"This looks good", Giles nodded several hours later, looking at the circle of blue candles he had put up in the backyard once more; nodding as well, Willow was busy with lighting them all up, Buffy standing at a safe distance and watching, still not all too sure if this was a good idea, but figuring that, since this was their only lead so far, it had to be worth a try.
"Willow", Giles went on after the last candle had been lit, "since you're closest to Pat, I suggest that you do the summoning and make the request, if the information in my books is correct, this should appeal to Malphas. Are you up to this?"
"I guess so", the witch replied, figuring that the Watcher's words were making sense – not only was she closest to the demon in whose behalf she would address Malphas, but her power was much bigger than Giles', as well, a fact which should make it easier to hold the demon she wanted to summon in the circle the elder man had made with the candles.
"The summoning is fairly simple", the Brit now let her know, handing a small plastic bag with marigold petals to her, "all you have to do is walk around the circle, outside of it of course, and spread those petals while you command the demon to make an appearance. Make sure that you keep your focus on the circle, or he might try to break out."
"Won't let that happen", Willow reassured him as she took the petals from him and sniffed them, smiling briefly at the sweet smell, "the last thing we need now is a pissed off demon rampaging through Sunnydale."
"Indeed", Giles agreed, then his gaze moved to a point behind her and he smiled slightly – before he moved over to the window where Xander, Anya and Dawn had formed a little cluster, clearly eager to get a good view of what was about to happen, knocking the glass and telling them to move back, just in case.
"Glass might be broken if the demon manifests with enough force", he added at their doubtful looks, causing Buffy to cry out "Wait, what?" behind him, but before the Slayer could protest about doing something which might break their windows, Willow gave her a calming look, letting her know that she'd pay for any damage which would be done during the summoning a moment later.
"Okay, fine", the blonde sighed, "but I hope it won't be necessary."
"Me too", Willow reassured her, then took in a deep breath and asked Buffy and Giles to step back; once they had done so, she slowly started to walk around the circle of candles the Watcher had put up, letting the marigold petals fall from her palm and to the ground as she called out to the demon in question.
"Malphas", her voice echoed through the quiet backyard, with a commanding tone in it that made Giles smile proudly, "I summon you! Make your entrance into this world, and bow to my will!"
"Does it work that way?" Buffy whispered to Giles while the witch started adding Latin words she had no clue about, "she just tells him to bow to her will and he has to?"
"No, of course not", Giles whispered back, "she is adding the binding incantations right now, that's the Latin."
"Oh", Buffy replied, then flinched when all of a sudden, a bright, white light formed in the middle of the circle; dropping the last few marigold petals, Willow took a step back, raising one arm to shield her eyes from the glare as the air in the circle crackled and a strong wind came up, strong enough to make her hair stream out behind her.
For a few seconds, the wind grew even stronger, and the light even brighter; and then, with a loud crack that made the windows rattle in their frames, but luckily didn't break them, a shockingly large crow appeared in the circle, staring at Willow with hateful, beady eyes, the witch forcing herself to hold the gaze and to remain where she was, even though she wanted to move a few more steps back due to the sheer anger in the bird's gaze.
"Who are you, that you summon me", the crow demanded to know, in a surprisingly human sounding voice; that, combined with the size of the thing, nearly made the redhead step back again, but she remained where she was, still holding the demon's gaze as she replied. "I summoned you to break the spell your last summoner put on my partner."
"That is not what I asked", the crow replied, in a patronizing tone that made Willow raise an eyebrow, "so you are the one who disturbed my last summoner's final rest! I told you to leave me alone!"
"I'll leave you alone as soon as you did what I asked from you", the witch replied, giving her best to keep her voice calm – so far, the demon was condescending and patronizing, but at least, he hadn't tried to break out of the circle or any other way of attack, and she hoped that, if she didn't show her slight fear, he wouldn't do that in the future, either.
"What will I get in return?" the crow wanted to know in reply, cocking his head to one side and regarding her with his small black and beady eyes, "if you can make me an offer interesting enough, I might consider it."
