Disclaimer: Everything BtVS and AtS is owned by Joss, ME, and all them over there. Everything Anita Blake is owned by Laurell K. Hamilton

Chapter 1
Part 1

Willow could see the gust of air that always accompanied the dusting of a vampire hit the back of the slayer’s twisting body and sighed in relief. She was doing her best to keep the vampires at a manageable flow, but that one had gotten by her thickening spell. Luckily, Xander had been at Buffy’s back with that ax before it had attacked and given the small blonde a third opponent.

“Thanks, Xan,” Buffy didn’t pause in her kicks and punches even as she thanked the dark haired man.

“Not a problem.” Xander had already turned back to face Anya and Giles, trying to keep his girlfriend from being hurt.

“How we doin’ up there, Wills?”

“Seven left.” Willow could feel the energy coming from the vampires like an oil slick, black and deadly. These were different then Spike, more killing machine than cunning, planning adversary. She wondered briefly if that was why Spike didn’t feel the same.

“Buffy!” Giles’ shout brought Willow’s attention back to the blonde who was throwing kicks and punches at a particularly large vampire. As she watched, a vampire, shielded from the slayer’s view by the body of the other demon, fired a bolt from a crossbow aimed perfectly at her head.

The demon she was fighting exploded into dust as the arrow passed through its heart, but Buffy was spared as Spike threw himself into her side in a modified football tackle. They landed in a heap on the floor as the last of their enemies was dusted by a nearly drained Willow. Buffy pushed the unconscious Spike off of her with a look of disgust before turning to the rest of the group.

“Thank you, guys. I knew this was a big job, but I didn’t know it was going to be *this* big.”

Willow had knelt beside the blond head of the vampire on the floor, taking in how much blood he was losing from the gaping wound just above and to the right of his heart. <Goddess, that’s a lot of blood! He needs to be bandaged and fed, and soon.>

“Guys,” Willow had to raise her voice to be heard above the rest of the group. “Spike’s hurt. We need to get back to Giles’ apartment so we can get him cleaned up.”

“Why? He’s a big vampire, he can take care of himself.” Buffy barely spared the prone body on the floor a glance before she turned back to Xander and Anya. “Let’s go to the Bronze. It’s early, and I’m all jittery from fighting.”

“Sounds like a plan to me. After you change your ‘I just killed ten people’ shirt, anyway.”

Buffy pulled the hem of her shirt out with her thumb and forefinger.“I do look pretty nasty, huh.”

“All you need is a chainsaw to complete the look.” Xander snickered at his perceived brilliance. “An, what are you doing?”

“Helping Willow carry Spike, since she’s so worn out from all the magic use and no one else seems to be concerned.”

“Concerned about what? Willow’s back?” Xander just shrugged his shoulders at Anya’s exasperated look. “He has to have at least a hundred pounds on her.”

“Then why don’t you help instead of discussing wardrobe choices with the Slayer?” Anya’s sweet smile was belied by the steel in her voice.

Xander sighed before taking Spike’s arm from around his girlfriend’s shoulders and draped it over his own, easing most of the oblivious man’s weight from the small redhead. Giles slipped his arm around Spike’s other side, nodding at Willow’s softly mumbled thanks. Willow let her feet automatically follow Giles and Xanders as the two men drug the
other from the echoing room.

“Ack! He’s still bleeding!” Xander tried to get the blonde shifted so that his hand wasn’t being soaked in the red substance.

<I hope we make it home soon.> Willow shook her head at her best friend’s whining. <If we don’t, and Spike wakes up before we get there, he’s going to be angry and hungry. Not a good combination in a vampire.>

Taking a look at the way Xander was roughly handling the vampire, Willow smiled softly to herself. <Maybe we could just feed him Xander.>

Chapter 1
Part 2

Willow was barely able to drag her feet by the time the rest of the group, now nearly a full block ahead, rounded the corner into the park. <Great. Not only am I tired and all achy, but now I get to walk through the park almost alone! Why don’t I just sit down on a bench with a sign saying ‘free lunch’!>

Xander’s sharp yelp startled the redhead from her thoughts, and Anya’s answering scream pushed new life into her tired limbs. Willow ran along the winding sidewalk, senses alert to the sounds of fighting ahead.

