Part 6

"HOLD."

Willow held her hands palm upward and began to raise them. A young man in his early twenties began to rise and be suspended in mid-air. He tried to move his arms and failed. Panicking he tried to kick out at the dark haired vampire that stood near him but found himself unable to. God why was he so stupid? He had hoped to capture the witch that had Ethan and Gwendolyn all excited. It would have assured his rise in the ranks of Ethan's army. His fellow wizards had warned him that he was no match for the witch that had allied herself with Rupert. But did he listen, nooooooo, he thought the rumors were nothing but tales to keep the weaker wizards from going after the witch. Now look at him, he was trapped, unable to move and a brassed off vampire was coming his way.

William watched from the shadows. This Willow had been here a week and he grudgingly admitted that she was a help in the war with Ethan. It burned in his stomach like holy water to see that Dru and the others were taking a liking to this Willow. He somehow felt it would be disloyal to the memory of HIS Willow to warm up to this one. Every time she showed a mannerism that was so like his Willow he would retreat further.

"Well, well. It seems one of Ethan's lapdogs bit off more than he could chew."

Dru put on a small smile as she joined Darla, "Mmmm, now that you mention chew I am feeling quite peckish."

Darla reached up and trailed a nail down his cheek drawing a thin line of blood. Inhaling the smell like it was wine of the finest vintage she murmured, "Mmm, fear with magick. Quite the intoxicating combination."

Willow grinned over at the two vampires. Besides Rupert she had become quite close to Dru and Darla of this world. Who would have thought that of all the people of this world that she met she would have become friends the quickest with were Darla and Druscilla? Certainly not her. Of course it helped that they were nothing like her Dru and Darla.

"Should we take him back and try to get answers as to why he came after me or do you guys just wanna have a snack? I don't care either way."  Willow tried to sound bored. Of course she wasn't going to let Dru and Darla kill him but he didn't have to know that.

She smiled inwardly as the man turned a sickly shade of green.

Darla dropped out of game face and smiled at Willow, "I keep telling Dru you would make a marvelous vampire."

Willow shuddered as VampWillow came to mind, "Trust me when I say not only no but heck no to vampire me."

Dru seemed to be considering her question, "As much as I'm feeling hungry right now I think we should try to for answers. Of course if he doesn't talk we can always eat him later."

Darla slipped her hand through Dru's arm, "Brilliant. Wonder how well Ethan has trained him to withstand pain?" Darla looked fondly over at Willow, "Oh you should have heard the last one that Dru tortured. It was hours before he screamed but it was well worth the wait."

Willow cocked her head to the side as she contemplated how to get him back to Rupert's place. "Well I could work the mind control thing on him and make him follow us willingly or turn him into an animal and bring him along but what's the fun in that?"

William decided it was time to join in the game, "Here now. How 'bout I knock him unconscious while he can't move and carry him back?"

"Oooh, lovey that would be great. It'd save Willow's strength for later."

The man blinked a few times did she say Willow? He thought Ethan had killed Willow three years ago. It was before he joined Ethan but he thought he remembered she died along with the Slayer. Must be a different Willow. He didn't think the other one was this powerful and it wasn't that unusual of a name.

William hit the man and watched satisfied as his head slumped forward.

"Release."

William quickly grabbed him before he hit the ground with Willow's release command. "Do you think Ethan or Gwendolyn sent him out to find out about the witch or do you think he worked on his own?"

Darla smiled calculatingly at William, "Just one of the many questions he'll have to answer for us."

Willow quietly followed them back to Rupert's store. It had been a week since she arrived through the mirror and William was no closer to trusting her than when she first got there. Not that she expected him to welcome her with open arms but he still called her 'the witch' or 'witch'. He never called her by Willow or Red, which were his pet names for his Willow. It seemed William was just as loyally obsessive as her Spike. But she did think he would have warmed up to her by now, at least a little. He was polite enough more for Dru's sake than anything else. For the sake of the group they would get along. Willow had stopped trying to earn his trust when she realized he wasn't going to give it no matter what. They were like divorced parents that got together for the sake of the children. Politely distant.

The tinkle of the store bell brought Willow out of her musings as Dru held open the door for William. Thank god for Rupert. He had become her lifeline here. He was so much like her Giles and yet not. If she was destined to stay in this reality she was grateful for his friendship.

"Rupert." Darla sing-songed as they all entered the store. "Look what Willow caught."

She knew that mentioning Willow would bring Rupert out quicker. She smiled as she watched the Wizard's eyes light up when he saw Willow. Her three hundred plus years as a predator allowed her to know and read humans well. What had started out as the need to help a fellow magick user had turned into Rupert's growing feelings toward the woman. She doubted even Rupert realized that his feelings were changing.

William dumped the body unceremoniously on the research table.

"Hey, watch the books." Rupert admonished as he rushed to move an ancient text out of the way of the man's head.

"Who's this?"

"Dunno. He attacked Willow. She magicked him. Dru and Darla scared him. I hit him."

Dru giggled. "Leave it to my William to boil it down to its basest parts."

"He attacked you! Are you all right?"

Darla smirked and winked at Dru as Rupert rushed over to Willow.

"She's fine, Rupert. He only lobbed a weak energy blast at her, which she deflected easily enough. I think he angered Dru and I more than Willow. She held him in suspension while Dru and I had some fun and then William offered to hit him to make it easier carrying him back."

They looked over at the door as Faith and Tara returned from patrolling. Faith looked over at the unconscious man and then back at the others, "Well, it seems you guys had a busier night than we did. Only dispatched two vamps and Tara scared the crap out of wanna be on Ethan's side."

Tara gave a shy smile, "Just a simple illusion magick and he thought he was being attacked by dragons."

Faith smiled back at her girlfriend. "Looked real, too. She took the Nazgul from Lord of the Rings movie and made it go after this guy." Faith started laughing. "You should have seen him, G. He was running and screaming down main street yelling for everyone to hide. People were looking at him like he was crazy and Tara had this innocent look on her face the whole time. Priceless. So who's the guy asleep on the table?"

"One of Ethan's flunkies but until he wakes up we don't know who he is or why he attacked Willow."

"If you're gonna torture him, can I watch? It was so cool the last time." Faith looked over at William with pleading eyes.

William smiled over at Faith. She would make a fine vampire some day. Might do it himself when the time comes.

Tara looked over at Giles and they both rolled their eyes at Faith's question.

"Might even let you help if you're a good Slayer."

Faith was practically bouncing with excitement. "Really?"

"Faith." Rupert's voice took the excitement out of Faith.

Faith looked over at Rupert dreading seeing the disappointment.

"If you make him bleed you'll have to clean it up."

Willow blinked. If she needed any proof that there was more Ripper in this Rupert than hers she had just heard it.

The man slowly came awake just in time to hear Giles admonish Faith about cleaning the blood. Oh god what had he gotten himself into?