To Willow's relief, none of the vampires had been able to figure out how to get inside the house or how to make Dawn come outside; they were standing in a circle around the house, a few of them even sitting on the trees so they could look into the first floor windows, most of them broken by now, all of the vampires yelling insults and threats at the house.
Without bothering to say a word, Pat sped up slightly, raising the axe as she moved; it sliced through the necks of two vampires before the others even realized what was going on, their attention focusing on the witch and the demon moments after the first two kills of the black haired woman had exploded into clouds of dusts.
"The Slayer's friends!" one of them shouted, to the grim amusement of the demon sounding slightly fearful; she gave him a nasty grin, then her axe swung at him, and seconds later, he let out a low gurgle as the sharp blade dug deep into his chest, his eyes briefly widening – before he was dusted as well, the remaining vampires growling and snarling at the demon, none of them making any moves to attack her though.
"Come on", she taunted, hearing how a few feet behind her, Willow started mumbling the words of the spell and knowing that she had to keep the vampires busy until she'd have finished it, "why so shy? You guys only good at terrorizing teenagers, but you shit your pants when someone shows up who knows how to fight back?"
In response, one of the vampires stepped forward, clenching his fists; when he noticed that no one else was moving though, the snarl vanished from his face and he momentarily looked insecure – before his gaze wandered upwards and he smiled again, an evil glint entering his eyes. Immediately, Pat looked up as well, but even though she had reacted fast, it had been too slow to make getting out of the way possible as the vampire dropped down from the tree he'd been sitting on and landed right on top of her; his weight and the impact was enough to throw her down, a low grunt escaping her as she got smashed down to the grass face first.
Before she could try to come back to her feet and throw the vampire off in the process, he had taken firm hold of a fistful of her hair; he jerked her head upwards, then slammed her face against the ground again, grinning nastily when he repeated the move, the other vampires cheering him on and calling out encouragement.
Deciding that the time for playing nice was over, Pat grit her teeth and clenched her fists, trying to ignore the pain when the vampire on top of her smashed her head down once more; and seconds later, she was burning all over, the vampire howling in surprise and pain when the fire quickly spread to him, making him jump up and beat down on the flames that were flickering on his clothes, burning the skin and flesh beneath the fabric.
Growling loud enough to match the yells of the burning vampire, the demon almost sprang to her feet, for a moment even considering to change into her more furry form of appearance; before she could do so though, Willow said the last few words of the spell behind her, ending it by throwing the powder she had brought along up into the air just as she said the last syllable, the powder igniting and turning into a ball of light so bright that Pat had to squeeze her good eye shut, and thus didn't see how the vampires all around screamed and threw up their hands as the artificial sunlight took effect on them. Abruptly, the screams ended as one by one, the vampires were dusted; and once the night was quiet around them again, Pat dared to open her eye again, smirking at the piles of dust all around her, her gaze moving to her partner afterwards, the redhead having a proud and wide grin on her face.
"That worked like a charm!" she then stated the obvious, "just like it said in the book!"
"Very well done", the demon smirked, then suddenly grimaced; Willow gave her a worried look, but before she could ask what was wrong, the taller woman cleared her throat – and then spat a shockingly large glob of blood on the ground, giving it a sour look afterwards.
"Oh my", Willow let out at the sight, for a moment not sure if her disgust or her worry was bigger, "are you sure you're okay?"
"Just fine", the taller woman reassured her, "let's better go check on Dawn now, the poor girl's probably still quite freaked out."
Nodding, the redhead made her way to the front door and knocked it, not wanting to just walk inside and maybe startle Dawn even further; after a minute of silence, the brunette's voice came up behind the wood, trembling slightly and still sounding quite fearful. "Go away, I won't invite you in, just wait until my friends get here!"
"It's me", Willow let her know, "we got here and got rid of them all, open the door please Dawnie…"
Even while she still had been talking, she already had heard the key turn in the lock; and the moment she'd finished, the door almost flew open and Dawn came rushing outside, right into the redhead's arms, clinging to her, a shudder running through her when Willow returned the embrace.
"There, there", the witch said soothingly, "it's all okay now, we got rid of them, just as we said."
"I'm so glad you came", Dawn gave back, finally pulling back a bit from the embrace so she could look at the redhead, "there were so many of them, I didn't know what to do, and if Buffy had gone up against them alone…"
"That might have ended badly", Willow agreed, briefly thinking about the nightmare Buffy had had when she'd been unconscious, "it's good that you called us."
