Cordelia ran, terrified. The beast behind her was growling intently. She was clearly its target. She paused for a moment to slip off her designer sandals and throw them at the thing behind her.
It barely even reacted.
“Hey! Those shoes cost me half my credit card limit! You should have at least winced!”
She ran upstairs as quickly as she could, nearly tripping over Joyce Summers in the process, who was still apparently quite unconscious indeed. Cordelia quickly dragged the woman into the bathroom, where she closed and locked the door. Cordy leaned against it and caught her breath in the momentary reprieve. This wasn’t going to hold much longer, she knew.
She’d never wished for Xander to be there this much when they were together.
***
Willow and Giles walked in the last light toward the Summers residence, Giles with a spell book and Willow with supplies in hand.
“I think, perhaps, we should test to see if the barrier is still up before doing a spell unnecessarily,” Giles said and looked at Willow with a certain undertone to his voice that suggested she be the one to test it.
“I’m not running into it,” she said quickly.
“Well, neither am I,” he said with equal speed.
Willow picked up a pebble off the sidewalk and threw it at the house. It didn’t have resistance for a moment, but it was launched right back at Willow a second later. She ducked. “I’d say it’s still there,” she said breathlessly.
“Alright. Let’s begin, then.” Willow picked the miscellaneous items out of the bag she was carrying and emptied them as Giles recited the spell in German. As Willow was about to empty the last couple of bags, Giles interrupted himself with, “What’s this, then?”
Willow felt close to tears. “Giles, now we have to do it all again.”
“I’m afraid we can’t.”
“What? Why?”
“A page from my book is missing. It’s been ripped clean out. That’s… I thought this was mint condition! I paid quite a pretty penny for it, let me tell you…” Giles trailed off as he saw the look on Willow’s face. “Right then. I’ll head back to the library and, judging by the light, I should meet Angel and Xander halfway. Hopefully Angel will remember the spell. If not, I’ll run back to the library to find another book with the spell in it. Perhaps you could go back to the magic shop and restock on the items we used…?”
Willow sighed. “Sure. I don’t hear anything from the house, so it’s not like time will make a difference anyway.”
Giles seemed not to hear. “Yes, well, hurry back.” He walked away from Willow with a pensive look on his face.
Willow sighed again and fought to stay calm. No, it’s okay. Everyone’s okay. Maybe they’re just sleeping. That’s probably it. All tired from trying to get out of the house. We’ll just cast the spell and they’ll be just fine.
Willow’s false but comforting thoughts were cut short by a grumbling sound from behind her. She was reminded of Oz on moon nights, but the moon was only a sliver tonight. She decided to ignore it and she kept walking toward the magic shop.
The last ray of sun had just disappeared when something jumped from a bush and tackled Willow to the ground from behind, sitting on her back and holding her arms out so she couldn’t move. She felt amazing pain in her shoulder. Her last conscious thought was along the lines of how weird the spreading warmth on her back felt.
***
Giles, Angel and Xander waited patiently outside Buffy’s house for Willow to return. Angel and Xander had weapons and Giles was still holding the spell book, thought with much less care. Angel did know the spell to break the charm, for one reason or another. They were silent except for the occasional “Maybe we should go look for her” from Xander, followed by a “Let’s wait a few more minutes” from one of the other two. Finally…
“Are you sure we shouldn’t go after her?”
“Yes, let’s do that,” Giles finally responded.
“I’ll stay here in case something weird happens. You two go ahead. If I find her, she and I will cast the spell and we’ll wait for you before we go into the house,” Angel said.
“Yes, good plan. We shan’t be long.” With that, Xander placed all but one of the weapons he was carrying down and the pair walked in the direction of the magic shop.
Angel decided to use this opportunity to hunt for rodents to eat. He wasn’t comfortable with it, but he hadn’t been at his mansion in a while, and he was hungry. He needed his strength to fight Buffy even when she didn’t have a demon illness.
He shook the feeling and peered into the bushes across the street from Buffy’s house. Though he couldn’t see, smell, or hear anything, he felt the slightest wind of something shifting within. Instantly very curious but still cautious, Angel pulled his head from the bushes and took a step back. He found himself in vampface as he stood and waited patiently and as quietly as possible for whatever was there to come out.
After ten minutes of waiting, he heard a slight shuffling sound behind him. Whirling around, he prepared to fight but he blocked his own punch when he saw Willow standing in front of him with the bag of things from the magic shop. He shook himself back into his human appearance and smiled apologetically. “I didn’t know it was you,” he said. “You were gone for a while. Giles and Xander went looking for you. You didn’t run into them?”
Willow smiled brightly and shook her head a little. “Nope. Must’ve just missed them. Do you know the spell?” she finished.
Angel frowned a little bit at her sudden chipper disposition and resisted impulse to fail to respond. “I know it. You ready to start? Giles and Xander said we should start without them.”
“Yep, absolutely. So, you recite the spell and I’ll put the ingredients over the barrier. It shouldn’t take long.”
Angel eyed her carefully while she spoke, and then nodded once. He strode over to the sidewalk and was instantly hit over the head with the butt of a crossbow. He slumped to the ground and was more unconscious than a vampire probably should have been with a hit like that.
Willow smiled a smile very few people would think she’d be capable of. She walked onto the Summers’ property and strode through the door without getting thrown out.
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