Part 7
#
Xander was brought out of the darkness when a sharp pain in his ear penetrated the cobwebs, causing him to sit up with a start. He was still in the alley, the dead end where he and Amy had found themselves trapped, and he was alone. Alone except for the rat that had apparently started nibbling at his earlobe.
He needed a moment to organize his thoughts, then looked at the rat again, which was sitting on the floor not two feet away, looking up at him with interest. Amy had done some kind of spell just before he fell unconscious, he had heard her invoke Hecate. The last time he had heard her do that Buffy had turned into a rat for the afternoon.
"Do I know you?" The rat twitched its whiskers at him, but predictably offered no answer. Looking around he saw a pile of clothing not far away from him, collapsed into a heap as if whoever had been inside had suddenly vanished. Or simply shrunk.
Standing up on wobbly legs he made his way over and inspected the clothes. A man's clothing, that much was for sure. For a moment he had played with the thought that Amy might have transformed herself into a rat to escape, but apparently she had tried to defend herself this way.
"Well, if they hadn't been convinced of your witchiness before ...," he mumbled, not really feeling all that humorous. Everything had gone wrong tonight and, turn it around as he might, it was his fault. He had convinced Amy to do that stupid spell and now ...
"Oh God, Amy!"
Xander started running, not really sure where to look, only knowing that he had to find the girl before those scared and stupid people did something to her.
#
Mayor Richard Wilkins III knelt in the middle of a pentagram and studied the book laid out before him. It was a volume that the Catholic Church had gone to great lengths to destroy in the middle ages, burning every copy of it except this one. It had cost him much to get it into his possession, but it was worth its price for the spells it contained.
Including one that might just help him turn this mess around.
He reached down to turn the page, then thought twice about it and wrapped a napkin around his fingers before he touched the worn and stained edges. The blood of quite a few people had soaked into these pages and who knew what kind of germs might still linger there.
#
Buffy and Willow arrived in front of Amy's house, the Slayer wiping the dust of a staked vampire from her jacket. The creature had tried to prey on the two 'helpless' girls and found out that he should have stayed in bed tonight. Buffy was kind of wishing that she and Angel had done the same thing.
"Let's hope Amy is here," Willow panted, resting against the house's fence. "I don't think I can run any ..."
"She's not here," Buffy said, looking at the building.
"How can you ...?"
"I don't smell anyone inside."
Willow gave her friend a look, taking in the almost completely vampiric appearance of Buffy. There were ridges on her forehead now, her eyes glowed like headlights, and comments like that one did not really do much to put Willow's mind at ease.
She just prayed that at least the ridge thing was not permanent, because she could not think of any trick to disguise that.
"Great," Willow just said, shoving her thoughts aside. "Where could she be?"
"I don't know about Amy," Buffy said, "but I recognize one of the scents. Xander was here less than an hour ago."
"Xander?" Willow looked up, a thought coming to her. "You don't think he ..."
"What?"
"Do you remember last Valentine? Oh, you probably don't, it was a long time for you, but he and Amy ..."
"I dimly remember," Buffy interrupted her. "Wasn't there something about a love spell or something?"
"Xander wanted Amy to make Cordelia love him again. Only the spell went haywire and made every woman in Sunnydale except Cordelia fall in love with him. Including the two of us."
The two friends looked at each other for a long moment.
"Déjà Vu?"
"No such thing as coincidence at the Hellmouth," Buffy growled, "especially when Xander is involved. That stupid boy will get us all killed one of these days."
Buffy closed her eyes, inhaling deeply. "Xander left here with someone else about an hour ago. I'm not sure, but I'd wager the other scent is Amy. I think I can follow it."
Willow managed to keep her face neutral, not showing how freaked she was every time Buffy did something like that.
"Let's go then?"
#
Xander was still pretty dazed from the blow to his face, but apparently he had not been out too long. When he emerged from the alley he could still see a large group of people down the street, some of them carrying torches, others armed with rifles and shotguns. There were even one or two cops among them.
He could not see Amy, but guessed that these people just might know where she had been taken.
Trying to be inconspicuous Xander ran up and joined the mob, none of whom seemed to mind his presence as long as he still looked human. He said a short prayer of thanks to the gods that both his short-lived possession by a Hyena spirit and that little Halloween stunt Ethan Rayne had pulled had apparently left no visible marks on him.
