"All of us going in at once isn't a good idea." Xander said to Matthew. "How about Faith and Amy go in the back and the Detective and I go in though the front, we box him between us. Amy checks for Magic, I see if he's a Wesen and Faith and I can subdue him so he can be arrested. Uncle Rory and the rest of you can keep watch, just in case he does get by us."
"Tika and I will stay in the car." Margaret decided. "I want an explanation, but I want him in prison for what he's done."
"I'll stay with you." Diana agreed. "Keep you company. You know, we should start a moms of vampire hunter's support group. You, me and Joyce, we each have a kid out there risking themselves to keep everybody else safe. Our version of a coffee or book club."
"I like that idea, I just hope you don't also end up in the mom's of kids who've been drugged against their will club, like Joyce and I have." Margaret smiled grimly, her arm around Tika. "Don't worry, Tika, we'll figure out how to help you get clean. No one blames you and I won't let you blame yourself. This person took advantage of you."
"Why do these things happen to me, Mom? First the Fuchsteufelwild and now this? Is it punishment for the people I hurt, that I killed?"
"No! Listen to me, Tika, what happened before was survival. You took no pleasure in it and didn't know of any other way to survive. The moment, the very moment, you knew you had an alternative you took it and never wavered in that choice. You're a good person, just trying to do the best you can with how nature made you. You are not a monster, you have a soul and a conscious and you want to and try to help people. You're a daughter a mother can be proud to call her own. That I'm the mother that gets to call you her own is a blessing I will forever be thankful for."
"For the record." Matthew's voice could be heard outside the car. "You're my princess and I'll destroy anyone who hurts my little girl. This jackass is going to spend a long time in jail paying for messing with you. I'll personally make sure of it."
Xander and Detective Stein approached the Magic shop from the front, while Amy and Faith made their way around the back.
"I'm tasting Magic." Amy said. "And a lot of it. It tastes wrong, like it's dirty somehow."
"You've said Magic can both corrupt and be corrupted. Maybe this guy is corrupting it. Maybe on purpose."
"Magic can be just as addictive as anything else." Amy replied. "So it's possible." They approached the alley and Amy started as she realized they had passed through a Magic field.
"What the Hell?!" Faith exclaimed. "What is this?" She looked at the building that had appeared in front of them.
"A sort of notice me not field was hiding it from us." Amy told her. "I felt it as we passed through. Only someone sensitive to Magic would even know it was there. There's no alley way, that's just an illusion."
"I wonder if it's connected to the Magic shop?" Faith looked at the door of the building and cautiously approached it. "Whether it is or not, we have to check it out. Devon thought there was an entrance back here, probably because he's seen people walk toward the alley. Let's see if we can find it." She opened the door and found a scene out of a horror movie. People were sprawled all over the floor and the few pieces of furniture. Some were smoking and others had little bits of power flashing over them.
"Some of them are Wesen." She murmured. "And some are regular humans."
"These are ones he's moved to active addiction." Amy said softly, hoping not to call attention to themselves. "He got them hooked with the tea and tobacco. Brewed, the tea wouldn't be as potent, but it would give them a taste. The tobacco, which I doubt is actually tobacco, would be a weak version. Eventually it stops having the same effect and they want something stronger and he gives it to them. The Magic users though, they probably got hooked through the shop itself. Give them a little taste of real power, make them want more and then invite them here and give them corrupted power. This is a big mess and the only legal thing we can get him on is selling a product that's poisonous to humans. And we only know about that because Jesse had a sip of Tika's tea. How long would this have gone in if he hadn't accepted a cup of tea from her?"
Not answering except to firm her mouth in an angry grimace, Faith moved through the strung out junkies and found another door, opening it revealed the alley they'd been expecting and another door attached to the building the Magic shop was in. The two girls approached it and Faith found it locked.
"Wait." Amy said softly. "I'm tasting Magic. The doors Warded, it will take me a while, maybe too long, to figure it out and get us in this way."
"Then let's go back to the beginning of the alley and keep him from escaping that way." Faith suggested.
"Probably the only thing we can do right now. Later, I'll figure out how to take down those Wards. I hope Xander and Detective Stein have better luck." The two girls carefully made their way back through the drug den and waited at the mouth of the alley.