TITLE: WARLOCK 6/14
AUTHOR: vatwoman
DISCLAIMER: JOSS WHEDON, MUTANT ENEMY AND FOX/UPN OWN EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE ‘BUFFY.’ NO INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. THE CHARACTER OF KOVACS IS MINE.
FEEDBACK: YES PLEASE, TO VATWOMAN@Y...

“So he could have put it anywhere?” Xander asked.

Giles shook his head. “No, in this, at least, I suspect he will have followed the traditional method of concealment; the grave of someone …” he looked down again at the book in his hand, “… ‘untimely dead.’”

Buffy wrinkled her nose. “Raise your hand if ‘eeiuw.’!”

“Just once,” Willow interjected, “I’d like one of these crazy guys to not have a thing for the cemeteries of this town!”

“Indeed,” Giles agreed with a grim smile. Then he read from the book once more. “And, of course, if that person was young and had died at someone else’s hand …”

“…murdered …” Buffy translated.

Giles nodded. “… so much the better.”

“And in a town full of vamps he’d have had a whole lot of bodies to choose from.” Buffy turned her head away, as if hiding from her own words. The death of even one person at the hands of the vampires and demons of this town was one death too many.

“Willow? Jenny?” Giles caught the eye of both of them in turn. Willow’s smile was ever-present and brightened at the prospect of communing with her favourite piece of technology. Jenny looked sombre but she, too, smiled at him.

“Net girls, huh?” Jenny queried.

“If you don’t mind?”

“How far back d’you think we need to go?”

Giles stood quietly for a moment, thinking back over the events of the past week, then made his decision. “Ten days – no more than that.”

“Ok. Willow?”

The two women moved to the table where Jenny had set up the laptop earlier and got to work. Giles watched them, their heads close together as they spoke to each other in voices that he couldn’t hear, and knew that they’d find what they were looking for: what he was looking for.

“Giles?”

“Hmm?” Buffy’s voice pulled him back.

“What do we do when we find the tablet?”

“Tablets - there’s almost certainly more than one.”

“Ok, tablets. Can we just destroy them? Will that make him stop?”

Giles settled into his leather chair and sighed. He took his glasses off and rubbed both hands down his face. His eyes felt leaden. <Perhaps some tea? > He stood again, tossed Xander the book he’d been holding and pushed his hands into the pockets of his sweatpants. “We can certainly destroy the tablets, but stopping him? I think that will be a little more difficult …” He hesitated, unsure of what he should admit. Curse tablets had existed for centuries and one could read any number of modern, and not so modern, opinions deriding any notion that they might actually have worked. But then the modern world dismissed the notion of magicks altogether. The very fact that they had been used for so long and by all levels of society and in many different cultures spoke of their efficacy: and of the skills of the sorcerers who made them. To assume that Willow was right, that curse tablets were being used against him, was a jump, a leap of faith. But just as Willow had read the file and believed she’d found the answer, so Giles knew that she was right. What concerned him was what else Kovacs had added to the mix.

“But destruction first?”

“Yes, Xander,” Giles nodded, “Destruction first … well, finding them first.”

“So, more than one grave?” Buffy confirmed, grimacing again. “This is going to get way old, way quickly!”

Giles frowned, thinking about what his Slayer had said. “Xander?” He held out his hand for the book he’d thrown to the young man only moments before. Xander handed it over and waited expectantly as Giles thumbed through it. “Mmm …”

“ ’Mmm’, what?” Xander prodded. “Giles?”

“Yes?” Giles looked up, eyebrows raised.

“ ’Mmm’, what?”

“It’s very unusual, but it says here that there have been instances where curse tablets have been found in the home of the intended victim.”

Silence. Giles watched as everyone’s eyes suddenly darted around the room, searching.

“But the apartment is warded.” Jenny pointed out.

“Warded?” Xander again.

“Protected by magicks.” Giles briefly explained. “Yes, it is but if Kovacs is as strong as we think he is they wouldn’t be much of an obstacle to him.”

