Finding it hard to believe that their impression on the man and on his need to get Willow alone so he could steal her power, the redhead let her gaze wander through the store once more, as if she could have missed him at the first glance; the only persons she could see though were Anya behind the counter and, to her surprise, Jackie from the Wicca group, the girl standing up on the small balcony and browsing one of the books, so absorbed by it that she only waved distractedly when Willow called a greeting to her.
"You should greet me first", Anya reprimanded her immediately, leaving her place behind the counter and moving up to her, "we've been friends for years and you've only met her recently so, I'm more important and should be greeted first."
"Sorry", Willow gave back, deciding not to argue about the logic behind this, "hi, Anya."
"Hi, Willow", the ex-demon replied, now smiling again, "what are you doing here? Do you want to buy stuff?"
"Actually, no", the witch gave back, ignoring the way Anya huffed in reply to that, "I was hoping to meet someone here…"
"Whom?" Anya demanded to know, but before the redhead could answer, the door opened behind her and she turned around, suddenly sure that the man would come bursting in now and attack her; instead, she found herself looking at Buffy and Pat, the demon having quite an annoyed look on her face as she realized that the guy they had been after wasn't here, either.
"Dammit", the demon grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest, "what do we do now? Our great plan didn't work out so well."
"I have no idea", Willow sighed, looking at Anya again when the ex-demon demanded to know what plan Pat was talking about, her eyes doubling in size when the redhead told her.
"You were planning to fight this man here?!" she then cried out, sounding so incredulous that Pat found herself forced to fight down a chuckle, "what if you had damaged the merchandise?"
"We would have tried not to", Willow reassured her, "not that it matters anymore, he's not here and not at his house, we have no idea where he could be. I guess we have to go back home and wait after all…"
While Buffy and Pat nodded their agreement, she noticed movement on the balcony from the corner of her eye, automatically looking up; and the moment she did so, her gaze met Jackie's, her heart skipping a beat when she saw the darkness in the other girls eyes, the hairs on the back of her neck rising when she felt strong magical energy fill the air. She just had another moment to realize that the girl's gaze was moving from her to Buffy, then she already was moving, acting on pure instinct, getting in front of the Slayer just as Jackie shot the lightning bolt at the blonde, and then it hit her in the back, a hoarse cry escaping her as horrendous pain rushed all through her body.
Dimly, she heard how Pat let out a shockingly loud growl, then she fell, the Slayer's arms catching her moments later and keeping her from falling; frantically saying her name again and again, Buffy lowered herself to the ground with the witch in a tight grasp, snapping at Willow that she should open her eyes the moment she could be sure she wouldn't accidentally drop the redhead. Even though each eyelid seemed to weigh a ton, she forced herself to do just that, somehow managing to open her eyes, groaning softly; the pain was still raging through her body, but slowly it was fading, too slow for her liking though.
The crackling sounds of the lightning spell came up again, making her look up at the balcony; there, Jackie stood, grinning widely as she shot lightning at the advancing demon, even though her grin faded slowly when, even though she was rushing up the stairs, Pat managed to duck, the magic hitting the wooden banister instead of her, leaving a large scorch mark, smoke curling from it, prompting Anya to cry out in dismay at the damage which was done to her store.
"…tell… don't… kill…" Willow brought out, shocked at how hard it was for her to speak; to her relief, Buffy realized quickly what she was trying to say though, nodding reassuringly at her before she raised her voice, hoping that despite the rage which undoubtedly had taken over, Pat would hear her and take her words to heart. "Pat! Don't kill her, it's not her, it's the spirit!"
To her relief, the demon reacted immediately, even though it turned out to be not so good for her; her by now flaming fist froze in mid-air, and Jackie took the chance given by throwing a punch herself, hitting the taller woman in the lower jaw, her teeth clicking audibly as they were smashed together, the taste of blood filling her mouth a second later, making her realize that she had bitten her tongue.
Growling again, she spat a mouthful of blood on the ground, then dodged quickly as Jackie threw another punch at her; she had a second to wonder why the girl – or the spirit within her – wasn't using any magic on her, then Jackie suddenly thrust both hands forward, a burst of energy hitting the demon and sending her backwards the blink of an eye later, throwing her against the wooden banister hard enough to make it break, the demon crashing to the ground below the balcony moments after the spell had been sent against her. With another growl, she sprang to her feet again, only to be thrown backwards once more moments later as another burst of energy hit her, ending up crashing into one of the bookshelves, the shelf toppling over at the impact and books falling everywhere.
"Stop it!" Anya cried, looking from the demon up at the balcony where Jackie still was standing, "you're ruining my store…!"
"Is that all you worry about?" Buffy snapped, briefly making the ex-demon look at her; then, they both were distracted from Anya's lack of sensitivity again when Jackie let out a shrill giggle up on the balcony and, with a short movement of her hands, made a large and pointy splinter of the banister rise up in the air, a malicious smirk appearing on her face – before she made a sharp downward gesture with one hand, the splinter shooting away from her and towards Pat the blink of an eye later.