"Yup", Pat agreed, lighting up a cigarette and smiling at Dawn, the teenager immediately smiling back at her, "it's a pity you didn't see it, Willow did her sunlight-in-a-bag thing and fried them all."
"Oh, I wished I could have seen that", Dawn sighed at once, giving the witch a glum look, "I always miss the good stuff in such situations!"
"Well, you wouldn't have seen much", Willow smiled, "the light from the spell is so bright that you shouldn't look at it anyway, or you might go blind."
"Good thing it's so bright, it flash-fried all the vamps", Pat commented, smirking; smiling back at her, Willow nodded, once more glad that she had brought along the powder for the spell, not wanting to think about what might have happened if she hadn't and Pat would've had to fight them all on her own.
"Buffy's gonna be mad about the windows", Dawn now distracted her from those thoughts, looking at the smashed windows with dismay, "hopefully Xander can help with replacing them…"
"I'm sure he will", Willow reassured her, "and Buffy won't mind so much, damage has been done to that house so often since you moved here, she'll be glad that you are okay."
"I'm glad you are okay", Buffy's voice came from behind the group, startling them all and making them jump, "but what exactly happened while I was on patrol?"
"Jeez, Buffy", Pat reprimanded before anyone could answer her question, "don't sneak up on people like that!"
"I didn't sneak up on anyone", the Slayer defended herself, "I walked up normally, you guys just didn't notice me. So what happened here while I was on patrol?"
"A bunch of vampires surrounded the house", Dawn let her know in reply, making her eyes widen, "I tried to call you, but you didn't take the call, so I called Willow and they came and killed them all."
Frowning, Buffy got out her cell phone in reply, looking at the display, a look of dismay appearing on her face when she realized that it was dark, her voice rueful when she looked up at her sister again and explained the reason for why she hadn't been able to take the call. "The battery must have gone empty while I was on patrol… Sorry about that…"
"No problem, as I said, Pat and Willow came and saved me", Dawn smiled, "but the stupid vampires broke almost all the windows…"
"I don't care about the windows as long as you're okay", Buffy reassured her, "I'll call Xander tomorrow and ask him to replace them, but we should board them up for now…"
"I'll help with that", Pat offered, making the Slayer smile and nod; Willow let her know that she'd help, as well, and together, the group entered the house to start working, none of them noticing the figure standing on the other side of the street, watching them with an annoyed expression and clenched fists, muttering curse words and promises of vengeance.
"There", Buffy stated an hour later, satisfied as she looked at the final board she had nailed over the last broken window, "all done, that should do until we can replace them."
"If Xander and you need help with that, as well, give us a call", Willow smiled, making her best friend smile back and nod; then, she thanked the couple once more for dropping by and helping Dawn out, something she had done a dozen times already by now, and thus prompting both the witch and the demon to give her annoyed looks.
"Stop with the thanking, now", Pat almost commanded, "we've told you a dozen times by now, that's what we're here for."
"Yup", Willow agreed, "if you thank us one more time, I'm gonna put some muting spell on you or something."
"You're supposed to use your powers for good", Buffy scolded, rolling her eyes when the witch pointed out that making her stop with saying "Thanks" would be considered a good thing; deciding to ignore that, she told the redhead to be careful on the way home, making her nod in reply.
"We'll just go straight home", she then let her know, "and try to get some rest now, because tomorrow, if we're not helping with new windows, Giles will want to go on researching."
"Most likely", Buffy agreed, "but take care anyway, with that nightmare-coming-true stuff, who knows what might happen."
"Hopefully, nothing", Pat muttered, making her way to the front door with her partner and the Slayer, Dawn staying in the living room where she'd made herself comfortable on the couch, "I've done enough fighting for one day."
"I never thought I'd hear you say that", Buffy teased, making Willow giggle while the demon just gave her a sour look; she smiled back innocently, then watched how her friends put on their shoes and jackets, holding back the urge to tell them once more to be careful.
"See you tomorrow", she said instead, earning another nod from both, in perfect unison; she smiled at the couple once more, then they said their goodbyes to each other, the blonde making sure to lock the door after her friends had left, then went to join her sister in the living room, eager to give her some semblance of normality after the exciting and decidedly abnormal events of the evening.