~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
~Part: 41~
Willow was panicking and she knew she was. While her exterior was doing its very best to remain calm and collected her stomach was doing summersaults and her head was pounding. She couldn’t believe that she had just stood up to Buffy like that! Eep!
Now she was walking across the parking lot towards the motel she didn’t dare look back at her friends. She could imagine their faces at the sight of Spike walking along by her side again as if nothing had changed. Willow hoped that nothing had changed between her and the blonde vampire. Once she had got past the whole he-kills-humans part he was actually a fairly decent person for a demon. No doubt Buffy was currently occupying herself with looking for a way to stake him and make it seem like an accident.
She paused in her step again as the same prickling sensation she had experienced before came back. Wait it wasn’t the same. Before the feeling had obviously come from Buffy and Cara but this time it was slightly different.
“Can you guys wait here?” she said suddenly stopping and turning to the others.
“Why? Oh wait do I even want to know. I mean you’re shacked up with blondie, I mean Spike, really I meant Spike…”
“Xander shut up!” she said feeling a slight blush come over her cheeks. “Its just that something feels wrong. I won’t be long I’m just going to collect a few things and then we came go.”
“I’m going with you,” Spike said dumping the shopping bag in the Xander’s arms who did surprisingly well not to drop it.
“If he’s going then I’m going too,” Buffy said stepping forwards and glaring at the vampire.
“Okay but that’s it!” Willow said quickly before anyone else had chance to volunteer himself or herself. She turned to Giles. “We won’t be long. That is of course if I can keep these two from killing each other.”
The ex-watcher smiled. “Very well. Hurry back.”
“Why does he have to come along?” Buffy moaned as they walked through the front lobby and into the resident part of the motel.
“Because ‘he’ wants to,” Spike answered. “I’m not leaving the little witch in your incompetent hands for five seconds. Anything could happen to her!”
“Incompetent! You’re calling me incompetent? If I’m incompetent then what the hell are you?”
“Oh very grown up slayer!” Spike laughed. “Are you going to throw sand in my face next?”
“It won’t be sand; it’ll be my fist!”
“Quiet,” Willow hissed. “You’re going to wake everyone up.” She pushed her key into the lock trying to push her feeling that something wasn’t right away. For a moment the door stuck and she had to lean on it to make it open.
She took a few steps inside and them passed out as something hit her on the back of the head.
~Part: 42~
“They’ve been gone too long,” Xander said shifting the heavy bag that Spike had given him from one arm to the other. “This really can’t be good,” he added when no one else replied.
“Yes Xander!” Giles said. “I believe we all get the point.”
“You don’t suppose that Spike’s tried something do you?” Cara asked. Without waiting for an answer she set off walking. “I’m going in to take a look around.”
The three men watched her retreating back and then hurried to follow.
Once inside they had little difficulty locating the correct room. As Giles saw the slumped figure of Spike at one side of the passage he at first thought that Cara’s assumption had proved correct. However after searching the room that had obviously belonged to the vampire and the young witch and finding neither Willow nor the other slayer he began to reassess the situation. It was obvious that there had been a fight of some kind both inside the room and outside from the unconscious form of the vampire and the damage to the room.
Giles went and knelt by the vampire who he gently shook in an attempt to wake. After a minute or so golden eyes were suddenly flung wide open and deep ridges appeared on Spike’s face as he leapt to his feet without any aid. Cara quickly stepped between the watchers and the vampire.
“Don’t worry pet,” Spike said. “I wasn’t about to have a snack on the watcher.” He let his human features smooth back over those of the demon and lifted his head to sniff the air in a similar manner to what Giles had seen him do earlier in the night when they had first confronted the vampire and witch. “Blood,” was all he said and walked into the motel room. The others followed him. “Willow’s blood,” he said turning to face them after a quick examination of the room.
“What happened?” Giles asked.
“They were waiting in the room for us. One took out Red and then the rest started in on the Slayer and me. I don’t know what they hit me with but I think I’ll be hurting into next year. Anyway, next thing I knew your ugly mug was looking down at me.”
“So they took both Willow and Buffy,” Jonathan said. “That’s certainly interesting.” He walked to the books that lay open on the bed. “You were researching?” he asked the vampire.
Spike closed the lid down on the laptop computer and disconnected it from the wall. “Yeah, found quite a bit out as well. You might want to have a look once we get out of here.”
“Hey, I hate to interrupt but shouldn’t we be looking from Buffy and Wills?” Xander asked.
“We don’t actually know where they are Xander,” Giles pointed out. “In fact I wouldn’t know to start looking.”
“Can’t Cara just rough up a few more vamp’s?” the youth asked.
