Chapter 8

"Hello?" Dawn asked as she and Connor entered the hotel. "Anyone here?"

"Hey, Dawn," Xander said, coming down the stairs.

"Hey, Xander. Where is everyone?"

"Did you finish the spell?" Connor added.

"Yep. There was a bit of a mishap," he said as the teenagers groaned. Magic always came back to bite you. "But it's solved now. I'm not sure where everyone is, but we're staying the night, Dawn, so I know Willow's in her room."

"Cool," she nodded. "Do either of you want a drink?" Dawn asked.

Connor nodded. "Sure."

"I'll be in my room if you need me," Xander said as he headed back upstairs.

After saying brief good-byes, they headed their separate ways.

BtVS - A:tS - Sw9

Willow was unpacking the backpack she had stuffed with clothes before coming when she heard a knock on her open door.

"Knock, knock," Lorne said.

"Hey," she said, setting her backpack on the side of her bed.

"I was wondering if you could help me with something, sugarcakes."

"What is it?" she asked.

BtVS - A:tS - Sw9

"From beneath you, it devours?"

"I know, vague, right?" Buffy said.

Angel frowned. "That could be about anything that goes underground."

"I know!" Buffy started pacing. It was getting to her more than she wanted to let on. "The only way we're going to be able to figure it out is when the new Big Bad reveals itself, and that doesn't leave us much time to prepare."

"Buffy, breath." She started to calm down.

"We just have to look between the lines. If it keeps sending you these messages, then it's confident enough to taunt you. And you said you first heard it in a dream, so maybe it has a connection to those?"

Buffy stopped. "Wait. Dreams…" She suddenly groaned in aggravation. "There's something there, I just can't figure it out!" She sat down next to him.

"You're just stressed. You'll figure it out. You always do," Angel said.

"Thanks," she replied. "There's something about dreams, though," she muttered.

"And that's something to work with."

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"You want some marshmallows in your hot cocoa?" Dawn asked as she took them out of the cupboard.

"Sure," Connor responded.

Dawn smiled, suddenly lost in thought. "My mom used to put in these little tiny marshmallows in that would melt into this foam."

"Where is your mom?" Connor asked.

Dawn's smile disappeared. "She died a few years ago."

"I'm sorry."

"Thanks." Dawn brought the mugs over by the kettle before going back to the table they were sitting at. "You lost your mom, too, right?"

"I never even knew her," he responded.

"I met her once," Dawn suddenly realized.

Connor looked at her. "You did?"

"She had gotten Mom to invite her in, pretending she was there to study with Buffy."

"What happened?"

"The two of them entered the kitchen, she said hi to me and I went upstairs."

"That's it?" Connor asked. He knew Darla would have been a vampire at the time.

"That's all I saw," Dawn responded. She didn't really want to tell him about his mom biting her mom.

Connor hesitated. "What did she look like?"

"Well," Dawn said, "She had light blonde hair that went down to about here," she demonstrated with her hand, "Was wearing a Catholic school-girl uniform,"

Connor snorted at the irony.

"And her eyes were like yours. They seemed to penetrate right through you."

Connor looked over at her and Dawn found herself staring into the previously mentioned eyes as they started to lean into each other.

Then the kettle started whistling and they jumped apart.

"I'll get that," Dawn mumbled as she ran over to get the water. They drank their cocoa in silence.

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"I don't know if I can do this."

Lorne looked over at the red-headed witch.

"I'm sure you'll be peachy-keen, cupcake."

Willow took a deep breath. Lorne was probably right. There wasn't any dark magic in the spell.

She hesitantly spread out the map of the Hyperion and heavily sprinkled the crushed cloves over it. But it took confidence to do magic correctly, so she took a deep breath and spoke the spell with authority.

"Protect us from thy demon darkness

Show us where thou are.

If thee in our sanctuary,

Myrtales slightly char.

Ostendo."

Six small flames popped up on the map. Willow pointed to each in turn.

"You and me."

She pointed to the other two that were sitting next to each other.

"That's Angel's room," Lorne said.

"Buffy and Angel."

She moved to the one in the kitchen.

"Maybe Connor's back," Willow said. "He and Dawn would be back by now, and the kitchen's close to the entrance."

She pointed to the final one. It was far brighter than the others. Brighter than it should have been.

Lorne recognized whose room it was.

"Cordelia."

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! It's a bit shorter than normal, but it also came faster. For the first scene, I tried to make it like how they would act after they think the trouble is over, so they're pretty calm. Buffy is bringing Angel up to date on Sunnydale. She would want to have as many people's input as possible, and they're already there anyway. Willow's still nervous about her magic, but she's not going to put anyone in danger by not doing a spell she knows has no black magic in it. Also, I didn't mention it, but it seems totally plausible the Scoobies packed like they were going to stay the night.

Willow's Spell: This is something I made up. The cloves came from the fact the spell appears to be written for protection and cloves can also be used for the Furies' Sanctuary Spell. Myrtales are an order of flowering plants that cloves are in. Ostendo is Latin for "show" or "reveal".