Willow had to admit that she was surprised when they didn't take her to some dingy cellar or cave, as she had been expecting, but to a church in the outskirts of the town; the priest who had hurt her loved one so much was leading the way, two of his ugly monster men dragging the witch along between them as they followed, two more behind them to make sure she wouldn't get to escape even if she should be able to free herself from their grasp.
She knew that she probably should be scared out of her mind, especially after all the stuff the strange priest had been saying while they had taken her here, things about tainted blood, the darkness and the perfect sacrifice; still she found herself unable to feel afraid, her worry for Pat and the question if her loved one had survived weighing too heavy on her mind to let her think of anything else, even if it was the danger she might be in herself.
With a shudder, she remembered how the priest and his ugly cronies had barged into the apartment, disturbing the peaceful time she had been sharing with her lover as they just had been getting ready to leave and meet the others at the Magic Box; at first, it even had seemed as if Pat might be able to fight them off, aided by some spells Willow threw at the monster men, but then the priest had joined the fight, shocking and scaring the witch with how strong and brutal he was.
Without much trouble, he had picked the demon up by her throat, smacking her across the face twice hard enough to send blood splashing from her lips and nose; when she had tried to fight back, he had thrown her against the living room table hard enough to make the wood break beneath her as she landed on it, then had picked her up again and had hurled her against the wall, Willow remembering with painful clarity how the wall had cracked and how her loved one had slumped down against it, not moving anymore after she had taken that blow.
Still the priest had kicked her two more times, with a smile on his face that was just cruel enough to appear slightly insane; afterwards, he had nodded at his cronies, and they had dragged Willow off, keeping her from uttering any spells by hitting her whenever it seemed as if she'd try to do magic.
"You should clear your pretty head of your thoughts about that creature of Hell you're living with, in sin if I might add", the priest now stated, giving her a smirk while his monster men dragged her down the church's middle aisle and to the altar; it wasn't hard to tell that said altar had been desecrated, the chalice which normally had been used for the wine smashed and broken, the cross which had been hanging over the altar gone, the statues and candleholders ruined.
The altar itself had been covered with strange, warped symbols Willow couldn't quite place, even though she knew she should be able to, after the countless hours she had spent studying witchcraft; she found herself unable to look at the symbols for longer than a few seconds though, as their sight made her eyes water and her head hurt, making it clear to her how powerful they were.
"I didn't kill it", the priest went on as he stopped in front of the altar, looking down on it, running his hands over the smooth surface, "such hell spawn is hard to kill."
"Her", Willow daringly gave back, making the taller man turn and look at her with a raised eyebrow; forcing herself to hold his gaze, she continued, glad to keep the tremble of fear out of her voice. "She's not an it, and not a hell spawn."
"It's a demon", the priest replied, clearly unimpressed by her words, "and if I should happen to come across it again, I'll unleash the Lord's wrath on it. Now quit talking, my little lamb, you'll be prepared for the sacrifice now."
"Sacrifice?" the redhead repeated, unable to keep the fear out of her voice any longer; the priest had been rambling about sacrifices and blood while she had been taken to this godforsaken place, but she had been too distressed to pay much attention, something she was regretting deeply now.
"Yes", the priest smiled while his men started to drag the witch over to the altar, ignoring her feeble struggles, "didn't you listen on the way here? It's not polite to make a priest repeat himself, witch, but I'll make an exception for you… Seeing you, or better said your blood, will be my path to glory and salvation."
Smiling in that slightly insane way again, he stepped closer to her, reaching up with one hand to touch her cheek; she flinched back from his touch, and his smile widened – before he suddenly raked his nails over her skin, causing her to cry out at the unexpected pain, hot blood trickling down her cheek moments later, the priest giving her another smile while he moved his hand up to his mouth, the redhead's stomach turning when she watched him lick the blood – her blood – off his fingers.
"You've been with us before", he then stated, his hand dropping back down to dangle at his side, "on the dark side, and you killed… But then you stepped back into the light. This is a pity, I'm sure you would have made a great ally for my purpose here, but on the other hand, it's lucky, as well – your mind and soul might have returned to the light, but the darkness is still in your blood, tainting it… I can taste it."
With those words, he touched her cheek again, wiping some of her blood off and licking it from his finger with obvious joy; he sighed, almost ecstatic, then regained control over himself and smiled at her, the fear he could see in her eyes making his smile widen.
"You're perfect", he let her know, the admiration in his voice only helping to increase her fear, "your sacrifice… your blood… is perfect…"
He sighed with obvious pleasure, then looked at his cronies again and nodded; moments later, they dragged her behind the altar, her eyes widening when she saw what was waiting for her there.
"No", she brought out as they forced her down, two of them holding her down while the other two at first bound her arms, then her legs, a strangled sob escaping her as they lifted her, her heart racing in her chest as she fought to hold back her tears, hoping and praying that her friends soon would figure out something was wrong and would come to her aid, not sure if she'd be able to get out of this on her own.
"You know I'm only doing this to piss the guy you want off", Spike reminded Pat and Buffy for the tenth time, the demon holding back an annoyed grunt while the Slayer just sighed; the vampire threw her a short glance from underneath the blanket he had wrapped himself up in to keep the sunlight from reaching his skin, then shrugged, giving her a sardonic smirk afterwards.
"I don't like if someone tries to tell me what do to, even if he does so with a bloody call right into my mind", he added, something he also had said before; Buffy just nodded in reply while Pat lit up a cigarette beside her, giving her best to ignore the vampire as he went on talking about how annoying it had been to feel that call in his mind and how bravely he had fought to withstand it.
For the thousandth time, the demon cursed herself for her failure to protect Willow, knowing she'd never forgive herself if something should happen to the witch; the thought of how strong that priest had been still was disturbing, but on the other hand, she knew about his abnormal strength now and had been able to warn Buffy about it as well, the Slayer not all too worried about it – after all, she was stronger than the average human as well, and Pat had her demonic strength, the blonde sure that they'd be able to handle that guy together.
"Our first priority is to get Willow out", Buffy now spoke up next to her as for once, Spike had shut up, distracting her from her thoughts and worries and making her look at the smaller Slayer beside her. "Then, we can figure out who this guy is, what he wants and how to stop it. I'm taking a rather daring leap of faith here, but I'm quite sure that he'll need Willow for whatever he wants to do, so if we get her out, we'll probably buy some time, time which we'll be able to use to figure out how to beat him."
"Yeah", Pat agreed after a moment, finishing her cigarette and throwing it aside carelessly, "but don't forget how strong he is, we shouldn't underestimate him. His cronies are a piece of cake, but he himself… Well, let's say I bit off more than I could chew with him."
"Because he surprised you with his strength", Buffy insisted, not liking it to hear the demon talk like that. "Now that you know – that we know – we'll be prepared. And don't forget, we don't want to him fight him now, we just want to get Willow out."
"I don't think we'll have much of a choice", the demon pointed out in reply, raising an eyebrow at the blonde woman, "I doubt he'll just let us waltz in there and take Willow."
"Not likely", the Slayer had to admit, "but for now, all one of us needs to do is distract him long enough so the other one can get Willow out. I should be able to handle him long enough so you can take care of Willow, I am the Slayer, after all."
To her relief, Pat nodded after a moment, then lit up another cigarette; afterwards, they just walked next to each other in silence, following Spike as he led them to the outskirts of the town, both of them worrying about the redhead and hoping that they'd be there in time to get her out alive and alright.