Title: Party All Night

Author: Kirsten Tapp

Feedback: [email protected]

Standard Disclaimer: Buffy, the vampire slayer doesn't belong to the author, but to Joss Whedon, WB, etc. The characters of Cassandra, Marcus, Stephanie, Kaymon Demon, Herka Demon, Josh, Kirtera and Jasmine however do belong to the author. No copyright infringement intended.

Rating: PG - some graphical violence

PARTY ALL NIGHT

By Kirsten Tapp

The Host's brow creased into a frown as he saw into the soul of the Kaymon Demon up on the stage. The contents of this soul disturbed him as no other had. He was used to seeing despair, heartache, terror and occasionally the more pleasant emotions such as lust, love and desire. This soul contained none of these. Only mayhem, destruction and a really weird looking kind of God was haunting the habitat of this soul.

The Host didn't know what concerned him more, the contents of the Kaymon Demon's soul or his choice of song. 'Tears on my pillow' was not one of his favorites. The way the Demon was singing it, did nothing to change that opinion.

The host quickly dialed a now familiar phone number. "Hi, is Mr tall, dark and brooding in? Well you'd better get him down here if he's intending to have a Happy New Year."

At that moment in downtown LA, Gunn faced a vampire, his dark eyes cold. "This wasn't the way I intended to see the New Year in. I sure as hell ain't gonna be just another walking meal."

The vampire grinned, the street lights reflecting off of his fangs. "You're not enough to feed all of us , boy." Behind him a group of hungry vampires gathered. "But you'll serve as the entrée."

"Not in my town, he won't." Angel walked up beside Gunn. "I promised my girlfriend that we would have a trouble free New Year's and I don't intend to break that promise."

"The two of you can't take us all on, Angeles." The vampire smiled smugly. "Not even you are that good."

Angel just smiled. Gunn looked at him as though he were completely insane. "What are you so happy about?"

Angel could see what or rather who was behind the group of vampires. "The Sunnydale crew just arrived."

Turning to what Angel was grinning at, the group of vampires came face to face with the Vampire Slayer and her family and friends.

The first five vampires were quickly turned to dust. The lead vampire suddenly found himself flying through the air onto the wooden stakes on the front of Gunn's ute.

Angel turned to Gunn. "Did I mention my girlfriend is the Vampire Slayer." He activated the stakes hidden up his jacket sleeves and took another two vampires down.

Gunn pulled a stake from his back jeans pocket and stabbed the vampire in front of him through the heart. "No. How the hell did she make that vampire fly through the air without touching him?" He swung around nailing the vampire that was charging him from behind.

Angel grabbed the vampire in front of him and threw him towards Xander, who was waiting stake in hand. "That wasn't Buffy."

Gunn stood back to back with Angel as what was left of the group of vampires surrounded them. "Then who was it?"

Out of the darkness, Gunn saw a redhead wearing a long cobalt blue coat. She waved her arm across her body as if swatting away a fly. The vampires surrounding them went flying in all directions. Gunn couldn't believe what he had just seen. The Sunnydale crew made short work of the fallen vampires.

A petite blond walked up to Angel, dusting herself off. "Can't leave you alone for a minute, can I." She stood on tip toe for a kiss. "Hi. You must be Gunn." She reached out and shook Gunn's hand. "I'm Buffy."

"Hey." Gunn was surprised at how strong her hand shake was. "So you're the Slayer. I thought you'd be bigger."

"Yeah, I get that a lot." Buffy smiled good naturedly. "Cordellia said to tell you that The Host needed to see you urgently." She frowned. "Who's The Host?"

"I'll show you." Angel tugged gently on Buffy hand. "Let's just hope I don't have to sing." He kissed Cassandra on the cheek as she walked up. "Hey Cass. Where are the kids?"

"Dawn and Stephanie are with Jasmine and Marcus decided to work." Cassandra smiled pleasantly as Angel introduced Gunn to Cassandra, Xander, Anya, Tara, Giles and he had spoken to Willow over the phone.

"Well, Your Royal Highness, do you feel like gracing a karaoke bar with your presence?" Angel grinned at his friend.

"You're not going to sing are you?" Cassandra looked at him suspiciously.

"Hey, I want to hear Angel sing?" Xander mocked.

"Oh no you don't. Trust me." Cassandra took the arm Angel offered her.

