Give and Take

by Gudanov

Sequel to 'Nine Hours'

Give and Take

Running was the last thing Willow remembered. She remembered running from a man holding a boiling potion who called himself Romica. She and Tara had been trying to get out of their apartment, but he had been too quick and had blocked the front door.

Now she was here lying on her back. She could feel the soft support of a pillow under her head and a mattress that was little too soft for her taste supporting the rest of her. Her blouse, skirt, shoes, everything felt the same as she had been wearing while she was in the apartment. Where was she now? She opened her eyes.

Before she had time to look around, Romica's face appeared in her line of vision. She really hadn't taken a good look at him before, what with all the running for her life and stuff. His hair was short and perfectly styled, with artful waves framing an angular face that was handsome if a little too severe. He looked like a male model pretending to be a business executive. She was drawn to his pale gray eyes; his penetrating gaze echoed his predatory manner. He had to be a vampire. She was scared, but his gaze seeped into her and drank the fear away. She just lay there, calmly transfixed as she stared back into the infinite depths of his eyes.

Romica looked away. "Sometimes I forget; it's a habit. I can't have much of a conversation with you in that condition."

Fear slammed back into her. "W...what do you want?" she managed to squeak out.

He looked back at her. His gaze was still intense, but whatever had transfixed her was gone. "I want you to cast a couple of spells for me. They require a living caster, something I haven't been for a very long time."

Willow took a moment to look around the room. It was rather uninteresting. The walls were an ivory white and marked with little pits and holes in the drywall. The light came by way of overhead fluorescent bulbs shining through yellowed panels in the ceiling. There were a couple of doors as well. One was closed and the other was ajar just enough to reveal a sparse looking bathroom.

A humming sound brought her attention to a miniature refrigerator that sat under a worn folding table. On the table sat a small TV and a microwave. Next to the table was a simple metal garment rack with a selection of clothes apparently taken from her and Tara's closet. A battered dresser, a simple metal desk, and two office chairs completed the furnishings along the opposite wall.

Next to her bed was a small wooden table with a clock. Right next to other side of the table, and of most importance to Willow, was another bed with Tara resting on it. Tara was lying on her back dressed exactly as Willow last remembered. The slight rise and fall of her chest let Willow know she was alive. She relaxed a fraction with the knowledge that Tara was alive, and she wasn't alone.

Romica noticed her looking at Tara. "She's still under the influence of the potion. I'll bring her out of it soon. Now, the spell will be performed tomorrow night so I expect you to be prepared. There is a folder on the desk; it has a photocopy of the original text of the spell as well as my revised version. Needless to say, you'll be performing the revised version. If you do the original, then anyone within fifty miles who can manage to float a paper clip will be able to feel what happened. I've made many other changes as well."

Willow swallowed hard and started to ask "What if..."

"You refuse, or the spell doesn't work?" he interrupted her. "If the spell isn't performed correctly, then something unfortunate will happen to your friend."

"She'll die?" Willow managed to ask, although she was pretty sure of the answer.

A sinister smile slowly crept across his face. "No. She'll just wish I killed her. However, if all goes well, she gets to go free," he paused to let that sink in. "We understand each other?"

Willow nodded, she understood Romica's threat perfectly well. She only wished he could understand she wasn't exactly perfect with magic.

"Don't worry yourself too much. If you were not capable, I would not have you perform the spell. You will start preparing for it now."

Willow nodded again.

"Good girl." Romica reached out and with a painful grip he grabbed her left forearm. She noticed that there was a solid golden cuff attached tightly to her wrist. "This cuff is a very old toy of mine. There is a barrier around this room that is attuned to it. If you leave the barrier for any reason you'll feel a sharp pain. The longer you are outside, the worse it will get, until finally you pass out. Stay out long enough and it's lethal. Don't even think about escaping. The only time you can leave is when you stay within twenty feet of me and we cross the barrier together."

Romica stood up and walked over to the other bed where he gracefully traced an intricate pattern on Tara's forehead. "She'll come to in a couple of minutes," he said without turning his head. After he spoke, he left the room, revealing a vampire standing guard as the door opened and closed. A bolt clicked into place.

The second he left, Willow sprang from her bed and went to Tara. Tara was still sleeping, but she was starting to stir. While waiting for her to finished waking, Willow examined the cuff, but it was a cold mirror of metallic perfection without a single indication of how it could be removed.

"Willow?" Tara asked sleepily.

The inquiry tore Willow away from the inspection of her cuff. Tara's voice helped to lift her mood a few notches. She bent down and gave her a little hug. "You okay?" she asked with a hopeful smile.

"Fine..." Tara looked around as Willow sat up again. "...I guess. Where are we exactly?"

"Um, that part isn't so good. We're being held prisoner by the guy from our apartment," said Willow.

"Oh. I was really hoping you were going to tell me that part would turn out to be a bad dream."

"Well, you got the bad part right. Not so much with the dreamy part," said Willow.

"What's on your wrist?" Tara reached out and touched the cuff.

"It's the Willow version of the invisible fence," answered Willow. "He said I couldn't leave the room without lots of bad things happening to me."

"Oh." Tara looked around the room and then back at Willow.

"Willow, what do we do?" Tara looked at her expectantly. She appeared confident that Willow would come up with some idea. Only Willow didn't have any ideas. She tried to think of something reassuring to say to Tara.

"You know, this sort of thing seems to happen to me a lot. Just like before, we'll get out here somehow. If we can't think of something, then maybe Buffy or Giles will. Or maybe even Xander, 'cause every once in a while Xander comes up with good ideas. Even if I can't escape, you might be able to..." Willow looked over at the desk. "Oh. It looks like pens, just pens. You'd think there could have been a pencil in the mix. I mean who has a desk with no pencils, vampires, I guess. You could have mechanical pencils too or maybe..."

Willow frowned, her reassuring speech had somehow degenerated into an incoherent babbling about pencils. "Uh, we'll figure something out. I'm sure." Tara didn't look reassured.

"In the meantime, he wants me to do a spell." Willow looked over to the materials Romica had left on the desk. "I guess I should start getting ready."

*****

Spike entered his crypt with his suitcase in hand. As he had expected, Romica was waiting for him.

"Well, I did it. Got Rupert in that bloody building and got your fancy garden gnome." Spike set down his suitcase and opened it. He retrieved the small silver statuette and tossed it to Romica.

Romica gracefully lifted his hand and plucked the statuette from the air. He examined it. "Well, done. Perhaps you'll earn your pay."

"Pay isn't the only thing I'm earning mate," He closed his suitcase and tossed it into a corner of the crypt.

"Our deal still stands. Two weeks."

"Two weeks from the day I left for London," corrected Spike as he took out a cigarette and lit it.

"That was the deal," agreed Romica. "Good trip?"

"Boring," replied Spike. "Good to see the old stomping grounds, but not much fun without the killing and whatnot."

"Don't bother to unpack; you'll be relocating. I don't want the Slayer and her friends interacting with you from now on."

"I'm all for that, but there's my stash of blood I've got at Rupert's. Leaving all this isn't exactly a sacrifice," he gestured around the mostly empty and dusty crypt. "But, gotta have blood."

"You'll have all the blood you need," Romica reassured him.

"Now when I get this surgery, I'm not going to be so keen on not interacting with the Slayer and her band of misfits. I have some scores that need to be settled," said Spike.

"By the time you've had the surgery, the Slayer and her friends will no longer be an issue. Get your luggage. We're going now."

*****
Giles arrived at his apartment with Xander. They had dropped off Spike along the way, which was all very well, since Giles had spent more than enough time with Spike over the last few days. The only thing worse than spending time with Spike was spending time with Spike in the company of Xander. The two of them had spent the entire car ride back from the airport bickering.

The lights in his apartment were on, so apparently someone was there to greet them. Sure enough, opening the door to his apartment revealed Buffy and Riley seated on the couch in the middle of a conversation. They both looked at the door as he came in, and Buffy popped up to greet them. As Riley rose to his feet, Giles noticed that he seemed to be favoring his left ankle.

"Good trip?" asked Buffy.

"Not too bad. Traffic was good, Giles bought me dinner, but Spike was...well, Spike," replied Xander.

Buffy gave Xander a disapproving look. "I was thinking more of the trip to London."

"Rather dull, actually. At least compared to what happened here," said Giles. He put the bag he was carrying onto the kitchen bar, opened it, and pulled out the small silver statuette he had traveled to London to retrieve. "However, it was quite successful."

Buffy regarded the statuette and frowned. "I thought it would be more.....well, more."

"Hey, maybe it would be worth a bundle if we took it on that PBS antique show," suggested Xander.

"It really is quite powerful," assured Giles. "With this I'm sure we can be rid of Callie for good. Speaking of which, are you still having the dreams?"

"And how. She's really getting annoying. Are you going to tell me that she's history now?" asked Buffy hopefully.

"Not tonight, I'm afraid. I still have some research to perform in order to figure out the banishment ritual. I should be ready by tomorrow."

Giles had noticed Riley's limp, but hadn't thought much about it until then. "Did you two encounter something on patrol?"

"Not exactly," said Riley.

"That was from the Willow and Tara vampire thing," mumbled Buffy.

"How are they?" asked Giles. "I trust that there were no lingering effects after the spell wore off."

Buffy's eyes shifted away from him as she spoke. "Uh, I'm not really sure. I haven't exactly talked to her since it all happened. I called, but I just got their machine. Xan?"

"I dropped by their apartment before going to L.A. to see how they were doing. I might add that qualifies as an act of bravery after the last time I dropped by on them here. They weren't there, though."

Giles thought for a moment while fiddling with the statuette. "I wish she had chosen to come by. I would like to discuss the banishment spell with her." He looked at his watch. "Perhaps it's not too late to call."

He dialed and waited, but the answering machine finally picked up. After a very long beep he left a message. "Willow, this is Giles. I need to talk to you about the spell to banish Callie. Please call me back as soon as you can. Don't worry about calling too late." He hung up the phone.

"You don't think she's trying to avoid us?" asked Buffy.

"Out of guilt over what happened? She should know that it wasn't her fault. I'm the one who requested that she and Tara perform the spell," answered Giles.

"No. That's not the way Will is. If she was upset she'd talk to someone, try to make it up to us," said Xander.

"She's got Tara to talk to. She attacked or.." Buffy glanced at Riley and paused "...tricked the rest of us. We know it wasn't really her fault, but maybe she still feels guilty about it."

Giles didn't want to get into a discussion of Willow's emotional state that moment, so he tried to end the topic. "Well, she has no reason to not talk to me. If she doesn't call me back, I'll stop by tomorrow before she goes to work. In the meantime, I'll continue my research."

"So there's nothing to do tonight about Callie?" asked Buffy.

"Uh, no. I guess there really isn't anything to do. I still have quite a bit of research to perform, but you all should feel free to run along. I'll need to wait until at least sunset tomorrow to perform the banishment, but I suppose you don't really need to be there."

"I'll be there," stated Buffy. "I don't want anything to go wrong with getting rid of bad dream demon girl."

"She sounds like pretty bad news from what I've heard," added Riley.

"Yes, well, the more I read the more I realize how fortunate we were that Willow managed to disembody her," said Giles.

"There's really nothing we can do?" asked Buffy.

"Go home," replied Giles gently. Buffy looked exhausted. She could use a night of rest, even if Callie wouldn't let her truly sleep.

As they started to leave, Giles remembered the mansion was nowhere near his apartment. "Xander, could you provide transportation to the mansion tomorrow at sunset?"

"Xander's timely taxi service will be there," said Xander.

"Thank you." Once again, Giles reminded himself he really needed to do something about getting a car. Relying on Xander to transport him around was not at all helping his ego.

"No Problem." Xander headed out the door followed by Buffy and Riley.

Once they had left, Giles picked up the large leather-bound book with the banishment spell and set out to make a good relaxing cup of tea. He settled in a comfortable chair, looking forward to an evening of research without anyone tramping around his apartment. After reading the first couple of pages of the banishment ritual again, he started to wonder if he would even need Willow's help. This looked like something he could handle himself.

*****

Buffy opened her eyes. She was standing in the mansion where Callie had performed the spell to steal her body.