The mob was marching toward a small building that Xander recognized as a chapel, one of many in Sunnydale. Interesting that no one seemed to notice the oddity of a town this small having so many graveyards, chapels, and yet just one mall and one club. Of course after tonight maybe people would in fact notice.
Inside the chapel Xander almost froze on the spot, just managing not to get trampled by the people rushing in after him. Apart from quite a few men, women, and children who seemed to have taken refuge here (no surprise considering what was going on outside) there was a large crowd of men surrounding something that Xander only knew from those few times he had actually paid attention in history class.
A pyre. Complete with stakes.
"Are you completely nuts," someone yelled. Xander managed to look past the people gathered and saw that a boy was tied to one of the stakes, a teenager with a face that looked like a pin cushion.
Right next to him was Amy, apparently unconscious, a big bruise on her forehead.
"We have always suspected that things were not right in our town," a man in priest garb said, looking out over the assembled people, "but tonight we have gotten proof. The monsters hiding in our midst have been unveiled and it is our sworn duty to exercise God's will on them."
People were cheering while Xander was desperately trying to think of something to do. He had the impression that talking these people out of it was not a good thing to attempt. All of them were scared, very much so. He looked up at the boy tied to the stake beside Amy and almost gasped when he recognized him. The name did not spring to mind, but he had seen the boy in school. Minus the pin cushion face.
Oh God, these people here were going to torch some innocent kids while the real monsters were outside, hunting down people in the streets. This was all his fault, all because of that stupid spell. Was it another part of the spell that caused these people to go medieval on him or were they just so frightened that they lost their minds? He did not know and it was not really important now anyway. He had to do something. Anything.
"I don't know, Peter," one of the men said to the priest. "The girl doesn't look ..."
"She turned Mac into a rat," another intervened, causing Xander to duck back into the crowd for fear of being recognized. "Just muttered some words and shot flashy lightning at him. She's a fuckin' witch!"
The brief spark of sanity seemed to flicker and die as everyone turned to the two kids, murder in their eyes.
"You're all insane," the boy screamed. "I didn't do anything to you! I don't know why this is happening to me!"
No one listened to him. Xander swallowed hard, knowing that time was running out. Some people with torches were standing all too close to the hastily arranged pyre (how did they arrange a pyre inside a chapel so quickly?) and seemed very much eager to start playing with fire. There were at least a hundred people inside, though only twenty or so seemed liable to actually put up a fight if it came to one. Considering the fact that they were all grown men with a few shotguns sprinkled among their number while Xander was all alone and unarmed ...
There had to be something he could do. Anything.
The priest started talking again, but was immediately cut off by someone screaming and pointing at the door. For the second time in ten minutes Xander nearly froze on the spot, his heart skipping a beat when he saw the newcomers entering the chapel.
"Excuse us for interrupting," Buffy said, her eyes gleaming, Angel and Faith standing beside her and looking mightily pissed. "I think you're trying to burn a friend of ours."
# Part 8
#
One look inside the chapel made Buffy glad that she had thought to find Angel and Faith before coming here. The people here were all human, just human, but she could see how frightened and angry they all were. Angry that their blissful ignorance had been trampled on tonight, angry that the monsters were suddenly out in the open instead of safely tucked away in the dark where one could happily ignore them.
At least until the moment one felt their fangs against one's neck.
These were not demons, just frightened people. Which did not make them any less dangerous, especially considering the fact that they were armed and numerous.
"More monsters," someone whispered, Buffy did not see who.
"This is the house of the Lord," a man dressed in priest's garb yelled. He came running toward them, brandishing a cross. "You are not welcome here."
Buffy frowned, remembering that she had experimented with a cross just a few weeks ago. It was another of the things they had not been able to test in Hell, whether or not her changes made her vulnerable to symbols of faith. As it turned out a cross would not burn her, but just like the daylight it made her uncomfortable, as if something beneath her skin was screaming, telling her to run and hide.
Her sister Slayer had no such issues, though. Faith stepped past her, the naughty smile on her lips a devastating addition to her blazing silver eyes, and snatched the cross from the priest's hand.