The Host almost fell to his knees to bow at Cassandra's feet when she walked in with Angel and the others. "Princess Cassandra. To what do we owe this honor." He bowed and kissed her hand.

"I love what you've done with the place Loren." Cassandra winced slightly at the Herka Demon attempting to sing on stage. "Do you actually get anyone that can sing in here."

"Occasionally." The host suddenly realized the Princess' hand was looped through Angel's arm. "You know the big guy here?"

"For about a century." Cassandra liked The Host. He didn't give her any trouble, not to mention, he was a pretty green color.

Gunn leaned closer to Xander. "Why did he call her Princess Cassandra?" He thought Angel had been kidding with her when he had called her 'Your Royal Highness.'

"Probably because she's a Princess." Xander knew what a strange concept this was to people who didn't know Cass. Although she looked every inch the regal woman. "As in Princess Cassandra of England. She usually goes by the name of Cassandra Windsor."

"She's only been dead for the last one hundred and two years." Anya chipped in. "I think she's holding up quite well."

Gunn saw that Cassandra had no reflection. "She's a vampire? How come you are hanging with a vampire Princess?" This was all very confusing. "Shouldn't you be staking her?"

"She has a soul." Tara pointed out shyly. "She's a good vampire."

Giles always found the look people got on their faces when they found out what Cassandra was, amusing. "Cassandra is quite unusual. You see, she kept her soul when she became a vampire. Unlike Angel, she wasn't cursed with her soul."

Willow watched as The Host explained what he had seen in the Kaymon Demon's soul. Even though she couldn't hear what was going on, she could tell it wasn't good. "Hey guys, I think we're going to be working this New Years."

"Again." Xander moaned. "This isn't going to be like last year when Buffy and Cass got buried under a pile of rocks is it? Cause that wasn't fun, especially for Buffy."

Angel and Buffy walked over hand in hand, leaving Cassandra talking to The Host. "Feel like stopping a ritual sacrifice before we start partying?" Angel had not been pleased with The Host's insight.

"Depends. What are they sacrificing?" Xander joked. "Cause if it's virgins, I'd say we've got plenty of time to spare."

"Sorry Xander," Buffy slapped her friend on the back. "Tortured souls seems to be the meal of the day."

"Damn." Gunn had just wanted to see the New Year in without the usual chaos. "We've got plenty of those in LA."

"So where do we start?" Tara was feeling uneasy surrounded by so many demons.

"Do we know who the sacrifice is for?" Giles could think of a few possibilities off the top of his head. It was highly unlikely, it was going to be that easy.

Angel shook his head. "The Host mentioned a weird looking God. I'll give Cordellia and Wesley a call. Perhaps they can find it by the time we get back to the hotel."

"I knew it." Anya sulked. "This is going to be another working holiday." She let Xander lead her out of the club.

Cassandra said goodbye to the Host and followed the group out. She was relieved that the children were safe with Jasmine.

Back at the hotel, Wesley and Cordellia had already accumulated a large pile of books and printouts by the time the Sunnydale crew arrived with Angel and Gunn.

"Well, we have three demons that specialize in New Years sacrifices." Wesley began listing off their finds without even saying hello. "None of them are Kaymon Demons. The Kaymon are suppose to be a peaceful species according to our research."

Cordellia shook her head at Wesley. "What Wesley means to say is 'Hi, how was your trip?'" A vision suddenly hit her. The usual flashes and the splitting headache followed. When the visions stopped she found Angel and Cassandra holding her up.

"Ok. If these Kaymon Demons are friendly, then there's a bad apple in this bunch." She sat down before she fell down.

"What did you pick up Cassandra?" Giles had always found it difficult not to mention time consuming, understanding Cordellia at times.

"You get visions too?" Gunn's jaw dropped. "What kind of vampire are you?"

"She's sort of a mixed package." Buffy supplied. "But we kinda like her."

"It's definitely a Kaymon Demon." Cassandra sat down beside Cordellia. "This one is not friendly. It looked as though he was in somebody's basement."

"Yeah, I'm picking up a strong animal vibe." Cordellia added. "I'm thinking somewhere keeping stock." She looked at Cassandra for her to confirm with a nod.

"That covers a lot of people in LA." Wesley snorted. "You'd be amazed what we've discovered in people's houses."