She rounded the corner just in time to be taken to the ground by Spike’s hastily dropped body. Xander was cradling his left hand to his chest while he held off vampires with a cross in his right. Giles had put down the blonde vampire in order to use both the sword and the crossbow he now wielded with practiced ease.

Buffy was surrounded by five other demons, obviously fledglings, who were taking turns rushing at the blonde. Willow took a moment to shake her head in amusement. <Uh huh. This is the slayer who took down the Master. Somehow I doubt you guys stand a chance.>

“What’s the deal G-Man?” Xander had gotten his good hand on a sword and grunted as he used it to lop the head off a particularly ugly fledgling who had rushed at Anya.

“Yeah, I thought we got rid of these stupid buggers.” Spike had regained consciousness enough to pull himself upright. Now he stood, wobbling, in the center of the sidewalk.

Willow sagged against Spike’s side as she fought to keep a shield up around herself and the injured vampire. “Please, Spike. You’re hurt.”

“You’re worse off than I am, Red. Now put down this wall and let me kick a little fledgling arse.”

“I’m not certain, but I think that rather human looking purple man may be able to shed some light on the subject.” Giles motioned to an extraordinary looking man standing to the side of the battle with a look of detached amusement on his face.

“Then let’s go ask a few questions.” Buffy staked the vampire she’d been playing with and somersaulted over another’s head, back kicking him into Xander’s waiting sword.

Willow tried to keep her eyes on her friends even as she felt her control slipping. The young witch sagged to the ground as the last of her energy seeped out into the fading wall. The last thing she saw before her eyes drifted closed was Spike leaping onto the nearest demon with a roar. <Stupid vampire. He... should be... resting... Resting...
good.>

“Ungh!” The cry of pain pulled Willow up from the black pool she had been slowly sinking into. It took her exhausted brain a full five seconds longer to realize that it was her own voice that had woken her. Thankfully, she never fully registered the searing pain radiating from her abdomen, just above her dimpled navel.

The words being whispered harshly in her ear weren’t English or any other human language Willow had ever heard. Something in her brain made her understand, though. It was almost as she were talking to herself.

<‘The one with the sword nearly took me before I could get to you. I’ve carried this burden for too long, and I’m tired. To think I have been looking all over this town for the redheaded sorceress, and she comes to me. What was mine is now yours. Use it wisely.>

Willow felt something impossibly warm and sweet sliding down her throat. Her hands moved on their own to pull the source of such wonderful nectar closer, hesitating only a moment when they found themselves wrapped around the wrist and forearm of the purple demon man.

A pain sliced across her brain as if an electric current was running from one temple to the other. Willow’s lithe body hit the ground and bowed as an agonizingly silent scream flew from her parted lips. The pain ricocheted down her spine and then pushed its way into her arms and legs. Willow whimpered as she felt the very cells of her body being invaded.

<‘Shhh. It will only hurt for a moment. Sleep now, Brilliant One.’>

And Willow *did* sleep. The sounds of the taunting and staking ceased all at once, and the witch simply floated into the nothingness.

Chapter 2

Willow blinked at the fuzzy scene moving before her eyes. She had just come back into her body from the well of nothingness to find herself nestled, as comfortably as possible, on Giles’ lumpy living room couch. She could see the others crowded into the small room arguing about something, though she couldn’t seem to make her ears hear them well enough to tell what it was that had them all so mad. She could see Giles standing in the door not drinking a cup of tea while Xander and Buffy seemed to be interrogating a bound Spike.

“You should. . . with her!” Buffy’s voice was the first to break through the silence clinging to Willow’s mind. She was pointing at Spike. “If. . . have happened!”

“. . . bloody. . . urt, yo. . . ft bint!”

<Why does everyone sound like a bad radio station, and why is Spike bleeding?> Willow felt a tingling along her arms and legs and wondered how her entire body had managed the pins-and-needles feeling.

