Title: Whole New World

Author: Jinni (druscilla@cox.net)

Rated: R

Pairing: W/Jason

Disclaimer: The world of Anita Blake belongs to Laurel K Hamilton. BtVS and AtS belong to Joss and Co. This takes place after BtVS Season 5 and after "Narcissus in Chains" in the A.Blake world.

Summary: Challenge response - though I think this will probably end up being pretty long, more like an actual fic instead of the light heartedness challenge
responses usually entail.

Author's Notes: This will end up being in answer to the challenge that was posted recently on the WillowCrossings list. Right now I'm just setting the scene for what's to come. Unlike most challenge responses, this will be a full-out multi-part fanfic. I've been wanting to write a BtVS/Anita Blake crossover for a while.

Author's Notes2: You may be asking yourself - why Jason? Well - if you're a fan of the Anita Blake books you'll see real quick that there weren't too many others to pair her up with. Richard and Jean Paul are taken. Jamil? Shang-Da? I'm just not seeing it. Edward would have been damn interesting, but I'll save that for another time. Nathaniel/Zane/Gregory/Stephen/etc - nah, I just can't see my red headed heroine with any of them *grin*

~*~Part One~*~

There were some things in this world that were better left unexplained - at least that's the way a majority of the population felt. Hellmouths were one of those things. The area surrounding them was, for all intents and purposes, a zone of oddness. Those 'monsters' that were normally considered civilized, cultured to a point, were nothing more than savages when confronted with the sheer power of a Hellmouth. They became warped, twisted, abominations. Those that lived in these small towns that grew up around these mouths of Hell were oblivious to the outside world. Life itself could cease to exist everywhere except in their little 'world' and they wouldn't realize it.

And it was better that way.

A vast majority of those living on these Hellmouths were not aware of anything that went 'bump in the night'. This was due to many reasons, the largest of which seeming to be that nature tended to send those with a predisposition not to believe in the supernatural to live there. Those types of people were 'safe' around the mystical energies. Even those individuals that migrated there soon learned to forget what went on in the normal world - the world outside of their Hellmouth existence. They didn't believe in ghosts, in witches, vampires or werewolves. Magic was just a thing that parents told their children bedtime stories about. Even the evening news that was broadcast to these regions was edited, abbreviated to show that there was nothing 'abnormal' going on. Those vampires and lycanthropes who spent too much time on the Hellmouth, or were created there, soon found themselves changed beyond what the 'normal' world would recognize. They lost all sense of self and surrendered to baser, demonic urges.

There were those few, however, that knew about the supernatural. Those who had been sent there to do their 'holy duty', their 'sacred birthright'. Did those girls know that they weren't 'The One' girl in all the world? Did they realize there was one of them for each Hellmouth across the globe? Certainly they didn't know that the Council of the Watchers was nothing more than a group charged with making sure that the Hellmouths didn't get out of control. Because of those girls the world wasn't overwhelmed with the hideous offspring of the demonic world. Few even knew that these places existed.

But Richard knew.

He looked down at the letter laying on his kitchen table, sighing. The letter had been from his cousin. It was because of his cousin that he knew all about Hellmouths. She didn't know he knew, of course. That would be violating the rules of everything - to discuss that which no one was 'supposed' to know about. She was a part of the 'blanket of obscurity' that seemed to shroud those mystical convergences, knowing nothing about the 'outside' world or what went on in it. Her parents knew all about it, but they chose to keep their baby girl away from the horrors of the world. They thought she was safer there than anywhere else. Not that they could stand it there - no, that was one of the reasons they chose to hardly ever go home. His mom, her aunt, agreed with them that perhaps she shouldn't be made to deal with this type of reality.

And maybe they had been right at one point - but certainly not now.

'Dear Richie,

I hope this letter finds you in good health. Its been at least a month since I heard from you and I was just wondering how things were going. Did things with that Anita woman work out? I hope so. She seemed to make you happy. Happier than you've been in a while, at least.

Remember when we were kids and you'd come visit? You and Daniel. Me and Xander and Jesse. We wreaked havoc back then. Little terrors. You were like our big brother, trying so hard to keep us in line and failing every time. It was fun. But - most importantly, it was innocent.

Whatever happened to innocence?

Jesse died a few years ago. I've been through more hell than I can ever possibly hope to tell you. Things you wouldn't understand, couldn't possibly believe. And now? My best friend died two weeks ago. She was young, Richie. So young. Her life had barely started and now she's gone from the Earth. It's not fair. I miss her so much and I have no one to turn to. Mom and dad haven't even called in months. I wonder if they even remember they have a daughter. Its all I can do to get up in the morning and go to classes. I know I'm probably about to get a 'C' in a class for the first time in my life and I'm powerless to stop it. I just don't have the energy to do anything anymore. At least school is almost over. Only two weeks left.

Xander and I barely talk anymore. My friend's death tore us apart. I have no one. I come home to an empty house. It's sort of frightening to walk into a dark house. That moment before you turn on the lights when you're wondering if something's there, watching you when you can't even see. Scary.

Help me, Richie. Help me find some meaning to everything again. I'm lost and I don't know if I can find myself again. Give me some advice to get through all of this? You're the 'older' and 'wiser' cousin, after all.

Write back soon, ok? I miss hearing from you. You're the only one I really have to 'talk' to now, you know.

Love,

Willow'

The letter dropped from his fingers, fluttering down to the table. A pit of sadness had formed within him, brought on by the words in his cousin's letter. How easy it was to just think back and remember those times, so many years ago, when they had still been young. True - he was a few years her senior; that had never stopped him from tagging along for their more juvenile pranks, though often he had been forced to put a halt to the antics. She had always been so full of life and love for everything around her.

But now she was 'lost', as she had put it; a prisoner of sadness that he could understand. Losing a loved one was difficult enough when you had people to fall back on and nearly impossible to do alone. That made it easy enough for him to make a decision on what he needed to do, even if it meant taking her from the place she had known all of her life and bringing her into the 'outside' world. She needed family and apparently Ira and Sheila weren't doing their job very well. He wondered idly if his mother had even heard from her sister recently. Somehow he doubted it. Sheila had been pulling away from the rest of her family gradually for many years. That it seemed to have now become complete didn't strike him as odd at all. He knew that no one in his own family had visited Sunnydale in a few years. It was hard for them, to go there and make believe that everything outside of the town didn't exist. Three years had passed since he'd laid eyes on his red headed darling of a cousin. He felt guilty, ashamed. While it was true that he had been dealing with his own personal hells, he should never have neglected her in this way - even to the point of not having written to her in so long.

Well, he could still be her family; he could take her away from all of that. And things away from the Hellmouth wouldn't be too hard for her to adjust to, he hoped. He'd have to make some adjustments to his own lifestyle, of course. There was no way he wanted her to find out what he was. His own mom had only hardly just found out, for God's sake. Coming out of that 'closet' again wasn't something he wanted to do anytime soon.

So that meant no more pack meetings at his house and being a little more careful when he took those delicate phone calls. He'd come up with some hasty excuse as to why he wasn't dating Anita anymore. No inconvenience at all, really. It would be worth it to have her here with him and to make her happy again - to help her find herself. And maybe, just maybe, with her here he could rediscover that little bit of himself he had lost along the way. There wasn't a sliver of doubt in him that he'd have to tell her it all eventually - especially if she liked things enough to stay, like he was hoping.

Summer break was here, leaving him free to go to Sunnydale and collect her in person, to explain to her all the things she would need to know before she entered the 'real' world. He would show her all the wonders that the world really held, away from the horrors on the Hellmouth. It might take some time for her to adapt, but, in the end, it would be for the better. She had nothing to hold her down to that tiny little town anymore and she had family here, someone who would care about her and take care of her. He'd get a flight to California in the morning. LA was the closest city that would have an airport. From there he could make it to Sunnydale in a couple hours. Sylvie could watch over things until he got back - the pack would be taken care of.

Tomorrow he'd start rebuilding his life right along with his cousin's.

~*~Part Two~*~

He cut the engine of the rental car, staring up the sidewalk at the house he recognized so well from years gone by. It hadn't changed a bit. The grass was a little tall, the flowers beds slightly out of control - but who was there to tend to all of that? Willow? He just couldn't picture her getting out there and mowing the grass or pulling weeds from the flower beds. In fact - he couldn't really picture her doing any outdoor chore. She had always preferred to be inside.

The street was just as quiet as he remembered. There was no sign of any of the neighbors he knew lived in the houses around this one. At least, he assumed they lived there. It was entirely possible that the houses were deserted, though their immaculate lawns and perfectly tended flowers decried that idea immediately.

Richard stepped from the car, stretching the aches from his muscles. He had driven straight from the airport to Sunnydale, wanting to get this done with as soon as possible. He had called his mother before leaving, telling her what he planned to do. She hadn't been too thrilled with the idea - had, in fact, told him that he could possibly be ruining Willow's life by doing this; but she had said there would have to be a family reunion of sorts if he got her to come to St. Louis. At least she had promised to wait until Willow got settled in to spring on her with a big party full of extended family she had never met in her entire life. He knew because of that alone that his mother wasn't completely upset with his decision. If she had been totally pissed off she would have never offered to have a reunion. It was a good sign.

No one answered when he rang the doorbell. He peered into the small windows on either side of the door, noting to himself that there were no lights on. There didn't appear to be anyone at home. He sighed, sitting on the top step of the porch to wait for her to get home. It was still early enough in the day that she was probably still in school. By his calculations he figured that she should be done with her finals either today or tomorrow. He wouldn't have to be here any longer than that, hopefully. From the moment he had set foot within a five mile radius of the city he had begun to feel the energies of the Hellmouth, calling to his beast, teasing and taunting it. A lesser wolf would have given into those callings, losing control over who and what they really were.

Thank goodness he was stronger than that.

Still, as strong as his control was, he knew that staying in Sunnydale more than a couple days was to risk losing his control, letting go of that fine leash he kept around the beast lurking within him. He hadn't thought that being here would be this difficult but, in hindsight, knew he shouldn't have assumed that it would be anything other than hard. The only other time he had come to visit since he had been infected had ended after two days, with him pleading sickness so that he could get away from the Hellmouth. He had assumed his own increased control would give him a better handle on things. But he had been wrong.

If all went well he'd be on the first flight out tomorrow, Willow in tow.

~*~

Willow walked slowly down the sidewalk, her mind a million miles away. Today had been the last day of finals - a day that normally would have brought joy to her. It meant the end of school for the summer and a chance to relax. Not this year, though. No - this year the last day of finals meant an assurance that she had received her first 'average' grade in all of her school career. She was a 'C' student, middle of the road. No more top of the class for her. No more dean's list. She had fallen just short of perfection.

And, despite the sadness that that thought caused her, she couldn't find it within herself to otherwise care. What did grades matter now that her best friend was no longer there to share her triumphs with her? Not even Xander was around anymore. She had no one and nothing to look forward to seeing at the end of the day. Wake up, go to school, come home, eat, sleep - that was how her day went now. She tried, sometimes, to still study her magick. That brought back memories of happier times, though - times that were best left in the past. Never again would she have those nights where she spent hours researching a pending apocalypse. No more rummaging through musty old books learning the spells needed to save the town -again-. That was all behind her. Giles had gone back to England and Buffy was gone. There was supposedly a new Slayer running around Sunnydale. But Willow didn't want to meet her.

No, that would be entirely too difficult.

She shifted her backpack, distributing the weight a little more evenly on her tired back. Finals had started early that morning and had kept her running for the entire day. She hadn't even had a chance to eat lunch yet. 'Just a few more yards and I'll be home. Then I can rest. And eat. Can't forget to eat.' She thought tiredly. Her eyes flickered up from the ground as she started up the sidewalk to her house.

There was a man sitting on her porch.

And that man looked suspiciously like her cousin Richard.

"Richard?"

His warm brown eyes turned to her and he stood up.

"Richard." She repeated again, her face breaking out into a smile. "Oh goddess! I can't believe you're here!!!" Her backpack fell to the ground, the top snapping open to spill her school books onto the sidewalk. She didn't care. Her cousin was here! He was really here! She rushed the last few yards between them, grabbing him for a tight, warm hug. Tears were burning the corners of her eyes.

'Goddess?' Richard questioned silently. 'Since when has Sheila's oh-so-Jewish daughter been saying things like -goddess-?' It was a little known fact that his aunt, Sheila, had converted from strict Catholicism to Judaism to marry Ira, his uncle. It wasn't something they really talked about at family reunions since it never once left anyone with anything other than hard feelings. But when had Willow become - Wiccan? Pagan? There were so many options to choose from and he wasn't about to question her about it right now. "Hey, Will."

"You're here." Willow whispered, pulling back and wiping at her eyes. She stared up into his face, beaming happiness. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you."

"Well I'm hoping its at least half as happy as I am to see you." He grinned. "Can we go inside? I've been sitting out here for a while. Sort of hot."

The red head nodded fervently. "Just let me get my stuff." She backed up, almost tripping over her own feet in her excitement, before coming to kneel beside her backpack. She shoved the books inside, careless of the papers that were already in it.

"Let me?" Richard asked, bending over and grabbing hold of the bag's straps before she could.

"Always the gentleman." She smiled, standing up and fishing her house key from her pocket. She led him up the stairs and into the house, flipping on the lights. "You can just drop it there, by the door. Do you want something to drink? I know it's hot outside."

"Some water would be nice."

Willow nodded, leading him into the kitchen. She opened the freezer and took out a tray of ice cubes. The cold pieces made clinking noises as they settled to the bottoms of the glasses Richard had taken from the cabinet she indicated. Some bottled water from the refrigerator finished off the drinks and she slid one across the counter to him. They drank in silence for a moment, her only to kill time and him because he was thirsty from sitting outside for so long. She smiled as he sat the glass back on the counter. "Now - don't take this the wrong way, Richie - 'cause I am certainly happy to see you. But what are you doing here?"

Richard nodded, for once thinking his cousin's 'jump right to things' attitude was appropriate. How better for him to explain himself and get out of this place? Already his control was slipping, becoming not as stable as it normally would be. No one would be in danger from him - yet. But best to get this over with and get back to St. Louis. "Weeellll." He drawled, giving her a smile. "I got your letter in the mail the other day and thought I should come invite you to come visit for the summer - or forever. Your choice."

~*~Part Three~*~

Willow listened to her cousin talk, finding that despite the fact that she thought she was pretty well-informed about the world, she really knew nothing at all. Everything the last few years of her life had been built around had been little more than absolutely nothing. This little corner of the world called Sunnydale? It was a small bit player in something the outside world called 'real life'.

"So - you're sitting here telling me that the world knows about vampires, witches, demons, werewolves, and other so-called 'mythical' creatures?" She asked finally, staring into his deep brown eyes and praying to her Goddess for understanding. A conflicting gamut of emotions ran through her - anger at her family for keeping this from her, happiness that she wouldn't have to hide what she really was or what she knew anymore, and sadness that everything she had ever known and believed in was a farce. The outside world was far stranger than her own little corner of Hell.

The same creatures she had spent most of her teenage years trying to fight off had rights and faced the human judicial system when they broke the laws. There were specially trained people, vampire executioners, who put an end to any rogues that were slaughtering humans or abusing their powers. There were entire squads on some police departments that specialized in solving cases that dealt with the supernatural. Master Vampires ruled over their kind in the cities, making sure that they didn't break any human laws - while equivalents in the 'shifter' world did the same for their respective races.

"I know it's hard to believe, Willow." Richard began calmly, reaching out to give her hand a reassuring squeeze. "But, believe me, it's the truth." They had gotten to this topic a lot quicker than he had initially intended - but with her quick agreement to come to stay with him in St. Louis for the summer there really had been no way to avoid it. He could tell by the look on her face that she was shocked and, he guessed, probably a little scared, though he didn't smell fear in the air. His eyes widened with concern as his petite cousin began to laugh, the sound filling the small kitchen. "Willow? Please, Wills, this isn't a joke. I swear to you."

Willow shook her head, wiping a tear from her eye. She gasped for breath between bouts of laughter, her face alight with amusement. Her cousin's eyes were trained on her and she knew he had to be worried or, at the very least, confused, by her reaction. She took a deep breath, blowing it out and willing herself back to a state of relative calmness, though laughter still danced merrily in her mind. "No - I believe you one hundred percent, Richie." She tugged on one of the rings she was wearing, laying it on the table between them. Her eyes closed to mere slits, their sparkling green color hidden. She held her hand over the ring, silently chanting one of the more 'fun' spells sheknew. The ring began to glow, the molecules expanding, morphing.

Richard felt a lurch at the sudden rush of magick that blew through the room, feeling his own control slip for just a moment. The ring on the table was still melting and expanding as he watched. Then, just when he thought he couldn't take the pressure of his cousin's magick any longer, it faded, leaving behind a slightly wobbly bunny rabbit. "You can conjure rabbits from rings?" He joked lamely, the silence in the room almost as oppressive as the magick had been only a moment before.

"Oh - aren't you the funny one." She smirked, picking up the rabbit. The soft fur felt like satin under her hands. "It'll turn back into my ring in a couple hours. This is only a temporary spell. I haven't been able to make it permanent - yet."

"So - you're a witch?" He asked finally. The rabbit looked like food to his beast. He could imagine ripping into it with his claws, tasting the blood run down his throat as he tore a piece of flesh from it's soft little body. 'Need to get away from here - away from the Hellmouth before Willow finds out things about me that I'm just not ready to share.'

The young witch smiled shyly, cradling the rabbit to her. "Let me tell you a little about my life for the last few years, Richie. Jesse - you remember him, don't you? He died my sophomore year. Vampire attack. That was the same day I met Buffy - the Slayer. Do you know what Slayers are?" She saw his eyes go wide but he nodded. Good. One less thing to tell him right now, though she made a note to ask him how he knew about them at a later time. "I've slayed vampires for years now. My first boyfriend? Werewolf. Xander's current girlfriend? Ex-demon. I have a rat in a cage up in my room - former friend and also a witch. The mayor of the town my senior year turned into this giant snake-demon thingie and tried to eat us all at graduation - we blew the school up around him. Xander's been possessed by a hyena. I've restored the soul of a vampire who I now call my very good friend."

The list went on and on, much to Richard's shocked amazement. She had dated a werewolf? She had personally slayed vampires? Her friend Buffy was the Slayer?
"Buffy. How did she - ?"

"Die?" Willow asked bitterly. "A bitch goddess came to town seeking this 'key' to all this power and stuff. Turns out the key was Buffy's sister, Dawn. Buffy died saving us all." Tears flowed freely down her face, past a quivering chin and lips that shook with sadness. "She died so that Xander and I could live - so that everyone could live."

The scent of her tears broke Richard's heart. He stood, walking around the table to stand behind her chair. His gentle hands massaged her shoulders, easing away the tenseness she was radiating. "I'm so sorry, Wills. I never knew how things were here for you. We all assumed that you were better off not knowing about the outside world - that it would be too hard on you to find out. I came here to take you away from the hurt of what happened to your friend - and it looks like I just made you hurt even more."

She shook her head, turning to look up at him. "No. Don't think that. I needed to know. I'm just hurt because so much of my life seems to have been a lie and now I have everything to relearn again. I've spent the last few years trying to convince the ones I care for the most that everything is normal in Sunnydale - nope, no baddies here. And guess what? The rest of the world always knew about these things. I was the one living in a farce."

"You understand why it needs to be that way - don't you? The 'normalcy' of living near a Hellmouth is what keeps it relatively safe." He smiled when she nodded but his face grew serious again almost immediately. "Do you still want to come visit me? I'll understand if you don't want to."

"Of course I want to go!" The red head laughed, the sadness fading from her eyes. "You think you can tell me all about these wondrous things and then not take me to see them for myself?" She snorted. "Not in this lifetime, buddy. My last exam is tomorrow morning and then I'm all yours for the rest of the summer."

He held back commenting that she could stay as long as she liked, summer or not. She wasn't ready to hear that yet. Maybe in a few weeks he'd make the offer to her, let her know that his house could be her house, too - but not just yet. "What's the exam in?"

"Earth sciences." Willow grimaced. "And I guess I should probably try to study some tonight. Did you bring a bag with you? You can stay in the guest room, of
course."

"Did you forget I'm a science teacher?" Richard asked, winking at her. "I'll help you study and then later we can go get something to eat. I'll bring my stuff in then."

Willow nodded, standing up and stretching. She gave her cousin a smile and led him out to the living room even as he tossed another question at her.

"So - you're a witch, huh?"

~*~Part Four~*~

The plane ride from LA to St. Louis was quiet and, thankfully, uneventful. They had left for the airport right after Willow's last exam - and none too soon for Richard. It had been awful to be that close to the Hellmouth for even that short period of time. Any longer and he would have no doubt found himself losing control, perhaps even hurting someone innocent; like his cousin. He had dozed for most of the flight, the gentle lull of the plane luring him into rest. Only Willow's gently hand on his shoulder, shaking him back to wakefulness, had woken him.

He looked into her eager, anxious face, and found himself smiling. She was actually looking forward to this; to being out in the 'real world' and away from everything she had ever known. It almost seemed like an adventure to her, he could imagine. So far they had yet to run into anyone that was remotely supernatural in nature. While he was thankful for that, Willow seemed mildly disappointed.

"You think I'll get to see one at the airport?" She asked in a conspiratorial whisper, giving him a wink. The plane was taxiing on the runway, making it slow, nearly languid, way to their designated gate. Other passengers were whispering around them, waking their companions up for disembarking.

"See 'one' -what-?" Richard asked, confused. There was no telling what she was talking about now considering she had alternated between rounds of wanting to
meet other witches, wanting to meet a vampire, and wanting to meet lycanthropes. Not to mention the fact that she wanted to see a zombie being raised. To someone who had lived his entire life around these sort of things she seemed very much the excited tourist.

"A vampire, Richie." She smirked. "You spent all that time telling me how they are oh-so-different from the ones in Sunnydale. I wanna see for myself." Her eyes were round and wide and she felt as though her heart may possibly burst from her chest at any moment if the suspense of everything didn't end.

"They generally don't hang out at the airports." Richard smiled, amused.

"Well - darn." Willow pouted. She crossed her arms, glaring at the little seatbelt light above her as though she could make it turn off at any moment.

'And maybe she can - you really don't know.' Richard thought, reminding himself that she was more than she seemed. From everything she had told him about her
time in Sunnydale he had discerned that she was quite the powerful witch. It was hard for him to imagine her that way, though; not with her being the same little girl that had run screaming through the neighborhood one day when he and Daniel had convinced her that there was a ghost living in her basement. It took no effort at all for him to see her aura, a talent he had picked up from the marks with Jean-Claude and Anita, once he had looked for it. He turned to look at her again, his smile growing as he recognized all the telltale signs of a pouting Willow.

"How about if I promise to make sure you get to meet at least one vampire during your trip?" There was, in reality, no way to keep her from meeting a vampire during her visit - especially if that visit lengthened into her staying with him on a more permanent basis. It was inevitable that she would meet Jean-Claude at some point since Richard himself was in contact with the Master of the City on a regular basis.

"Really?" Her face lit up. "You would do that for me? You're the best - you know that, right?" Just being around Richard was making Willow feel better, though she couldn't shake the sense of loss inside of her from Buffy's death. That feeling might never fade, she knew, but maybe, over the summer, she could find a way to come to terms with it. Certainly being around her family wasn't going to hurt. And all these new sights and people to meet?

The plane slowly rolled to a stop. Noises outside indicated the ramp was being put in place and then, like the sun coming out from behind a cloud, the seatbelt light was turned off and a stewardess was thanking them for flying United Airlines. The hot, muggy St. Louis night air was already blowing into the cabin from the cracks between the ramp and the actual doorway. The humidity made Willow's palms seem even more sweaty than they already were and she wiped them on her pants nervously.

The plane had been only about half full, making it easy for the two of them to grab their carry-on baggage from the overhead compartment and make their way down the ramp and into the airport proper. He led her off to one side of the gate, his eyes scanning the crowd.

