"He'll go for one more", Pat let the other three know as soon as they all had calmed down again and Willow had finished treating her wounds, "he told me he always gets two girls and two guys, and I don't think he'll interrupt that routine just because we're on to him. Demons can be quite stuck in their routines, you know."
"Oh I know", the witch muttered, smiling innocently at the look Pat gave her, the demon then clearly shrugging it off since she cleared her throat and spoke on, the others listening with high interest. "As I said, I doubt he'll change that, but he won't be idle now, either, he'll probably try to get the second guy tonight, and then he'll move on to the next town. So, the big question is, how do we stop him?"
For a few moments, the room was unpleasantly silent; then, Buffy spoke up, making everyone else look at her, something she didn't notice though since her gaze was focused on Willow. "Can you locate him easier, now that you know what he looks like?"
"I don't know", the witch gave back after a moment of thinking about it, "or, better said, I'm not sure. Just knowing what he looks like might not be enough, it'd be better if I had something from him… Or knew his name."
"Too bad he introduce himself to me", Pat sighed, "which was very rude, now that I think about it. After all, he knew my name!"
"And too bad you didn't knock out some of his teeth and took them along", Dawn added, shrugging when the demon raised an eyebrow at her, then gestured at the redhead. "Willow could do the spell easily then, right?"
"Well, I didn't", Pat gave back, "I'm not one to collect teeth, you know? What should I do with them? Wear them as a necklace?"
"Ew, no", the Willow immediately protested, "don't you even think about that…" She trailed off and frowned to herself, a facial expression they all knew well – it was the look she got on her face when an idea was forming in her mind, and usually, those ideas were the good ones, the ones they needed when they were at a dead end.
"That house", she finally spoke up, breaking the breathless silence that had filled the room while the others had waited for her brain to finish the job, "he said it's his lair, right?"
"Well, it was", Pat shrugged, "seeing that it burned down, but… yeah, he called it that. Why?"
"We might find something there, something I can use", Willow let her know, briefly forcing the demon to hold back the urge to slap herself on the forehead for not thinking about that as well, "maybe even the ashes might work, I mean, he caused the fire that made them…"
"Makes sense", Pat had to admit, "so, we better get moving now, or we'll lose too much time." Nodding, Willow got up from her seat; when Buffy started to do the same, both the witch and the demon gave her such a strict look that she automatically sank back into her chair, reacting with confusion, not sure what this was supposed to mean.
"You are not coming along", Willow was the one to speak up and explain the look, "not after how that guy knocked you out. Maybe we'll be lucky and he'll have gone back there, something which I doubt, but you never know, and after how easily he took you down, it's too dangerous to take you along."
"I'm the Slayer!" Buffy protested immediately, even though she knew that her best friend was making a good point, "I'm supposed to be the one who takes guys like him out!"
"You're the Slayer, but a Slayer currently weakened from an evil poison", Pat answered that one, making it clear that she was fully on Willow's side about this, "and, no offense, but your presence might make the fight harder instead of easier, in case he knocks you out and we end up worrying about you, making it easier for him to knock us out. Even though I also doubt that he'll go back there, now that we know that this was his lair."
"So, you might as well let me come along", Buffy tried to argue, letting out a huff when both Willow and Pat shook their head in perfect unison.
"This is annoying", she let them know a moment later, "at first, you give me this annoyed look together and now you shake your heads together. Sooner or later, you'll start looking alike or something."
"Maybe I'll become taller", Willow thought out loud in reply, then returned to the topic at hand, namely the fact why Buffy couldn't come along with them. "But no matter how much we annoy you, you won't come along and that's final! Pat's right, the poison's still affecting you and he did knock you out not all too long ago, aren't you dizzy?"
"A bit", the Slayer sighed, realizing and accepting that, no matter what, the couple wouldn't give in, "so, fine, yeah, go alone. But be careful! Remember that he kicked your ass twice before, Pat."
