***

Part 3

"May I come in?"

Willow studied the woman. The pretty blonde in the burgundy skirt and gold top was nothing like she'd expected. She was almost positive Eve was human, but there was a taint about her...a shadow that lingered about her aura. After a moment's hesitation she reached out with her magical senses...and met a solid wall. Eve was well protected, with shields not even Willow could breech, not without expending a great deal more energy than she wanted to.

As if sensing Willow's incursion, Eve smiled and brushed past her. She sat gracefully on the cream bedspread and lounged back on her arms.

Still holding the door open, Willow pivoted. "It's a little late for house calls, isn't it?"

Eve glanced at her watch. "It's 9.15."

Surprised, Willow checked her own watch. She recovered quickly and said, "Well, I'm an early-to-bed gal. And it's been a long day." Willow faked a yawn which turned into a real one and indicated her duffel bag, sitting by the bed. "And I still have to unpack, so if you don't mind..."

Eve stared at her for a disconcertingly long moment. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you...uncomfortable. If you'd prefer to talk at the office, where you wouldn't be alone..." Her polite voice held a trace of condescension, and despite her offer she didn't shift from the bed.

The door slammed shut by itself in an outward manifestation of Willow's anger. Cursing her momentary loss of control, she clamped down on her power, acutely aware of Eve's smug expression. Oh, great. I just fell for a six-year-old's taunt. Angel's gonna kill me.

She went over to the bed, trying to avoid glancing at the ankle boots next to her bag. Although she was looking down at Eve, she felt distinctly disadvantaged in her bare feet. But putting on her boots would feel like an admission of weakness, so instead she crossed her arms and glared. "Okay, you wanna talk, let's talk. But I can tell you right now that I'm not interested in joining Wolfram & Hart's payroll."

"And I'm not here to offer you a job."

Taken aback, Willow scrunched up her face. "Well, then..."

Straightening, Eve gazed up at her. "The senior partners are ready, as soon as you give us the word, to assign any one of our offices over to you--with the exception of Los Angeles, for obvious reasons."

Willow's jaw dropped. "What? Why?"

"They think you're an asset worth cultivating. Think about it, Miss Rosenberg. We have branches in London, Cairo, Hong Kong, Paris...to name just a few in this dimension."

"Paris..." She imagined strolling along the Champs Elysee...viewing the city from the Eiffel Tower...browsing the Louvre. Glimpsing Eve's smirk, she caught herself and snapped, "I don't need Wolfram & Hart to go to Paris."

"Maybe not. But I think you'll find our resources are far more extensive than what you can currently access."

"Look, maybe in your world, people can be bought with the promise of money and power, but I don't need your money and I have all the power I need. It'll take more than a first-class ticket to Paris to buy me off." Willow reconsidered her choice of words. "I mean, you can't buy me off," she amended.

Eve nodded, as if she'd expected that response. "There's more."

Willow sighed. "You people don't hear the word 'no' very often, do you?"

"Not from anyone who wants to continue living," Eve said sweetly.

Matching her tone, Willow said, "Save your threats for someone who can't turn you into a rat."

Eve laughed as if she'd made the funniest joke ever. "Oh, that wasn't a threat. I was just stating a fact."

Grimacing, Willow glanced over her shoulder at the door. "Feel free to leave now."

The bed creaked as Eve rose. "As you wish." She bypassed Willow and hesitated at the door. "But you haven't heard everything we're offering."

Willow spun around. "Am I talking to myself here? I thought I made it clear that I don't want anything from you."

"And what about your friend Alexander?"

Her heartbeat accelerated. "Stay away from Xander."

Eve flicked her hand. "Oh, we don't want to hurt your friend. On the contrary, we can help him."

"Help him? Just how gullible do you think I am?"

Unoffended, Eve smiled. "With our resources, you could give him his eye back. Make him whole again."

Willow inhaled a sharp breath. From what she knew of Wolfram & Hart, she had no doubt the firm could make good on that promise. And she found the thought unbearably painful. Her dear friend Xander, who'd lost so much. In the last few months, watching him struggle to rebuild his life, there were times she would have traded her soul to ease his suffering. The irony brought tears to her eyes and she turned away. "Xander wouldn't ask me to make that sacrifice."

"Would it be so much of a sacrifice?" asked Eve, sounding genuinely sympathetic. "Think of all the good you could accomplish, the people you could help. You'd have an army of assistants to help all those new slayers."

Willow's anger reignited and she whirled. "You're not getting your claws into the slayers. You're not getting anywhere near them."

Looking very much the injured party, Eve sighed. "I understand it's hard for you to trust us--"

She snorted. "And the prize for understatement of the year goes to..."

Ignoring her, Eve continued, "But you trust Angel, don't you?"

"Yes," Willow said slowly, wondering where this was going.

"So you must trust his judgement."

"Oh, right. So if this is good enough for him, it must be good enough for me?"

"Something like that," Eve said, tilting her head.

"Look, I don't know what kind of deal you made with Angel, but I know it involved more than a cushy office and the opportunity to bathe in the sun."

Eve's girl-next-door exterior hardened into a more calculating expression as she reappraised Willow. "You're right. We offered him something he couldn't refuse."

Setting her hands on her hips, Willow said, "Well, there's nothing--"

"Tara Maclay."

"What?" Willow's stomach turned to ice.

"We can bring her back," Eve said, watching her intently.

Willow was overwhelmed by a burning rage she hadn't felt since the day Tara died. Only this time there was no dark magic coursing through her veins to fuel the fire--fortunately for Eve. Trembling, Willow took a deep breath, in through her nose and out her mouth. Then another. And another. Until she could speak without losing control.

"Don't say her name," she said in a cold voice she hardly recognised as her own. "Ever."

"Is that a no?"

"That's a: get out before you start sprouting fur and a long tail."

Eve's eyes flickered.

Willow strode forward and felt a thrill of satisfaction when the other woman retreated, flattening her back against the door. "You know, you might wanna reevaluate your career path to hell," Willow said, "because if your employers sent you here to try to push me over the edge, they obviously don't value your services very highly."

Eve straightened but couldn't quite look Willow in the eye. "I assure you the offer is genuine."

"And all I have to do is sign over my soul. No, thanks."

Eve laughed a little nervously. "Oh no, you wouldn't lose your soul. You'd just be collecting them."

Willow grit her teeth. Magic energy tingled beneath her skin; all she had to do was wiggle her fingers... Man, sometimes it sucks being the good guy.

With a casual wave, Eve opened the door and left. "You know where to find me if you change your mind."

Willow closed the door softly. Her knees buckled and she sank to the plush carpet, pressing her forehead against the smooth painted surface of the door. The tears she hadn't allowed herself to shed returned with a vengeance. As they trickled down her face, she closed her eyes and was lost in her memories.

***