Season of the Witch: Chap. 3
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"According to the street map, we're almost there. It should be that house.... right there. Wow!" Dawn exclaimed. "It's huge! And it's beautiful! It looks so old fashioned. I love it!"
"You're sure we're in the right place?"
"Yeah. Willow's info says we are. Don't you love this place? It looks like a fairy tale house."
"A fairy tale house with witches living in it. That fits I guess. You stay until I check it out, okay?"
"You're treating me like a baby again! I can handle myself, you know!"
"You also have the Summers gene for finding trouble. I'd rather not double the chances something icky is gonna jump out at me when the door opens. Stay."
Dawn scowled and pouted, but she stayed.
Buffy walked up to the door slowly, eyes open and all senses on high alert, despite the fact that it was full daylight. She knew too well that not all dangerous creatures feared the sun. Her bold knock was answered almost immediately, but the reaction of the young woman who responded to Buffy's summons was , though very human, not at all what the Slayer expected.
"Yes? Can I.... Holy mother of.... Leo!"
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"We should be getting close, now. What was that street name again?"
"Lemme see." Paige mumbled, staring at the street map they'd bought at a gas station on the way into town. "Revello Drive. Yeah. Turn left right here. We're at the right end. High numbers start here.... Okay. That's it, I think. Pull over."
"Pretty house. Pretty street." Piper observed.
"Pretty normal." Paige finished.
"Yeah, well we know that's not true. Looks are nothing in this town, if Phoebe's vision is even half accurate."
"Not to mention the articles and stats I pulled up."
"Right. Well. Shall we get this little meet and greet started?"
"Yeah. Right behind you." Paige affirmed, stepping out and grabbing her bag and her laptop before locking and slamming her door. She was only a foot or two behind her half sister, who had already rung the door-bell, when Piper screamed and stumbled backward away from the opening door, instinctively throwing up her hands and invoking her power.
The fear of all she'd read and heard surging through her, Paige began to run to Piper's aid, but stopped dead at the sight of one of her worst nightmares framed in the entryway, frozen in the act of bringing a mug to his lips.
Staring around her frantically, she saw a short, thick branch laying at the base of a tree halfway across the lawn, orbed it into her hand and used it to thoroughly concuss the bleach blond monster which had frightened her sister, bringing voices, then the owners of the voices from various points in the house.
"What the..."
"Spike! What did you do, lady?!"
"At least it happened in the foyer. I'm not steam cleaning blood out of the carpets again."
"Tara?"
"Paige, right?"
"Yeah. This is Piper. What is that?" she asked, pointing at the utterly still figure she had smashed to the hallway floor.
"He's a vampire, but it isn't what you think. Feel like coming in for coffee?"
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"Mother of Leo? I haven't been to church in a while, but that's a new one on me." Buffy commented wryly as the brunette at the door swiftly backed away, alternating between panicked glances at her visitor and brief peeks over her shoulder as if she expected someone, or something to suddenly appear, which he did a moment later.
Watching the random sparks and swirls of light coalesce into a human form, Buffy dropped automatically into fighting stance, regretting leaving her weapons in the car. She had cause to be glad for her reflexes and healing abilities a moment later when the dark haired girl rose into the air a foot or two and hung there. This momentarily knocked the Slayer far enough off her mental balance that the other was able to land a solid kick to her jaw, catapaulting Buffy in an backward arc and landing her on her left side at the bottom of the steps.
"What is it, Phoebe? Are you okay?" the man intoned, moving to the young woman's side as her feet contacted the floor again.
"Her.... it.... revenant.... zombie.... dead woman walking. I really have no clue. I just wanted someone around... in case. Thanks for getting here so fast."
"No problem, but I don't think there's any real danger here. You can relax."
"What? Leo, you don't know what I saw...."
"Pheobe. Give me a minute, here, okay? You go on in the living room and catch your breath. I'll be right there...." at the sound of inrushing air behind him he paused. "and apparently so will Cole."
Smiling thinly, Leo moved down the stairs and studied the petite blond just rising to her feet, left arm cradled in her right hand. He'd seen the same "ask no questions, take no prisoners" look in many pairs of eyes before and knew enough to stay out of range, but he decided to speak to the woman and see if he could negotiate a truce before someone got hurt beyond the injuries he was afraid she might have already suffered. "What's your name?"
