Half an hour later, they all had assembled around the living room table in Buffy's house, Buffy, Pat and Dawn closely watching how Willow crumbled some of the wood she had taken from the burned house into the bowl the Slayer had provided for her, then added some of the ashes before she reached for the bag with the ingredients for the locator spell.
"Alright", she mumbled, carefully pouring some of the already crushed and mixed herbs into the bowl, on top of the wood and ashes, "in a minute, we'll know if this was a good idea. Sweetie?"
In reply, Pat leaned forward slightly and closer to the bowl, a tiny flame appearing on her index finger, an equally tiny ball of fire flying from there when she made a careless flicking gesture, landing in the middle of the ingredients and setting them on fire with a rather impressive whoomp, considering how small the flame had been.
"Map", Willow ordered, prompting Dawn to grab the map of Sunnydale she had readied and to spread it on the table; closing her eyes, the witch spread her hands over the paper, smiling slightly to herself as she felt the power of the magic surge through her, already knowing that it was working before she even had opened her eyes.
"It worked", Pat's voice came, confirming her knowledge further; nodding, she finally did look, her smile widening when she saw the single glowing dot on the map.
"Worked like a charm", she then let the others know, bending closer to the map to study the exact location.
"That's odd", she added after a moment, looking up at the others again, "according to this, he's at the old high school now. The one we blew up."
"Well, if you blew it up, there was a big fire, so naturally, he'd like it there", Pat pointed out, bending closer to the map as well, "honestly, I'm not very sur—"
Before she could finish, the glowing of the dot representing their opponent suddenly increased with surprising speed, heat rising from it; simultaneously, Willow and Pat jerked back from the map, just in time for the witch to avoid getting burned as the map suddenly caught fire.
"Fire!" Dawn shrieked, clearly forgetting the fact that someone who was immune to that particular element was right next to her; without missing a beat, Pat brought her flat hand down on the still rather small burning part, quenching the flames effortlessly before she gave the teenager an incredulous look.
"Warn me before you shriek like that the next time", she then dryly stated, pulling her hand back and revealing the hole which had been burned into the map, along with a scorch stain on the table which's sight made Buffy gasp, "because I think if I hear that too often, I'll go deaf."
"Sorry", Dawn apologized, blushing slightly and looking sheepish, "I forgot that fire's not a problem for you…"
"I noticed", Pat muttered, then looked at the burned map again with a raised eyebrow before her gaze moved up to focus on her girlfriend.
"Has that ever happened before?" she demanded to know, not really surprised when Willow shook her head, looking rather stunned as she stared at the map.
"Never", she then let the others know, still unable to take her eyes off the map, "do you think that was him? Does he know we're coming now?"
"Well, you're the witch", Pat reminded her, "is that possible?"
"I'm not sure", the witch sighed out after thinking about it for a few moments, "but, as far as I know, not really. Maybe it's some sort of general protection he put up against being found…"
"Well, it didn't help much then", the demon smirked, "because we know where he's hiding anyway so… Wanna go there right now?"
"I think you should", Buffy was the one to answer that, the way she phrased it making it clear that she wasn't planning on tagging along, to the obvious relief of both the witch and the demon, "as you said yourself, he'll only need one more victim, and he might not wait until nightfall this time, if he knows that we're after him."
"I doubt that", Pat gave back, speaking on and explaining herself when Buffy raised an eyebrow at her curiously. "It gives him a kick to kill with fire, he kinda… I dunno, I think he feeds on the fear and terror his victims give off when they die. It's not just that though, he enjoys fire, and during the day, well, it doesn't look as good. Less impressive than in the dark. So I think he'll wait."
"That's one sick guy", Willow stated, making the others nod; then, she rose from her seat, prompting her girlfriend to do the same, both of them nodding when Buffy asked if Pat wanted to borrow one of her weapons.
"I think I have one of those big axes you like so much", the Slayer let her know, "upstairs in my bedroom. I'll go get it."
"Okay!" the demon replied enthusiastically, making the blonde chuckle; rolling her eyes, she got up as well, then hurried upstairs while Willow grasped her girlfriend's hand and gave it a tender squeeze, her worry about the impending confrontation clearly showing on her face and through her eyes.
Once Buffy had gotten the axe from the weapon chest in her bedroom, the couple left the house together; as always when the Slayer wasn't around, Pat didn't bother to hide the weapon, the few people who dared to take a closer look glancing away again the moment they saw how big and sharp exactly the axe was and noticed the eyepatch and the cuts and bruises.
"One of these days, we'll get arrested", Willow commented, looking at the way her girlfriend openly paraded her weapon to the world with a raised eyebrow, giggling though at the demon's response. "Then we'll tell them we're one of those gangs on PCP, the ones they always blame for vampire victims. They'll run away screaming then."
"I hate to say this, but I'm afraid you're right", the witch had to admit after she had managed to stop laughing, "I hope it's not like that everywhere, but here, when it comes to anything supernatural, the police are kinda, well…"
"Useless?" Pat finished for her, smirking when after a moment, the witch nodded regretfully, her eyebrow wandering up again a second later when her girlfriend asked her if she could hold the axe for a moment so she could light up a cigarette.
"I'm not sure I can", she then gave back, choosing her words carefully, "that axe looks awfully… heavy. I don't wanna embarrass myself and end up dragged down to my knees by it."