Willow wanted to talk. She *needed* to tell them that whatever it was wasn’t Spike’s fault. <Now, if I could only make the whole verbal thing happen.>

“Lumpy.” <Oh, good job Wills! That’ll make them take notice.>

As it was, Anya, who happened to be the only one sitting impassively on the chair beside the couch, stood so suddenly that she knocked into Giles, sending his cup of long forgotten tea out of his hand and across the back of Buffy’s stained shirt.

“Anya!”

“Oh, shut up, Slayer.” Anya had picked up a cup sitting on the coffee table and sat down beside Willow’s hip. “She’s waking up.”

“Not Spike’s fault.” Willow tried sitting up, only to find herself too tired to do so. She took a sip of the water Anya held to her lips before trying to say anything else. “I hurt. What happened?”

“Fangless here let you get hurt.” Xander jerked his thumb in Spike’s direction. “Can I stake him now?”

“Bloody hell! She said it wasn’t my fault!”

“She just woke up from some demon-imposed sleep. There’s no telling how fuzzy her memory of the last few hours of her consciousness are.”

“See?” Xander pointed at Giles. “He agrees with us. Buffy, go get Mr. Pointy.”

“Why is Xander talking like Ash?” Willow had managed to pull herself into a sitting position, though her head now rested heavily against the back of the couch.

“Ash?” Giles shoved some pillows behind Willow’s back and head in an attempt to make her more comfortable. “Was that the name of the demon? Did he say anything else to you?”

“Didn’t get his name. I meant Ash from -Army of Darkness-. You know...‘It’s a trick. Get an ax.’”

Spike was laughing outright by the time Willow finished her Bruce Campbell impersonation. The rope holding him down to the kitchen chair strained across his chest as he threw his head back. <And what a lovely chest it is. Hey! Stick to the point, Wills. Think about the lovely, defined... Think about it later!>

“Spike had nothing to do with it. I tried to keep a wall up around us because we were too weak to fight. It went down, then Spike did that growly roar thing he does and went to fight.”

“All I know, is that I was going for Mr. Purple Demon Guy when we got surrounded by more vamps. Giles tried to stab him, but missed.” Buffy sunk down on the edge of the couch to hold her friend’s hand as she spoke. “The next thing I know, Spike’s yelling something about blood. When I dusted a vamp to see you, you were clinging to Mr. Purple’s arm,
drinking from a gash.”

“I wondered what that was.” Willow unconsciously licked along her lower lip. “It was sweet, not like honey. It was... I don’t know how to describe it.”

“Well, whatever it was, it looked like it hurt you.” Anya still held the cup of water, holding it to Willow’s lips once the girl finished speaking. “You did this writhing and screaming thing. I do that when Xander gives me orgasms sometimes, but it didn’t look like the same thing.”

“An!” Xander blushed up into the roots of his hair.

“Didn’t know you had it in you, Chubs,” Spike chuckled.

“Shut up Spike.” Giles sounded tired. “When you looked like you were in pain, the demon who had held you just seemed to fade into nothing. All very fascinating now that I think about it.”

“No! Not fascinating, watcher.” Spike caught and held Willow’s eyes with his own, and, for a moment, Willow thought she saw respect in their blue depths. “More bloody fucking scary.”

Willow took the cup of water from Anya, grazing her fingers.

{‘Give us the money!’ Someone in a mask held a gun on a terrified looking Anya who stood behind the counter of the Magic Box.

‘Okay.’ Anya opened the drawer and pulled out the money as she spoke.‘You’re only getting this because I’m stuck in this stupid human body. If I were still a demon, you’d be *so* dead by now.’

‘Whatever.’ The guy tipped over a rack of crystals on his way out the door.}

“Willow? Are you okay?” Giles was shaking the redhead softly.

“Yeah. Sorry. I just kind of spaced out there for a minute.” <What the hell... *heck* was that?!>

“Did he say anything to you, Willow?” Giles was back in full Watcher mode, looking for anything to help them identify what or who that person was and what kind of effect contact with it could have on the young witch.