"Who you looking for?" Willow asked, her own eyes sweeping the airport. It was only early evening and the building was crowded with travelers making their way to their gates. She didn't envy them. In no way would she want to be flying in the middle of the night, like some of them would no doubt be doing. She was happy to have her own two feet firmly on the ground again. Imagine that - a witch that was afraid of flying. There were definitely no midnight romps on a broomstick in her future.

"A friend. He's going to give us a ride back to my house." His eyes roamed over the throng of people. It was like watching a herd of animals - they came and went, blending in with each other and making it difficult to pick out just one. It would be too difficult to single one out in this type of crowd - too hard to hunt one down.

He locked down on his thoughts immediately - berating himself mentally.

'Apparently I'm not quite over the effect of the Hellmouth.' He sighed, forcing the thought of the humans being nothing more than a group of animals out of his mind. He cast out with his senses, targeting in on anyone that was lukoi. It only took a moment for him to find the person he was looking for. "There - I see him, come on."

Willow nodded, walking beside Richard. She shifted her overnight bag on her shoulder, trying to get the weight more balanced. Richard had his hands full already so the thought of asking him to help with her bag just wasn't an option for her. They walked steadily across the waiting area and she saw finally who her cousin had been looking for. The man was handsome and stylish as well, setting her apart from most of the men she had ever known in Sunnydale. He was dark skinned and his hair hung in long cornrow braids down to his back. As his eyes met hers she knew that he was more than just eye candy. There was a sense of intelligence in his dark eyes.

"Willow - this is Jamil. Jamil, my cousin Willow."

"Nice to meet you." Willow smiled, shifting her bag again to try to get in a better position to hold out her hand to him.

"Pleasure." Jamil grinned, the movement a flash of white amidst the darkness of his face. He gestured to the bag she was fighting with. "Need help?"

"I wouldn't want to ask you to." Her words were cut off as he reached for the bag, taking it from her with ease. "Well - thank you."

"You should have told me you were having trouble." Richard frowned. Had he been that caught up in his own thoughts? A good night's sleep would put him back at
the top of his game, hopefully, and then he could show Willow a good time.

"It was nothing, really." Willow demurred, giving her cousin a pat on the arm.

Richard gave her another smile, nodding to Jamil in thanks. His bodyguard, and fellow lycanthrope, returned the nod with one of his own. "Let's get the rest of the bags, then."

"And after that we can go back to your house and sleep? Unless there's something you already have planned, of course."

The plaintive tone in the red head's voice brought out a laugh from Richard and even earned her a small smile from Jamil. "No - nothing planned for tonight. And sleep sounds great."

The baggage area for their flight had cleared out considerably by the time they got to it. Their bags were on the carousel, going around and around, waiting to be claimed. It only took another moment before they had everything in order, Richard managing to carry one of Willow's suitcases while Jamil took the other. The red head followed the two men out of the cool airport and into the St. Louis heat, gasping at the temperature.

"That's going to take some getting used to." She laughed. "So hot and sticky! Nothing like Sunnydale. The weather is always perfect there."

"You'll get used to it." Richard grinned, following Jamil down one of the long rows of cars. "There's plenty of time - summer just began. You haven't really felt anything, yet."

"Great." Willow groaned playfully. "Trying to scare me into leaving early?"

"No - just preparing you for what's to come." A little whisper of doubt flew through his mind, reminding him that he hadn't prepared her completely for things she had a right to know. Like about what he really was or what the people he kept company with were really like. Without a doubt she was going to get to meet all the creatures she had her heart set on meeting.

He could only hope that she didn't find out anything that made her run screaming back to the Hellmouth.

~*~Part Five~*~

The night she saw her first 'true' vampire was a red letter day for Willow. She literally went back to Richard's house afterwards and marked it on her calendar, in bright red marker, a big smiley face over the entire day.

Their trip out had started out normal enough. It was her first night in St. Louis and, according to Richard, the best time to start seeing the sights. The sights included a driving tour of the city. He pointed out the 'blood district', making sure to tell her that it wasn't a polite term, but the only one applicable in that situation. All of the business were, apparently, owned and run by vampires. There were vampire bars, restaurants and a host of nightclubs, some catering to the more lewd of tastes. 'A vampire strip club.' She chuckled to herself, her gaze on the blood red neon sign of the business as they drove by. 'I never would have imagined. '

Try as she might, though, she hadn't seen any vampires as they drove through town. None on the streets, none peering through windows. Her lengendary curiosity was screaming for satisfaction. She had been away from the Hellmouth for all of fourteen hours and hadn't seen one single supernatural creature - and this from a city that was supposedly teeming with it! She frowned, sighing.

"Something wrong?" Richard asked, turning to give Willow a glance. She was leaning against the door of his Jeep, her arm propped against the door, head in hand. And she looked unhappy. Was he being a terrible host? Maybe this wasn't her idea of fun, after all. He should have asked first if she wanted to go for a drive. Maybe she was tired. Maybe -

"No - it's just.." She shrugged, turning to give him a shy smile. "I guess I'm just anxious to run into some of the non-humans of the outside world, see how they compare to those I'm used to dealing with back home. Studying the big bads has been my hobby for nearly six years - you can't really blame a girl."

"Big bads?"

"Yeah - that's what we called them. 'Cause, you know, in Sunnydale that's what they are - big and bad. The nasty things in the night that would rather kill you than talk to you." She snorted. "Even Oz tried to kill me at one point."

"He -what-?!?"

"Well - make that two times, actually." She replied, ignoring the outrage in her cousin's voice. "The first time was right after his cousin, Jordy, infected him. He had been hiding it from all of us and, well, I came over on the wrong night. I was lucky Buffy got there with a tranq gun."

"And the second time?" Richard asked, seething. She had nearly been eaten by a werewolf. What right had he to keep what he was from her when she so clearly
had already been through traumatic events concerning his kind. Ok - so not necessarily -his- kind. The werewolves of the Hellmouth were animalistic and brutal - even more so than the worst of his kind in the 'outside' world.

"The second time?" She asked quietly, her voice filled with a world of hurt. "There was this girl our first year in college. She and him sort of hit it off right away. They had this kind of bond." She laughed, the sound bitter and filled with pain. "Call it animal magnetism or call it me just not being able to keep my man happy. He cheated on me, with her. She confronted me one day, near sunset, full moon about to rise and all that. She started changing. I've never been so scared before. I knew why she was there - to kill me. She wanted Oz all to herself and saw me as a stumbling block. Nevermind the fact that I wouldn't have touched him with a ten foot pole after she had had her dirty paws all over them."

"So - I'm standing there, wolf-girl about to get all furry in front of me and make me her dinner - and Oz comes in. I'd never been so happy to see him in all of my life. Except. the whole full moon thing again. He killed her while I stood there and then he lost himself to it - to the thing that lived inside of him. The second he was in wolf-mode he turned on me. It was like he didn't recognize me anymore. Again - I was saved by Buffy at the last moment."

Richard was quiet for a long moment. The scent of his cousin's tears were in the air and his beast was howling in outrage. That bestiality was not what true shifters were about. Sure - they were brutal. But they didn't automatically lose all sense of reason when they shifted - at least the stronger ones didn't. Alphas, like himself, could shift from human to wolf and back again and still control their urges. Was this the idea she had of werewolves? Of shifters in general? He had wondered why she had seemed way more excited to meet a vampire than to meet a shifter. It was because of this. Because of the bad experiences she had 'growing up'. He smiled thinly, determined that when he finally allowed her to know his secret it would be in a way that didn't hurt or frighten her any more than she already had been. It would be helpful to introduce her to some of his more friendly pack members in the meantime. She may not know now what they were - but when she found out she would see that not all werewolves were bloodthirsty beasts.

Three more weeks until the next full moon. That meant three weeks of him being able to keep his secret. She'd know what he was for sure if he disappeared the
night of the full moon.

"So - what happened between you and Oz after that?"

"He left." She said simply, forcing the memories of those feelings to the back of her mind. "He didn't want to 'endanger' me anymore. And, in truth, I never would have been able to forgive him. Not for almost eating me - that was normal for him, I guess. The cheating part wasn't, though." She smiled at him. "That's enough of that, though. If you don't mind. I really don't like remembering that stuff. It still hurts."

"Of course, Wills." He murmured, patting her on the knee. He regretted bringing up whatever comment had originally started this conversation. How to make it up
to her? There was really only one way that he knew of. "How about we stop for dinner?"

"Sounds great."

"Good."

Twenty minutes later Willow found herself seated in one of the few restaurants in the city that was owned and operated by a staff of vampires. For health reasons it was difficult for the undead to get permits to run businesses that dealt mainly in the preparation of food. This one seemed to be fine, the red head noted to herself. The tablecloths were spotlessly white and the silverware gleamed from what was sure to be over-polishing.

"Now," Richard began as the human host seated them at a table in the corner. It was a preferred table, though Willow wouldn't know that. Even if she found out
that part she wouldn't be able to guess that he got the table because he was one third of a triumvirate of power that include the business's owner, the Master of the City. There were some lycanthropes in the restaurant, though who exactly they were he couldn't see from here. Mostly the business was full of touristy human diners, the type that could afford to lay down a hundred dollars just to have a good meal and stare at the undead. Richard saw a waiter bearing down on him and went on with what he had been about to say. "Rule number one when dealing with vampires - never look them in the eye. They can, even unintentionally, enthrall you with their eyes alone."

Willow nodded, her eyes widening in surprise. That was something different from the vamps back home. The ones in Sunnydale couldn't bespell a human if they sat
there and stared at them all day long. Not even the Master had had that power, from what she had read. She looked down at the menu, gasping at the prices, and debated on asking Richard to just take her someplace less expensive. This was too much. She looked up and saw that he was staring at her expectantly. A sigh
ran through her brain and she gave him a smile. "Anything you recommend?"

"This steak," He leaned over, pointing to a spot on the menu. "Is great. I always get it when I come here."

Willow felt something odd run over her skin when her cousin leaned in close. The sensation was akin to an electric buzz in the air and made the hairs on her arms rise. The second it had come, it was over with, leaving her confused. "Thanks."

"Good evening."

Unconsciously Willow looked up, meeting the eyes of the man standing there. Man wasn't the right word, though. He was ethereal, full of beauty in a scary way.
She knew right away that this was a true vampire.

And she had just violated Richard's first rule.

"Willow?" Richard asked, his voice worried. He had known the second the waiter greeted them that Willow was going to look up. It was habit for most people to
look straight at the person they were speaking to. Only after practice dealing with the undead could one learn to stare somewhere a little higher or lower. He was okay - the marks with Jean-Claude made it impossible for any vampire to ever bespell him.

"Yes?" She turned to look at her cousin, her face downcast. Her tone was apologetic when she spoke again. "Sorry - I forgot."

"It's okay." He breathed, thankful that the vampire hadn't been trying to enthrall her.

"Were you ready to order?"

Richard looked up at the waiter, setting a good habit for Willow by pointedly staring at the vampire's chest. He didn't need her questioning him on why he could look directly into their faces and she couldn't. "I am - were you, Wills?"

The red head nodded. She looked down at her menu, pointedly avoiding looking at the creature standing there ready to take their order. "I'll have the Filet Mignon, medium, please."

The vampire nodded. "And to drink?"

"Water with some lemon."

"And for you, sir?"

"Same thing - except rare for me. And I'll also have a water."

"As you wish." The vampire picked up their menus, leaving the table.

Richard turned to his cousin, a smile playing across his lips. "So - you met your first vampire. What did you think?"

"He was - " She shrugged, unable to phrase what she was thinking. "I don't know really. They seem so much different than the ones back home. He wasn't even
trying to pass himself off as a human - he seemed happy to be what he was. At the same time he was awesome to look at. Handsome in a horrific sort of way."

He flinched at that word - 'handsome'. How was it that all the women in his life, from Anita down to his cousin, had to find the monsters 'handsome'? Especially vampires. They were nothing but walking corpses, after all. His eyes drifted around the room and he spotted one of the lycanthropes he had felt earlier. It was one of his newer pack members, a female who had only been infected a few months prior. From what he could see of her date Richard could tell that the man was human. He would need to have a few words with her next time he had a chance. The last thing he needed was to see her wind up in jail for killing a would-be lover the first time they tried to have sex.

"Something on your mind?" Willow asked, reaching out to touch Richard's arm. She flashed him a smile when he turned to her. "You seemed lost for a minute there."

"Just thinking about how happy I am to have you here with me." He lied smoothly, giving her a reassuring smile of his own. "I told mom and Daniel you were coming to visit. They'll want to have our own little family reunion soon."

"Great." She smirked. "Aunt Charlotte still as outspoken as ever?"

"Depends on what you mean by 'outspoken'. She still has all us kids wrapped around her fingers. And still as stubborn as ever." He looked up and away from her then, feeling the creature approaching the table more than seeing him. Asher. And he was making his way to their table. A black mask, worked with delicate silver stitching and dotted with bits of crystal for design, covered the scars on the vampire's face.

"Richard - how nice of you to join us this evening. And you brought a -friend-?"

The way Asher said the word friend made it sound dirty and twisted. It wasn't something that Richard wanted to hear again from his lips. "This is my cousin Willow. Willow, this is Asher."

"A pleasure, Mademoiselle." The vampire purred, dropping to his knee in front of her and taking her hand. He laid a delicate kiss on the back of her hand, ignoring the warning looks Richard was throwing his way. The power radiating from the small red haired beauty was intoxicating and he wondered if either she or her cousin knew how she shone like a beacon to those with enough sense to see it. He hesitated for only a moment and then brought his eyes from her hand to her face - meeting her own emerald orbs full on.

And - nothing.

"Amazing." Asher murmured, letting go of her hand. He stood up, giving Richard a significant look. "She can meet my eyes."

"She -what-?" The alpha werewolf was half tempted to clock Asher there and now for even -trying- to enthrall Willow. The other half of him was stunned. When
Willow had said she was a witch he hadn't thought much of it. Now he realized she was much more powerful than she had let on. To meet the gaze of a Master
vampire was nothing to scoff at.

"Oh - darn it!" Willow gasped, putting her head in her hands. She turned an apologetic look to Richard. "Sorry - it's hard to remember I'm not supposed to look."

"She has no clue." Asher muttered, shaking his head slightly to throw off the shock he had just been given.

"She's from a Hellmouth."

"Ah." The vampire nodded once, to himself. That explained the woman's lack of understanding. "I must be getting back to the kitchens. Staff to oversee. It was lovely to meet you, Willow." He turned to Richard. "Explain to her what this means. Jean-Claude will want to see for himself."

"You could not tell him, you know."

Willow raised an eyebrow, startled by the unhappiness in her cousin's voice. Underneath, though, was something else - anger maybe? Towards the vampire standing there? Or perhaps this 'Jean-Claude' person?

"We both know I cannot do that." Asher sighed, his tone apologetic. "Enjoy your meal. On the house, of course."

"He seemed nice enough." Willow said, a moment after the vampire had left them. She turned to her cousin, her eyes wide with unhidden curiosity. "What did he
mean - explain what it means?"

Richard frowned. "I've only known one other human being who could meet a Master's gaze like that. And she was a necromancer. You're not - are you?"

"Not that I know of. I've never really had the urge to try, either." She smiled. "I am a witch though. I told you that back in Sunnydale."

"How powerful of a witch?" He whispered, looking around to make sure that no one overheard them. It wasn't illegal to be a witch - if it was the jails would be overflowing with everyone that was even remotely sensitive. But the prejudices of the world still hung heavy over the heads of those who were gifted with such powers. And he didn't want Willow to have to experience that.

Willow thought hard about the question before answering him; giving him the most honest answer she could come up with. "I don't know to tell you the truth. I know I have more power than even I've tapped into yet. Restoring Angel's soul was probably the biggest thing I ever did. But I've always had the feeling I could do more."

Richard nodded, silently agreeing with her as their food was placed before them by two of the waiters. The steak looked great - nice and bloody. Just the way he liked it.

"Sheesh, Richie. Why didn't you just order it still 'mooing'." Willow giggled. She leaned towards the plate. "Run little steak - I know you still have some life in you!!" She made a shooing motion at it, as though the bleeding piece of meat could get up and leave the table.

"Funny." Richard grinned.

"I know." She gasped as he cut into the steak, a little moue of disappointment on her lips. "Poor steak. It fought valiantly." She folded her hands, bowing her head; her twinkling eyes fixed firmly on her cousin. "Goddess, bless this steak and send it on to the heavens with all speed."

"May I eat now?" The heavier atmosphere of a few moments ago was gone, leaving only their friendly banter. His cousin was just as much of a card as he had
remembered.

"By all means." She gestured towards his plate and picking up her own knife and fork. The steak was delicious. The best she ever had tasted. But that didn't erase the questions still wandering through her mind - who was Jean-Claude and how did Richard know both him and Asher? Why was he so important that he got his meal 'on the house'? From the moment she had found out about the outside world she had never quite pictured her cousin as being someone that was involved with the supernatural in any way. And now there was this vampire with the odd mask, acting as though he had knew Richard well.

She listened to her cousin ramble on about some antics his students had pulled during the previous school year, smiling and nodding at the appropriate moments; though her mind was already intent on solving the little mystery around her.

~*~Part Six~*~

Willow was going nuts. She had been in St. Louis for almost a full week. Nearly an entire week and all she had been able to do was go sightseeing with Richard.
She had seen so many interesting things on the internet, so many things to do and see. There were places to see zombies being raised, venues for seeing actual ghosts and hauntings, lycanthrops bars, vampire nightclubs - the list went on and on. But, nope, Richard had plans for them every single night - whether it was driving around or a play or, like tonight, a movie. And she just didn't have the heart to tell him that maybe, just maybe, she wanted to do something else.

"Dinner was great, Richie. You're a good cook for someone who eats his meat raw." She smiled playfully, helping him clear the plates from the table. He had cooked for her tonight, the first night since she had gotten there that he hadn't dragged her to a restaurant. The food had been wonderful - a tender roast cooked with potatoes and carrots. Fresh bread and a dinner salad. Absolutely wonderful.

"Thanks." He smile faltered as she picked up her dinner and salad plates from the table. "You don't have to carry those." He made a move to take the dishes from her and Willow stepped away, giving him a smile.

"I just want to help."

"You're my guest. You shouldn't be helping me with any chores."

"Richard." She sighed. "I'm going to be your guest for the entire summer. Surely you don't expect me to just sit back and let you wait on me hand and foot, do you?" She giggled at the look on his face. "You do. That's so chivalrous and macho. But, please, let me help."

"Fine. Fine." He chuckled, letting her carry the plates from the small dining area to the kitchen sink. Once there, however, he gently pushed her to a chair and set to work on loading the dishwasher himself. "So - what movie do you want to see tonight?"

"Um. Dunno." She forced herself to smile, despite the fact that she didn't really want to go see a movie at all. It was such a mundane activity in a city full of excitement. "Anything you've been wanting to see?"

"There's a new action movie." He stopped short as his phone rang, turning off the water in the sink and wiping his hands dry on a kitchen towel. He smiled at her apologetically, picking up by the third ring.

"Hello? Sylvie?"

Willow watched her cousin's back as he left the room, wondering who Sylvie was. His new girlfriend, perhaps? If so, he didn't talk about her that much. She had
gotten the hint, from little things Richard had said over their past days together, that he was no longer dating Anita. That had saddened Willow. She could remember letters he had written regarding the woman and they had all been full of so much hope, so much love. She had really thought that he had found his soulmate in Anita - and she had never even met the woman.

So was Sylvie her replacement?

'Hope not.' Willow frowned. 'Don't really like that name. Sounds all old-fashioned-ish. Richard is old-fashioned enough without a woman like that around to reinforce it.'

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to apologize, Wills." Richard sighed, walking back into the kitchen. He placed the phone in its base and gave her a sheepish grin. "I have something I need to go take care of."

Willow looked at Richard, waiting for him to explain further. It was obvious by the look on his face that he was trying to find the right words to give explanation to the reason he needed to leave. And, it was equally obvious that he was failing miserably. She decided to let him off the hook. "That's okay, Richie. If you need to go do something - go. I'll be fine here. I can stay home alone - I'm a big girl now."

The alpha werewolf couldn't help but smile, despite the fact that he knew she was questioning, albeit silently, the reason he had to leave. He wanted to tell her, really he did. But this wasn't the time or place. There was no telling how she would react to find out he was a werewolf. Or, for that matter, that he was the 'king' of the local pack. "I know you're a big girl, Wills. But - was going to have a.friend. come over and take you out to do something - if that's ok?"

Willow blinked. Her overprotective, overbearing cousin was sending her out on the town with someone she had never met before? This must be some friend. "Sounds great."

"Good. I'm going to go get ready. Be back in a few. Go sit down in the living room and relax." He set off down the hall at a quick pace, questioning himself for the hundredth time since getting off the phone with Sylvie. If this hadn't been important pack business he would have just had her take care of it. But it was, and he couldn't. So he was doing something he never really thought he'd be doing.

He was going to let Jason show Willow around.

When Sylvie had first suggested the blonde haired werewolf as a substitute for the night, Richard had been skeptical. There was little in this town that didn't have to do with sex that Jason would be able to show to Willow. His second in command had been quite sure, however, that Jason would be able to show Willow a good time in a respectable way.

'She better be right. I'd hate to have to kill Jason. He's a good kid, really.' He thought, tugging on a t-shirt and pair of jeans. He could hear Willow moving around the house, probably doing the dishes despite his earlier request that she just relax. He smiled. She was really something. The talks they had engaged in over the past few days had let him in on more of her life than he had ever been aware of, things that had shocked and horrified him. He had heard the story firsthand of Dawn, Glory, and Buffy's untimely death. Willow had cried for hours after that one, mourning the loss of a friend so dear to her that Richard only prayed he could one day help her to at least ease -some- of that sorrow.

The time they had had together so far had been relatively quiet, due mostly in part to his own reticence to introduce Willow to the supernatural world of the city. Sure - there were human nightclubs and human bars. Places where the normal human beings in the city hung out. But he wasn't aware of which of them were good places to go to. He was, in fact, more in tune with what went on in the supernatural circles than in the human ones, despite his wish to stay close to his humanity.

Plus there was that fear that those places would bore Willow to tears.

'She isn't some normal twenty-one year old kid.' He reminded himself, sitting on the edge of his bed and pulling on his socks and shoes. 'She's lived her entire life on a Hellmouth. Staking vampires was her idea of a good time. She's a witch, for crying out loud. Maybe casting spells -is- her idea of a good time.'

He thought of introducing her to Anita for probably the twentieth time since they had stepped foot off the place. They were both strong in magic, both had dealt with the supernatural for most of their adult lives, and maybe they'd find something in common and Willow would make a friend. The more friends she found, the harder it would be for her to leave St. Louis, after all.

But Anita always seemed to have trouble following at her heels - or, at the very least, she was the one making the trouble. He didn't want Willow getting involved in all of that.

"Richard. Someone's at your front door."

The werewolf looked up from tying his shoe, hearing Willow's soft voice through the wood of his bedroom door. He tied the last loop and stood up, opening the door with a grin. "Probably my friend here to pick me up."

Willow arched an eyebrow at the term 'friend', wondering if this could be the same 'Sylvie' person that had just called him. She followed along behind Richard, keeping back some as he opened the door. The man standing on the other side of the door definitely wasn't a Sylvie, though. Her first impression of him was that he was young, probably close to her own age, and was definitely attractive. Did Richard realize he was sending her out with an attractive young man?

"Jason, come in." Richard held the door open, glancing outside. He could see Sylvia waiting in her car for him. "Keep her safe, Jason."

That was all the warning the young werewolf needed. Richard was quite capable of ripping his head clear from his body if he got mad enough. "Sure thing."

"Let me know if he tries -anything- with you, Wills."

The red head looked up at the hard tone of her cousin's voice, giving him a smile. "Right, Richie. I'm a big girl, remember?" She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Right. Ok. I'll be back later."

