Part 12

Stepping into Darkness

Part 12

~~~~~*****~~~~~

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, OW!"

Fliq laughed a little and placed an arm around Willow's shoulder as she nursed her left arm, "Come on, Red. No pain, no gain."

"How is it that even magickal tattoos have to hurt?" Willow asked, casting a glare at the demons through the window behind her.

"It's part of the deal. They give us what we want, and our pain gives them something to draw on for a while."

Willow looked surprised, "They're feeding on my pain?"

"Don't worry about it, Grayal demons harmless. They use the energy to help further their seeing abilities, helps them cheat at poker."

"Oh, right," Willow once again winced in pain as she looked at the black pentacle that was now tattooed on her arm. "So, this is like a pass? The whole, 'if your names not on the list...' turned into 'if the pain's not on your arm...'?"

Fliq laughed, "Something like that." They walked along the dark Sunnydale streets and Willow couldn't help but glance around, waiting for something to jump out from behind the nearest bush.

"Don't worry, Willow, It's opening night tonight. All the evil's headed to the same place as us."

"Somehow, that doesn't make me feel a whole lot better. In fact, I'm beginning to think this was a bad idea. I think I'll just..."

"Uh uh. Willow, you're not getting out of this." Fliq sighed, "Look, no one can hurt you in here, that's the rules." She grinned slyly, "If you ask me, I think you're freaking more about the outfit."

"Well, it's tight."

Fliq laughed, "Leather suits you, Will. Okay, that sounded more dodgy than I'd intended." They smiled at each other, and Fliq threw her arm around Willow again, "Come on, let's party."

They walked down the street and turned into a dark alley. At the bottom, Willow could see a blue mist rising from one of the buildings. It spread its tendrils out over the town of Sunnydale, reaching out its haunting fingers, beckoning the creatures of the night to follow. She breathed in the complete freedom she felt emanating from it and smiled.

"This is magickal," she whispered, awe in every word.

"That's the idea." They walked towards the building and Willow tensed as she saw the large man standing at the door. "Relax, Will. Just show him the tattoo and you'll be fine."

Awkwardly, Willow turned her arm to the man and he nodded gruffly before turning to look at Fliq. "Hey, how come yours is different than mine?" Willow asked, trying to investigate further, but Fliq pulled her off the shoulder sleeve further up to cover her tattoo, although the dark blue material was see through and did little to hide it.

" 'S not that different."

"And how come you've got a tattoo on Buffy's body?" she wondered, "You didn't get one done tonight."

"It's a magickal tattoo, Will, it goes with the person inside, not the person outside." Fliq waved her hand over her face murmuring the words of a simple glamour and soon Willow was looking at Fliq's real face, "This spell won't last long, so, come on, it's time to rock and roll."

~~~~~*****~~~~~

Spike sighed as he glanced around the room. He was trying to time his exit so that it didn't look too hasty, like he didn't have a place he wanted to go. *Last thing we need is the Slayer finding out about the damn place* he thought.

Giles was still pouring through books as Angel filled Cordelia in on what had happened. Dawn was sitting next to Buffy as they searched through spell books and Xander and Anya sat in the corner in silence, simply holding each other.

Giles sighed, "There's nothing here. The prophecy explains Vampire Willow but there's no mention of Slayers switching bodies."

"Can't we just do what we did to switch back Faith and Buffy?" Dawn asked, frowning.

"Not that simple, Dawnie," Buffy said, stroking her sister's hair, "That was a device, this was obviously a spell."

"And we need to know which one before we can do anything about it."

"It was a mixture of a time spell, a soul anchor and a rebirth spell."

All heads turned to Anya as she pulled herself away from Xander, "I'm sorry," she whispered to Buffy, "I lost you during the rebirthFliq said she was doing astral projectionI just grabbed the soul surrounded with the most power and I thought it would be youI must have gotten mixed up."

"Youyou did this?" Buffy asked, crossing the room.

"I meant to do it right but"

"Anya?" Xander sat up straight, "Why didn't you say anything?"

"Did you realize what you could have done?" Giles asked, frowning.

"Well, I'm sorry!" Anya stood up, staring at them all as her eyes teared up, "But I couldn't ask you anything! No one would tell me how to act, no one would explain it. Not after Joyce died, not even now. I tried to cope, but I don't understand and I don't want to. Everyone was crying, Xander was always upset and no one would talk about it. How was I supposed to deal with it?" The room was silent, filled only with Anya's quiet sobs. She turned to Buffy and whispered, "I remembered how to bring you back, so I did and I'm not sorry."

"Thank you." Buffy pulled her into a hug and Dawn joined them adding her own thank you. Everyone watched as the three girls cried together.

~~~~~*****~~~~~

"Look, can I please leave?"

"Why? You got some night on the town planned?" Xander asked, looking up from his book. Now that they knew what had happened, they were looking with a purposeall except Spike, who was itching to leave.

He turned to face Xander, "Maybe I do."

"Oh, I can see that working so well what with your impotence and all."

Spike growled, "I'm leaving."

~~~~~*****~~~~~

The music flowed through the room in a wave of magick. The smell of incense haunted the air. Willow smiled as she moved through the crowd, not giving a second thought to their species. She smiled and closed her eyes, inhaling the calmness, the sensuality and the unmistakable air of sexuality that flowed through the room like electricity.

