Chapter Fifteen
"Give me something. Anything!" Giles ranted as he paced back and forth in front of Willow.
"Well, there's a Carballo Demon that has green, glowing eyes. But they shoot out of its head and paralyze people. Apparently, they regenerate, like crabs legs or the two halves of a worm."
Giles stopped and glared at her sternly.
"Okay, okay, so no projectile optics. I get it."
"There must be something," he said, shaking his head, his shoulders slumping with worry. "There's nothing in that book about restoring souls, or vampire pacts, or granting wishes, or . . .?"
"Wait a second." Willow stopped and hurriedly flipped through to the index. A second later she opened the book to a page somewhere in the middle. "Wish Granting Demons," she read off the title of the chapter.
Giles sighed and sat down wearily in the chair across from her, leaning his head back against the frame. "Tell, me, are there, by any chance, green-eyed, wish-granting demons, who live in caves and make deals with vampires?"
"Yes," she said slowly.
"You're joking right?" Giles sat up suddenly in his chair.
"Nope. Here it is." She turned the book around for him to see. There was a picture beside the text. "The Ruglage Demon of deepest Africa. It says here it's just a myth - a legend perpetuated by superstitious natives - but I know what I saw. And this is it."
Giles pulled the book closer and pored over the faded print. He read, "The Ruglage Demon is purported to possess the ability to grant any wish so long as the supplicant has first completed a prescribed set of trials. If the supplicant completes these trials, then said supplicant will have their wish granted to the letter of their request - as the demon sees fit - by any means necessary."
Willow was leaning across the table, watching Giles. "So, what do you think Spike wished for?"
"I don't know." He sat up and pushed the book away. "Maybe his soul. Maybe to make Buffy think he had a soul. God," he laughed, "maybe to have Buffy love him. It could be any number of things."
"We have to tell Buffy. Giles, she had to know what's going on."
"At this point," he pinched the bridge of his nose in irritation, "I don't think she would care. Whatever this thing is, whatever Spike actually wished for, it's gotten to Buffy. She's under it's power, and she apparently is quite content to be there."
"What do you think we should do?"
"The only thing we can do. Go back to Sunnydale and stop Buffy from making the biggest mistake of her life."