Willow breathed a sigh of relief when the door shut. She turned to Jason, a smile on her lips and was relieved to see that he, too, seemed pleased to have her cousin finally out of the house. "Is he always this uptight?"

~*~Part Seven~*~

Willow looked at the young man still standing near the door of the house. He was handsome enough, in the type of way that boy band members were handsome. It was twenty-something cute. The type of cute she could handle, in more ways than one. She stepped closer, holding out her hand to him. "Richard rushed out before he introduced us. I'm Willow."

Jason smiled, the expression sensuous in and of itself. He took hold of Willow's hand and shook it gently, rubbing his thumb lightly over the skin before releasing it again. "I'm Jason. And I guess I'm your entertainment for the evening."

"Oh? And how entertaining are you?" She found herself saying, a small, playful smile on her lips. The smile hid the confusion she was feeling. From the moment she had stepped close to Jason she had felt something, like a tingling sensation on her skin, a brush of power unlike anything she had felt outside of ritual. It had only increased with his touch. She was too shy to come right out and ask what the feeling meant, signified. So she stored it in the back of her head for later. Maybe Richard could tell her. And, if not, perhaps there was an answer on the internet?

"How entertaining am I?" Jason laughed. It certainly sounded like an open invitation to partake in his normal arts of flirting. "Well, seeing as how Richard probably will kill me if I touch you in anything other than a friendly way - I'm afraid you'll miss out on half of my entertaining qualities."

The grin he flashed her then made her blush. "Well, then. Guess you'll have to improvise."

He nodded, his eyes dark. She was a pretty woman and completely off-limits. That had never stopped him, though. He had hit on Anita during the period she had been with Richard and had managed to live through the entire thing. How much different could it be with Richard's cousin. She smelled sweet, like pent up desire and rose petals. Did Richard really think he could keep her locked away from all the big bad things in the city?

Jason knew for a fact that Jean-Claude was interested in meeting her. Asher had made no little secret of the fact that Willow could meet his eyes with no worries. He had never seen Asher so pissed. Not at her. No, never at her. Just at the fact that there was yet another human that could stand up to his indefinite charms.

"Improvise, huh?" He grinned, sitting on the back of the couch. "Anything in particular you want to do? What was Richard going to take you out to do tonight?"

"Richie was going to take me to a movie." She snorted. "A movie? This is my first time away from the Hellmouth and he's going to take me to a movie? I want to see new things. Well - things that are new for me, anyway." She threw up her hands. "I'm starting to think he's in a big old conspiracy to keep me away from the supernatural stuff in this city."

Jason laughed both at the idea of her cousin keeping her from the supernatural when he himself was neck-deep in it, and also the fact that she had just called his normally uptight Ulfric 'Richie'. He made a mental note to use that one on Richard next time he saw him. Sure, it would piss him off, but it would be fun. "So - movies are out?" He dodged the cushion she threw at him from the couch, grinning. It was so easy to get a rise out of her. This would be more fun than he had thought.

"Show me something interesting. Something good ole Richard wouldn't take me to see."

"He'll eat me for dinner if I take you to a strip club, Willow." He deadpanned, a smile on his lips. His words were true, though. Richard would undoubtedly take a bite out of his ass if he were to take the darling Willow to any of the more unsavory, yet whole heartedly interesting places, he knew.

"Aw. no strip clubs for me? Damn. There went my ideas." She smirked, glaring at him playfully. "No, really. I want to see something I've never seen before." Her eyes lit up and she gave him an appraising glance. "Know anywhere where I can see a zombie raised?"

~*~*~

"Just stay close to me, okay?"

Willow gave Jason her most innocent smile. "Of course. I wouldn't -think- of wandering off without you."

"Good." He said automatically, realizing at the last possible second that she had been being quite sarcastic with him. A groan escaped his lips, inaudible to her he hoped. How could he impress upon her the gravity of the situation without telling her both his -and- Richard's secrets? If he allowed her to get hurt in any way Richard would beat the hell out of him. 'Course he might also offer up healing afterwards. Or Anita might. Could possibly be worth it.'

He paid the taxi driver and stepped out of the cab they had taken from Richard's house and into the parking lot of the Circus of the Damned. The crowd out front was thin, the show would begin shortly. He grabbed hold of her hand, giving her a wink and leading her towards the entrance.

"Are you sure we'll still be able to get tickets?" Willow asked. She had heard of this place. It was all over the St. Louis city website and was supposedly one of the most popular attractions for those seeking a glimpse into the supernatural. When Jason had suggested it as their destination for the night she had been, to put it lightly, overjoyed. She glanced down at his hand, holding hers so gently, and smiled. The tingly sensation of power on his skin was like a tickle on her hand. Not unpleasant at all.

Jason laughed, squeezing her hand. "Don't need them."

Now Willow was confused. "Can I ask why?"

"Sure can."

The red head waited and then sighed, exasperated. "Why, then?"

"I know the owner."

"Really?" She breathed, her eyes wide with wonder.

"Yep." They had stopped in front of the door man and now Willow could see the truth of his words as the man, no - vampire, waved them inside. "We'll even get
good seats. The best in the house."

He was referring to seats so close to the ring that they might as well be right inside of it. They were Jean-Claude's personal seats, the ones he reserved for special guests. The vampire had been more than happy to allow Jason the use of them for the evening when the young werewolf had called from Richard's house.

'But he'll be sitting there with us. And maybe Anita, too. Didn't ask if she was around.'

That little slipup could possibly cause him to get his ass kicked by his Ulfric whether or not the rest of the night went off without a hitch. Whether or not Richard had any intention of introducing Willow to Anita was his business and his business alone. Certainly having her around would give the red head more questions than Richard had answers for. Especially once Willow saw her with Jean-Claude - and Micah - and let's not forget Nathaniel, no can't forget him. Not to mention the pard of wereleopards that were in nearly constant attendance with her. Too many questions and not enough answers. That seemed to be the theme for things to keep away from Willow.

Not that Jean-Claude wans't going to cause a whole herd of questions from her.

'That's part of what makes her so damn adorable.' He nearly tripped over his own feet as that thought went through his mind. 'Adorable? What the hell? I am -not- getting involved with her. No. Not me. Not ever.' But looking over at her - at her flaming red hair, pouting innocent lips, and sparkling green eyes, he wondered if he hadn't already fallen for her. The conversation on the ride over had consisted mostly of stories of her life, her time on the Hellmouth. She had neither been pushy about his own past nor overly shy, asking the right mix of questions and knowing when to back off at the same time. It had been refreshing. She actually seemed to want to get to know him.

And that was something new.

Jean-Claude didn't care about who he was as a person. As long as he was there each morning when the vampire woke up, ready and willing to be a donor, the
vampire was perfectly happy to remain oblivious to who he was or where he had come from. Anita knew more about him that Jean-Claude did, and that didn't say
much. Even Richard, his pack leader, knew so little about him it was laughable. They didn't know his family, or the aspirations he had given up when he had been infected, they didn't know that he still wanted to go to college - even if it was only to get a degree he'd never be able to use.

Willow didn't know those things, either. Not yet. But he got the feeling he'd like to tell her; that she'd be a ready listener, a calm voice of reason and hope. 'Can't tell her about most of that stuff without bringing the whole lycanthrope thing into it all. And Richard has said we're not to let her in on any of that until he's given the okay. Which he hasn't. Not yet.'

He led her through the entrance halls of the Circus and towards the front of the auditorium area. The sand of the ring had been raked out flat for the night's performance, everything was in place. Three seats had been set up in the roped off area that was reserved for guests of the management and Jason breathed a sigh of relief. At least that meant Anita wouldn't be joining them. Now to just get Willow through her first meeting with Jean-Claude.

Willow hadn't missed the third chair. She sat down, turning inquisitive eyes to the blond next to her. "Who else will be joining us?"

Jason gave her a smile, deciding to hold back exactly who the mystery third person was. No sense in getting her all nervous by telling her it was going to be Jean-Claude, the Master of the City. "The owner. We're his guests for the evening."

"Oh." The young witch smiled shyly, feeling at once excited and overwhelmed. She turned her attention back to the ring in front of them, noting absently that it was set up exactly like a circus would have been. One main ring and two smaller ones - one on each side of the main area. She saw Jason move out of the corner of her eye, watched him lean down, elbows on his knees, head propped up in his hands. That sense of power around him was fluctuating and, from the look on his face, he was nervous about something. She thought to ask and then pushed it aside. It wasn't her place to be pushy. She didn't know him well enough to pry.

Though she certainly wanted to get to know him better.

'Wonder where Richard met him. He looks like he's my age. Can't be one of Richard's students.' She pondered the question, keeping her gaze discreetly on him. His hair was short and blond, cut nicely. Very much unlike the wild mop that Oz had favored. And his eyes - they were the bluest blue, like looking into a summer sky. He was apparently well built because the grip he had put on her hand at different points during their walk through the Circus had hinted at great strength - though she couldn't see any evidence in the form of bulging muscles or rippling flesh. Just as well, she wasn't really into men like that. Bodybuilders turned her off.

'And Jason turns you on?' She asked herself, smiling slightly. Another sneaked glimpse out of the corner of her eye confirmed her instinctive thought.

Oh yeah. He definitely turned her on.

The lights chose that moment to go down. Well, not so much go down as go out entirely. She jumped, startled, grabbing onto Jason's arm. His soft chuckle told her everything was alright and then his lips were at her ear, his voice quiet and husky. "The show's starting."

A light shone down in the center of the ring, illuminating a vampire dressed to the tee. He looked like something from another century - a time of romance and honor. The lace looked delicate, the silk looked soft and she got the impression that this was his normal fare. There was enough light to see by now, but she didn't let go of Jason's arm. She was perfectly happy to hold onto it all night if he didn't mind.

And, from the way he had moved closer to her, he didn't seem to be minding one bit.

~*~Part Eight~*~

Gorgeous.

Breathtaking.

The creature standing in the ring, playing up to the crowd of more than a thousand was all of that and more. The very sound of his voice made things in Willow's body tighten, convulse, become moist. She knew that it was just a trick; magic used to gain effect while talking was no small skill but was still achievable. There was the general feeling, however, that he did this unconsciously, that maybe it was as natural as breathing. Despite knowing it her mind it was a trick, she felt her heart respond to it. For the time he was speaking she could imagine that it was all for her. That he would do anything to make her happy.

For the span of those few minutes she would have given anything to have him take her in his arms or to his bed. She'd be his willing donor for the rest of her life if only he'd just keep speaking. The magic was strong, the stuff of raw emotions. And wouldn't he make everything better if she just gave herself over to him?

'NO!' Her mind screamed, throwing her out of the dream state. She shook her head, squeezing Jason's hand. She looked around, seeing from the faces around her that the audience was probably still thinking the exact same thing she had been. Jason seemed unmoved by it, almost bored. Had he seen the show that many times? Was it all old to him?

The vampire had finished speaking. He was moving across the sand as the first act for the night began in the far left ring. The lights had come up enough to ease the anxiety that had been running high in the crowd, and a spotlight shone down on the creature that was in the ring. It was a snake, yet also a woman. 'Lamia' her mind whispered. Her mouth opened in a delicate 'oh'. This was a creature from mythology. She had known 'monsters' were afoot in the world, but not mythological creatures. What next? Bigfoot? Sea monsters?

Her attention was taken almost immediately from the actual show to the vampire. He was near, now. She watched as he took one languid step after another. His
shoes slid in and out of the sand, lovely black constructs that looked like leather and went up to just below his knee, over top of the plain black pants he wore. The boots almost seemed like too much with the silk and lace of the shirt but, when she blinked and focused instead on the entire picture, she had to admit that he was stunning just as he was.

The red head felt her breath catch as the vampire sat down next to her, his every moment an expression of grace. Underneath it all she could sense the lethalness of a predator. This man was dangerous, a killer. She could tell just by his aura that he was old. Something about him whispered of centuries of time, just as his clothing hinted at a time long past. No modern man willingly wore lace, after all. She squeezed at Jason's hand, asking for reassurance silently.

"Will you not introduce me to your lovely companion, Jason?"

Willow almost frowned in disappointment. That lovely voice was just a voice, now. It didn't hint of illicit liaisons in dark places. It was still a nice voice, silky smooth, but now it didn't hold as much promise as it had before, when he had been speaking to the entire crowd. She released her death grip on Jason's hand, albeit reluctantly, choosing instead to lay a casual hand on his knee. She knew him, if only for the past hour or so, while the vampire next to her was a complete stranger. It was easy to assume he was the owner of the Circus, but there was something more than that. She knew it without being told. He was someone important. Someone that made things happen in whatever circles he ran in.

Jason flinched at the tone in his Master's voice. He would be punished later for his lapse in etiquette. "Willow, allow me to introduce you to Jean-Claude, the owner of the Circus. Jean-Claude, Willow, Richard's cousin."

"The esteemed Monsieur Zeeman did not inform any of us that he had such a beautiful cousin." Jean-Claude purred, lifting her free hand from her lap and bringing it to his lips for a brief kiss of greeting.

She recognized the vampire's name from the encounter she had had with Asher earlier that week. He had said that he would have to tell Jean-Claude about her ability to resist his gaze. If she only had that to go on as a suspicion that this man wasn't just a business owner, she might have disregarded it. As it was, she had that plus the feeling of age and power coming off of him. Yet another item to add to her growing list of mysteries. She gave him a shy smile. "Thank you. I don't think I've ever had such a flattering comment made to me before."

Jean-Claude arched an eyebrow. "Stick around then, cherie. Asher had nothing but compliments for you when he returned home a few nights past."

Willow blushed. She saw something out of the corner of her eye and turned back to the ring, watching the act in the ring. It was something involving a vampire and what she could only assume was a volunteer. It looked like something that should only be on adult only channels.

"We shall talk more later, little Willow."

She nodded, giving him a small smile. Yes, they -would- talk later. Maybe he could be the one to give her the answers she sought.

Or maybe he'd prove to be an even bigger mystery than he already was.

~*~*~

"That was.wonderful." Willow gushed, her eyes wide with wonder as the house lights came fully up. Row after row of spectators were piling into the aisles, heading for the exits. She held her place, calmly waiting for them to leave, not wanting to be caught in that madhouse of pedestrian traffic. She had seen zombies be raised and all manner of creatures she had attributed mostly to mythology and popular gossip. Not to mention the werewolf and wereleopard. They had been in a state that was half animal, half human, standing upright. Larger than life and just as wonderfully beautiful, she had watched in fascination as they had played their parts in the night's entertainment.

"Glad you liked it." Jason grinned. He risked a glance over at Jean-Claude and saw something that made his grin falter.

Curiosity.

Unbridled, unrestrained curiosity.

"Would you like to continue our conversation now, cherie? We can retire to my private suites."

The red head felt the cold hand of fear enter her stomach. Did she really want to go back to the vampire's private rooms? Wasn't that just asking for trouble? On the other hand, she had questions which she was sure he had the answers to. A quick look at Jason gave her no indication of what her response should be, it was as though he had purposefully emptied his face of all expression so as not to influence her one way or the other. "Sure."

"Jason - would you lead her down while I let Damien know where we will be?"

The werewolf nodded, giving Willow a reassuring smile and leading her around the ring and to a door near the back. Just inside the door, only a few steps down, was another door. He fished a key out of his pocket, pointedly ignoring the look that Willow gave him, and opened the second door, swinging it wide for her to enter. Had Jean-Claude asked him to lead her to the back simply to open up a whole new set of questions? Surely she wasn't going to just let it slide that he had a key to the inner sanctums of the Circus without at least one question.

"Oh, my."

Jason looked through the open doorway, stepping up behind her. The wereleopard from earlier, Zane, was laying on the floor, in full leopard form, resting. His great eyes opened, looking at first Jason and then Willow, the brilliant orbs bespeaking intelligent curiosity. He didn't know if it was the fact that there was a leopard laying in the hallway or the fact that the leopard was nearly the size of a lion that had made Willow gasp in shock. He shook his head, grinning. "Don't mind him. He won't bite. That was him earlier in the ring."

Willow felt a smile creep across her face. She nodded towards the leopard. "Hello Mr. Wereleopard. Nice show tonight."

"Zane."

The red head turned, the look in her eyes matching the confusion she felt. "Huh?"

"His name is Zane. Zane - this is Willow, Richard's cousin." Jason gave the name freely. Zane made no attempt to hide what he was from anyone. He was one of the greeters at the front doors of the Circus on some nights. Like most lycanthropes that had been outed, he no longer tried to maintain that sense of humanity that a lot of shifters held onto with tooth and nail.

The leopard nodded his head, the only greeting he could give in this form.

"Looks so soft." She whispered, the blushed. Had she really just said that outloud? This was a human being lying there. Sure, he was not strictly all human and his fur did look to be just about the softest thing she had ever seen in her life.

"Go ahead. He won't bite."

Her eyes widened. "Oh, no. I couldn't. He -"

"He'll enjoy it most likely." Jason smirked. Like the wolves, the leopards shared some things with the animals they resembled at times. They enjoyed touching and being touched. "Go on - how many chances are you going to have to pet a wereleopard?" He answered his own question internally, however, 'Probably more than you realize considering you're Richard's little cousin. But we can't get into that, can we?'

Willow kneeled down, looking into the leopard's eyes. She felt a thrill rush through her as she reached out, gently rubbing the side of his neck. The dark fur was every bit as soft as she had thought it would be; warm and thick. She could imagine what it would be like to cuddle up next to him on a cold winter night. Sort of like sleeping with a giant stuffed animal. It dawned on her that the teeth that were barely hidden under the skin of his mouth could undoubtedly bite through her if he got the urge.

But he wouldn't, she knew. He was just as intelligent now as he was when he was human. She could see the difference between lycanthropes in the outside world
and those on the Hellmouth. On the Hellmouth they lost all sense of reason, of self, and became an animal, a true monster. Here they were just different forms of the humans they had been. Sure, she knew they without a doubt picked up some of the more animalistic urges after being infected, and that those urges were probably pretty strong in this form, but they were still just people underneath.

'What is Richard worried about?' Jason couldn't help but question, as he watched Willow fawn over Zane. He couldn't smell any fear in the air; she was happy to have this moment. At that moment it made no sense to him why his Ulfric was keeping secrets from the red head. She would love him no matter what. He would always be her cousin as simply as Zane was still just another human being to her. It just didn't matter in her mind.

"Thank you, Zane." Willow sighed in content, standing up. If it hadn't been the cramps she was feeling in her legs muscles she would have kneeled there all night. But they had, and now it was time to get on to Jean-Claude's suite, or office, or whatever, and continue the conversation they had been having. "Hope to meet you again." She called behind her, allowing Jason to lead her away.

And was it her imagination, or did that wereleopard just wink at her?

~*~Part Nine~*~

The back rooms of the Circus were more than just extravagant. Flamboyant came to mind as well. The first room they came to appeared to be a living room of
sorts, though Willow supposed it may also be an office. There were some comfy chairs, a couple couches, and a large desk. Except for the desk every item in
the room was a deep red in color - the color of wet blood. Almost a maroon. She wondered if he had chosen the color because of its resemblance to blood or if
it was just a coincidence.

"His girlfriend told him once that he needed more color in his decorating." Jason smirked, motioning for her to take a seat. "This was his solution. Blood red."

Willow nodded, her eyes still traveling throughout the room. She felt as though she were sitting in the middle of a blood vessel, something that could and should pop at any minute. Had his girlfriend been pleased by this change to 'more color'? Pitch black would have been better, in her own opinion. She felt Jason sit down on the couch next to her and turned to give him a hesitant smile. "Any clue what he wants to talk to me about?"

The blond shrugged even though he did have a small clue. Jean-Claude had been anxious to meet Willow since the night Asher had come in, practically raving about her - a beauty that could meet his eyes. Yet she wasn't a necromancer. Jason wasn't quite sure what she was, but it wasn't that. The power that surrounded her didn't feel anything like the kind that surrounded Anita. "Not a clue. Probably just wants to get to know you. He's friends with Richard."

Willow's eyes lit up. He had hit upon exactly one of the questions that had been plaguing her this entire time. "How did they meet?" She asked, hesitantly curious.

Jason smirked. "There's few people in this city that don't know Jean-Claude." He shut his mouth with a snap, realizing he may have said too much.

"Really?" The red head persisted, turning so that she was facing him. Her eyes glanced over his face but she chose to ignore the discomfort she saw there. These were pressing questions, things she needed answered. She wasn't content to just sit back and let the little mysteries going on around her keep eluding her grasp. "Why's that?"

"Because I am the Master of this city, cherie." Jean-Claude purred, entering the room. He had heard their exchange from the hallway. What had Richard been doing to this girl? Keeping her in the dark like this was almost a crime. He could understand the Ulfric's reticence to reveal his own nature, or that of his wolves such as Jason, but to not inform her of who the key movers were in the city - that was a gross oversight on his part.

"Master of the entire city?" She asked, curious. "Does that mean you're the head dead guy?"

"Yes." He smirked, the corner of his mouth lifting for a brief smile. "I am the 'head dead guy' as you put it."

There! One mystery down. At least now she had confirmed her suspicion from earlier that Jan-Claude was more than just the owner of the Circus. She knew why Asher had felt the need to blab her little talent to him as well. It was probably in the interest of every vampire in the city to keep this one vampire informed with any interesting facts they found out. That was probably what he had wanted to speak to her about, anyway. She decided to be brave and just broach the subject first. "Did you want to speak with me about the eye thing?"

Jason laughed out loud. Richard's cousin sure did have a direct approach to things.

"You may leave us, Jason."

The blond werewolf froze, his smile fading. If he left Willow in here alone with Jean-Claude and he did something to her, Richard would kill him. No questions asked. "But."

"I will not harm her. You have my word."

"Your idea of 'harm' and Richard's are totally different, though." Jason murmured, his eyes pleading for Jean-Claude to understand. He hated this. As Jean-Claude's pet he was bound to do what the vampire said. But he was still a werewolf and still bound by the word of his Ulfric. In situations like this it put him in a hard position.

"It will be fine, Jason." Jean-Claude held the young man's eyes, offering the only reassurance he could without openly saying the things Jason needed to hear. Yes - he would protect him from Richard in this matter. That wasn't something he could say out loud, though, not with the fiery haired woman that was sitting there, her curious eyes watching both of them.

"Okay." Jason said at last. He stood, looking down at Willow. "I'm going to go wander around a bit. You'll be okay in here with him, he keeps his word."

Willow nodded, not sure if she was supposed to be reassured by all of this. She watched her new friend go, feeling her heart speed up with just a touch of fear. Not only was the vampire in the room with her powerful, he was -the- most powerful vampire in the entire city. He moved further into the room, pulling a chair over so that he could sit across from her without sharing the couch.

"Do not worry, Willow. I will not bite." His voice held the assurance that he would be more than happy to 'bite' if she wanted, however, and she felt herself blush. "So adorable, little one. Tell me - do you know why it is that you can meet my eyes so freely? That you met the eyes of one of my oldest companions without so much as flinching?"

"Luck?" She murmured. There was something close to fear in his eyes, something he was trying to keep hidden. She wasn't sure if it was for her or himself. He continued to stare at her, his fingers steepled in white lines in front of his mouth. All playing was gone and his eyes were serious.

"Luck has little to do with it, cherie. You are a most powerful witch. And you come from a Hellmouth, non?"

She didn't understand the French, but she understood the question. "Yes. I lived in Sunnydale before coming here - it is a Hellmouth."

"Then therein lies the answer to my question, I believe." He chuckled. "Someone such as yourself never should have been raised in that place. It has twisted your magic from what we have here, in this more normal world. It has given you the strength to fight off the powers of our eyes." He frowned. "Do not flaunt this about, cherie. There are some, among my kind, that would seek to do you harm because of this. At the least they would slaughter any witch found living on a Hellmouth."

Willow nodded, swallowing hard. She understood completely. Around Jean-Claude and Asher she could be herself. To everyone else she would need to be more
careful and look away, down, anywhere but their eyes. It would be difficult to adjust to, but if the Master of the City was telling her it was necessary, she was going to damn well believe him. "I can do that."