“Would you be able to tell if any of the wards had been messed with?” Willow asked.

Giles started across the room, giving Xander back the book as he passed him, and stopped at the front door. He could feel their eyes on him. Shutting his eyes to centre himself he slowly ran his hand down the frame of the door, his palm hovering millimetres above the wood. He reopened his eyes.

“Possibly.” He reached out again and this time touched the frame, connecting with the warm, dark wood. “There’s a spell …” He turned to face the others and leaned back against the door. “Simple, but no less powerful for that.”

“What’s it do?” Buffy asked.

“It reveals other spells.” Giles straightened. “So, tea anyone?” Drinks orders followed him into the kitchen.

“And it’ll show if anyone’s been a-messin’ with your magic?”

“Yes, Xander.” He called over the noise of filling the kettle.

“And is it dangerous to perform?” Giles started slightly at the suddenly close voice and found Jenny standing in the archway.

“No.” He reached into the cupboard for cups, saucers and mugs. “Orange juice alright for you, Willow?” He asked, head in the fridge.

“Fine, thanks!”

He pulled back with juice and milk in hand and shut the fridge door to find Jenny still there, leaning on the wall, arms folded across her chest.

“As I said, it’s very simple.” If he hoped to mollify her, he was to be disappointed.

“No, what you said was ‘simple but powerful’. Powerful tends to mean strong. Strong means draining on the person who casts the spell.”

There was no hint of a question in her softly spoken observation but, nonetheless, he responded to her as if there had been.

“I can do this, Jenny.”

She shrugged, a tiny movement of her left shoulder. “I believe that – I guess what I’m wondering is whether you should.”

The drinks forgotten he pushed his hands into his pockets and stared at the floor. “It has to be me, Jenny, I’m the only one who’ll be able to recognise his magicks amongst mine.” He raised his head. “Strong enough or not, it has to be me.”

Jenny turned away from him and asked, “Can it be channelled through me?”

Giles raised an eyebrow. “The spell?”

“Yes.” She confirmed, looking back at him. “Can you cast the spell but channel the power through me?”

The kettle whistled and he turned and lifted it off the heat. He made the tea and coffee automatically, his brain working on the question Jenny had posed him.

“Rupert?”

“Yes, but it would wipe you out for the rest of the day.” He warned.

Jenny’s eyes narrowed. “And it wouldn’t do that to you because ..?”

“Because when you practice magicks your body makes certain … adjustments in order to handle the strain on the system.”

“And the fact that your system is already weakened?”

“An added complication, certainly, but not one that should be given undue importance.”

“ ’An added complication’,” she quoted back at him, “Interesting line in understatement.”

Giles sighed and rubbed his fingers across his brow, a sure sign that he was becoming irritated by this conversation. “What would have me say, hmm? ‘I’m so bloody weak that even thinking about performing a spell is exhausting me!’ ”

“Honest response, Rupert.” She shrugged again. “It’s all I’m asking for.”

Their gazes locked. Jenny watched the stormy green of his eyes cloud and slowly clear again. He slumped against the worktop giving in to the weariness that she could now see wrapped around him.

“Then I am …” his voice was low and rough.

“You are what?”

He half smiled. “So bloody weak that even thinking about performing a spell is exhausting me.”

Her laugh startled him. As did her soft hands on his face. She traced his lips with her thumb and then kissed him. “Then let Willow be ‘Net girl,’ let Xander and Buffy be research assistants extraordinaire, you be ‘book guy,’ and let me be the one who gets wiped.” She stared deep into his eyes. “Ok?”

Even then he hesitated - even knowing that she was right and he didn’t have the strength for this.

“Rupert?”

He pulled her hands from his face and held them tightly in his own. He shook his head.

“For you it would be like … like a possession, Jenny, and … and … and with Eyghon …” His voice trailed off. He reached up and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “I’d really rather I did it.”

