She didn't know how long she sat there, slowly and patiently working her magic, knowing healing was delicate work and that a million things could go wrong, by the time she heard the footsteps; automatically, she tensed up, protectively tightening her embrace around her lover, only to relax again when Brad and Chris rounded the corner, then both stopped dead in their tracks, clearly shocked by the scene.
"Oh my God", Brad finally was the one to break the silence, moving over to where Willow still sat in the supply closet, her partner lying halfway in her lap, "what… is she…?"
"No", Willow gave back, answering his question before he could finish it, "she's not, and I'm trying to keep her that way…"
"…how?" Chris wanted to know, making his way to them as well and crouching down next to Brad, his face paling visibly when he got a closer look at the wound, "with magic…?"
"Yes", the witch confirmed, trying hard to not let her concentration slip too much, "I just have to… stabilize her, and heal her enough so she'll wake up and be able to stand, it's… very delicate work…"
"Didn't look so delicate when you were healing me", Chris pointed out, the way he kept his gaze away from the dreadful injury making it clear that his words stemmed more from a need to take his mind off the sight than from a real interest; still, Willow answered him, keeping the brunt of her focus on the demon though, eager to make her well enough so she'd be able to heal the rest on her own.
"When we healed you, it was different", she let him know, "it's… an ability she has, not like my magic. So I have to be careful, or her… magical essence, I suppose, might clash with mine, and make her even worse…"
Briefly, she had a horrid mental image of the injury tearing and widening, spilling even more blood than it had so far, then hurriedly pushed it aside, telling herself that surely, this wouldn't happen – after all, it was going well so far, the flow of blood having stopped by now, her magic now working on closing the wound from within, at least enough so the demon would wake up and be capable of doing the rest.
"Who did this?" Brad wanted to know, frowning as an inconsistency about the whole situation came to him, "if it was… them, why leave her there? Why not take her along to eat her?"
"Probably too old for their liking", Willow mumbled without thinking, something she regretted moments later as now, both Chris and Brad were frowning, the quarterback saying out loud what they both were thinking.
"What do you mean, too old", he wanted to know, still refusing to take another look at the couple, keeping his gaze firmly fixed on the wall instead, "she's just a few years older than you."
"That's what she looks like", the witch gave back with a sigh, figuring that she might as well tell them the truth now, before they'd find out the hard way once Pat had woken up and would change to heal, "but… She's older than she looks. Much, much older."
"What are you talking about?" Brad wanted to know, exchanging a look with Chris, "you're not telling us she's… I don't know, immortal or something?"
"She used to be", Willow let them both know, ignoring the way they stared at her as if she was some sort of crazy person, briefly feeling a pang of regret again as she thought of how exactly her partner had lost her immortality, "she… gave it away. Long story. And she's over two hundred and forty… Even though she doesn't like to hear it."
"You're kidding, right", Chris flatly gave back, looking at her with disbelief all over his face, "you're upset cause she's all hurt or something, there's no way she's… that old."
"She's a demon", Willow sighed as an explanation, earning a surprised huff from the two young men, "they don't age the way we do. She didn't, either, as I said, she was immortal, but… She's not, not anymore."
"She can set her hands on fire", Brad threw in, remembering that he already had told Willow about this earlier, "I thought she's a witch, like Willow… And she did it again when they healed you. Only you didn't see cause your eyes were closed."
"Right", Chris gave back, frowning, "I can't deny you did something… supernatural when you healed my leg. You and her, or whatever. But all this talk about immortality, and demons? That's crazy. So why isn't she immortal anymore then? Her delusion about that ended and you just played along?"
"No", Willow snapped, harsher than she had intended, unable to believe his gall, insulting them both even now, when Pat was badly hurt and out cold, after what they both had done for him, "actually, I got killed and she gave it up to save me."
"…right", the quarterback repeated, then moved a few inches back, having seen something in her eyes he never would have expected there, something dark and dangerous and gruesome, willing to hurt him the moment he said the wrong thing now; and then, Willow took in a deep breath and whatever it was vanished from her gaze, her eyes filled with worry and love again as she glanced down on her lover.
"You must have quite the… interesting life", Brad mumbled, making the witch nod in response; she briefly glanced at him to smile at him, then concentrated on the healing again, slowly and carefully working her magic, still afraid of doing it too fast and making her lover worse instead of better.
To her dismay though, she only had a minute of focusing on the magic, then footsteps came up in the distance, tearing her out of her concentration yet again as she tensed up in fear; next to her, Brad and Chris set up straighter, as well, the three of them exchanging worried looks –before the quarterback started to look around, demanding to know in a low voice where her girlfriend's axe was.
"I don't know", she whispered back, glancing around uneasily as she heard the footsteps approach, "it wasn't here when I found her, they must have taken it…"
"Dammit", Chris grumbled, looking around for something else he could use as a weapon; before he could spot something though, the by now familiar snuffling sounds reached their ears, all three of them freezing when two of the creeps appeared at the other end of the hallway.
