full 3/4 1/2   skin light dark       
 
If You Want a Job Done Right, Send a Slayer by slaymesoftly
 
Six
 
<<     >>
 
 
 
 
 
CHAPTER SIX
 
She was dreaming. Dreaming that she and Spike were back in her basement, stretched out together on his cot, arms around each other. In spite of the looming battle against the First, she felt secure and safe in his arms – odd, considering that she was expecting to take the brunt of the fighting herself.
 
“But he’ll have my back,” she mumbled, snuggling back against him. She blinked her eyes against a light much too bright to be her basement in Sunnydale. And yet, she would swear Spike was— “What are you doing?”
 
“Watching your back, according to you. Did you know you talk in your sleep?”
 
She turned over and looked up at his amused expression. “I do not.” 
 
“Do too,” he said, rubbing his nose against hers before standing up. She noted that he was completely dressed, including his boots, whereas she had lost her boots and was now under a light blanket.
 
“How long have you been here?”
 
“Long enough to see how tired you were and to keep everybody out until you woke up on your own.  But if you mean, how long was I cuddled up to your back – I don’t know. Wasn’t planning to fall asleep with you, just rest for a bit, but I guess I did. We should probably see what’s going on now. One of the girls took over watching the portal for me when she caught me dozing off.”
 
Buffy nodded and sat up, happy to see that her boots were the only things missing from her wardrobe. She stretched, smiling when she caught him watching her. “See anything you like?” she teased, using one of his favorite questions when he’d catch her watching him get dressed.
 
“You know I do, you minx. Now get yourself out of that bed before I lock the door and say ‘to hell with saving the city’.”
 
“Okay, okay. I’m up.”
 
“Not the only thing that’s up,” he muttered, adjusting himself. “Not fair, Slayer. Here I am trying to be all responsible and patient, and—”
 
“Sorry.” She surprised them both. “Will it help if I tell you that you interrupted a dream I was having about sleeping – I mean actual sleeping, with snoring – with you before we took on the First and his army?”
 
“Maybe. Which one of us was snoring?” 
 
“I’m not telling,” she said as she walked to the door. “We—” She broke off as she almost ran into Faith raising her hand to knock.
 
“Damn! I was hoping I’d be interrupting something,” she said, grinning at Spike. “Anyway, here’s the deal – Jeannie has called in some more magical help and they think they can bust this thing open. Seems like the original spell was a whooper, but it’s gone and all that’s left is the barrier and a glamor that makes everybody think they’re in a hell dimension.”
 
The three of them walked into the kitchen where there was clearly a council of war going on.  In addition to the slayer squad, Jeannie was sitting on a stool, sipping tea and chatting with Angel.
 
“Nice of you to join us,” he growled, wincing when Faith flicked the back of his head.
 
“Play nice. Or I’ll tell everybody you weren’t awake either until just a few minutes ago.”
 
“Hi,” Buffy said, ignoring the by-play to greet Jeannie. “So, what’s going on?”
 
“Well, I finally got the help I wanted from some other witches, and found out that there probably are still some right here in LA. I would guess they’ve got their own glamors going so they blend in.  I’d like to try to find them before we do anything, partly to see if they can help, and partly to keep you guys from killing them accidentally if they’re disguised as demons.”
 
“That makes sense. But how are you going to do it?  It’s a big city.”
 
She put a small bag on the counter and poured some colored stones from it. “These will glow in the presence of magic. I was kind of hoping you could spread out around the city and use your stone to identify anyone who’s not what they seem to be.”
 
Buffy frowned. “I’m not sure I want to send my girls out there alone. They’ll stand out like sore thumbs.”
 
“Oh, no, I have these for them.” She brought up a larger bag full of colorful scarves. “These carry their own glamors, so as long as she keeps her scarf around her head or neck, each girl should look like some sort of minor demon. It won’t be much of a change – maybe pointy ears and a crest? Or a tail? Or wings?  Something will change her appearance. And it won’t trigger the stones because they’ve come from the same source.”
 
“How cool!  I want wings!”  The slayers crowded around, looking at the scarves and wondering which one would give them the features they wanted.
 
“Okay. But I still want them to go in pairs. Just to be safe.  And nobody isn’t back here by what passes for nighttime in this place. Got it?”
 
Jeannie passed out the scarves and stones to the girls, who stood around admiring each other’s new look.  Sam got the wings, but was disappointed when they wouldn’t lift her off the ground. She gnashed the pointed teeth that were part of the disguise and growled. “Whoa! Was that me?”
 