"Funny. Most people ask that before they decide my ass needs kicking."
"I'm sorry about that. I'm still not sure what it was all about, but if you and your... daughter would care to come into the house, I'm sure we can straighten this out over coffee or tea..."
"She's my sister and that's a really good idea. You do have a first aid kit, I assume?"
"Of course. How badly are you hurt?"
"I'm not. It's just a few scrapes and a dislocated shoulder. The scrapes will need cleaning, that's all." She informed him matter-of-factly. Walking back to her car and crouching by the passenger's door, she breathed deeply once or twice before slamming the affected shoulder into the car. She then rose, shook out the arm, urged the younger woman out of the vehicle and strolled back past Leo, who could do nothing but gape in shock. Abruptly, she whirled around and returned to where he stood, smiling and holding out her hand to shake. "Sorry. I'm just little miss forgetful, today. Buffy Summers. That's my sister Dawn. You coming in?"
After recovering his senses, Leo nodded and followed the other two up the steps and into the house.
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"A vampire. Yeah, I kinda got that from the face. And you trust him? You let him into your house?"
"Well, see he can't hurt humans. This secret group of government scientists captured him and was gonna do nasty things to him, but they didn't want to risk getting bitten so they put this.... microchip in his brain and it gives him a bad headache if he tries to hurt anything other than a demon or another vampire, which, I guess, is technically a demon too, but.... It's a really long story."
"Longer than that?" Piper asked, laughing gently.
"Oh yeah. I didn't even tell you how we found out the scientists were there or...."
"Tara." Willow broke in, handing her girlfriend a glass of iced tea and smiling softly at her. "It's okay. They don't have to know the whole history of the Scoobies in the next five minutes, sweetie."
"Sorry. I get so excited sometimes being able to tell the stories to someone who hasn't heard them before."
"Scoobies? As in Scooby Doo?" Paige questioned
"Yeah." Willow replied. "That's another long story."
At that moment, Anya and Spike returned from the bathroom where she'd been treating the scalp wound resulting from Paige's impromptu attack with a tree branch. Despite the assurances of safety Tara had provided, Paige rose and moved off to sit with her sister on the other side of the room, where Piper was forced to stay to avoid the worst effects of her stronger/weaker conflict with Willow.
"You two! Oy, what's with lettin' those bints in here? One of 'em magicked me an' the other walloped me! If I wasn't chipped I'd be havin' a nice between meal snack about now..."
"Try it and I'll file your fangs for you." Piper growled, sitting forward slightly, her eyes narrowing in preparation for a fight.
"Okay, that's enough DC." Xander exclaimed, rising from the couch and dragging Spike over to dump him unceremoniously into a chair. "Sit quietly or my threat about the vet clinic will become a reality."
"Vet clinic?"
"DC is Xander's new name for Spike. It stands for Darn Cat. Like in the kid's movie? He does a whole lotta damage and causes trouble, but he never really hurts anyone. Xander keeps telling him that if he doesn't behave he'll tie him up and take him in to be neutered." Tara chuckled, blushing at the thought.
"Hey, it worked for my uncle's cat. Turned a nasty, skirt chasing, spit-in- your-eye-as-soon-as look-at-you hell-beast into a sweet, fat old lapcat who wouldn't hurt a fly. And he never looked at a female again. He just.... seemed to lose interest...." Xander teased with a wicked grin for Spike
"Yeah, you come over here an' say that to my face, Harris...."
"Mommy, little Willy's growling at me...." Xander taunted, his hands flying up to cover his eyes and his laughter.
"Willy? Willy?! I'll bleed you an' pain be damned, you wanker...."
This time it was Willow who halted Spike's tirade; Willow and a warning from his chip.
"Ow! Bugger all.... stupid chip.... stupid humans..."
"Me? Stupid? Did I get myself caught by a bunch of soldier boys with taser guns and then operated on? No...."
"Spike, sit down. Quit letting him get to you. And you stop making fun of him, Xander. Both of you just shut up for a while or I'll make you. And you know I can do it."
This threat had far more effect on the two men than Xander's had on Spike. Both glowered at Willow then each other, but they remained quiet.
Piper, glancing in wonder from one member of the group to the next, smiled uncertainly then voiced a question.
"Is it always like this here?"
"In the house, pretty much. In Sunnydale.... you haven't seen anything yet." Willow told her.