"Yeah, that's nice Wes," Xander interrupted. "Right now, we have to find the alter that the sacrifice is going to be made at, so that we can stop it and party."

Anya rested her chin on Xander's shoulder. "Maybe we can just leave a tortured soul out to tempt the demon. It might speed things up." She pouted when everyone turned to face her. "What? Xander told me we were going to have fun. Tortured Souls are not fun."

"Anya does have a point." Wesley looked over at Angel. "It would speed things up. I don't suppose you'd like to be bait."

"I think we need someone other than Angel to be bait." Giles had been watching Angel with Buffy. He had never seen two people happier together than they were. "I don't think he's tortured enough at the moment."

"Wouldn't the demon want to pick up a few tortured souls, just in case the first one didn't work out." Willow had been reading up on a few rituals that required sacrifices. "He'd want a back up."

"So we're looking for a basement where stock is kept near a selection of torture souls." Buffy rolled her eyes. "Why don't I think this is going to be easy."

"What about homeless shelters?" Tara held onto Willow's hand nervously. "I mean, are there any homeless shelters near a slaughter house?"

"I know of one." Gunn remembered when he was a child, he used to visit a boy at the homeless shelter. They had played near the slaughter house until they had found out what happened there. "Couldn't hurt to start there."

"I'll keep looking in the computer just in case." Cordellia's fingers worked their way across the keys. "Make sure your cell phone's switched on, Angel. If I find anything I'll call you."

"I could keep looking through the books." Wesley doubted the Kaymon Demon would be at the first place they looked.

"I'll help you." Giles reached for a book. "The more of us that look, the faster we'll find it."

"Not to mention, we sort of have a time limit." Willow pointed out as she set up her lap top on the foyer coffee table. "We've gotta stop this thing by midnight."

"Hand me a book, for I am bookman." Xander joked as he grabbed three books and handed one to Anya and one to Tara. "The faster we find this alter the faster we'll be able to do the party thing."

Angel grabbed his weapons bag. "I guess you ladies are coming with Gunn and me." He grinned at Buffy and Cassandra.

Gunn looked at Angel in disgust. "You want to take two women into a slaughter house. What? That's your idea of a fun date?"

Buffy peered into the weapons bag. "I've got dibs on the crossbow." She headed for the door ignoring Gunn's remark. "There's an axe with your name on it, in that bag Cass."

"That's because I lent it to Angel and he never gave it back." Cassandra followed Buffy. "I'd better not break another finger nail doing this, or somebody is really going to pay."

Gunn's jaw dropped. "Are they always like this?"

"No." Angel slapped Gunn on the back. "Usually they're worse. I gotta warn you, if Cassandra breaks a nail, all hell is going to let loose. Literally." He shoved Gunn towards the door.

At first glance the slaughter house looked as though it had been deserted for years. When Angel approached the door to break in, he found it unlocked. "Guess we were expected." He held the door for the others. Since it wasn't somebody's house, Angel and Cassandra had no trouble getting in.

"Well, this is cozy." Buffy quipped. "Anything look familiar Cass?"

Cassandra shook her head. "No, but I think we may be up too high. Remember Cordellia and I said basement. It's possibly an underground room."

"Maybe it's not a basement." Gunn thought back to his childhood and all of the places he and his friend use to hide. "I think this place was built on top of a bomb shelter." He looked around trying to remember how he and Josh had gotten into it. "There's an entrance in the floor somewhere."

Cassandra touched Gunn's shoulder and immediately tapped into his memory. "It's over to your right Angel." She withdrew her hand.

"How did you know that?" Gunn demanded. The Princess didn't exactly look as though she hung around places like this very often.

"You showed me." Cassandra smiled at the suspicious young man in front of her. "What ever happened to Josh?" She inquired.

"I don't know. I guess we lost touch." Gunn couldn't remember why he and Josh had stopped being friends. It just seemed as though they just stopped visiting each other. No reason for it came to mind.

Angel couldn't help grinning at the surprised look on Gunn's face. Buffy had been right, Cassandra was a mixed package. "Found it. It's locked." He pulled an axe out of his weapons bag and hacked the padlock in two.

Gunn lifted the door and grabbed a sword out of the weapons bag. "After you." He gestured for Angel to go first. "I'll bring up the rear." He still didn't think it had been a good idea to bring the women with them, but then Angel knew them better than he did.