“Yes it was.” Angel looked them over and nodded. “I think it’ll work. If they don’t get too close to anybody except the ones they’re looking for.”
 
“How many witches are we supposed to find?”
 
“The local coven – what’s left of it – says there should be at least four still in here, and they assume they’ll be sticking together, so if you find one, you find them all. I have addresses for three of them, so you can spread out and check there first. We might get lucky and catch them all home.”
 
“Okay, slayers. You check out the houses, we’ll spread out and look in public places – like parks and magic stores.”  Faith walked the girls to the loading dock and closed the door behind them.
 
Buffy picked up one of the stones and a scarf. “I guess I need something too,” she said, wrapping the lavender scarf around her head.  “What?  Spike?”
 
He shook himself. “Wish you could see yourself, love. Prettiest demon I’ve ever seen.”
 
She blushed, but preened a little. “As long as I don’t look like Jabba – or Clem – I’m good.”
 
Faith had picked a bright orange scarf and transformed before their eyes into something with an exaggeratedly curvy body, big eyes, and orange horns growing from her head. 
 
“Wow.”
 
“Am I awesome?” Faith tried to see herself in the stainless steel refrigerator door, but failed.
 
“You won’t be able to see yourself in the demon guise,” Jeannie said, laughing at Faith and Buffy as they went around the kitchen trying to find something that would give them a reflection. “You know who you really are, so that’s what you’ll see.”
 
“We should go with you,” Angel said abruptly. “You’ll get lost.”
 
The two senior slayers stared at him.  “I was born here,” Buffy reminded him. “And I used to come back all the time when my dad still lived here.”
 
“And I lived here off and on. Right here, in this hotel,” Faith reminded him.
 
“You and Spike stay here and keep Jeannie company. If we luck out, we’ll be back soon with four more witches.”
 
 
XXXXXXXXX
 
“This is wicked cool,” Faith said, tossing her head experimentally. “I’ll bet I could do some damage with these horns.”
 
Buffy reached up to touch them, but her hand went right through. “Oops. Nope. Not solid.” She glanced at her own graceful tail that curled around her waist and tugged on it. Her hand went right through that too.  “Hmmmm. We’ll have to be careful not to touch anybody, or let anybody touch us.”
 
“Guess so. That sucks. Good thing the weapons aren’t visible.”
 
“Good thing.  Let’s try that park up the street. Maybe they’ll be sitting around pretending to be evil.”
 
They walked through the park, taking special pains to get close to any small groups of demons or single demons, but the stones never changed color. When they began to get curious looks from the other demons, they hurried away. As they walked past an alley, a large, humanoid demon stepped in front of them and looked them up and down.
 
“What do we have here?  You’re too pretty to be wandering around alone, I think you need me to escort you.”
 
“I’m pretty sure we don’t,” Buffy said, trying to edge around him. When he grabbed her arm, she twisted so he ended up with his arm behind his back and his face against the wall.  “Like I said…” Buffy waited for Faith to take off his head, but she was frowning at her stone.
 
“Slow down, B.  The stone says he’s not what he seems either.”
 
“He feels pretty solid to me.”  The demon had become very still.
 
“You are not…”
 
“Nope. We’re not. Just not your lucky day, I guess. What are you?”
 
“I’m Anteres. I used to be a well-respected sorcerer. Until Angelus and his little band of do-gooders pissed off the wrong people and I got stuck here along with everyone else.  I had to do something to keep from being eaten or enslaved, so I became a demon.”
 
“That’s a pretty strong glamor,” Buffy said, poking him. She’d released his arm and he was now facing them.”
 
“Better than yours,” he said with a sniff. “I can see now that you are only human girls.” When both Buffy and Faith made as if to tackle him again, he backed up and held up his hands.  “Okay, obviously not only human girls.  What are you?”
 
“Slayers,” they said in unison.
 
“That’s impossible. There were no slayers in LA when it went down.”
 
“What’s your point?” Faith smirked at him as realization set in.
 
“The barrier is still up, I can feel it. How did you…?”
 
“The less you know, the better,” Buffy said. She glanced at Faith. “What the hell are we going to do with him?” Faith caressed her sword and raised her eyebrows.
 
“We just have his word for it he’s human….”
 
“I am!  I can prove it if we get somewhere safe.”
 