At that moment, the whole room became suffused with deep red light, pouring in through the windows and the transom over the door.
"It looks like we're about to...." Paige intoned fearfully.
"Mmm. My favorite color. Neat trick if I do say so." Spike added happily, staring around in fascination even as the others ran for cover or ran to find research books and weapons.
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"Okay, so explain this again. You did actually die.... but you were ressurected?"
"Right. The friend of mine that your sisters met in the store, she's a pretty powerful Wicca and she did this spell to.... bring me back. Now.... one more time. Why shouldn't I kill this guy behind you? He is a demon, right?"
"His name is Cole, and he *was* a demon. Well, he still is, but now he's.. reformed. And mostly human. He actually helps us vanquish other demons. He's one of the good guys, now. And I sort of.... love him."
"Thank you, honey. I think." The dark haired man seated beside Phoebe remarked with mild sarcasm.
"A reformed demon who fights his own kind, has switched to the good side of the force *and* is in love with a human. Boy, that sounds way too familiar..."
"Bad memories?"
"Oh, you don't even wanna know. I could tell you some stories.... on second thought, there are way less depressing things we could talk about. Like, how did you do that trick? The levitation thing? You have got to teach me that. Something like that would be really useful in indoor combat."
"Sorry. It's nothing I can teach. It's just what I do. I was born with that power, but I'm just learning to use it. It's actually my second power to develop. The first was precognitive visons. That's actually how I knew about you before you showed up. My sisters and I did a spell with the business card Tara gave Paige. It enhanced my visions and let me see things about the people associated with the card, but.... I didn't get the back to life thing.... just the long fall, splat, funeral thing. That's why I was so scared when I saw you. Did I say yet how really sorry I am about that?"
"Yeah, a few times. It's okay. No big. I heal fast. Really fast."
"What is it you said you're called again?" Cole asked, his expression bland and mildly curious, a far cry from the thoughts whirring behind his eyes.
"The Slayer. One girl in each generation is chosen to fight evil and save the world from multiple apocolypses and break nails and ruin perfectly good clothes, blah, blah, blah. The whole thing is long and boring and I don't have it memorized. Not that Giles didn't try to make me...."
"Giles? Who's that?" Phoebe asked
"My Watcher. Another long boring explanation there. He was my friend and my trainer. Pretty much my dad all through high school. He went back to England where most of them come from. I think so anyway. I never really got that straight...."
Hearing footsteps, Buffy let her sentence, and the train of thought that went with it, drift into oblivion. Leo and Dawn appeared from the kitchen where he had been keeping her occupied while the other three sorted things out.
"The snacks are ready if you guys are." Dawn announced, glancing quickly up at Leo with a dazzled smile, then back down at her feet. "I helped."
"She sure did. She's a whiz in the kitchen."
This brought another smile from Dawn and a look of long suffering patience from Buffy.
{Wonderful.} she thought. {Another Dawn Summers 'I'm not going to talk about anyone else for the next six months' crush. We'll have fun, fun, fun till Dawnie takes our sanity away.}
"Sounds great. I can't wait to see what you whipped up." The Slayer chirped, grabbing her sister by the arm and tugging her away from Leo. Seconds later, an ominous crackling sound behind the two girls induced Buffy to throw Dawn to the floor and follow her down. An immense fireball zoomed inches above their heads and exploded the grandfather clock, showering the pair with fragments. Exhorting her sister to keep her head tucked in and her body out of the line of fire, Buffy leapt up and joined Pheobe, Cole and Leo in facing the threat.
"So this is a demon in your little corner of California?" she intoned somberly, staring at what could easily been a human, had it not been palming another ball of flame.
"Yeah." Phoebe replied. "Isn't it in yours?"
"Like I said, I've got stories. Let's take care of this first, though."
"Agreed, but you better let us handle him. Fists and feet don't work well on this type of demon." Cole warned her.
"Don't see why not. They work on every other kind." Buffy reasoned, throwing a kick to the creature's midsection. He vanished and rematerialized behind her, leaving the Slayer sprawled in an ungainly heap on the floor.
"That's why. Pheobe? I'll distract, you chant."
"Got it."
Nonplussed, Buffy backed away and allowed the other two to work, returning to where Dawn sat watching, wide eyed.
"Pretty cool, huh?"
"Yeah. Really cool."