Willow pushed herself away from the couch, feeling much stronger suddenly. She went to Spike and slowly unraveled the knots holding him down. “He didn’t *say* anything. It was like he was speaking inside my head.”

She felt the steady gazes of her friends like a weight on her shoulders as she bent to unwrap Spike’s legs.

This time, the flash was fast and without sound. It was nothing more than an image of a very naked Spike moving between the legs of an equally naked Buffy, his back a mass of deep scratches and bruises.

<Okay. Now I *know* I’m going crazy.>

“I... It wasn’t English or any other human sounding language, but I knew what he was saying. Something about looking for a redheaded sorceress and carrying a burden for too long and being tired. Then he said that what was his was now mine and that I should use it wisely.

“Why hasn’t anyone taken care of Spike?” Willow’s eyes shown with unshed tears as she gazed at the still seeping hole in the blonde’s shirt.

“Why should we?” Willow wasn’t sure what was worse, the fact the Xander said the words, or that he sounded so uncaring saying them.

“You know. You’re a real ass sometimes, Xan.” Willow ignored the small uproar her words caused and went to heat up some blood for Spike. All the bandages in the world wouldn’t do a thing if he didn’t start healing from the inside soon.

Chapter 3

“Here,” Willow handed the mug of blood to a slightly smirking Spike. “Drink this, take off the shirt, and lay down on the couch.”

“I love it when you’re all demanding.” Spike winked at her startled blush over the rim of the mug. “Of course, if you wanted me naked so bad, all you ever had to do was ask.”

“Just get the shirt off so I can get a look at that hole.” Willow fought back the heat rising up her face while she dragged out the ridiculously large first aid kit.

<Okay. Bandages, check. Tape, check. Peroxide, check. . . When did they stop making men with stomachs like that? Hey now, back on track, hormone girl. Fix the bleeding hole in the amazingly firm chest, then think about those... When did it get so hot in here?>

Willow was glad her hair had grown out enough to hide behind it a little. She really didn’t want to hear anything more from Buffy and Xander tonight, and knew that blushing over Spike’s body would bring more comments that she could reasonably be expected to deal with. Besides that, she knew Anya would have more than a few words of wisdom
for her. Deciding that getting to work would make getting the job done better than trying to avert her eyes from the smooth skin and rippling muscles revealed when the blonde removed his shirt, Willow began washing the blood away from the wound.

“Why isn’t this closing?”

“I don’t know, pet.” Spike put his hands behind his head and tried to force himself to relax. “Not like the Slayer let me get a look before they had me trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey. Hurts more than it should, though.”

“Dammit.” Willow turned to the unusually silent group scattered around the room at her back. “Couldn’t one of you have even bothered to take a decent look at this? There are splinters embedded in his chest! I can almost understand the tying up, but what, you couldn’t even properly remove that arrow?!”

Willow didn’t even bother to wait for an answer. She simply grabbed a pair of tweezers and went to work pulling the long treads of wood from out of the vampire’s chest. No one in the room spoke as she went about her task, the only sound coming in the form of soft growls of pain from the body beneath her hands.

After all the wood was removed, and the wound doused in liberal droughts of peroxide, Willow left the blonde with a stern ‘stay there’, and went to wash her hands and heat him up some more blood. When Anya asked her if she was going to put any of the gauze on it, Willow grinned.

“No point putting nice clean gauze on it if I’m only going to have to replace it in ten minutes because he’s still bleeding. Besides, the air will probably help it some.”

Willow pulled the remaining two bags of blood, throwing them in the microwave, before making a note on the pad on the counter telling Giles to buy more. While she waited for Spike’s snack to heat, she scrubbed her hands under water the turned her hands pink and left them slightly raw.