The room was bathed in bright moonlight that gave everything a pale blue hue. Standing in the middle of the moonlit room was Callie, once again in Emily's body. She was dressed in casual clothes this time, wearing blue jeans and a plain gray sweatshirt. It was the first time Buffy had ever seen her in casual attire. Callie just stood there grinning at her.

"So...Monday is casual day for demons?" asked Buffy.

"Well, technically it's Tuesday," said Callie. "Do you even know you've almost lost?"

"If you mean my patience, I'd have to agree with you."

Callie laughed. "I mean the game."

"What is the game exactly? Monopoly, Scrabble, checkers? I'm pretty good at checkers."

Callie gave her a smirk, the corners of Emily Greenwalt's mouth curling contemptuously. "You hate this, don't you? You're the Slayer. You want take action, fight, do something. I like to take action too. Your friend was lucky to stop me the first time around."

"So, are you going to actually have a point coming along anytime soon? Cause this is really getting lame, even by demon standards," retorted Buffy.

"Oh, I just wanted to talk to you one more time. After tonight I won't be able to partake in our friendly chats anymore."

Buffy wondered what Callie was up to. "What happens tomorrow?"

"The beginning of my revenge. My first attempt didn't work out like I had anticipated, but this time I won't leave anything to chance." With that statement Callie vanished.

Buffy stood in the moonlight alone again. She furrowed her brow and thought about what Callie meant by beginning her revenged. Slowly, the room faded away and Buffy fell into a restful slumber. There were no nightmares.

*****

Giles knocked for the third time on the door to Willow and Tara's apartment. There was no answer, and he started to get worried. Willow had never called him back, but he reasoned that they might not have listened to the messages if they had arrived home late. However, he couldn't think of a good reason for them to not be home at a quarter after seven in the morning. Willow would need to be leaving for work before too long, but it should be early enough that she wouldn't have left yet. On a whim, he tried the door. It was unlocked.

He stepped inside and shouted, "Willow! Tara!"

There was no answer.

Something was wrong. A blinking "10" on the answering machine proved that they hadn't picked up their messages, the cat was out of food and water, and the door had been left unlocked. On the other hand, there wasn't any sign of a struggle. Giles decided to investigate some more. He went to a bedroom door and knocked.

After there was no answer, he proceeded to go in. Nothing looked amiss. The bed was even made. The other bedroom was cluttered with boxes and spell-casting supplies, but nothing looked suspicious.

It struck him that he never had seen Willow's computer anywhere. He wondered if they could have just gone on a trip, but that didn't make sense. They certainly wouldn't let the cat run out of food and most of all, they wouldn't leave the door unlocked. Something must have happened to them.

He called Buffy. She needed to know about this.

"Hello?" answered Joyce.

"Hello. This is Giles. I need to speak with Buffy."

"She's asleep. Is it important?" asked Joyce.

"Very."

"Okay, I'll get her," said Joyce sounding worried.

After a pause of a couple of minutes, Buffy got on the line.

"Giles! Mom said something's important." She sounded alert for someone who had just been woken up.

"I believe that Willow and Tara may have been abducted."

"What happened?" She asked.

"Their apartment was unlocked. They aren't here, and there's evidence that they haven't been here for a while."

"It's Callie," said Buffy.

"One would suppose, but you sound quite sure."

"I had a dream last night. She said she was going to get revenge. I thought she meant me," said Buffy.

"But now you think she meant Willow."

"It makes more sense, Willow's the one who forced her out of Emily's body last time. We've got to find them, Giles. I'm on my way over."

******

Buffy stood behind the couch where Xander and Anya were seated. Callie had told her she had almost lost the game, and she was starting to feel like maybe the demon was right. She looked over at Giles who was fiddling with his glasses. Buffy decided someone had to start. "So, no clues?"

Giles shook his head. "Nothing. We might be able to assume that whoever abducted Emily also abducted Willow and Tara, but....." He trailed off.

"Excuse me for being confused, but who the heck is this Emily person?" asked Xander.

Buffy beat Giles to the explanation, "She was the person Callie possessed, the dark-haired woman. She disappeared like a week ago."

"I get it. We find her and we find Willow. So what do we know about Emily's kidnapping?" asked Xander.

Giles frowned. "Um, nothing, actually. We haven't been able to come up with a single clue."

"So our only clue is that it's related to something we have no clue about? Even I know nothing plus nothing still equals nothing," said Xander.

"Maybe you can't find any of them because they're all dead," said Anya.

"No, I don't think that is the case," said Giles, giving Anya a disapproving look. "Whoever took them also took clothes and Willow's computer. They wouldn't do that if they weren't going to keep them alive."

"Not necess...." Anya stopped as Xander placed a hand on her leg and shook his head gently.

"Giles is right. Plus, there was what Callie said in my dream. She said she was going to get revenge. I think she might have meant revenge on Willow. She might try forcing Willow and Tara to put her back in Emily's body. It would explain why all of them are missing," said Buffy.

"From everything I've read, the spell to bind her to a body can't be performed unless there is a full moon." Giles paused and though about it some more. "That's still two and half weeks from now."

"I'm thinking I don't care. How about we just find them?" asked Xander.

Buffy thought for a moment before saying anything. "I'll check with Spike. He was supposed to be finding information about Callie. If he doesn't have anything, I'll think of something else to check." She turned to Giles. "Can you do banishment without Willow?"

Giles nodded. "I believe so, the spell doesn't require a witch."

"Then tonight we banish Callie just like we planned. Getting her out of the way can't be anything but good," said Buffy.

"Anything I can do?" asked Xander. "I have to go to work soon, but friends in danger are way ahead on the priority scale."

Buffy shook her head. "We don't even know where to start looking yet. Go ahead and go to work."

Xander didn't look happy about it, but he nodded in agreement.

"I'll see if there is anything in the way of magic that can be done to help find them. Perhaps a personal article could be used to perform some sort of location spell," suggested Giles.

"Good idea," said Buffy. "Let's get moving."

*****

Willow was lying face-down on one of the beds in the room where she and Tara were being held. As she looked over the spell Romica had left, Tara massaged her shoulders. The massage felt good against her tensed muscles, but wasn't doing much to help her relax.

"Don't you think you're ready yet? We've already gone over it together three times," asked Tara.

"Better safe than sorry," replied Willow. "Or dead," she added in a worried tone. "Besides, it's a complicated spell."

"Yeah, I noticed that too. He made a lot of changes to the original spell."

Willow had certainly noticed all the changes, and every single one of them irritated her. "What's with that, anyhow? It's one thing to tinker with a spell a little bit, but you don't just take some ancient spell and rewrite almost all of it, I mean . It's just....wrong."

"You're really tense," said Tara as she continued to massage Willow's shoulders.

"Well, I'm being held prisoner by a vampire, go figure," said Willow. She immediately regretting snapping at Tara, and sighed as she turned over onto her back. In much more gentle voice she apologized. "Sorry. He said he'd hurt you if I don't get the spell right."

"Oh," said Tara. She placed a hand on Willow's stomach and looked into her eyes. "I know you'll get it right," she said with complete confidence.

Willow placed her hand over Tara's and looked intently into her eyes. Tara's confidence in her was very touching. She lifted a hand to stroke Tara's hair. Tara returned the gesture with a slow smile.

A knock on the door startled them. Immediately after the knock, the dead bolt clicked open, and Romica walked a couple of feet into the room. He was dressed in his usual suit, but he had dispensed with the jacket, and the sleeves of his shirt were rolled up. His pale forearms were covered in a web of tattooed symbols.

"It's time," he stated.

Both Willow and Tara stood and started toward the door.

"I only need Willow," said Romica.

Willow looked at Tara briefly and then back at Romica, "B...but she can help me."

"She isn't needed."

Willow turned and took Tara's hand unsure if she would ever she her again, for that matter unsure if she'd see anyone again. She wanted to say something, but not with Romica standing there so she just looked deeply into Tara's eyes for a moment and then moved in for a kiss.

"Now," said Romica impatiently.

Willow let the kiss linger for second or two longer and then pulled away to leave with Romica.

As they went into the hallway, she took note that there were two vampires guarding the door to room she was being kept in. As they continued to walk down the hallway, she spoke up to Romica. "I'll need supplies." Her voice sounded meeker than she had intended.

"Everything is prepared," said Romica.

"What does it do exactly?" asked Willow.

"Your task is to cast the spell. I've already given you all the information you need to do so. No more questions."

Romica opened a door, and they entered a small dark room. As they crossed into the room, Romica said something too softly for Willow to hear. Suddenly a multitude of candles set around the room lit all by themselves, showering them in flickering light. Romica closed the door behind them.

"Hey, how can you light that many..." Willow's voice trailed off after a warning look from Romica. Obviously, he'd been serious about not asking questions. Instead, she looked around the room. Part of the room was curtained off by heavy black drapes. In the part that was visible, there was a table with variety of mystic supplies, old leather-bound books, and photocopied paper. There were some office chairs scattered about the room as well. Altogether, the room was an odd contrast of modern office furniture and arcane spell casting materials.

Willow went over to the table to start preparing the spell. She noticed a small silver statuette on the table just like the one Giles had gone to London to retrieve. The spell had mentioned a statue, and she'd wondered if that was the statue it referred to.

"I'll watch and make sure you cast the spell correctly, there will be consequences for any deviations. Begin," commanded Romica. He proceeded to stand directly behind her.

Romica's looming presence didn't do much to relax Willow. She could feel the weight of his gaze upon her every movement. But she took a deep breath and decided to regard the whole experience like an exam. It was an exam of sorts, just with life and death consequences and a vampire for the instructor.

The spell was complex, but Romica was actually helpful. He drew some of the arcane symbols that the spell required, although they were drawn with a viscous red liquid that Willow didn't really want to think about too much. He also clarified some of the more obscure aspects of the ritual. By the time it was over, Willow had no idea how long the whole process had taken. All she knew was that she was exhausted. She leaned back against the wall and ran a hand over her sweat-dampened forehead and closed her eyes.

She heard a rustle of thick fabric, and the drapes concealing the other half of the room parted. She opened her eyes to see a woman walk out from the curtains and smile at her. She was the young, dark-haired woman that she had first seen Callie possess.

"Hello there Willow the witch, so good to met you again," the woman said to her. "We'll talk later."

Willow was too tired to react. The woman left the room with Romica.

*****

Romica closed the door to the room and looked at Callie in her new body. It was an attractive body; maybe even more attractive than the last time they had been together, some four hundred years ago. Back when he had been alive.

"So I'm actually a vampire?" asked Callie.

Romica laughed. "You'll get used to it. Besides you're not really a vampire, just something like a vampire. It was my only choice aside from banishing and resummoning. I modified the binding spell to let you enter the vampire's body instead of the normal animating demon. You should still have most of your powers, enthrallment, invulnerability, and so forth. However, you'll need to feed as a vampire to regain your strength."

"Hmm," said Callie. "Well, it will take some getting used to. Better than getting banished, though. So how'd you get her to do the spell?"

Romica shrugged. "Usual way. I threatened to hurt her girlfriend if she didn't perform the spell. Told her I'd let her friend go if she did."

Callie smirked. "Are you actually going to do that?"

Romica rolled his eyes. "Of course not. I'll use the same threat to make her perform the next spell, and then I'll drain them both. What are you up to? It isn't like you to waste time on this sort of trivia."

"New plans, you keep your promise to Willow." Callie grinned. Romica wondered how, in a completely different body, she could manage to have exactly the same grin she always wore when she knew she was irritating him.

"Why?" he asked in exasperation.

"She has a lot of potential. I'm going to make her into a little project. It's sort of my hobby; you of all people should know that."

Romica sighed. "You're only doing this because she beat you once. Isn't killing her good enough?"

"Since when could you change my mind, Rom?" she asked right back.

He hated being called 'Rom', and Callie knew it. He glared at her.

Callie smiled at him warmly. She took him by the shoulder and turned him to face her squarely. Then, she placed a hand behind his head and tilted his head down to engage him in a deep kiss. It was the kind of kiss that promised more to follow. Romica tried to say something after she pulled back, but found himself speechless, a condition he was not used to. He finally managed to get something out, "I...I...."

