Chapter Six: New Allies

After breakfast, Wesley made a couple of phone calls until he reached his witch friend. Evan helped Jasmine in the kitchen and cleaned up the dishes. Buffy sat in the living room and patiently waited for everyone. She felt bad for Jasmine. Her heart ached for her actually. Buffy understood why Jasmine was so angry with her. Jasmine walked into the living room and sat down on a chair. Maddie Pierson was gone and Jasmine needed to come to terms with that. Wesley hung up the phone and turned to Buffy.

"She's coming," he said. "She'll be here shortly."

"Good," Buffy said. "That's taken care of."

"What do we do?" Evan asked as he entered the living room.

"Honestly, the best thing you can do is to help Jasmine cope." Buffy said. "We're going to have a witch over here to change the barrier spell."

"I'm right here you know." Jasmine said through gritted teeth.

"Wait, witches are real too?" Evan asked.

"Yes," Buffy said. "Vampires, witches, werewolves, and demons are all real."

"I think I need a minute." Evan said and sat down on a chair next to Jasmine.

"There's so much we need to go over." Wesley said. "You must have a million questions."

"Actually, I just need to breathe for a moment." Evan said.

"I have two, how is it that you died and you're here?" Jasmine asked Buffy.

Buffy sighed heavily. "Jasmine, I don't know."

"I'm thinking that it was a resurrection spell gone wrong." Wesley said.

"Do you know what happened to my daughter?" Jasmine asked Wesley.

"No, but I think she is gone." Wesley said. "I'm sorry."

Jasmine rolled her eyes. Evan sighed heavily and rubbed his forehead. It was a difficult conversation, but they needed to have it. The room was silent for a moment. Wes and Buffy looked at each other. They knew that this world was going to be hard for Jasmine and Evan to digest. Especially with the loss of their daughter. The doorbell rang, breaking the awkward silence. The witch friend came over. The witch was tall and slender with long brown hair. She had brown eyes and olive skin. Evan let the witch inside. The witch smiled and said,

"My name is Ariana." She paused and held her hand out to Evan. "It's nice to meet you."

Evan smiled and shook her hand. Ariana grabbed his hand and pulled it close to her. "Hm, you are very attractive."

"Ari," Wesley said. "He's married."

"And?" Ariana asked.

Evan pulled his hand back. "This is Buf-" Buffy cleared her throat to stop him. He nodded and understood. "This is Maddie."

"Nice to meet you Maddie." Ariana said. She could tell that it wasn't Maddie, but she didn't say anything. She didn't know exactly who the girl was, but she knew that Maddie wasn't Maddie. "So I've been told you have a vampire problem."

"Yes." Wesley said. "There is a new vampire community under the name of Karl."

"I haven't heard of him before." Ariana said truthfully and stepped further inside the house. "You talked about crystals before Wesley?"

"Yes," Wesley said and pulled the crystals out of his pocket. "These are the crystals that allow the vampire to bypass the barrier spell."

"I'm glad you have these." Ariana said. "We need these to strengthen the barrier spell again. The crystal is the only way to stop the vampires from entering."

"What do you mean?" Buffy asked.

"The crystals can also be used to block the vampires." Ariana explained. "Much like crosses on the wall."

"I get it." Buffy said.

"How many crystals do you have?" Ariana asked.

"Three." Wesley replied and pulled out the rest of the crystals.

"Good," Ariana said and opened her bag. "I brought some herbs and incense. I just need to say a spell and hang these up. Then we're all set."

Wesley nodded. "Thank you for doing this."

"No problem, I owe you after that scrape in Ohio." Ariana said and smiled. "Crystals please?"

Wesley handed her the crystals. Ariana took the crystals. "Perfect." She said, "Now we need tools."

"What kind?" Evan asked.

"Three nails and a hammer." Ariana replied.

"Got it." Evan said and walked outside.

Jasmine walked into the living room and stared at everyone. She held herself and looked at Ariana. Ariana noticed how angry she was and walked over to her. She whispered something in Latin in her ear and her eyes closed. Buffy's eyes widened and she asked,

"What did you just do to her?!"

"Calm down," Ariana said. "I can help calm people down with a little spell. It's a sedative." She paused and looked at Buffy. "I don't know what's going on, but I'm guessing she needed it."

Jasmine walked over to the chair and sat down. She was extremely dazed, but Buffy sensed less anger from her. Evan came back inside with the tools and handed them to Wesley. He saw Jasmine and grew concerned. He walked over to her and held her in his arms.

"Is something wrong dear?" Evan asked.

Ariana looked at him and said, "I put a spell on her. She's fine, I promise."