“They wouldn’t know,” Spike said grabbing a bag from under the bed and packing it full of Willow’s things. “If they did then they would have told me. However I have an idea how to find them.”
“How?” Giles asked, more than slightly amazed at the way the vampire was taking control. Even as the ex-watcher asked the question the vampire finished his packing, passed one bag to Cara who hefted it over her shoulder and picked up one himself plus the computer. Giles moved to pick up a stack of books from the bed.
“Willow was going to cast a spell to find out where this Order are basing themselves. I say that we cast the spell and hope it tells us where to find the girls.”
Giles nodded approval and followed the vampire out of the door of the room.
“I spent enough time around Dru so I think I should be able to do it. With the instructions of course so don’t lose any of those books.” The blonde vampire continued.
“I’ll help,” Giles said. “I learnt some things about casting when I was younger.”
“Does that mean Ripper’s gonna make an appearance?” Xander asked still remembering the last time that the mild mannered watcher’s other side had chosen to bless them with his presence.
“Ripper?” Spike asked.
“A nickname I received in my youth.”
“Now I’m really curious,” the vampire grinned at the watcher’s discomfort.
“G-man has some major skeletons in his closet,” Xander said. “He was a bad ass sorcerer type dude back in the seventies or something.”
“Thank you Mr Harris,” Giles replied stiffly putting an end to any more comments from the younger man.
They stopped at the familiar black DeSoto and Spike opened up the trunk. Giles watched in fascination as the vampire lifted out a couple of railroad spikes before dropping the bag he was carrying in the back and indicating for the others to do the same. When all the bags were loaded he put the railroad spikes back in on top of he other things that now occupied the space.
Spike jumped behind the wheel of the car then waited for everyone else to file in. “So where have you been staying?”
~Part: 43~
A cool hand was stroking her head. Willow tried to roll onto her side aware that she had a splitting headache and the floor beneath her was very, very hard. What was she doing lying on the floor anyway?
It was almost completely dark within the room except for the small window that she could just about see outside of the corner of her eye. Bright afternoon light came flooding through making patches on the far wall. The walls themselves looked to be concrete on all sides except for one where there was a break containing a heavy looking metal door.
Willow struggled to sit up only to find herself pushed down again. “Shh Wills,” a quiet voice came. The witch looked directly up and found herself looking into the eyes of her best friend.
“Buffy?” she asked wanting to confirm that the slayer wasn’t a figment of her imagination. “Where are we?” she added after the other girl nodded ‘yes’.
“I don’t know. We were attacked in your room at the motel. Somehow they managed to knock me out and then the next thing I knew I was laying here in this room with you.”
“Is Spike here?”
“No. At least I’ve not seen him while I’ve been awake.”
“My head hurts,” the witch complained.
“I wouldn’t be surprised. They must have hit you pretty hard Wills. Come on, let me help you sit up.” She linked an arm around her friend’s waist and slowly lifted her into a sitting position. Willow leaned against the wall and tried to push away the wave of nausea that passed over her stomach.
“I feel dreadful!” she exclaimed before smiling at her friend. “So, do we have a plan on how to get out of here?”
Buffy shrugged. “The best I can figure we should try and attack whoever comes to that door. The only problem with that is that no one’s been and opened it yet.”
“That only means that they’re going to be by soon,” Willow said trying to plaster a smile on her face. She had a feeling that she was looking distinctly green at the moment from the expression of concern on the slayer’s face.
“Are you strong enough to stand?” Buffy asked getting to her feet. “We’re going to have to move quickly once they do come.”
Willow used the wall to push herself to a standing position and smiled weakly. “Private Willow reporting for duty,” she said before promptly finding herself pitching forwards and emptying the contents of her stomach on the floor. “Sorry,” she murmured.
“Hey its no skin off my nose,” the slayer said. “I’m not the one whose gonna have to clean it up later.” She helped her friend sit back down. “Ya know if you can make that projectile we might have a pretty efficient weapon there.”
“Buffy that is so not funny,” the red head said trying to suppress the feeling in the stomach. She muttered a quick spell and was despaired to find that it didn’t work. “We might have a problem.”
“What?”
“Something took away my power.”
The blonde looked confused. “Oh your witch power!” she exclaimed as realisation dawned. “We’ll manage Wills; don’t you worry. They can’t take away my slayer strength.”
“How can you just dismiss it so easily?” Willow asked angrily.
“Okay I missed something big didn’t I?”
“The power is me Buffy. Its not something that you can just set aside like that!”
“I’m sorry Wills but that’s what its like for me. The only magic that I come across now-a-days is the type I’m fighting and I normally beat that so I guess I don’t see a problem with the fact I’m going to be fighting without it again.”