Callie placed a finger on his mouth. "Shhh. We can finally be everything you wanted when you were human. Now keep your promise to my witch, and then come see me. I'm finding the idea of being with a vampire not nearly so distasteful when I'm something close to a vampire too."

Romica stared as she walked off. Bringing back Callie in the body of a vampire was working out even better than he had hoped.

*****

As twilight slowly gave way to dark, Giles lit the last candle in the circle that had been drawn on the mansion floor. Buffy and Xander stood safely out of range at the edge of the room, watching the procedure in the flickering candle light.

Giles consulted his book again for the next step of the spell. After carefully reading twice, he recited a small incantation, lightly brushed a powder onto the silver statuette and placed it in the center of the circle. A few adjustments were needed, but he managed to get the statuette perfectly aligned. He carefully read another incantation from the book and looked at the statuette expectantly, waiting for the gem to start glowing just like the book had said it would.

The statuette did nothing.

Obviously he had read the incantation incorrectly, so he read the incantation again. The statuette continued to do nothing. It just sat there, stubbornly not glowing. Giles started flipping pages and reviewing the earlier part of the spell. Perhaps he had used too many candles, he started to count the number of candles in the circle to make sure the number was correct.

"I'm not magic guy, but I'm going to say it's not working," said Xander.

"I...I don't understand. Everything is in perfect order," said Giles as he continued to consult the book.

"Do we need to find Willow to do the spell?" asked Buffy.

Giles gave her a look. "She would have had no more success. The spell should have worked."

"Maybe we can try again," suggested Buffy.

"Oh, what's the use? I'd only do the spell exactly the same." Giles slammed the book shut. "Perhaps I need to research some more, find another spell."

"So, is that just a defective book of spells? Cause I'm thinking there should be recalls for that sort of thing." said Xander.

"Well, the spell certainly does not appear to work. In any event, we won't be banishing Callie tonight," said Giles.

*****

Xander had just come to a stop onto the driveway to Buffy's house, when Joyce came out of the house to greet them. She seemed worried and excited at the same time. Buffy jumped out of the car to go talk to her mother.

"Buffy, Tara is here," her mother told Buffy.

Buffy gestured for Xander and Giles to follow as she went with her mother back into the house.

"When? Was Willow with her?" asked Buffy.

"She showed up alone about fifteen minutes ago," Joyce explained. "She can tell you a lot more than I can."

They hurried into the living room. Tara was sitting on the couch, holding an ice pack to her head and nursing a cup of hot chocolate. Despite her obvious exhaustion, she look troubled.

"What happened? Where's Willow?" asked Buffy hurriedly.

"I don't know where Willow is," said Tara.

Xander and Giles came into the room as Tara made her reply. Tara gave them a weak smile. Buffy frowned, she had hoped that Tara's appearance would at least provide a hint of where her best friend was being held. "What happened?" she asked.

Tara looked at everyone and swallowed before speaking, "It was that morning we left here, after..." She looked lost trying to find words.

Buffy prodded her on. "We know. What happened that morning."

"He was waiting for us in our apartment. He...He had some sort of potion that..."

"Who is this guy?" asked Xander.

"Ro..Romica. He didn't give us a last name. Willow said he was a va... vampire," replied Tara.

"How did he get into your apartment without an invitation? Did you meet him before?" asked Buffy.

"I...I never saw him before," replied Tara.

"Where did he take you?" asked Xander.

"How did you get away?" asked Buffy.

Tara just looked down at her lap and struggled to get out a reply.

"I think we should just let her tell us her story and ask questions afterwards," interjected Giles.

Buffy and Xander both backed away from Tara. Tara looked up, took a breath and continued, "H..he had a potion that knocked us out. When I came to, we were in a room, sort of like a hotel room, only not."

Buffy started to ask a question, but Giles shot her a look. She clicked her mouth shut without saying anything.

"He had Willow do some sort of spell that he had modified himself. I don't know what it did for sure, but it used a statuette, probably like that one Mr. Giles and Spike got from London." She stopped and took another deep breath. "He took Willow with him to perform the spell and left me in the room. Later, some other vampires came in, and one of them hit me on the head. The next thing I remember is waking up here. Oh, he also put some thick gold bracelet on Willow's wrist. He told her it would keep her from escaping, and we couldn't figure out any way to take it off."

At this point Joyce added, "I heard a knock at the door. When I opened it, she was there in front of the door. I never saw who left her."

"Do you know where you were being kept?" asked Giles.

Tara shook her head.

"Did you see Willow aft..." The phone ringing interrupted Buffy. Joyce got up to answer it. "..after she did the spell?"

Tara shook her head again.

"Hello?" answered Joyce. She took the handle away from her ear and indicated the call was for Tara. "Tara, it's Willow. She wants to talk to you."

Tara sprang up and grabbed the phone. Everyone else moved in closer, hoping to hear a bit of the conversation.

"Willow?" asked Tara.

She paused for a moment, and then replied, "Um, yeah, I'm okay. What..." Tara pulled the handle away and looked at it, disappointed. "Disconnected."

Joyce took the handle from Tara and hung up the phone.

"So he wanted Willow to know you were okay," surmised Buffy.

"That's good," said Giles. "It means we still have some time."

"That's all good, but we still don't have a clue where to look." said Buffy.

"No," said Giles. "But we have a name."

*****

Romica plucked the cell phone from Willow's hands and hung up on Tara. Willow was relived to hear Tara say she was okay and safely at Buffy's house. She'd worried that the phone call might be a trick, but Romica had allowed her to dial the number herself. Besides, she'd recognized Joyce and Tara's voices. If it was a trick, it was an elaborate one.

"Just as I promised, your friend was set free," said Romica. "I have one more spell for you to perform, then I'll let you go free as well." He stood up and started to walk off.

"I could use some food," said Willow. She was getting very hungry. She and Tara had eaten the last of the sandwiches stocked in the mini-fridge for lunch, and performing the spell had taken a lot of energy.

Romica looked at her and frowned. "Very well, I'll have something arranged." He turned and left. The dead bolt of the door clicked shut, and she was alone.

The room was depressingly quiet. She was glad Tara was safe, but she missed her. Being brave had been much easier when Tara was there, counting on Willow to keep her safe. She looked at the TV and wondered if there was anything interesting playing on a Tuesday night. Even some artificial noise would help to calm her nerves.

As she was heading toward the TV, someone knocked at the door. She waited and soon heard the familiar sound of the lock clicking open. It wasn't Romica who walked in, however.

Her visitor was a much shorter man who was probably all of an inch taller than herself. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a comfortable looking earth-tone polo shirt. Although he was thin, he looked kind of flabby and out of shape. A goatee covered his chin, and his long dark hair was tied back into a ponytail.

He introduced himself. "Hey, I'm Calvin. Romica told me that you might want something to eat, and I'm ordering some Chinese." He waved a piece of paper in his right hand as he walked over to her.

She took the menu from his hand and looked it over quickly. "Sweet and sour chicken," she said, and handed the menu back to him without meeting his eyes. At least he probably wasn't a vampire if he was ordering out for real food.

"Look, I know you're not here by choice. But that's Romica's doing. I just do computer work for him." He smiled weakly at her.

"Willow," she said.

"Willow?"

"That's my name," she said, and made eye contact.

He smiled. "I'll be back soon, bearing small white boxes," He waved the menu to make his point. "Okay?"

"Okay."

He gave her a parting glance and left the room. She looked after him and considered how to use this new development to her advantage.

*****

Giles looked again at the book in his hands and cursed softly. It was a chronicle of a watcher who lived two hundred years ago. He reread the passage for the third time -- everything fit except for one vital piece of information. He set the book down and looked around the room. Xander, Buffy, and Tara were all still looking through various books he had suggested. None of them appeared to be making any discoveries. Perhaps this was the best they were going to do.

"I'm not sure, but I have found one account of a vampire that sounds very much like Willow and Tara's abductor," he said. Everyone looked at him.

"Well?" prodded Xander.

"Romica Isarescu, a vampire from Romania. Actually, there is more information about him as a sorcerer than as a vampire, but he became a vampire some four hundred years ago," Giles said.

"He's old," said Buffy.

"He was also a very powerful sorcerer in his time. He was quite famous in the mystic world for nearly two hundred and fifty years before becoming a vampire. I have at least one book that was originally written by him, in fact."

"Two hundred and fifty, I'm thinking that's not just a diet high in fiber," said Xander.

Tara made a suggestion. "A pact with a demon?"

"Exactly," said Giles. "he was associated with a particular demon."

"I'll bet I can guess which one," said Buffy, setting down her book.

"The description does match Callie. Apparently she corrupted him and somehow granted him a form of immortality. He was not known for being morally corrupt before meeting the demon, but he was afterwards. The Council had several encounters with him and the demon. They were apparently plotting something ominous, although the actual details were never discovered. About four hundred years ago, some members of the Council stole the statuette from Romica. Apparently, the gem in the statuette is from Callie's dimension and gives the caster of the spell some power over her. The Council used the statuette to banish Callie, and Romica disappeared. He then resurfaced a few years later as a vampire."

"A vampire who's also a sorcerer? That's just not fair," said Xander.

"You said this guy has dealt with the Council? Has he met a Slayer before?" asked Buffy.

"Yes, there are accounts of him encountering three slayers. Um, he killed two," replied Giles.

"Not liking that fact, but what happened to the third?" asked Buffy.

"That's the interesting part. According to the records, she slayed him. The date puts it about two hundred years ago."

"Okay, if this is the same guy, then that must have been some pretty lame slayage," said Xander.

"The account isn't very specific. It just indicates that he was staked and dusted."

"He was a sorcerer, though. Maybe he fooled them and escaped," suggested Buffy.

"That does seem to be the most logical conclusion. While vampires are not known for ability in the mystic arts, Romica was a very powerful sorcerer as a human. Even with his powers muted, he might still possess formidable abilities. I do wish there was more information available on the subject."

"Great, so not only do we have Callie, who we can't banish for some reason. We have a multi-talented, Slayer-killing vampire in town working for her," complained Buffy.

"So now that we know who has Will, how exactly does that help us find her?" asked Xander.

They all looked at each other. Nobody had an answer.

*****

Willow looked at the clock next to her bed. It read five in the morning, and Calvin was still talking. She hoped the rest of her plan would come together, because frankly, she was getting more than a little tired of listening to him. Yet there he was, seated at the end of her bed, talking away, while she sat at the head of the bed, propped against the wall.

Calvin had come back with the Chinese food as promised, and she'd asked him to eat with her. She'd told him she was lonely, but her true motive was to get information out of him. Getting Calvin to talk was easy - it was shutting him up that was hard. He was eager to talk about himself, the important work he did for Romica, and the amount of money he got paid for it. All Willow had to do was look interested and occasionally gush, "How interesting!"

She didn't learn a lot. He had come out to Sunnydale about a week ago with Romica and the 'forward team', as he put it. They'd found this building available for commercial lease and had moved in almost immediately. Most of what he talked about was past work he had done for Romica, or at least the parts that involved breaking into computer systems. She gathered that a lot of his work was fairly mundane as well, but he didn't talk much about that aspect of the job. He seemed to think that working for a vampire made him more interesting as well, but Willow managed to keep her distaste about that opinion in check. Or at least Calvin didn't notice it as he went on talking and trying to impress her.

She had been thinking about what little Calvin had revealed when she noticed he was looking at her expectantly.

"Huh?" asked Willow. She had tuned Calvin out as he talked about his new Porsche. She'd been doing a lot of tuning out despite her efforts to look interested. God, he must think I'm an airhead, she thought to herself.

"The time", he said. "It's getting really late. I've got a lot to do tomorrow. I mean today. Tomorrow night I'm going to break into some shipping company's records and get rid of some info Romica wants erased. Should be fun."

"Oh, that sounds so interesting!" Willow gushed. It was hard to work up a good gush. She was tired, and Calvin really wasn't all that interesting. However, a new idea was formulating in her head. "I wish I could watch you do it."

"I guess I could bring over my laptop." He glanced over a small socket in the wall. "All these rooms were wired from when they were used as offices."

"Yeah, looks like 10baseT," observed Willow.

"What?" asked Calvin.

Willow realized she had let something technical slip out. "10 by three, you mentioned it earlier."