"I like crosses," she told the paling clergyman. "They have so many interesting uses." She shoved the cross down the front of her pants, causing Buffy to roll her eyes. This was not the way to resolve this without violence.
"Monsters!" The priest edged back from them.
"We are not the ones who were going to burn innocent children at the stake," Angel growled at the man, causing more than a few people to take a step back.
From the corner of her eyes Buffy saw Willow, who had entered the chapel through a side entrance. With her hands stuffed into her pockets to hide the sparks she appeared very much human, as long as no one took too close a look at her eyes. While everyone else was staring at them the redhead slowly made her way over to the pyre.
"This is not your town," a man with a shotgun yelled, though he made sure to keep several other people between them. "We won't allow you to take away our home!"
"Brave little man," Buffy said, her voice almost mimicking Angel's growl. "You hide in here and try to hurt kids while the real monsters are outside, running loose."
For a moment the two parties just stared each other down, neither willing to make the first move. Buffy and the others did not want to hurt these frightened people, at least not much, while said people were afraid of antagonizing the monsters who had invaded their sanctuary.
The click of a shotgun being loaded broke the silence and suddenly everyone sprang into motion. Buffy, Angel, and Faith darted off in different directions as someone shot at them, the blast taking out a large chunk of the door behind them. A heartbeat later they were among the crowd, doing their best to disable the people without actually hurting them. Screams filled the chapel, frightened people ran for the exits.
Willow was close to the pyre when she saw Xander standing close by. For a moment their eyes locked, Willow staring at her childhood friend with a mixture of confusion, anger, and sadness. Xander stared back, looking utterly helpless and thrown. Then the spell broke and Willow looked away from him, leaving him alone with all the emotions she had seen on his face. A part of her heart still reached out to her friend, but she clamped down on it, shoved it away. Right now people needed her help and Xander was not among them.
Xander looked on helplessly as Willow attempted to free Amy and the boy from their bonds, watched as Buffy, Angel, and Faith, all three of them looking strange and inhuman, risked their lives battling a crowd of thoroughly human-looking people who had planned to kill two innocent kids here tonight.
Then he turned and ran.
#
The Mayor completed the spell and sighed deeply, feeling the magic flow through the room, spreading outwards over his town. Decades and more of practicing and perfecting the dark arts told him that he had succeeded. The magic holding sway over Sunnydale was strong, but not on the scales he was used to thinking in. It had surprised him, true, but things would be fixed now. At least for tonight.
Rising from the pentagram he made a short memo to have someone come in and clean the chalk lines from his floor before people started arriving for work tomorrow morning. After checking himself over in the mirror and seeing a human face stare back at him he remembered to make a call.
"Allan," he spoke on the voicebox of the deputy mayor, his closest associate. "Please be so kind as to look me up as soon as you get in tomorrow. There are some loose ends we will have to take care of after tonight."
Checking himself over one more time to make sure that no traces of blood from the sacrifice had gotten onto his suit or tie he closed his office door, heading home.
#
There was an almost audible snap echoing through the room and Buffy felt a change in the atmosphere, as if some kind of pressure she had barely been aware of before suddenly fell away. A heartbeat later she saw Angel's face shift back into its human form, fangs and ridges vanishing without a trace, eyes returning to their natural dark brown.
Angel looked at her in turn and a moment later she brushed her fingers over her face, sighing in relief when she felt a smooth forehead without any ridges.
"Thank God," she sighed.
"It looks like the spell has broken," Angel said, looking around. Faith's eyes had returned to normal as well, no more silver glare. The people all around them seemed dazed, blinking rapidly as if recovering from a blinding light.
"What are we doing here?" Buffy looked at the man who had uttered the question, seeing the look of confusion on his face. "Why are we in a chapel? With a shotgun?"
Everyone seemed completely clueless as to what had happened, looking at each other for some sort of explanation. For a moment Buffy was tempted to make up some kind of story, but then pushed the thought away. Whether they remembered it or not, these people had tried to kill someone tonight. Let them sort out their own confusion.
Buffy and Angel walked to the front of the church, where Willow had managed to untie Amy and a once again human-looking boy.
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you," the boy muttered, shaking with relief.
"No problem," Faith smiled at him. "We aim to please."
"Amy?" Willow cradled the blonde witch, who was only now starting to wake up. From the look of her face someone had clocked her but good. Her eyelids fluttered open and she looked around, dazed and confused.