“Well it is a big deal for me.”
Buffy put a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “I suppose I can understand that,” she said. “I didn’t mean to sound awful. Honestly. Now get ready, I think I hear someone coming.”
The witch nodded reluctantly and pressed herself against the wall adjacent the door as Buffy position herself in front of it and fell into a fighting stance. As the locks could be heard coming undone and the door swung open Buffy pushed herself up off both feet and kicked out at the person coming through the door. There was the sound of a body hitting the floor as the slayer landed and set off at a run into the other’s that had flanked the opener of the door. Moving as quickly as she could Willow ran out into the line of the door. As she leapt over the body blocking it she felt a pulse of energy and was startled to see Buffy flying back towards her from the hallway.
Together they fell into a heap on the floor.
Buffy was unmoving as her friend tried to climb out from under her. Willow was aware that everything else had gone silent except for the ragged sound of her own breathing as she struggled to her knees. Glancing down at Buffy’s face she saw that the slayer was once again unconscious on the floor of cell that they had shared.
Slowly the young witch stood wanting to turn all her power and anger on whoever had done this to her best friend. In the door stood three tall men, the front on seeming vaguely familiar to the red head. As she concentrated whatever was left of her power on them a voice cut through her anger tearing it to shreds.
“Don’t bother witch,” the man in front said. “It won’t work and you’ll only exhaust yourself pointlessly.”
The anger that had built inside her was repressed and Willow felt herself become suddenly tried. “What did you do to her?” she demanded trying to keep her voice strong.
“She will be fine once she wakes. Please step out of the cell.”
Willow looked at the three men. Their comrade was still on the floor where Buffy had left him but they seemed unconcerned, all their eyes rested on Willow as she stood in the cell. They were afraid of something she realised. Her mind ran through all the possible options she had and tried to sort from the mess which one had the greatest chance of success. The fact that they were worried about something she might do was an advantage if only she could figure out what it was. The answer was unforthcoming.
The front man stepped aside and waved her through. Willow stepped cautiously into the hallway and looked around. The corridor was long with repeating lights at uniform distances along the roof giving out a dim light. On both sides there were more of the heavy metal doors probably leading to more cells like the one she had just vacated.
“The High Priest would like to apologise for the manner in which you were brought here and for the accommodation that you had unfortunately had to suffer so far,” the man said tensely as he took up a position at her side. “At the time it was felt that it was necessary for your own personal safety.”
“You thought it was a good idea to hit me over the top of the head?” she asked in disbelief. The man directed her around a corner.
“I believe the person who was charged with you retrieval was over zealous in his method.”
“That’s one way of putting it,” Willow answered absently lifting her hand to the cut that had appeared on the side of her head and the sensitive bump that came with it.
They had come to a large bronze door that was at the top of a set of stairs. The man knocked and a moment later a crackly voice invited them to enter. At her captor’s insistence she entered the room first followed by him but not the two other men. Willow let her eyes roam the perfectly round room until they came to rest of the wizened old man who was sat behind a large desk. To one side of him sat another man with a face that was all too familiar to her. What on earth was her librarian doing here?
“Ah Emmett,” said the old man. “It seems that you are at least capable of doing some things correctly. You may go now.”
“Yes your Grace.” The man backed out of the door seemingly grateful of the chance to leave.
“Come forward witch.”
Willow took hesitated and then took several small steps forwards and before halting in front of the desk. The old man was smiling at her disturbingly and when she glanced aside at the librarian she saw that the smile was mirrored there on his thin lips.
“Welcome,” the old man said. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. You realise of course who we are?” The red head nodded but didn’t say anything in reply.
“Good, I am pleased. My name is Kieran Platter and I am High Priest of the Order of Trixian. Please take a seat and may I be first to congratulate you on your being accepted into the House of Blood.” Taking her silence for an answer the old man moved on. “You know the aim of our Order of course by now, I would be greatly disappointed if you did not.”
“You want me to raise a demon,” Willow said.
“Not just any demon witch. A demon that will destroy all the evils in the world and bring light to reign on high again.”
“I don’t understand why a demon would destroy his own kind.”
“But he will not be destroying his own kind. As you already know there is more than one type of demon. Some of those demons are what can be termed good and the rest are evil. Our Lord Flitrix is a good demon. He wishes to return all demons to their own world and let the human race be free from their threat.”
“But demons were here before humans were,” Willow objected.
“But where were they before that? There are many realms that contain demons and occasionally some of those demons escape and invade other worlds that are destined for greater purposes. This was one of those worlds. Lord Flitrix is committed to correcting the balance even if it means destroying all demons on this world. From here he shall move to another afflicted world and save the poor unfortunates that live there.”