"Bon." He nodded once, softening his look. She seemed so innocent, so fragile for one that was carrying so much power. He doubted that even she knew the true extent of her strengths. "Now - did you have any questions for me before our young friend returns? You have an air of confusion following you."

She smiled, thankful for a lead-in to the one question she was dying to have an answer to, the one that she didn't feel she could ask Jason. "Sometimes, when I am near people, I feel this strange sensation - like power crawling on my skin. Do you know why?"

Jean-Claude licked his lips, breaking away from her gaze to stare at the floor. How could he answer this without giving so much away?

~*~Part Ten~*~

Jason wandered through the halls of the Circus, eventually making his way to his own room. He opened the door, looking around the altogether unfrivolous chamber. There was so little of himself here, underneath the ground. It often made him long for the room he had left behind, the one in his parents' house, the one he was no longer welcome in. They still spoke to him, but only as though to prove to the world that they were better than all those other parents who cut off ties to children they found out had been infected by lycanthropy. Their neighbors praised them, saying they were so strong to be able to 'deal' and 'cope' with it. They treated him like an animal that could turn on its master at any time, not like their son. Never again like their son.

It would have been better if they had just stopped talking to him completely.

He sat down on the edge of his bed, wondering what Jean-Claude and Willow were talking about by now. It wouldn't have taken his Master that long to find out
the truth of Asher's words. He closed his eyes, thinking of the red head. She was truly a piece of work. Smart, funny, an innocence unmatched by anyone he had ever met in his entire life backed up by the lack of naiveté found in one that had spent a majority of her adult life fighting the things that went bump in the night. She was curious, untempered by fear, as seen in the way she had acted around Zane. But, mixed in amongst everything, was the power that rolled across her body. It was heady stuff to be around. He wondered if she knew how to use that power or if it was just raw talent. If she could use it she had little to fear from most of the creatures making their home in the city. If she -didn't-, on the other hand, she was just as dangerous as any rogue shifter or vampire.

Sighing, the young werewolf glanced around his room, realizing not for the first time that he really didn't have much to do in there. The few books he owned were piled on his nightstand. There was no television, Jean-Claude didn't believe in that one miracle of the modern world. Neither did he like radios, though Jason had managed to convince him that one, small one, wouldn't hurt as long as he kept the volume real low. He turned it on now, listening to the soothing beat that came across the airwaves. He'd go back to get Willow as soon as this song was over. That would, hopefully, give Jean-Claude enough time to finish with his interrogation of Richard's cousin.

~*~*~

Jean-Claude found himself under the weighty gaze of a very determined red head, the sensation almost as unnerving as that he had experienced at the hands of the Council at one time or another. He could feel her green eyes boring holes into his skull itself each time he turned away from her questioning gaze. "What sensation?" He asked finally, emptying his face of emotion.

Willow narrowed her eyes, leaning back into the blood red couch and crossing her arms. She didn't believe for one second that the vampire sitting in front of her didn't know what she was talking about. And what about the carpet did he suddenly find so damned interesting? "You know what I'm talking about. Don't play games with me."

"Believe me, my innocent flower, the type of games I enjoy playing would no doubt anger your dear cousin to no end." The vampire smiled, fangs showing. He exuded enough of his own powers to make the words feel as sensuous as he had meant them. If all else fails, fall back on sexual innuendo. He was rewarded with a blush and chuckled lightly. Perhaps now she would not be so demanding in her questioning. He could smell the blood lurking just below the surface of her pale, almost porcelain-looking, skin. It came to him at once that drinking from her would no doubt be as intoxicating as imbibing from his pet wolf. The power she contained would fill him to bursting, make him drunk from its energy.

Alas, that could never be. Richard would start a war that would end in all of them, including Anita, dead if he were to ever taste a drop of the petite red head's blood. He wasn't eager to end up permanently dead, not even for a sip of the ambrosia contained within her body.

'He knows and he won't tell me.' Willow thought sourly, glancing about the room at the same time she tried to contain her anger. She wondered absently where Jason was and when he would come back to save her from this infuriating creature who seemed to be taking great pleasure at withholding information from her. Her eyes turned back to him, grabbing hold of his own and imploring, her voice like that of a child. "Please. Tell me?"

Jean-Claude opened his mouth, ready to dazzle her with another display of innuendo that would no doubt leave her redder than his own furniture. He was, however, saved by a knock at the door. "Come."

Jason stuck his head in the door, pleased to see that Willow was still in one piece, though she did look quite angry. He took a seat next to her once Jean-Claude had waived him in, glancing between her and his Master. "What's wrong?"

"I asked a question and he won't answer it." Willow sulked, giving the vampire her best glare. Did it matter to her that he was the most powerful bloodsucker in the entire city? Not one bit. She had thought she had found a genuine friend in him, someone who would answer all of her questions honestly and truthfully. Instead she had found out that the vampires outside of the Hellmouth were just as twisted as the ones that lived right on the damn thing.

The vampire sighed, standing from his chair. Not 'blowing his cool', as Anita would put it, was becoming harder and harder by the moment. He grasped the chair in both hands, carrying it back to its former position across the room, his back turned to her. "There are some questions even -I- am not free to answer, cherie. That was one of them."

The red head arched an eyebrow. How could he say that he wasn't 'free' to answer this question? Wasn't he one of the most powerful, if not -the- most powerful, people in the city? Didn't he have all of the undead of the city beneath him? Her insatiable curiosity would not be deterred. "But -"

He cut her off with a wave of one pale white hand, turning to look at her again. His entire demeanor indicated that he would not be pleased if she continued with her next question. Why he couldn't answer her question truthfully was a question almost as difficult as the original. In many ways pissing Richard off would bring him no end of pleasure - but this was not one of those moments. He had never disrespected the wishes of his third on the matter of keeping his lycanthropy secret. And he wasn't going to start now, no matter how much it alienated the powerful witch that was sitting on his couch, oh so irritated. He decided a complete change of topic was in order, one that would shift the girl's attention in another direction entirely and away from her previous unanswerable questions.

"Did Jason show you the other rooms, including his own, while you were waiting for me to finish up earlier?"

Willow's eyes widened. She knew what Jean-Claude was doing. He was changing the subject. But what a subject he had changed it to. "You live here?" She asked,
her green eyes meeting Jason's blue ones unwaveringly. "Is that why you had a key?"

Jason nodded, fighting the urge to growl at his Master. Why did Jean-Claude always do that? Take the heat off of himself at the expense of someone else. How could this topic be any less dangerous than the one the vampire had been trying to rid himself of only a moment before? "Yeah, I live here."

She opened her mouth, ready to ask why he lived in a literal circus of supernatural creatures, only to snap it shut again, thinking better of the question. The haunted look in Jason's eyes was enough to make her want to drop the subject entirely. What was it about what Jean-Claude had said that was so bad? Surely living here wasn't to be considered a horrible thing, was it?

The phone on the desk rang, saving them all from the uncomfortable moment Jean-Claude had brought down upon them. Jason squirmed under Willow's gaze, wondering what she had been about to ask him. He doubted very seriously that she understood the implications of him living here, at the Circus.

"Oui, mon ami, she is here. I will have someone drive her home shortly." Jean-Claude hung up the phone, addressing Willow. "Your cousin requests that you return home. Jason will drive you." The vampire fished a set of keys from his desk drawer, tossing them to Jason.

At any other time Willow would have argued, would have put up a fight at anyone telling her that she needed to go home. It made her feel like a child. Not tonight, though. Tonight had been tiring, both from the excitement and from the frustrations and mysteries she had encountered. Truth be told, she was anxious to just get back to Richard's house and take a nice, long bath. She nodded her assent and turned to Jason. "Ready?"

"As ever." He sighed, standing. He led the way in silence out through the now deserted Circus and into a back parking lot. These were all private vehicles, maintained solely for Jean-Claude and his companions. He looked down at the keys he had been given and grinned. He loved driving the BMW convertible. "This
one." He held open the passenger's side door for Willow, waiting until she was settled comfortably to shut it.

The ride back to Richard's house was made in silence and Jason knew better than to ruin it with idle chatter. The last thing he needed tonight was for her to start up another line of questions. He had no idea what she had asked Jean-Claude to get the vampire so defensive, and could only guess that it had something to do with Richard or just lycanthropes in general. The wind blew past them and, with the top down, he could look up and see the stars. The moon was no where near being full. Not yet, anyway. Two more weeks only.

"Thank you." She said at last, as he pulled up in front of Richard's house. She turned, flashing him a smile. "I had fun."

"Really?" Why did he feel relieved about that? Because he wanted her as a friend, someone to spend some of his more lonely moments talking to?

"Really." She nodded. Her fingertips trailed lightly across his arm for the barest of moments. While she would have liked the night to end with a kiss, this probably wasn't the best time for it. Not with Richard waiting for her. "Maybe I'll see you around again?"

"How about tomorrow night?" He asked, surprising himself. Great. Now he was asking his Ulfric's cousin out on a date. Did he really want to end up as nothing more than one of the munin? A ghost to haunt the pack? "Maybe some dancing?"

Willow thought it over for less than a second, nodding her head emphatically. "That sounds great."

"Good." Jason looked over her shoulder, noting that Richard had come out to stand on his front porch. He could feel his alpha's irritation like a current in the air and he sighed. "Go on - your Richard's waiting." She gave a small wave of goodbye and then was gone, up the driveway and to her cousin. He knew his Ulfric would have no small amount of questions for her.

And hopefully he wouldn't kill him for asking her out.

~*~Part Eleven~*~

Willow could feel something in the air the second she stepped near Richard. If she didn't know better she would have said it was anger. But anger at what? At Jason for taking her somewhere he himself had been reticent to go? Or anger at something that had happened after he had left the house earlier? It was hard to say, and she didn't really want to ask. The night had already been too long. Too full of excitement and disappointments. She followed him into the house, watching the tension in the muscles of his back as he turned to face her.

She paused in mid-step, for one moment feeling the same tingly sensation around Richard that she had felt near Jason. Her mouth twisted down in a frown; the most irritating of all mysteries rearing its ugly head again.

"What's wrong?"

The red head blinked. If Jean-Claude hadn't wanted to tell her what the feeling meant, why would her cousin? Especially since it appeared to involve him intimately. She shook her head. "Just tired."

"I bet." The words came out of him mouth and he instantly regretted them. They sounded too harsh, too full of something he didn't want to name – anger, maybe. He was upset with seeing Willow sitting in the car, getting chatty with Jason. She deserved better than Jason, better than a monster that could hurt her in the heat of the moment without even meaning to. More than that he was upset that she had gone to the Circus of the Damned, somewhere he had tried his best to keep her from. Sure, he had known it was eventual that she go there, meet Jean-Claude – it was a given from the time she had stared down Asher. But she had gone there without him to protect her, with only a lesser wolf to be her guardian. He saw the flash of anger in her eyes, felt the power in her aura crackle and knew he had erred.

"And just what is –that- supposed to mean?" Her normally pretty mouth was twisted into a grimace of distaste. Distaste in this conversation and in her cousin's attitude. Her otherwise decent night was rapidly becoming unbearable. The anger she was feeling off of Richard was feeding her own irritation, turning it into something she didn't want to give voice to. He had kept her here, in his house, all safe and sound from the big bad creatures of the world and then, when she went
out an had a little fun, she was suddenly the object of his anger. The air around him practically swirled with power, enough to make her gasp.

Whatever her cousin was, it wasn't a normal human, she was sure of it.

Richard saw Willow's eyes flicker, a small unfocusing as though she were looking at something in front of him and not directly at him. He clamped down on his emotions, bringing his beast under control. As if he had thrown a switch, he saw her eyes come back to him, their own fury still blazing. A sigh escaped his lips and he felt his anger drain away. "I'm sorry. It's been a long night… I came home and saw the note that you were at the Circus and… "

"And what, Richie?" She asked, trying to curb the anger still coursing through her veins. "You were worried? I get that. What I don't get is –why-? From what I understood tonight you and Jean- Claude are friends. Would he have let anything hurt me?"

"He is a vampire, Willow. His idea of hurting someone is different from a normal person's." He ran a hand through his hair. The power that had accumulated around his cousin had dissipated, taking it with it most of the tension in the air.

Willow snorted. "You know, Jason said pretty much the same thing." She left out the part were Jason had looked afraid of what would happen to him if she got hurt – whether it was his fault or not.

Richard took the comment for what it was, but saw in her eyes that there was something she wasn't saying. He couldn't help but think that her little trip out would be his own undoing. He wondered what she had seen in that moment when his control had been thin. Was it enough to label him for what he was? She was a witch, did she feel the creepy crawlies Anita had once told him accompany every shapeshifter?

"Look, Richie, it's late. I'm tired. Can we talk in the morning?" She laid a hand on his arm, staring up into his eyes. His skin was just skin now, no vessel for odd feelings to make her skin buzz with power.

Richard nodded. He wanted to know about what had happened at the Circus, how her meeting Jean-Claude had gone and, most of all, whether or not she had enjoyed herself. Had Jason behaved? But he was too on edge tonight. The pack matter he had been forced to deal with earlier that evening had not been pleasant, a new wolf in their territory and one they were not going to be welcoming. A troublemaker, to say the least. The entire situation had set him in a bad mood. And he had taken it out on Willow without realizing it. "That's fine, Will. Go on to bed."

Willow gave him a grateful smile, leaving him standing along in the living room, a sad look on his face.

~*~*~
Across Town
~*~*~

"Aw, Blake, nice to see you got all dressed up for us guys."

Anita didn't even turn. "Can it, Zerbrowski." She knew she looked like shit. What did they expect from her? She had been in the middle of a zombie raising when her pager went off. It had chimed five times during the last ten minutes of the raising, causing her to loose her temper and splatter chicken blood across the front of her shirt. The shirt was a lost cause, much like her night. She stepped under the yellow crime scene tape that had been strung around some of the trees in a circle fashion, almost twenty feet in diameter. Had there really been that much to block off?

Stepping carefully through the leaves, she made her way over to the head of the scene. "What do we have, Dolph?"

"Female, Caucasian, young. No ID in her pockets. Clothes are in shreds, though. I have officers in the woods scouring for any other evidence." He gestured down at body. It had been covered in a sheet but blood was already peeking through at points, tiny spots of crimson against the stark white of the covering.

"You done with it?" She meant the body. "Just waiting for you to get done and then we can get her down to the coroner."

Anita nodded. She knelt next to the corpse, pulling gently at one corner of the sheet and bringing it down to uncover the woman down to her waist. She had been pretty in life. Pale skin, green eyes, red hair. Anita was, at once, reminded of Damian, her own pet vampire. He looked like this. They could have been related if it weren't for the fact that he had been dead since the days of the Vikings and she was very obviously only human. There was a risidual trace of magic in the air, as though a spell had been performed. The victim didn't give off any trace of abilities, which indicated –

"The killer knows magic."

"How can you tell?" Dolph asked, flipping out his notepad and standing ready for her answer.

"There's trace magic in the air. And she's a null as near as I can tell."

"Could someone else have done the magic? Sometime before the crime?" The woods they were in was a secluded spot, perfect for a practicing witch to have some peace. It was a relevant question.

Anita shook her head. "No. Magic tends to dissipate quickly. This had to have happened no more than two hours ago. Right around the time of death for the victim, I'm thinking." She turned her gaze back to the body, taking in the full picture for the first time.

A huge claw mark ran down the woman's chest, from right shoulder to left hip. The leaves around the body were saturated in blood, like a puddle. The woman had died here, where they were standing. Once upon a time ago that would have bothered Anita, not now. She had seen too much in the past couple years for this to even phase her anymore. There was a hole in the chest, above the claw mark, where the heart should have been. Kneeling, Anita could tell that the chest cavity
was empty. "Where's the heart?"

Dolph shrugged. "Haven't been able to find that yet. Any idea what did this?"

Anita looked up at him. "First guess is shifter, one of the larger variety – wolf, big cat, bear –"

"I hear a `but' coming." The veteran police office smirked.

She nodded. "But a shifter wouldn't have taken her heart."

"Not even for a midnight snack?"

Anita gave him a hard look and continued. "Also, there's the magic residue. Most shifters don't have a hand in any magic." It was the truth insofar as she knew it. She had never met a shifter that was also a witch – nor any other type of magic user. She made a mental note to get with Richard and see if there were any new or just plain odd shifters in town. "Off the top of my head I can't think of anything that would have done this. I'll look into it, ask around, and get back to you."

Dolph nodded, closing his noetpad and shoving it into the pocket of his coat. "Anita – do you realize you have blood on your shirt?" First Zerbrowski, now Dolph. Were they doubling as the fashion police tonight?

Oh yeah – her night was just getting better by the minute.

~*~Part Twelve~*~

Richard wasn’t even awake when Willow made her way out to the kitchen the next morning. She yawned, rubbing her the last bit of sleep from her eyes. Already
dressed in jeans and a halter top, she looked around the cozy little kitchen. It was like some home decorating showcase out of a magazine. Did everything about Richard and his family have to be so perfect? She smiled, rummaging through his cabinets and refrigerator until she found the items she would need to complete the plan she had woken up with. Her cousin had seemed on edge the night before – what better way to make sure he started today right than to make a nice breakfast for him.

Not even half-hour later, just as she was finishing browning the bacon and placing the rest of the meal on plates, Richard stumbled into the kitchen. The t-shirt he had slept in the night before was wrinkled and his hair was still tousled. Still, she knew her cousin was someone women drooled over, even in moments like this. If she could have looked at him in an objective, non-familial sort of way, maybe she would have seen it, too. As it was, she thought he was cute, but not sexy.

"What’s all this?" Richard blinked, yawning hugely. The smell of cooking food had woken him from a deep sleep, forcing him from bed before nine o’clock on a Sunday morning.

"I made you breakfast, silly." Willow grinned, gesturing for him to take a seat. She waited until he had sat down before placing the food in front of him. Eggs and bacon, with a side of pancakes. It looked picture perfect, like something from a menu at an all night diner.

"Wow. You shouldn’t have –"

"But I did." She smirked. "So eat." She took the seat next to him and slid a glass of orange juice over for him.

"Will – where did you get the orange juice?" He looked at the glass, picking it up and sniffing it experimentally, knowing for a fact that he didn’t have any juice in the refrigerator. It was one of the things on the grocery list for that week. The juice smelled good, just like oranges. Had she found some sort of mix in the back of one of his cabinets?

"Oh, that." She shrugged. "Conjured it, of course. You didn’t have any and breakfast just wouldn’t be complete without orange juice."

"You conjured a bottle of orange juice?" His voice was incredulous, disbelieving.

"No, silly. That would be too hard – plastic and labeling is harder than organic materials." A small smile played at her lips. She was enjoying this, making Richard squirm. "I conjured oranges and then squeezed them by hand."

Richard raise his eyebrows, taking a sip of the juice. Sure enough it was the fresh kind and not the stuff found in bottles. He gave her a shaky smile, attempting valiantly not to be too weirded out by the fact that she had conjured oranges out of thin air.. "It’s good. Thank you."

"You’re welcome." She took a bite of her eggs, pleased that she had gotten them to turn out not only edible, but tasty as well.

"So – what would you like to do tonight?"

The red head stiffened at the question. She had plans to go out with Jason, dancing he had said. One deep breath and a silent prayer to her goddess for mercy later, Willow raised her eyes to meet Richard’s. "Actually. Jason invited me to go dancing and I said yes."

"He. –What-?"

"Sheesh, Richie. Don’t get all growly on me. He’s just a friend." She smirked at the look on his face, trying to ignore the literal ‘growl’ in her cousin’s voice. "He wants to make sure I have a good time while I’m here. You can come along and be a chaperone if you want."

Richard counted to ten, slowly, and then did it again for good measure. By the time he had made it all the way through ten four times he was ready to answer. He repeated a silent mantra to himself that Jason was just trying to be friends. He surely wasn’t stupid enough to try anything with Willow. Not after Richard had already made it clear that it would be a very, very bad idea. He met Willow’s eyes. "Okay. But I –am- coming along. To chaperone."

His teeth flashed, a glimpse of white in the dark skin of his face. The smile was meant to be reassuring, but it only served to remind Willow of that wild power she had felt around him the night before. It was primitive, bestial. And still as confusing to her as ever. She returned the smile. "Yeah – why don’tyou invite that Sylvie woman. Is she your girlfriend?"

Richard almost choked on the bite of bacon in his mouth. He coughed, dislodging the morsel from his throat, his face flushed with amusement as he chewed it thoroughly before answering. "No. She’s not my girlfriend. She’s just a friend."

"Yeah? But is she a –friend- friend or just a friend?"

He laughed. It was hard to suppress. She sounded just like many of the junior high students that he taught. They, too, discerned a difference between friends who were more and friends who just plain old friends. "She’s just a friend, Will." The question was even more hilarious to him considering she was his second in command, someone he thought of more as ‘one of the guys’ than as a woman – not to mention the fact that she had a girlfriend.

"Well, darn." Willow sighed, her face reflecting a mixture of mock disappointment and real disappointment. "So you’re gonna play third wheel tonight?"

Richard shook his head, giving her a brief smile. "I’ll invite some friends. We’ll make a night of it." Those ‘friends’ would be pack – people who could keep an eye on Jason and make sure the young werewolf didn’t try anything. And Willow could get to know more of his people. There were only two more weeks until the full moon. Two more weeks for him to work up the courage to tell her his deep, dark secret.

Two more weeks until she went screaming back to Sunnydale?

He sighed, pushing the uncomfortable thought out of his mind. He couldn’t handle what he was. Anita hadn’t been able to. Why should his innocent little cousin? ‘Because she’s family, maybe?’ He asked himself. ‘Mom and Daniel didn’t ostracize me because of it. Hopefully she won’t either.’ "So – how was last night?"

Willow’s eyes lit up. "Oh, Richie! It was so wonderful. So many neat things. And," She bounced up and down in her chair like an excited child. "One of the wereleopards let me pet him. He was –so- soft. And so smart." She grinned,shaking her head. "Totally unlike Oz when he was all wolfy. I saw the differences right away."

"Which wereleopard?" He asked out of curiosity.

"Jason said his name was Zane."

Richard nodded. One of Anita’s leopards then and not one of Micah’s. He still wasn’t too sure about the new Nimir-Raj of his former lover’s pard or the leopards that had come with him. "Yeah. He works at the Circus."

Willow nodded. "I saw him and a werewolf performing. They were both great." She frowned. "I didn’t get to meet the werewolf, though."

Despite his better judgment, Richard laughed at the pout on her face. This was all still a new experience for her. She had met a vampire, a wereleopard, had probably seen the lamia and all other manner of attractions during the show – yet she was still pouting because she hadn’t gotten to meet the werewolf up close and personal. ‘Probably Stephen. I don’t think he was dancing last night.’ "Don’t worry, Will, I’m sure we can arrange that sometime."

"You mean it?"

Looking into her face, so alight with the innocence years on the Hellmouth had never managed to strip from her, Richard was in awe. He smiled, reaching over to pat her hand. If only she knew she was sitting at the table with a real life werewolf or had spent last night wandering around with one. What would she say then? Would it still be so fascinating and ‘cool’ when it hit so close to home?

He hoped so.

~*~Part Thirteen~*~

'Danse Macabre.' Willow smiled, looking around the club as they stepped inside, waved immediately in by the doorman the second he caught site of Jason and Richard. She had never had that happen before; never felt like she was important. In the back of her mind she knew it wasn't anything she had done that had gotten her in the club quicker - that was totally due to the men she was with. The club was dark in more ways than one. It was one step closer to a bondage club than she had ever been in before. The waiters and waitresses circulating the club were dressed in outfits that bordered on being 'too little' to wear in public, the scraps of clothing being made mostly of leather from what she could see. Manequins in cages above the dance floor were dressed just as oddly. It was an altogether strange place.

