Clenching her fists, ready to let them flame up, the demon hurried up the stairs, giving her best to be as quiet as possible despite her urge to get to the bedroom quickly; the closer she got to her goal, the louder the fighting sounds became, and when she finally reached the open door, she found herself looking at what was quite the unfair battle, with four vampires facing the Slayer while a fifth figure stood next to the bed, hands outstretched and fingers spread over the redhead's still body. She had a moment to realize that the figure next to the bed looked like a much taller version of the nightmare demon she killed a few hours ago, then her instincts took over as she moved into the room, to one of the vampires battling Buffy; from the corner of her eye, she spotted Giles lying on the floor out cold, but knew that there was no time to check on him, not now with the blonde up against four on her own.
Without a word, not even a growl, since she didn't want to alert them to her presence, Pat stepped up to the vampire closest to her, grabbed his head and, gritting her teeth as her muscles bulged, simply ripped it off, once more glad about her demonic strength as she watched the vampire crumble into a pile of dust, the head in her hands doing the same with a few seconds of delay.
"Thank God you're here", Buffy panted, already bleeding from a split lip and a cut in her cheek; the demon just gave her a brief smirk, then the next vampire came at her, and she reacted by grabbing him as he rushed at her and, using his own momentum, throwing him out into the hallway, the vampire performing a brief flight before he hit the wall and slumped to the floor, dazed. His impact against the wall was hard enough to make one of the pictures hung there fall down, the wooden frame cracking and breaking as it landed on the ground; without thinking twice about it, Pat came after the vampire, snatching up one of the pieces of frame and ramming the sharp, splintery end into his chest, a malicious smirk forming no her face when he was dusted as well.
Calling out Buffy's name, she turned and threw her the makeshift stake so she could deal with the two vamps still left; catching it without troubles, the Slayer did just that, dusting one of them while Pat hurried back into the bedroom, punching the one remaining vampire on her way past him while she approached the large demon still standing next to the bed and staring down on the witch, with brightly glowing eyes and a smirk on its face.
"Hey!" the black haired woman snapped, eager to distract the demon from whatever it was doing to Willow, "get away from her, fuckface!"
At the insult, it reacted, something Pat surely would have found amusing, had the circumstances been different; it turned its head to look at her, the glowing eyes narrowing, and when it spoke up moments later, the black haired woman nearly froze in mid-step, not having expected a perfectly human sounding female voice to come out of that mouth.
"You", the demon snarled, baring pointed and sharp teeth at her, "you're the one who killed my child!"
This stunned Pat even more than hearing that voice, and she did stop, staring at the demon, who held her gaze defiantly, now even a hint of sadness in her voice as she went on. "I loved him, I loved him dearly, and it was his first time of feeding on his own, and you killed him! Now I'll do to you what you did to me!" With those words, the demon focused on Willow again; and only a few seconds later, Pat tackled her, with enough force to make her stumble a few steps away despite the startling difference in height and weight, slamming her against the wall, the black haired woman's good eye now glowing brightly red as well and smoke curling from her hands towards the ceiling as she stared up at the other demon.
"You'll undo what you did to her now", she snarled, while behind her, Buffy turned to see what was going on, having killed the last remaining vampire, "or I'll send you down to Hell so you can be with your beloved son again."
In response, the demon just snarled at her – before the huge head suddenly came down surprisingly fast and she landed a rather painful headbutt, hard enough to make Pat let go of her, the black haired woman involuntarily forced a few steps back while she let out a low sound of pain. Snarling, the nightmare demon rushed at her, not giving her a chance to recover from the first hit, but grabbing her at the throat and lifting her off her feet, smiling maliciously again when she began to choke, unable to hold back the gasping noises while she helplessly beat down on the taller demon's hand, obviously not doing much damage though.
