Ranee was dozing in the passenger seat, Not really
awake or asleep, unwilling to move just yet and take
over for Darien. Then Darien's cell phone rang. From
the one-sided conversation she could tell something
big was happening. Time to stop lazing about.
"What's going on?" Ranee asked as they pulled over.

"There's an emergency. I must attend to it
immediately." Ranee could tell from his tone that that
was all she was going to get. Darien could be
frustratingly mysterious sometimes. "You will proceed
to Sunnydale and I will join you when I can." An hour
was spent transferring baggage and sorting out the
details.

"I don't know when I will be finished so I want you to
go ahead and make contact, try to help stabilize the
situation. I trust you to take care of things." Then
Ranee was alone, traveling to Sunnydale, the
Hellmouth.

Ranee watched the 'Welcome to California' sign as she
drove by. Soon she would be in Sunnydale.

 

Ranee could feel something creeping through her bones.
It smacked of power. The Hellmouth. Sure enough She
passed a billboard announcing that she had indeed
crossed over into the Mouth of Hell. The power
building in her was amazing. She felt physically
closer to her Gods here then anywhere else barring the
holiest of holy temples. ~This just might be a good
place to retire.~ She thought to herself. She pulled
the car into the parking lot of her new home. A large
semi-abandoned warehouse. She shook her head ~Darien
and his fetish for abandoned buildings, but yet
creature comforts.~ She knew the minions had already
been working on the renovations and that the inside
did not belay the outside.

Sure enough the inside was in the process of being
renovated. Frankly she couldn’t care less. She had
spent years of her life roaming the countryside of
India with little more than a change of clothes and
weapons. The first thing Ranee decided to do was run.
That way she would get the lay of the land and blood
moving into her legs again. She placed her bag in her
room and with a flick of her wrist had her hair bound
loosely to her head. She was ready for her run.

 

Ranee knew death must be common on the Hellmouth,
but it was becoming ridiculous. She had just passed
her fifth cemetery. She felt a tingle go up her
spine. The apartments, across the street, there was a
wereanimal in one of them, an Alpha from the feel of
it. She passed the store that the Slayer’s watcher
owned, the Magic Box. The predawn was so perfect.
The vampires were off in their crypts, the humans
still asleep in their beds. This was probably the
only time of the day that was quiet. All there really
was her, the sound of her feet on the pavement,
her heart beating. Here on the Hellmouth with all
that power coursing through her, she communed with her
Gods and Goddesses. Her sense of self blurred. This
was the ultimate form of meditation.