Not being prepared for this, Willow just held the crow's gaze for a moment, not sure what to reply; before she could come up with anything which might appease to the demon, he flapped his wings and cawed loudly, hopping closer to the circle's edge afterwards and looking at her stonily.
"You summon me and have nothing to offer?" he spat, managing to sound so outraged that Willow did take a step back after all, "I shall have your heart for this! What an insult!"
He let out another loud caw, then lifted from the ground and tried to fly at her; the barrier she had put up with the spell and the help of the candles kept him in the circle, a flash of light briefly illuminating the darkness as Malphas hit the barrier, and he cawed angrily again, glaring at the witch once more.
"I have to admit", he then snarled, still looking daggers at her, "you knew what you were doing when you called me, unlike that last imbecile who called me to this pathetic world. But that won't protect you from my wrath!"
"Someone has a short temper", Buffy whispered to Giles while Willow moved closer to the circle again, feeling more confident now that the barrier was holding up, making sure to keep focusing on it so it wouldn't break after all while Malphas kept glaring at her, clearly not happy to be stuck there with her.
"What offer do you have in mind?" the redhead wanted to know, smiling charmingly at the bird, "tell me and we can negotiate. Otherwise, you'll just remain stuck in this circle."
"Well", Malphas replied after a moment, "my last summoner promised me his soul. I got it surprisingly quick, too. Are you willing to give me this?"
"No", the witch gave back at once, not even willing to consider this ludicrous offer; in reply, Maphas cawed again before he settled himself on the ground again, a nasty glint entering his eyes when he spoke up once more.
"Then I'll just have to take something else, I suppose… the lives of your friends should suffice", he let her know with a smug undertone; and before she could ask him how exactly he planned to do that, being stuck in the circle and all, the earth behind her and in front of the window where Xander, Dawn and Anya were still watching split open with a shockingly loud roar, a group of vaguely humanoid creatures digging themselves out of the ground while the demon laughed in malicious glee, his eyes glittering as he watched his creatures advanced, the witch just capable of staring in shock, never having expected something like this to happen.
"Willow!" Buffy's voice tore her out of her stupor, "get inside, help them in there, I'll take care of the ones outside!"
"Alright", the witch gave back after another moment, already starting to move; and while she hurried to the back door, she heard the sounds of fighting come up behind her as Buffy met the creatures Malphas had sent at them, low grunts and cries coming from them as her punches and kicks were delivered with painful aim.
Figuring that the Slayer could hold her own against those creatures, Willow focused on her part of the battle as she rushed into the house; she heard the chains clinking and clattering in the cellar, accompanied by the roars Pat was letting out down there, making her wonder if she had realized what was going on – before she entered the kitchen where Xander, Dawn and Anya were trying to fend off the creatures Malphas had sent, using various kitchen utensils to do so.
"Get out of here!" Willow snapped at them as she moved closer to one of the creatures, now having time to notice that they appeared to be made of earth and wood; using this to her advantage, she quickly conjured a fireball and, making sure to keep it in her hands until the last second, burned the one closest to her, asking herself if this was how Pat felt whenever she did this when the creature howled in agony and perished.
"I'll need powerful magic to get rid of these guys", she added when the trio didn't move, "so get out, I don't want you caught in the crossfire!"
"Sure, of course", Xander was the first one to react; he grabbed both Anya and Dawn, then dragged them out of the kitchen with him, taking them upstairs where they hid away in one of the bedrooms, hoping and praying that the creatures wouldn't get past Willow and up to them.
"Did you hear Pat down in the cellar?" Dawn wanted to know, looking at her friends with worry, "it sounded like she's going crazy down there, I wonder what's up with that."
"Left-over protection instinct perhaps", Anya shrugged, clearly not all too interested in this since she was way too busy with listening as hard as she could for any signs about how the fight was going downstairs, "or she just wants to kill something, you know how she always got cranky even when she still had her human side whenever she didn't beat anything up for too long."