<I hope Dawn’s doing okay at the house.>

{‘Do I have to go? I’m much rather stay here and play with Xander.’ Dawn, her soft features replaced by the sharp ridges of a vampire stood in the center of Giles’ living room, gazing at Xander hungrily. ‘Can I play with him, Anya? I promise not to hurt him too much.’}

Willow snapped back to reality with the shrill beeping of the microwave. Running a shaking hand over her face, the witch moved to pour the blood into a large thermal mug.

<Okay. That explains everything. I must be seeing some alternate dimension. Because there’s no way Anya would ever let anyone take money out of her till, Dawn will never be vamped and not have a soul, and Buffy with Spike?> The redhead shuddered at that thought. <That would just be stupid and wrong for so many different reasons!>

She entered the living room and instantly regretted not having Spike come to the kitchen with her. Xander was sitting across from his prone body, a look only describable as a pout on his face. Buffy continued to pace in front of Giles and Anya, who occupied the two chairs to the side of the couch.

“I can’t believe she’s nursing him after what he let happen to her!” Xander had his back to the redhead, so she wasn’t surprised that he hadn’t noticed she’d come back into the room.

<Not that he wouldn’t be saying the same thing it I were right in front of him.>

“I can’t believe that you’re still on that.”

“Willow!” Buffy rounded on her best friend and looked at her wildly.“You could be dead right now! As it is, we don’t know exactly what’s going on with the whole demon blood thing.”

“I can’t believe that the two of you are blaming Spike, a vampire who has no soul and who has threatened and/ or outright *tried* to kill me many times, for not looking out for me when those who are supposed to be my best friends in the world couldn’t be bothered to do it!”

“I don’t know, Red, I like you more than most.” Spike smiled at Willow and took the cup from her hands, eagerly gulping it down and watching the rest of the room.

“Thanks,” Willow turned to Buffy. “He was in just as much danger as the rest of us, and reacted just as he should have. He tried to defend himself. I’m not faulting him for that. I can’t.

“Giles, can Anya borrow your car? I want to go to sleep.”

“I could drive you.” Xander stood from his seat.

“Right now I don’t really want to be around you. I don’t need any more lectures or whining, just sleep.”

“Sure.” Giles stood and retrieved the keys to the car and handed them to a bouncing Anya. “Do be careful with it, won’t you?”

“Yep,” Anya kissed Xander swiftly and grabbed her jacket. “Come on witch, before he changes his mind.”

“Want a ride, Spike? It’ll be dawn soon.” Willow slid suddenly tired arms through the sleeves of her own coat.

Spike drained the mug, sitting it down beside the neat coaster on the coffee table before throwing his duster on over his shirtless torso. He smirked at the rest of the Scoobies as he held the door for Anya and Willow.

“Can’t say it’s been fun.” Spike slammed the door behind him as he swaggered out to catch up with the two girls waiting in the courtyard.

Chapter 4

Willow wasn’t all that surprised to find, upon waking, that she had slept the entire morning and afternoon away. The bright blue numbers on her alarm let her know that it was just before seven. The tingles that ran along her fingers and arms made it impossible for her to think that the night before had been a dream.

Pulling her aching body from the bed, Willow sent a silent ‘thank you’ out to Anya. The ex-demon had helped Willow see Spike to the relative safety of his crypt just as the first rays of dawn crept into the cemetery. After that, the other girl had pulled into a drive thru, insisting that Willow get something to eat before she went to bed.

After making sure that Willow had eaten her pancakes and hash brown, Anya had nearly carried the exhausted girl up the stairs and into her room. Willow dimly remembered Anya commenting on the green lace of her underwear and bra, but didn’t remember putting on the Tweety bird shirt she found herself wearing.

Willow rubbed her hands against the material of the shirt in an attempt to get the odd feeling running through them to go away. It was as if there were a million tiny insects running all along her hands and up her arms to just below the elbows. There wasn’t any pain, just that odd tickling sensation.