"Do you see your friends yet, Richie?" Willow asked, struggling to be heard above the music. The pounding rhythm was infectious. She couldn't wait to get out on the dance floor and feel Jason's body up against hers. Even though he was just a friend. 'Yeah right, girl.' She smirked. 'You want to get in his pants, be honest with yourself. Buffy would have been proud - look at him, he's HOT.' Even in her mind she could -hear- the capital letters of the word. It was true, Jason was a hottie. He had worn leather pants and some type of net shirt that showed off the well-defined muscles in his chest and arms. A choker around his neck held one inch spikes and a fleeting touch on the drive over had proved that they were just as sharp as they looked. She had asked him if it was dangerous but had only gotten a wicked grin from him, as though the danger didn't matter.

Or maybe it did and that was how he got his kicks.

She didn't really care. He looked -good-. Even her cousin had dressed up, opting for some tight fitting black jeans and a gold silk shirt over his normal attire of t-shirts and baggy jeans. The shirt was unbuttoned halfway, showing the skin of his chest and at once she was reminded that she would do him if he wasn't family. Both men seemed confident as they stepped into the club. It was a good aura to be around, as it made her feel even more secure.

'Though Richard's reaction to my outfit was enough to let me know I looked good, even without their auras buffing me.' The leather mini had been an impulse buy more than a year ago, during one of the random shopping trips she had taken with Buffy. The blonde had begged her to buy it for a night out at the Bronze, to try to catch a man. That night had never happened but, somehow, she knew Buffy was looking down on her tonight as she wore it. She knew her friend would be happy to see her living her life and not sitting at home alone.

"Over there." He pointed across the dance floor and into a section of high tables. She could barely see the group he was pointing to and wondered how he had spotted them so easily amidst such a large crowd. Jason's presence at her back was constant as they made their way through the throng of dancers and to the table. She recognized Jamil easily, nodding her head in greeting.

"Willow, I'd like you to meet Sylvia, Stephen, Shang-Da, and Gwyn. You've already met Jamil. Guys - this is my cousin Willow."

"Hi." Willow smiled shyly, meeting each of their eyes in turn. The feeling she got off of Jason was strong here, almost unbearable. It felt as though a thousand little insects were running along her skin. She noticed that Sylvie had her arm slung around Gwyn, the two women sitting closer together than 'friends' would normally sit. No wonder Richard had found her saying Sylvie was girlfriend so amusing.

"Nice to meet you." Stephen grinned. He turned to Richard. "Anita and Jean-Claude are here."

Richard nodded. He had felt them from the moment he had stepped foot in the building. They called to him like no one else ever would. As the third in their Triumverate of power they were locked together for all of eternity, as much as he disliked it. "Gregory and the others here, too?"

Stephen nodded absently, his eyes scanning the crowd for his brother. "Over there."

Like a young child listening to her parents talk, Willow felt like the conversation between her cousin and his friend was flying right over her head. She turned to Jason. "Dance with me?"

Jason didn't look towards Richard, he knew he wouldn't like what he saw there. His Ulfric wasn't pleased with the friendship he had started with his pretty red haired cousin. He didn't want them getting any closer than they already were.

Which was a shame since Jason could readily admit that he already wanted to get to know Willow in more than just a 'friend' way.

They made their way out to the dance floor, Jason completely aware that Sylvie and Gwyn had followed them. Probably at Richard's orders and no doubt to keep an eye on him. To make sure he wasn't doing anything inappropriate. The song was a slower one, one that involved bodily contact. And Willow was anything but shy about it. She moved up to him, her body flush against his own, and put her arms around his neck. He saw her shiver, the shudder running through her shoulders. "Are you cold?"

She shook her head. This didn't seem like the time or place to discuss the fact that every time she touched him her skin crawled with power. "Not really."

And they danced.

~*~*~

"Fancy seeing you here tonight."

Richard turned, knowing before he did so who was standing behind him. He nodded once, the greeting not nearly as pleasant as it once might have been. "Anita." Once upon a time ago he would have taken her in his arms and kissed her. That was long gone. Now she was openly Jean-Claude's girlfriend, with Micah as her lover and Nathaniel as her morning snack. It was too much for him and he couldn't see them ever getting back together.

"Who's the girl with Jason?"

"My cousin Willow. She's staying with me for the summer. Maybe longer."

Anita nodded. Jean-Claude had told her about meeting her former lover's cousin, but had neglected to give a physical description. She found the girl again in the crowd. It wasn't hard. The red head was a witch, powerful enough that her aura stood out even amongst all of the lycanthropes in the room. She had been struck immediately by the girl's resemblance to the victim of the night before. At first she had thought she was looking at the dead girl, back from the dead. It had taken her a moment of startled inspection to realize they were two different people who only shared a remarkable resemblance. "She should shield herself better. I know she can't be comfortable in here with all the weres."

"What do you mean?" Richard asked slowly.

"C'mon, Richard. As long as we dated and you didn't learn anything?" She snorted. "Even someone who is almost a null can feel it when they're in the room with a were. She's powerful. It must crawl across her skin like a swarm of gnats. If she were shielding well enough to keep it out I wouldn't be able to pick out her aura so easily. Since I can -" She shrugged, the meaning clear. Willow was feeling it every time she got near a shifter.

Now that Anita had said it, Richard -could- remember hearing her say something to that effect before. Something about it being one of the easiest ways to pick out a lycanthrope and that he hid it 'very well'. But, if Willow could feel it, why hadn't she asked? "Is it possible that she can't feel it?"

"No." Anita said, very simply. She gave Richard a hard look. "She doesn't know about you, does she?"

"It took me years to tell my own mother. Do you really think I told my cousin the first week she's been here? She had enough to deal with, coming from a Hellmouth and all."

Anita nodded. Jean-Claude had mentioned that to her along with the fact that the little vixen could meet his eyes without fear. It was a dangerous talent, one that Anita hoped the girl was smart enough to keep under wraps. "Shit, Richard. How long do you think you're going to be able to keep it a secret from her?" If she didn't know about shifters it meant that Anita couldn't teach her to shield herself from them. The poor girl was going to go nuts being around so many of them.

"Don't you think I know that?" Richard frowned. "I'll tell her soon. I promise."

"Good." The Executioner nodded. "Let me know when you do so I can teach her a few things about shields. The rest of the world doesn't need her screaming 'I'm a powerful witch' every time she enters a room. It's dangerous for her."

Willow and Jason chose that moment to come back to the table. The red head was out of breath, having danced two hard dances after the slow one. She motioned a waiter over and ordered a coke, glancing at her cousin for an introduction to the woman he was speaking with.

"Willow, this is Anita. Anita, Willow."

The red head smiled, holding out her hand and giving Anita's a brief shake. It was a relief to touch her hand and to feel something other than skin tingling. This was just a handshake, something nice and normal. "It's nice to meet you, Anita."

"Same." The small woman smiled. She felt movement behind her and turned her head ever so slightly, catching sight of her pard making their way to the table. "Just in time. I can introduce you to some more of the 'gang'." She gave Willow a wink, hoping the red head would be able to take being introduce to some more weres. "This is Cherry. The one over there that looks like Stephen is Gregory - they're twins. That's Micah and Zane." She pointed them out one by one as they made their way to the table. "Gang, this is Willow, Richard's cousin. She's staying with him for the - summer was it?"

Willow nodded, looking at the one Anita had called Zane with a mixture of curiosity and hesitation. "Zane? Did I meet you last night at the Circus?" His eyes met hers and she knew for sure, as one of them closed in a very unmistakable wink. "Though so. Nice to meet you again."

Zane grinned, chuckling softly. "Nice to see you again, too." He touched her on the shoulder, like a friend would do to another friend and turned to Cherry, leading the striking young woman out onto the dance floor.

The red head reached up, feeling her shoulder unconsciously where Zane had touched her. Her skin was still tingling from the brief contact. Things began to snap into place at the speed of light at that moment and it was all she could do to not turn on Richard with an accusation on her lips. She had felt that same sensation from him, from all of his friends. Her heart lurched with the weight of her discovery. Suddenly she didn't want to be here, didn't want to be around these people. It wasn't because of what they were, of what her cousin was; it was for the simple fact that it was too much to deal with all at once and she didn't want to confront any of them with it in the middle of a dance club. Everything made sense now, with the exception of what flavor they all were - werewolf, wereleopard or something else entirely? She forced a smile onto her face, determined to get the rest of her questions answered by the one person who had at least seemed truthful to her up until that point. "I need some air. Come outside with me, Jason?"

Richard watched her go, unable to even glare at Jason in warning. "Do you think she knows?"

Anita shrugged. "Hard to say without coming right out and asking her. And I don't think you're ready for that."

He shook his head in agreement, following his cousin's small form until she slipped out of the door. A part of him couldn't help but insist she already knew.

And he was trying his best to ignore that part of himself.

~*~Part Fourteen~*~

Willow shivered as they stepped into the night air, her hands coming up to rub at her arms. She could feel Jason behind her, his presence so much more noticeable now that she was looking for it. There were too many people standing at the door of the club, waiting to get in. Much too crowded for the conversation she needed to have with him. For the accusations she was going to make. She pointed across the street to a small bench, currently unoccupied, and started across without making sure that Jason was even following her.

She felt betrayed, hurt. Richard was a were-something-or-other and he hadn't told her. Every single one of his friends, with the exception of Jean-Claude and Anita, had turned out to be the same thing. He had kept this from her. Why? Why did he hide it like it was some deep, dark secret? Was it? Was it something to be ashamed of? She knew that lycanthropes could find themselves jobless if people knew what they were. Was that the reason he was so secretive? But why to -her-? She was family. Not some stranger off the street. Didn't she have a -right- to know what she was living with? She wondered if he had planned on ever telling her.

"Willow?" Jason asked quietly. He saw her shoulders tighten with tension. Something was wrong with her, something that she hadn't wanted to discuss inside the club. He had guessed that from the moment she had asked him to come with her outside but hadn't had any actual confirmation until that moment. The way she tensed up made it clear that something was eating at her. "What's wrong?"

She laughed once, the sound short and harsh. "Wrong? What could be -wrong-, Jason?" She turned then, sitting on the bench and facing him.

Jason shuddered under the weight of her gaze, aware all too clearly of the power she held within her. He could see her eyes glowing with a faint green light and wondered if she was even aware she was doing it. The smell of power radiated off of her in waves. If she were a shifter with all of these symptoms he would say she was upset, maybe even angry.

And maybe that wasn't too far from wrong.

"I know."

Those two words, ground out between clenched teeth, were like knives in his heart. There was only one thing that could have her on edge like this. Only one thing that she would have taken him out of the club to discuss. He swallowed hard, trying to think of a way to deny what he knew she claiming knowledge to.

"Don't."

He looked up, startled at the tone of her voice. He had never heard a human come so close to an actual growl before, but that's exactly what she had just done. It was cute in a way only the werewolf side of him could love. "Don't what?"

"Don't lie." She whispered, the harshness leaving her voice. "I've had enough of the lies. Of his," She gestured to the club; to Richard who was still inside its walls. "Lies. Omissions would be more accurate, I guess. But it's all the same."

Jason nodded. He stepped up to the bench, easing down next to her as though he were scared she would tear him limb from limb with her gaze alone. For all he knew she probably could do that. "He didn't want to hurt you -"

"Don't make excuses for my cousin, Jason." She sighed. "I just wanted to confirm what I was guessing with you. I don't need excuses. That's up to him to provide."

"You don't need any from me?" He asked, unsure. Hadn't he also been keeping this from her? In that moment he realized that he may be losing a friend he had only just made, one he had hoped to keep around for some time to come.

"No. I've only just met you. I didn't expect you to tell me about your personal life or situation yet."

"Yet?" He smiled sadly. "Were you hoping to get to know me better at some point?"

"Still am." Her smile was a little brighter than his had been, but still tinged with that same regret.

"You still want to get to know me after - "

"After finding out what? That you have an incurable disease? That wouldn't be very gracious of me, would it?" She smirked, scooting closer to him. "So - can I ask what you are exactly? I don't have that part figured out yet."

His grinned, allowing some of his beast to show in his eyes, his expression. "Werewolf."

"Cool. I've dated a werewolf before. True - he was a Hellmouth werewolf and a total creep, but it wasn't too different from dating a normal guy." And it was cool. She had felt his power slip out when he said it, had seen in his eyes that there was something else lurking in his body. He was both man and wolf, all at the same time, whereas Oz had only seemed to be able to be one -or- the other. This was like a perfect merging of the two.

Maybe it was the way she said she had 'dated a werewolf before' or maybe it was just the tender look she was giving him. Jason wasn't quite sure what it was that made him think that he definitely had a shot with her, that she wanted to get to know him as something maybe a little more than a friend. He allowed a smile to cross his lips, easing a little closer to her.

"Richie a werewolf, too?"

Jason nodded, not seeing the point in hiding much else from her. If he was thinking of dating the red head he needed to face the fact that Richard may very well disembowel him with or without him answering her questions. "Yeah. He's our fearless leader."

She took that in stride, though there were more questions she would have liked to have asked. Better to save some things to ask Richard when she finally got around to giving him the beat down he deserved. It did explain why Jason seemed so afraid of him. She could only imagine that the leader of a band of werewolves would have considerable power of his 'followers'. "And Sylvie, Jamil, Stephen, Gregory, etcetera?"

"Wolf. Wolf. Wolf. Gregory and all of Anita's friends are leopards." A flash of movement across the street caught his eye. "Speaking of Anita - here she comes."

"Hey guys." Anita called out, stopping a couple feet from the bench. She noticed the lack of space between the two young people on the bench and hid a smile. Jason would need her protection more than ever if he hoped to date Richard's cousin. "Just coming to say goodbye. There's a crime scene I need to go look at."

"You work with the police?" Willow asked, her eyes brightening with curiosity. "Cool."

"Yeah - cool." Anita smirked. "I get to look at dead bodies almost every night."

"You do that anyway, Anita." Jason grinned. "Or do Jean-Claude and Asher not count?" He teased playfully. For once he didn't feel the urge to hit on her. It seemed tasteless with Willow sitting right next to him.

"Ha, fucking ha." The Executioner growled, winking at him. "Anyway. I'd best be off before Dolph starts paging - again - " She pulled the small electronic device from her pocket as it started to beep again. "See what I mean? Was nice meeting you Willow. Call me tomorrow - maybe we can go do a whole girl thing I know you have to be going nuts being around Richard all the time."

Willow nodded. "Sounds like fun."

"Good." Anita wondered, seeing the two of them sitting so close together, what kind of conversation they had been having before she walked up. There was something new in Willow's eyes, a hint of knowledge and a loss of innocence that hadn't been there before. The petite woman wanted nothing more than to take her aside at that moment and figure out once and for all if Willow knew about Richard and the others, but she didn't have time. "Richard has my number - call after noon. I usually sleep late."

"Goodie." Jason smirked. "Richard is going to love that. He wants to protect you from all things supernatural and you just agreed to a girls' night with Anita and probably Cherry and Vivian" He chuckled. "Can't wait to see how he deals with all of this."

Willow stuck her tongue out at him. Her face grew serious almost immediately, though. "I'm not telling him yet that I know about it all. I haven't figured out yet what I want to say. I'm too mad to deal with it right now. Don't tell him, okay?"

Jason shook his head. "Believe me, this is one thing he won't be hearing from me."

~*~Part Fifteen~*~

Dolph met Anita at the edge of the woods, leading her in under the bright yellow crime scene tape that they had used, in part, to mark a pathway to the actual place where the body had been found.

"Any reason for this other than so that the newbies don't get lost in the woods." She gestured to either side, the yellow tape quite visible with even only the moonlight from overhead. She could see Dolph's flashlight beam bouncing ahead of them, in time with his footsteps; and, not too much farther away, the actual scene. She knew it was there simply because of the number of people still gathered around it. Had the ME wrapped up yet?

"There was a blood trail leading from the road into the woods." He answered. "We already got the photographs."

Now that he had mentioned it, Anita did notice the dark splatters positioned randomly throughout the leafy forest floor. Not just small drops, but big splashes. Whoever had been bleeding had been cut up. Badly. That meant that the victim hadn't started out in the woods, she had run there or been brought there for some reason.

"Just finished up. All yours, Anita."

Anita flashed the nighttime medical examiner a small smile, pulling a set of plastic gloves from her pocket. The insides were powdered and slipped over her hands easily, protecting both herself from the body and the body from herself. Just because the medical examiner had completed his first round of examinations didn't mean there wouldn't be a second. She didn't want to contaminate the body with any materials, no matter how small, that might be on her hands.

Two things happened then, giving Anita a full view of the body for the first time. The medical examiner moved off, down the plastic lined path to the street and his van. Assistants from the coroner's office would be sent down next to get the body once she was done with it. The second was that the group of officers surrounding the body parted, as though they had been commanded to do it by some voice she hadn't heard. That was silly, she knew.

The body fit the same general description of the one she had looked at the night before. Red hair, pale skin. Magic still trickled through the air, as though some great rite had only just recently been performed. The chest cavity had been opened, the skin pushed aside. The left breast hung limp, jellylike, off to one side. Anita gagged, forcing the thoughts away. 'No better than a rookie.' Her mental voice was tired and just a little angry with herself for thinking like that. This was a crime scene body. Not a person. If she thought of it as a person she'd be in the grass heaving up the expensive dinner Jean-Claude had tempted her into eating earlier that night.

She stood over the body, swallowing hard. The dead woman looked just like Richard's cousin. Kneeling, Anita pulled open one eyelid. Green. It all seemed like too much of a coincidence. Willow came to town and only a few days later bodies started turning up, bodies of women that looked enough like her to be mistaken for a sibling, or even twin. Anita knew without asking that the woman would have been just about the same height as Willow was. Not too short, not too tall. Somewhere in between.

Even the most paranoid part of her mind couldn't make her believe that Richard's cousin had anything to do with the murders. 'But is the killer looking for her? Or is it just a coincidence.'

"Anything new?" Dolph asked.

Anita shook her head. "Same as last one. Heart is missing. I'm assuming you haven't found either one yet?" She wasn't going to give Willow's name to the police, not yet. Richard would likely start a fight if she gave his beloved cousin's name to them. Not to mention the fact that the little girl might fall over dead from fright if Dolph came to 'ask her a few questions'.

"No. Haven't found them yet." He smiled, a thin line across an unhappy face. "I don't like this, Anita. It's starting to look like a serial killer."

What could she say to that? It was the truth as far as she could tell. She stood, looking around the circle of trees. There were no marks, no symbols, nothing to delineate a circle of power. So why was there magic here?

And then she felt it.

A crawling across her skin, a burst of power so harsh that it left her gasping for breath. She looked up, surprised to see the night sky overhead. Dolph was saying something, but it made no sense to her. Things seemed out of whack, totally screwy.

"Anita? Are you alright?"

She nodded slowly, holding out a hand to him. He took it, pulling her to her feet. "What the hell happened?"

"He was out there. Watching." She whispered, her eyes scanning the darkness. There was nothing there now for her other senses to find. No pulse of power or show of aura. Nothing. All around her officers that had even a touch of talent were looking around, dazed themselves. If the creature had chosen to strike at that moment they wouldn't have been able to put up a fight.

"Who? The killer?"

"Calm down, Dolph." She laid a hand on the cop's arm, exhaling a slow breath. Her body felt like it had been put through the wringer. Every muscle ached, though she could already feel herself healing, drawing on the power of the marks. "He's gone."

"Are you sure?" He asked, hesitant. It wouldn't look good if any of his men died out here. It was bad enough they were all out in the woods, in the dark, anyway.

"Yeah. I'm sure." She whispered. Whatever it had been - it was gone now. Long gone.

"What was it?"

"I don't have a clue."

~*~*~

He was mad.

Furious.

Irate.

He could see red, literally. Though that may have had more to do with his fascination with blood than anything else. He liked the way it looked, so glittery red both in moonlight and in the sun. But, best of all, he liked the way it tasted when it was coming fresh from the fount. Warm and thick and salty. The very stuff life was made of. He could drink it all night and never grow tired of it. Sure, the flesh was nice. And a bit of marrow was a treat. But blood? That was the crowning flavor of it all.

Slinking through the trees, he exited the forest. So close to home yet so far. Hopefully the Execution was still lying on her ass. If he was lucky she wasn't following him. She was the one who had made him mad. Standing there, next to what was left of poor little Daniella. She was so clinical about her job, so cold. And they called him a killer? Wasn't she the same as he - a murderer. Yet she would help hunt him down if she could. And he wasn't strong enough yet to take her on.

That was why it was important to find Her as soon as possible.

The Seer had said, right before he shredded her to little bits, that the source of all the power he could ever want was one red haired witch in this godforsaken city. She held the power for him to become a leader in truth. With her strength he could rule over all of the lukoi; make them tremble at his feet.

And all he had to do was find Her.

One by one they would all fall until he found the one with the heart of gold, the one with the power to make him the most feared lycanthrope to ever walk the Earth. He would make the world tremble with each step he took, break packs as he went and build everything up until there was just one pack across the country. His. His people. Anyone who fought back would fall before his might. He'd drink their blood and eat their flesh. It would be a feast to last for the rest of his life. Together they'd reclaim their honor, make the human world tremble in fear. All he needed was the power to make his dreams a reality. And he'd have that soon enough.

Once he found Her.

~*~Part Sixteen~*~

"Willow."

The red head mumbled something under her breath, rolling over and putting an arm over her eyes. She scrunched them shut, a shaft of light coming in through the curtains shining full on her face.

"Willow. C'mon. Time to get up."

"Uh?" She muttered incoherently, cracking open an eye. She saw Richard standing over her bed, a soft smile on his face. "Wha time s'it?"

"It's almost two in the afternoon, Will. You slept away the morning."

She sighed, yawning hugely, and opened her eyes wide. "That's because I didn't get to bed until five in the morning, remember? Dancing? Fun?" She smiled, closing her eyes again. Once she had gone back into Danse Macabre with Jason she had danced the night away, dancing with anyone as long as it kept her away from Richard. First Jason and then, when he begged off due to being 'tired', Zane had snapped her up for a few dances. And then the twins, Stephen and Gregory. She had managed to stay away from her cousin until the time came for the club to close and they had piled into his Jeep to go home. At that point yawns had been more in line than conversation.

Which was a good thing. She had been furious with him. Still was, for that matter. Lucky for her she had slept most of the day. It was still up in the air as to when and how she was going to confront Richard about his 'little' omissions. 'Though Jason made it clear he hopes I do it soon.' She thought, opening her eyes again and staring at her cousin. 'I don't want to get him in trouble with Richard. I get the feeling that could be a very bad thing.'

Richard smirked, hiding the discomfort that her cool gaze was giving him. Something had happened last night, of that he was sure. She had all but flat out avoided him from the time she had walked back in the club with Jason. For the life of him he couldn't figure out what it was, though. Whether he had said something to offend her or something else entirely. She certainly had been having fun with Jason. And Stephen. And Gregory. She had danced with just about every male member of Anita's pard, for that matter, with the exception of Micah. "I know. But Anita called and said you had agreed to do a girls' night type thing with her." He kept his own misgivings on that event to himself, praying with every ounce of his body that Anita wouldn't get Willow into any trouble. "She'll be here to get you around six."

Willow nodded. "Thanks for waking me up, Richie." She forced a smile to her face. Wouldn't do to give away the anger she was feeling towards him too soon, before she had a chance to think of some very real and rational arguments to why he -should- have been straight with her from the beginning. Not to mention the fact that she wanted to see how long it was going to take him just to come clean on his own.

"You're welcome." He paused. Something was terribly amiss in her eyes. The smile was there, but not the happiness. It was forced, fake. He had seen Anita do it enough when she was trying to keep something from him to recognize it for what it was. "Will - was there something you wanted to talk about?"

She blinked once. Twice. Her green eyes staring him down unwaveringly. "No, Richie. Nothin' I wanted to talk about. Why do you ask?"

He sighed, shrugging. "Never mind. I'm just overly paranoid, I guess." He gave her a little wave, a parting gesture, and walked towards the door. "You know that having you here is the best thing that's happened to me in a very long time, Willow. I don't know what's gone wrong. But if you tell me, I promise to at least try to make it right."