“Ok,” Jenny nodded slowly, “I can understand that and, also, I thank you for wanting to protect me from this, but…” He moved to interrupt him and she pressed fingers against his lips, shaking her head as she did so. “… but we both know that you getting wiped would be a bad thing; we need you awake and researching.” She took a deep breath and slid her hand around to cup his cheek. “And as for the other thing … it’ll be you and … and I could never be afraid of you.”

He swallowed hard around the terrible memory of not just the past week, but, more, the past month. “Oh, God, Jenny, I’m so sorry …”

Her sudden smile was as bright as her eyes. “We’ve said all this, Rupert, let it go.”

He pulled her into his arms and held her in a tight hug. He rubbed his cheek against her hair and breathed deeply of her unique scent. “You really are going to save me, aren’t you?” Jenny pulled out of his arms far enough to look at him and in her eyes he saw the answers to all the questions behind that single question.

“Damn right – me and the cavalry!”

“Ah yes,” Giles looked up and found Buffy, Willow and Xander lined up like soldiers on the other side of the breakfast bar. “The cavalry.”

Jenny, sensing his amusement, spun around, saw the others, leaned against him and laughed. “Just how much of that conversation did you lot overhear?” His voice rumbled through her back, making her shiver slightly. He wrapped his arms around her.

Naturally enough, it was Buffy who replied.

“Tough spell. Tough love. Big regrets. Big forgiveness. Big reconciliation. Forgotten drinks and snacks.” She looked at Willow and Xander. “That just about cover it?”

“Yep!” They chorused in unison.

“Alright,” Giles smiled, “Sustenance then magicks.”

“ ‘Sustenance.’ “ Xander repeated. “That means food, right?”

“Yes, it does.” Giles confirmed. “Here.” He unwrapped himself from Jenny, turned, picked up the drinks and handed them to Xander. “Take these.”

The conversation for the next twenty minutes was deliberately light as they took the time to just sit back and relax. Then drinks and snacks consumed, Giles once again became all business. On his orders, furniture was pushed aside to uncover the expanse of the wooden floor. He reached into the multi-drawered chest sitting on the end of the breakfast bar and produced a piece of chalk.

“We need a power circle …”

“Ah, sweet,” Buffy interrupted, remembering last year’s ‘talentless’ show, “Hand holding!”

“… drawn on the floor.” Giles finished.

“Sorry.” Buffy apologised sheepishly then waved at the floor between them “Go, Leonardo?”

Giles dropped to his knees and proceeded to sketch out the design; mysterious symbols enclosed by a circle. He left a gap in the circle.

“The gap allows us both to enter?” Jenny speculated.

“And me to leave the circle for the moment.” Which he demonstrated by doing just that. “All set?”

Jenny blinked as she realised that he was ready for her. “Just like that? No herbs? Spell-books?”

Giles shook his head. “Not necessary.”

“Oh.” <So. Raw power, huh?> Jenny huffed out a deep breath and licked her lips. “Ok, I’m ready.” <Once more unto the breach … > She took the hand he’d proffered her.

“We’ll enter together,” Giles explained to the others, “And then I’ll seal the circle. Do not interrupt the spell and do not attempt to step into the circle while the spell is still active. Do you understand?” They all nodded. “Jenny?”

They walked through the gap Giles had left then he bent to fill in that space, completing the pattern of the circle. Immediately he did so the room around them blurred. Jenny tensed.

“What is it?”

He stood behind her again and gently pulled her back against him. Feeling her shiver slightly, he rubbed his hands up and down her arms.

“The circle is now a sacred space, dislocated from the rest of the room.”

“Can the others still see us?”

“Yes, but just as the room looks blurry to us, we’ll look blurry to them.”

“Your voice is different.” It seemed to have gained more depth and resonance and there was an undercurrent to it – something almost musical? <Is this what magick sounds like? How can it have a sound?> She tried to turn around to see his face but found herself held in place by his strong hands. “Rupert?” She felt him brush away the hair to expose her left ear and then the warmth of his breath on the flesh. His arms gathered her close.