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TBC....
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"According to the street map, we're almost there. It should be that house.... right there. Wow!" Dawn exclaimed. "It's huge! And it's beautiful! It looks so old fashioned. I love it!"
"You're sure we're in the right place?"
"Yeah. Willow's info says we are. Don't you love this place? It looks like a fairy tale house."
"A fairy tale house with witches living in it. That fits I guess. You stay until I check it out, okay?"
"You're treating me like a baby again! I can handle myself, you know!"
"You also have the Summers gene for finding trouble. I'd rather not double the chances something icky is gonna jump out at me when the door opens. Stay."
Dawn scowled and pouted, but she stayed.
Buffy walked up to the door slowly, eyes open and all senses on high alert, despite the fact that it was full daylight. She knew too well that not all dangerous creatures feared the sun. Her bold knock was answered almost immediately, but the reaction of the young woman who responded to Buffy's summons was , though very human, not at all what the Slayer expected.
"Yes? Can I.... Holy mother of.... Leo!"
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"We should be getting close, now. What was that street name again?"
"Lemme see." Paige mumbled, staring at the street map they'd bought at a gas station on the way into town. "Revello Drive. Yeah. Turn left right here. We're at the right end. High numbers start here.... Okay. That's it, I think. Pull over."
"Pretty house. Pretty street." Piper observed.
"Pretty normal." Paige finished.
"Yeah, well we know that's not true. Looks are nothing in this town, if Phoebe's vision is even half accurate."
"Not to mention the articles and stats I pulled up."
"Right. Well. Shall we get this little meet and greet started?"
"Yeah. Right behind you." Paige affirmed, stepping out and grabbing her bag and her laptop before locking and slamming her door. She was only a foot or two behind her half sister, who had already rung the door-bell, when Piper screamed and stumbled backward away from the opening door, instinctively throwing up her hands and invoking her power.
The fear of all she'd read and heard surging through her, Paige began to run to Piper's aid, but stopped dead at the sight of one of her worst nightmares framed in the entryway, frozen in the act of bringing a mug to his lips.
Staring around her frantically, she saw a short, thick branch laying at the base of a tree halfway across the lawn, orbed it into her hand and used it to thoroughly concuss the bleach blond monster which had frightened her sister, bringing voices, then the owners of the voices from various points in the house.
"What the..."
"Spike! What did you do, lady?!"
"At least it happened in the foyer. I'm not steam cleaning blood out of the carpets again."
"Tara?"
"Paige, right?"
"Yeah. This is Piper. What is that?" she asked, pointing at the utterly still figure she had smashed to the hallway floor.
"He's a vampire, but it isn't what you think. Feel like coming in for coffee?"
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"Mother of Leo? I haven't been to church in a while, but that's a new one on me." Buffy commented wryly as the brunette at the door swiftly backed away, alternating between panicked glances at her visitor and brief peeks over her shoulder as if she expected someone, or something to suddenly appear, which he did a moment later.
Watching the random sparks and swirls of light coalesce into a human form, Buffy dropped automatically into fighting stance, regretting leaving her weapons in the car. She had cause to be glad for her reflexes and healing abilities a moment later when the dark haired girl rose into the air a foot or two and hung there. This momentarily knocked the Slayer far enough off her mental balance that the other was able to land a solid kick to her jaw, catapaulting Buffy in an backward arc and landing her on her left side at the bottom of the steps.
"What is it, Phoebe? Are you okay?" the man intoned, moving to the young woman's side as her feet contacted the floor again.
"Her.... it.... revenant.... zombie.... dead woman walking. I really have no clue. I just wanted someone around... in case. Thanks for getting here so fast."
"No problem, but I don't think there's any real danger here. You can relax."
"What? Leo, you don't know what I saw...."
"Pheobe. Give me a minute, here, okay? You go on in the living room and catch your breath. I'll be right there...." at the sound of inrushing air behind him he paused. "and apparently so will Cole."
Smiling thinly, Leo moved down the stairs and studied the petite blond just rising to her feet, left arm cradled in her right hand. He'd seen the same "ask no questions, take no prisoners" look in many pairs of eyes before and knew enough to stay out of range, but he decided to speak to the woman and see if he could negotiate a truce before someone got hurt beyond the injuries he was afraid she might have already suffered. "What's your name?"