"I'm having enough of this", Buffy declared to no one in particular, since Giles was still out cold and Pat probably wasn't listening to her; clenching her fists, she started forward, then changed her mind in the last second and settled on kicking the nightmare demon instead, landing a powerful blow against the tall creature's kneecap and making her shriek with obvious pain. Still she didn't let go of Pat, the black haired woman's frantic hits against the other demon's arm to Buffy's worry growing weaker while her face by now had reddened visibly; she landed another punch, followed by yet another kick, wishing that she'd have time to get a weapon while she kept raining blows on the nightmare demon, knowing that she had to make her let go of her friend soon if she didn't want her to end up strangled to death.
Finally, she achieved just that, as her blows made an impact on the nightmare demon at last; she let out a pained howl, then dropped Pat and, as if for good measure, kicked her hard enough to send her sliding across the room until the wall stopped with her a low thumping sound, the creature's eyes full of anger and hate as they focused on Buffy, her voice showing the same emotion when she told the Slayer that this wasn't over.
"I'll feast on your hearts before I go back to sleep", she added, blocking another blow the Slayer had been trying to land, then punching her hard enough to throw her backwards, making her collide with Pat just as the black haired woman had been trying to get to her feet, promptly ending up on the ground again when Buffy crashed into her; the nightmare demon took a moment to smirk at the sight, then turned and jumped through the closed window, leaving nothing but glass shards behind as she vanished into the night.
"Are you okay?" Buffy demanded to know as she helped Pat to her feet, the taller woman still clutching her throat and coughing; despite that, she nodded after a moment, her voice even hoarser than usual when she replied. "Yeah, fine, nothing broken or anything… What did that bitch do to Willow now?"
"I have no idea", the Slayer sighed, slowly letting go of her friend, ready to catch her the moment it'd look as if she might go back down, "I couldn't see anything, she'd brought those vampires along to distract Giles and me…"
"Bitch", Pat repeated, as if for emphasis – only to jump a second later when Willow's voice came from the bed, weak and trembling, but still loud enough to be audible. "Language, Sweetie…"
Within the blink of an eye, all pain and discomfort was forgotten as Pat rushed over to the bed, nearly throwing Buffy over when she bumped into her on the way there and not caring, lowering herself into a crouch next to the bed, her gaze never leaving the redhead's face.
"How are you feeling?" she demanded to know, not even noticing how behind her, Buffy moved to check on Giles, figuring that the demon was taking good enough care of Willow, even though the blonde froze in mid-movement when the witch replied and she heard the tremble and fear in her voice.
"My magic is gone", the redhead replied, the sound of her voice prompting Pat to grasp her hand and hold it tenderly, "I can feel it, it's all gone…"
"I know", the demon gave back, moving her free hand to caress the smaller woman's hair tenderly, "that nightmare demon did that… but we'll figure out how to return it to you, I promise."
For a moment, Willow looked as if she wanted to protest, or ask how they wanted to figure that out exactly; then, she just nodded, forcing a smile on her face, hoping that her partner wouldn't notice how fake it was before she spoke up again, glancing down on her stomach, her smile a bit more honest when her gaze moved back to the demon. "You healed me, right? Thanks…"
"Nothing to thank me for", Pat replied at once, returning the smile, "it was the least I can do, after what that demon did to you… Do you remember any of that? How it happened?"
"No", the redhead sighed, "I must have been asleep when it came to the hospital, I just remember going to sleep after they pumped me full of painkillers and then, I woke up again here and my magic was gone…"
"Giles will contact the coven, well, once he woke up again", the demon let her know, squeezing her hand tenderly, "maybe they'll know what to do… and if not, we'll find this demon and I'll torture her until she'll give it back to you."
"She?" Willow repeated, momentarily distracted from the fact that her magic was gone, "the demon's female this time?"
"Yes", Pat gave back, "the mommy of the nightmare demon we already killed. She's pretty pissed."
"Just what we need", Willow muttered, shifting slightly on the bed, "a mommy demon out for revenge…"
"Indeed", the demon sighed, deciding not to mention what said mommy demon had said to her before the fighting had begun; instead, she squeezed Willow's hand once more, then Giles let out a groan behind her and made them both look at him, just in time to see him wake up, another groan coming from him while he held his head with one hand.