And then he was gone, leaving Willow staring at the door, her heart clenching with emotion. Yelling at him was out of the question. Not right then. Not when he had just basically invited her to come clean with what was bothering her and told her how special she was to him, how much he was happy to have her here. She didn't want to let him know, though. Not yet.

She had absolutely no problem whatsoever with what Richard was; with what Jason and all of the others were. It was just that - why hadn't he told her? A hundred little questions were waiting in a neat line at the back of her head, waiting to be babbled out the moment she finally came clean and they worked things out. Things like - what did Jason mean when he said Richard was their 'king'. King of all the werewolves in the city or something more? Or was he just a king of a certain pack? Was there more than one werewolf leader in the city? She was sure Jason could answer all of these questions but that wasn't his place. The little she had gathered from his actions and comments about Richard's leadership indicated that he would be very upset with the blonde werewolf for even telling her the little he had.

In a way the entire lycanthropy thing intrigued her and she was looking forward to finding out more about it all. About the hierarchy of their world. It was like a research project. But first she had to overcome the anger she was feeling towards Richard. She needed to be able to forgive him for what he had kept from her before she went looking for an apology. Once that was all over and done with she could start getting her questions answered.

But that wasn't going to happen tonight. Tonight was going to be a fun night. A night for the girls.

She couldn't wait to see what Anita had planned.

~*~Part Seventeen~*~

"So - what're we doing?"

Anita shrugged, looking from the red head in the passenger's seat of her car to the two women in the backseat. Richard was standing on his front porch, watching the four of them in her car. She waited patiently as Willow put on her seatbelt, ignoring the overprotective alpha werewolf that was shooting daggers her way, before pulling away from the curb. "Hadn't really planned much. Anyone got any ideas? She's already been to the Circus, so that's out."

"We could go see Nathaniel." Vivian purred, a sly grin easing its way across her pretty features. "Though - that's nothing we haven't seen before."

"Willow hasn't seen it." Cherry piped up, warming up to the idea. It had been a while since they had made a trip down to the club to see Nathaniel working. It would definitely be fun. "And, besides, it's always fun to go ogle the waiters."

"Ogle the waiters?" Willow asked, her brow creasing in confusion. "Where exactly does Nathaniel work?"

Anita smirked. "Guilty Pleasures." She looked from the road into her rearview mirror, catching both Cherry and Vivian's eyes. "I'm sure Richard wouldn't like us taking his sweet little cousin to a strip club, guys."

"All the more reason to do it." Cherry muttered. She had been trying to learn to be more assertive, more sassy. With Anita as a role model she was learning quick. Take now for instance. She knew that Richard would be unhappy with them for taking Willow to the club. On the other hand she knew that Anita would like nothing else than to cause Richard just a little grief. The way he treated her sometimes was just this side of criminal, and downright mean to boot.

"You say Richard wouldn't like it?" Willow asked, her eyebrows raised questioningly.

"He'd be quite upset." Anita agreed. She saw the red head smile out of the corner of her eye, the expression full of maliciousness. It was a smile that she had seen before on her own face, when she wanted to hurt someone. She could tell already that she was going to like this girl.

"Let's do it." The young witch smiled, the expression never reaching her eyes. Those green orbs were full of a quiet rage. It would be fun to go to the strip club with them; it certainly would be a new experience for her. If it would upset Richard, all the better. He needed to be upset. He needed to feel what she was feeling right now.

Anger.

~*~*~

The club was dark, exactly like Willow had always imagined the inside of a strip club to look like. The doorman checked her ID but waived the rest of her party through without a word. With a start Willow realized that he was a vampire. Good grief, they were everywhere.

"Any holy items to - Oh. It's you, Anita."

"Nice to see you again, too." The petite dark-haired women chuckled, fingering the chain around her neck. The cross was under her shirt, hidden from view and away from where it could do any damage to the vampires working in the club. That wasn't going to be enough for this one, though. And, in a way, Anita just enjoyed making her squirm. "You know I'm not taking it off, don't you?"

The holy item check girl sighed, shaking her head in consternation. "I know. And you know I'm going to have to get one of the big guys to okay it. Stay here."

"Wouldn't leave for the world."

Willow leaned closer to Cherry, whispering, "What's going on?"

The female wereleopard gave her a grin. "You have to check any holy items, like crosses, before you can go into the club. Anita always puts up a fuss. It's okay though. She's Jean-Claude's girlfriend and this is his club. We'll get in."

Vivian nodded. "As long as she keeps it under her shirt it won't do any harm, anyway. I think that woman just does it to piss Anita off."

A moment later the check girl was back, a scowl on her face. "You can go in."

Anita bit back a laugh. It was getting to be too amusing to annoy this one. Not even a vampire, the woman was a wannabe. Someone that hung around with the undead hoping to one day join their ranks. A pretty foolhardy thing to do, in Anita's opinion. But she doubted her opinion counted much. Not when she was dating the head bloodsucker. Most of those poor souls thought that vampirism was their chance at eternal life. Who was she to disillusion them by letting them in on the fact that they'd be dead, just a different form of it. "Thanks."

Willow laughed, following behind Anita. She could feel Cherry and Vivian behind her. Their auras were fluctuating, sporadic. It was a sign she was starting to recognize as excitement. "I'm starting to like this. Getting the executive treatment at restaurants, clubs, shows." She shook her head in amazement. "I certainly never experienced that back home."

"It's good to have friends in high places." Vivian agreed. A table had already been readied for them. It would be the best in the house, one that was kept empty especially for nights like this, when someone close to Jean-Claude chose to grace the establishment with their presence. Those were rare nights indeed.

The dancer on stage was just finishing up and Willow felt her breath catch. He was a magnificent specimen to look at. Well-built with red hair that hung down past his waist. He was a vampire, just like the doorman, but that didn't stop him from being attractive. His eyes scanned the crowd, falling on their little group as they took their seats. He winked and then disappeared backstage. "Let me guess - you guys know him, too?"

"Friend." Anita nodded. She didn't want to go into anything other than that. Willow had no need to know and it just wasn't a story she felt like explaining.

"Ah." The red head accepted the explanation easy enough. A waiter had appeared next to her elbow and she ordered a Sex on the Beach. Something fruity for her tastebuds with enough alcohol to get rid of the tension she was feeling. This was her firs time -ever- in a strip club. Her first time viewing half-nude and completely nude men for the sheer pleasure of lusting after their bodies. She felt a thrill go through her. They certainly didn't have anything like this in Sunnydale.

Music started, a hauntingly pounding rhythm that Willow felt expressed the mysterious atmosphere of the club.

"Just in time." Cherry purred, leaning her arms on the table. She reached into her pocket, pulling out a few bills. "Nathaniel."

Willow looked at the stage, watching as the next dancer stepped out. He held his head high, with an air of a predator. She knew him immediately for what he was even though she had never met him before. He was a shifter. The fact that he was obviously friends with Vivian and Cherry, who she now knew to be wereleopards, made Willow pretty sure that he was one as well. His auburn hair hung long in the back, trailing behind him like a cape as he strode to the center of the stage. She found herself holding her breath as he slowly eased his way out of the white poet's shirt he was wearing, tossing the thin fabric aside. His chest was perfect, in her opinion. A masterpiece of skin and muscle. Something for artist's to paint.

He looked over towards their table then, as his bouncing, slinking dance began to involve the removal of the loose leatherish pants he had come out in. She licked her lips as the zipper went down, oblivious to anything other than the show. As his g-string came into view she found herself reaching into her own pocket, pulling a few bills out. She didn't care what they were. He deserved it just for making her feel this tingly inside.

"Over here, sexy!" Vivian called out, standing up and waving a five dollar bill in the air. She wiggled her hips, dancing to the music as Nathaniel made his way down the short flight of steps from the stage to the floor. He came right up to her, grinding his body against hers before letting her shove the money into his g-string.

"You're such a tease." Cherry whispered, placing her own money into the strap of fabric at his hip. She slapped at the flesh of his butt.

"Go on, Red."

Willow looked up at the new nickname Vivian seemed to have labeled her with. She held the money up, feeling herself blush when he came to her chair, pulling her to her feet. His eyes met hers and she felt as though she would melt. Sexy didn't quite cover what he was. His body moved against hers and she fumbled ever so slightly, finally getting the money into the g-string. Backing away, he blew her a kiss, making his way around the room to his other, numerous, fans. "WoW."

"Mmm Hmmm." Cherry murmured, her eyes half-closed. "He's like a brother to me but still, seeing him like this is always an…experience."

Anita smirked. She had seen it all before. And more. He was her pomme de sang, her morning snack to feed the ardeur. She could have him any way she wanted, any time she wanted - morning, noon or night. It wasn't that he didn't turn her on - it just didn't happen as easily, or in a room full of screaming hormonally charged women.

Willow watched Nathaniel make his way around the room, silently enjoying the curves and lines of his body. He was making quite a bit of money. Easily a few hundred dollars by the time he clambered back onto the stage. The music ended then, on a beat. And the room erupted into applause. He took a bow and Willow caught a glimpse of a small clip holding back his long hair. It was pretty, something she would have pictured on a woman more than a man. He managed to carry it off pretty well, though. It suited him. Then a thought struck her.

"Silver?" She murmured, completely to herself, forgetting for the moment that she was even with other people as her natural curiosity took over. Hadn't she read on the internet that silver was anathema to a shifter? That it burned them? "But I thought…"

"He likes it. The pain." Cherry answered the red head's unspoken question. "'Sides, its just a small piece. Only burns a little."

Willow turned to the other woman, her eyes open wide as she realized what she had just given away. She risked a glance at Anita and saw knowledge in the woman's eyes. "Fuck."

"What?" Cherry asked, confused. "Did I say something wrong?"

"She's not supposed to know about any of you guys." Anita murmured, her hard stare never leaving Willow's.

"No. I'm not. Richard doesn't want me to know." Willow spat out, failing to hide the anger that thought brought to her. She was angry with herself, too, for giving away that which she had been so determined to keep a secret. "So if we could not tell him it would be just peachy."

Anita shrugged. She had assumed the night before that Willow probably knew about shifters and, more than likely, about Richard himself. What business was it of hers to go running to her ex to tell him that his cousin knew his deep, dark secret? She nodded, giving the red head a reassuring smile.

"What Richard doesn't know won't hurt him."

~*~Part Eighteen~*~

Willow watched a few more sets, her mind reeling. Anita knew that she, well,
knew. Would she run right to Richard and tell him, despite the fact that she
had said she wouldn't? The red head wanted to believe the woman, but it was
hard. Anita was, after all, just as much of a mystery as Richard had been. What
was she? Just a human that hung out with lots of different weres? Or more?
Something about her screamed power, though she was a dead spot to Willow's
second senses. She couldn't pick up any aura from the woman. It was almost as
though she didn't exist.

'Or is working really hard to shield herself.' She though, allowing her eyes to
roam over the figure on stage. The dancer was another vampire, and no more a
dancer than she was. His main act seemed to involve getting willing 'victims'
from the audience to experience the pleasure of his bite. And, to her surprise,
there were more than enough willing participants. It was a far cry from
anything she had ever experienced. In her mind vampires were creatures to be
feared and mistrusted, she knew it was a prejudice held over from her time in
Sunnydale but couldn't help it. Jean-Claude had seemed okay, as had Asher. But
the others she had met?

They just seemed creepy.

She watched as another woman walked up the stairs to the stage, her eyes fixed
completely on the creature that was holding her hand. Willow grimaced. She
didn't want to see this again. It was just - distasteful. Like bad food in her
stomach, the entire act made her nauseous.

"I'm going to go outside for some air." She whispered across the table,
catching Anita's eyes.

"Take Cherry with you." Anita replied.

Willow arched an eyebrow? "Why?"

"Just in case." Was Anita's cryptic reply. The neighborhood could get
dangerous. More dangerous than someone as fresh off of the Hellmouth as the red
head was could probably handle.

"I can take care of myself." The young witch smirked, letting her eyes go dark
with the magic she held within her. A smile tugged at the corner of her lips
when Anita's eyes went wide. It was more from shock than any actual fear,
Willow guessed. But still, it was refreshing to be shocking sometimes.

"That may well be." Anita said slowly, after a long moment of silence. She
exhaled a breath, wondering not just for the first time exactly how powerful
the witch was. She wanted someone with the red head though if she were going
outside. She bore too much of a resemblance to the dead girls of the past two
nights for her to be out wandering alone. "The point is to not get into a
situation where you need to 'handle' things, though. If Cherry is with you it
makes you less of a target. A woman alone in this area isn't a good thing,
Willow."

The red head allowed the information to sink in and then nodded, letting her
eyes fade back to their own emerald green. "Sorry. I just get tired of people
thinking I can't take care of myself."

Anita smiled. "Don't worry. I'm not underestimating you. I'll leave that all to
Richard."

Willow snorted. "Yeah, good ole' Richie," She stood and gave Cherry a smile.
"Guess you get to be my escort tonight." She held out her arm, giving a laugh
when Cherry took it with a grin. The feeling of crawling on her skin
intensified but she pushed it to the back of her mind.

The two women walked through the club and out to the street, nodding at the
doorman on their way out. "We'll be right back, Daniel." Cherry purred, running
her hand along his chest.

"Must be nice. Knowing all of these sexy men. Vamp or otherwise." Willow
murmured once the door to the club had swung shut again and the doorman was no
longer able to listen in.

"I guess." Cherry shrugged. "Most of them are like brothers to me so its hard
to see them that way. We're family."

"Because you're all -- ?" Willow didn't know how to phrase the rest of the
question so she just let it go at that, hoping Cherry wouldn't take offense at
it.

"Because we're all wereleopards?" Cherry asked. "You can say it. Won't hurt my
feelings. I'm dealing with it. And, yeah, that's why they're like family.
That's what a pard is, it's family."

"Pard?" Willow asked. She leaned against the side of the building, her eyes
full of innocent inquisitiveness.

"A group of wereleopards. Sort of like 'pack' to the wolves."

"Ah." Willow murmured. "Thanks for explaining. I've had so many questions ever
since I figured things out the other night. But I didn't want to ask Jason and
get him in trouble with Richard."

Cherry laughed and the sound was harsh. "Just by dating you he is going to get
in trouble with Richard. Richard doesn't want his precious cousin dating the
monsters."

"But - you guys aren't monsters."

"Try telling your cousin that." She smirked. Her eyes were sad. "He thinks that
we're all monsters."

"But - he's just the same as you are. Maybe a different type, but still a
shifter."

"True." Cherry nodded. "And he also thinks he's the biggest monster of them
all." She sighed. "Just be careful. For Jason's sake. He'll get hurt if Richard
even thinks the two of you are together."

"But it's -my- life!" Willow cried, outrage. "Can't I date whoever I want?"

The smile on Cherry's face was sad. Far too sad for such an innocent question.
"Not in this world. Our world. Not with your cousin being who he is. He has the
-right- to hurt any member of his pack that disobeys him. And dating you would
be disobeying."

"I could kick Richard's ass." Willow muttered, closing her eyes tight. She
couldn't believe this. Jason would get hurt if she dated him and it just so
happened she wanted to date him. And it appeared to be mutual.

Cherry laughed outright. "Now -there's- something I'd like to see. Someone
kicking Richard's ass. Let alone a woman."

"Don't tempt me." The red head smirked.

And then she felt it. A feeling of anger and desire so overwhelming that it
made her fall to her knees. She heard cries, screams, come from inside the
club. There were too many footsteps on the pavement, people were running. She
was aware of Cherry kneeling next to her, but little else. She hurt.

"C'mon, Willow. You need to get up."

She recognized the voice as Anita's. Heard the worry in it. Despite that she
couldn't manage to get to her feet without help from both Cherry and Vivian.
She leaned into the two women, her head pounding. "Wh- What happened?"

"Psychic backlash." Anita murmured, her eyes scanning the rapidly emptying
street. The presence was gone, but it had undeniably been the same one from the
night before. He had been out here, probable within a block of the club. It was
too much to hope that he hadn't seen Willow. Too much to even pray for. She had
to act and think as though he had, and plan for the worst. She was still wobbly
on her feet, but nowhere near as bad as the young woman next to her. It could
have been due to the witch's lack of shielding, but Anita couldn't be sure. Gun
drawn, she led them down the street, to her car. Only once they were all safely
inside and the motor was started, ready to go, did she put it away.

She sped off towards Richard's house, unable to shake the feeling that the
bogeyman was following them.

And boy was he mad.

~*~Part Nineteen~*~

Richard answered the knock on his front door, knowing before he opened it who would be on the other side. Anita. One third of the little Triumverate of Hell he had gotten himself into. What had it all been about back then? Gaining power, that's what. Enough power to back down Marcus without having to kill him. But he'd had to anyway. And Anita had seen it and went running to Jean-Claude.

And hadn't everything spiraled out of control at that point?

He opened the door, surprised to see not only Anita, but Cherry and Vivian as well. And, slung between them like a doll, Willow? "What happened?" His voice was demanding, accusing, and the glaring, icy look he had was completely for Anita.

"Chill, Richard." Anita frowned. "Lets get her to her room and then I'll explain everything. For once this -isn't- my fault."

"I'll believe that when I hear it." Richard growled, closing the door behind them. He took Willow from Cherry and Vivian, lifting her tiny frame into his arms without a care that she would wonder about his strength. She seemed so fragile, so pale, laying there with her eyes closed. Her breathing was deep and shallow, the same kind that a sleeper would have. The dark circles under her eyes indicated something more than just tiredness, though; this looked more like an utter and complete lack of energy.

He carried her gently down the hall, to the guest room, laying her on the bed she had used as her own since the night she had come to his city. He pulled the comforter up over her sleeping form. She looked so angelic. Her red hair was fanned out on the pillow, eyes shut tight, as though she were trying to block out the world. It was hard to believe that she was a witch. Difficult to comprehend that she had lived her entire life on a Hellmouth and had seen and battled things that he had assumed she would never even have heard of. And now she was here, sleeping as though not a thing in the world could wake her up.

What in the Hell could have happened?

His beast lurched to the surface, brought on by sudden, intense anger. Anita had taken Willow out for a girl's night. Anita and Cherry and Vivian. They were all fine but Willow was out cold. That led him to believe that Anita had something to do with it all, despite the fact that she claimed it wasn't her fault this once. He clenched his hands into fists until he felt blood begin to trickle from the tiny half-circles he was making in his palms with his fingernails. It wasn't necessary for him to look in a mirror to know that his eyes were no longer brown but yellow-gold.

Turning from the bed, Richard strode angrily from the room, his long steps bringing him to the living room quickly. He came to a stop behind the couch, glaring downwards at Anita. His power spilled through the room and he heard Cherry and Vivian gasp. They instinctively huddled closer together and away from him, their frightened eyes darting towards Anita.

"Knock it off, Richard." Anita sighed, not even turning around. She knew what she would find if she did - her ex in full-out over protective cousin mode. "I already told you this wasn't my fault."

"And I'm supposed to believe you?" Even to his own ears his voice sounded low, dangerous. It was one step short of a growl. The last remaining shred of reason he had kept him holding tooth and nail to his humanity, forbidding his beast to come out.

"No." Anita snapped, turning around so that she could give him a look so full of incredulous disdain that he took a step back. "You're supposed to act like you have some common sense and at least hear me out before you act like this." She glared at him. "Now - do you want me to tell you what happened or do you want me to leave? Think quick. My patience is at an end."

Richard took a deep breath, counting to twenty slowly. By the time he released the held air he was only moderately more calm. He stepped around the couch, sitting across the room from Anita. His eyes were still blazing with fury. "Go ahead. Tell me how this isn't your fault."

The Executioner, Bolverk of the Thronos Rokke clan, shook her head. Her own eyes were lit from within with anger. The false beast she carried within herself, a product of the side-effects of the marks, was surfacing, brought on by Richard's anger and her own irritation with the situation. "I'm not going to tell you a damn thing until you get that chip off your shoulder. I didn't do this to her. I didn't cause it. I wasn't even near her when it happened." Her voice was growing louder with every word. "Stop blaming me for every bad thing that happens in your life, Richard."

They stared at each other, inhuman eyes meeting equally inhuman eyes. Finally he nodded, breaking the impasse they had come to. "Fine." He sighed; tired and dejected. "Tell me what happened? Why is she sleeping so hard? Where did you take her?"

Anita held up a hand, stopping any other questions that might have poured from his overeager mouth. "One thing at a time. I have to go back a little. To two nights ago. I was called in to look at a body. She was killed by what I think was magic and maybe a rogue shifter."

"Rogue shifter?" Richard asked, his eyebrows going up. "Why didn't you come to me with that?"

She didn't really have an answer to that. After all, she had meant to ask him if he had heard something about anything odd happening in the shifter community. In the end she had avoided it, not wanting to be near him long enough to discuss it. Despite everything that had happened between them, it was still hard to be near him. Still hard to sit in the same room with him and not want to cuddle or kiss. Hell, he was one of the only men to ever make her -want- to make out. She shrugged, giving him an even look.

"Last night there was another one. She matched the same basic profile of the first - red hair, green eyes, pale skin."

Richard paled. "They both look like Willow?"

Anita nodded. "I still want to believe that it's just coincidence, Richard." The necromancer frowned. "She's only been here for a week. I don't want her to get caught up in something like this. She seems - nice." And for once, Anita meant it. The witch did seem nice. Too nice and sensible to be related to a hothead like Richard. She didn't want the girl to be the target of this creature's wrath.

"When were you going to tell me about this?" He asked softly. His eyes were sad.

"Tonight? Tomorrow night? Hell, Richard. I don't know." Her own voice was equally soft, her own eyes filled with the same sadness. "I didn't want to worry you. Not when its something I'll have to deal with anyway."

"You think I won't protect her?" His head shot up, the amber of his beast bleeding back into his eyes.

"No - I know you will." Anita smiled sadly. "I just didn't want you to have to do that."

They stared at each other, a wealth of words being spoken even though no one was saying a thing. She didn't want him to have to kill someone, something, if it wasn't necessary. If it were possible for her to do her job, work the evil of the pack, and take care of this, she wanted it to be so. Let him worry about consoling Willow when she woke up scared and confused. This was her goal - to make sure Richard didn't have to kill again; to make sure that he didn't have to fall further down that pit of monstrosity that he was so scared of when it was already too late to save herself.

Richard nodded, looking away. "So what happened tonight?"

"We were at Guilty Pleasures."

"You took her to a strip club?!?"

"Can we stay on topic here?" Anita frowned. "Remember? Homicidal shifter and your cousin?"

He glared daggers at her. They would talk about this later. A strip club was not the place for his cousin.

"Anyway." Anita continued. "She went outside with Cherry for some fresh air. I was still inside with Vivian. And then we felt him." She shrugged. "It's hard to describe. He can throw out his emotions, make every sensitive near him feel it. Willow doesn't shield herself, I don't think she knows how. It hit her -hard-."

"Did you see him? Deal with him?"

Anita shook her head. "I was too worried about getting her out of there before he noticed her."

"It was too late. Wasn't it?"

She nodded. "I'm pretty sure he already saw her. That's probably what sparked off his emotional 'outburst'." Her eyes were pleading. "Have Jamil and Shang-Da come over. Maybe some of the other pack. This guy is strong, Richard. I - "

Richard saw her shiver; saw the worry in her eyes. "Are you scared?"

"Me? Nah." She laughed, but the sound was empty. This creature, whatever it was, chilled her to the bone. "Make up whatever excuses you need, but bring some more people over here. Just to be safe. I don't think we were followed but - "

"He'll still be looking for her." Richard agreed. "I'll call some people."

Anita nodded. "Good." She glanced at Cherry and Vivian and then back at Richard. "Come outside with me for a minute?"

He didn't argue, not even one word. They walked out to his porch and shut the door. "What did you need to talk to me about that you didn't want them to hear?" He kept his voice low so that the two leopards in the house wouldn't be able to hear.

"You're stifling her, Richard." Anita sighed. "Willow isn't a baby no more than you are. She's been through Hell - I can tell just by looking in her eyes. If you're not careful you're going to smother her until she runs back home. And I'm sure that's not what you want."