Reacting purely on instinct and without even thinking about it for a second, the demon grabbed one of the books from the ground and nearly jerked it upwards in front of her face, the splinter embedding itself deep in the book seconds later, the sharp tip stopping mere millimetres in front of her good eye.
Letting out a heavy breath, she threw the ruined book aside, ignoring the cry Anya let out at the sight while she came to her feet once more; this time she somehow managed to duck when Jackie shot another spell at her, the magic hitting yet another bookshelf instead and making it fall, as well, prompting another yell from the ex-demon.
"Help Pat to distract her", Willow groaned, looking up at her friend, "I'll need a few more minutes, then I can start the spell…"
For a moment, Buffy looked worried and as if she might protest; then, she nodded and came to her feet, quickly hurrying to the demon's side, only to be forced to drop down to the ground when Jackie shot yet another spell at them.
"I'm not sure how we're supposed to do it, but Willow wants us to distract her", the Slayer whispered to Pat while the demon picked up one of the thick books and hurled it at the girl, giving them a few more moments to come up with something as Jackie had to duck or it would have smacked her right in the face, "for a few more minutes, until she can do the spell…"
"The question is how, if we're not supposed to hurt her", the demon grumbled in reply, picking up another book and throwing it when Jackie straightened up again, forcing her to duck once more, "I don't just want to run around here and act as a target for her."
"Me neither", Buffy grimaced, "we have to get up there or she'll go on blasting her spells at us, until one of us gets seriously hurt."
"I'll go up the stairs", Pat gave back after a moment, "if she hurts me, I can handle it. You'll have to try and get up some other way without her noticing…"
"Alright", the blonde agreed after a moment, "but be careful, try to not let her give you another heart attack."
"Will do", Pat smirked, then started moving a second later, dodging yet another spell as she approached the stairs leading up to the small balcony, her approach making Jackie laugh, the spirit inside her clearly not able to figure out what the two were planning.
"How brave you are", she mocked, watching how the taller woman started moving up the stairs, "running at me head-on. Aren't you afraid I'll just fry you with lightning, like I did with your girl?"
Giving her best to block the girl's view on Buffy, Pat just let out a low growl in reply; Jackie's smirk widened slightly, then she brought up her hand again, so focused on the demon that she didn't see how Buffy hurried to the part of the balcony where the banister had been broken, jumping up and pulling herself up on the balcony easily, giving her best to remain quiet as she started sneaking up on the girl.
To her relief, Jackie was so focused on Pat that she didn't even notice her until it was too late; a second before she wanted to throw another spell at the demon, Buffy tackled her from behind and threw her to the ground, giving the demon the chance to quickly rush up the steps and join her up there, both of them taking a firm hold on the girl's arms to keep her from doing any more spells as they jerked her to her feet.
Below them, Willow had managed to come to her feet again by now, mumbling the spell as fast as she could without taking the risk of messing something up; her concentration nearly faltered when she saw how Jackie let out another shriek, then the air all around the possessed girl to explode, the burst of magic sending both Buffy and Pat flying backwards, the Slayer falling off the balcony and ending up on the ground while the demon got flung into the wall behind her, a low grunt escaping her at the impact.
"I've had enough of you!" Jackie shouted, her eyes blazing with anger as she looked from the Slayer to the demon, to Willow's relief fully ignoring her, "I'm gonna send both of you to Hell…!"
With those words, she brought her hands up again, her eyes darkening to a deep black as she started muttering a spell; before she could even get halfway done with it though, Willow said the last word of her chant, the darkness vanishing from Jackie's eyes within the split of a second as the redhead's magic took effect.
The moment the magic started working on the girl, both Buffy and Pat forgot about the pain which had been inflicted on them not even a minute ago; they both came to their feet without even fully realizing what they were doing, staring with wide eyes as they watched how Jackie's head got thrown back into her neck and her mouth opened impossibly wide, brightly glowing, white light bursting from her mouth and eyes moments later.
"Jesus Christ", Buffy brought out, stopping at the bottom of the stairs, not sure if she should go up there or not; up on the balcony, Pat looked just as insecure, the decision taking from her a second later though when the light suddenly started to form the vague outline of a person, then stopped emerging from the girl and her legs gave in beneath her, her eyes rolling back into her head as she fainted.
Once again, the demon reacted without thinking, shooting forward and catching the now unconscious girl before she hit the ground; next to her, the bright light kept wavering and moving, as if it was trying to form the shape of a man, but didn't quite succeed.
"Willow!" Buffy nearly snapped as she finally started rushing up the stairs, "make him solid! Now!"
