"Fancy", Willow whispered to her partner and her best friend half an hour of walking later; Valeriana had led them to the outskirts of Sunnydale, to one of the mansions there which had been empty for years, the brunette now turning her head and smiling at the witch, with a twinkle in her eyes that signalled she had heard, even though Willow had tried to avoid just that.
"Please, be our guests", the Alpha woman now said, pushing the door open and gesturing at the small room behind it, "Derek, take our guests to the living room and offer them refreshments, alright?"
Clearly not happy with this, Derek grumbled in reply, but didn't protest again; instead, he told the three women to follow them, and they did so after a moment, unknowingly sharing the thought if this really had been such a good idea; on the other hand though, if the shapeshifters had been planning to kill them, they could have done so about a hundred times by now, especially if they all changed into such big and strong animals as the still unconscious panther two of them were carrying between them.
"Have a seat, please", the young man now distracted them from these ponderings, gesturing at the comfortable looking couches and chairs in the living room, "what would you like to drink? We have water and tea."
"Water's fine", Pat mumbled, making the other two nod; then, while Derek hurried off to get the drinks, Buffy sat down in one of the armchairs while Willow and Pat chose one of the couches, the redhead immediately grasping her partner's hand and holding it the moment they had made themselves comfortable.
"I wonder how many of them are here", Buffy mumbled, looking around, "did you count them when we ran into them the first time, Pat?"
"Yes", the demon gave back, fidgeting as she tried to figure out if she was allowed to smoke in the mansion or not, "there were eight. Five today."
"I counted them today, too", Buffy replied with a raised eyebrow, "no need to tell me that."
They both fell silent as Derek came back, carrying a large glass pitcher with water, ice cubes and a few slices of lemon in it, along with four glasses; he put them down on the table, then filled them before he retreated without another word, Valeriana joining them instead a few moments later.
"So", Buffy started as the brunette sat down, "spill the beans. What exactly is going on?"
"I was hoping we'd be able to solve this without any… outsiders interfering, no offense", Valeriana gave back, helping herself to one of the glasses and drinking from it, prompting the other three to do the same, "but unfortunately, now that you were attacked, it is understandable that you want to know what is happening here."
"Indeed", Willow nodded, "and you can be glad that your panther there only bit Pat, who's a demon, it'd be bad if she'd gotten Buffy or me and would have turned us into shapeshifters as well."
"Oh, it doesn't work that way", the brunette replied at once, making the three women give her surprised looks, "we are not like the werewolves, a bite from one of us is dangerous and painful, but it doesn't give the victim any of our abilities."
"Then how are you… made?" Pat wanted to know, frowning, "with a curse? Like me?"
"This is how the first one of us was made, centuries ago", Valeriana let her know, smiling at her again, "and then, his children had those abilities, and the children of his children, and so on. We are born as shapeshifters, and learn to control our abilities and our animal sides from the moment on we are old enough to think. Which is why the way Simone was behaving is very unsettling."
"Simone, the panther lady?" Buffy guessed in reply, making the brunette nod, a hint of regret in her voice when she spoke on. "Yes, exactly. She's one of two panthers in our group, the rest of us are wolves, which is why we refer to ourselves as pack and to our lovers as mates. There are many more of us where we usually live, but of course not all of us could come here, and since we wolves are the best at tracking…"
"And the other panther who came along?" Pat asked, raising an eyebrow, "he's that Simone's mate then?"
"Yes", Valeriana nodded at once, "we are hoping that his presence will help to calm her down again, even though our hopes are not high. It's been centuries since one of us has gone wild like this."
"So what will you do with her now?" Buffy wanted to know, frowning, "when we met the first time, you spoke of neutralizing her, if I remember correctly."
"Indeed I did", Valeriana nodded, taking another sip of her drink before she went on, "but I did not mean that we will kill her, if this is what you fear. What is happening to her is not her fault, and we need to find out what exactly is the cause of this behaviour."
"You didn't happen to mess around with a demon named Malphas, right?" Willow asked, shrugging when the brunette gave her a confused look and smiling at her lopsidedly as she quickly explained the reason for her question.
"Oh", Valeriana said after she had finished the brief tale, looking at Pat, "interesting. You must have felt quite bad after this."
"Oh I did", the demon confirmed, remembering how she had broken down crying in her partner's arms and grimacing at the memory, "it was very unpleasant, believe me. I suppose your Simone will feel the same way, if you manage to… cure her."
"Maybe I can help with that", Willow threw in before the Alpha woman of the pack could reply anything, "if you let me check on her, maybe I can do something for her with my magic, you know, Buffy didn't exaggerate when she told you how powerful I am."
"This is one of the reasons why we invited you here", Valeriana admitted in reply, "when we found out that Simone ran off to Sunnydale, we of course checked for any possible allies here, and the three of you were the first and most interesting thing we found."
"I get the feeling you knew a lot more about us than we still know about you", Pat grumbled, clearly not liking this, "and if you knew that we might be capable of helping you out, why didn't you ask us in the first place, but told us it's none of our business?"
"Wolves are very proud", Valeriana admitted in reply, "and so are panthers. Don't even get me started on the other cats, or on how crazy hyenas can be. Anyway, back to your question, it's not easy for us to ask for help, but when we realized that, even if we should be able to capture Simone, we might not be able to help her, we realized we have no other choice."
"And still you waited until I offered it", Willow shook her head, "what if I hadn't done that?"
"Then I would have been forced to ask you, which is quite hard for me", Valeriana admitted, fidgeting on her seat a bit uncomfortably, "so I'm very glad that you offered your help before I had to do so. Thank you."
"Don't thank me too early", Willow replied with a sigh, "I'm not sure yet if I can help her. What exactly happened before she went wild? Anything unusual?"
"No", Valeriana shook her head, "nothing. She just shifted one day, as we do regularly to keep up the control after the transformation, if one doesn't shift for too long, the animal might take over after the change, and then she just… went wild. As if she hadn't changed in years. Is it the same for you, Pat?"
"No", the demon replied at once, "there are times when I don't demon out in months, but it doesn't make a difference. I don't change into an animal, exactly, though, so…"
"Which is why Derek refuses to fully accept you as one of us", Valeriana rolled her eyes, briefly making the other three women smirk at her obvious annoyance, "please forgive his continued hostility against you, but he's quite conservative about this topic."
"I can handle him", Pat shrugged, "no worries, but just a word of warning, if he decides to attack me some day, I won't hold back."
"He won't attack you", Valeriana replied at once, sounding a bit startled about the fact that the demon might think that, "I am the Alpha of this group, and as long as he doesn't have my permission, he won't attack anyone."
"You really have the whole wolf thing going, eh", Pat commented, smirking slightly, "Alphas, pack, mates…"
"It has been this way for centuries", the brunette shrugged in reply, "and we don't see a reason to change it. Now, if all your questions have been answered, shall we go and see if you can do anything for Simone, Willow?"
"Sure", the witch agreed after exchanging a quick look with both her partner and Buffy, "let's go then."
Smiling again, Valeriana got up from her seat, letting the small group know that they could take their drinks along if they wanted; they all picked up their glasses in reply, then the brunette asked them to follow her and led them out of the living room and downstairs into the big cellar of the mansion, the three women exchanging uneasy looks as they wondered what might await them there now.