"Willow?" She recognized the redhead. "What ...?"
Her voice trailed off and her eyes widened as the memories came rushing back. Xander. The spell. The people hunting them down. Her eyes darted around and took in Buffy standing behind Willow, took in the dark-haired man standing at her side, their hands casually touching. That had to be Angel.
"Oh my God!" She pressed her eyes shut again, hoping to wake up from this terrible nightmare.
"Amy, are you all right?" That was Buffy's voice. Buffy was asking her whether she was all right? After what she had done?
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm so sorry."
Buffy and Angel looked at each other. On their way to the chapel Buffy had let Angel and Faith in on their suspicion that Xander and Amy were somehow involved in all this. Amy's mutterings were pretty much a confirmation. Angel dimly remembered last Valentine when Amy's love spell had caused all kinds of wackiness in Sunnydale.
Only this time people had died.
"I'm sorry," Amy continued to whisper, tears welling from her tightly closed eyes. Buffy sighed.
"We should check things outside," she told Angel and Faith. "Make sure that the spell is broken all over town and that all the monsters have gone back to sleep again."
The latter was not a given, they all knew. The vampires and other demons might have come out because their cover had been ruined, but just because it seemed to be back in place now was no guarantee that they would stop their happy night of fun out in the open.
"Willow, can you get Amy home?" Buffy looked at her friend, who nodded silently. Most other people in the chapel had already trailed outside, still confused and looking to get home as soon as possible. Whatever had broken Amy's magic also seemed to have taken their memories, or muddled them at least, and by tomorrow most of them would probably imagine that this night had been nothing but a bad dream.
Except those that had died.
"We should check in with Giles, too," Angel said as they walked outside. "Despite being quite happy that the spell has broken we should find out why it did. I doubt it was God doing us a favor."
Buffy nodded, but did not really listen to him right now. The only thing she could think of at the moment was the face she had seen for a split second inside the chapel, just before its owner had bolted. The face of the person who was to blame for this mess.
She thought of Xander and her body was shivering with red-hot fury.
TO BE CONTINUED
#
Xander was brought out of the darkness when a sharp pain in his ear penetrated the cobwebs, causing him to sit up with a start. He was still in the alley, the dead end where he and Amy had found themselves trapped, and he was alone. Alone except for the rat that had apparently started nibbling at his earlobe.
He needed a moment to organize his thoughts, then looked at the rat again, which was sitting on the floor not two feet away, looking up at him with interest. Amy had done some kind of spell just before he fell unconscious, he had heard her invoke Hecate. The last time he had heard her do that Buffy had turned into a rat for the afternoon.
"Do I know you?" The rat twitched its whiskers at him, but predictably offered no answer. Looking around he saw a pile of clothing not far away from him, collapsed into a heap as if whoever had been inside had suddenly vanished. Or simply shrunk.
Standing up on wobbly legs he made his way over and inspected the clothes. A man's clothing, that much was for sure. For a moment he had played with the thought that Amy might have transformed herself into a rat to escape, but apparently she had tried to defend herself this way.
"Well, if they hadn't been convinced of your witchiness before ...," he mumbled, not really feeling all that humorous. Everything had gone wrong tonight and, turn it around as he might, it was his fault. He had convinced Amy to do that stupid spell and now ...
"Oh God, Amy!"
Xander started running, not really sure where to look, only knowing that he had to find the girl before those scared and stupid people did something to her.
#
Mayor Richard Wilkins III knelt in the middle of a pentagram and studied the book laid out before him. It was a volume that the Catholic Church had gone to great lengths to destroy in the middle ages, burning every copy of it except this one. It had cost him much to get it into his possession, but it was worth its price for the spells it contained.
Including one that might just help him turn this mess around.
He reached down to turn the page, then thought twice about it and wrapped a napkin around his fingers before he touched the worn and stained edges. The blood of quite a few people had soaked into these pages and who knew what kind of germs might still linger there.
#
Buffy and Willow arrived in front of Amy's house, the Slayer wiping the dust of a staked vampire from her jacket. The creature had tried to prey on the two 'helpless' girls and found out that he should have stayed in bed tonight. Buffy was kind of wishing that she and Angel had done the same thing.
