Chapter Seventeen



Anya knocked on the wooden door and waited; the door was opened by a girl who looked about Anya's age. Darry guessed that she was Amy.
"Hey." Amy said, she vaguely knew Anya and knew a little about her from what Willow had said.
"Hi Amy, this is Darry; we've come to do some magick." Anya said and stepped into the house.
Amy looked at Darry for a second and then invited her in. The three of them headed up to Amy's room.
"You want to do a spell? Why?" Amy asked once they were inside.
"I don't know, to pass the time I guess." Anya answered.
"What sort of spell?" Amy asked, eager to do any type of magick.
"A really cool and powerful spell." Anya said, eagerness flashing in her eyes.
Amy smiled; she turned to Darry. "Do you know a lot about magick?" Amy asked.
Darry shook her head. "Only the basics, the differences between Wicca, Dark Magick you know, the stuff every person knows." Darry answered.
Amy shrugged. "Well, prepare to learn what every witch knows." Amy said. She walked over to her closet and pulled out a thick, leaver-covered book.
She carried the book back over to where Anya was sitting on the floor. "We're going to invoke a sprit, nothing too big but its something I've been trying to do for a few days now. I think I've almost gotten the hang of it." Amy said and sat down beside Anya.
Darry took a seat beside Anya, she hadn't decided if she liked Amy yet or even trusted her.
Amy opened the book. "Wanna see a neat trick?" Amy asked, looking up at Darry.
Darry shrugged. Amy smiled. "Locate." She said and looked down at the book. The pages of the book turned by themselves, quickly making a small wind. Suddenly, they stopped and Amy looked up.
"See, this is the spell. We don't really need anything to cast the spell either. The room needs to be dark though." Amy said.
Anya stood up and shut all the curtains in the room and turned off all the lights.
"Next, we need to light five candles." Amy commanded.
"Shouldn't we have done that before we turned all the lights off? I mean, so we can see?" Darry asked.
Amy didn't answer; she stood up and walked over to a draw beside her bed. She pulled out five candles and walked back over to where Anya and Darry were sitting. She set the candles in a circle around the three of them. "Light." She commanded.
The candles sparkled to life; Darry jumped back in surprise as one of the flames licked her arm.
"What sort of sprit are we invoking?" Anya asked.
"Oh, not a dangerous one. I don't think." Amy answered, muttering the last part.
Without bothering to explain any further, Amy began to read from the book. She read the words in Latin but Darry could roughly understand her.
" I invoke thee, by the corners of Earth, Air, Fire and Water
I invoke thee, by the powers of mother and earth, hear me!"

Without warning, the candles in the room went out and Darry felt a cold gust of window blow against her bare arms. Darry guessed that Amy hadn't finished the spell because she suddenly stopped. The book slammed shut and was jerked from Amy's hands as though someone had pulled it.
"What's happening?" Anya asked, the tone of her voice suggested that she was only slightly afraid.
"The spell must be working, the sprit must be trying to cross over." Amy answered.
As she spoke a ghostly mist filled the room. The mist began to take sharp, hovering the 'circle' that Amy, Darry and Anya had formed.
Despite what Amy had said, the sprit didn't look very friendly. The sprit carried a double-headed battle-axe strung at his side. Instead of having black eyeholes, the holes were red and filled with a Hellish fire.
"It's a soul stealer." Anya muttered, inching slightly closer to Darry.
The 'soul stealer' disappeared from the room with a bright flash of white light.
"Where's it going?" Amy asked.
Anya shrugged. "To go steal some souls." She answered, like it was no big deal.
Darry looked over at the ex-demon. "Well, we have to stop it." Darry pointed out.
Anya nodded. Suddenly, her face grew a pale white. "What if it steals Xander's soul? We have to stop it!" Anya yelled like Darry hadn't just said those same words.
Darry nodded. "What a good idea." She muttered.
"How do we stop it?" Amy asked.
"With magick of course." Anya answered. "Well, someone else's magick. The person who took the soul-stealer out, can't send it back." Anya added.
"Well, who else do we know can send back a demon?" Amy asked.
"Willow, she used to know magick right? Let's ask her." Darry suggested.
"No, we can't. She's not a witch anymore; she vowed not to practice witchcraft anymore. We can't ask her." Anya pointed out.
"Well, then we should tell Buffy and she'll go kick its ass." Amy said.
"No!" Darry and Anya said at the same time. "We can't involve Buffy, she'll get mad." Darry said.
"Yeah, she'll give us a lecture on how it was bad and wrong to call up a demon." Anya said. "And, she doesn't like you so she'd get mad at us for hanging around you." Anya said to Amy.
Darry seemed dumbfounded at the fact that Anya always managed to say what she felt and thought and never seemed to care what she said.
Amy seemed unfazed by what Anya said. "Well, looks like we out of options then. Unless, one of you knows magick." Amy pointed out.
Darry looked over at Anya. Suddenly, a thought dawned on the ex-demon. "I've got it!" She yelled triumphantly. "We can ask Tara to send the sprit back." Anya said.
"Who's Tara?" Darry asked.
"I'll explain later." Anya said and stood up.
"Well, let's go then. We don't really have time to waste do we?" Amy said.
The three girls left the room and hurried out of Amy's house. Anya lead the way to Tara's apartment; she knew the way because Dawn had told her and she had visited Tara once.

