Several hours later, the witch and the demon had left their home and were heading for the spot where the last victim had been found; they both knew that it probably wouldn't be of much use, since so far, they had no idea if the one responsible for the killings would come back to that particular place, but they agreed on the fact that it was a better idea than just wandering the town at random and hoping they'd run into him on accident.
"Maybe he left some trail there when he killed them", Willow let her girlfriend know as they walked through the quiet streets, only a few pedestrians passing them every now and then, "that's how I found that assassin after I thought you're dead, but I'm not sure it'll work again…"
"Why not?" Pat wanted to know, lighting up a cigarette while Willow shrugged, then replied, giving her a rueful smile. "Well, I was all angry and sad and… I was using that dark magic again, you know, the stuff I sucked from the Dark Arts books in the Magic Box, after Tara got shot… That was helping with locating and following the trail, but I'm not sure I could do it without that dark magic, and honestly, I don't wanna tap into that again…"
"Understandable", Pat gave back, "so that's out of the question, then… Well, maybe we'll be lucky and you'll find something without tapping into that."
"I hope so", Willow sighed, frowning when the spot where the second victim had been killed appeared in the distance and she saw that the crime scene tape had been removed; the chalk outline was still faintly visible, but obviously, someone had tried to clean it, making it clear that the scene was considered finished by the police.
"I wonder if they found anything", she thought out loud, gesturing at the sidewalk and pointing out the lack of crime scene tape to her girlfriend, "normally, they don't remove that tape until they're fully done."
"You can check their database again", Pat suggested, then fell silent as she watched how Willow reached into the small bag she had brought and brought out an even smaller one, opening it and pouring some sort of dark blue powder on her hand, shaking her head when the demon asked if she could help.
"Just keep an eye out so no one will disturb us", she gave back absent-mindedly, already focused on the spell – before she realized what she had said, her eyes going wide as she looked at her girlfriend again. "Um… I meant…"
"I know what you meant", Pat cut her off, "and I'll stand watch. Just try to find something, okay?"
Nodding, Willow gave her another apologetic look, not believing she had been so tactless – normally, it was Buffy's speciality to make such remarks and regret them a second after they had been said, but she was more careful about that special, painful subject. Then, she forced herself to push those thoughts aside, knowing she had to empty her mind if she wanted to have the slightest chance for the spell to work; she closed her eyes and took in a few deep breaths, giving her best to let all her thoughts flow away, letting all the doubts and worries that burdened her fall off of her as calm darkness spread within her mind.
Finally, she opened her eyes again, not noticing how Pat smirked at the well-known sparkle that had entered them, that certain glint she'd only get when she was close to doing magic; mumbling the words of the spell beneath her breath, so low that not even the demon could make them out, she raised the hand with the powder on the palm, blowing heartily on it right after she had said the last word, the tiny blue corns spreading out from her hand, then settling on the sidewalk, where the started to glow and reform themselves a moment later, sketching a map of Sunnydale onto the dark concrete.
"Come on", she whispered, again so caught up in staring at the glowing image that she didn't notice how Pat moved closer to her, squinting as she looked down on the sidewalk as well, "show me where he is…"
For a few more seconds, nothing happened; then, a glowing dot appeared on the map, the witch's eyes lighting up at the sight – before several more dots popped into existence, causing her face to grow long and to let out a low "Damn!", the curse prompting her girlfriend to give her a worried and curious look.
"It didn't work", the redhead sighed, gesturing at the map as if to clarify, the clueless look she received in response making it clear though that she had to explain further.
"The damned spell is showing me all the demons", she thus told the taller woman, watching with dismay how even more dots appeared, as if to confirm her words.
"Look", she added, pointing at one which was glowing brighter than most of the others, the brightness of the glow lessening the farther the dots in question were away from the one she had pointed out, "there's you. Yours is so bright because you're standing right here, the closer a demon is to the caster of a spell, the brighter it glows."
"Oh, I see", Pat gave back, then frowned and bent down to take a closer look, making Willow wonder briefly if her girlfriend had seen something she had missed, a question the demon answered before it even had been asked by grasping her sleeve and tugging at it, the redhead after a second realizing what her partner wanted and bending down as well.
"If I'm that brightly glowing dot here, then another demon is right around that corner", Pat mumbled, making sure to keep her voice low so the one who possibly was spying on them wouldn't hear her. "I know the chances for that are small, but it might be our guy so… Can you do a binding spell on him from here? Without seeing him?"
Immediately, Willow nodded, straightening up again before she briefly closed her eyes, once more emptying her mind; she visualized what she needed to do the binding, roots that were snaking through the earth beneath the thick asphalt covering it, whispering the words to herself while Pat already started moving, the startled cry coming from the alley a second after her girlfriend had fallen silent again making her smirk, since it had shown that the spell had worked out just fine.
Already clenching her fists, she sped up her steps, almost running by the time she reached the corner behind which the demon was hiding; when she rounded it though and saw whom Willow had captured, she slowed down, then stopped fully, frowning as she studied the well-known face, the hanging ears and flabby skin, and the droopy eyes which were looking at her pleadingly.