Meanwhile, Wesley hammered the nails on each side of the front door. Ariana hung up the crystals on each side of the door and lit some incense. She hummed a spell that strengthened the door. The front door was now safe. Ariana and Wesley made their way to the back door. Wesley hammered the nail above the door in the center since they only had one crystal left. It wasn't as safe as the front door, but hopefully one was better than none.

Ariana repeated the same steps and hung the crystal above the back door. The back door was now safe. Ariana blew out the incense and let it smoke all over the house. She continued to hum a spell and then once the incense was done, she packed up her things. Ariana and Wesley entered the living room. Jasmine looked a little better. She looked calmer and less sad. Buffy looked at Ariana and asked,

"Is that it?"

"Yes," Ariana said. "This is on the house. Normally I would charge, but I owed Wesley."

"Thank you," Wesley said. "We'll call you if we run into any more trouble."

"Oh please don't." Ariana said and smiled. She punched him in the arm. Wesley smiled back.

"Well thank you," Buffy said. "I really appreciate it."

Buffy still felt like moving was the better option, but she trusted Ariana's spell. Ariana nodded to Buffy and then walked over to Jasmine. She whispered something in her ear and Jasmine smiled a little. Evan watched in awe, as did the rest of the room. Wesley walked Ariana to the door.

"You didn't have to do that." He said quietly.

"Don't worry about it. She needed it." Ariana insisted.

He hugged Ariana and she hugged him back. With that, she left the house. Wesley closed the door and looked at Buffy. "We're all good." He said.

"Good." Buffy said. "Let's do some more training." She paused. "I'm a little rusty."

"We still have some daylight left. I think that's a good idea." Wesley said.

Wesley took Buffy to the backyard and taught her some basic fighting moves. They needed to start from the beginning. Buffy learned the basics for a few hours and then it was dinner time. Evan had cooked the meal this time. Jasmine was still in a comatose state. The pain had lessened. Buffy and Wes walked into the house. Buffy walked into the kitchen and looked at Evan.

"How is she doing?" Buffy asked him.

"She's still loopy." Evan said. "What did that witch do to her?" He was putting the finishing touches on the meal as he talked.

Buffy shrugged and said, "I honestly have no idea. I don't know Ariana. We could ask Wes."

"Let's do that because I'm worried about how long this will last." Evan said and carried some platters.

"Can I help?" Buffy asked.

"Yes," Evan said. "There's another side dish that needs to come with us on the counter."

Buffy picked up the side dish off the counter and followed Evan into the dining room. They set the platters on the center of the table. Evan walked into the living room and helped Jasmine off the chair. He escorted her to the dining room and helped her to a dining chair. Jasmine sat down. Buffy sat down across from Jasmine and Wesley sat next to Buffy. Evan sat at the head of the table.

"Let's eat." Evan said.

Everyone served themselves. The table was quiet while they ate. Jasmine blinked and set her utensils down. She looked at Buffy and said,

"Thank you for saving us."

Buffy looked at her and nodded. "You're welcome."

Jasmine sighed heavily. "I'm not sure that I can forgive you for lying to us," she said. "For faking it…But I trust you to keep us safe."

"That's all I want to do." Buffy said. "I want to keep all of us safe. Wesley can help with that."

"I'll do whatever you need," Wesley said. "It's my fault they tracked us down here."

"How did they follow you?" Buffy asked.

Wesley shrugged. "I guess after I did recon on them, one of them caught me. I needed to know how big their community is and their community is growing by the minute."

"We'll need to train and teach them how to defend themselves." Buffy said.

"Right." Wesley said and got up. He found the stakes from earlier and walked back into the dining room. "This will dust a vampire, but you can't just stake it. You have to stake it in the heart."

"Or behead it." Buffy added.

"Right." Wesley said.

"What if it's something else?" Evan asked.

"Beheading usually works." Wesley told him. "Any other questions?"

Evan shook his head. Jasmine remained silent. It was her signature move now. She understood what was going on, but she was furious again. Evan was just about furious too. The anger was setting in. He lost his daughter. Vampires were real. Monsters were real. Beheading was a thing. Staking was a thing. Evan sighed heavily and said,

"I wish Maddie was here."

Buffy looked at Evan and nodded. "I wish I could give her back to you." She said honestly. "To both of you, but I can't and I think we need to figure out how to move past that."

Jasmine looked at her. "Give us time and we will." She paused. "But for now, count us in. We will help."

"We're going to need it." Wesley said and smiled. He raised his glass. "To new beginnings. To new friends. To new allies."

"To new allies." They all raised their glasses and toasted.