"What did I miss?" he then wanted to know, looking at Buffy, the Slayer on one knee beside him; she quickly told him, to Pat's relief leaving out the nightmare demon's threat as well, not wanting to upset Willow even further, even though she did mention the fact that the demon they had killed earlier had been the son of their current opponent and that she was out for revenge.
"This is bad", the Watcher gave back after she had finished telling him, coming to his feet with a bit of help from the blonde, "demons out for revenge are even more dangerous than usual…"
"We'll kill her anyway", Pat replied, her confidence making the redhead smile slightly again, "but before we do, we'll force her to undo whatever she did to Willow."
"And how do you want to force her to do that?" Giles wanted to know, raising an eyebrow, only to get slightly flustered at the reply he received from the taller woman, her cold voice and dry tone showing that she meant every word she was saying.
"Torture usually works quite fine for that", she let him know, the glint in her good eye all at once making him glad that she was on their side and not against them; he just nodded meekly, knowing that trying to discuss this idea with her would only lead to more unpleasantness, clearing his throat before he let them all know that he'd go home and call the coven now, leaving the room a few moments later.
"I think you freaked him out a bit now", Willow commented, not surprised when her partner shrugged at once – by now, she had her demonic side under control quite well most of the time, but whenever something unpleasant happened to the witch, that control usually ended very quickly, and the demon didn't bother with holding it back then, either.
"He'll have to live with it", Pat now confirmed that impression, "I'm just glad he didn't try to talk me out of it."
"He would have if you'd been talking about doing that to a human", Buffy commented, making them both look at her, "but since it's a demon, well…" She shrugged, then smiled, a hearty yawn coming from her moments later though, making them all realize what a tiring day it had been for the group and how tired they were themselves.
"We should get some rest", the Slayer suggested after she had managed to stop yawning, "tomorrow might get quite tiring again if we have to find and kill this demon."
"Agreed", Pat muttered, all at once feeling awfully tired as well, the excitement and drama of the day taking its toll on her; Willow nodded as well, prompting Buffy to let them know that they could sleep here if they wanted to, not surprised when both of them nodded – the thought of going back to the apartment now, with the witch still weakened, didn't seem too appealing to either of them.
"You have coffee here, right?" Pat wanted to know moments later, making Buffy roll her eyes before she nodded; the demon smirked, then let out a yawn as well, the Slayer taking this as her cue to leave, wishing the couple a good night before she retreated to her own bedroom, closing the door behind herself and giving them some privacy.
"Let's hope we'll find a solution for this quickly", Willow stated as soon as Buffy was gone, watching how her partner moved to the window and opened it, eager to have one more smoke before they'd go to sleep, "I feel so… empty without my magic."
"I know how you feel", Pat let her know after lighting up her cigarette, giving her a sympathetic look, "I've been there, remember? It sucks, but I promise we'll figure something out…"
"I hope so", the redhead sighed, making herself comfortable in the bed again, "going on without magic, I'm not sure if I'd be able to handle that…"
"You won't have to, not for too long", Pat promised in reply, giving her partner a reassuring smile, even though she felt a bit dismayed when it wasn't returned, "once we found this bitch, I'll burn her until she begs for permission to give your magic back to you."
Even though she wasn't so sure it would be that easy, Willow made herself smile and nod, then changed the topic by asking her partner if she'd be done with that cigarette soon so she could come to bed and cuddle; in response, Pat smiled and nodded, taking another, quite long drag of said cigarette before she threw it out the window and closed it, quickly undressing afterwards and joining her girlfriend in bed, making herself comfortable after pulling her into a tender embrace.
"Don't worry", she muttered after the redhead had settled into the comforting hug, "we'll figure this out, we always do, and then you'll get your magic back and everything will be as it was."
"I hope so", the witch repeated, giving her best to hide how insecure she felt about the whole situation; telling herself that for now, there wasn't anything she could do anyway and that Buffy had been right when she had suggested that they should get some rest, she craned her neck to kiss her partner tenderly, wishing her a good night afterwards, the demon returning that before they both drifted off into dreamland, slumbering deeply just a few minutes later.