On the way back from her research, Willow stopped at one of the campus notice boards. There were two possibilities that she could see - there was a Celtic heritage group meeting Thursdays, and a 'religious tolerance group' meeting on Friday afternoons. She couldn't be sure about either of them, but they sounded like better prospects than the lesbian support group, or the LGBT group, or the philosophy club.
"I'll have to check those out. Maybe one of them will be something, or lead to me to whatever they might have here like the Sunnydale Wiccan group," Willow murmured.
With those groups as well as their times and locations for the meetings noted down, she decided that there wasn't anything else she could do towards establishing ties with local magicals right now. She didn't remember seeing anything that could have been earlier, but she'd been pretty wrapped up in her own misery, it would have been easy to miss things. Even big things.
When Willow returned to her little apartment, she sent off an email to Wesley. She hoped that he wouldn't be so caught up in immediate dangers and confusion that he'd be unable to help. And she wished that she had enough confidence to call Giles and ask him about the situation.
Wesley,
I hope you aren't too caught up with crazy and dangerous stuff going on over in LA. I've been having something kinda weird happening here, and wanted some advice. It doesn't appear to be immediately dangerous, but it is worrying me.
People are looking different out of the corners of my eyes than they do straight on. Like demons kind of different. I don't know if I'm hallucinating or seeing beneath glamour-disguises.
I'm planning to keep track of who looks different, in hopes that will help sort out hallucination yes/no. Further advice would be good : )
No clue why either way. If I'm hallucinating, why and why now? Who'd benefit, and how would they find me? If its real, and I'm seeing hidden truths, again why and why now?
The whole mess seemed like a Watchery kind of question.
Willow
ps - Cordelia tends to categorize based on accessories. Try searching by the brand of shoes or maybe purses.
She sent off the email, and hoped for the best. After that, she started a computer file with her observations of people that she was seeing differently. After all, as portable as her little notebook was, a computer back-up was always a good thing... or at least, often a good thing. It helped her settle her thoughts a bit.
After that, she worked on her Philosophy class, reading over chapters fourteen and fifteen again, and hoping that this time, the stuff would stick. The notes should help, the same for the study guide that she was filling in as she went. She worked on that until she'd filled in the whole study-guide, and completed the mini-quizzes at the ends of the chapters.
Then she pulled out the tiny tape recorder, and the little tape of bat-sonar. She really hoped that the rumors about the new biology teacher were wrong, but just in case... Sunnydale had left her paranoid about 'just in case'. Except that there were an awful lot of times when instead of it being 'paranoid' it was being right.
"Off to biology with me... to play a tape that hopefully nobody's going to hear." Willow shook her head and gathered her books. "Has life always been like this?"
Willow settled into her usual section of the biology seats, about half way back and near the hallway side wall. It gave her a decent view of the professor, the chalkboard and the occasionally used projector screen, while keeping her out of the way of the majority of the students, who seemed to prefer using the central aisle to find their seats. Doctor Inglemeyer looked human, or at least not visibly other than human. The same couldn t be said for some of the students. A quiet guy with a stripey orange sweater and thick horn-rimmed glasses seemed to have a thin layer of scales instead of normal human skin. Giggly Kisha with her row of hoop earrings all along the curve of her ear was distinctly blue today, with thicker scales, though her red and purple striped hair was just as short and spikey as ever. There was a big guy who looked like he should be playing football that seldom talked, and then with a strange, maybe-eastern European accent that looked rather grey, with very solid bones and heavier eyebrows, matching some of the illustrations of early Germanic and Frankish trolls from the old Watcher books.
Willow jotted those details down on her little notebook, and settled in to take notes on the structures of the eye, and the function of each part of the eye. She found herself wondering if demon eyes had tapetum lucidum like cats or if they had something else that performed a similar function, considering the number of times that she d seen demon eyes gleaming in the dark back in Sunnydale. Generally those were explained away as cats, or raccoons, or really big scary rats . Xander had always laughed, wondering how offended most vampires would be to get compared to big rats, and if that would be enough to get the opportunity to stake them
She waited until the normal middle of the class break of five to ten minutes so that people could stretch a bit, go to the bathroom, or whatever before she pressed the button on her tiny tape recorder with the bat sonar. Doctor Inglemeyer showed no signs of reacting, but a pair of very quiet people that normally sat in the back, pale and thin and normally dressed almost all in black had definite reactions. The one with the longer hair flinched, one hand going to their head and rubbing at the temple with nails mostly covered in dark purple polish. The other stumbled, frantically looking around while regaining their footing it didn't look like 'I hope nobody saw me', it looked a lot more like 'are there any dangerous things about to eat me in here?' to Willow. She stopped the tape at once, and wondered just what this could mean, besides Doctor Inglemeyer probably not being a giant mantis-woman. She rather liked the idea of her biology professor not being a giant mantis-woman the odds of the class having a student-death toll were lower with a human instructor rather than a giant, predatory bug.