"Let's hope Amy is here," Willow panted, resting against the house's fence. "I don't think I can run any ..."
"She's not here," Buffy said, looking at the building.
"How can you ...?"
"I don't smell anyone inside."
Willow gave her friend a look, taking in the almost completely vampiric appearance of Buffy. There were ridges on her forehead now, her eyes glowed like headlights, and comments like that one did not really do much to put Willow's mind at ease.
She just prayed that at least the ridge thing was not permanent, because she could not think of any trick to disguise that.
"Great," Willow just said, shoving her thoughts aside. "Where could she be?"
"I don't know about Amy," Buffy said, "but I recognize one of the scents. Xander was here less than an hour ago."
"Xander?" Willow looked up, a thought coming to her. "You don't think he ..."
"What?"
"Do you remember last Valentine? Oh, you probably don't, it was a long time for you, but he and Amy ..."
"I dimly remember," Buffy interrupted her. "Wasn't there something about a love spell or something?"
"Xander wanted Amy to make Cordelia love him again. Only the spell went haywire and made every woman in Sunnydale except Cordelia fall in love with him. Including the two of us."
The two friends looked at each other for a long moment.
"Déjà Vu?"
"No such thing as coincidence at the Hellmouth," Buffy growled, "especially when Xander is involved. That stupid boy will get us all killed one of these days."
Buffy closed her eyes, inhaling deeply. "Xander left here with someone else about an hour ago. I'm not sure, but I'd wager the other scent is Amy. I think I can follow it."
Willow managed to keep her face neutral, not showing how freaked she was every time Buffy did something like that.
"Let's go then?"
#
Xander was still pretty dazed from the blow to his face, but apparently he had not been out too long. When he emerged from the alley he could still see a large group of people down the street, some of them carrying torches, others armed with rifles and shotguns. There were even one or two cops among them.
He could not see Amy, but guessed that these people just might know where she had been taken.
Trying to be inconspicuous Xander ran up and joined the mob, none of whom seemed to mind his presence as long as he still looked human. He said a short prayer of thanks to the gods that both his short-lived possession by a Hyena spirit and that little Halloween stunt Ethan Rayne had pulled had apparently left no visible marks on him.
The mob was marching toward a small building that Xander recognized as a chapel, one of many in Sunnydale. Interesting that no one seemed to notice the oddity of a town this small having so many graveyards, chapels, and yet just one mall and one club. Of course after tonight maybe people would in fact notice.
Inside the chapel Xander almost froze on the spot, just managing not to get trampled by the people rushing in after him. Apart from quite a few men, women, and children who seemed to have taken refuge here (no surprise considering what was going on outside) there was a large crowd of men surrounding something that Xander only knew from those few times he had actually paid attention in history class.
A pyre. Complete with stakes.
"Are you completely nuts," someone yelled. Xander managed to look past the people gathered and saw that a boy was tied to one of the stakes, a teenager with a face that looked like a pin cushion.
Right next to him was Amy, apparently unconscious, a big bruise on her forehead.
"We have always suspected that things were not right in our town," a man in priest garb said, looking out over the assembled people, "but tonight we have gotten proof. The monsters hiding in our midst have been unveiled and it is our sworn duty to exercise God's will on them."
People were cheering while Xander was desperately trying to think of something to do. He had the impression that talking these people out of it was not a good thing to attempt. All of them were scared, very much so. He looked up at the boy tied to the stake beside Amy and almost gasped when he recognized him. The name did not spring to mind, but he had seen the boy in school. Minus the pin cushion face.
Oh God, these people here were going to torch some innocent kids while the real monsters were outside, hunting down people in the streets. This was all his fault, all because of that stupid spell. Was it another part of the spell that caused these people to go medieval on him or were they just so frightened that they lost their minds? He did not know and it was not really important now anyway. He had to do something. Anything.
"I don't know, Peter," one of the men said to the priest. "The girl doesn't look ..."
"She turned Mac into a rat," another intervened, causing Xander to duck back into the crowd for fear of being recognized. "Just muttered some words and shot flashy lightning at him. She's a fuckin' witch!"
The brief spark of sanity seemed to flicker and die as everyone turned to the two kids, murder in their eyes.
