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Chapter 14
Cale screeched in a very unmanly manner as demon-Arlene grabbed him in her scaly hands, her yellowed talons cutting into his chest.
"Help! Please! Someone-anyone! Help me!" The petrified Willow was unable to answer the poor boy's cries, and instead watched dumbstruck as the beast that held him threw Cale into the glass wall across from them. The little girl winced as the college student crashed through the pane and landed limply on the ground, bruised and bleeding from the impact. The faux social worker that had inflicted Cale's injuries surveyed her handiwork, and, once sure the meddlesome young man would not rise, turned back to the red-headed child, offering her a grin of cracked and crooked teeth.
"I apologize for the interruption, Miss Maclay; now where were we?"
Tara groaned in frustration as her locator spell failed yet again. She had tried creating the traditional locating-light-ball, but it continued to sputter out, despite her mental description of her beloved, which the light-ball should have led her to. But the blonde witch was not weak of spirit, and thus she attempted the spell again. Perhaps she was thinking too much of 'old' Willow. Since 'old' Willow was now barely more than a toddler, Tara focused her mind on images of her girlfriend's child-self, adorable and stuttering her name. Again the light-ball appeared above the young woman's cupped hands, and to her utter joy, it started moving towards its red-haired target. But as Tara stood to follow the guiding brightness, it changed direction and flew right at her, stopped an inch before it hit her, spun around and started going in its original direction, and repeated the pattern. Tara sighed. How was she going to save Willow if she couldn't even find her?
Buffy did not have the same issues finding the little girl, for in following the sound of breaking glass, the Slayer was lead right to the location of the child-and the demon looming over her.
"Worry not, child," the creature once called Arlene cooed in a now-raspy voice, "you'll be far more useful to me than you would have been as your mother's punching-bag."
Willow glared into the demon's cold gray eyes-the only feature that went unchanged throughout the woman's transformation. No one insulted her mother. She couldn't defend her only parent's honor against Cale, whose strong physique and real-world threat she was no match for, but against a creature of the supernatural? For some odd reason, the little red-head felt she had a fighting chance.
"Do not look at me in that tone, young lady," the aged villain chastised, noting the difference in the babe's previously timorous disposition, "I want to make this as painless as possible for you-but I can hurt you more than those beatings your precious Mommy gives you-"
"Step away from the kid." Buffy flipped her golden locks behind her shoulder, stake in hand.
The demon laughed at the tiny female specimen before her. She had just knocked a full-grown boy unconscious. The little blonde would be no match for her.
"I said, step away."
Tara had decided to abandon the locator spell. She had tried envisioning Willow in every form imaginable, and yet not one of them had given the light-ball reason to choose a direction and leave the room. It was time for plan B; when magic fails, use technology. Having no tracking device on her young charge, Tara opted to call Buffy's phone. It rang once, twice, three times-
"Hi! This is Buffy. Please leave a-" the thump of a vampire getting staked, "message! Thanks!" Beep!
It was useless to enlist the Slayer's help. She was probably out…slaying. Tara sighed, resting her forehead on her dorm-room window and gazing out into the night. She noticed the usual lack of tranquility; the frat boys partying outside, the lights in the library still on for the late-night crammers, the broken glass of the front building's lobby-wait. The young woman knew no one was ever in the front building after hours. It was made up of administrative offices-too dull to interest rambunctious college students. So who was in there? And why was there broken glass? The blonde's eyes grew wide.
"Danielle!" the Slayer warned, "Get out of the way!"
As the demon left her youngest prey in favor of the Slayer, the abandoned girl couldn't help but get a little mad at her 'aunt'. She was rather looking forward to defending herself, and now the older blonde had taken her attacker's attention. But the little girl, being more mature than most her age, agreed a compromise might be a more efficient means of defeating the evil social worker than having her way alone. Thus, taking the opportunity afforded by the distraction of the tough college student's taunts and blows, little Willow tried to think of a way she could help. Closing her eyes, the child with the blonde highlights envisioned her mothers casting spells, as was usual in the Maclay household she remembered, and teaching her to do the same, concentrating on her inner power and chanting various incantations. Raising her eyes to the scene at hand, Willow knew what she had to do.