"So that's why you sent for me?" He looked downward, brooding face firmly in place. "Where's Randy?"
"Randy? Who's that?"
"You know. Her...boyfriend." Angel cringed at the word, almost as if it burned his tongue on the way out.
"Oh! Riley. Well, he's gone."
Pause.
"Oh." Angel fidgeted with the keys in his pocket.
Pause.
"Yeah." Xander rocked back and forth on his heels.
Pause.
"He's not...um...dead, is he?"
"Oh, no. Just left." The dark haired best friend didn't know how much he was allowed to explain. With Buffy out of asking reach at the moment, he decided it was best to leave it at that.
"How is she taking it?"
He stared into the vampire's brown eyes, trying to decipher what it was he really wanted to know. "Don't worry, Big Guy. She's not falling apart like when you left. She's holding her own this time." The boy lightly punched his counterpart's arm. Angel's eyes slowly rolled up to the smirking face. "Gee, thanks. That just brightened up my cold, dark world."
Xander left to rejoin the party while mumbling something about never managing to find the right thing to say and Anya starting to rub off on him.
Slowly, the vamp made his way over to his former lover, the apprehension tearing him apart. He knelt about a foot away from her body, not daring to touch, let alone kiss her. What had Spike actually been doing here, his face next to hers and her body on his lap? The way he had reacted to the assault on him was surely not the Spike he created and raised. Angel just shook his head slowly, unable to fathom the changes that had occurred since his move to L.A. Willow was wearing a totally different style of clothing and looking suspiciously intimate with that Tara girl. Xander hadn't lashed out at him like he usually did. There was a girl that everyone treated as Buffy's sister...although his memory of her was all too vague.
Then there was Spike. The vicious vampire, who had tried to kill Buffy too many times to remember. Yeah, he had learned all too well from Angelus. But now, something was not right. Something was off. Then he realized another item that just didn't fit. His smell. Spike didn't smell like a vampire anymore. Oh, sure, you could smell the demon that frolicked inside, but there was something missing...the hint of human blood. On any vampire, except for himself of course, one could smell that unmistakable salty, metallic tang. It sort of hung around a vamp like a cloud. No, Spike definitely had not been feeding from humans for some time now. Why, he could only guess.
"This is the normal life I left for you?"
He still did not dare to move closer and touch her. Angel just hung onto the feeling he had in his gut that her friends were probably not the only ones who had changed. They all had, including himself.
"Is she getting any worse?"
"Worse than comatose? That would be dead, my friend."
Tensions were running a bit too high for the rag-tag assembly of humans and demons. Within seconds, the room filled with a roar of insults and other not so nice words. It carried on for only a couple minutes when a voice rang out from the din.
"I got it!"
You could hear an athame drop. All eyes focused on the little ex-demon.
"The ritual is right here, although it doesn't really specify..." Spike snatched the book from her hands, making her jump, then glare at him evilly. Before he could read a single word, Angel grabbed the book from his possession. With the big vampire towering before her, Anya stood, crossed to him, and took the book back. "I said, I got it! Now, the two of you sit down and pretend to act civil." Xander held back the giggle in his throat, as well as the 'you go girl' that threatened to escape.
"Please continue Anya." Giles had lost all patience and was close to striking out at the two vampires.
"Well, as I was saying, this passage describes the spell pretty well, but is a bit sketchy on the whys and where arts."
"And the English translation would be...?" Xander was losing his tolerance for her quickly.
"It doesn't say who has to be involved, only that, 'she of utmost devotion, of divine adoration, of pure love enter with a symbol of her life and sacrifice it for him.'" She crinkled up her nose in confusion and frustration. "But this is what I get out of the rest of it. We need to cast three circles. One for Buffy, one for the...uh...other person, and one between them for a fire. The ingredients are all listed here too. Those can be the only things that feed the fire. Then, this phrase is chanted by the subject in the circle, and he/she offers up a thing of great value by throwing it onto the fire. I...I gather it is a thing of great emotional value that defines the person and symbolizes that part being sacrificed for the good of his/her love." She glanced around the room to make sure they were all following her.
"Very good job. Yes, this is excellent. Tara and Anya will set up for the spell while Dawn and Joyce, you should go home to retrieve some object that fits the book's description. Angel, do you have something with you that would be considered of great sentimental value?" He thought for a millisecond before he answered affirmatively.
Willow interjected. "It wouldn't hurt for us all to be prepared to do the spell, Giles." Rupert nodded.
Spike offered to escort the Summers' to their home. He then offered for Angel to accompany the witch and Xander, who gladly accepted. Angel wondered once again who the strange blonde vampire was.
The Magic Box eventually cleared out, leaving the two women behind to prepare. This did not take long. Anya deftly gathered the prescribed ingredients, depositing them at the front door. They then packed it all up and scouted out a clearing in the small patch of woods out back. Before the participants had returned, the young witch had cast all three circles and set up a proper area within one for the bonfire.
Frigid atmosphere darkened to grey and threatened to blacken further. There were no landmarks to confirm the feeling, but she swore she was falling. Not so much a free-fall, but a gradual sliding...slipping away. "Where is everyone?"
"Here we all are!" Xander remarked.
"Everyone follow me." Tara led the fully congregated group to the magickal spot, with Giles bringing up the rear carrying Buffy. They all stood in a semi-circle around the three rings. Anya held the book open to the chant and Tara double checked the arrangements. "Okay. We are ready to begin." She forced a smile, hoping that this would work.
Spike's mind revisited Anya's paraphrase, "...devotion...adoration...love."
He nervously lit a cigarette and took a long drag, in an attempt to ignore
the suggestions that Angel should be one to perform the spell.