“Your demon lord doesn’t just kill other demons though.”
“You speak of your fellow witches-“
“And slayers,” Willow interrupted. “And any other being in this world with even the slightest hint of magic in their blood.”
“All such creatures are descended of demons!”
“Then how can you condone using me to call forth your demon?” she asked.
“Think witch, when all the magic is gone from this world what need will there be for slayers? Legions of young women will be given the opportunity to grow up and have families of their own and never even have to think of vampires or witches or warlocks. Think of all the people who will be allowed to live full lives because they will not be cut down in the prime of their lives by demons and the like. What a wonderful world that could be!”
“I-I can’t be responsible for all those innocent people dying first,” Willow said sadly.
Kieran let his head fall to one side. “Not even if it means saving all those people. I was led to believe that you were best friends with a slayer; that you had aided her several times in the past selflessly. Does that not mean you would sacrifice anything to save souls?”
“Of course but its not as simple as that and you know it. You can’t make things right by doing wrong and raising that demon would be wrong. I-I’m sorry but you’ll have to find some other witch to do your ritual because I won’t.” Willow stood from the chair. “I’d like to go get Buffy and go home now please. I would appreciate it if you would leave me and my friends alone from now on.”
The wrinkled old man sighed and made steeples of his index fingers in front of his face, resting his elbows on the desk before him. “Unfortunately that is impossible. I had hoped that you would see the error of your ancestors’ way in refusing to perform to ritual but obviously that is not the case.”
“What do you mean?” the witch asked nervously.
“Only that you will not be leaving this place until you have performed to ritual. I have waited along time for this opportunity and I am not going to pass it up because of some witch’s misguided notion about morals. I should have known not to expect much from a witch who would tolerate the company of a vampire of all demons.”
“You can’t keep me here!”
“Well as far as I can tell, yes, actually I can keep you here. Mr Farmer will show you to your new accommodation. I shall be awaiting your renewed decision.”
"Wait!"
"Until later witch."
~Part: 44~
Cara stared suspiciously at the vampire who was sat crossed legged on the floor with his eyes tightly closed. From her vantage point on the bed she kept completely still as the demon rolled his head back and made his neck crack.
“Do you have to do that?” Xander asked, wincing at the sound.
“Be quiet Xander,” Giles said removing his jacket and sitting down on the floor across from the vampire. The ex-watcher rolled up his sleeves and loosened the tie around his neck. “Are you going to put that out?” he asked pointing to the cigarette that the blonde vampire had dangling from his lips. Spike opened one eye and nodded before stubbing it out in the ashtray he had retrieved from the bedside cabinet in the blink of an eye.
The young slayer returned to her quiet contemplation of the strange vampire before her. While she hadn’t been slaying long in comparison to Buffy she knew that she could safely say that she had never come across another demon like Spike and yet the Giles and Xander seemed to accept his strangest without question. Unfortunately Cara was having much more trouble adapting her mind into believing that she was not only sitting in the same room as a master vampire and not trying to kill him but that she was also working with him. Cara wondered if this was what life was like if you were Buffy Summers.
“If you don’t stop staring at me slayer I might think that you don’t like me,” Spike said suddenly.
Startled the young girl glanced away and at Xander who was smirking. “They always do that,” he said. “Angel used to do the same thing.”
“I am nothing like the poof,” the vampire snarled at him.
“Of course not,” Xander quickly amended.
“So how would you like to do this?” Giles asked as Spike started to relax himself once again.
“I think I’ve got the incantation down but I’m going to need some help when it comes to actually drawing the power needed. You can do that right?”
“I believe so.”
Jonathan shifted around the room and came to stand beside Cara. “You’re about to see some real magic performed,” he said quietly.
“I’ve seen magic before,” the slayer answered.
“You’ve only ever seen destructive magic Cara. This is a completely different sort - the sort that is more commonly used by peaceful witches. It is very important that you learn about this sort of thing because as you will see it is very helpful in aiding a slayer. However if anyone at the council ever asks you about it say nothing. Witchcraft of any sort is looked down upon and several watchers have been asked to leave the council because of their association with such things. Rupert had to spend quite some time reforming himself before they allowed him to enter as a novice.”
“Then why are you telling me now?”
“Because we aren’t with the council at this minute and no one else in this room is likely to ever mention it to them. Neither of us is in any danger from the council as long as they don’t find out about this little incident.”
“Could you all be quiet now?” Giles asked. “I believe we are ready to begin.”