"Funny. Most people ask that before they decide my ass needs kicking."
"I'm sorry about that. I'm still not sure what it was all about, but if you and your... daughter would care to come into the house, I'm sure we can straighten this out over coffee or tea..."
"She's my sister and that's a really good idea. You do have a first aid kit, I assume?"
"Of course. How badly are you hurt?"
"I'm not. It's just a few scrapes and a dislocated shoulder. The scrapes will need cleaning, that's all." She informed him matter-of-factly. Walking back to her car and crouching by the passenger's door, she breathed deeply once or twice before slamming the affected shoulder into the car. She then rose, shook out the arm, urged the younger woman out of the vehicle and strolled back past Leo, who could do nothing but gape in shock. Abruptly, she whirled around and returned to where he stood, smiling and holding out her hand to shake. "Sorry. I'm just little miss forgetful, today. Buffy Summers. That's my sister Dawn. You coming in?"
After recovering his senses, Leo nodded and followed the other two up the steps and into the house.
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"A vampire. Yeah, I kinda got that from the face. And you trust him? You let him into your house?"
"Well, see he can't hurt humans. This secret group of government scientists captured him and was gonna do nasty things to him, but they didn't want to risk getting bitten so they put this.... microchip in his brain and it gives him a bad headache if he tries to hurt anything other than a demon or another vampire, which, I guess, is technically a demon too, but.... It's a really long story."
"Longer than that?" Piper asked, laughing gently.
"Oh yeah. I didn't even tell you how we found out the scientists were there or...."
"Tara." Willow broke in, handing her girlfriend a glass of iced tea and smiling softly at her. "It's okay. They don't have to know the whole history of the Scoobies in the next five minutes, sweetie."
"Sorry. I get so excited sometimes being able to tell the stories to someone who hasn't heard them before."
"Scoobies? As in Scooby Doo?" Paige questioned
"Yeah." Willow replied. "That's another long story."
At that moment, Anya and Spike returned from the bathroom where she'd been treating the scalp wound resulting from Paige's impromptu attack with a tree branch. Despite the assurances of safety Tara had provided, Paige rose and moved off to sit with her sister on the other side of the room, where Piper was forced to stay to avoid the worst effects of her stronger/weaker conflict with Willow.
"You two! Oy, what's with lettin' those bints in here? One of 'em magicked me an' the other walloped me! If I wasn't chipped I'd be havin' a nice between meal snack about now..."
"Try it and I'll file your fangs for you." Piper growled, sitting forward slightly, her eyes narrowing in preparation for a fight.
"Okay, that's enough DC." Xander exclaimed, rising from the couch and dragging Spike over to dump him unceremoniously into a chair. "Sit quietly or my threat about the vet clinic will become a reality."
"Vet clinic?"
"DC is Xander's new name for Spike. It stands for Darn Cat. Like in the kid's movie? He does a whole lotta damage and causes trouble, but he never really hurts anyone. Xander keeps telling him that if he doesn't behave he'll tie him up and take him in to be neutered." Tara chuckled, blushing at the thought.
"Hey, it worked for my uncle's cat. Turned a nasty, skirt chasing, spit-in- your-eye-as-soon-as look-at-you hell-beast into a sweet, fat old lapcat who wouldn't hurt a fly. And he never looked at a female again. He just.... seemed to lose interest...." Xander teased with a wicked grin for Spike
"Yeah, you come over here an' say that to my face, Harris...."
"Mommy, little Willy's growling at me...." Xander taunted, his hands flying up to cover his eyes and his laughter.
"Willy? Willy?! I'll bleed you an' pain be damned, you wanker...."
This time it was Willow who halted Spike's tirade; Willow and a warning from his chip.
"Ow! Bugger all.... stupid chip.... stupid humans..."
"Me? Stupid? Did I get myself caught by a bunch of soldier boys with taser guns and then operated on? No...."
"Spike, sit down. Quit letting him get to you. And you stop making fun of him, Xander. Both of you just shut up for a while or I'll make you. And you know I can do it."
This threat had far more effect on the two men than Xander's had on Spike. Both glowered at Willow then each other, but they remained quiet.
Piper, glancing in wonder from one member of the group to the next, smiled uncertainly then voiced a question.
"Is it always like this here?"
"In the house, pretty much. In Sunnydale.... you haven't seen anything yet." Willow told her.