"You're all insane," the boy screamed. "I didn't do anything to you! I don't know why this is happening to me!"
No one listened to him. Xander swallowed hard, knowing that time was running out. Some people with torches were standing all too close to the hastily arranged pyre (how did they arrange a pyre inside a chapel so quickly?) and seemed very much eager to start playing with fire. There were at least a hundred people inside, though only twenty or so seemed liable to actually put up a fight if it came to one. Considering the fact that they were all grown men with a few shotguns sprinkled among their number while Xander was all alone and unarmed ...
There had to be something he could do. Anything.
The priest started talking again, but was immediately cut off by someone screaming and pointing at the door. For the second time in ten minutes Xander nearly froze on the spot, his heart skipping a beat when he saw the newcomers entering the chapel.
"Excuse us for interrupting," Buffy said, her eyes gleaming, Angel and Faith standing beside her and looking mightily pissed. "I think you're trying to burn a friend of ours."
# Part 8
#
One look inside the chapel made Buffy glad that she had thought to find Angel and Faith before coming here. The people here were all human, just human, but she could see how frightened and angry they all were. Angry that their blissful ignorance had been trampled on tonight, angry that the monsters were suddenly out in the open instead of safely tucked away in the dark where one could happily ignore them.
At least until the moment one felt their fangs against one's neck.
These were not demons, just frightened people. Which did not make them any less dangerous, especially considering the fact that they were armed and numerous.
"More monsters," someone whispered, Buffy did not see who.
"This is the house of the Lord," a man dressed in priest's garb yelled. He came running toward them, brandishing a cross. "You are not welcome here."
Buffy frowned, remembering that she had experimented with a cross just a few weeks ago. It was another of the things they had not been able to test in Hell, whether or not her changes made her vulnerable to symbols of faith. As it turned out a cross would not burn her, but just like the daylight it made her uncomfortable, as if something beneath her skin was screaming, telling her to run and hide.
Her sister Slayer had no such issues, though. Faith stepped past her, the naughty smile on her lips a devastating addition to her blazing silver eyes, and snatched the cross from the priest's hand.
"I like crosses," she told the paling clergyman. "They have so many interesting uses." She shoved the cross down the front of her pants, causing Buffy to roll her eyes. This was not the way to resolve this without violence.
"Monsters!" The priest edged back from them.
"We are not the ones who were going to burn innocent children at the stake," Angel growled at the man, causing more than a few people to take a step back.
From the corner of her eyes Buffy saw Willow, who had entered the chapel through a side entrance. With her hands stuffed into her pockets to hide the sparks she appeared very much human, as long as no one took too close a look at her eyes. While everyone else was staring at them the redhead slowly made her way over to the pyre.
"This is not your town," a man with a shotgun yelled, though he made sure to keep several other people between them. "We won't allow you to take away our home!"
"Brave little man," Buffy said, her voice almost mimicking Angel's growl. "You hide in here and try to hurt kids while the real monsters are outside, running loose."
For a moment the two parties just stared each other down, neither willing to make the first move. Buffy and the others did not want to hurt these frightened people, at least not much, while said people were afraid of antagonizing the monsters who had invaded their sanctuary.
The click of a shotgun being loaded broke the silence and suddenly everyone sprang into motion. Buffy, Angel, and Faith darted off in different directions as someone shot at them, the blast taking out a large chunk of the door behind them. A heartbeat later they were among the crowd, doing their best to disable the people without actually hurting them. Screams filled the chapel, frightened people ran for the exits.
Willow was close to the pyre when she saw Xander standing close by. For a moment their eyes locked, Willow staring at her childhood friend with a mixture of confusion, anger, and sadness. Xander stared back, looking utterly helpless and thrown. Then the spell broke and Willow looked away from him, leaving him alone with all the emotions she had seen on his face. A part of her heart still reached out to her friend, but she clamped down on it, shoved it away. Right now people needed her help and Xander was not among them.
Xander looked on helplessly as Willow attempted to free Amy and the boy from their bonds, watched as Buffy, Angel, and Faith, all three of them looking strange and inhuman, risked their lives battling a crowd of thoroughly human-looking people who had planned to kill two innocent kids here tonight.
Then he turned and ran.
