They were all sitting around the large, round oak table of the Magick Shop not sure of why they had been called there by Giles.
"What do you think it is, Buffy?" asked Dawn.
Buffy thought about the earlier conversation she'd had with Giles concerning Spike. She was sure it had something to do with him. He was leaning languorously in the doorway taking in huge drags from a Marlboro Red. Didn't seem to care if he was there or not. But she knew that he wouldn't have been invited if this didn't have something to do with him.
"I dunno," she lied to the her sister. "Probably just Hellmouth stuff."
"To Hell you 'dunno,' " Spike accused as he flicked the butt into the street.
"Litterbug!" Xander grumbled.
"Heard that, Harris..." He stopped. He felt such an iciness come over him that it surprised him. Was dead already. Not supposed to be affected by cold or heat. But this iciness, he could not place.
Giles was walking up the sidewalk with someone. A child? A child with a cigarette in her hand? No... something wasn't right. He moved from the doorway and joined the others at the table. He watched cautiously as Giles held the door open for the small woman and then invited invited her in.
He was struck by her beauty. So small and more delicate looking than anything he'd ever seen. Not even Buffy had looked so small even at her weakest. Didn't smell weak, though. Shrouded by something... something... not light. Not one of them. Not one of him. He tried to act aloof but once he caught her eye, he was sucked in. He actually shivered. Tried to shake off whatever that feeling was that he couldn't place. Tried to brush away that scent that had no sense of familiarity but all too much.
"Buffy, this is Bellona Grimaldi," he paused, knowing that there would be a reaction when he told them, "Angel sent her to help us."
It was Spike who let out such a laugh that Giles was actually frightened that she would kill him with those eyes right there in front of everyone. Ah, could be a blessing in disguise he smiled in spite of himself.
"Rupert, Old Man, I think Peaches has finally hit the tipple one time too many. Either that, or he's still thinking with his tadger... " Giles shot him a vile look, but he continued, unaffected. "How the Hell is she going to help any of us?" She was staring at him with a very slight smile.
"Please, it's Bella," she said as she offered her hand to Buffy. Her eyes were still locked on Spike.
"Bella, uh, thanks for... coming..." Buffy trailed off. Her hand was so cold. Not like his, but very cold nonetheless. And Bella was still staring at Spike.
She walked slowly toward him and looked up at the vampire. He really wasn't that big or forboding, but he towered over her.
"Sit," she quietly commanded. He sat.
"Stay." He didn't budge, but had opened his mouth to speak.
"SHUT," she said moving her fingers like a closing mouth.
She walked back over to Buffy and Giles, not missing a beat.
"Angel tracked me down through a mutual... acquaintance. And I'm glad he did. I hadn't realized just how bad it had gotten out here."
Xander was the first to speak.
"I... Love... You..." he said, in awe. He had never been Spike's biggest fan. That earned him a kick under the table from Anya.
"Is he in... did you....?" Willow began with eyes the size of dinner plates and burgeoning interest in the other witch's powers.
"Thrall..." Giles unwittingly sighed, taking off his glasses and nervously polishing them on his sleeve.
"What the Hell is with you and the thrall, man? He'll get over it. I take it you don't get him all sweet and silent too often, do ya?"
Buffy liked her. She really liked her. There was just something about Bella that made it feel like she'd always been there. And thrall or not, Bella was the missing link. She could feel it all the way down to her toes.
"I don't know... what... you did, but I trust Angel and... is he gonna be okay?" Spike was sitting, still and silent. It was disconcerting.
Bella gave Buffy an are-you-sure-you-want-me-to-undo-this look and then turned to Spike and said "as you were."
He started hurling accusations, clearly afraid of this new, unexplicable creature.
"Sure you don't want me to 'put the thrall on him' again?" she teased.
Buffy, Giles and Bella joined the others around the table, Spike still yelling "Bloody witch! Demon! You... you... succubus!"
"You wish," she laughed.
"Shall I?" offered Giles, turning attention back to Bella. "Or shall you?"
"I am a descendant of the Grimaldi Sisters."
"Grimaldi?" asked Xander.
"Sisters," finished Willow, clearly in awe. "The Grimaldi Witches of Italy."
"Yes. My mother was a witch. At first a white-witch... but, well... things don't always work the way you want them in witchcraft, do they?" she said to Willow with a knowing wink.
Willow understood all too well.
"But it isn't just the witchcraft that I was sent for. I am a vampire hunter. And I. Do. Not. Fail." She was staring at Spike. She walked over to where he was sitting, leaned in close and sniffed him predatorially. "You smell of fear, Vampire. Of fear and... a shiny, new soul."
Spike was stunned.
"Vampire with a soul. How many are there of you? You. Angel. Who else? Fought hard for it, didn't you?" She moved his seat back and placed her hands on the arms, caging him in, and leaned in close. "Tell me, Vampire. Was it worth it?"