<I’ll ask Giles about it. He’s bound to have found *something* by now. I mean, how many purple demons that look like perfectly normal men otherwise could there be? Besides, we’re talking about something that could affect me in very bad ways, here, not just seeing the guy.>

Certain that the feeling was nothing more than some sort of residual happening from the shock she had felt at the hands of the demon the night before, Willow was unprepared for the sight that greeted her in the bathroom mirror. Her normally shoulder length red hair had been replaced during the night with a mane of hair that curled down her back
and around her shoulders. The red was now shot through with pieces of orange and yellow, giving it all the appearance of curling flames licking at her face and body.

“Okay, not what normally happens overnight.” Willow took a step closer to the closed bathroom door. “What’s going on with my face?”

It looked as though someone had went wild with white powder and glitter as she had slept. Her face was as pale as her vampire counterpart’s had been, though her lips had taken on a soft red of their own and her eyes were surrounded by an orange color, both of which matched colors in her new hair. Her cheeks were accented by some sort of dusky blush, though she knew she hadn’t applied it, and the entirety of her skin seemed to be covered in a light shimmer. By some trick of the light, or perhaps there was just more of the glittering substance on those areas, her eyes, cheeks, and lips were brought out with much more sparkling than the pale glimmer of the rest of her face.

“Okay. Take a shower and then get to Giles’.” Willow pulled off her clothes hurriedly and gasped at what she saw.

Her entire body was glimmering in the light of the bathroom. A soft ‘V’ running along the tops of her breasts and down the valley between was accented in the same way as her lips, though, Willow was thankful to see, there was no accompanying color changes. Willow’s arms seemed to be wrapped in bands of the brighter ‘glitter’ that ended at each wrist. Her still tingling hands were shimmering as bright as the rest of her body.

The thing that caught her attention the most, were her fingernails. While normally kept rather short from fighting and the nervous chewing she found herself doing from time to time, they were now rather long. They were much longer than she could remember even Cordelia having hers, with a slight curve to them. To top off the new look, the nails were a
deep red with orange and yellow streaked through. The effect was that of tiny flames dancing along each nail.

“Screw the shower.” Willow ran into her bedroom and threw on the first shirt she came across, following it with a flowing skirt she managed to snag as she pulled on a pair of sandals. “Got to get to Giles. He’ll know what to do.”

Willow picked up the book sitting beside her bedroom door that needed to go back to the Watcher’s house. She gasped and dropped the book when she saw the older man suddenly in front of her. A moment later, the vision took her over.

{‘I have to tell you, Buffy, that this is a bad idea. It has nothing to do with you anymore.’ Pulling the glasses from his face, Giles wiped them off with the end of his tie.

‘No Giles. This has everything to do with me.’}

“Okay. I have to do something about this dimensional sightseeing before I get caught off guard in public or during a fight.” Willow thought for a moment before going to her closet and rummaging through the box that was kept on the shelf.

“Here I thought I was making a stupid impulse buy.” Willow had found the long, black evening gloves that she had bought nearly two years before in a fit of female ‘what ifs’.

Willow didn’t even stop to run a brush through the curls of her hair or she would have noticed that she was wearing a faded Sunnydale High T-shirt with a purple and red skirt. In fact, the frightened redhead failed to lock her door or notice that the sun had set as she ran through the graveyard. She didn’t stop until she was standing, panting for breath, in the middle of the Watcher’s living room, surrounded by the confused and questioning faces of her friends.

“Trying somethin’ new with the make-up there, Red?” Spike ran his eyes down her body before returning them to her face. “Gotta say that I, for one, like it.”

“I didn’t do it, Spike.” Willow slid her tongue over her bottom lip before she brought it into her mouth where she worried it with her teeth. “I woke up and it was just there.”

“Going for a bit of a Rogue look, Wills?” Xander and Anya had frozen just inside the front door when they caught sight of the girl standing in the center of the living room. “It all works pretty well, but the sandals should really be boots.”

“I don’t think she’s trying to look like some comic book character, Xander.” Anya paused and looked expectantly at Willow. “You aren’t, are you? Because me and Xander sometimes play that game, and I don’t want him thinking about you while he’s giving me orgasms.”

“Okay, not a visual that I want to have.” Buffy visibly shuddered and turned to her best friend. “What gives Will?”