"We could use a torch or something." Buffy followed Angel down the steps. "Cass have you got anything up your sleeve other than your arm?" When the darkness became illuminated with a blue glow, Buffy chuckled. "Thanks."

Cassandra's whole body was glowing, creating enough light for them to see where they were going. "No problem. Let's do this quickly before Mr Destruction and Chaos returns."

The foursome came to a halt, when they saw the group of people huddled in the corner. "I think we've found the sacrifices." Buffy counted at least ten people there. "Let's get them out of here."

Angel held his hand out to the young woman closest to him. "Come on, we've gotta go now." He saw the woman hesitate for a moment before taking his hand.

Cassandra glanced up at the ceiling as she heard some movement above them. "He's back. We've got to move quickly."

Gunn started helping people up and hurrying them towards the steps. "I don't suppose you know exactly where in the factory he is." He wasn't worried about fighting the demon, he just didn't know how he was going to get these people out safely.

"Close by and he had company." Cassandra shot Angel a surprised look. "Wolfram and Hart brought Darla back?"

Buffy glared at Angel. "When did that happen? Forget that question actually. How did that happen? I saw you stake her. I saw that Whoe turn to dust."

"Can we discuss this later?" Angel marveled at Darla's timing. She always appeared at the most inconvenient time. "First we have to get these people past her and a Kaymon Demon."

"I gather Buffy's not a big fan of Darla's." Gunn murmured to Cassandra.

"Would you be?" Cassandra raised an eyebrow. "Angel's not my boyfriend and I'm not a fan of Darla's."

They hadn't gotten far before they walked straight into Darla and three Kaymon Demons. "The odds are good." Angel pointed out. "We can take one each."

"I say we draw straws on who gets to kick Darla's arse." Buffy glared at the blond Vampire, who was smiling at her, highly amused.

"Slayer. I heard the Master killed you." Darla's smile broadened when Buffy flinched slightly. Her smile disappeared when she saw Cassandra. "Well, well, well. We have royalty amongst us boys. Come to observe the end of LA as you know it Princess?"

"Darla, you know me better than that." Cassandra smiled sweetly. "The only change in LA, will be for the better for all mankind and certainly not at your hand." A concerned look crossed Cassandra's face. "I heard that when Wolfram and Hart brought you back, it was with the clap."

Darla was clearly annoyed that the Princess had found out that particular piece of information. "Still trying to fit in with the subjects? You never will. You'll never be able to forget about your royal blood."

"At least she knows when to be a lady." Gunn barely knew the Princess, but he could see that she would not lower herself to that of the Whore before her. "Something I'm guessing you forgot over four centuries ago."

"Angeles here never had any complaints." Darla shot at her former lover, knowing it would upset the Slayer. "Did you Angel." A wicked smile touched her lips.

"Let me put it this way Darla." Angel was fed up of playing Darla's games. "You could never make me loose my soul." He put his arm around Buffy's shoulders. "Buffy did."

Darla looked as though she had been slapped. Lunging at the Slayer, she instead received a fist in the face from Cassandra. The punch sent her flying across the room. Cassandra smiled at Gunn. "This would be one of those times it's not recommended to be a lady."

"Fair enough." Gunn took on one of the three Kaymon Demons. "Everybody that isn't a demon, or working for one, or a Slayer make a run for it." Gunn swung his sword but the demon blocked it with one of it's own.

Angel's cell phone rang as one of the Kaymon Demons rushed him and the remaining demon jumped at Buffy. Tossing the phone to Cassandra, he landed a punch to the demon's jaw. "Can you answer that Cass."

The Princess caught the phone and answered it, while she kept Darla pinned against a wall with her manicured hand around the blonde's throat. "Angel Investigations. We help the helpless." Cassandra happily answered the phone.

"So you're his secretary?" Cordellia shot down the phone. "Where is our favorite brooding vampire?"

"Fighting a Kaymon Demon. Can I help?" Cassandra got a tighter grip on Darla's throat as the vampire tried to struggle.

"Cassandra, Kaymon Demons used to be human." They had the phone on speaker so all of them could hear the fighting in the background. Wesley checked the paragraph in the book again. "It appears the sacrifices are for a God named Kirtera. He takes the tortured souls by absorbing them. Then turns the soulless bodies into Kaymon Demons."