"Aw, it's not that heavy", the demon reassured her, holding it out to her, "I carry it with one hand, see?"
"Yeah, but you have insane demon strength", the witch pointed out, then took the axe at last, letting out a huff at how heavy it was. Smirking at her, Pat hurried to light up her cigarette, then took the axe back from her partner; the few people on the street gave their best to ignore them as they kept making their way to the ruined high school, arriving there a short time later.
"I wonder where he's hiding", the demon commented, throwing her cigarette away, her grip on the axe tightening slightly; next to her, Willow shrugged, eying the blown up building, wondering if there actually were any places in there where someone could hide.
"In the cellar, maybe", she then stated, looking at her girlfriend, "I think that's the only place suitable to hide at. Everything else is too ruined."
"Agreed", the black haired woman said after thinking about this for a moment, "off we go then… But before we do, I wanna ask you for a favour."
"Sure, go ahead", Willow gave back, curious; moments later, she smiled as the taller woman replied, glad that her skills would be useful as well during the oncoming fight. "Can you do some slowing down spell or something on him? I really don't want him to kick my ass again. Oh, and some sort of protection on me against his little sleeping spell thing?"
"Well, the first thing will be easy", Willow gave back, frowning as she thought about the request of her partner, "but the second one might be hard, since I don't know which spell he's using… I can put some sort of general protection thingy on you though."
"That should do", Pat reassured her, "so, um… do I have to do anything?"
"No", the redhead smiled, once more amused about her girlfriend's lack of understanding when it came to magical things, considering the fact that she, as a demon, was naturally inclined to magic, sometimes making the witch wonder why she was so uninterested in it.
"Just hold still, alright?" she then added, briefly closing her eyes as she concentrated; it didn't take her long until she came up with a spell that should work, mumbling the words of said spell a moment later, the demon nearly flinching back when right after the last word, Willow raised her hand and made a short gesture at her, a lightly blue mist spreading from her fingers and covering her seconds later, then vanishing into nothingness.
"There", she then smiled, "this should do, unless he uses some really freaky, complicated spell, which I hope he's not."
"Alright", the demon smirked, "thanks. Let's go and kick his ass then?" Smiling back at her, Willow nodded; the couple took the time for a short, innocent good-luck kiss, then made sure that no one was around to see them before they entered the ruins of the High School, the redhead's heartbeat speeding up as she realized how close they were to meeting that horrible demon once more, a mixture of excitement and fear filling her as she asked herself if this time, things would work out as planned.
Thanks to the horribly desolate state of the High School, the couple had to move very carefully, with Pat making sure that she'd stay in front of her girlfriend all the time – this way, she could keep her from getting hurt if anything should come down in front of them, and would simultaneously protect her from any surprise attacks their opponent might have up his sleeve.
For her, it was easy to move soundlessly, the way to accomplish quiet walking practically in her blood after centuries of being an assassin; behind her, Willow gave her best to be quiet as well, once more glad that her partner had taught her this, even though she had to admit that it was much harder in the debris-littered remains of the High School than it was on the street or in their apartment. Still, she did fairly well, managing to keep the level of noise she was inevitably making down to a minimum; it irked her a bit that in front of her, her girlfriend moved with creating practically no sound at all, then she shrugged it off and forced herself to concentrate again, only to flinch when her foot stubbed a small piece of mortar and making it bounce over the ground, with quite the audible noise.
"Dammit", she whispered, managing to keep her voice down in the last second; Pat turned around to look at her, whispering as well when she answered and telling her that it was okay.
"If he's in the cellar, he probably didn't hear it", she then added, "it wasn't that loud, and—" She saw the redhead's eyes widen and reacted with stunning speed, turning around within the blink of an eye, just in time to see the brightly burning ball of fire rush towards her. She still had time to wonder why he'd bother to do that, seeing that she was as immune to fire as he was; then, it hit her in the chest, the flames briefly flickering and spreading before they vanished, leaving not the tiniest trace behind.
"What a pity", the redheaded man smirked, showing his buck-toothed smile once more, "I was hoping you'd react without realizing that it was fire and that you'd duck."
"Too bad that didn't work out, huh", Pat gave back, raising her axe; behind her, Willow started mumbling the spell to slow the other demon down, the black haired woman forced to hold back a smirk when she realized that the witch was keeping her voice as low as possible on purpose, so that their opponent wouldn't hear her and wouldn't realize what she was doing until it'd be too late.
"I can't say that I'm surprised you're here, even though I'm not all too happy about it", the man now went on, still smirking, "I guess this is some sort of last stand now, huh? Can't you just let me get my last guy in peace and then let me move on?"
"No", Pat gave back at once, not believing his nerve and the audacity he showed by asking her this, "because you won't stop killing. It is my job though to stop creatures like you, so…"
"It's the Slayer's job, technically", the demon reminded her, "but since you're a traitor and acting as that pesky blonde's replacement while she's down, I guess I can accept that opinion. I'll still have to kill you, but you'll die knowing that I understand you."
"We'll see who'll be the one to die now", Pat confidently gave back, raising the axe slightly; in response, the guy just smirked – before he charged forward with a loud growl, bringing his fists up, his growling drowning out the final words of Willow's spell, the redhead once more holding her breath as she stepped back and waited to see if the spell had worked, her mind racing as she already tried to figure out what she would do in case it didn't slow the man down enough to make it easier for her girlfriend to take him down.