Family relations chapter 10

Dawn stared at the warlock, the sword now hung limp in her hand and vaguely noted the blood pouring from the gash on the small of his back.

"Dawn!"

She jumped in fright as her sister's voice snapped her out of her shock, she turned around and saw that her sister, Xander and Anya were looking at her in surprise.

Faintly, she heard herself say, "I told you I wasn't helpless."

Anya cringed, "You didn't need to prove it by hacking someone to bits!" then she paused and continued enthusiastically. "Although, he was trying to kill Willow so I guess the hacking was called for!"

Xander blinked dubiously, "Ahn, whad'd I say 'bout tact." His touched his burning face carefully assessing the damage while looking at the teenager. "Da spell?"

Dawn gritted her teeth and looked out the window, she saw that the group of people were still working on the spell. "Levi and the others are finishing the spell."

Buffy wiped the blood from her face and said, "You guys, take Willow to the lounge; I want the warlock as far away from her as possible."

Dawn looked at her sister, "What about you?"

The Slayer looked at the twitching form of Athos and said, "I'm watching the Athos."

Dawn nodded.

Xander ran over to Willow and checked her over for other injuries besides bruises, there were none; so he scooped her up and secured her safely in his arms and went into the lounge, Anya and Dawn followed him to check on Giles.

Anya looked at the former-librarian concerned, "We should get him to the hospital, he might be seriously hurt! Well, even more than he was before. He could die!"

Xander and Dawn both cringed, "He's not going to die," said Dawn firmly.

"We'll ge' him to a hobi'al soon," said Xander, his speech still affected by both the swelling and pain.

The three of them jumped in surprise as a yell and a crash came from the kitchen, Xander told Dawn to wait with Giles and Willow while he and Anya went to check on Buffy.

Willow meanwhile started to move, she grimaced in pain and opened her eyes. She felt something stir in her, something unfamiliar yet familiar at the same time.

She felt the magic outside the house, her brother's magic.

She unconsciously touched Levi's magic with her own and explored it, she felt her brother's anger over what the warlock had done to his coven and what he'd tried to do to his sister.

She saw the Summers' residence through her brother's eyes and felt his coven next to him.

outside

Levi frowned slightly in confusion as he felt his magic react to something, his subconscious looked at the force that was touching his magic and felt the link with his sister flare violently and painfully.

The links connected and their magic flowed through the connection between them, he felt the dark magic in his sister touch him and intermingle with his own.

Pain ripped through his body and soul, he staggered backwards still continuing with the spell.

the lounge

Willow's eyes flashed black with power and she rose into a sitting position. Her face then contorted with pain.

the kitchen

Once they got to the kitchen they saw that their friend had Athos pinned to the floor, the warlock in question was writhing around on the ground and yelling in anger and pain.

'Maybe the spell's working,' thought Xander hopefully.

Buffy turned to Anya and Xander and said, "Lil' help here!"

It wasn't often that Buffy needed help physically, she was stronger physically than all the Scoobies put together, but as green energy started zapping at her they realized that now was one of those times that their leader needed them.

Athos was obviously trying to get the Slayer off him by using what little magic resided in his body, as most of the power in him was currently being drained by the spell.

As Buffy was zapped again she couldn't help falling backwards onto her back as her grip on Athos was released. Xander and Anya immediately lunged at the warlock and held him down while the Slayer shook off the magic and helped with holding him down.

Athos growled with rage and they could feel the power in the room, Buffy gritted her teeth and hoped that the spell would work fast.

They failed to notice Willow walk into the room, eyes and hair shifting from black to red and back again. Her magic filled the room along with some of Levi's.

Dawn was next to her looking confused and anxious.

Athos grinned suddenly at Buffy and the blonde felt a wave of dread flow through her, she looked into the warlock's eyes for a split second and saw the utter insanity in his soul reflected in his cold, black eyes, "Ah…shi-

Everything went white.

Outside

Just as the coven completed the spell they had watch in mute horror as the house turned into a ball of flame, they were blown backwards across the lawn by the force of the explosion; the heat was more than intense at the close range they were in.

Levi looked at the sky blankly, the oxygen knocked from his lungs, and blinked; he could feel something wrench at his soul but he didn't know what it was.

He grabbed his stomach and yelled in pain, he curled up into a ball still in pain and felt his magic screaming at him, burning him. His eyes flashed molten-white and then dulled as his consciousness slipped away as well as his magic.

several minutes later

Cody shook his friend's shoulder hard, trying to wake him up. The redhead was barely breathing, he doubted that he was injured physically which meant that what was happening to Levi was mystical; the hospital would be no good.

He cringed as he heard some more of the house cave in, he looked at the fiery mess it was now and shook his head in sadness, "Poor Levi," he muttered. Sally must have overheard him because she looked at him oddly.

"Save your sympathy for that lot still in the house, they're dead," she looked at the burning building.

"Levi's sister's dead though," he argued with his eyebrows raised. "He's gonna have a hard time of it for a while."

Sally nodded now agreeing, "I guess."

Harriet, a brunette girl in her early twenties was scouting around the house looking for any signs of life. There were none as of yet.

in the ruins of the house

Fire danced around the house searing and destroying everything in its path, parts of the top floor of the house fell through the ceiling and crashed into the ground floor. Sparks flew and a choking smoke filled the air.

All windows were shattered and some of the smoke filtered out of the house.

The lounge and the kitchen were both filled with smoke and fire, except for the two huge air bubbles keeping the destruction at bay.