"He needs to feed once a year, so he makes his own servants to find him food." Xander had found something in another book. "I suppose that's a time saver."

"Can we change the Kaymon Demons back to humans?" Cassandra watched Buffy deliver a few well placed kicks. "Like, you know, before we have to kill three of them."

"Starving Kirtera of his meal should be enough." Giles interrupted. "I think." He flicked a few pages on. They had to be sure. "It should restore their souls as well."

Cassandra repeated the information to the others. Gunn ducked as a strange looking weapon was swung at his head. "He thinks? He'd better be sure, I don't know how much longer I can keep clear of this thing."

The Slaughter House began to shake as if a terrible earthquake had hit LA. A roaring sound echoed in the bomb shelter and the Kaymon Demons fell to their knees and started bowing.

"I think Kirtera is about to make an appearance." Angel pulled Gunn and Buffy out of the way. He saw that Cassandra was safely out of the way and still had a good grip on Darla's throat.

Kirtera rose from the darkness of the bomb shelter like a streak of lightening. He did not look pleased that there was no meal waiting for him.

"You know, it doesn't seem to matter whether it's a God or a demon, they just don't get any prettier do they." Buffy looked down her nose at Kirtera despite the fact that he towered above her.

"Man, that's ugly." Gunn shared Buffy's opinion. "Do all God's have slime dripping from their faces? Cause if they all look like that, I don't want to go to Heaven."

"No, I think it's only the evil ones that drool slime." Cassandra tossed over her shoulder. She saw the look of surprise on Darla's face at the sight of Kirtera. "You were only here for the walking meal, weren't you Darla. You thought that you could drain the soulless body once Kirtera was finished."

"I'm not above doing a little recycling." Darla spat back at her. "What are you drinking these days, Princess?" She knew Cassandra wouldn't drink human blood.

"The finest, the local butcher can offer." Cassandra was keeping one eye on Kirtera and the other on Darla. The God was looking pretty hungry. "What time is it?"

Angle glanced at his watch. "One minute to midnight. Looks like you're not going to get your tortured soul main course this year." Angel took a step to the side to avoid the slime dripping off Kirtera's jaw.

Kirtera choose that moment to lunge for Gunn. He needed a meal and Gunn was closest. Buffy vented her built up rage at Darla by knocking her unconscious so that Cassandra could have both hands free. Angel grabbed the axe back out of his weapons bag and threw it at Kirtera. "Five."

"Four." Cassandra spun and kicked Kirtera in what appeared to be his groin. It obviously was, when Kirtera doubled over shrieking in pain.

"Three." Gunn brought the sword down on the boil infested back of the evil God. Yellow slime splattered the walls, but still Kirtera kept moving.

'Two" Buffy fired the crossbow at the grotess creature staring up at her. The arrow flew straight into it's one eye. Kirtera's screams echoed throughout the Slaughter House.

"One." They all took a step backwards. "Happy New Year." Kirtera exploded, narrowly missing covering his attackers with pieces of internal organs.

"Well I promised you a New Years you'd never forget." Angel put his arm around Buffy's shoulders and kissed the top of her head. "This wasn't quite was I envisioned."

"I can't wait to see what you're going to do next year." Buffy smiled up at him. "Could you try and aim for something with less slime?" She turned to Cassandra who had the strangest look on her face. "What's wrong?"

Gunn pointed to the floor where Darla had been lying. "We've lost a party member. Anybody up for a game of 'Where's Darla?' cause I can't spot her anywhere."

"She's gone." Cassandra took Gunn's outstretched hand to stop from slipping in demon god slime. "Darla had no reason to stay once we let the food platter walk out of here."

1980 Yorkshire, England

Darla loved the feeling of leather against her skin and if she did say so herself, she looked pretty damn hot. She walked towards a young man who was giving her admiring glances. "Hello Love. See something you like?" Darla smiled seductively.

'I'm not watching you." Darcy took a step to the right so that he could see past Darla. "I'm watching her." His smile broadened. "Love those redheads. Look at her, isn't she just the picture of purity and innocence?"

Darla turned to see who he was talking about. He was right. Despite the leather jacket and leather skirt that finished just above her knee, the girl had a look of innocence about her. Darla refused to be distracted from her meal. "Innocence is wasted on the young. Why don't I impart my wisdom and experience with you."