"Oh, it's called 10baseT. But yeah, you can watch. It'll be more fun than doing it by myself," Calvin said. "I've got other stuff to do during the day, but I can bring by some dinner like I did tonight."

"'Kay. Sounds like fun." Willow yawned. Partly on purpose, but she really was very tired. "I think I need to get some sleep."

Calvin stood up sort of awkwardly as his right foot sort of gave way. Apparently it had fallen asleep. "Okay, I'll see you tomorrow. Um, how about pizza?"

"Pizza's good."

"Pepperoni?" asked Calvin.

"Fine."

"Okay, see ya then," he said.

"Okay. It'll be fun."

Calvin walked to the door and she went with him. "Well, it's been fun talking to you," he said as he opened the door.

"Yeah, me too. The talking thing was fun." She gave him a weak smile.

"Um, see you tomorrow, then?"

"Yup."

He finally went through the door and closed it. Willow leaned against the door and sighed in relief. She then realized the dead bolt had never clicked shut. She tried the door and found it was indeed unlocked. After opening the door and finding no vampires there to object, she leaned her head out to look around. The hallway was empty. She leaned back in and took a good look at the cuff on her wrist. Slowly, she extended her arm past the threshold of the door.

Pain exploded through her. It was like someone had poured red-hot magma through her veins; every part of her body screamed out in horrifying agony. She collapsed instantly and curled into a ball, the instinctive action bringing her cuffed wrist back past the threshold. As quickly as the pain had erupted into her, it now disappeared. She just lay there for a while, gasping. After she felt assured that she was indeed okay, she stood up and closed the door. There wasn't going to be any escaping with the cuff still on.

She threw away the remnants of dinner, taking care to not throw out the pair of chopsticks she had carefully put aside. She broke off the ends of the chopsticks that and felt satisfied they were suitably sharp. Maybe she couldn't escape, but having something wooden and pointed made her feel better.

She hid the chopsticks under the mattress of her bed, wondering what would happen even if she could manage to use one on Romica. Could she ever get the cuff off? Just thinking of the pain it caused made her shudder. No, she would need help from Buffy and the others to get out of here. If all went well tomorrow night, she should get a chance to contact them. She continued to think over her plan as she changed into her pajamas and prepared to finally go to sleep.

*****

"Get up." The words sounded distant. Distant enough that Willow concluded they couldn't apply to her, so she rolled her head away from the sound in the hope that it would go away.

Someone ripped the blanket and sheet off the bed, and the words came thundering in again. "Get up now!"

Willow blinked her eyes open to see Romica looming over her. From his voice she was expecting him to look angry. Instead, he look vaguely amused.

She looked over at the clock. It read 6:30 A.M.. "Wh...What?" she asked hauling herself into a sitting position.

"I need you to look at something," he said. His gaze moved down and then back up to her face. "Those are remarkable pajamas by the way."

She looked down at herself and frowned. She was wearing her purple cow-spotted pajamas. She'd always thought of them as cute, rather than remarkable in some way. Why did she care what he thought of her pajamas anyway? It was way too early for this.

Romica sat down next to her and presented her with a palm-sized computer. It was a top-end Hewlett-Packard model with a crisp color display.

"You want me to look at this?" she asked in disbelief.

"Read what's on the screen. Tell me if it looks familiar."

She looked and tried to concentrate. It was a spell. The software was custom-made for displaying and organizing spells. She wished she had time to write something like this; it would be handy to carry around a memory card and a palmtop instead of a bunch of books.

Her eyes widened when she started to recognize the spell. "Oh."

"You recognize it, then?"

"Well, parts of it. I know I haven't seen this thingy before." She pointed to a drawing of a rod entwined by the semblance of a dragon.

"Thingy?" asked Romica.

"But parts of it are the same as the curse," she said.

"Then Callie was right about the vampire with a soul. Interesting."

Willow turned to look at him. "You know about that?"

"She does. Memories from your friend the Slayer. She said you cast the spell to restore his soul."

She noticed that Romica wasn't looking at her face when he talked to her. He was looking at her neck. "Heeey, why are you looking at my neck?" she asked, jumping back from him.

Romica shook his head as if he was clearing away thoughts. "It wasn't intentional. I'm a little hungry."

"Well, go get a snack or something, 'cause that really creeps me out."

His lips parted in an disturbingly feral smile. "Yes, I imagine it would," he said. "I want to know exactly what is different between that spell and the one you cast."

"It's been a while. I don't remember every detail."

"Where is the other spell written down? You would still have it."

"Uh, I'm not sure where it is," she said. It didn't sound very convincing, even to her.

"Don't be ridiculous," he snapped. "You would have to be a fool to lose that spell. One way or another, you will tell me where it is."

"Fine. I have it on my computer." She had it a few other places as well, but she wasn't telling him that.

"I'll return shortly." He stood up and smiled. "And I'll get a snack. Do you require anything?"

"Coffee would be nice, maybe something to eat."

"It will be arranged." He took the palmtop back from her and walked out of the room without another word.

*****

True to his word, Romica returned in a few minutes with a large thermal mug in one hand, and Willow's laptop computer under his other arm. He put both down at the desk and gestured for her to come over as he sat down. There were two chairs in front of the desk, so she pulled up the other one in front of her computer. She reached for the mug that she assumed had her coffee. She really could use a little caffeine.

"Ahem," Romica cleared his throat. "That's my drink. Yours will be brought shortly."

"Oh. Ewwww!" She jerked her hand away from the mug. "Definitely not wanting a swig of pig's blood."

"Pig's blood?"

"Oh God, that's..." started Willow.

Romica nodded.

"Okay, that creeps me out too," she said.

"Would you rather I snack on something else?"

"Can we just pretend it's pig's blood?"

"Whatever you like. Now I want to see that spell."

"On it." She located the spell on her computer and displayed it. Romica pulled his chair closer to look at the screen. She scooted her chair a little to get further away from him.

He looked intently and started paging around the text of the spell for a little while as Willow just looked on. Finally he broke the silence, "I can see where the original spell has been altered. When you cast it, did you feel something like possession?"

"Uh, well, yeah. You can tell that just by skimming through it?"

"Give yourself a few more decades and you will be able to as well. You have some talent."

Willow smiled at the compliment. "You're not just saying that?"

He didn't look away from the screen as he replied, "What reason would I have to just say that?"

"So, just some talent, or like, a lot of talent?"

He gave her quick glare and looked back at the screen.

"Okay, staying quiet now." She pressed her lips shut.

Someone knocked at the door, and Romica shouted, "Come in!"

A vampire came in with a large paper cup of coffee and a bag with a half-dozen doughnuts. He deposited the two items in front of Willow and promptly left the room. Romica didn't pay any attention to him at all. Willow took a few sips of coffee and started in on a jelly donut from the bag.

"Ah, here is where they turned it into a curse, clever. But not so cleverly tied to a single vampire through the victim, that explains the possession," said Romica.

Willow squinted and looked where Romica appeared to indicate. "Really? Explains it how?"

Romica went into full lecture mode and showed her where various parts of the spell were invoked in the text. He kept referring to the original spell, but refused to answer any questions she had about the original spell. She had to admit to being fascinated by all his explanations. He really did know his stuff. Two hours passed while they discussed the spell.

Finally he shut down the computer and closed it. "That's enough for now." He looked at her for a moment, then placed his cold hand under her chin, tilting her head upwards. Hating the feel of his hand on her, Willow jerked her head away.

"It's unfortunate that circumstances couldn't be different. You would make a good pupil," said Romica.

"Um, speaking of circumstances, what's going to happen to me?"

"You will perform one more spell for me. Then I'll let you go, just like I did with your friend."

"What spell, exactly?" asked Willow nervously.

Romica shook his head. "All in good time. Right now you don't need to know." He turned to leave the room.

Willow spoke up before he could leave, "I can't sleep."

He stopped and turned to look at her.

"You know, being in a building full of vampires, kinda unnerving. Could I maybe get some sleeping pills to help?"

Romica thought over her request for moment. For the first time since waking up, Willow was glad to have only gotten one hour of sleep. She could only imagine how tired she must look.

"One dose, no more," he stated and turned to leave again.

"Thanks."

He didn't acknowledge her thanks; he just left the room and slid the bolt shut.

Willow climbed in bed and pulled the blanket over her, hoping to get more than an hour of sleep. Her head was still buzzing with her plan, with the things Romica had shown her, and with countless thoughts about magic. But eventually her thoughts drifted away, and sleep overcame her.

*****

Giles looked over his shoulder to greet Buffy as she walked into his apartment. He was seated on the couch, reading a book.

"Any luck?" he asked without much enthusiasm.

Buffy slumped onto the couch next to him. "Nothing," she answered. "I've looked in every bad guy hangout I could think of and nothing. Just one ordinary lame vamp, but no sign of this Romica guy."

"We will find her."

"What if she isn't even alive anymore? God, I was kind of a bitch the last time I saw her. What if I never see her again?"

Giles put an arm around her shoulder in a show of support. "It wasn't your fault; it was that spell I had her cast with Tara. And there is no reason to suppose that she isn't alive."

"You're right. This guy has to surface sometime. And now the police are looking for her too. I told her parents she was missing this morning."

"That must have been difficult," Giles said.

"Yeah, it definitely fell into the 'things that suck' category. Willow's family isn't exactly close, but they still freaked in a major sort of way. Guess I can understand that."

"How is Tara doing?"

"Well, she's pretty worried too, but she keeps to herself. You wouldn't even know she's in the house. Mom isn't real fond of the cat, but Tara hardly comes out of the guest room," Buffy paused. "She'll be here for the meeting, though. Xander and Anya came over so she wouldn't be alone while Riley and I went hunting for vamp hideouts. She'll come over with them. Oh, Riley will be over too. The fight with the vamp got him a little muddy. A lot muddy, actually."

Buffy looked at the pile of books in front of Giles. "Did you find anything in all that?"

"Nothing useful in the immediate sense, but I did find some more information on Romica."

"Better than I did."

The door opened, and Xander, Anya and Tara walked into the apartment.

"Any news?" asked Xander.

Buffy shook her head.

"So, does that mean we can go now?" asked Anya.

Buffy glared at her. Anya sighed and took a seat on a barstool. Tara walked over to a chair in the living room and sat down. She folded her arms and lowered her head, looking tired and miserable. Buffy turned her attention back to Anya.

"Hey, Anya, have you ever heard of this Romica guy?" asked Buffy. Everyone turned to look at Anya.

Xander shook his head. "Believe or not, I already thought of that. Same stuff Giles already told us."

"Not all the same stuff. I told you he was sort of a homicidal sociopath even before he became a vampire," said Anya.

Xander winced and turned to her. "Remember how we weren't going to mention that? Giles said he was pretty much black hat before vamping."

Buffy glanced at Tara, but couldn't detect any change. "Well, Giles found out a little more information about Romica."

Giles shifted uncomfortably, "It's nothing that will help us right now, I'm afraid. But I found a reference to some additional information about what Callie and Romica were working on some four hundred years ago. It seems that they were trying to acquire five particular stones."

"I'm going to go out on a limb and say these aren't..." Xander was interrupted by a knock at the door. Since he was the only one standing, he walked over and opened it to reveal Riley.

"Sorry I'm late. Had to clean up," explained Riley. "Did I miss anything?"

"We were talking about rocks," offered Anya.

Giles shot her a glare. "I was explaining that Callie and Romica were trying to collect five particular stones. The stones have a series of carvings and are reported to have potent mystic properties. I think I may be able to track down someone who can tell me more. However, I must admit the prospects of anything useful coming out of this are somewhat suspect."

"But it's all we have," said Buffy.

The room fell into silence.

"Well, maybe Willow will figure out a way to contact us. She can be pretty resourceful," suggested Xander, in an attempt to lighten the mood.

Something clicked in Buffy's head. "A computer. Giles said they took her computer."

"I have an e-mail account with the school." Tara spoke for the first time. "I've only used it a couple of times."

"I have one too," said Riley. "I read mine last night and there wasn't anything, but we should check more often."

"Could you bring your computer over to my house?" asked Buffy. "That way Tara could check while we patrol."

"Consider it done," said Riley.

"Good. Let's do that now." Buffy found herself just glad to have something to do besides sit around.