The walls were decorated in deep, rich colors, the blues and reds encompassing the room in a comforting blanket. The lights danced over the walls as the beat of the music thumped in her chest. Willow ground her hips to the pulsing music, closing her eyes as she moved.

"You having a good time?" Willow jumped and turned around to see Fliq holding out a drink.

"I'm loving it," she shouted back over the music. "And I don't even feel self conscious!" she smiled.

"That's the great thing about the Sanctuary. You leave all that behind. No violence, nothing. Only creatures of the night can enter, and they have to be nice."

"How come you can enter?" Willow asked.

Fliq smiled a little, "I'm Wiccan. That's all the matters here. I'm a creature of the night and I can't harm anyone whilst in the Sanctuary, just the same as everyone else."

"What about your duties as a Slayer?"

"Well, I'm not the only Slayer so let's just say I kinda put my Sacred duty on the back burner for a while."

"You can do that?"

"Girls gotta have some fun. Right?" Willow smiled at her then suddenly her eyes widened as she looked over Fliq's shoulder.

"Hello, luv. Fancy meeting you here."

Fliq groaned and turned around, "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Same as you, short stuff. I plan to let my hair down and have a little fun before the big bad evil comes a-knocking."

Fliq smiled sadly at the familiar words, "Well, be careful, 'cause sometimes evil knocks in the wrong place."

"Is this a private moment? Should I maybe go away?" They turned to look at Willow. "'Cause I could go away."

"Don't be silly, pet."

"Yeah," Fliq's face opened into a wide grin as she spotted someone. "Afraid I'll have to love you and leave you, folks." She ran off towards the stage.

"Don't tell me she's still with him," Spike growled as Willow watched Fliq dancing with a man with long hair that she couldn't quite define the color of.

"Who's that?" she asked, still looking at Fliq. "Spike?" Willow turned to see the blond vampire gazing at her, taking in every inch of her body.

A smile twitched at his lips, "Love the outfit, Red. Very you."

Willow blushed then quickly scolded herself for allowing childish insecurities to bother her again. "Thank you. I thought so," She said regaining her confidence and shocking the vampire.

"Well, it's always the quiet ones, isn't it?"

Willow felt her anger flare, "Well, maybe I don't wanna wear fluffy stuff all the time, maybe I like leather, maybe I just want to leave everything behind tonight. And why is it so surprising that I might actually have a little confidence?"

"Well, maybe it's 'cause I'm so used to you being the Slayer's pet that, until recently, I've rarely seen you just be yourself, and those are the moments, pet. That's when you shine."

Willow was caught off guard, "You think I shine? You've spent time thinking about it? About me?"

Now it was Spike's turn to shift uncomfortably, "Well, I mean, I might've thought about it, occasionally."

"That's sweet." Spike growled a little at the comment, but knowing it was from Willow somehow made it less of an insult.

"Care for a dance?" Willow turned and found herself looking into the face of a green demon with three horns protruding the top of his head. It was leering at her and she shuddered.

"Uh...no thanks...eh...my boyfriend wants the next dance and he gets kinda...well, kinda ooky about me dancing with other...uh people," she stammered, praying that Spike would back her up and say that her pretend boyfriend wasn't someone to be messed with and that the demon should leave before he got back.

"Yeah," Willow silently thanked Spike. "So you'd better watch out, mate. If I find you anywhere near my girl again..." Willow's eyebrows shot up and her head started to spin with so many thoughts that she missed the end of Spike's tirade and soon found herself on the dance floor with Spike's arms around her, before she even realized that her feet had moved.

"Uh...thanks," she finally spoke, raising her head to look at him. "I mean, you didn't have to do that."

"What, and leave you with that?" Spike smiled. "I may be evil, love, but that would've been too sadistic, even for me."

Willow smiled at him before resting her head on his chest again. She closed her eyes and inhaled the magick surrounding them. Then her eyes opened and she looked up at him.

"Spike?"

"What, luv?"

"Where's your tattoo?" she asked looking at his bare arms. Spike smiled and wagged his eyebrows suggestively.

"Oh...never mind." Spike laughed as Willow rested her head. Suddenly she looked at him wide eyed.

"You flashed the bouncer?"

~~~~~*****~~~~~

Darkness surrounded the streets of Sunnydale. The streetlights seemed to dim as the blanket of shadows surrounded the town, waiting for the time to engulf it, as the inhabitants slept and the creatures of the night were on the grounds of peace, all oblivious to what was happening below them.

The darkness emanated from an aura of light. The small witch sat in perfect harmony with the Hellmouth. Around her, a red headed vampire wandered aimlessly around the room, moving to the rhythm of unheard music. She swayed her head to the side and smiled, feeling the time approach.

She laughed a little as visions of her world danced through her head, anxiously awaiting their arrival into this one. Glancing once more at the witch in the center of the room, again, she tiled her head to the side, sighed and smiled.

"Puppy."

~~~~~*****~~~~~

END OF PART 12

I wrote to Anya a few years ago asking if I could borrow the Sanctuary...just hope she remembers! (that shows you how long I've had this story planned!) and I promised her that I'd plug her story when I did! So read "Sanctuary" by Anya! It's really good...if a little unfinished...well it probably is finished now actually! ...have to check that out!