Chapter Thirty-Four

"Bring on the night"

A/N The introduction of Kennedy, this shall be interesting, Kennedy and Tara together in a room. Yes drama shall ensue.

Sunnydale, the world without shrimp 2002

The table laden with candles and paper, the bright light flickering through the dark room as Tara sat at the head of the table with Willow sitting beside her. They had agreed it would be best placed for Tara to take the seat and perform the majority of the spell because she had a better foundation of magic and what they had learnt over their summer away was to rely on each other, not always taking the same roles, to share the burden of dark magic. Now Willow had this force inside of her lurking, her and Tara shared the deeper magical connection of blood. Their skin was rich with it and it fizzled when their hands met across the newspaper lain against the table.

Willow was to be her anchor, hold her hands and keep their eyes aligned as they began to cast. Pouring the sand in a circle, the light jumped out at the blonde. Her head shot upwards, Willow's back hit the wall as the spell over powered her. Tara tried to reign the energy inwards, taking the full force of the demon, red flashes sparking as the energy rushed inwards. The devil bursting out of her mouth her nostrils flared she stood bravely. Her eyes were red, her hair flying past her ears as a voice that wasn't hers bellowed from her mouth.

Tara stood leaning over the table, screaming at Buffy, the electricity had caught her, knocked her over as the spell raged inside Tara's body. Her hands were firmly planted as Willow managed to stand, then Xander hurled the power source at wall, smashing the energy and ending the spell. Tara dropped to the floor like a stone, the dark magic had consumed her, taken over her body and now it was there forever trapped because it was in Willow and now it was in her too. Her head gently lifting as she whimpered softly, Willow rushed to her side holding her head carefully as a pained look overtook her features.

"TARA!" She'd shouted as she watched the scene unfold, Tara had taken the power, taken the magic and now it was there in the room with them. She'd felt helpless like she'd felt when they were in the cemetery with Warren, Tara had tried to protect her and had gotten hurt, thrown across the headstones. All because she couldn't use her magic, her power that was so great but it hindered her because she couldn't embrace the darkness, it would take her.

"Oh Tara baby I'm so sorry." Willow cried over her lover, pressing kisses to her forehead as she came around, whispering sweet nothings because she had nothing other than words. The rest of the gang left the witches in peace, vacating the room because now the locator spell had failed they needed a failsafe, a backup to defeat the First, or more research. Anything.

"Will, I'm ok. Darling it's alright really." Tara said softly, cupping the side of Willow's face, giving her green eyes a reassuring hint of blue. Willow leaned down and kissed her, right as Buffy was about to walk back into the dining room, but now made a swift exit into the kitchen to give them some more space. Tara deepened the kiss, letting her tongue along her girlfriend's lower lip. The touch of love passing between them in comfort.

"So you're from England? When me and Willow went over the summer it was really nice, did you like it there?" Tara was questioning Annabelle as she tried to concentrate on making up her bed on the couch. She was just buying time as Willow and Kennedy were arguing over where everyone else was going to sleep. Tara left Annabelle alone when she heard Willow's voice raise a little too high and glanced over to see her girlfriend talking to Kennedy, who had a smirk on her face.

The group status' had not been quite established with the new girls yet, so just as Kennedy was suggesting Molly shouldn't sleep in their room, Tara decided to interject. Walking swiftly over the bottom of the stairs she laced her hands with Willow's and tried to find a place in the conversation. Willow looked at her rather rashly, not quite expecting this attack of protectiveness but she really should've started to assume it would happen when other girls were around them.

"Ok, so what about Molly down here, you with Dawn and Annabelle in my room." Willow suggested more lightheartedly, poking with her eyebrows, holding layers of sheets and pillow cases. Tara gave a little cough at the term 'my room' to which Willow gave her weird smile and corrected herself. "Our room. Sweetie what's the matter?" She looked at Tara then, who gave a quick nod to Kennedy's smirk and suddenly Willow understood she was just being overprotective about having Kennedy here, another lesbian in the house would be weird enough, but as oblivious as Willow was to her advances so far, in the four hours she'd been here. Tara could tell the brunette had a bit of a thing for the redhead.

"Oh you guys don't want Annabelle, she snores." Kennedy interrupted silent speech. So after a desperate huff from Willow, she handed the pile of sheets to Kennedy and let her decide on the sleeping arrangements. But later on she would have to talk to Tara about this, it might be kinda difficult to get anything done if she was hanging on her arm every minute of the day. And yes they were practically inseparable but not that inseparable. Willow needed her own coffee in the morning.

"It was so powerful Wil, so much, but I couldn't hold it in for longer." Tara said quietly, they were lying in bed whispering so that Kennedy - who had annoyingly placed herself in their room - wouldn't wake up and annoy them. She was already being that annoying. Well Tara thought she was annoying, Willow thought she was alright. Neither of them could sleep so they'd begun talking about the spell gone so wrong from the night before.

"But you did, you held the power back from attacking more of us baby, you're very strong. I could never have that kind of strength to keep it back." Willow replied, nuzzling her head onto Tara's shoulder, it was Christmas Eve apparently, so coldish not that anyone in the house was celebrating this year. Tara looked over at her girl, taking a serious tone in her voice taking Willow's cheek in her hand she gave a gentle sigh. It was so hard not to just kiss all those freckles but she had a point to make.

"No Willow, you quit magic, you had the absolute strength to stop doing spells for months at a time. It's almost impossible to do without breaking Willow. That and the constant saving the world." Tara saw the look on her girlfriend's face that meant 'I had help it wasn't just me.' And continued, "Willow people don't die, everyday you do something that helps someone to live in the future. And I couldn't be more proud of you, my Willow. And I get the privilege of being able to cuddle up to you every night and have you love me in return. You're strong, stronger than Buffy's superhuman strength." Tara said in one long drawn out breath, making Willow give up her fight for self-consciousness and just snuggle up against her other half. Gripping her arms tightly.

Then out of the quietness came a small snort, then a louder snort, then some breaths that would eventually form the pattern known as snoring. Apparently Kennedy was a snorer too. But by then Willow was asleep and Tara was left stuffing her ears into the pillow. So annoying.