"I'll see if I can find out anything else about Callie and Romica. Perhaps looking into the history of these stones and their present location will turn up some sort of clue."

Xander looked around, unsure. "I guess we'll help book guy here."

Neither Anya or Giles looked happy about that suggestion, but Giles didn't protest, and a glance from Xander kept Anya silent.

*****

Spike looked into another room of Romica's building in an attempt to alleviate his boredom. He had thought about just ignoring Romica's demand to stay inside, but the prospect of getting his chip removed was too tempting to risk.

He opened the door and saw Romica seated at a table, with a wide variety of containers scattered about him. The containers held a rainbow of liquids and powers. Romica was grinding some sweet-smelling leaves with a mortar and pestle.

"What's that you're doing?" asked Spike.

"Preparing a very useful potion. It renders humans unconscious but has no effect on vampires. Unfortunately, it has a very short shelf-life."

"Useful," agreed Spike.

Romica took a pinch of the crushed material from the mortar and dropped it into a bottle of clear liquid, which he quickly corked. The liquid inside the bottle fizzled for a moment before turning a vibrant shade of green.

"Very. Did you want something?" Romica asked as he placed the bottle onto a shelf.

"Yeah. When is something gonna happen? Got a case of cabin fever."

"We had a deal. Two weeks."

"Right, two weeks. That's a long time to wait around doing nothing, mate. Not even so much as a telly to pass the time," complained Spike.

"A television could be arranged. Actually, I'm not sure that Willow even uses the one she has."

Spike raised an eyebrow. "You've got Willow locked away somewhere here?"

"More than locked away. I placed a mystic device on her that inflicts a severe amount of pain if she tries to leave the room. Very effective item."

Spike smirked. "Regardless, that ought to get the Slayer in a snit. Wish I could see that."

"Spike, I have more important matters to attend to than the Slayer. I need the witch to perform a spell."

"Yeah, well, kidnapping her best friend. Good move for avoiding the Slayer, that."

"Spike, I don't have...." He trailed off as one of Romica's lackeys escorted a middle-aged man in a dark blue suit into the room.

The man in the suit extended his hand. "Carl Gustov."

Romica shook hands with him. "Romica. Did you bring it?"

Carl nodded. "Yeah, I brought it. Do you have my money?"

Romica addressed the vampire. "Matthew, take Mr. Gustov to my office." He turned to Carl. "We can complete the transaction there. I will join you shortly."

Spike noticed Romica's eyes as he spoke to middle-aged man. They held an intense glint that faded when he looked at his lackey. The look was familiar.

"Just a guess, but Carl there isn't going to be walking out of this building," said Spike once the other two had left.

"You're correct. But what makes you say that? I wouldn't be in the business world very long if I killed everyone I dealt with."

"Way you looked at him."

"Perhaps I should pay more attention to that in the future." Romica left the room to attend to Carl.

"Same way you look at me, mate" muttered Spike quietly to himself.

******

Calvin arrived at her room at just about 9:30 with the promised pizza and a laptop bag slung onto his shoulder. "Sorry, it got so late. Really busy day," he explained when Willow opened the door.

"It's okay."

He strode into the room and set down the laptop bag on the desk. Then he pulled a couple of paper plates and some napkins from it. "Not exactly fancy, but better than nothing. How about eating first and hacking later? Wouldn't want the pizza to get cold."

"Sounds good to me," Willow replied.

They ate and Calvin talked about himself some more, but Willow didn't really pay much attention.

"What about a drink?" she asked. "I've got some drinks in the fridge there."

"Sure," answered Calvin.

Willow went over to the fridge. "Not much selection. I used to get soft drinks. Now it's just fruit juice, for some reason." She grabbed the bottle of juice she had set aside earlier. She shook it and then grabbed another juice and shook it as well. She twisted off the unsealed cap to the first bottle and gave it to Calvin. "Hope orange-pineapple is okay."

"It'll be fine." He took the bottle and downed a swig. He gave her a funny look. "Is there something wrong?"

Willow realized she had been staring at him while he drank, "Oh...uh, no, nothing wrong. Definitely no wrongness." Calvin gave her a puzzled look and then shook it off. He went back to eating pizza and talking about hacking. She prodded him on with a few questions to keep him going longer.

It was about eleven when he finally pulled out his slim laptop computer and hooked it into the network port. Willow sat down in the other chair and watched. She didn't have to pretend much to look interested, since she was sort of curious to see if Calvin really knew what he was doing. He started the computer and logged into the network. Then he brought up a telnet program and began his assault.

"I already scouted out their server. They're running an old version of sendmail. Um, that's a program that does mail." He looked at her to see if she understood.

"I know..." Willow realized she shouldn't know "... about e-mail. I even sent one once."

Calvin sighed. "Anyway, I'm going to pretend to be another mail server." He brought up another window and started typing commands into it. Soon, prompts appeared that Willow recognized as the shipping company's e-mail server trying to communicate with another e-mail server.

"It thinks it's talking to another computer, but instead it's talking to me." Calvin paused for a big yawn, and then started typing in responses. "I'm going to give it some instructions that will make it mail me a file with all the passwords." He continued to type. Willow knew about the technique; apparently the shipping company was pretty lax about updating its software to prevent security holes.

After a little bit more work, Calvin smiled. "There it goes. Now I just open my e-mail and run the password file through a program that will decrypt it and I'm in. Actually, there's a really fast computer that I'll use to decrypt it back in Chicago, but I can use that computer from right here. It will still take a little bit a time." He yawned again. "Man, am I getting tired."

Willow realized she should say something. "Wow, you made it look so easy."

"I'm pretty good at this stuff," he remarked while logging into the Chicago computer and starting the password decrypting program. "Breaking in will probably be easier than making sure all the proper records are erased."

After a couple of minutes, Calvin nodded his head and jerked himself awake. Willow decided it was time to make her move. "Hey, how about a break while you wait for that. I can give you a back rub. I'm told I'm pretty good at it," she lied.

Calvin looked pleased at the idea. "That sounds great."

"You should lie down on the bed. I can't do it right with you sitting there."

"Okay." He stood up and walked to the bed.

Just as Willow had hoped, he left the computer logged onto the network. She had watched him type in his password but wasn't sure she would get it right.

Willow sat down next to him as he lay stomach-down. She started to give him a back rub. Calvin closed his eyes and relaxed. "That really feels great," he commented. "I feel really feel bad that Romica is holding you here like this." It was the first time he had mentioned her captivity since he had introduced himself.

"It's not your fault," she said to him. "Now, just relax."

She continued to work on his back as he stayed silent. After about twenty long minutes, she stopped and carefully stood up. Calvin appeared to be fast asleep. She stretched her cramped hands. He had taken long enough to fall asleep even with the sleeping pills she had laced his drink with.

She crept over to the computer and began typing as quietly as she could, hoping to find out some useful information. Starting with the address of the building she was in.

*****

Romica entered the computer network room, and looked at the attractive female vampire seated at one of the two computers. She looked back at him. "Romica, you wanted to know what I found?"

"In time, but I was actually looking for Calvin. I'm having trouble with one of his programs, and I really need to get this spell on my palmtop."

"You tried his room?," she asked while absentmindedly brushing back some of her short brown hair.

"First place I looked. I wonder where he went to?" Romica looked at the building diagram next to the network connection panel, hoping to get an idea of where to look for Calvin, but a detail caught his eye.

"Nicole, why is room six connected to the network?"

Nicole looked at the panel and followed the wire from plug six to a socket on the network hub. She looked at the solid green light and a blinking amber light next to socket on the hub. "Maybe Calvin's working in there for some reason. The connection is active."

"That's the witch's room," said Romica. He angrily pulled the cable from the socket and ran out of the room.

*****
Willow was busy writing her third e-mail. The first e-mail had the basics - the address of the building, everything she knew about Romica and Callie, and what she knew about the cuff. The second had a diagram of the building attached. This one had information about what Romica and Callie were actually up to. The details were still vague, but Willow knew she was probably short on time. She clicked 'Send', but an error message popped up, informing her that she wasn't connected to the network.

"Oh, great, of all the times for the network to go down," she muttered. She fiddled with the network cable to see if it had come loose.

Then the door to the room burst open, the frame fracturing apart with a loud crack. Romica stormed in, his face hardened into a cold rage. Terrified by the threat in his eyes, Willow jumped back from the computer and froze in terror. He strode angrily to the desk, grabbed the computer, and slammed it against the wall, smashing it in two.

"I take it you contacted the Slayer and your friends?"

She didn't respond. She was afraid to even move. Romica strode over and violently shoved her against the wall. As she began to collapse, he grabbed her by the back of the neck and yanked her to her feet, trapping her between his body and the wall. "I've treated you well, witch. Better than I needed to. I don't appreciate being taken advantage of."

She still didn't respond, fighting just to breathe.

"Now I'll have to find a replacement," he said in a voice of measured calmness.

"No....please," she whimpered.

He released his grip on her neck and firmly grabbed her jaw. He moved her head to make eye contact, but Willow shut her eyes.

"Look at me," he demanded.

Willow kept her eyes shut.

"Do it!"

She opened her eyes and looked into his. Instantly she relaxed, and everything seemed to slow down. She didn't know why she had been afraid earlier. Romica released her jaw and used a light touch to get her to tilt her head to one side, all the while maintaining eye contact. He traced a fingernail along her neck, just under her jaw. The touch left a dull pain, but the pain seemed so trivial that Willow quickly forgot it.

Romica's gaze shifted for a moment to where his finger had just traced a line of pain. Then his face changed, the eyes shifting from a pale gray to a glowing yellow. His forehead protruded and two sharp fangs emerged among his teeth. Deep inside of her, Willow knew what was going to happen, but looking into his eyes made it seem right. Soon it would be over, and there wouldn't be anything to be afraid of anymore.

"Rom, you know better than to play with my toys." A female voice drifted in from behind Romica.

Romica hesitated. Willow wondered why the voice was stopping him; she wanted the release that his bite would give. It seemed like an eternity passed while he stood there motionless, holding her captive with his gaze.

"Rom." The voice drifted in again, and this time, the tone was more demanding.

Romica turned his head, and Willow's mind slipped back into reality. Her knees buckled, and she slid down the wall. Her hand instinctively went to her neck where the pain had reemerged. She could feel blood flowing from the gouge Romica had made.

Callie was in the room now as well, so it must have been her voice Willow had heard. Callie was staring at her with a concerned expression, but Willow carefully avoided her eyes.

"Stand up!" Romica's thundering voice attracted Willow's attention. Romica had woken up Calvin, and was standing next to the bed where Calvin had fallen asleep.

Calvin complied with Romica's order. "I.....I...," he started.

"You were manipulated," Romica finished for him.

"I...I never meant to..."

"Don't explain. There's no need; I understand what happened," Romica said. His tone was the same measured calm as before.

"I won't let it happen again," Calvin promised.

"I know you won't," said Romica. One of his arms whipped around to the back of Calvin's head.

Willow closed her eyes and turned away. She heard the crack of snapping bones. A moment later she heard a crash of something slamming against the wall a couple of feet from where she sat. She opened her eyes and saw Calvin's body lying in a heap next to her, the head hanging limply to the side. The wall had been smashed open from the impact and bits of drywall covered him and the surrounding floor. His lifeless eyes were still open. The mixture of horror, fear, and guilt that surged through her was too powerful to hold back. She broke down and started to sob.

"You call that potential? She's too soft. Her first spell that goes seriously awry will be the last one she casts. You should have let me finish her." Romica's voice still registered with Willow despite her emotional state.

He walked over to Willow and kneeled down to face her. She turned her head to avoid looking at him.

"I'll be ready for your friends when than come. This won't be the only death you cause." He stood up and stormed out of the room.

Callie walked over to and knelt down next to her. "It'll be okay, dear. I won't let him harm you." Callie reached out stroked Willow's hair comfortingly, then placed a gentle finger under her chin, raising her head. Through her tears, Willow looked into Callie's mesmerizing eyes.

Time stopped.

*****
Buffy walked into her room after an uneventful patrol. Riley had wanted to come with her, but she'd asked him to stay in the house with Tara and her mother. Rather than go back to her empty apartment, Tara had chosen to remain at Buffy's house.