"You", one of them snarled, gesturing at the small group, "you come. Now."
"Oh God", Brad whimpered, looking as if he might faint on the spot; the two, one man and one woman, glared at him in response, then moved closer, managing to appear quite menacing even though none of them was carrying any weapons.
"Come", the woman snarled again, gesturing impatiently with one hand, baring black and ruined teeth when none of them made a move, "follow."
"Stay away", Chris brought out in a trembling voice in reply, coming to his feet and raising his fists in a helpless threat; in response, the man let out a snarl, moving to stand in front of the woman, briefly and absurdly reminding Willow of how Pat would do the same for her every time it looked as if fighting was about to happen.
"Come", the woman said again, a hint of impatience in her voice now, "or taken. Choice."
"Fuck you", Chris snapped in response; the woman let out another snarl – and then both of them moved forward with shocking speed, attacking the small group, making it clear that in the end, they never had had much of a choice about coming with them.
Even though she knew what being taken by those two would mean in the end, Willow couldn't bring herself to use magic on them, still remembering well what had happened the last time she had tried; and even though both Brad and Chris put up quite the fight, they ended up overpowered in the end, the man taking both of them out with frightening ease while the woman focused on the redhead, ignoring her attempts to fight back and, after a brief scuffle, slamming her head against the wall hard enough to daze her, even though it didn't quite knock her out.
Groaning, struggling to stay conscious, she felt the woman grab her collar, then she was dragged over the dusty ground, feeling blood trickle down her cheek; upon turning her head, she saw that at least, they weren't leaving her lover behind, the woman having a tight grip on her with her other hand and pulling her along.
Following the woman, the man was strolling along, showing his strength by how easily he was carrying Brad and Chris, having slung them over his shoulders; if one or both of them was still conscious, they didn't let it show, hanging in his grip limply.
Still fighting hard to stay conscious, there wasn't much Willow could do as the woman dragged Pat and her through the hallways; there were moments of more pain, when she thumped down a staircase, clearly not caring if she hurt the two by pulling them down the steps like that, then they finally had reached their destination – a large cellar room, where several more of the creeps were sitting and lying around, the stench of blood and rotten flesh nearly making the witch vomit as she glanced around, a helpless whimper escaping her when she spotted Sylvie and Barrold, the latter obviously dead, hanging from a hook in the ceiling, while the girl was still alive, crying softly as she laid in some sort of cage, blood dripping from the rather gruesome looking wounds in her legs.
Clearly intending to keep them all in the cage for later, the woman and the man moved over to it, the other creeps watching with interest, none of them making a move though; grunting, the woman hauled at first Willow, then Pat into the cage, the witch hurrying to cushion her lover's fall, not wanting her to get injured even worse, despite how drowsy she was still feeling after the hit to her head.
"Stay", the woman snarled while her companion dropped Chris and Brad, as well, "good."
Not sure what she should reply, since they didn't have much of a choice anyway, Willow scrambled away from her, then pulled the still unconscious demon into a tender embrace again; thanks to the rough treatment, the wound had started bleeding again, not as much as before, a mere trickle, but enough to make the redhead worry about it once more.
"We're in deep shit now", Brad whispered while Chris crawled over to where Sylvie was sitting, asking her in a low voice if she knew anything about the others; to his dismay, she didn't reply though, merely sobbing quietly, acting as if she hadn't even heard him.
"Yes", Willow mumbled in agreement, glancing at the men and women uneasily, a few of them looking back at her, but most paying them no attention at all, "even if we could get out of this cage, there are so many of them… I don't know if we…"
She trailed off as her wandering gaze fell on a fire the creeps had made at the far end of the room, and she saw what they were roasting over the flames, a strangled noise coming from her as she fought to keep her stomach's contents where they belonged.
"What?" Brad asked next to her, sounding alarmed, "what is it? Willow, what…"
Finally, he managed to follow her gaze, and saw what she had noticed, falling silent in shock; swallowing heavily, he tore his eyes away from the gruesome sight again, from the spit they had put up over the fire and the human torso which was slowly roasting over the flames, a small group of the creepy men and women watching with greedy looks in their deformed faces.
"You think that's…" Brad started, looking at the witch again, fighting hard to not glance at the gruesome display again; shrugging, Willow gave him a helpless look, once more realizing in how much trouble she and the others were.
"Could be", she then mumbled, keeping her voice low so Chris wouldn't hear and maybe freak out, "it's obviously from a female, you can see the…"
Before she could finish the sentence, she lost the battle against the nausea, somehow managing to turn away from Pat and him before she threw up, hot tears filling her eyes; and while the young man moved to hold her hair back, she could hear how the creeps started laughing, just a few at first, then more and more, until they were all howling with laughter, only making it clear once more that they couldn't expect even a bit of mercy from them.