"Darcy!" A prim and proper English accent breezed towards them. "It's late, we have somewhere to be." The sound of stiletto heels on the cobblestones. "You know I don't like to be kept waiting."

Darla rolled her eyes. "Darcy and I are busy, Dear. Why don't you go keep your appointment by yourself." She turned to find the redhead standing right behind her. How the hell had she moved so fast.

"Princess, I don't believe you've met Darla." Darcy's face had changed to that of a Bracken Demon. "But I'm sure you've heard of her though."

The Princess looked Darla up and down. "Yes, I've heard of you. Nothing good though Angel mentioned you once or twice. You have no place here, move on." Her blue eyes turned cold, showing how serious she was.

'I'm sure you think that you're the big bad around here, but sister you've met your match." Darla reached out to shove the Princess and was amazed to feel how cold she was. "You're not human."

"No, I'm not." The Princess knew what Darla was. "How dare you touch a member of royalty." Without touching Darla, the Princess threw her across the street. "I asked you to leave nicely. Now I'm telling you. You only get one second chance Darla. Next time we meet, I'll be introducing you to a pointy wooden stake."

"Princess Cassandra." Darcy held out his arm to her. "We have someone to help." They paused by Darla, who was still lying on the street. "By the way, Her Royal Highness doesn't think she's the new big bad. Everyone knows that she's the great good."

Present Day LA

Watching the Kaymon Demons return to their human forms left Gunn and Buffy gaping. It was similar to what Oz went through reverting from Werewolf to human. Especially the nudity. Gunn, Angel and Cassandra removed their coats so that the former Kaymon Demons could cover themselves, while Buffy phoned the others to fill them in on what had happened.

On returning to the hotel after dropping the reverted humans off to a shelter, they found the New Years Party was in full swing.

"Now this is more like the New Years I envisioned us having." Buffy grabbed the front of Angel's shirt pulling him closer to her. "Happy New Year." She whispered against his lips.

"Happy New Year." Angel smiled down at her as he kissed her. "We both made it to another one." There had been times in the last year that he hadn't been so sure they would.

Gunn walked over to Cassandra who was looking out the window. "Happy New Year Princess." He bowed down and kissed her hand and was rewarded with a brilliant smile.

"Happy New Year, Charles." Cassandra looked past her new friend. Everybody was hugging and kissing. "What a way to see the New Year in, huh?"

Gunn chuckled. "Not the way I thought I was going to, but I have had worse." At least all the good guys lived through this one, that was something at least.

Outside the hotel, Darla watched from across the street. Nervously she rubbed her neck where Cassandra's hand mark was still visible. "This isn't over Princess." Darla's unbeating heart turned cold when she saw Angel kissing the Slayer. There was more passion in that one kiss than he had ever shown to her in the one hundred and fifty years they had been together.

Slowly Darla walked away. Seeing Angel with the Slayer cut her to the core. It had only taken him one moment to fall completely in love with the Slayer. He had never loved her like that. One day she would even the score, but today was not that day.

Giles stood behind Cassandra as she continued to stare out the window. "One got away, but we saved over ten lives tonight. Those are pretty good odds."

Cassandra smiled at him over her shoulder. "Yes they are good odds. Darla will be back though. I just hope they're ready for her." Cassandra nodded towards Buffy and Angel.

"I think they will be." Giles lent forward and kissed Cassandra's cheek. "Happy New Year Cassandra." He offered her his arm. "Come and join the party."

Cassandra laughed and took his arm. "Why not." She had the night off as Jasmine was looking after Dawn and Stephanie for the night and was bringing them back in the morning. There would still be souls to save in the morning.

At Caritas the following night, Jasmine shook her head and chuckled. "Loren, I don't know how you got her to get up there and sing, but I'm impressed."

The Host's bright red eyes flashed excitedly. "Well it was either the Princess singing or the big feller over there. I think Her Royal Highness considered it right up there with saving tortured souls. You know, sort of like saving tortured ears."

"On behalf of those of us who have heard Angel sing, thank you." Cordellia saw Angel scowl at her. "What? You know you can't sing. You've said so on numerous occasions."

"Sorry Angel." Wesley patted Angel on the back. "I'm afraid Cordellia's right. Your singing does leave a lot to be desired."

The music started and everyone fell silent as Cassandra started to sing. Every note was perfect. The Host smiled to his friends. "Now that is a great start to the New Year."

THE END