He had the feeling she already knew the answer.
Buffy was ready to get down to business. She didn't want to waste any time. Hope gave her a thrill. And Bella was that great hope who could help them shut out the demon world.
"The Hellmouth is located in the basement of Sunnydale High School," Buffy began. "Spike... stumbled across it."
"You mean to say he is strigoiu, huh?" She laughed as she paced back over to Buffy's side.
"Belt up! I'm sitting right here. Don't talk like I don't exist," he snapped at her.
"Stri..."
"Strigoiu, Slayer. Thinks I need to go sussing out abandoned places for a drum." Spike was more annoyed than Buffy had ever seen him.
"Spike... that is what you do." Buffy informed him. She returned her full attention to Bella who was staring at Spike with a quiet smile. Smug. And were those her veins? Buffy could swear she could see every tiny vein in Bella's porcelain-smooth face. Spider-like, yet visable when she was this close.
"The Hellmouth... I don't know how to seal it. It's not open much, or so it would seem. The demon universe hasn't exactly flooded into Sunnydale, if you know what I mean. But things have been happening. The demons we've been faced with at night. They've been stronger. Vampires that are harder to kill," Buffy explained.
"The Ancient Ones. Always harder to kill. Whether demon or vampire. And so are the ones who are infected by their blood," Bella agreed.
"Right. And these guys... they're not going down without a fight. They're making us work harder than ever before. I don't know what we'll do if the population multiplies. We just aren't equipped for it. And I think they know it. And that's only going to make them want out even more." The Slayer was filled with worry.
Bella was thinking. This wasn't the first time she'd heard of the Hellmouth. And this wasn't the first Hellmouth she'd ever encountered. Another thing that made her so valuable, according to Angel.
I have every faith that you will know exactly what to do when the time comes, Bella. That's what Angelus had told her when she had met with him in L.A. Don't show your cards to them all at once. Don't overwhelm them with too much in one chunk. But guide them with what you know, reveal what you know as you encounter each obstacle.
"It can't be sealed with magick," offered Willow.
No, witch. It can't be sealed with your magick, she thought.
"Take me there."
"Uh... now?" Giles piped in.
"Yes, of course now. Take me there."
He looked to Spike.
"I'm not going with her alone. You can forget that. Not after what she did to me earli--"
"SHUT." She'd shut him up again.
"Does he EVER get tired of hearing his own voice?" she asked Buffy who simply laughed before stating "We all go."
The school had recently been rebuilt by Xander and his crew of construction workers. Bella looked at the building. Looked like any other high school. Doors, windows, steps, plaque stating: Sunnydale High School est. 2003.
"It's in the sub-basement," the Slayer told her. "I found... Spike there," she recalled how he had been out of his mind at the time, talking to thin air, swearing it was telling him what to do.
"The First," Bella whispered, breathless.
She began rifling through a small bag she had pulled from an inside jacket pocket. She pulled out a small vial of oil and turned to them all. Better explain what was going to happen so that they wouldn't all freak out on her.
"I am going to anoint each of you with a drop of this oil -- it's a mixture of basil, lavender, frankinscence and myrhh -- "
"Like in the Bible?" Anya practically squealed. Bella hated being interrupted.
"Like in the Bible," she sighed.
"Are you anointing him, too?" she interrupted again, motioning toward Spike.
"Yes," she sighed. "Him too. This oil will -- "
"Won't it burn him, since it's, like Biblical?"
"SHUT," she commanded. And Anya did.
"Wish I could do that to her," Xander remarked, astonished. She shut him, too.
"This oil will protect us," she explained. "And, no. It won't burn him," she told Anya and Xander before un-shutting them. "It won't hurt him anymore than a crucifix or any other holy object."
"Then you won't be touching me at all with it, Pigeon!" Spike threatened, hand up in protest as he backed away from her.
She was growing tired of them. For people who had been fighting Big Bad for quite a few years, they sure did seem clueless.
"Okay, listen, Vampire. Thought you might be a little wiser than they are, but apparently, you're just... not... Do you think... really believe... that the damned oil is gonna burn you?" She already knew the answer. She felt the anger rising.
"Dammit, Vampire! If you believe that something will hurt you, it will. If you don't, it won't. That goes for garlic, crucifixes, witch's oil. It's amazing how someone as old as you acts like he was turned yesterday!"
Spike was still skittish, even as she approached him with the oil.
"Ah, so make me the guinea pig, yeah -- OW! Bagascia-- "
She was laughing. At him.
"No oil on my finger, Vampire. Now do you see? If you believe it will burn you... it will. Oil or not. Now grow up and get anointed," she commanded. "And the next time you call me a bitch I'll stake you on sight."
He lowered his head to her and she placed a drop of oil in the center of his brow. She repeated the motion with the others and then herself.