Richard closed his eyes, leaning his head on one of the whitewashed supports of the porch. He sighed, the sound filled with sadness. "I know… I just don't want to loose her. I don't want to see her get caught up in my world."

"Isn't that inevitable? If you really want her around she's going to get caught up eventually. Don't be stupid, Richard." She laid a hand on his arm, running her thumb up and down his skin in a soothing motion. And then she went back inside to check on Willow.

Leaving Richard to his thoughts.

~*~Part Twenty~*~

Willow woke slowly. Very slowly. But the voices carrying through the door of her bedroom wouldn't stop their incessant murmuring. It was enough to drive a tired witch nuts. She yawned, stretching, only to discover that the muscles in her body were all sore, as though she had just run a marathon or lifted weights. That wasn't the case, though. One of the last things she could remember was being herded into Anita's car like something was chasing them.

But nothing had been chasing them. Had it?

She closed her eyes, leaning her head back into the soft pillows. Flashes of the night ran through her mind. Nathaniel. Anita finding out about what she knew. Standing outside Guilty Pleasures with Cherry. A feeling of anger, rage, excitement so strong that it made her cringe and fall over. She could remember feeling like the emotions were going to tear her inside out, rend her into tiny pieces just from their strength in her mind. They invaded every inch of her body, leaving her weak and powerless.

And now she was back in Richard's house, in bed, feeling like she'd just be ran through the wringer not once, but twice.

Maybe even a third time.

A light knock on her door drew her out of the thoughts that had been plaguing her. She licked her lips, surprised to find them dry, like she was dehydrated. Had her entire body decided to shut down from that psychic backlash? "Come in." Why was she not surprised that her voice was barely a whisper?

Her moon brightened considerably when she caught a glimpse of the person standing on the other side of the door. Jason. "Hey." He grinned, shutting the door behind him. The others were still out in the living room talking about the new threat to the city and, they assumed since it was a shifter, the pack as well. Hopefully no one would notice that he had slipped away and come back here. If they did he could always use the excuse that he was just checking on Willow.

"Hey yourself." She smiled back.

He stood next to the bed, unsure of what to do, where to sit. Around all other women he had ever met he was suave, at least he wanted to think he was. Why around her was he so nervous? She looked so pale laying there in the bed, and the dark circles under her eyes spoke volumes of what her body had been through that night. He wanted to hug her, touch her to verify for himself that she was, in fact, okay. Maybe the whole touchy feely stuff was a lycanthrope thing. He knew he hadn't been like this before he was infected. But did that really matter?

"Sit next to me?"

Jason met her eyes and then looked down at her hand, where she was patting the bed. He debated it for a moment. Richard wouldn't like it if he walked in and found him sitting on the bed Willow was resting in. Hell, for that matter he wouldn't like it if he walked in and found him in there to begin with. Might as well seal his fate and sit next to her. The look in her eyes said she needed the comfort of having someone near her.

"So," Willow began slowly, her eyes moving over Jason in the near-darkness of the room. The only light there was filtered in through the curtains, moonlight. How many more days were there until the full moon? Until Jason would become what he truly was? Would she ever get to see him like that? As a werewolf? The idea both frightened and excited her. "Richard having a party out there?"

The blonde shook his head, looking in the direction she had indicated with her eyes. "They're discussing the creature that attacked you guys tonight."

"It wasn't really an attack." Willow protested.

He shook his head. "Anita disagrees. She thinks it was just a different type of attack. A way of throwing everyone off." He took a deep breath, meeting her eyes head on. "Two women have died already."

"Tonight?" The red head asked, surprised. Had someone really died there, at the club?

"Not tonight."

Willow frowned. She struggled into a sitting position, sighing with relief when Jason helped her up. He shifted the pillows behind her, propping her up as it were. She gave him a smile, but something in his eyes stopped her. "What aren't you telling me, Jason?"

He sighed. "Not sure I should tell you this."

"Go on." Willow pleaded. Something was wrong; something more than what he was telling her. And she needed to know what it was.

"The two women that were killed." He began. "They - well - they looked a lot like you. Red hair, green eyes, the works."

She gasped, unable to contain her shock. Then the reality of his words hit her; their meaning utterly clear. "You guys think its after me?"

"Anita says it's too much of a coincidence that this started happening right after you came to town. That's one of the other reasons we're all here. To protect you."

"Protect me?" Willow asked dumbly. She shook her head. "No. I'm not going to have you all putting yourself in danger because of me!" She struggled with the blankets on the bed, trying to free herself. She was going to march right out there and give Richard a piece of her mind. She didn't need him and his friends, pack, trying to protect her. An entire lifetime on the Hellmouth hadn't left her defenseless. If this thing was after her they were just putting themselves in the line of fire.

And how would she feel if any of them got hurt?

"No." Jason's voice was strong, more demanding than he had ever allowed himself to be. "Let Richard do his job. This thing may be a rogue shapeshifter. It's his duty to not only protect you but hunt it down as well."

"So - what?" She frowned, stilling her motions. "I'm just supposed to sit around and let him put other people, including himself, in danger for me?" She shook her head. "No. I already lost someone important to me because she was trying to save me."

'Us'. She reminded herself. 'Buffy died saving everyone. Not just me.' She felt tears in her eyes. 'I won't let anyone else get hurt trying to 'save' me. I'm not worth it.'

"Hey. None of that." Jason murmured. The scent of her tears was heavy in the air, like a salty perfume. He could taste them in the back of his mouth, bitter just like the emotion that created them. Before he could even question the consequences of his actions he had gathered her in his arms, letting her cry. It only took a minute for her to cry herself out. Only a minute for her to spend whatever pent up sadness she had locked away inside herself.

And then he did the unthinkable.

The one action that could trigger a whole chain of events ending with his own death.

He kissed her.

The kiss was long, deep. It was filled with emotions he couldn't name. A fierce craving inside each of them, something primal and raw. He had only known for her a few short days and already he was ready to lay down his life for her if he had to. If Richard found out he'd probably end up doing just that - dying for her. Was this what it felt like to meet 'the one'? Your soulmate? Did love feel like you would be happy to die just knowing that you had spent your last moment in your lover's arms?

She pulled away first, licking her lips. "Sorry. My mouth is dry. Hard to kiss like this."

Jason nodded. "I can go get you some water if you like?"

Willow nodded, a lazy smile on her face. Kissing him had been everything she could have wanted, sweet and hard at the same time. Just the right mix of passion and pleasure. "If you don't mind?"

"'Course not." He grinned, leaning in for another quick kiss on her lips before he stood up. "I'll be right back. You just lay there and rest, okay?"

"Hurry back." She whispered, watching him leave the room. The wink he tossed over his shoulder was all the evidence she needed that he'd heard her. She leaned back on the pillows and waited for him to come back, a smile on her face.

~*~Part Twenty-One~*~

Jason slipped out of Willow’s room, his tennis shoes making little sound on the carpet of the hallway. The memory of the kiss he had just shared with the red head lingered; his lips tingling. It had been sweet, just like her. He could hear the others talking still in the living room, their voices a nearly constant babble in the background. They were talking about the creature, the supposed rogue lycanthrope that appeared to have mental powers, and about how best to protect Willow.

Did Richard realize Willow didn’t want him to protect her?

Would he care if he knew?

The blonde shook his head at his own question, padding softly into the kitchen and filling up a glass with ice. He took a bottle of water from the refrigerator, pouring it over the cubes. The ice crackled and snapped under the sudden rush of water.

"Where have you been?"

Jason turned, fear showing in his eyes. His Ulfric looked pissed. More than pissed. He looked furious. And Jason got the sneaking suspicion that the question was rhetorical. Richard already knew where he’d been, could probably smell the bittersweet scent of Willow’s tears on him. "I was checking on Willow." He admitted, honest. "She asked me to get her some water."

Richard looked at the glass on the table, half full, and the bottle in Jason’s hands. It seemed innocent enough. But why did Jason feel the need to check on her in the first place? Hadn’t he made it clear that Jason wasn’t to form any feelings of any kind towards the red head? So why did Jason smell like he had been doing more than just ‘checking on her’? He could smell the sweet odor of Willow’s skin and the salty one of her tears. "I thought I warned you, Jason."

Richard’s voice was a growl and Jason felt his fear double. This was bad. Worse than bad, even. The little self-control the alpha wolf usually had over himself was gone. Most likely due to the stress of everything Anita had told him. But it was more than that. Jason had been warned and he had done it anyway. He could still remember the softness of her lips under his, their pliant form. Despite Richard’s warning and one given to him by Sylvie as well, he had done it.

He had fallen for Willow.

In the doorway he could see Anita. She had her hand on her gun. Would she protect him from Richard? Even if she did it tonight, she couldn’t protect him forever. He met his Ulfric’s eyes, trying not to flinch under their hard amber gaze.

~*~*~

Willow stared up at the ceiling. What was taking Jason so long? The kitchen was only a few yards down the hall. She sighed, swinging her legs over the side of her bed. Her toes were cold and she made a mental note to find a pair of socks to put on before she got back in bed. The pantyhose she was wearing just didn’t provide any protection from the elements.

The second she opened her door she knew something was wrong. Anita was standing in the doorway of the kitchen, hand on the gun holstered overtop of her clothing. A jacket had hid the gun during their trip to Guilty Pleasures earlier that evening. Thinking back on it, Willow wondered why the item check girl had been more worried about crosses than the gun. Seemed almost silly.

There were others gathered in the hallway but they hadn’t moved to the doorway. Most of them she recognized; some she didn’t. But they were all shifters. She
could tell by the awkward roll of energy in the house. It came to her that these people were most likely Richard’s pack members, the ones that were supposed to be keeping her safe. Despite the fact that she knew it was a slim chance they could get seriously injured from that, she didn’t want it happening in the first place. No one needed to get hurt ‘protecting’ her. Not when she was quite capable of doing it herself.

She made her way out into the hallway, earning herself a glance from Anita. The older woman shook her head but didn’t motion for her to stay where she was.

So Willow kept walking.

She could hear Richard’s voice, telling someone that he had warned them. And then she heard Jason acknowledge that fact. Her heart fell to somewhere near her feet. This was because of her, wasn’t it? From the tone of Richard’s voice, very low and growly, she knew he was upset, enraged would probably even be a good word for it. She stepped to the doorway, surprised to see that the men were still pretty far apart. At least it hadn’t come to blows yet.

"I warned you about Willow. And you went ahead and got close to her anyway." Richard continued. Willow felt her own anger rise up. Despite the fact that she was still weak on her feet, she knew she could give Richard a run for his money if he tried to lay a hand on Jason.

She took a step into the kitchen

"Stop this."

"Go back to bed, Willow." Richard muttered, without turning around. "You need to be resting."

"No."

He turned then, his eyes fading to brown at the last moment. "Willow."

"-What- Richard?" She snapped, her own eyes taking on a dangerous dark color as her anger filled her to the brim. Too many times in her life had people tried to do what they felt was ‘right’ for her. She had thought coming to St. Louis was a gift from her Goddess, but it was rapidly turning into a nightmare. "You want me to go away so you can go back to berating Jason for daring to care about me?"

"Willow, you don’t understand –"

"You’re right!" She was in full fury now. A small smile tugged at her lips when Richard took a step back. She knew what she would look like at that moment. Black, blazing eyes. It was a side-effect of the magic she had allowed herself to wield. No more could she be casually irate – now it was more of a thing of dramatic proportions, something to send her would-be irritators into fits of fear.

"You’re right." She repeated, closing the distance between them. A sound behind her alerted her to the fact that Jamil had entered the room. She turned then, giving him a stern glare. "I wouldn’t come closer if I were you."

"Jamil. Stay over there." Richard backed up her threat with an order of his own. Having Jamil try to protect him from his own cousin would only end up with Willow getting hurt. At least, that’s what he would have assumed five minutes ago. Now he wasn’t really sure. She was crackling with power, with an energy that he couldn’t comprehend, couldn’t put a name to. Hadn’t she said that she had helped banish a Hell Goddess? What kind of power did his cousin actually command. "Willow –"

"Don’t." She stopped him before he could say anything else. "You said I don’t understand, Richard." His name was spat out of her mouth, like a bad taste that she longed to get rid of. "And I agree. I don’t understand. Are you so worried that Jason and I will get close and, oh my goddess, I may end up fucking him? Because we couldn’t have your sweet, perfect little Willow actually engaging in carnal relations with a man, could we?"

There was a spattering of laughter behind her and, if she hadn’t been quite to furious, Willow may have joined them. The look on her cousin’s face was priceless. Was it the subject or the fact that she had cussed? She didn’t know and didn’t stop to ask, instead choosing to plow right in to her next accusation, irregardless of the consequences. The power of the lycanthropes behind her was heady and it mingled with her own, giving her a courage she might not otherwise have felt.

"Or," She began again, slowly, holding up a hand when he made a move as if to say something. "Is it because he’s a werewolf? Because from where I’m standing,
Richie, that seems awfully hypocritical of you."

And then she turned, pushing past the shocked and startled bodies of his pack mates, and wandering out into the night air. The stockings didn’t provide much protection from the wet grass but she didn’t care.

She just didn’t want to be near Richard.

~*~Part Twenty-Two~*~

The night air was cool on Willow's skin, penetrating quickly into the dressy club clothes she had been wearing when she left earlier that night. It bit through to her skin, chilling her. Her toes felt cold, too, the pantyhose being little protection against the dew-chilled grass. She sighed, stopping and turning back to the house.

Richard was in there, probably still reeling from her little revelation. Hopefully he was too confused and shocked to mess with Jason anymore tonight. She didn't want to go back in there and be forced to save him after dropping a bomb like that. Better to leave her cousin alone for a while and let him think things through.

'Though if I even -think- he's laying a hand on Jason I will go in there and show him what I learned on the Hellmouth. I'll blast him and that overbearing Jamil guy straight to the next town."

"I don't think that will be necessary."

Willow whirled, defensive. She saw who had come up behind her and let out a breath. "Cherry. You scared me."

The wereleopard raised an eyebrow. "You should be more careful. With that thing on the loose its probably not safe for you out here."

"So they sent you to protect me?" Willow grinned.

"No one else wanted the job. They're terrified of you. Except for Richard and Jason and Anita. But Richard is - well - he's not in a good position to be protecting anyone right now."

~*~*~

"You told her?" Richard asked softly, his brown eyes focused on Jason.

"No." Jason murmured. "She figured it out all by herself. She's really smart like that."

"Not to mention the fact that she's sensitive." Anita smirked. "She could feel shifter auras everywhere she went. It was only a matter of time."

The Ulfric hung his head. "She must hate me; must think I'm a monster."

Anita shook her head, her face set in a mask of anger. "Get off of it, Richard. She doesn't hate you because you're a 'monster'. Though, if you lay a hand on Jason I can't guarantee that won't change. She -is-, however, royally pissed at you for hiding it from her and for trying to run her life." She sighed. "She still loves you. Still thinks of you as her cousin. Not as some demonic -thing-."

"God!" She screamed, glaring at him when he refused to look up at her. One little comment, nothing more than a revelation, from Willow and he was reduced to this? "When are you going to stop hating yourself for what you are? You project your own feelings of insecurity on everyone around you. Even her. Despite the fact that she idolizes you. You're the best thing to happen in her life in a long, long time, Richard. And you're blowing it. Do you want her to leave? To go back to that Hell she came from?"

"No." Richard muttered. He felt the eyes of his pack on him though they were still crowded in the hallway, in the living room. What Anita said was nothing less than the truth. He had spent so much time hating himself for what he'd become that he assumed everyone else felt the same way. "I don't want her to go back there. Ever."

"Well then," His former girlfriend, one time fiancé, sighed. "Maybe you need to get over this hangup once and for all. Be up front with her. And, for God's sake, let her date Jason if she wants. He may be an irrepressible flirt, but he isn't a monster. He wouldn't hurt her."

"Not intentionally." Richard admitted. "But we're different from -them-, Anita. You know that better than anyone. How can she be with him, see him shift, and still want him? He could hurt her in the heat of the moment. She could get scratched and - "

"And that would be her decision. It is -her- life; let her live it how she wants." Anita frowned. She stepped close enough to touch his arm, offering reassurance through the small part of the marks he kept open to her. The touch of his skin to hers was intoxicatingly painful. The look on his face was heartbreaking. She wanted to gather him in her arms and tell him that everything would be okay. But that wasn't possible. Not in their world; their lives. "You can't be her father, Richard. She doesn't need that."

He nodded, lifting his eyes from the floor to look at her. The smile he gave her was sad, but warm, the kind he used to give her once upon a time ago, when he knew she was right and didn't really want to admit it. He opened his mouth, prepared to agree with what she was saying, to at least try to be a bigger person about all of this.

And then he felt it.

Anger, pleasure, excitement. It all poured over him, knocking him literally to his knees.

"It's him…" Anita gasped, struggling to remain on her feet. The lesser wolves, the ones that didn't have any latent psychic ability, were practically unaffected. "Go outside! Find Willow and Cherry!"

They left down to the last one like lightning disappearing across the summer sky; leaving Richard and Anita still fighting to stand.

~*~*~

"It'll be okay." Cherry sighed, leading the red haired witch further away from the woods and a little closer to Richard's house. There was something in the air, an anticipatory feeling that she just couldn't shake. It made the skin on her arms crawl; made her see shadows where there weren't any. She would feel better if Willow would just agree to go back inside.

"Will it?" Willow asked sourly. "Or will I get on a place tomorrow morning and not bother with Richard again." She sighed. "I wanted this to be perfect. A new home for me. But - my own parents never told me what to do. Why would I let Richard?"

The wereleopard shrugged. The other woman had a good point. She had lived most of her life on her own and was quite capable of defending herself. Why would she want someone to suddenly step in and start dictating what she could and could not do?

A twig snapped nearby, the sound rocketing through the quiet night like a shotgun blast.

"What was that?" Willow looked around, alert. It was dark, the lights from the house not quite reaching this far. The moon was only half full and didn't give off but the faintest of silvery glows.

"We should get back to the house ---" Her words were cut off as a hand came out of the darkness, clawing her from her neck down. She screamed, the sound dying on her lips as another swipe hit her in the back of her head, knocking her to the ground in an unconscious heap.

"CHERRY!!!" Willow shrieked. She saw the creature coming at her; knew that this had to be the thing everyone in the house was so worried about. It was moving impossible quick. Before she could even gather her energy to mount a defense it was there, in front of her, its hot breathe in her face. It smelled like rotting things. The type that happened if trash was left out in the sun too long. She gagged, shutting her eyes for just a second.

And then there was darkness.

~*~Part Twenty-Three~*~

Willow moaned, shifting on the hard, dirty floor of the room she had been thrown into. To her extreme horror she had woken up in time for that feat and had found herself learning for the second time in one night what it felt like to have one's head be smashed in. True, her head wasn't literally smashed in. If that was the case she would almost certainly be dead already and not in so much unbearable pain. A concussion was probably very much a reality for her at this point. Her eyes struggled to stay focused.

Though she doubted there was much for her to see anyway. A single window on the wall, not even large enough for her to fit through assuming she wasn't bound hand and foot, allowed in just enough moonlight for her to see that the room was practically empty. Her hands, bound tightly behind her back, brushed against the floor and she noted that it was wood with an overlying layer of dirt and grime. Wherever she was, it certainly wasn't a five-star hotel.

Aside from the cramping she was experiencing in her wrists from the awkward angle of the ropes that were holding her, Willow could also feel her feet losing circulation quickly. Whoever had tied her up either wasn't very good at it or didn't care whether or not she was in good shape for very long. Her feet were numb, her head hurt, and her hands were going to be useless soon.

And then, the crippling blow to her hope and courage.

Summoning up the little strength she had, Willow began to channel it into the energy needed for a spell, something to get herself out of the room and, hopefully, into a better position to get back to Richard. If she could just get to him and Anita everything would be okay. They could help her take care of this, this, -thing- that had leapt out of the darkness and knocked her world upside down. She didn't want them to protect her - but some help would be nice. Especially right about now.

With that little energy she had pooled within her the witch reached out with her senses, casting silent prayers to the gods for help.

And found that she couldn't even do the simplest spell. Her magic was gone. Nullified. Now that she was looking for it and couldn't find it, she felt as though there was a horrible void inside of her. Like the magic had been covered with a big black hole of a blanket and locked away from her. She struggled at her bonds, her efforts increasing exponentially with the terror she was feeling. If she couldn't do a spell to at least let the others know where she was she was defenseless.

Powerless.

The thought hit her like a truck, slamming through her brain and making her gasp in horror. Many years had passed in her life since she had ever been truly powerless. She had worked so hard, getting powerful in her magicks, so that she would never again be in the type of situation she was in right now.

He was out there.

The thing.

The creature.

The one that she knew was going to kill her if a miracle didn't happen soon.

~*~*~

By the time Anita and Richard struggled to their feet, throwing off the effects of the psychic backlash that had rocked over them, all of the others had gathered on the lawn next to Richard's house. Vivian was kneeling next to Cherry, holding the other woman's hand and wiping at her forehead, tears in her eyes. The gashes on the Cherry's body were deep and she was bleeding badly. Nothing too life threatening for a lycanthrope, though. Just painful.

"Someone go call Doctor Lillian." Anita barked, dropping to her knees next to her wereleopard. "What happened?"

"It. Got. Her. Too strong. Couldn't fight." Cherry choked out from behind the pain she was feeling. Anita wanted to heal her, take the pain away. But if she did that she wouldn't be in any shape for what she needed to do next.

Find Richard's cousin.

She brushed a piece of hair out of Cherry's eyes soothingly. "It'll be okay. I promise. Just hang in there." And then Anita was standing, moving to Richard who hadn't said a word or took another step further than where she had left him. His eyes were haunted, dangerous.

"I can feel him now."

Anita raised an eyebrow at that. She didn't question it, though. If he could track the creature though some sort of furry bond with it, all the better. It meant they'd be able to find where Willow was that much sooner.

And, hopefully, she'd still be alive when they got there.

"If -" Richard stopped, tears glittering in his eyes despite the rage he was feeling inside. "If I get her back I'm going to make everything better."

The woman known as the Executioner gave him a long, hard look. "Including letting her date Jason if that's what she wants?"

He nodded emphatically, his hair falling into his eyes. "Even that. It doesn't matter. I promise."

Anita blinked. The promise wasn't made to her, she could tell. It was made to some higher power, as though he could bargain for his cousin's life. She didn't know - maybe he could. "You can feel him, right? So what're we waiting for?"

"Let me come?"

Richard turned, giving Jason a long, hard look. He nodded slowly, giving the younger man the permission he so desperately needed. "Fine. Jamil. Shang-Da. We're leaving now. The rest of you stay here. We'll be back soon."

And they left, piling into Richard's jeep. It was a tight fit, but they managed. They had to.

Willow needed them.

~*~*~

She heard the lock in the door click, the sound of heavy toenails on the floor.

'Not nails.' She corrected herself, scooting back as best she could to further herself from the door. 'Claws. He's a beast.'

The door opened, artificial light flooding in from a source she couldn't make out. His frame took up almost the entire doorway, blocking most of the light. The little that did come through burned at her eyes. They were too used to the darkness for such a sudden influx of brightness. She shrank back instinctively, earning herself a chuckle from her captor.

"Such pretty red hair." He growled. "Such fire in the blood. I'm going to enjoy eating you. Eating your heart. Your very soul. I will have it -all-."

Willow shivered. She could see the gleam of the knife in his hand, the light from the doorway reflecting off of it. Only now did the true desperation of her situation set in. She screamed around the gag in her mouth, realizing it was pointless.

"Nice trinket, wouldn't you say?"

Again that growling lisp of a voice. But now he was pointing at her chest. She looked down as best she could and saw the flash of metal. An amulet. Her eyes widened in recognition.