"Please don't hurt me", Clem almost whined, briefly making her wonder if he didn't recognize her, "I just wanted to… Oh. Hi Pat."
"Hi Clem", Pat sighed out, then crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a sour look, gesturing at the vines which had wrapped around his ankles and kept him firmly in place. "Care to tell me why you're snooping around here? We thought you're our guy."
"The dumpsters", Clem explained in reply, gesturing at them as if to underline his words, "cats often come here looking for food, so…"
"So you look for food here", Pat finished for him, grimacing, holding up her hands when he looked as if he wanted to elaborate further. "That's all the info I need, thanks."
She sighed again, dismayed about the outcome of this tiny adventure, then moved back to the corner and called out to Willow that it was just Clem and that she could free him; nodding her agreement, the witch did just that, and after throwing the demon a thankful look, Clem turned around and hurried off without another word, his hunger clearly forgotten.
"Wait!" Pat tried to stop him, remembering too late that he might have valuable information on the guy they were looking for, "I need to—"
Before she had a chance to finish, he had rounded the corner at the other end of the side alley and was gone; snorting, the demon shook her head to herself, then took the time to light up a cigarette before she returned to her girlfriend, nodding when the redhead asked her if they'd just patrol without any leads then, giving her best to hide her dismay about the failure of their plan as they started walking again, asking herself if this meant that yet another person would have to die that night.
In the next morning, the first thing Willow did after getting up was to check the various online newspaper pages, looking for a report about yet another person burned to death; the patrol during the previous night had been unsettlingly uneventful, with only a few random vamps Pat had finished off quickly, but they both had known that this didn't mean that the killings were over when they finally had given up and had returned to their home.
Momentarily, she felt relieved when she found no news about a third murder on any of the websites; then, her heart sank again though as she thought of the button and the pile of cigarette butts once more and realized what the lack of a third victim could mean.
Last night you were with her, a poisonous voice whispered from the back of her mind, managing to make itself heard no matter how hard she tried to block it out. You were with her, so she had no chance to kill again… Just wait what will happen tonight, when she'll go alone again…
"No", she mumbled to herself, her glance wandering to the closed bedroom door, the demon still slumbering soundly behind it, "she wouldn't…"
Shaking her head to herself, Willow forced herself to focus on the screen again, closing the newspaper site and entering the police's database once more; since they still hadn't thought of updating their security, probably hadn't even noticed so far that someone who wasn't supposed to enter had done just that, it took her just a minute to get into the database again, the file of the second victim opening on her screen another thirty seconds later, making her glad that she had memorized the – at least to her – nonsensical name of the file.
When she saw that nothing had been added to it since she had checked it the last time, she wasn't sure if she should be relieved or worried; then, the bedroom door opened behind her and Pat joined her in the living room, rubbing her good eye tiredly with one hand and scratching the back of her head with the other one.
"It's early", she then mumbled, surprisingly coherent despite the fact she just had gotten out of bed, "what'cha doing out of bed already?"
"I wanted to see if anyone else was killed last night", Willow gave back, once more giving her best to hide what she had been pondering before her girlfriend had gotten up, and clearly succeeding, since the demon just gave her a questioning look, even managing to smirk slightly when the redhead let her know that no one else had fallen victim to the new foe.
"Coffee", she then grunted, making the witch smile, an honest smile this time, despite her worries; with another grunt, Pat moved on into the kitchen, the sounds of her preparing the much needed beverage echoing through the apartment moments later while Willow focused on the screen of her laptop once more, reading through the police file for a second time, just to make sure she hadn't missed any important information.
Once she could be sure that she had gotten everything, as little as it was, she finally logged out again and closed the laptop, prompting it to go into standby mode with that annoying little jingle while she rose from her seat and joined her girlfriend in the kitchen, not surprised to find her at the table there, smoking a cigarette and staring at the coffee machine, as if her intense glaring would make it get done faster.
"You know, glaring at the coffee won't make it be finished any sooner", the witch pointed out, smirking when Pat just let out another grunt – obviously, her coherence had been a fleeting thing, and now she had returned to the usual means of communications at such early hours.
"What are you doing up already anyway?" Willow asked anyway, giving her a curious look while she checked the fridge for possible breakfast, even though she didn't feel all too hungry. "I have a reason to be up, I need to be at the campus in an hour, but you could just have gone on sleeping."
"Nuh-uh", the demon muttered, taking a long drag of her cigarette before she spoke on, the words coming out in a mixture of normal speech and low growls. "Magic Box. Big delivery."
"Oh my", the witch grimaced in reply, immediately feeling sorry for the taller woman – lately, Anya had stopped hounding them about paying whenever they used stuff from the store, but as if to make up for that act of kindness, she now practically insisted that Pat helped her out whenever a big delivery came, a request which basically amounted to the demon carrying big and heavy boxes back and forth while Anya stood by with clipboard in hand and gave more or less helpful advice.
"Poor you", Willow thus showed sympathy, earning another grunt; then, the coffee machine finally got done and distracted Pat from the conversation, the black haired woman almost jumping up from her seat and rushing to the machine, making her girlfriend smile as she watched, once more giving her best to keep any dark thoughts about the possible responsibility of the woman she loved for the recent murders out of her troubled mind.