Nodding, the redhead gave her best to ignore how draining the exorcism spell had been; now that she had performed it, she knew why it had been the one which could be done the quickest – it worked very fast after the last word had been said, but it also had taken a great toll on her strength. Still she brought her hand up again, briefly closing her eyes as she concentrated; momentarily, she was relieved about the facts that she had done the spell to solidify spirits once before and that, thanks to how her power had grown since then, it was fairly easy for her to perform it now, then she opened her eyes again and focused on the wavering form up on the balcony, her voice sharp and full of strength when she said "Solid", smiling slightly when immediately, the spell took effect, a strange whooshing sound filling the air as the figure of light turned into the body of a man.
"No!" he shouted, the panic she suddenly could hear in his voice making her smile slightly maliciously – and then Buffy tackled him and they both went down, the Slayer landing a painful punch moments later. Not wanting to miss out on the action, Pat quickly, but still carefully lowered Jackie on the ground, then hurried over to where the blonde was wrestling with her opponent; just when she reached them, the man regained enough of his sense to use some of his magic on the Slayer, sending her off him and to the ground with one of his energy spells, her head hitting the edge of one of the shelves which had been toppled over, hard enough to knock her out.
Satisfied, the man just had a second to look at Pat, then got kicked in the face by an enraged demon the blink of an eye later, a hoarse cry escaping him as he felt several of his teeth shatter. Groaning, he tried to come to his feet after rolling over; Pat waited until he had managed to get on his hands and knees, then landed another kick in his ribcage, hard enough that he actually was lifted off the ground for a second before he slumped back down, crying out in pain once more.
"Not so tough now, are you", the demon snarled, bending down to grab him at the back of the neck, since unfortunately, he had materialized without any clothes; with an angered grunt, his hand suddenly shot out and grabbed her wrist before she could get hold of him, his eyes darkening again as he sent a bolt of lightning up her arm, a low bang echoing through the store as the magic hit her and sent her backwards again, smoke rising from her clothes as she hit the ground.
Crying out her girlfriend's name, Willow rushed to the bottom of the stairs as well now, forgetting how drained she had been feeling when saw her partner go down; briefly, her eyes narrowed, focusing on the naked man on the ground, and seconds later, thick vines grew out of the wooden floor and wrapped around his arms and legs, making him cry out as well when they made him immobile. Ignoring him and the way he weakly struggled against the vines binding him, the witch hurried up the stairs as fast as she could and made her way to where the demon was struggling to get to her feet; to her relief, the spell hadn't done as much damage as she had feared when she had seen it hit, Pat managing to stand up once Willow had reached her and had helped her with getting up.
"You can't do this to me!" the man shouted, still struggling against the vines, "you don't have enough power to do this…!"
"Maybe I have more power than you thought", Willow gave back, making sure that her partner was fine before she focused on the man again, briefly focusing on the vines to ensure herself that they wouldn't fade away or something equally unpleasant which would set the man free again; in response, the killer glared at her with so much hate in his eyes that it sent cold shivers down her spine – before he suddenly opened his mouth wide and made some sort of strange coughing noise in the back of his throat, a bright ball of energy shooting from his mouth moments later and hitting her in the chest, sending her backwards and against Pat, the taller woman thankfully reacting fast enough to catch her and to keep them both from falling.
"I have more power than you could ever imagine, you little slut", he snapped, the vines puffing away into nothingness moments later, making the redhead realize with horror that, with his words, he merely had distracted her so he could recharge his energies, "no matter how much of that dark magic you absorbed back then, your power is nothing compared to mine!"
Still glaring at her, he came to his feet, taking a few steps closer to her; he raised his hand to perform yet another spell, and all at once, it was Willow's turn to let her instincts take over, her foot suddenly shooting up and kicking him right in the crotch with painful aim.
"Holy shit!" she heard Pat call out behind her, the demon clearly surprised by this unexpected display of physical violence her girlfriend just had given; startled herself by what she had done, Willow took a step back again while the man clutches his private parts, slowly sinking to his knees.
"Holy shit", the demon repeated behind her, briefly making her wonder if she had lost the rest of her vocabulary; apparently though, the word pool of the man had been reduced even further, since all he could let out was a low "Ugh", staring at the witch with eyes as big as saucers – before he fell over, ending up flat on his back, still clutching his mistreated parts.
Down on the ground floor, Buffy finally came back around, sitting up and groggily shaking her head; she regained her senses surprisingly quick though, looking up at the balcony, her eyes widening as well when she saw the guy on the ground and Willow and Pat just standing there, the demon looking at the witch as if she suddenly had grown an extra head.
Deciding that she could find out later what had happened, the Slayer quickly came to her feet; she pulled out the dagger she had brought along for the fight, one of the few weapons she owned which easily could be concealed, then rushed up the stairs and joined her friends there, giving Willow a questioning look, the witch nodding a moment later.
Tightening her grip on the dagger, Buffy swiftly moved closer to the killer and brought her weapon up; his eyes widened when he saw it glistening weakly in the sunlight, but all he could produce when he opened his mouth was yet another helpless croak, a sound which quickly turned into wet gurgles as Buffy brought the blade down and it embedded itself deep in his chest, stabbing him right through the heart and sending him into the darkness he had been avoiding for so long.