Willow was a bit distracted for the second half of class. Notes about eye function took a second place priority to concerns that some of her classmates were not human, and the following questions of what were they and what did they eat. While Willow knew that just because someone wasn't human that didn't mean they were automatically a threat to humans well The demon database that she d made listed almost five thousand hostile demon species of various sizes and levels of threat, close to a thousand that were neutral or not actively hostile, and just over a hundred that were classified as non-threatening or peaceful. The statistical odds weren't promising, and the proximity to humans well, maybe they were just looking for an education, and maybe all the humans made dinner plans much easier.
It was dark out by the time the lecture was over. Dark and slightly chilly, with thin wisps of clouds that stretched across the sky. Sunnydale only felt this cold in the deepest clutches of winter but this was still only late fall. Things would only get colder. Willow shivered and pulled her jacket closer to her body, "Maybe I should have thought a little more about the weather before I moved away from home..."
Willow shivered again as she headed back towards her apartment. "If this is still fall, then winter is going to suck."
"I can keep that from being a problem for you, pretty. You look like quite the tasty treat," a voice leered from the right.
Willow scowled as she looked, not really surprised to see a vampire. "I have homework to do and a chapter to reread. I don t have time for vampires with nothing better to do and no sense of self preservation to attack me on the way home. Just go away if you want to live... unlive... not die again whatever you call it, just go."
"Feisty," the vampire grinned, showing a collection of yellowed fangs. "What do you think you are, little girl, the Slayer? You re just prey."
"The Slayer? You think it takes a Slayer to not be someone to push around?" Willow growled, her empty hand curling as if she held a softball. Power gathered in her hand, and she glared, "Count of three. One."
There was a sound further from the right. The sort of sound of a few people in a fight. Willow didn't look.
"You don't know what you re facing, tasty," the vampire bared his fangs, stepping closer.
"Two", Willow started to tighten the power in her hand, resisting the urge to shout that she'd lived on the Hellmouth, that she'd fought vampires for over five years. Saved the world, faced things that would send this idiot vampire cowering back to his grave. But she refused to rant and monologue.
"You're just a scared little girl trying to be brave. Breaking girls like you is fun," with those words, he lunged at her, trying to grab and pin her against him.
Willow pushed her hand at his chest, giving the little mental tap to the gathered power that she always compared to striking a match. As the power became a fistful of fire, she whispered, "Three."
The vampire had enough time for his mouth to open in shock before he had a moment as flames and then fell into ashes. She would never know if he'd been about to scream, to curse, or just gaping in horrified shock.
"I guess I don t have to give you a talk about carrying a stake, luv," Spike s voice was welcome.
Looking at him, Willow found herself smiling. He had a rumpled look that suggested that those scuffling noises a few fast heartbeats ago meant the vampire hadn't been alone, that Spike had been removing his pal or pals. Seeing him made her night feel better, less cold and strange.
"Think you could put that out before the hugging?" Spike gestured at her hand, not moving towards her.
Raising one eyebrow, Willow glanced at her hand, which was half open and curved around a ball of fire.
Oh. That would explain his reluctance to come over for a hug. Vampires, as she'd just demonstrated, were quite flammable.
Willow released the knot of power, feeling a puff of warm air against her as the fire wisped away. "Annoying jerk had a friend?"
"He had two hunting with him, but I doubt the lot of them would be much of a threat. I've seen you get more stressed over term papers," Spike moved over, his arms sliding around her in a hug. "I was worried. I figured I'd walk you back after class, and some annoying git with fangs is trying to make you his dinner. Worse, probably dinner and diversion for him and his pals."
"I'm pretty good with fire-spells," Willow murmured, leaning against his chest. "Thanks for taking care of his pals."
"I couldn't just let some random minions eat you up," Spike protested, his face taking on a slightly odd expression, with his eyes narrowed and his cheeks oddly tense. "Nobody gets to do that but me if you ll let me."
As Willow s cheeks burned, she realized that Spike s expression was a near match for her own. Slightly embarrassed blushing without the red cheeks. As for his comment about eating her up... "I don't think you mean it quite the same way. I think your way might be a lot more fun."
As they walked back to her apartment building, Willow considered the warmth that couldn't entirely be explained by her fire spell. Nor was it all because of Spike s suggestive comment. It was more than his words, it was what was behind them and not just his admiration of her body and desire to get her back into his bed, or him into hers.
He would defend her, keep her safe in a fight. Willow trusted Spike to defend her, to do his best to keep her safe. She trusted him with her safety. Now it was just a question of trusting him with her heart. Again. That was harder to answer, and a question that she d been struggling with for a while.
Willow was hoping the answer was yes. She had a growing suspicion that she d be finding out, and she really, really hoped that wouldn't mean another heart-break.
End Second Best 19: Playing With Fire.