Paleo

Prehistoric Hysteria Buffy Summers and her gang know that Sunnydale is a haven for outsiders, whether of the supernatural or strictly adolescent variety. Shy transfer student Kevin Sanderson is no exception. But Kevin instantly finds a mentor in Daniel, a paleontologist and fellow dino-phile at the Sunnydale Museum of Natural History. When Buffy starts hearing rumors of alligators in the sewers, she has to wonder about Kevin and Daniel's hobbies.Meanwhile, the Slayerettes are having extracurricular excitement of their own. Alysa, a hotshot talent agent, wants to represent the Dingoes, and she's offering the Scooby Gang fame and fortune. If she's legit, it could be Oz's big break. But Buffy's too busy to run a background check -- Daniel and Kevin have reanimated an ancient creature with a new agenda...an agenda that begins and ends with the destruction of the Slayer....

Chapter 1 Let's see,Buffy Summers thought.Where would I rather be? Here in the dark, standing by a dirty and disgusting headstone -- cracked on one side and covered with mold and something else I don't even want to identify, or --A branch snapped behind her.She did a neat, tight spin, ready to fight, with the fingers of one hand curled comfortably around a wooden stake, but there was no one there. Buffy scowled, yet didn't drop her guard. It might be a bird or a raccoon, even someone's pet cat; what it woulddefinitelybe the instant she slipped up was some ugly bloodsucker trying to make her into a midnight snack. There was something out there -- she justknewit. It would be so much nicer if they'd just get it over with so she could go home. It was Sunday night, for crying out loud. All good people, children, and monsters, should be put away for the Sabbath...or something like that.She heard another snap, not quite muffled by a line of waist-high bushes separating two sections of the cemetery. Friend or foe?Foe!Instinct made Buffy leap to the left. She twisted in midair and when she landed she was already facing the thing that had just pounced on the spot where she'd been standing only a split second before. It was a girl, no more than seven or eight years old and done up for a proper burial in a white lace dress adorned with ribbons and tiny, pink satin roses. Red hair divided into what should have been perfect braids, except now they, and the rest of her burial outfit, were full of dirt, leaves, and bits of sod. Damn -- the grown-up ones were bad enough, but Buffy hated it when the night's vamp turned out to be a child."Okay," Buffy said in a reasonable tone of voice. Did vampire kidlets listen any better than real ones? "We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Your choice."The little girl grinned at her, showing pointed white fangs beneath the classic twisted brow and glinting, yellow eyes. She took a step forward and Buffy tensed ---- then yelped in surprise as someone else grabbed her shoulders from behind.Fetid breath stung her nostrils -- shehatedthat -- and a second, older vampire tried to fasten its mouth on the right side of her neck. She scrunched up her shoulder and slammed her head sideways simultaneously; the creature howled and let go of her as it took the hit along its eyebrow. It stumbled back at the same time as the childish bloodsucker darted forward and tried to spring at her, but Buffy swatted the girl away as though she were nothing more than an annoying mosquito. The adult vamp growled and lunged, but Buffy slipped sideways under its outstretched arms and came up behind it, burying her stake deep into the center of its back. Her weapon found the heart-point inside the creature's body and rewarded her with a midair explosion of black-brown dust.Great,Buffy thought.One down, one-half to g --"Hey!" she said in surprise. "Where'd you go?"A quick scan and she saw the little girl crouching behind one of the larger tombstones about twenty feet away -- even full of graveyard dirt, it was hard to camouflage that white dress in a cemetery near midnight. Buffy covered the distance in a heartbeat and hauled the snarling vampire-child out into the open, trying to get the little monster into a position where she could be staked. It was like fighting with a wildcat, the girl's size and flexibility making her movements a lot more energetic than Buffy expected, but finally the Slayer managed to straddle her. Holding the vamp-kid down with her left hand, Buffy raised the stake in her right."Time to go to sleep," she said as gently as she could."I don't want to!" the girl wailed. "The boogey-monster is down there!"Buffy started to retort that the girlwasthe boogey-monster, then decided against it. Bad enough the child was going to die for the second time. The girl bucked and nearly