" Vick asked.

"I'm a sucker for darkness."

"Ok here we go." Vick cleared his throught. "The moon turned to red, a chilling scream. There she stood, in front of them, her true self..."

Nika looked out the window as Vick recited his poem. She noticed a shadow begin to spread outside. Then complete darkness engulfed the town outside, Street lights shot on. Silence spread in the cafe as people stodd up and moved to the window and blocked the door trying to get out. Nika looked outside as a pregnant woman stopped and looked at the sun which had turned black.

Then Nika saw it in the corner of her eye, a shadow moved on the walls across the street.

"Everybody get away from the door!" Nika yelled, everybody ignored her.

Nika decided to take action, lives were at risk here. Nika backed up and took a run forward lauching herself into the air and through the glass of the window, it crashed down and she landed on the shards outside. She looked up with a pained look on her face. At The pregant woman who now stared at her with an outstretched hand.

"RUN!" Nika screamed.

Then in a flash, the woman shot away and Nika dropped her head onto her arms. Vick jumped through the remnants of the window to Nika's side.

"Oh my god, are you alright?" He asked and helped her up from the ground.

Nika just looked at him "Not really."

Nika pulled away from Vick and ran away towards the warehouse. Her injuries were staring to take form and she felt the stinging sensations as the blood showed through her shirt, dark red blotches appeared all over her white shirt, a stream of blood dripped into her eyes and her wrist, it hurt so bad, she clenched it as she ran.

The doors of the warehouse burst open and Nika stood there, Mona looked over at her, Nika's face was white as a sheet, Nika collapsed and Mona ran over cradling the slayer in her arms.

Nika looked at Mona. "It got another woman Mona, you guys have to find it." Nika's head fell, she was unconscious.

Paige and Bianca came down in the elevator. They looked at the two slayers in the foyer.

"Nika!" Paige yelled and rushed to the door.

"She'll be alright, you two need to go find the Lamia. I'll stay here. It has another woman." Mona explained.

"Ok, Paige go grab some weapons, we need something sharp, we'll have to try and kill this thing the best we can. Mona I'll help you get Nika to bed." Bianca ordered.

Paige ran to the elevator and went to the training room. Mona and Bianca went to work getting Nika to her bed.

"Bianca, you've got to hurry, you don't know how quickly this thing will kill the woman." Mona said and looked into Bianca's eyes.

"I know." Bianca's voice was weak.

The noise of the elevator descending sounded and Bianca left the room. Paige handed Bianca a large axe and the two walked out of the warehouse together.

"Ok, how are we going to find this thing?" Paige asked Bianca

"Can't you feel it?" Bianca asked Paige.

"I guess, sort of this gut feeling."

"Like you know where it is." Bianca said.

"Exactly."

"Well then we know where we're going." Bianca said.

The slayers approached the docks, the feeling in Paige's gut got stronger. They turned the corner at a wall of freight's then they saw her, the woman, or what was left of her. Paige looked away. Bianca's heart sank, did she really think they were going to be able to rescue the woman.

Paige's head shot around, there it was The Lamia, on top of one of the freights. Paige ran as fast as she ever had, and jumped up onto the freight. The lamia caught her off guard, it looked almost human, shriveled, disgusting face, hunched figure, large claws.

"You're a new kind of disgusting." Paige sneered.

Paige punched the lamia in the stomach, she could smell the blood on it. The lamia screamed and slashed at Paige. Bianca pulled herself on top of the freight to join Paige. Bianca slashed at the lamia with her axe cutting it across the face.

Paige did a roundhouse kick and hit the lamia across the face. Bianca swung the axe and cut it's arm off. The lamia screamed in agony. Paige kicked the lamia off the freight to the ground.

It squirmed trying to get away. Sword in hand Paige jumped from the freight into the air she pointed her sword downwards ready to stab the lamia upon impact. She landed and the sword stuck through the lamia's back. The lamia went limp.

Paige stood up and looked up at Bianca. She was in between rown of freights about 6 feet apart.

"Well done!" Bianca yelled.

"Thanks." Paige called back.

Paige threw herself to the ground as Bianca's axe flew past her head.

"What the...." Paige started.

She looked at the freights, The lamia was pinned with an axe stuck through her head holding it up. Paige just smiled.

THE END