A good hot shower sounded like just the thing to relax her, so she started to undress. She had just put on her bathrobe she when heard running in the hallway. Tara burst into her room.

"Willow sent a message!" Tara exclaimed as she grabbed Buffy's wrist and started to drag her to the guest room. Riley followed along.

"When?" asked Buffy.

"It said about half an hour ago," replied Tara.

Tara dragged her in front of the computer that Riley had set up in Tara's temporary room. Buffy read the message. Willow declared that she was alive and well and told them the address of the building she was being held in. She also told them that Callie was back in Emily's body. The end of the message said that she would send more information.

"Is there another one?" asked Buffy.

Tara nodded and brought up the second one. This one had a map of one of the floors of the building with a "W" typed over a room. The message indicated that this was the room Willow was being held in. Again Willow promised that more information would follow.

"What's in the next message?"

"There isn't one," replied Tara.

"What's going on?" asked Joyce. "I heard a lot of commotion."

Buffy turned around and saw that her mother standing in the doorway wearing a robe. "Willow sent us a message." Buffy paused for a moment to collect her thoughts. "Mom, call Giles and tell him to assemble everyone. Tara, write down the address and make a sketch of the map. I need to get changed into something more... fighty."

*****
The discontinuity was unnerving. Willow was now sitting on her bed, Callie sitting next to her with an arm wrapped around her shoulder. Calvin's body was gone, and the door had been hastily repaired. A ragged hole in the wall marked the spot where Calvin's dead body had impacted, and bits of debris still littered the floor. The last thing she remembered was Callie lifting her head to make eye contact.

"Feel better?" Callie asked her.

Willow nodded. She did feel better. The rush of emotion was gone, freeing her to relax. Actually, she felt too relaxed. She knew what Callie was, but she found herself being comforted by the demon's close presence.

"Good. Something you should know about Rom, nothing gets him worked up like thinking someone's played him for a fool. Oh, and don't call him 'Rom' either. Only I can get away with that," said Callie. "Still he shouldn't have tried to do that to you. I can't seem to control him anymore."

Willow placed a hand to her neck and felt a bandage over her wound. She noticed that Callie had a bandage on her wrist as well. "What happened? I...Hey, you took me over, didn't you?"

Callie nodded. "You were distraught, dear."

"You know, you could try asking before doing that," Willow wanted to be angry at Callie, but couldn't manage it.

Willow sighed and slumped herself against Callie, it felt comforting in way that it shouldn't have. "That isn't the only thing you did to me, is it?" Again she wanted to be angry, but the anger just didn't come. Everything in her head seemed disjointed, thoughts were just not connecting with feelings and emotions.

Callie smiled at her. "This was supposed to be a long process, but Rom is too hard to control now. It's been too many centuries since I held his leash. I need to replace him with someone I can control, someone human."

"Me," said Willow. She wanted to pull away from Callie, but her body just didn't respond. All she did was just shift her position a little.

"Exactly, someone with the potential to become as powerful as Romica was as a mortal. Unfortunately, If I take over you mind completely, you'll never reach that potential. It's a delicate balance to bond your loyalty and maintain your initiative," said Callie. She gave Willow's shoulder a light squeeze. "But, I'll find that balance and then you'll be powerful, feared, and immortal. Binding your soul to me carries a lot of fringe benefits."

"I won't do it," Willow told her. Her voice sounded weak, lacking the defiance she had meant to convey.

"You will," said Callie confidently. "It's just a matter of time."

Willow wanted to stand up and tell Callie in no uncertain terms that none of this was going to happen, but the emotion simply evaporated away, draining her ability to act on her thoughts.

Callie stood up and took a couple of steps toward the door. She stopped, put a hand to her chin and thought for a couple of seconds. She turned to face Willow, "I suppose there is a slim possibility your friends might actually rescue you. Perhaps, I should give them a little complication." She smiled. "Kiss me."

Willow scrunched her forehead in shock and disgust. "No....most definitely not."

Callie continued to stand there and smile smugly. Suddenly, something slipped into Willow's mind. Nothing sexual, not a matter of desire, just an overpowering, impulsive urge to give Callie a kiss. While Willow tried to figure out where the urge was coming from, she found herself standing up and taking a step toward Callie. She decided she was going to fight this, Callie couldn't just make her do things. But her body didn't seem to taking orders from her at the moment. Her lips met Callie's and time stopped once again.

*****
Buffy arrived at Giles' apartment, Tara and Riley in tow. She opened the door to find Giles inside, poring over books. Giles looked up to greet them. "So, we know where Willow is, I take it?"

"Yep. Tara got a message on the computer," replied Buffy. Tara nodded vigorously to reinforce her words.

"Even if we know her location, there is the matter...." Giles was cut off by the arrival of Xander along with Anya.

"Hey, everyone is here. We're going to rescue Will?" asked Xander.

"That's the plan," replied Buffy.

"Great. So what is the plan?" asked Xander.

"Okay, maybe not so much plan, more like idea. But we have a map, so we're halfway to plan," said Buffy.

Tara pulled the building diagram from her pocket, and everyone gathered around to look at it.

"So we should go in via the garage. It's the shortest distance from there to Willow's room," said Riley as he traced the route with his finger.

"B...but the bracelet," interjected Tara.

"That was the point I was about to make earlier. The bracelet presents a problem if it works as Tara has described. We won't be able to remove Willow from the room until it is taken off of her. I've done some research already, but I haven't been able to locate anything specific to that item. I've found a spell that might get it off, but we won't know for sure until we try," said Giles.

"Okay, seeing how that could be a problem. 'Hey Will, we're here to rescue you but you can't actually leave,'" said Xander.

"Well, we have to try. Could you bring some books along, so we can come up with alternatives if the first spell doesn't work?" asked Buffy to Giles.

"Perhaps. I..I wish I could be sure though," replied Giles.

"Well, you, Anya, and Willow can all try to figure it out. Maybe the rest of us can find this Romica guy and make him take it off," said Buffy.

"Um.. and me. Mr. Giles, Anya, Willow and I can try to figure it out," said Tara.

"You sure?" Asked Buffy.

Tara nodded. "Don't forget to mention Callie too."

"I was getting to that. Callie is back in her old body, so we have to be really careful if she shows up. No eye contact," said Buffy.

"So what exactly is the plan?" asked Riley.

"Weapons all around," said Xander. "Buff has the all-out-assault determined look going."

"Exactly," agreed Buffy. "How are we on weapons, Giles?"

"We have a good supply of stakes and three crossbows," replied Giles.

"My hunting bow is in my car," added Riley. "I had to have something that handles vampires now that the government isn't providing me with weapons anymore. Should we wait until daylight? It would give us an additional advantage,"

"No," replied Buffy, "Willow said she would send us more information and it never came. I don't want to waste any more time getting her out of there."

*****

Spike took a long look down the hallway. It was empty. He walked confidently to the door of Willow's room and unlocked the dead bolt. As he went inside and shut the door behind him, he pulled out the bottle of green liquid he had hidden in his coat and uncorked it. The liquid began to boil.

Willow was seated on her bed and looked rather shocked to see him, "Spike! Wha...What are you doing here?"

"Here to rescue you. Sounds funny to say that."

"Rescue? I can't leave..." Willow's eyes swept down to the bottle. "Hey, that's the same thing that Romica used to knock me out."

"As I see it, that bauble you're wearing can't hurt you if you're out cold. Rupert will figure a way to get it off before you come to." Spike thought Willow would be impressed at the cleverness of his plan, but instead she started to look very confused.

"She didn't tell me what to do to y..." she collapsed, quite unconscious.

Spike looked at the now empty bottle he was holding. "Neat," he commented to no one as he tossed it aside. He went over to Willow, hoisted her over his shoulder, and headed toward the door. He was certain that Romica was planning to go back on his deal. Rescuing Willow would ensure that Slayer and her friends would be willing to overlook his double-cross with the statue. No sense in having both Romica and the Slayer out to kill him.

He opened the door and took a quick glance up and down the hallway. It was still empty. All he had to do was get to the end of the hallway and out the garage, and then he would be free. Even if the Slayer knew he was working with Romica, she couldn't very well slay him after he saved her best friend. The other part of the equation made him hesitate for a second. If he was wrong about Romica, he would be throwing away an opportunity to get rid of the damn chip. His instincts told him he wasn't wrong about Romica and he hadn't survived this long by ignoring his instincts.

Spike made his way down the hall and into the garage. He had expected he might encounter someone in the garage, but he found it empty as well. Must be his lucky night. He walked through the garage, bypassed the three bay doors and opened the side door. It wasn't his lucky night after all.

Standing directly on the other side of the door was one of Romica's vampire lackeys. The other vampire was just reaching for the door handle when Spike had opened the door. Behind the lackey was Romica himself and two more of his lackeys. Four to one, not the sort of odds Spike really liked to be on the short end of.

"I was just..." Spike started to explain. However, he couldn't think of a good lie to use with an unconscious witch hoisted over his shoulder. He settled for punching the lackey vampire right between the eyes. The vampire crumpled to the ground.

Romica's eyes narrowed. "Kill him," he said with calmly. The other two vampires charged Spike as Romica started taking off his suit jacket.

The smaller charging vampire threw a punch that Spike deftly dodged away from. Spike retaliated with a kick that sent his opponent crashing to the ground. The other vampire that was charging him was a good foot taller than Spike and bulging with muscle. Spike landed a solid punch to his midsection that didn't slow him in the least.

He rammed into Spike, shoving him back into the garage. Desperately off-balance, Spike grabbed at Willow, but she crumbled to the ground. The big vampire took advantage of Spike's distraction, jerked him off the ground and threw him into the side of a van with thunderous force. As Spike recovered from the impact, his attacker struck hard with a roundhouse punch to the face that hammered his head back against the side of van. Spike slid to the ground, starting to see double.

Really angry now, Spike kicked out, sweeping the legs of his massive opponent and sending him collapsing to the ground. Spike jumped up, kicked him in the ribs for good measure, and turned to find the other two lackey vamps advancing on him. He wasn't doing too well on getting away, but he was starting to enjoy the fight.

He feigned a punch to the closest one and then managed to kick him, smashing him into the wall of the garage. His movement caused the other vampire to miss with a punch. Spike grabbed him and added to his momentum to slam his head into the side of the van.

Spike heard the voices of more opponents entering the garage from the building. Fun or not, he had to get out of here before the cavalry arrived. The door he had just tried to exit seemed like the best means of escape. Unfortunately, the huge vampire he had fought earlier was standing in the middle of it, looking angry. Romica, who had entered the garage and stayed out of the fray until now, looked like he was finally ready for action. His jacket was removed, his sleeves rolled up, and he had an evil smile on his face. The tattoos on Romica's forearms seemed to undulate for a second and tendrils of flames appeared, wrapping around his hands and fingers.

Spike decided it was bloody well time to get the hell out of here. He noticed Willow on the ground near his feet; she had a bandage on her neck. That gave him an idea. Time to put survival ahead of patching up things with the Slayer. He scooped up Willow and ripped off the bandage, then tossed her to the massive vampire blocking his exit. The vampire was distracted by the trickle of blood on her neck. While the vamp started to give into instinct and prepared to bite, Spike ran for it. He slipped between the vamp's giant frame and Romica to get through the door and out of the building.

*****
Romica grabbed the big vampire attacking Callie's precious little witch and yanked him away from her. He chanted a few words to invoke a spell. Flames erupted from his hand, and the vampire combusted into dust. He caught the witch as she started to fall. She was already breathing unevenly, on her way to dying from the effect of the cuff. He removed the cuff, and her breathing evened out, becoming relaxed and regular.

Callie, Nicole, and two more hired vampires came running up to him. Nicole was the first to speak, "We heard a fight." She looked at Willow, "No way I'm going to believe it was her."

Romica shook his head and addressed Callie, "Spike. I think he was trying to rescue her. The idiot brought her over the barrier without me present. She would have died in a couple more minutes."

"You should have just killed him like I suggested. You were too greedy with your plan to dust him after the surgery," said Callie.

"It is unfortunate. That implant and the details of how it was attached would have been quite valuable." Romica handed the witch over to Nicole. "Take her back to her room and have these two," he gestured to the two vampires that had arrived with Nicole, "stand guard outside of her door. She won't wake up, so there's no real danger of her escaping. After you've done that, return to your work."