"The oil has been placed on your 6th Chakra. Your Third Eye. It will open you to see what is really going on no matter what the Hellmouth uses to try to trick you."
They all nodded. Willow was still in reverence of Bella.
"Okay," she said, finally placing a drop of oil on her own brow. "I think that since you're the one who is so familiar with this Hellmouth, you should lead the way," she instructed Spike. He sneered at her and shook his head.
"You got it in for me, is it?" She stood looking up at him, arms crossed over her chest. She wasn't budging on this.
"Oh, Bloody Hell! FINE."
Buffy told her that this is where she worked as they followed Spike inside. It was where Dawn was a sophomore. Bella nodded, listening as the Slayer prattled on about the school and the events that had been taking place since the discovery of the Hellmouth. Rows of lockers lined long, clean hallways. Looked like any other educational establishment, but it felt like the gateway to Hell.
"Why is your sister even going here?" Bella asked, eyes darting to take in everything.
"To take sucky algebra tests and--" Dawn started complaining.
Bella raised an eyebrow. "Do you think it's wise to have her worrying about Algebra when she should be learning how to weild a weapon?" Bella kept walking, hand brushing over the locks hanging from the row of lockers, making a tremendous amount of unneccessary noise.
"I want her to have as normal a life as possible," Buffy explained, now second-guessing herslef.
"Hmm," was all Bella said.
"It's down there," Spike told them, stopping at the door to the lower level.
"Yes, it is." Bella could feel it. "Go 'head, Vampire. Open the door. It's a public place. Don't need an invite."
She could hear him scowling, cursing as he opened the door.
"Oooh! Creepy!" Bella teased.
Xander wasn't finding any of this funny. He didn't need to be there. Bella was the one who wanted to see the place. Why couldn't she have just gone with Spike?
"Okay, enough with the scare tactics," Anya voiced weakly.
"Big bad vengenace demon like you? Scared of a little bitty Hellmouth?" Bella was enjoying this. A little too much. Kind of like someone who would ruin a haunted house with sarcasm and humor.
Spike reached out to open the next door.
"Uh-uh," Bella told him suddenly. "No."
"Oh, for crying out -- why not, Woman?" Spike asked, exasperated. She'd wanted to see the damned thing. Said as much.
"Why stopping?" Buffy asked.
"Smell dead people," Bella muttered, preoccupied. "No... we're out of here," she said turning and leading the way back up the stairs.
"No. No, no, no. We're not leaving. Dead people. I'm dead people. Could be smelling me," Spike was extremely annoyed.
"I said we're out of here. And I meant it. Now. OUT," she told them.
Buffy and Giles exchanged worried glances but didn't argue. Willow stopped dead in her tracks halfway to the door.
"I see it..." she whispered. There was a chill in her voice that creeped into Buffy's bones.
"See... what?" she asked.
"I see it," she repeated.
Bella knew what she saw. She'd seen it, too. It just wasn't time. Not ready to go head-on with the evil behind that door. Bella didn't say another word as they left the building.
"All that anointing and bullshit so that we can tuck our tails and run? Innit the rub!" Spike bitched.
Bella turned to him very slowly. Her eyes were nearly transparent, her voice at a whisper. "Due time, Vampire.... due time." She was trembling.
The sky had darkened with clouds, threatening rain and storms. But Willow knew that it wasn't Mother Nature who had created the change in the weather. She felt it, too. Thunder was roaring, winds beginning to whip. Anya and Xander were huddled together. Buffy stood near her sister and her Watcher as Bella dropped to her knees in pain.
"No!!!" She yelled in a voice that wasn't hers. Her hand shot out, lightning erupting from her palm, and the doors of Sunnydale High were sealed shut.
"Be silent, be still... be silent, be still... be silent, be still." She was still on her knees, hugging herself tightly and rocking. Her eyes were closed as she continued to chant.
The others stood, not sure what had just happened. Willow trembled a few feet from Bella.
Spike was between the witches and the others. His mouth was open, but he couldn't speak. He didn't know what Peaches had sent them, but this creature wasn't human. He was sure of that.
The winds died down as abruptly as they had started. Clouds swirled, letting back in streaks of starry night sky. Bella stood slowly and turned to Willow.
"I don't ever want you near this place again. Ever," she told the frightened witch.
Willow nodded, eyes still wide at what she'd just seen.
"What's going on?" Buffy demanded to know. The Slayer couldn't hide the stench of fear that now covered her.
"The First will find your weakness and it will exploit it in the most perverse way imaginable," she told Willow. The witch nodded, her head bobbing quickly with understanding. She'd seen it. She'd seen why Bella wanted them all out of there.
"We need to go," she told them.
"Yes, very well... but -- "
She cut Giles off with a shake of her head.
"Very well."