"Let's hope she won't get out", Xander mumbled, flinching when a loud crash came from downstairs, hoping it had been caused by Willow flinging one of the creatures against the wall and not due to the other way round, "the last thing we need now is a crazy demon on the loose."
"Indeed", Anya nodded, then listened closely again; another crash came from downstairs, and she flinched, looking relieved though when she heard a howl similar to the one the first creature had let out when it had been killed.
"Seems like Willow is doing okay down there", she added, looking at the others; and at least for the moment, this was true, the witch having bound two of the four remaining creatures with her often used binding spell and fending off the other two with fire and lightning spells, giving her best to ignore the fact that sooner or later, she'd be drained and wouldn't be capable of doing any more magic for at least a few hours.
The fact that from the cellar, she could still hear Pat rage and roar, didn't make any of this easier for her; she kept hoping that the demon wouldn't break loose while she was battling the creatures Malphas had sent, or that at least, she would only do so once Buffy had gotten done with the ones outside and would be able to join and help her. Then, she pushed those thoughts aside, telling herself she had to focus on fighting off those creatures now; her concentration had slipped long enough though to let one of them get too close to her, and before she could throw a spell at it to force it back, it lashed out with an arm made of roots and earth and small stones, hitting her hard enough to send her a few steps back.
A small cry escaped her when her foot got caught on something and she flailed in an effort to keep her balance; despite her best tries though, she ended up falling over after all a few seconds later, stars exploding in front of her eyes when the back of her head hit the tiled floor hard. Groaning, she shook her head slightly to clear it, just in time to see the massive arm come rushing down; somehow, she managed to roll over in time, the hit landing on the floor instead of right in her face, accompanied by the sound of splintering wood, making her ask herself how hard that creature actually had tried to smash its arm into her.
Quickly, before another hit could try to be landed, she got up on all fours, then came to her feet; and just as she turned around, she got hit once more, low in the back this time, with enough force to throw her back down on her hands and knees, sharp pain racing through her kidneys as she gasped for air, a breathless cry escaping her when she felt wooden hands grab her and flip her around so she ended up flat on her back, the creature which had landed the blow crouching over her, forming a vague scissor shape with its fingers while it kept breathing "Heart… heart…" in a weak, but still audible, throaty voice.
"No", Willow pressed out between grit teeth, her mind racing as she tried hard to focus on a spell to keep the creature from harming her any further; and suddenly, loud growls echoed through the kitchen as a large and furry shape tackled the creature and threw it off the witch, the growls muted momentarily as Pat's head shot down and her jaws snapped shut, tearing through the wooden and earthy throat of the monster.
Even though she was glad that Pat had come to her rescue like this, Willow wasn't all too happy about this new development; at this very moment, the demon was tearing apart the creatures Malphas had sent after them with ease, but she had no idea what her partner might do once those had been gotten rid of, if she might turn on her then and thus, force her to fight back and maybe hurt her. At least for a little longer though, she realized that she didn't need to worry about this – the demon was too busy with getting rid of the creatures, fighting them with a viciousness Willow never had seen from her before, not even during the hardest and most dangerous fights, shrugging off all the blows she received as she tore and bit at them, bits and pieces of wood and clumps of earth soon littering the kitchen floor.
With a throaty snarl, the last remaining creature managed to land another hit, tearing a deep gash through the demon's fur and the skin beneath it; it bled for a few seconds, then closed again with the by now quite familiar fleshy noises while Pat just growled lowly in reply again as she grabbed the humanoid with both hands and, to Willow's surprise and slight shock, simply tore it in two, throwing the twitching halves aside carelessly afterwards.
Gulping nervously, the redhead realized that this had effectively rendered the last enemy in the room if not dead, then at least unable to fight; and clearly, her partner was aware of this as well, since after just standing there and growling lowly in the back of her throat for a few moments, she turned to look at Willow, her good eye glowing brightly red again, the witch finding herself mesmerized by the gaze as she asked herself what Pat would do now – if she'd attack her as she had attacked the creatures Malphas had sent, or if somehow, there still was enough of her left deep inside somewhere to keep her from doing this.
