Disclaimer: Any of the characters actually in the Buffy TV show don't belong to me. That's pretty much everyone; I wish they belonged to me but I'm not that lucky.
NOTE: This story takes place after "Wrecked", since there aren't going to be new episodes for a few weeks I figured there would be a good place to start. So, the story takes place after "Wrecked", Willow is still struggling with not using magic, Dawn still has a fractured arm and Buffy still hates Spike.

Chapter One




The sun shown down on the somewhat dusty streets of Sunnydale; birds chirped in their trees and people greeted each other cheerily as they passed by on the streets. It was a prefect day. Too prefect for Anya as she fumbled for the key to The Magic Box, which was the shop she owned in downtown Sunnydale.
Today was Saturday but Anya still had to wake up early (10:00 A.M. is early enough for her) and drag herself down to the shop no one ever came to unless it was Halloween and people were looking for last minute things to spice up their already over decorated houses. The only good part about the morning was the fact that her fiancé, Xander, was going to help her in the store that day.
Anya finally pulled out the keys to the shop and jammed them into the lock. She opened the door and was surprised to find Xander already seated at one of the tables (that they constantly used to do research) and going through inventory records.
When she shut the door, Xander turned around and smiled a greeting at his fiancé. Upon looking at Anya, it was clear to Xander that she was in a bad mood. This was nothing new because Anya was often in a bad mood and about a million things could cause them.
Xander took his pick at what might have caused her bad mood and stood up and walked over to Anya.
"Sorry I left without you, I decided to get here early and do a little bit of work." Xander said and kissed Anya lightly on the lips.
Anya smiled and shrugged. "Whatever, less work for me." She said and the two of them returned to the table to resume the inventory check.
"Why do we have so much stuff when no one ever comes to buy it." Anya muttered, more to herself then to Xander.
"Well, sometimes we use the store to fight evil. Remember?" Xander answered, looking over at Anya.
Before Anya could reply, they were startled by the opening and closing of the door. Anya and Xander turned around and were surprised to see someone they didn't know enter the store. It was most surprising because they finally had a visitor that wasn't Buffy or someone of the like.
Their visitor was a girl that looked about their age; she had long light brown hair that was slightly curled at the ends and bounced when she walked. She was tall and skinny; her skin was pale and slick. Her face was perfectly shaped and was blemish and freckle free. Her hair framed her face and brought out her bright blue eyes. She wore a tight red spaghetti-strap top and hip-hugging jeans. Her outfit complemented her figure perfectly.
Anya was jealous.
The ex-demon took her gaze away from their visitor and turned it to Xander, who was staring at the guest like she was a goddess or something. It was like looking at her was his sole purpose in life.
Anya tossed one of the inventory record books at her fiancé and yelled his name. Xander snapped his gaze away from the visitor and turned it to Anya.
"What?" He hissed. Before waiting for an answer, Xander walked over to greet the customer.
"Hi and welcome to the Magic Box, what can I help you with?" Xander asked and took the visitor's hand and shook it.
Anya hurriedly joined Xander's side and pulled his hand away from the hand of their guest.
"Hi, my name is.." The guest started but Anya cut her off.
"He didn't ask you what your name was, he asked you how we could help you. So, how can we? Want to cast a vengeance spell?" Anya asked.
"No, exactly." The visitor looked slightly surprised. "Exactly I need information on this stone, an amulet really. I need to find some books…" The guest began but once again she was cut off, this time by Xander.
"Books? Books, we have lots of books." Xander said and turned and hurried to bookshelf were the prized occult books were kept.
Anya and the visitor stared at Xander as he began to pull books from the shelf and carry them back to the visitor. He began piling the books in her slender arms and kept returning to the shelves for more.
Anya watched with amusement and every once and a while took a single book away from the guest and placed them on a side table. When the guest's arms began to sag with the weight, Anya finally put an end to it.
"Xander! Stop!" Anya commanded.
Xander looked over at the two girls and flushed with embarrassment. "Sorry about that." He said and began helping the girl get rid of the books. "You never said what book you wanted." Xander added.
"That's okay." The girl said. Xander thought he could never get tried of listening to her speak.
The girl placed all the books on the table in three equal stacks.
"So, what did you say your name was?" Xander asked.
The girl turned to face him and Anya. "I didn't." She said and shot a look at Anya. "But my name is Daralyn." She said.
"That's a pretty name." Xander remarked, giving Daralyn his best smile.
Daralyn made a face. "No, you're just saying that. I hate my name. So, you can call me Darry, all my friends do. Well, they would if I had any friends." She said.
"Darry." Xander said, as though he was testing the name. "So, what book are you looking for?" He asked.
"A book about an amulet." Darry answered and began looking at the spines of the books.
"What sort of amulet?" Anya asked, suddenly interested in what Darry was looking for.
"A special amulet, I'm not sure what it does exactly. You see, I'm into mythology and I thought the amulet would be an interesting thing to look up." Darry answered.
After a few minutes of searching, the three couldn't find any information about any type of amulet. The disappointment on Darry's face made Xander wish he could do something to help her.
He and Anya began carrying books back to their shelves while Darry looked around, interested in everything in the shop.
"We should try to help her find stuff about her amulet." Xander whispered to Anya as he slid a book into the shelf.
"We tried and we couldn't find anything, there's nothing we can do Xander." Anya whispered and frowned at her fiancé.
"Come on Anya, people come into our store and we help them and they leave. We haven't been able to help her though." Xander said, letting the words fall short, like he wanted to finish them but couldn't think of what to say.
"Well, what do you want to do then?" Anya asked, putting the last book away. "Like I said, we tried."
Xander thought for a minute as he put the last book away that he held in his hand. "Do you think Willow would have any books on amulets?" Xander asked, though it wasn't much of a question.
"You're suggesting we ask Willow if she can help Darry or whatever her name is find stuff about an amulet? I'm sure that's the one thing Willow wants to be doing now. Especially after Tara just…" Anya said but Xander cut her off.
"Anya, I'm sure Willow won't mind at least looking for something about Darry's amulet. What can it hurt, Anya?" Xander asked.
Anya shrugged and realized she couldn't say 'no' to Xander, especially since she didn't have a valid reason to. It wasn't that Anya didn't like Darry, it was just that Anya didn't know her very well and had a tendency to feel very jealous.
Xander and Anya walked over to Darry, who was sitting at one of the tables waiting for them to return.
"We have a friend that might be able to help you." Xander said and smiled at Darry.
Darry returned the smile. "Really? That would be great. I'm not, like, an inconvenience to you am I?" Darry asked, feeling like she was asking too much of the two she had just met.
"No, no we were just heading over to see her, in fact." Xander said.
"No we weren't." Anya said, looking up at Xander.
Xander jabbed Anya in the ribs with his elbow, hoping that Darry didn't hear what his fiancé had said. Apparently, Darry didn't hear what Anya had said and smiled again.
Anya, Xander and Darry headed toward the door. Anya locked the door and the three walked away from the shop.
"On the way to the house, you can tell us all about you." Xander suggested.
"Oh that sounds like fun." Darry muttered and followed Anya and Xander to their car.