Spike snapped his fingers. "Got it! I think I know what's about. Some sort of witch is in this house, zapping up your essences of good. You'll keep feeling worse and worse till it drains you. Saw the same thing happen in Spain once. It was quite the massacre. We have to get you out of this house before it's too late. We don't have much time."
Not bothering to question Spike this time, Buffy helped support Willow and Oz toward the front door, while Spike aided Anya and Xander. Once there, Buffy propped her weak friends against the wall and went to open the door. Only it refused to budge. She pulled again, checking to see if any strange sort of lock was engaged. Still no luck. "What's going on with this thing? Is it stuck?"
"Here, let me try." Spike moved into position and gave a heave, which also failed. "I'm beginning not to like this," he muttered. He stepped over to the window and tried to push it up. Failure again. Spike then picked up a wooden chair and slammed it against the glass. The chair hit hard and bounced back, nearly flying out of the vampire's grasp but not even denting the window.
"Okay, that was just plain weird." Buffy felt a shiver run through her. "What's going on? That window should have at least broken. In, like, a million or so bits."
Spike turned back to her, frowning. "The witch must have cast an exterior spell that prevents anyone from escaping. Looks like your gang is in serious danger after all."
Buffy glanced around. Her friends weren't the only ones who looked ill. Every other student in sight, with the exceptions of her, Spike, and Parker, was staggering. "If what you say about this witch is right, why hasn't it sapped my good essence, too? I don't feel at all light-headed."
Spike grinned. "Because at the core you're evil like me, and that proves we belong together?"
Buffy rolled her eyes. "Try again."
"Truth is, it's because of your ring." Spike indicated her hand. "The one I gave you. It's enchanted, remember? Look how it's glowing. It's absorbing the witch's spell and protecting you from it."
"Wow." Buffy stared at the ring. The glow was quite beautiful, she had to admit. Then she came back to her senses. "All right, I get why the spell isn't affecting me. I also get why it isn't affecting you, as an evil vampire. But what about Parker? He's moving around almost like nothing's happening."
Spike shrugged. "Doesn't have much essence of good to steal. If not much is there, he won't be affected too badly. Might even survive the experience with no ill effects."
"That is *so* not fair," Buffy muttered. "All right, then what do we do? We have to save everyone else."
"Find the witch and kill it," Spike stated. "It's got to be inside somewhere, with us. We'll have to be careful, though. It's extremely dangerous, especially with all the power it's collecting."
Buffy glanced at her groggy friends. "Will they be okay if we leave them?"
"They won't be if we stay," Spike responded.
"Good enough." Buffy moved close to Willow and the others. "Don't worry, Spike and I will take care of everything. You're all going to be fine."
Willow managed a weak smile. "I believe you, Buffy."
Buffy whirled and set off down the hall at a quick trot. "Hurry up, Spike. We need to take care of this thing now." She looked behind to see where the vampire was. Too far back for her liking. "Fine," she muttered. "We can cover more ground if we split up anyway." She made a quick turn and found herself at the foot of a spiral staircase that led up several flights. "Might as well start from the top and work my way down."
She darted up the steps to begin her hunt. At the top, Buffy looked all around. She didn't see an obvious place to start so she just started randomly opening doors and peeking inside rooms. On the fourth one, she hit paydirt. A dark figure clad in loose robes was crouched over a glowing kettle, chanting in an unfamiliar language. Which only meant that it was a language other than English. For all Buffy knew, it could have been Spanish or German.
She moved toward the being. To her, it looked like a male witch. A warlock. They still called male witches warlocks, right? Well, whatever. She was going to stop him from carrying out his evil plan. "Hey!" she called. "This is Halloween, you know. All you evildoers are supposed to take the night off, or did you miss the memo?"
The warlock turned on her with a snarl, waving his hand and chanting. Buffy found herself slammed against the wall and pinned there by some powerful force. Damn, that thing was strong. A burst of light shot toward her, but made an abrupt turn and zapped into her ring, where it disappeared.
Wow. Giles had been right about the ring's power.
The warlock glowered and began chanting again, gathering more strength. Buffy braced herself for the next blow, figuring it was sure to be even tougher to withstand. She was helpless, barely able to move even her head, as her enemy turned on her.
Then she heard them. Footsteps. Maybe Spike had tracked her and come to offer support. Buffy managed to glance toward the door, but her heart sank when she saw the figure who stood there. It was Parker, who was guaranteed to offer no help whatsoever. He hesitated, staring with wide eyes. The startled warlock promptly changed its target and shot its next bolt of energy at him. Parker flew backwards to flip over the guardrail and tumble down the spiral staircase. Buffy heard a distant thud that she assumed was the sound of his body hitting bottom.
That could have been her, but for her Slayer strength and the protection ring. The warlock began to chant again, and Buffy struggled again to free herself from the binding. Giles hadn't taught her how to deal with magical attacks, and it wasn't like she faced them often. Sure enough, she couldn't find the strength to free herself. As the warlock raised his hands, Buffy was pretty sure she was doomed.
Then backup arrived. All Buffy saw was a whitish streak as Spike flew across the room to pounce on the warlock. It flung him away, turning its magical attack on the vampire, but the break in action allowed Buffy a chance to break free and launch her own attack from behind. A series of quick blows later, she had pummeled her enemy to the ground. Buffy hesitated, seeing her rival seemingly helpless, but the stubborn warlock began to chant again.
She sighed. "You really can't bear to make this easy for me, can you?" Before he could cast any other nastiness at her, Buffy yanked her stake out of the sleeve of her dress and staked the warlock through the heart. Inconveniently, he failed to revert to dust but at least he was dead.
Slowly, she picked herself up, a little the worse for wear but not so badly off, all things considered. She could easily have been dead instead. In fact, if not for Spike, she probably would have been.
Oh. Thinking about Spike reminded her that he was lying in the corner, motionless. Buffy darted over and fell to her knees beside him, fingers automatically reaching out to check for a pulse before she realized, of course, that he wouldn't have one. She gently pulled his head onto her lap and touched his face. "Come on, Spike, wake up."
No response.
"Spike!" Buffy yelled. "After all that, you'd better be okay."
Finally, he stirred and opened his eyes. "A kiss--even a little one--would make me feel much, much better."
"Oh, you--vampire! You were faking, weren't you?"
"Maybe, maybe not," he said with an innocent expression.
Buffy shoved his head off her lap, feeling a little justified when it thudded against the floor.
"Hey, that hurt!" Spike yelped.
"Yeah, well, you deserved it," Buffy informed him, but without a fraction of the heat her words would have carried earlier in the evening. Like it or not, Spike had saved her. Again. Maybe he did deserve just a little kiss. She leaned over and pressed her lips against his, very briefly but very distinctly, before she pulled away. "There. Now let's go check on the others."