“I don’t know, I just woke up and there was this tingly feeling going on in my hands and up and down my arms. I go to take a shower, and find out I’m Glimmer Girl.”

“Your face was this way when you woke up?” Giles wrote a few things down on the legal pad he had on the table in front of him. “It could be just some side effect of the demon’s touch. There are a few, after all, that will give the person who touches them a mark of some sort on their face.”

“What about the rest of me?” Willow hated how small her voice sounded, especially when she saw the way Spike’s eyebrow lifted in interest.

“You all sparkly under those clothes, there, Red?” He was leaning forward on the couch now, elbows resting on knees, and Willow could feel him undressing her with those eyes.

“Pr... Pretty much.” Willow found a sweet, coppery taste on her tongue and realized that she’d bitten through her lip in her nervousness.

“What else?” Anya was a little too happily interested for Willow’s liking, but she could see the concern and interest in the others’ eyes.

“Well, there’s the hair. ‘Cuz it had to have grown nearly two feet overnight, and that’s just not normal. Not to mention the color, because I’m pretty certain that it was just plain red when I went to bed last night, this morning... whatever, and now it *so* isn’t just a normal red color. Would you call this color fire? Because, I’m sensing a definite fire thing going on with it. That’s not to mention the glittery chest and armbands, or the fact that my nails are, like, long. I mean *really* long, and they have little flames on them, too. That’s why I’m dressed this way. I just had to get over here and see what kind of information you had found on the demon that I drank from, because, let’s face it, there can’t be all that many demons that look human other than the fact that they’re purple.”

Giles blinked at the young woman’s ability to talk for so long without taking a breath before grasping on to her last sentence. “Actually, there are 72 known demons that look perfectly normal other than their skin tone.”

Willow let herself sink down beside Spike on the couch with a small‘oh’. She had expected some answers, and was now faced with not knowing what was going to happen to her.

“Don’t worry, Willow.” Giles’ attempt at a brave smile was lost on the oblivious redhead who simply leaned her head over on Spike’s shoulder and let him rub her arm comfortingly. “I’m cross-referencing the human appearance with his ‘speaking’ inside your head and the fact that he fed you his blood. That, I believe, narrows the selection down to around
ten. It would just help if I had a few more experienced eyes helping me out.”

“Anya, are you *sure* you’ve never met a demon like the one that attacked Willow?”

“Positive, Giles.” Anya shook her head sadly. “I like Willow, and I wish I could help, but the only human-looking, different colored demons I ever met weren’t nearly as nice as the one in the park was. They were all the ‘see pretty girl, rape pretty girl, disembowel pretty girl’ type.”

“And you, Spike?” Giles turned to the vampire.

“Nothing here, mate. I can’t remember even *hearing* of a demon like that who didn’t enjoy ripping people apart more than he did talkin’ to‘em.”

“You know who we have to call, right?” Willow spoke with her head still resting against the rounded softness of Spike’s shoulder.

“The Ghost Busters?”

“No, you git.” Spike didn’t even try to keep the contempt from his voice. “She’s talking about the bloody Pouf.”

“Do we gotta?” Xander’s whine made Willow giggle slightly.

“This is none of his business, Giles.” Willow could tell Buffy wasn’t happy.

“It would be nice to have Wesley looking from that end as well.” Giles heaved a great sigh before standing and moving toward the kitchen.

“I *still* don’t like it.” The small blonde had crossed her arms over her chest and was sulking in the chair across from the pair on the couch.

“It really doesn’t matter what you do or do not like, Buffy. We’re talking about Willow, here. You should put aside everything until we’re quite certain of her safety.”

“I’m going on patrol.” Buffy stood and headed for the door before turning to look at Spike. “You coming, Neutered Boy?”

“I have to go, pet.” Spike tucked a curl behind Willow’s ear before grinning evilly. “Someone’s got to make sure the bint doesn’t slay her own foot.”

Willow nodded, and the two blondes were gone a moment later.

“I’ll make the call,” and Giles turned to the phone to do just that.

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