"She is not to be harmed," added Callie.

As Nicole carried the witch out of the garage, Romica walked over to a keypad and punched in a code. The bay door in front of the van started to open. "You two," he indicated the two battered vampires that had fought Spike. "I want you to go to the Watcher's apartment and report on any activity. Keep a low profile."

Romica turned to Callie, "Spike doesn't strike me as someone who just acts on impulse, but I can't figure out why he made his move now."

"I think you're wrong about...," Callie started.

"Car." One of the other vampires interrupted. Sure enough, two cars were visible through the newly opened bay door. Both cars were heading for the building, headlights turned off.

Romica got out his cell phone and called Nicole.

She answered immediately. "Nicole."

"Send the rest of the hired hands to the garage immediately. Then I want you to go to the witch's room and join the guard there. I suspect we may be under attack."

"Guns?" asked Nicole.

"No need to spoil the killing yet; I don't believe the situation is very desperate." Romica shut off his phone and pocketed it.

The two cars stopped and people started getting out, some of them with crossbows. Romica counted six people while he ordered everyone to take cover and wait for hand to hand.

*****

Giles stepped out of Xander's car and started heading for the open garage door. He had warned Buffy than sneaking in and out was out of the question with a sorcerer of Romica's repute. Nonetheless, he didn't like the fact that the garage opened the moment they pulled up. Buffy charged in ahead of him while Riley prepared his bow. It was too late to change the plan now. Giles checked his crossbow one more time and found that it was ready. His other hand carried a rather heavy duffel bag loaded with the most helpful books he could find for trying to remove Willow's bracelet. Anya, Tara, and Xander followed him as he advanced toward the open garage door. Hopefully, Riley and Buffy would keep any vampires busy.

A vampire jumped out from behind the cover of a wall as Giles and his group neared the open bay door. An arrow appeared in his chest before Giles could aim his crossbow. The vampire crumpled into a pile of dust, and they advanced into the garage. He could hear a fight nearby, presumably Buffy holding off vampires, keeping the way clear for them.

The door leading from the garage to the rest of the building was easy to spot. Just as Giles started leading his group toward it, two vampires came bursting through. They started toward Buffy, who was already busy with three vampires.

"Is that too many for Buffy to fight?" asked Anya.

"Hey, more people over here!" shouted Xander in an attempt to distract the newly arrived vampires.

The two vampires changed direction and started heading for them. Giles took careful aim and fired a bolt, striking the first vampire right in the heart. He burst into dust. Another shot twanged out from behind Giles and struck the other vampire in the chest to the right of the heart. The vampire came crashing into Giles.

Giles and the vampire went rolling back through the others. They all went tumbling, and Anya managed to fire a crossbow bolt straight toward the ceiling. The vampire landed on top of Giles. Giles pressed his hands into the vampire's chest in a vain attempt to pry himself free. The vampire growled and suddenly his hand was clenched around Giles throat, blocking off his breath. Giles frantically grabbed and the vampires arm and stained his muscles as hard as he could, but the crushing force on his neck didn't relent.

"Time to die, old man," the vampire told him as he started to squeeze even harder.

Fortunately, Xander had recovered and smashed his crossbow into the vampire's face. The vampire released his grip and attacked Xander. Giles whipped out a crossbow bolt and drove it into the vampire's chest. The vampire exploded into dust.

"Don't say I never did anything for you," said Xander.

"Admittedly, it was good timing. But you were the one that got their attention in the first place."

"Couldn't let Buffy do all the work."

They reorganized with Giles, Xander, and Anya all reloading their crossbows. Giles took the lead with Anya right behind him. Tara followed Anya and held a cross for defense. Xander guarded their rear as they headed for the door leading from the garage into the interior of the building. The door led to a hallway. Willow's room was the third door to the left and there were two vampires guarding it. The two vampires started running their way immediately.

"Didn't we just do this?" asked Xander.

Giles held off firing his crossbow until they got closer. He should have waited a little longer; his shot merely grazed the side of the leading vampire. Giles threw down the crossbow and pulled out a bolt, ready to defend himself hand to hand. Just as the vampire was nearly on him, Anya fired her crossbow at point-blank range. All that struck Giles was a soft cloud of dust.

Xander prepared to fire on the other vampire, but the vampire ducked through a door on the right.

Giles turned to look at Anya, but then noticed Tara staring at the first door to the left. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

"Your aim, for one thing," said Anya.

"I meant Tara," he responded to Anya's verbal jab.

Tara continued to look at the door, "There's something very powerful in that room."

"Demon?" asked Xander in a worried tone.

"No, magic."

Giles reloaded his crossbow. He opened the door and peered in. A curtain covered half the room. The visible part held a table with a variety of artifacts, but the one that caught his eye was a silver statuette with a red gem just like the one he had taken from the Council. "It's Romica's statuette."

He ducked into the room and quickly snatched the statue. He left the room as quickly as he hand entered, and slammed the door shut, pausing only to slide the statuette into his duffel bag.

"Let's get to Willow." He led the group to the door of Willow's room and entered. Willow was lying in a heap on the floor only a couple of feet from the door. Tara ran past him to check on Willow.

The rest of them entered, and Xander closed the door. He continued to stand next to it, crossbow ready. Giles started rummaging through his bag for the proper book.

"I believe this first spell is our best chance at removing the bracelet," he said. "Tara, if Willow is okay for the moment, you might be able to help me."

"Um, I don't need to," replied Tara.

"While I appreciate your confidence in my abilities, the fact is that it will go faster if...," started Giles.

"She doesn't mean she has confidence in you, there isn't a bracelet," interrupted Anya, loading a new bolt into her crossbow.

Giles looked over at Willow's wrist. "That does simplify matters. I wonder why it was removed."

"It's better to be lucky than good?" suggested Xander. "Let's debate it later and get out of here now."

"Excellent idea," agreed Giles.

"S...she won't wake up," said Tara worriedly. Tara continued to gently shake her and call her name.

"Maybe she's in a coma or something," suggested Anya.

"I think it's a spell," said Tara.

"I'll carry her, then. We shouldn't waste time," said Giles. He had started to lift Willow up into his arms when the door to the room crashed open.

A female vampire came bursting through the door. Xander fired his crossbow, but she had ducked low to enter the room, and the bolt sailed over her harmlessly. She put her shoulder into Xander's midsection and wrapped her arms around him. Then she stood up, lifting him off the ground, and flung him into Anya as Anya tried to aim her crossbow. Xander and Anya went tumbling to the floor.

Giles set Willow down as quickly as he could manage and started to raise his crossbow, but the vampire was too quick. She closed and kicked at him; her kick only partly connected, but it was enough to make him tumble backwards and hit the ground, separating him from his crossbow. The vampire kicked the crossbow to the far side of the room. It struck the wall hard, and fired harmlessly into the ceiling.

Then vampire turned her attention on Tara, but Tara had managed to get to her cross and held it between her and the vampire. Meanwhile, Xander had retrieved the only loaded crossbow and tried to fire a shot into her back. But she heard his movement and spun out the way. The shot sailed by her, missing Tara by a fraction an inch before thunking into the wall.

Xander threw the crossbow at her as she advanced on him and pulled out a stake. The vampire caught the crossbow and broke it in two over her leg, and then she smiled menacingly and faced off with Xander. Giles collected himself and snatched the cross away from Tara, and slowly crept up on Xander's adversary.

Xander jabbed at her with his stake, but the vampire playfully dodged each attack. Then she caught his wrist in her hand and twisted sharply, causing Xander to cry out in pain and drop his stake. Her other arm whipped around to the back of his neck. She drew herself close to him, placing their heads side by side. Xander strained against her, but he wasn't a match for the vampire's strength. Her tongue traced down along his neck a couple of inches below his jaw. She was just about to bite when Giles shoved the cross into the side of her head. She jumped away from the cross, letting go of Xander in the process.

Giles continued to hold her a bay with the cross. "I suggest we make our exit," he said.

Anya grabbed one of the crossbows, Xander picked up Willow, and they started for the door, Tara following closely. The other crossbow lay well behind the vampire, so Giles decided to just let it go. As the others headed out the door, Giles managed to angle his cross to keep the vampire a couple of feet away. He continued to hold the vampire at bay while they fled back to the garage.

*****
Buffy kicked the vampire that had just attacked her. She connected with the center of abdomen, causing him to smash into the wall and fall to his knees. She lunged at him with her stake, but Romica knocked her away with a powerful punch to her jaw. The stake went skidding across the floor.

"I've already lost enough lackeys tonight," he said.

"Gee, they're just not that tough. I think you need better interview questions."

"You'd think with a Slayer in town all the weak ones would be gone. Maybe you're slacking off." Romica tried to punch her again, but she dodged out of the way.

"Nope, all the smart ones know better than to come to my town." She connected with a kick to his chest that sent Romica sprawling. She bent down to retrieve her stake and looked up again to attack Romica. Callie was standing over Romica, and Buffy met her eyes.

The next thing she remembered was smashing into the side of a van. She fell to the ground and started trying to get to her feet and regain her bearings. A kick struck her in the head, and she fell to the ground again. Another kick connected with her ribs, and her breath began to burn in her lungs. She was picked up and thrown into a wall. The force was enough to knock the breath out of her.

Although she was severely disoriented, she tried to get to her feet and find her opponent. However, her opponent found her first, and she was lifted up off the ground. Someone's arms slid under hers, and the hands met behind her neck, holding her helpless.

"Take her," Romica's voice sounded from behind her head.

Buffy opened her eyes and saw Callie again. The next instant Callie was in mid-scream and an arrow was protruding from right side of her chest. Riley was yelling, "They're clear! They're clear!"

Buffy managed to regain her senses and butted her head against Romica's chin as hard as she could. It was enough to make Romica loosen his grip. She twisted free, ducked under a punch, and kicked him to the side. She sprinted for the open bay door. Callie tried to stop her, but Buffy shoved her out of the way. She could see Giles' group making a run for the cars. A vampire was in pursuit, but an arrow from Riley took the vampire in the abdomen, and she crumpled.

Riley was already near his car, bow held ready for more pursuers. Giles' group clambered into Xander's car while Buffy hopped into Riley's car. Soon Romica's building was left behind as they all drove off.

*****

Buffy knelt down by Willow and watched her. She looked peaceful and relaxed, as if she was sleeping. Everyone else was busy looking for a way to wake her up. Buffy watched her for a couple of minutes and then returned to looking through a book as well.

"Perhaps we are trying to be too specific," suggested Giles, mostly to Tara. "I think we should try a general-purpose spell reversal."

"Do you have the supplies?" asked Tara.

"I think I should have all the supplies on hand," he said.

"Maybe only this Romica guy knows how to undo it. He was pretty inventive with magic in his day," suggested Anya after putting down a book.

"Maybe we need a Prince Charming, like in the fairy tales," added Xander. He looked over at Tara, "or Princess Charming."

"Who knows, if this Romica guy had a sense of humor it might even...," started Buffy.

The lights went out.

"Oh, dear," commented Giles in the pitch-black room.

There was a splintering crash, and the front door came flying loose. Only dim moonlight from outside provided even the slightest illumination. Buffy eyes hadn't made the transition from full light to the dark yet. She could just barely see a large figure enter the apartment. A smaller figure stood just outside the threshold of the door.

She dodged the first kick without even really seeing it. She heard Riley go 'umff' and another crash. Her opponent came at her again, but now she could see a little better. He tried to punch her twice, but she was too quick for him. As she leaned away from his second punch, she kicked him in the midsection and sent him to the ground. Then she leaped over to the counter where she had set down a stake.

She head Xander shout "Hey", and turned to see what else had gone wrong. Xander's flying body bowled her over as he came sailing over the counter. There was another crash from elsewhere in the apartment. Buffy rolled Xander off of her and charged toward the figure with her stake.

The figure now had Willow's limp body in one arm and was getting ready to make a run for the door. Buffy intercepted him. He tried to kick her but she leapt to the side and avoided contact. The attack left an opening and she lunged with the stake. He softly and rapidly said a couple of words, and the stake exploded in a ball of fire. Buffy struck his chest with an empty fist. "Ouch!" she declared as she shook her burnt hand.