He shuffled his feet anxiously as Buffy and Faith exchanged whispered opinions. There was nowhere for him to go without passing between the two slayers, so he gave up thinking he could make a break for it and leaned against the wall. To anyone passing by the alley entrance, it looked like three demons having a confrontation. Not something that anyone would want to be mixed up in.
 
“Do you know who and where the witches are?” Faith demanded, startling him into standing up straight.
 
“Of course I do. They came to me for help with their disguises.”
 
“Okay, let’s go. Take us to them, and then we’ll talk about what to do about you.”
 
Just then, Buffy’s communication device vibrated and she held up her hand for silence. She listened, then smiled.
 
“They found them already. They were at the first address. Everybody’s heading back to the Hy—headquarters.”
 
“Hy— Hyperion?  You’re staying at the Hyperion?”
 
Faith rolled her eyes. “Fuck. Guess he’s coming with us.  We’ll see what Angel has to say about him.”
 
“Um… we’re… not exactly friends…” Anteres managed to have as close to a worried expression as was possible for something with a horn growing from his forehead.
 
“All the better,” Faith said cheerfully. “Move it, big boy.”
 
 
 
XXXXXXX
 
 
As they approached the Hyperion, they joined the other slayers who were accompanying four small demons who chattered together. When they spotted Buffy and Faith’s companion, they fell silent.
 
“Anteres?” A pretty redheaded demon said.  “Why are you here?”
 
“I’m just accompanying my new friends… Buffy and Faith. Just helping them get home safely.”
 
Buffy rolled her eyes and the younger slayers burst into laughter. He frowned and drew himself up to his full height.
 
“They caught you, huh?” the small demon snorted as she followed her friends and the still-glamored slayers around the building to the loading dock.
 
Faith put a hand against his chest and waved the others on.
 
“Hold on, hotshot.  I don’t think you need to know how to get in here. Maybe we should blindfold you…”
 
“As long as I’m in demon form, I can’t get in,” he muttered.
 
“Ah, and you know that… how?”
 
“Because he tried to get in twice.  Now what, Anteres?”  Angel had appeared around the side of the building. “Are you trying to sneak in with the witches?”
 
“Angel!  Angelus. Good to see you, buddy. How’ve you been?”
 
“Helping humans,” Angel responded. “Unlike yourself…”
 
Faith interrupted the conversation. “As much as I like my new head decorations, I’d really like to get inside sometime this week.  The question is, do we bring this guy in or not?”
 
“What’s the alternative?”
 
Buffy rolled her eyes, but Faith said, “We assume he’s just what he looks like and take his head off.”
 
Angel sighed. “He’s human. A scumbag of a sorcerer, most of the time, but human. Bring him in. We can always tie him up if we need to.”
 
XXXXXXXX
 
After everyone was inside, they dropped their glamors and the witches collapsed in relief.
 
“You have no idea how hard it is to hold on to those forms,” the redhaired witch, who reminded Buffy of a much younger Willow, sighed as she sank onto a stool.
 
“Why don’t we all go into the lobby,” Angel suggested. “The kitchen’s big enough, but there are more places to sit in there.”  They all trooped after him, with Faith following the now-human looking sorcerer.
 
He glanced over his shoulder at her. “I’m not going to do anything, you know. I want out of here as much as anyone else does.”
 
“Maybe,” was her only response as she fingered the knife at her hip.
 
Jeannie took the witches to a corner with comfy chairs and a table and began exchanging information with them, beginning with their names and how they’d managed to survive and remain hidden. She was beaming when she walked back to Buffy and Faith.
 
“I think we can do it. With their help….” She turned a suddenly hard eye on Anteres… “And maybe with some assistance from this guy.” He nodded eagerly.
 
“Yes, yes, of course. Anything I can do to end this nightmare…”
 
“For all we know, you helped set it up,” Angel growled. “It would be just like you to hook up with the Senior Partners and screw all the humans you depend on for a living.”
 
“I’d have to be an idiot to do that!”
 
“I rest my case.” Angel turned back to Jeannie. “If you really need him, you can use him. But don’t trust him. He doesn’t care about anything but his own scrawny neck.” To make his point, Angel let his fangs drop as he stared at Anteres’s throat. The sorcerer blanched and stepped behind Jeannie.
 
The pretty redhead, whose name was Selene, tugged timidly on Angel’s arm. “Uh, he did help us with our glamors. We didn’t have to pay him anything. We wouldn’t have been able to do them as well ourselves.  I think we can trust him.”
 