Anya pounded on the door to apartment 8B; she pounded until Tara answered the door.
"Anya, what's the matter?" Tara asked, surprised to see her friend standing there. Tara looked at Amy, who she slightly knew, and at Darry, who she didn't know at all.
"We really don't have time to talk." Anya said and hurried inside Tara's apartment. Darry and Amy followed Anya and Tara shut the door behind them.
Tara's cat, Miss Kitty Fantastico, looked up at Darry from her spot on the couch. She hissed and leapt off the couch and scurried into Tara's bedroom.
Tara looked up at Darry. "Hey, I don't think we've met. My name's Tara." She said and held out her hand.
Darry shook Tara's hand. "Hi, I'm Darry." Darry said and smiled at Tara.
Anya frowned. "We don't have time for this!" She yelled. "We have to stop the demon before it steals Xander's soul!" She added.
"Okay, what happened?" Tara asked.
"Well, it was supposed to be a simple spell. Or, more it wasn't supposed to happen the way it did." Amy said, trying to justify herself and her actions.
"What happened?" Tara repeated.
"Amy invoked a soul-stealer demon and now it's lose and it might steal Xander's soul so send it back!" Anya yelled.
Darry nodded. "Yeah, that's pretty much it." She muttered.
Tara's face paled. "You sent a soul-stealer lose? Why?" Tara asked.
Anya shrugged. "Does it really matter? You're the only one that can send it back." Anya pointed out.
Tara nodded. "Okay." She said.
"What do you need to do so send it back?" Darry asked.
"Not a lot." Tara answered. "Just a few herbs and to simple incantation." Tara answered. "Can you go into the kitchen and get some sage?" She asked Darry.
Darry nodded and headed into the kitchen. Miss Kitty Fantastico ran out of Tara's bedroom and followed Darry into the kitchen. The cat leapt upon the counter and hissed at Darry. Darry turned to look at the cat. "Shoo." She said.
Miss Kitty Fantastico ran out of the kitchen and hid on the couch. Tara looked at her cat. "I've never seen her act like that." She muttered.
"Oh, Darry's a werewolf." Anya said simply.
Darry re-entered the room with a bottle of sage. "Thank you Anya." She muttered and handed the sage to Tara.
"Okay, everyone get on the floor and form a circle." Tara commanded, seeming not to care that Darry was a werewolf.
Everyone did as Tara said and Tara sprinkled the sage around them. Tara capped the sage and sat down beside Darry and Anya.
Tara recited a spell in Greek, which Darry couldn't understand and guessed the others couldn't either. All the lights in the apartment went out and the drapes blew about as though there was a strong wind. However, Darry couldn't feel a breeze of any kind.
Miss Kitty Fantastico yowled and raced from the room. Seconds later, the shimmering soul-stealer appeared in the circle the four had formed. It seemed even angrier then before; it wielded its battle-axe.
Tara recited another something in Greek; the soul-stealer roared in anger and swung its axe at Tara. Tara barely had time to duck as the axe whistled past her head.
She looked up at the soul-stealer and said the same Greek phrase. The demon roared again and attempted to strike Tara again but found itself unable to raise the axe.
The soul-stealer roared once more and then disappeared with a bright flash of white light. All the lights in the apartment flickered and then came back down. The drapes fell silent and unmoving. Darry looked over at Tara who seemed surprised by her near encounter with the soul-stealer.
Anya frowned. "That was it?" She muttered. "No hell fire? No grr arg- poof?" She frowned again. "That was really boring."
Darry couldn't help but laugh, leave it to Anya to think that a near encounter with a demon who could have taken all their souls was boring. Amy let out a sigh. "I don't know, I'm kinda glad that's all it was." She muttered.
Everyone rose from their spots on the floor; Miss Kitty Fantastico returned to the room and went over to her food dish and began meowing.
Anya looked over at Tara, Darry and Amy. "Not a word about all this to Buffy. Got it?" She asked.
Darry nodded. "My lips are sealed." She said.
Amy and Tara also nodded. "Well, I guess we'd all better be going are separate ways again. It's almost dark." Amy pointed. "My dad will be getting worried." She added.
Anya nodded. "I have to make sure Xander still has a soul. Then we can have s….a lovely evening." Anya said, covering up what she was about to say.
Darry shook her head at the girl's personality. "Yeah, I have to show Buffy and the others that I'm still alive." Darry said and pointed to the scratches across her face to demonstrate that her housemates were worried about her.
Tara walked the three to the day. "It was nice to meet you Darry." She said as Darry left.
"Same." The girl replied and smiled. Falling in step with Anya and Amy, Darry left the apartment building and headed toward the Summers house.

When Darry entered the house, Buffy was just beginning to make dinner.
"Hey Darry, was wondering when you were going to show up." Buffy said and looked over at her. "So, where have you been? Did you do anything interesting today?" Buffy asked.
Darry shook her head. "No, pretty boring." She answered.