Jonathan fell silent with his old friend’s words and made himself more comfortable on the bed next to his slayer.
Spike began to chant. It wasn’t a language that Cara recognised as a slayer but the similar looks on the faces of Jonathan and Giles told her that the two council trained men knew it well. The words came as a rumbling from the demon’s chest as he sat, eyes closed and body relaxed, and permeated throughout the room making every surface shimmer with escaping energy. Cara became aware that it was steadily growing lighter in the room and having glanced around thoroughly discovered the source to be the ex-watcher and the vampire themselves. After what seemed to be an eternity Giles joined in the chant lifting the sound level in the room and adding to the energy that flowed with a rushing noise in the other occupants ears. In the throws of the trance like state that Spike was engaged in the slayer watched, fascinated as he threw back his head drew in an unneeded gasp of air and tensed all over.
Then the eerie light was gone. Giles opened his eyes and looked around him, as if only just becoming aware of his situation. The older man drew himself unsteadily to his feet and broke the circle of protection that he and the vampire had created before settling down to perform to spell. Seconds later Spike also stood and shook his body all over to rid himself of the dazed and confused feelings that had been threatening to take over. Having pulled himself together the vampire started to pack away the bowls of ingredients he had used to perform to spell.
“So,” Xander said impatiently. “Where are they?”
“That’s for me to know and you to find out Whelp,” Spike answered with a grin.
“G-man!” Xander appealed ignoring the annoyed look he received from the ex-watcher.
“Indeed Spike, perhaps now would be the time to inform us of what you saw.”
The vampire flung himself into a sprawled laying position on the bed. “They’re in a block of offices over the other side of the city. It’s actually quite near where that witch, Meredith Darken lives. I couldn’t tell much else so I say that me and the slayer spend what’s left of tonight checking the place out.”
“I agree,” Giles said quickly. “There should be no problem with you and Cara scouting these offices. That is as long as you can manage not to kill each other.”
“If she doesn’t try to kill me then I won’t kill her.”
“Cara?” the ex-watcher said turning to her.
“I can’t say I’m exactly comfortable with the idea but I suppose that I can give anything a shot.”
“Now wait a minute-“ Jonathan interrupted. “I’m not sure how I feel about sending her off in the company of a vampire. Look what happened last time we left him alone with a slayer.”
“This is hardly the same situation Jonathan and as long as Cara has no problems with the idea then I certainly can’t see any.”
The watcher appealed with his eyes to his slayer. Cara stood from the bed and tucked a stake into the waistband of her trousers. “I have no objection. Are you coming Spike?” The vampire grinned at her and Cara cursed her voice for the slight tremble that had accompanied her words
~Part: 45~
Her eyes felt heavy in her head and she was sure that even the slightest relaxation on her part would cause her to immediately fall to sleep. This was worse than when she would pull an all nighter back in college and Willow had thought that she was long past those days. Apparently not though.
The room was nice compared to the cell that she had been held in before. When Willow had been brought here she had hardly taken the chance to glance around but now her heart rate had calmed down and she was actually taking the time to study where they were keeping her. It was larger than the previous place and much more like a bedroom than she had expected. Indeed there was even a window low enough and large enough for her to see out of when she wanted to.
Willow wondered what Buffy was up to.
She was left in the room for hours. The sun rose high into the sky and she was still stuck pacing it and the tiny adjoining bathroom. Occasionally one of her guards would appear at the door and pause before pushing a tray of food of drink onto a small table the room was equipped with. Willow ate and drank without really tasting anything then went back to planning her escape.
Unfortunately the prospect of escape was becoming less and less unlikely. So far she had checked every possible route that she could think of. There were three windows, two in the bedroom and one in the bathroom but these were all covered in bars. If her power had been intact then Willow had no doubt that she could have made short work of those little inconveniences but it wasn’t and she couldn’t. Besides, one glance from any of the windows showed that there was nothing but a very long descent in order for her if she did try to get out that way and it would undoubtedly end with her being splattered on the sidewalk below. Willow let a sigh escape. The only other route for escape is the door and she knew for a fact that there were at least two men on the outside of that and the goddess only knew how many other roamed the halls of the enormous building she was in.
The witch fell into a chair and picked up one of the books that Mr Farmer had left for her on one of his earlier flying visits. They were all on the Order of Trixian, Flitrix and the ritual that they wanted her to perform. After having given her the books Farmer had told her that she should start to learn the words ready for the ritual. Willow did so knowing that perhaps it would help her later when she found a way to stop them. If she could some how disrupt the ritual while performing it then there would be nothing that the Order would be able to do to prevent her.