The vampire took advantage of her surprise and shoved Buffy into the hallway. He then ran through the door, but stopped right outside to trace a symbol in the air. The symbol stood in the air looking like it was made of a pale blue mist.

Buffy picked herself up. "No way. We just got finished rescuing her," she said to the vampire as she ran toward him. Hitting the threshold of the door was like running into a solid wall; she bounced back and fell to the ground.

"I wasn't done with her. We'll meet again, Slayer," the vampire said. The voice was Romica's, and the moonlight was strong enough to see his face. The other figure was Callie. Buffy avoided her eyes. Buffy got up and struck at the barrier with her foot in frustration as Romia and Callie turned and ran off, Willow slung over Romica's shoulder.

Buffy turned and ran to the window. She quickly opened it, but found the barrier was there as well. By now it was probably too late to catch them anyhow. Candlelight flickered into life behind her.

She turned around and saw that Giles and located a candle and was looking for others. The place was in shambles, the couch was turned over, two bookshelves were knocked down, and books were scattered everywhere. Riley was sitting up and holding the back of his head. Anya was helping Xander get to his feet, and Tara was just standing there looking at the open doorway.

Buffy looked back at the doorway and saw the symbol was fading quickly. She waited for a couple of seconds and tried the barrier at the window again. It had disappeared.

"I guess that qualifies for shortest rescue *ever*," commented Xander. He stretched and grimaced.

"Does that mean we have to go get her again?" asked Anya.

"I'm starting to think we need a better plan. I don't want to play Willow tag all night. Besides, the last time Callie almost got me," said Buffy.

"Maybe we should try to banish Callie," suggested Tara.

"Good in theory, but been there, done that. Didn't work," said Buffy.

"I thought I already explained that to you, Tara," commented Giles.

"Romica's statuette is different from yours. I didn't feel any power in yours. I would have mentioned it sooner, but I forgot when I was looking for a way to wake up Willow," explained Tara.

"It might be worth a try," said Giles. He looked at the statuette they had retrieved from Romica's building and went to consult a book that had been knocked off his desk.

"Let's do it. I can handle Romica without Callie around," said Buffy. "I also would really like to know how he keeps getting into places uninvited. That's becoming a disturbing trend."

Giles found his book and quickly looked up something. "Ah! I thought I remembered that the two statues had different gems. One has a red gem and the other has a clear one."

Buffy looked over to the statue Giles had got from London and the one they just retrieved from Romica, both had red gems. "So why are they both red?"

"One of them must not be genuine. Presumably, the one I tried to banish Callie with. I wonder if the Council has had an imitation this entire time," pondered Giles.

"Or Spike double crossed us and switched them," suggested Xander.

Giles frowned. "Spike, yes I should have suspected that immediately. That would make more sense than the Council not recognizing the imitation. But then how did Callie get summoned in the first place?"

"This is interesting and all Giles, but we've got a demon to banish and a friend to rescue," said Buffy.

Giles nodded and they started to gather supplies.

******
Romica guided the Mercedes into the driveway of the new location, a residential house on a two-acre lot. His three remaining hired vampires and Nicole were already there, unloading the truck and van. A substantial amount of equipment needed to be left behind, but they were able to load an impressive quantity out of the old location in the hour they had. All that supernatural vampire strength did come in handy.

Callie took Willow to one of the bedrooms while Romica went to confer with Nicole. He was in the middle of a discussion of what had been left behind when Callie came racing outside.

"They've started a banishment!" She yelled.

"Damn," said Romica. "Matthew, Conrad, you're with me. Nicole, you're driving. I need to prepare. Let's go!"

He raced to the Mercedes; Callie and the other three vampires all climbed in quickly. Nicole gunned the engine and sped off toward the mansion where Callie had originally been summoned.

******

Buffy watched as Tara lit the last candle in the circle that had been drawn on the mansion floor. Tara continued with the same sequence of steps that Giles had performed the first time they tried to banish Callie. This time the gem held by the statuette glowed a deep red. Tara sat down in front of the statuette and began a more lengthy incantation.

"It's working," whispered Giles. "That was what was supposed to happen the first time."

"One mystery cleared up," she whispered back. "Speaking of which, have you figured out how Romica got into your apartment?"

"I've been thinking about that. I suspect that Callie must have had each of us invite him into our homes while we were under her power. I mean to ask Tara to perform the spell to revoke the invitation."

"Yeah, that would be..." Buffy stopped; she heard the crunch of gravel outside the mansion. "Company."

The crunching gravel was followed by the sound of car doors opening and closing. Buffy flipped her stake into her hand and headed for the front doors. "Guard the doors," she commanded.

Riley picked up his bow and headed for the doors right after her. The others started taking position as well, Xander and Anya armed with crosses and stakes, Giles with the remaining crossbow.

Buffy threw open the doors and looked out at the advancing vampires. An army of at least twenty vampires stalked toward her. Buffy froze, unsure of how to make a stand against that many vamps.

"Oh, God," said Xander from behind her.

"It's an illusion Buffy," said Giles. "There are duplicates."

Buffy looked, and, sure enough, she saw more than one of each vampire. She focused on one of the Romicas. "Well, look who's been Xeroxing himself."

Riley fired an arrow at one of the advancing vampires; it sailed through the figure unimpeded. He strung another arrow and prepared to fire again.

"Get the statue," said all the Romicas at once. All the vampires charged.

Buffy ran to meet them; she attacked three vampires before finding one that was solid. He countered by throwing a clumsy punch; she ducked under the punch and swept her leg into the back of his knees. The vampire lost his balance and fell to the ground. Buffy rolled to her knees next to him and drove her stake home. Four vampires burst into dust. "Slaying in stereo, cool," commented Buffy.

She took in her surroundings. Two Romicas and three other male vampires were coming at her. Another host of male and Callie-looking vampires were converging on the mansion doors, and Riley had given up his bow and was fighting identical-looking female vampires. All the Romicas started to chant. Buffy ran through the underbrush for one of the Romicas converging on the doors. She kicked at him and struck only air.

Anya's wooden cross burst into flames, and she dropped it with a yelp. Several male vampires started to head toward her. Xander warded off the vampires advancing on Anya with his cross.

As Buffy was distracted by the action in front of the mansion doors, a Romica struck her hard on the back, driving her to ground. He kicked her, propelling her into the air. She landed, rolled, and got to her feet. She was facing three Romicas, but it was the sight she saw behind the Romicas that gave her a scare. Riley was down, and the female vampire he had been fighting was getting ready to enter a window of the mansion.

"Giles! One of them is in the mansion!" she yelled.

She turned back to the Romicas. "It's been fun, but now I've got to run." Buffy started to run toward the mansion to catch up with the vampire climbing in the window. A vine in the underbrush wrapped itself around her ankle, yanking her to the ground. The vine continued to move of its own accord, wrapping her leg tighter. She was getting really tired of Romica's tricks.

"I don't think you'll be running anywhere," said the Romicas.

Buffy looked toward the mansion, Anya and Xander were using crosses and stakes to try to hold the vampires and illusions at bay. Giles was nowhere to be seen. He must have heard her warning about the other vampire entering through a window.

All the vampires and illusionary vampires at the door were either the same male vampire or a Callie. There were fewer imitations, so the spell was clearly starting to wear off. She looked back up to see the Romicas looking at the mansion as well. She tried to get to her feet, but the thick vine had a firm grasp on her leg and brought her back down again.

"She is taking too long," said the Romicas, and they all charged off toward the mansion.

Buffy continued to struggle with the vine, finally she managing to rip it out from the ground. She started to limp toward the fray, dragging the length of the vine with her. "Ugh, stupid vegetation", she muttered to herself.

The female vampire came bursting through between Anya and Xander, carrying the statuette. Her movement knocked one of the male vampires off his feet, and Xander alertly managed to drive a stake into him. He exploded into a cloud of ash.

The vine around Buffy's leg loosened, and she worked herself free. She noticed all the illusionary vampires had disappeared as well. Callie struck Anya, sending her flying back into the mansion and out of Buffy's vision. Callie then turned on Xander.

The female vampire with the statue continued to run for Romica's car, away from the fight. Buffy finally ran down Romica and tacked him. They rolled and separated, each getting to their feet.

"Looks like you're out of tricks," she told him.

Romica started to quietly recite an incantation. Buffy lashed out with a kick; he dodged it. She followed with a second kick too quickly for Romica to avoid, striking him solidly right below the ribs. He staggered backward and lost his place in the incantation.

"I *said* you're out of tricks."

Romica charged and Buffy kicked again. This time he caught her leg and twisted her to the ground, following with a kick that sending her rolling into a bush.

"I didn't need tricks to kill my first Slayer," said Romica.

"You're going to need them if tha..." She was interrupted by a scream.

She turned to the source and saw that Callie running for Romica's car, a crossbow bolt lodged in her shoulder. Buffy's distraction had been just enough time for Romica to finish a short incantation.

It was like an invisible hand just picked her up and flung her; she went flying through the air and struck a tree trunk. She got up unsteadily as Romica ran toward his car, which had already been started by the female vampire.

Buffy tried to run after him, but was still unsteady. She collapsed to a knee for a moment, but managed to get to her feet and start running.

She intercepted the Mercedes as it was being turned around to head out of the driveway. Buffy leaped on top of the car as it started to accelerate. She hadn't really considered what to do after getting on top of the car. While she considered her options, the car reached the end of the driveway. The driver broke hard and turned sharply onto the street, Buffy's momentum overcame her grip, and she went flying off the roof, tumbling into a ditch at the side of the road.

When she got to her feet, she could see the taillights of the Mercedes fading in the distance.

She trudged up the driveway to meet Giles, Xander, and Anya, who were walking toward her. Giles was holding a piece of cloth up to a gash on his forehead; the crossbow was slung over his shoulder.

"I guess the leaping on the car thing didn't work out?" asked Xander.

"No, that's exactly the reason cars and I don't mix," replied Buffy. "How's Ri..." she stopped in mid-question when she saw Riley walking her way along with Tara. Riley was looking a little unsteady, but mostly okay.

She jogged up to him and gave him a hug, "Glad to see you didn't turn out a vamp snack."

He smiled at her, "Me too. I thought I was a goner for a moment. What made her take off?"

"I think she was more interested in getting into the mansion," said Buffy.

"A task she was quite successful at, I might add," said Giles. "I'm afraid I was unable to hold her off. She managed to take the statue and interrupt the spell."

"So, back to where we were before. No statue, no Willow, and no banishing Callie," said Buffy. "Guess we head back to Romica's place and start over."

"Sure, 'cause getting beat up only three times in one night is leaving me strangely unfulfilled," said Xander.

Buffy looked over everyone's exhausted faces and thought it through. "Maybe we need a new plan. We can't keep doing this. I'll scout out his building and try to figure out an attack. The rest of you can get some rest, and we'll go in during daylight."

"I'll go with you," said Riley. He straightened himself out and managed to look much less unsteady.

"You up to it?"

"I'll be fine. I'm a little short on firepower, though. My bow wasn't as lucky as I was," he said.

Giles handed over the crossbow. "Well, take this. I'll need to locate a couple more before we try another raid. Perhaps I can research the cuff some more as well. We might not be as lucky next time to find Willow without it."

"Okay, I guess everyone meet at Giles tomorrow morning. Say about eight?" Buffy waited for a minute, but nobody objected. She turned to Riley. "I guess we get going."

*****

Buffy tucked her stake into a pocket of her jacket and sighed. They had looked through the entire building and hadn't found a single vampire or any other trace of Romica and his lackeys. It looked like the whole place had been efficiently cleared out. About the only thing they could find was furniture, some computer equipment, and some clothes. She and Riley found themselves back in the empty garage where they had first entered the building after seeing no signs of life from the outside.

"This is *so* not what I expected," said Buffy as she kicked an empty box out of the way.

Riley frowned. "They moved this place pretty quick. He must plan ahead for this sort of stuff."

"Maybe we've lost," muttered Buffy.

"Lost what?" asked Riley.

"Whatever game Callie and her vamp-buddy are up to. She kept telling me that I was losing the game when she talked to me in my dreams."

"Yeah, you told me about that. Still no idea what the game is?" asked Riley.

"No, but I have a feeling we're just about to find out."