The words he spoke made no sense to her. Not Latin, not Greek, both of which she would have recognised. She shivered again. <Oh, God. What is that?> The sounds were so old, so alien. They scratched in her head like a million insects. A moan escaped her lips. “Rupert …” <What is that?> She swallowed hard, not even sure if she’d said his name out loud. The words kept coming softly, insidiously. They were in her head. Just in her head. Always in her head. Only in her head. <What is …?> “I don’t …” She shook her head. “No, it’s too much …” She wanted to pull free but couldn’t move. And the words were just sounds now. She felt the scream building. And building. And building. And it was there. And she opened her mouth …

>>> “Jenny? Jenny!”

“Rupert?” She shuddered as a wash of fear induced adrenaline rushed through her.

“Can you hear me?”

“Yes, where …?”

“I’m inside you. Part of me is inside you. Like a possession – remember I told you this?”

“Oh yeah …”

“Are you alright?”

“Hmm.” She murmured letting go of her fear, only to find it had been masking something else. “A little disoriented. Actually, I feel as if I’m high on something.” She sounded surprised – she was surprised given his earlier concerns.

“Magick often induces a feeling of euphoria.”

“Well, whoa! Sign me up for more!”

He laughed. “You might change your mind later when the crash hits you!”

“Shakes?”

“No,” he shook his head, “Just total exhaustion.” His arms tightened for a moment. “We should start.”

Jenny breathed in deeply and tried to relax, find her focus. The warm wave of his approval washed through her making her smile. “Ok, what do I do?”

“Look at the room, feel it with your senses. Open yourself to everything that is here. Look!”

The blurred curtain fell away and suddenly it was like being inside a kaleidoscope. Colours. Shapes. Sounds, even. <Magick does have a sound!> “I can hear music …” she whispered, astounded. “It’s so beautiful.”

“Look.” His voice was as soft as hers had been but she could hear the smile in it, even so. His strength amazed her. His ability to take delight in her enjoyment of this experience amazed her. His skills amazed her. His warmth amazed her. <I’m in love with an amazing man!> She giggled. “Jenny?”

“Sorry,” she bit down on her lip. <Jeez, this is such a rush!>“Sort of zoned out there for a second, didn’t I.”

“Yes, you did. It’s alright. Can you hold it together now?”

“Yeah, I think so. What do you want me to do?”

“Reach out with your senses again.” He felt her struggle to stretch her consciousness outwards. “No, don’t push. You don’t need to push. Relax.” As she responded to his words a subtle shift of power flowed around them both and he felt a steely steadiness settle in her. “The living room.”

The sound was of a sigh of wind through long grass. The magicks ordered themselves: the blazing reds and golds of the talismans; the dark blues of the books; the muted greens of the herbs, befitting of their nature; and overlaying everything, entwined through everything, the soft silver of Rupert’s powers. In her mind he became that to her, a bright, clean ribbon of purest silver. There – by the front door. A suggestion … something … the colour of smoke. She bore down on it.

“Yes …” his voice whispered in her head. Focus. “Kitchen.” And the sound took them there.

“Nothing.”

“Bathroom.”

“Nothing.”

“Boxroom.”

“Nothing.”

“Garage.”

“Nothing.”

“Bedroom.”

“Yes.” She could feel it. “Yes … here … somewhere …” She stretched out to it. “Bastard!” she hissed. Smoke once more, writhing around the photograph of her that was sitting on his bedside cabinet. “Release me!”

Arms tightened again and she felt the withdrawal, easier than his coming into her had been, but still she gasped, struggling for air as if she’d been holding her breath all this time. <<<

“Jenny?”

He held her by the arms as she fought to steady her breathing. Then she collapsed against him.

“Giles!”

“Wait!” He shot a look over his shoulder, freezing Buffy in her tracks as she was about to step into the circle. He swung Jenny up into his arms, took one step forward and rubbed out a section of the circle with his foot. The magick dissipated immediately. “Alright, now!”

“Give her to me, Giles.” Xander stood in front of him with his arms outstretched.

“It’s fine, I can manage.”

“Giles, please.”

“No, really, it’s fine … oh …”

Xander caught Jenny as Giles buckled in a dead faint.

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