From what she knew already and what she had read there were several parts to the ritual. The first was the ceremony of preparation that Willow suspected that the priests of Order had already begun. Occasionally she would hear chanting coming from down the hall and there was a sense in magic in the air that was unmistakable even without her power. The second phase was the calling of the demon from its own realm and its internment into a massive stone statue that should stand below where the witch, herself in this case, should be standing. Finally there was the sacrifice of an innocent soul to allow the demon to pull free of the statue and take on the body of its new host.
Willow knew that she would have to stop the ritual before the sacrifice. If the demon was confined to the statue then there was a chance that she would be able to destroy it. The question was how she was going to do that.
Before she had chance to think of an answer to that question the door to her ‘room’ opened and Farmer was there again. “Well?” he asked and his voice seemed to resonate throughout the entire room making the young witch shiver. Willow didn’t remember the librarian as being quite so tall or as imposing before.
She considered her answer carefully for a second or too before telling him. “I don’t really had a choice do I?” she said.
“No you do not.”
“Do I have your promise that if I help then Buffy won’t be hurt?” It was wishful thinking but anything was worth a try at the moment.
“I can’t promise that but there is always a chance. Does this mean that you finally accept your destiny witch?”
Willow nodded sadly in response.
“Then I shall send someone to help you in preparing for the ritual.”
~Part: 46~
Spike leapt and landed clumsily on the ledge of the next building. Silently he ran over the flat roof and once again jumped before landing confidently on the roof across the gap. A smile played on his lips as he saw the solitary guard that was posted up here. Idiots.
As the guard turned to face him Spike covered the distance between them and closed his hand on the back of the man’s neck. His game face appeared and his head darted forwards, sinking fangs into the mortal’s throat. Feeling wonderfully refreshed from the blood Spike let the body drop and ran to the ledge opposite. Below he could see the two watcher’s struggling to enter the building through a fire exit. As the slayer and the whelp weren’t there the vampire realised that they must already have entered through the workman’s entrance at the back of the building.
Resisting the urge to light up another cigarette Spike broke open the lock on the roof entrance and started down the stairs that he found there. The first flight led to a short corridor of doors. Listening carefully Spike sought out heartbeats. There were two, one significantly weaker than the other. Glancing around and finding no one in sight Spike raised his nose in the air and sniffed. No Willow and no slayer either.
Backing into the stair well Spike headed down to the next level and emerged in another corridor, much like the one before it except that this time there were more doors and more heartbeats to be heard. The vampire grinned as a very familiar scent reached him. Slayer, slayer, slayer, I bet you never thought that you would be rescued by me of all people. He paused in his step as a thought reached him. There was no way that he could ever let news of her ‘rescue’ reach the demon population. It would ruin him.
Spike leaned on the door of the room where he sensed the slayer was. The heartbeat from inside was erratic and the rich, sweet smell of blood filled the air. Slayer’s blood – was there anything more delicious? That isn’t why you’re here he reminded himself bracing his body against the heavy door and forcing it open.
The slayer was slumped against the far wall, her chest heaving as she struggled for breath. Spike surveyed the damage trying to ignore the smell of her blood. Her chest was bruised beneath the brief top that she wore, as were her arms. There was deep purple, almost black, bruising on her knuckles in addition to bloody cuts. Reaching under her chin the vampire lifted her head. Apart from a lump on her forehead there didn’t appear to be any damage.
“Slayer?” he asked quietly. Her body stiffened as slayer preservation kicked in. Hazel eyes flickered open momentarily before closing again. “Slayer!” he snarled.
“Okay, okay Spike. Give me a moment will ya?” She pushed herself into a sitting position and opening her eyes, squinting against the light that was coming in through the door. “How did you get in?”
“I did my batman impression. Are you coming or not because I still have to find Red?”
"Willow?"
“Yes, remember her? The reason you’re here.”
“I’m not stupid Spike.”
“Really slayer? You surprise me.”
Buffy groaned. “Shut up Spike, this isn’t getting us anywhere.” She struggled to her feet. “I feel like I’ve been hit with a sledge hammer. A large sledge hammer.”
“You look like it too.”
“Spike!” she hissed. “Ouch! Okay, gotta remember impact with walls hurts. Don’t laugh!”
“Oh come on slayer, this is bloody funny.”
“Not to me.” The vampire watched as she walked unsteadily towards to the door.
“Are you going to be able to fight?” he asked taking in the way she clung to the wall for a moment. Buffy spun and looked back at him with a venomous glare.
“Of course I am. I always do.”
“Well come on then.”
“Okay, okay. You do realise that I’m going to stake you the second that we find Willow don’t you?”
