"Tara? Um… What're you doing?" Anya was staring at her in horror. "You're going to have to pay for those."
"Out of my way," Tara said in a dead voice. As she strode out of the shop, bookshelves toppled, tables cracked, and glass shattered.
Anya glanced around the shop. "And all that, too! And that table isn't cheap!"
Giles had called Buffy as soon as Tara left his house in a rush. A frantic, weeping Xander answered. He told Giles about Buffy being shot, and they rushed to the hospital. There they found Buffy in the critical ward. "She'll be okay. We got the bullet out easily and she's healing fast," a doctor told them. Xander and Giles gave each other a knowing glance. Of course she was healing fast. Their relief didn't last long. The doctor continued, "but we'll need to file a report about the injury. Which one of you is Alexander Harris?" Xander raised his hand and was ushered off to an office.
Tara was alone in her dorm room, kneeling over one of Willow's blouses. With a knife she pricked her palm and smeared a few drops of blood on the blouse. She set candles in a diamond shape around her. Murmuring a few words under her breath, Tara lit the candles with a long match. In the flickering light she whispered, "Reperio iuguolo, ostendo sum him volo. Cruor quod nex quod dolor. Unus est infractus, unus est mortuus. Cruor of interficio oh sic rutilus." Find the killer, reveal him to me. Blood and death and misery. One is broken, one is dead. Blood of murder, oh so red. An ancient rhyme. A small red glowing circle appeared in the shirt, absorbing the blood. It grew in size as the blood disappeared. Tara stood solemnly. The orb rose too. "Find him. Go." Tara gave the command and the orb flew towards the door. She would find Willow's murderer.