Title: Rescue
Author: Shannon
Email: angels_soul_1@yahoo.com
Rating: PG
Pairing: Willow/Asher
Disclaimer: Willow and Anya belong to Joss Whedon, ME, UPN, WB, and FOX, Anita Blake characters belong to Laurell K. Hamilton.
Distribution: My site, http://magical-worlds.us/musings/ , NHA, TtH anyone else with other fics of mine, anyone else that wants it just let me know first.
Summary: Willow has reason to believe Anya may not be dead.
Spoilers: Through Chosen. Nothing specific for AB but through Incubus Dreams to be safe.
Author’s Notes: This is for Lisa, its gone way beyond the promised drabble but Merry Christmas anyway.
Also thanks to Leslie and Gabrielle for beta-ing this for me.

Part 3


Willow pulled the door open to reveal the smiling werewolf and couldn’t suppress a grin of her own. She liked Jason, had liked him almost immediately. There weren’t many people who flirted quite so shamelessly with her; Buffy yes, but never her. Kennedy had, but this was different; Jason’s teasing didn’t cause her the discomfort Kennedy’s had. She really wasn’t even sure he was aware he was doing it at all.

“Your car awaits,” he said, bowing at the waist.

“You’re my ride?” Willow frowned, and stepped back so he could enter, “Aren’t you early, and don’t you have a real job to be at?”

“Umm…yes, I’m your ride. I am early but I thought you might like to grab lunch first,” Jason explained, “And I don’t have to be at my real job until later tonight.”

“Okay, actually I am starving. I was just going to call room service when you knocked.”

“C’mon, lunch is on Jean-Claude,” Jason said.

Willow grabbed her purse and followed him out the door. Half an hour later she was sitting across from him, waiting for their lunch to arrive. He was on the phone with Jean-Claude, something that had concerned him; he had taken the call after explaining it was unusual for the vampire to be up this early. She still wondered about his job, he had teased her every time she asked, saying she would find out soon. He said he would even take her to work with him if she asked nicely, but wouldn’t actually tell her what he did.

They had talked about other things though; mostly he answered her questions about werewolves. He had explained to her the pack structure that they used, and about the various other lycanthropes that lived in St. Louis. “Is everything all right?” Willow asked when he set his phone on the table.

“It looks like your friend may have struck again,” he said, frowning, “Jean-Claude wants you at the Circus as soon as possible.”

“Why?” Willow asked, she was supposed to be there after dark anyway. She wasn’t sure why a few more hours would matter.

“He wants her gone before Anita finds her.”

This wasn’t the first time Jason had mentioned Anita. He had said she’d be at the Circus of the Damned the night before but she hadn’t been, or at least Willow hadn’t seen her. “Anita?”

“She’s a vampire executioner,” Jason explained, “and Jean-Claude’s human servant, but she also works with the police on preternatural crimes and she’s been investigating all the bizarre deaths lately. She has no problem branching out to kill other…things. If your friend is responsible for all the deaths and Anita finds her…”

“No chance of letting her walking away, huh?” Willow frowned. Jason shook his head, “That doesn’t explain why he wants me there so quickly. Why does it matter to him that Anita may kill Anya before I find her?”

“He’s afraid of you, Willow,” Jason explained, “After you left last night, he contacted some…people. Apparently you are well known interdimensionally. He’s afraid of what you’ll do if your friend dies.”

Willow waited until the waitress walked away before answering, “I know what Anya is capable of. If she’s killing and the only way to stop her is for the police to kill her I can understand that. I won’t be happy, she is my friend, but if there’s a legitimate reason to kill her… I would like to find her and bring her home with me, but she’s hurting people and she knows the risks she’s taking. I’m not going to go all evil and vein-y if someone needs to protect innocent lives.”

Willow wasn’t sure how to explain her feelings on this to Jason. She wasn’t going to react to Anya’s death like she had Tara’s for a lot of reasons. She loved Anya, but she wasn’t in love with her. Tara was an innocent bystander, Anya wasn’t. Anya was killing people, she was a demon. If Anya was killed because she was a handy excuse that would be different, not end the world different, but different; but if Anya was killed to stop more deaths at her hands, then that was something she would have to deal with…and not tell Xander.

“Evil and vein-y?” Jason asked raising an eyebrow.

“Dark magick Willow is not me at my most attractive,” Willow answered smiling, “But believe me I understand the desire to kill Anya.”

“Did you really skin a man alive?” Jason asked. Jean-Claude had told both him and Asher what he had learned about the redhead. Most of which seemed hard to match with the friendly woman across from him, “For killing your girlfriend?”

Willow blushed and nodded. “And tried to end the world… But I saved it later so that makes up for it, right?”

“Yeah, but I was more concerned about the girlfriend part being true.”

“Sorry,” she shrugged, “So are you helping me search, then?”

“I’m your daytime help,” he explained, “But Asher will be helping you at night. You can search much faster that way.”

“How so?”

“He can fly, and the mind tricks thing may be helpful.”

“Fly? Really?” Willow asked in surprise, “Never knew a vampire that could fly. Then again, Spike and Angel are really the only ones I spent any time with.”

“Yes, he can fly,” Jason said.

“Can he fly and make sure I don’t see his whole face at the same time?”

“He’s very good at that,” Jason said, “He’s not going to let you see his face, not until he’s ready.”

“Why?”

“It’s not my story to tell,” Jason frowned, “You need to ask him, just don’t pressure him to show you unless you really think you can deal, okay, he doesn’t need more rejection. Are you ready to go, we don’t want Jean-Claude to get impatient?”




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