Spike pushed past her into the doorway. He glanced down to either end of the corridor worried by the amount of noise she was making. “You couldn’t stake yourself.”
“I could! I just wouldn’t want to.”
“No you couldn’t. You don’t have a stake.”
“Oh.” She stepped into the corridor and began marching away from him in annoyance.
“Slayer?” Spike called. The blonde stopped and spun around, an infuriated look on her face. “You’re going in the wrong direction.”
~Part: 47~
Xander felt a hand grab hold of him and pull him backwards. Questioningly he glanced at the dark haired slayer who had her hand wrapped around his wrist. “Someone’s coming,” she whispered. Xander nodded his understanding. After a few seconds a single man wearing a deep crimson hooded robe walked by with his head bowed.
“I think we’re in the right place,” Xander said quietly as he followed Cara out from their hiding place.
“I would never have guessed,” the slayer answered dryly.
“What’s up with you?”
“Nothing - just pre-fight tension. I always get it.” She jumped up onto the next platform level of the delivery bay and held out a hand for Xander to follow. He griped hold and she hauled him up.
“Is that like..? No actually I don’t want to know the answer to that.”
“What?”
“Nothing. It really doesn’t matter. So where are we going to head now?”
“Upstairs. There’s nowhere left to check down here so we might as well do up. I wonder whether Spike has reached the roof yet.”
“He will have. Spike’s impatient; nothing will make him wait around when it looks like there’s going to be a good fight. Actually any type of fight.” Xander watched as she knelt down in front of the door and used a slender piece of metal to jimmy the lock. “Where did you learn how to do that?”
She looked up at him and grinned as the lock clicked. “You don’t want to know.”
Together they passed through the door, pausing at the other side to wait for the lock to click back into place. Satisfied that she had heard it do so Cara began to silently creep up the stairs with Xander following close behind her. Having already spent too much time checking the basement level of the large building for Willow and Buffy they were now running short on it.
Arriving at the top of the stairs they found themselves in a large cavernous hall that definitely didn’t look like it belonged in the modern building that they were suppose to be standing in. The walls looked to have been constructed from heavy white marble blocks that gleamed in the torchlight. In the centre of the room there was a large circular altar with four iron loops hammered into the stone slightly raised up. Cara glanced at the inscriptions but failed to recognise the language. Xander whistled and promptly received an elbow in the stomach from the slayer.
In the distance he heard voices.
~Part: 48~
The war had begun. Hundreds of years ago the House of Sight had predicted these events and now they sat smugly upon their newly elevated position in the Elders’ eyes and spoke of wrongs done to their House. Witches from all over the city had gathered together at the enormous home of Meredith Darken waiting for the word to go out and bring havoc on the Order of Trixian and the one known soul left in the House of Blood. It was an hour after Meredith had stood before them all and given a rousing speech on the righteousness of their cause and still every person present was filled with fire charged anger and passion.
All that was except for Althea who politely waited for her Mistress to finish speaking with two other Elders. Meredith broke away from the others and came to rest where Althea stood by the rail of the balcony, watching the masses below. The Elder witch placed a reassuring hand on the shoulder of her student. It didn’t help. Althea wanted nothing more than to be away from the woman that she had admired and thought of as a mother for more than half her life.
Meredith smiled at her. It was a disturbingly warm smile for one coming from a woman who was notoriously cold in her nature. “Don’t worry Althea dear,” she said in calm, almost happy tones. “Things will be in their rightful place again soon.”
~Part: 49~
Cara, having heard the approach of people a split second earlier than Xander yanked him away from the altar and into the shadows of the grand archways surrounding the room. This isn’t going the way I planned, she thought as the young man stumbled backwards into her arms. The slayer put him back on his feet and stepped away, drawing a stake out of her waistband.
At the opposite side of the hall she saw two men enter in identical crimson robes. They paused briefly to make a swift swirling set of movements in the air with their hands and then bowed in the direction of an enormous stone figure.
“Have you completed your prayers Brother Emmett?” one said inclining his head towards the other.
“Earlier on,” the taller of the two answered, his voice echoing in the great room. “Before Brother Farmer sent me to help prepare the witch.”
This comment elicited a chuckle from his companion. “They really must be angry with you to make you spend so much time with her. Perhaps you need prayers even more than the rest of us.”
“We shall all need prayers tonight Brother. Now if you will excuse me I have to go and collect the witch. High Priest Platter will be arriving soon and I have to make sure that she and the slayer are ready for the ritual.”
“Make sure you take plenty of men with you when you go to the slayer Emmett. I hear she killed one of ours earlier.”
The one called Emmett sighed. “I know Brother. I was there.”