"That's right, little girl. That's why you can't cast at me. Can't save yourself. Poor little Red.?" He was close enough now that she could see his face, his teeth snapping together in the darkness. "Gonna get eaten by the big bad wolf. Gonna take my time with you. I've waited so long."

His cackling laughter turned into howls of joy and Willow felt terror creep across her skin, mingling with the fluxes of power that were being thrown off of his body in waves. Whatever he was, he wasn't a normal werewolf. He was something else. An abomination. He had power of his own, aside from the power of being a lycanthrope.

In short, he was bad news.

And she was stuck in a small room with him, bound and gagged, with an amulet that prevented her from defending herself in the only way she could. It all boiled down to one thing, and as she saw the knife move through the air she braced for the pain of the blade.

She was in trouble.

~*~Part Twenty-Four~*~

The atmosphere inside the jeep was tense. No one spoke. If a null had been sitting in the car with them at that moment even -they- would have been able to feel that something wasn't quite right with the gathered assemblage of four men and one woman. They were beyond tense and that feeling radiated into the air in waves that were almost visible, definitely palatable.

Richard drove as though he were being chased by a million demons straight out of Hell itself. He refused to let himself think of what could have already happened to his cousin and concentrated only on saving her. As long as he still believed she was alive, he still had something to live for himself. If she was dead he would seek his revenge and then probably find a nice little hole to crawl up in and just die. Her death would mean his ultimate failure in life.

And he didn't know if he'd ever be able to recover from that.

He honed in on the sense of the creature, using it to make his way through the streets and into one of the less desirable districts in the city. These were the warehouses that hadn't been used in decades - the ones that needed to be torn down but that no one had really found an excuse to make it happen yet. It was, admittedly, just the type of place he would think that a lowlife would take a poor, innocent girl.

A sudden spike in the energy he was associating with the creature brought him to a screeching stop in front of one of the smaller buildings. It was a good choice of a hiding spot. He never would have looked here. Maybe the larger warehouses, the ones filled with rooms to hide and cower in, but not such a small office-like structure.

He stepped up to the door of the building, not stopping to see if anyone was behind him, and opened it. Already he could hear the sound of someone screaming. It was muffled, though, as if through a gag. He could recognize the voice, though. It was Willow. He took off, tearing through the small building towards the noise, and praying that he made it in time.

~*~*~

The knife was sharp. So sharp, in fact, that it took Willow almost a minute to realize she'd even been cut. Then, as the air began to hit the neat slice that had been made down her chest, she screamed. It stung so badly. Pain unlike any she had ever known before lanced through her. The skin felt like hot pokers had been set against it in ever area that the knife touched. Even if she made it through this alive she would be scarred forever in those places. Stitches were great, but these cuts were long and deep.

She could see the creature's face in the darkness. Its eyes glowed with a dim yellow light, as though shining from the inside out. Teeth snapped together with every pass he made in front of her. It was taking all of his willpower not to drop down and feed from her skin. The smell of her blood was sharp in the air. It had to be a powerful temptation to him. How long would it be until he moved from just cutting her up to sinking his teeth into her and tearing out her flesh?

In other words, how much longer did she have to live?

And then he stopped pacing, turning his back to her. The knife was held loosely in his hand. She could see him tilt his head to the side, as though listening to something that she couldn't hear.

"We have visitors."

She felt her heart rise form where it had been in her shoes, to right about stomach area; hope making her feel sick. Or was it pain that was making her feel this sick? Did it really matter? Someone was here. Someone was going to save her.

Maybe.

"You wait here." He growled. She could almost imagine him smiling at the sarcastic remark. Of course she was going to wait here. "I'll be right back."

Willow watched him go, praying with all her might for a miracle.

~*~*~

He knew the building better than the trespassers. While they were wandering the back rooms of the small building, looking for where he had hid the girl, he was doubling back on them.

The dark one fell first, going down in a splatter of blood. He had been stupid to get separated from the rest of the group. For now he could live. When the night was over and the red head had given up her power, then the dark one would be given a chance to submit to him as the new Ulfric.

Next came the Asian one. He had stepped away from the others for just a moment to look in a room across the hall. A blow to the back of his head was all it took. The creature licked at his claws, tasting the sweet blood that coated them - a mixture of the witch, the dark skinned werewolf and this one.

They were getting too close to his room now. The room that he had his prize in. The room that contained the secret to all the power he could ever want or need if what that ancient old hag had told him before she died was true. Eating of her heart would imbibe him with all the power he could ever hope for. More than he had contained as a human witch and more than he had acquired as an alpha werewolf. It would be enough power to unite the wolves of the world and to crush the humans beneath his feet. He'd make them all pay.

All of them.

But first he needed to take care of these trespassers.

Moving quietly wasn't an option with the last of the group. They would feel him the second he got close to them. So he chose speed and brute force instead. As they neared the doorway of the room his lovely witch was in, he slammed into their group full on with his body, knocking the Executioner to the floor, stunned. The lesser of the wolves, a blonde he didn't recognize, went skidding through the open doorway and into the room, hid body hitting the wall with stunning force.

Not stopping for even a moment, the creature jumped on Richard, his claws finding flesh with the first swipe. The scent of lycanthrope blood mixed in with the already heady scent of the witch's blood, sending the savage beast into a berserk trance. He swung blindly at Richard, snarling in anger. He had come to take away the witch and that just couldn't be allowed to happen. There was no way anyone was going to destroy his chances of ultimate power and domination. Not now that he had come so far.

Power was within reach and no one was going to take it away.

~*~*~

Willow had seen her cousin, Anita and Jason come into the doorway and then she had seen the creature, the thing of her nightmares, come barreling into them without a care in the world. Anita had been pushed out of sight, but the red head assumed she was hurt since the woman didn't appear again. Jason had went flying, crashing into the wall next to her. He was still, unmoving. Only the sound of his light breathing alerted her to the fact that he was still alive.

Her eyes were torn from Jason and to her cousin as the sound of growling snarls filled the air. She watched, eyes wide with horror, as the creature took a swipe at Richard's chest, claws slicing into flesh like a hot knife through warm butter. She could see blood well to the surface, staining the now ragged edges of his shirt. Richard's hands came up to lock onto the creature's wrists and now she could see that at least that part of him had already changed. His own razor sharp claws pierced the soft skin of the creature's wrists, slowing him.

Even if only for a moment.

With a burst of speed and strength she wouldn't have thought possible, the creature threw off Richard, sending him crashing into the wall. He laid there, stunned, for only a moment before staggering to his feet again. His eyes flickered to hers and she nodded, giving the only encouragement she could in her bound and gagged state.

A movement behind the two fighting werewolves caught her eye and she saw Anita, gun drawn, standing in the doorway. Well, leaning in the doorway was more like it. The normally tough woman seemed to be using the doorframe to brace her own unsteady feet. From the look of frustration on her face Willow knew that she wasn't going to be able to help much. It was just too difficult to get a clear shot with the two of them moving around so much.

"Willow! Can't you do something?" Anita called above the snarling, meeting the red head's eyes.

Willow shook her head, looking down at the amulet and then back at Anita. Amulet. Anita. Her eyes were frantic with the need for Anita to get her point, to understand.

And she did.

But there wasn't a way for her to get past Richard and the creature.

"Jason!" Anita called. "Wake up you little pervert. Nap time is over!!! Jason!!"

The witch scooted closer to the unconscious form of the young werewolf, jostling him with her body as best she could. After what seemed like forever, with the sound of pain and fighting in the background, Jason opened groggy eyes to look up at her.

"Let me sleep just five more minutes, k?" He laid his head back down, eyes closing.

"Don't you dare, Jason!" Anita shrieked. Her vantage was better than Willow's and she knew that Richard was slowly losing this battle. There was no way she could get a clear shot and, with the silver bullets in her gun, a bad shot could easily kill Richard. Which would then, in turn, kill both herself and Jean-Claude through the marks. "Get that necklace off of Willow -now-."

Willow watched the creature turn towards her, hearing Anita's shout. She saw Jason's hand come up, grabbing hold of the amulet that was keeping her bound. He tugged as the creature struggled free of Richard's grasp. The clasp holding the amulet in place snapped easily. The blackness lifted off of her soul as the amulet fell to the ground.

And then she was free.

~*~Part Twenty-Five~*~

He knew he was in trouble the second he heard the human woman yell for the little blonde werewolf to take off the witch's binding amulet. Even if he had wanted to, though, it was too late to run. Too late to get out of the building and far away from the fury that was about to be unleashed. His only chance would be to stop them from getting the amulet off of her. He couldn't even hope to win if she was loosed.

Another step towards her and then she was free and he felt true fear for the first time. The ropes holding her fell away as simply as though she had willed it to happen. And when she looked at him her eyes were black as the night sky - except there were no stars within them to give temporary relief to the blackness. No, these eyes were pitch black, devoid of any and all color. They were the eyes of a woman filled with unthinkable power.

The little magic he knew was of no use to him at that moment. That magic was only good for the spell he had needed to steal her power. It wouldn't do him any good if she were alive and prepared for his attack. In fact, it was no protection at all. Not an offense or a defense - it was merely a functionality spell.

He was, in other words, doomed.

~*~*~

Willow watched the creature with a look of pure hate in her eyes. He was standing there, as though afraid to take another step.

"What's the matter?" She asked quietly, taking a step towards him. "Afraid of a little, human woman?"

Out of the corner of her eye she could see Anita making her way around the wall to Jason. Good. Let her tend to him while she dealt with this -thing- that had invaded their lives and wreaked havoc. She extended her magic out over the rest of the building. There were two others, also hurt, but they would live. No one had died.

Except those two girls before her.

She took another step forward, smirking when the creature stumbled back a step. "You can't run, you know. I can find you wherever you go." A cruel smile twisted up the corner of her mouth. "You see this." One red fingernail pointed at the line of blood on her chest. "I'll carry this with me until the day I die. I will never be free of you. Want to know how it feels?"

With one lightning quick gesture she had slashed him with the power of her mind alone. The cut was deep, much deeper than what he had done to her. She knew it had to hurt like a bitch but he didn't cry out.

"Gonna be strong?" She whispered. "How strong will you be when I start cutting you up piece by little piece?"

"Willow…"

She didn't turn her gaze from the creature, not trusting him enough to let her guard down even for an instant. "Yes, Richie."

"This is cruel. Let the pack bring him to justice for what he did."

"Why?" She asked, her voice cold. The magic was getting the better of her, driving her to do things that she knew would be wrong. Horrible thoughts skittered through her head, begging her to tear the vile thing up from the inside out. Could she do that? Bring his insides to the outside and vice versa? Was that kind of power within her? For tonight she really believed it was, whether or not she wanted it to be. "He wronged me. Not your pack. Don't I have a right to do with him what I want?"

Richard paled at that, sliding down the wall behind him to sit on the floor. He could feel himself growing weaker by the moment. Shifting was one of the only choices he had to heal himself at this point, but he didn't want to do that in front of Willow. Not if he still had a choice. She may know what he is, but it would be an entirely different thing to be faced with it up close and personal. Especially after what she had already been through today.

But she was right. Without even meaning to, she had called him on a lukoi rule. The one who had been wronged was the one who got to dole out the punishment. In a crime such as this, the punishment would be death. And it was his innocent little cousin who had the right to hand down that sentence.

'Not so innocent.' He reminded himself groggily, the loss of blood getting to him. 'Not innocent by far.'

And amazingly, that thought didn't bother him nearly so much as it might once have. He was happy to just have her alive and safe.

"Anita? Is Richard okay?" Willow called out, her eyes still fixed on the creature. It wasn't moving or even blinking. Had it somehow tranced out? She hoped not. The pain she was going to inflict needed a very much awake participant. No trancers allowed.

Anita looked up from where she was tending to Jason. Her face went pale at the sight of Richard, eyes shut, leaning against the wall. He had his arm cradled against his chest, holding it as though something had broken. The gash across his chest looked awful and blood was seeping from it at a regular pace. "Shift, Richard! Don't be so fucking stubborn! Do it or I will tear it out of you!"

Willow's eyes widened at that. She didn't get a chance to find out the outcome of Richard's decision, though, because the creature chose that moment to come out of its self-induced trance. It rushed towards her. Without even moving a muscle she grabbed it up, holding it in the air, still an easy five feet from her. It was clawing, ripping into the air with nails that Willow knew would be sharp enough to tear her skin to ribbons. Not to mention the fact that one little prick would make her turn furry with the next full moon.

She took a step back, regarding the werewolf-hybrid with cold eyes. "You have hurt me. You have hurt those I care for. And you have killed two perfectly innocent women. For that you will pay." She looked into its inhuman eyes, looking for the same spark of humanity and intelligence she had seen in Zane when he was in leopard form.

She found none.

"I could do this slow and make you feel the pain that your victims felt. I could make you hear their cries, I could bring their ghosts to haunt you until you closed your eyes for the final time." She walked around him, her mental knives slashing at his skin. Blood dripped in heavy drops onto the floor. Power flooded through the room and she knew without looking that her cousin had shifted. Good. Apparently that would heal him and that was definitely a good thing.

"Or I could do it fast. Tear the fur from your body and make a rug with it for my living room floor."

She stopped walking, meeting his eyes again. "But, in the end, the result would be the same. You'd be dead and I won't feel any better. It won't take back the pain you've caused and it won't bring those girls back from the dead."

Shrugging, the witch whispered a word of binding, stilling any further movements the creature may have made. "So this is my sentence to you. From this moment on - you do not exist except in memories."

She turned her back on him then, closing her eyes and praying to her goddess for the strength she needed to send the creature not to another realm, but to Hell itself. In a flash that was almost blinding, it happened. The energy left her body in a rush and she collapsed to her knees, sobbing.

"Shhh." Jason murmured. He moved slowly towards her, as fast as his aching muscles would allow, and took her in his arms. Her small body shook under the weight of her sobbing. If only he could take away her pain. The pain she was feeling went deeper than just the physical, though. Things such as this would cause a lifetime of mental anguish, he knew.

A sound caught Willow's ears and she was reminded immediately of Richard. Her eyes darted around the room until she saw him, in the corner of the room, still propped against the wall. He was no longer in human form, though not quite a wolf. This was a form similar to the leopard-man she had seen that night at the circus, though this was most definitely a wolf.

And it was her cousin. It was Richard.

She stood, making her way on shaking legs to collapse onto the floor next to him. She looked from Richard to Anita and licked her lips.

"Will you be okay?"

The wolf-man nodded, its eyes closed. She imagined she could see tears in their corners and it broke her heart. "I love you no matter what, Richie. How could you think I wouldn't?"

There were no sirens outside, no dawn breaking over the horizon to prove that they had beat the evil. But they had their lives, and the lives of those they cared about.

And wasn't that all that mattered?

~*~Part Twenty-Six~*~

Anita looked from the doorway of the kitchen into the living room, smiling despite herself at the scene she was witnessing. Jason playing nursemaid to Willow. It was quite amusing. He had taken it upon himself to fuss over her from the moment they had stepped back into Richard's house, making it clear that she shouldn't get up or worry herself over anything. That was good, the girl was in a lot of pain at the moment. The slash on her chest, and another on one of her arms, would need to be stitched up. Dr. Lillian had volunteered to do it if only to save them the trip to the hospital.

But Willow had insisted that Richard be looked at first. He had argued, as was his nature, that it would be better for her to go first, that he could handle the pain he was in better than she could. Then the witch had done something utterly amazing in Anita's eyes. She had looked directly at Richard, one of the most stubborn looks plastered to her face, and said 'Resolve face, Richie. Just do it.'

And he had.

Without another word of argument.

It was a trick that Anita sorely wanted to learn.

So, for now, the red head was sitting as comfortably as possible on the living room couch, trying not to move too much lest she rip open the cuts even more than they already were. Jason was sitting next to her, his hands rubbing at the one uninjured arm, a concerned look on his face. Every now and then he would lean over and kiss her cheek, her lips, her forehead, whatever was accessible at the moment. It was sickeningly sweet, but even Anita had to admit that they made a cute couple.

Richard hadn't said a word to Jason about Willow yet, but there was a general understanding that he had given his consent to their relationship. That had been his the terms of his plea, had it not? Get Willow back alive and he'd make things right, up to and including letting her date Jason. So they could date. Yippee for them. Didn't mean that they wouldn't have any other problems. The major one being the whole species thing. Jason was a werewolf and Willow wasn't.

Though, Anita had her doubts on Willow's humanity. She had seen something in Willow's eyes earlier that led her to believe that the woman she had once thought of as nothing more than a witch was something far more than that. Maybe her time on the Hellmouth had warped her in some way, just as it did to everything else with a trace of magic that lived there too long. Whatever Willow was, it definitely wasn't human. Though Anita didn't have a single clue what else she could be.

That was a mystery for another day.

She could feel Cherry in the back of her mind, resting none-too-peacefully in the back guest room. Lillian had tended to her injuries while they were gone. It turned out that she hadn't been cut too deep at all. It would heal most likely in less than two days. Jamil and Shang-Da had been sent home with other pack members to watch over them just for the night - to make sure that nothing more serious than a concussion had happened when they were knocked out. All was going remarkably well, all things considered.

"All done."

Anita turned at the sound of Doctor Lillian's voice, her eyes scanning over Richard's nearly-nude body. She had done good work, as always. The stitches were small, tight, to prevent scarring. Even lycanthropes could scar if they weren't treated properly after being injured. She would have hated to see something as perfect as Richard's flesh be marred because of some crazed psychopathic shifter.

"All better?" She asked, looking into his warm brown eyes. The same sparkle of desire that always flared up in her at the sight of him went nuts at that moment and she flushed. The ardeur had already been fed that day, more than enough to sate her appetite for passion, but being around Richard always did this to her.

"Hurts, but I'll be okay." He grabbed the fresh shirt he had place don't he back of his chair before Lillian had set into him with her 'tender' mercies and eased it over his back, buttoning it up carefully over the angry red lines of the slashes on his chest. He stepped up beside her, looking into the living room. It was hard to fight back the urge to separate Jason from his cousin.

Until he saw the way Willow looked at Jason.

It was a look of happiness, of contentment. It appeared she had found in him what she had needed most, someone to care about. Not in the way family cared for family, but in other ways.

"She'll be good for him." Anita assured him, laying a hesitant hand on his back. When he didn't move away from her touch immediately she allowed herself to rub lightly at his back.

"I just don't know what I'm going to do with her, though." He sighed. "She knows a lot about us. Some would say too much for someone that's not lukoi."

"I'm not lukoi and I know more than she does." Anita protested gently.

"But you're pack." He reminded her. "Some of the more disruptive pack members will see this as another reason that I shouldn't be Ulfric - letting a human know all our secrets." It was one of the, albeit smaller, reasons he had been hesitant to bring Willow into his world, to share with her all of his secrets. But she knew now. Had known for longer than he realized.

Anita nodded, the problem blossoming for investigation in her mind.

"So why not make her a part of the pack?"

They turned as one to Lillian, Richard's face registering anger at the mere suggestion of infecting Willow, and Anita's face questioning. She was smart enough to not immediately jump to the conclusion that Lillian wanted to do something so drastic.

"Now, now, Richard." Lillian admonished, leaning against his kitchen table and crossing her arms. "Don't get all growly. I wasn't suggesting what you think. I do know enough about pack structure to know there are roles for plain old humans - so just hear me out, okay?"

Nodding, Richard and Anita made their way to the kitchen table, settling into chairs to listen to Lillian's suggestion.

~*~Twenty-Seven~*~

"Okay - who are we?"

Willow smirked at Jason and then Stephen as well. "You're Jason and Stephen and I'm Willow."

Jason sighed, sticking his tongue out at Willow in a moment of childishness. He watched her pace back and forth across Richard's living room, eyeing her body in what he hoped was an obviously appreciative way. "Very cute."

"I know I am." The red head grinned, earning herself a chuckle from Stephen.

Groaning, Willow's boyfriend gave her a small frown. "Okay - let's try this again. What are we?"

"You and Stephen are werewolves and I'm a little witch."

"And the name we call ourselves?" Stephen prompted.

"Oh - *that*!" She grinned, rolling her eyes good-naturedly. "Why didn't you just ask? Lukoi."

Jason sighed, giving Willow a look. "This is a very important ceremony tonight - can't you at least -try- to be serious?"

Stephen snickered. "Take it easy on him, Red. He'll get in trouble with Richard if you aren't ready tonight."

The red head pouted for a moment and then sat down between them, elbowing Stephen out of the way with a playful smile. She wrapped an arm around Jason's drooping shoulders and kissed his cheek. "Stop worrying, sweetie. I know it all. Trust me."

"Be easier to trust you if you weren't trying so hard to be infuriating." He muttered. This was the first big task Richard had ever entrusted him with - make sure that Willow was ready for the ceremony tonight. The one introducing her to the pack. Make sure that she knew the language, the rules and regulations. All of the laws, new and old, and the dictates under which Richard ran things. He had been training with her for nearly two weeks in preparation.

And now, today, she suddenly wanted to play around with it. Why today of all days? The ceremony was in less than two hours! As soon as dusk fell they had to leave for the lupanar.

"Calm down." Willow purred, kissing Jason's earlobe. She felt his body still under her touch, calming ever so slightly. "I'm just playing around, Jason. I'm nervous, too, you know. It's not every night I get adopted by a pack of werewolves."

Stephen snorted. "It's not every night we adopt someone either."

Willow nodded. She knew that the ceremony tonight was one of honor. It would make her a member of the pack without actually making her lukoi. She wasn't opposed to joining the pack in -that- manner, but that wasn't a decision for here or now. For tonight she would retain her status as human and witch, and join the pack with all appropriate fanfare and dignity. Everything she had learned about pack policy and law showed that they were big on ceremony. Tonight was just going to be one of those nights.

She hoped, for both hers and Jason's sake, that everything went well.

~*~*~

Richard intoned the words he had learned only a week before from Verne, his voice carrying out over the lupanar for all to hear. The ceremony was simple but it was one he had never had the opportunity to learn. This position would be a new one for his pack, though not new at all to the lukoi in general. The first part of the ceremony was simply proving that Willow knew enough about the pack to be worthy of the position she was being granted.

Different members of the pack, those with positions, had stepped up one by one to question her in different areas. From language to law she had spouted off the answers as though she had been studying their kind for years. In other words, she had passed with flying colors - something he would have to be sure to thank Jason for later.

The second was just another set of words to be spoken, oaths to be given. The typical 'arcane werewolf shit' that Anita hated so much. He had to agree with her on this one, it certainly was overdoing it. Almost twenty minutes worth of speech to be given on the rights and responsibilities bestowed on one in Willow's position. And then another ten minutes of oath giving and taking.

At least with Willow facing him no one could see the tired, bored look on her face. That was just as well. He would hate to give any of the pack nay-sayers something to bitch about. Lillian had been brilliant to come up with this idea in the first place - he didn't want anyone to do anything to mess it up. Especially this far into things. Even Sylvie agreed that this was the best solution to everything, and she was usually the pessimistic one.

The moon was shining down, not even half-full yet, giving the entire clearing a silvery glow. He could see the faces in the crowd that were against this - they looked agitated, as usual. Paris and the like. He knew he should have taken care of them when he got rid of Jakob. It was too late now, though. Until they screwed up again he was stuck with them - for better or worse.

Those that favored the appointment were smiling, even if ever so slightly. Jason was beaming with pride in such a way that Richard had to fight back a laugh everytime he looked at him. One would think, looking at the blonde haired werewolf, that the entire idea and commencement of the plan had been his idea. It was the radiant glow of someone seeing someone they cared for get something good in life. Aside from Jason, Anita also looked pleased with the situation, but he knew why that was. With Willow joining the pack things would be more equally balanced in his favor. He would have one more person on his side; another light in the darkness that he considered his world to be. He finished the last word of the ceremony and Willow's voice rang out with the answering remarks. It was done. The ceremony was complete.

He turned her around, inviting the pack to gaze upon her. Later they would all learn her scent; come to know her as just another member of the pack. For now, though, this would suffice.

"I now present to you the new vergamor for the Thronos Rokke clan. Willow."

~*~To Be Continued~*~

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