At that moment, the whole room became suffused with deep red light, pouring in through the windows and the transom over the door.
"It looks like we're about to...." Paige intoned fearfully.
"Mmm. My favorite color. Neat trick if I do say so." Spike added happily, staring around in fascination even as the others ran for cover or ran to find research books and weapons.
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"Okay, so explain this again. You did actually die.... but you were ressurected?"
"Right. The friend of mine that your sisters met in the store, she's a pretty powerful Wicca and she did this spell to.... bring me back. Now.... one more time. Why shouldn't I kill this guy behind you? He is a demon, right?"
"His name is Cole, and he *was* a demon. Well, he still is, but now he's.. reformed. And mostly human. He actually helps us vanquish other demons. He's one of the good guys, now. And I sort of.... love him."
"Thank you, honey. I think." The dark haired man seated beside Phoebe remarked with mild sarcasm.
"A reformed demon who fights his own kind, has switched to the good side of the force *and* is in love with a human. Boy, that sounds way too familiar..."
"Bad memories?"
"Oh, you don't even wanna know. I could tell you some stories.... on second thought, there are way less depressing things we could talk about. Like, how did you do that trick? The levitation thing? You have got to teach me that. Something like that would be really useful in indoor combat."
"Sorry. It's nothing I can teach. It's just what I do. I was born with that power, but I'm just learning to use it. It's actually my second power to develop. The first was precognitive visons. That's actually how I knew about you before you showed up. My sisters and I did a spell with the business card Tara gave Paige. It enhanced my visions and let me see things about the people associated with the card, but.... I didn't get the back to life thing.... just the long fall, splat, funeral thing. That's why I was so scared when I saw you. Did I say yet how really sorry I am about that?"
"Yeah, a few times. It's okay. No big. I heal fast. Really fast."
"What is it you said you're called again?" Cole asked, his expression bland and mildly curious, a far cry from the thoughts whirring behind his eyes.
"The Slayer. One girl in each generation is chosen to fight evil and save the world from multiple apocolypses and break nails and ruin perfectly good clothes, blah, blah, blah. The whole thing is long and boring and I don't have it memorized. Not that Giles didn't try to make me...."
"Giles? Who's that?" Phoebe asked
"My Watcher. Another long boring explanation there. He was my friend and my trainer. Pretty much my dad all through high school. He went back to England where most of them come from. I think so anyway. I never really got that straight...."
Hearing footsteps, Buffy let her sentence, and the train of thought that went with it, drift into oblivion. Leo and Dawn appeared from the kitchen where he had been keeping her occupied while the other three sorted things out.
"The snacks are ready if you guys are." Dawn announced, glancing quickly up at Leo with a dazzled smile, then back down at her feet. "I helped."
"She sure did. She's a whiz in the kitchen."
This brought another smile from Dawn and a look of long suffering patience from Buffy.
{Wonderful.} she thought. {Another Dawn Summers 'I'm not going to talk about anyone else for the next six months' crush. We'll have fun, fun, fun till Dawnie takes our sanity away.}
"Sounds great. I can't wait to see what you whipped up." The Slayer chirped, grabbing her sister by the arm and tugging her away from Leo. Seconds later, an ominous crackling sound behind the two girls induced Buffy to throw Dawn to the floor and follow her down. An immense fireball zoomed inches above their heads and exploded the grandfather clock, showering the pair with fragments. Exhorting her sister to keep her head tucked in and her body out of the line of fire, Buffy leapt up and joined Pheobe, Cole and Leo in facing the threat.
"So this is a demon in your little corner of California?" she intoned somberly, staring at what could easily been a human, had it not been palming another ball of flame.
"Yeah." Phoebe replied. "Isn't it in yours?"
"Like I said, I've got stories. Let's take care of this first, though."
"Agreed, but you better let us handle him. Fists and feet don't work well on this type of demon." Cole warned her.
"Don't see why not. They work on every other kind." Buffy reasoned, throwing a kick to the creature's midsection. He vanished and rematerialized behind her, leaving the Slayer sprawled in an ungainly heap on the floor.
"That's why. Pheobe? I'll distract, you chant."
"Got it."
Nonplussed, Buffy backed away and allowed the other two to work, returning to where Dawn sat watching, wide eyed.
"Pretty cool, huh?"
"Yeah. Really cool."
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TBC....