“Well, good luck my friend. Perhaps we can meet up once the ritual is over?”
“Perhaps. We’ll see how things go.” Emmett bowed once towards the stone figure and then exited the room through another of the huge archways. After checking the flaming torches in their wall brackets the other man also left the hall. Cara breathed a sigh of relief.
“We have to do something,” Xander hissed into her ear. “That was Willow and Buffy that they were talking about.”
“I know!” she replied in a hushed voice that seemed deceptively loud in the high vaulted hall. The slayer looked around the room her eyes finally coming to rest on the enormous stone statue. Slowly she took in the area around it wondering why she had not thought to look at it earlier. No, that wasn’t right. She had wanted to look but something had stopped her. “The statue, we have to do something about the statue,” she said finally breaking away from the feeling of unreasonable panic that had been threatening to tear through her body.
“Huh?”
“The statue. There’s something about it that’s wrong. I – I can’t figure it out exactly but I need to get rid of it somehow.”
Xander managed to fight his way through the block and took in the enormous sculpture properly for the first time. “And how exactly do you think you’re gonna do that? Nuke it?”
The slayer turned a disbelieving eye on the young man before shaking away the images that his comment had brought up. “Well it’s at least worth a try isn’t it?” she asked. “I remember something vague about a idol of stone being mentioned in the ritual for summoning Flitrix. Plus there’s the feeling that we both experienced. You don’t protect something like that unless it’s important. It would be a waste of energy. I’ve got to try at least.”
The Sunnydaler took in the young girl’s expression and nodded. Deep inside something was telling him the same thing. They had to try…
~Part: 50~
Words tumbled over themselves in her mind to find their way to her lips. She was disturbed by the fact that although she knew that she did not want to speak them her body did not seem to agree. Willow thought that at any moment, if she even opened her mouth to take a breath then they would come pouring out. Silently she told herself to stop being ridiculous. Nothing had possession of her body. There was nothing making her act this way only her own uncertainty. The witch pushed down all the strange emotions that had been surfacing.
Willow stood suddenly, ruffling the long deep crimson robes, embroidered with intricate gold threading that she now wore as the door burst open to revel the familiar figure of one of her captors. Emmett took a slow stride into the room never taking his eyes off her.
He never even said a word to her before grasping her upper arm and pushing her through the doorway into the hallway. Stumbling she felt the heal of her hand connect with the solid surface of someone’s chest and glanced up to find herself staring into the eyes of one of the guards. Willow instantly drew back at the look of hate in the man’s eyes and backed up a step until she collided with Emmett.
“Stop that,” he snarled into her ear and roughly used both hands to put her back on her feet.
“Well I wasn’t exactly doing it intentionally,” she snapped in reply without thinking. Emmett’s eye’s darkened and he took an angry step towards her before seeming to rethink his actions and stopping. Still Willow shied away from him only just managing to repress the urge to give the man an apology that he didn’t deserve.
Under the watchful eye of the Emmett and two other men she was walked down a long corridor and into an elevator. Inside, Emmett punched a button and they began to move downwards. From the elevator she followed them down another series of corridors until they emerged in a large hall.
Willow gasped. She didn’t mean to but the tiny sound escaped her before she had any chance of preventing it.
The hall was magnificent in her eyes. It glowed with power that she felt herself longing to touch and, even more worryingly for the young witch, longed to absorb. Glancing around her eyes came into contact with the meticulously constructed symbols hanging from the shining white walls. Each, she now knew, held a different source of power that she would have to draw on to complete the ritual. Finally she brought her gaze up to the enormous statue that immediately began to dominate the room in her mind’s eye.
It was everything that she had expected and more. Flitrix was not a handsome demon and had no desire of being so. The statue, a carefully carved image of the demon in question, reflected this.
“Let her find her own way Emmett,” a voice called out. Through her power induced ecstasy Willow looked across the room and saw the High Priest seated upon a throne like chair. The grip on her was instantly released at the old man’s word and Willow stepped away from her escort.
Following the whispering of the voices that only she could hear Willow walked towards a short, curving flight of stairs. Appearing at the top the young witch found herself looking down at the half full hall below. In front of her was a table that reached to about waist height. Willow studied the items that lay on it with interest. Everything you could ever need to perform an end of the world ritual she thought.
The young witch eyed the instrument on the table that had immediately drawn her eye. Gingerly she pressed her fingers against the handle and then quickly drew them back as if burnt. Goddess she hoped this worked.
Looking down in the direction that she knew Platter was seated in Willow searched in the crowds for his face. Finding it she held his eye for a second and received a nod of encouragement in return.
Slowly the red head raised her hands to the sky and began to chant.