"I won't forget that so fast, I feel it every time I move", the demon dryly gave back, glaring at the blonde when she received a triumphant look in reply.
"And still you wanna go there anyway", Buffy then argued, momentarily not so accepting of the facts anymore, "what if he kicks your ass again?"
"He won't", the black haired woman simply replied, clearly not willing to discuss this any further, "because by now, I know how fast he is, so I'll know how to handle him, and, by the way, now I also know why Dawn can be so insisting when she wants something and you tell her no. It runs in the family!"
"Hey!" Dawn and Buffy protested, making it their turn to speak in perfect unison; afterwards, they looked at each other in surprise while Willow and Pat just smirked, then told them they'd hopefully be back soon and left without giving them the chance to answer, Buffy pouting to herself as she leaned back into the couch and crossed her arms over her chest, once more annoyed at the assassin who was responsible for her current weakened state.
It didn't take long until the couple arrived at the house, and to their relief, the firemen had gotten done with their job and had returned to their headquarters; luckily, the fire hadn't spread to any other houses close to the one which had served as their opponent's lair, making the job of the firemen much easier and the fire less dangerous for the public than it could have been.
"I'm still peeved that he has so much control over his flames and I don't", Pat muttered while she approached the sad remains of the house with her girlfriend, "he said we're one of a kind, so how come he can do it and I can't?"
"Well, you're clearly not as much one of a kind as he thinks", Willow pointed out while she knelt down close to the remains of the front door and started going through the burnt pieces of wood and the clumps of ash, trying to figure out if this would be enough to find the demon, "because, well, you don't need to kill people to get your kicks, and you don't lock people up in tiny rooms to let them die in a fire. Plus, you're way cuter."
"Thanks", the demon smirked, crouching down next to her, "but I'd really like to know how he did it. It'd be awesome to learn that."
"I doubt he'll teach you", Willow gave back, briefly smiling at her before she focused on the debris again, "but, come on, you're good enough with handling your flames, I mean, you only burn what you wanna burn, right? There's no need for those fancy fire tricks he used."
"No, no real need for them, but it looked cool", Pat grumbled, then moved further into the ruins of the house, to her girlfriend's obvious dismay, images of falling building parts dancing around in Willow's mind while she quickly came to her feet again.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" she called out, not daring to follow the black haired woman, her eyes wandering upwards to look at the blackened beams and the few pieces of ceiling which still where were they belonged, "what if something falls down and hits you?"
"I'll jump outta the way", Pat gave back, something Willow seriously doubted though, seeing how her girlfriend's gaze was focused on the floor and not on the dreadfully dangerous looking burned stuff right above her head.
"I'm not sure this is a good idea", she thus replied, "but I am pretty sure that the pieces of wood and the ash should be enough for the spell, so please come back here again?"
After a moment, the demon nodded and turned around; as she did so, the movement obviously upset something in the frail structure which was left of the house, and one of the beams came down, Willow letting out a shriek, her heart beating up to her throat even after Pat had jumped out of the way with a rather daring dive.
"See?" the black haired woman spoke up as soon as she could be sure nothing else would come down and try to bash her brains in, "told you I'd jump out of the way."
"If you don't come back here right now, I am banning you to the couch", Willow threatened as an answer, clearly not impressed by the fast reaction of her partner; Pat grimaced at her, then hurried up her steps, standing next to her a few seconds later.
"Here I am", she stated the obvious, "was that fast enough so I won't end up on the couch?"
"Yes", the witch smiled, going back to her usual calm behaviour now that Pat was out of harm's way, "and now let's go back home and see if that spell—"
Another beam came down and interrupted her noisily, making her fall silent – before she simply raised an eyebrow at her girlfriend and, without another word, turned to walk back to the Summers' home, Pat following her after a moment and giving her a sheepish grin, chuckling to herself when the witch just rolled her eyes, then grasped her hand as they walked back to the house, eager to find out if the wood and the ashes would be enough to find the one they were after.