Spike, who’d been watching with Buffy, muttered, “I’ll wager she can at least.”
 
“What?”
 
“Watch how he looks at her. He’s smitten. He’s not going to let anything happen to the pretty little witch or anybody she cares about. No matter how evil he is.”
 
Buffy gave him a nudge. “Remind you of anybody you know?”
 
He shrugged. “Takes one to know one, doesn’t it? I’m just saying, he’s in love and he’ll do whatever he needs to keep her safe.”
 
 
XXXXXXXX
 
After everyone had eaten and had a chance to rest and think, Jeannie called them all together again. 
 
“Okay. We think we have everything we need, except one thing.”
 
She waited for the chatter to die down, then said, “We need to find the focus of the spell and destroy it.  It has to be somewhere in here in LA proper. The barrier is something we can take down from the outside – Molly’s working on that with some witches she sent for from Portland.” Jeannie glanced at the witches they’d rescued. “I’m going to need these four to help me with the counter spell as soon as the focus is destroyed. We just need to learn where it is and get to it.”
 
“It’s probably pretty heavily defended,” Buffy said. “We might want to bring some more girls through.”
 
“When we knock the barrier down, the slayers can come through immediately, all together instead of one at a time. But we won’t have much time before they try to put it back up, so you really need to be ready to go before we do it.”
 
Buffy looked at Spike and Angel. “Do you guys have any idea where it might be?”
 
The two vampires looked at each other and shrugged. “It’s probably in the Wolfram and Hart building… or what’s left of it.”
 
“Basement, maybe,” Spike growled. “That’s where the nasty stuff is.”
 
Angel nodded his agreement. “That’d be my guess. But it’ll have protection – demonic and magical.”
 
Anteres cleared his throat, cringing when Angel glared at him, but continuing never the less. “I might have some small idea where they keep it. And who’s monitoring the spell….”
 
“And you were planning to share this… when?” Spike went into game face as he shoved the man against a wall.  Buffy’s quiet, “Spike” kept him from following through on his obvious threat, but he remained where he was, fangs only inches from Anteres’s face.
 
“When Selene… and her friends,” Antares said quickly, “are all safe.”
 
Smiling timidly at Spike, Selene put her hand on Anteres’s arm as Spike reluctantly backed away. “Anteres, you know we need to stay here until the counter spell takes effect. I can’t leave until the city is safe again. But you could help by showing them where to find what they need.”  She smiled up at him and everyone in the room watched his expression soften.
 
“But you—” He tried to protest. “You could leave now.”
 
She shook her head. “I can’t do that. And you couldn’t come with me if I did. But if we stay here and help, then we won’t need to leave. We can have our city back.”
 
“Fine,” he sighed. “I’ll show them where it is and who’s watching it.”  He glanced up at the four in charge people staring at him. “It’s not going to be as hard as you think. I can get you close enough to take out the demon guarding it. Then it’s just a question of smashing the focus and doing the counter spell.”
 
He looked at Buffy and Faith and smiled slightly. “But breaking the spell is only going to mean people can leave if they want to. The demons will all still be here, and they’ll be pretty pissed off at having their little piece of the world taken away.”
 
“That’s where the slayers come in,” Buffy said. Faith nodded.
 
“Soon’s that barrier’s down, we’ve got another thirty-five girls waiting on the other side.  They’ll take care of the demons that don’t have enough sense to get out of town.”
 
Jeannie spoke up. “I’m going to pop back out and make sure Molly’s ready to go.”
 
“I’ll come with you,” Faith said. “To make sure the slayers know what they’ll be facing and are armed for it.”
 
“You want me to come with you?” Buffy asked quietly as the other slayers and witches scattered to eat and rest.
 
“Nah. You stay here with your honey. Where do you want the girls?”
 
Buffy frowned. “I’m thinking just along the perimeter of the city as far around it as they can get. Tell them to stay away from the ocean side. Maybe we can just drive these things into the sea. I don’t want anybody out of sight of anyone else, so we probably won’t be able to do the whole perimeter. But if we can sweep our way across….”
 
“We should be able to make it safe for people to return to their homes.  Clean up is going to take a while, but with the barrier down, it will be easier to get supplies in and out of the city. The grocery stores can stock real food – people food.”
 
“Sounds like a plan. Lets make sure everybody has a communicator in good working order. I don’t want to lose anybody because they couldn’t call for help.”
 
<<     >>