#
The Mayor completed the spell and sighed deeply, feeling the magic flow through the room, spreading outwards over his town. Decades and more of practicing and perfecting the dark arts told him that he had succeeded. The magic holding sway over Sunnydale was strong, but not on the scales he was used to thinking in. It had surprised him, true, but things would be fixed now. At least for tonight.
Rising from the pentagram he made a short memo to have someone come in and clean the chalk lines from his floor before people started arriving for work tomorrow morning. After checking himself over in the mirror and seeing a human face stare back at him he remembered to make a call.
"Allan," he spoke on the voicebox of the deputy mayor, his closest associate. "Please be so kind as to look me up as soon as you get in tomorrow. There are some loose ends we will have to take care of after tonight."
Checking himself over one more time to make sure that no traces of blood from the sacrifice had gotten onto his suit or tie he closed his office door, heading home.
#
There was an almost audible snap echoing through the room and Buffy felt a change in the atmosphere, as if some kind of pressure she had barely been aware of before suddenly fell away. A heartbeat later she saw Angel's face shift back into its human form, fangs and ridges vanishing without a trace, eyes returning to their natural dark brown.
Angel looked at her in turn and a moment later she brushed her fingers over her face, sighing in relief when she felt a smooth forehead without any ridges.
"Thank God," she sighed.
"It looks like the spell has broken," Angel said, looking around. Faith's eyes had returned to normal as well, no more silver glare. The people all around them seemed dazed, blinking rapidly as if recovering from a blinding light.
"What are we doing here?" Buffy looked at the man who had uttered the question, seeing the look of confusion on his face. "Why are we in a chapel? With a shotgun?"
Everyone seemed completely clueless as to what had happened, looking at each other for some sort of explanation. For a moment Buffy was tempted to make up some kind of story, but then pushed the thought away. Whether they remembered it or not, these people had tried to kill someone tonight. Let them sort out their own confusion.
Buffy and Angel walked to the front of the church, where Willow had managed to untie Amy and a once again human-looking boy.
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you," the boy muttered, shaking with relief.
"No problem," Faith smiled at him. "We aim to please."
"Amy?" Willow cradled the blonde witch, who was only now starting to wake up. From the look of her face someone had clocked her but good. Her eyelids fluttered open and she looked around, dazed and confused.
"Willow?" She recognized the redhead. "What ...?"
Her voice trailed off and her eyes widened as the memories came rushing back. Xander. The spell. The people hunting them down. Her eyes darted around and took in Buffy standing behind Willow, took in the dark-haired man standing at her side, their hands casually touching. That had to be Angel.
"Oh my God!" She pressed her eyes shut again, hoping to wake up from this terrible nightmare.
"Amy, are you all right?" That was Buffy's voice. Buffy was asking her whether she was all right? After what she had done?
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm so sorry."
Buffy and Angel looked at each other. On their way to the chapel Buffy had let Angel and Faith in on their suspicion that Xander and Amy were somehow involved in all this. Amy's mutterings were pretty much a confirmation. Angel dimly remembered last Valentine when Amy's love spell had caused all kinds of wackiness in Sunnydale.
Only this time people had died.
"I'm sorry," Amy continued to whisper, tears welling from her tightly closed eyes. Buffy sighed.
"We should check things outside," she told Angel and Faith. "Make sure that the spell is broken all over town and that all the monsters have gone back to sleep again."
The latter was not a given, they all knew. The vampires and other demons might have come out because their cover had been ruined, but just because it seemed to be back in place now was no guarantee that they would stop their happy night of fun out in the open.
"Willow, can you get Amy home?" Buffy looked at her friend, who nodded silently. Most other people in the chapel had already trailed outside, still confused and looking to get home as soon as possible. Whatever had broken Amy's magic also seemed to have taken their memories, or muddled them at least, and by tomorrow most of them would probably imagine that this night had been nothing but a bad dream.
Except those that had died.
"We should check in with Giles, too," Angel said as they walked outside. "Despite being quite happy that the spell has broken we should find out why it did. I doubt it was God doing us a favor."
Buffy nodded, but did not really listen to him right now. The only thing she could think of at the moment was the face she had seen for a split second inside the chapel, just before its owner had bolted. The face of the person who was to blame for this mess.
She thought of Xander and her body was shivering with red-hot fury.
TO BE CONTINUED