Part Twelve – ‘Black Lightning’
Willow opened her eyes as she slowly regained consciousness. She was aware of a warm feeling on her upper chest. Tara was knelt by her, holding a compress to her head. She looked worried. Willow felt dazed and confused. She slowly sat up, Tara placing her hand on her back to guide her, the other hand maintaining its position with the compress on the back of her head. Willow felt scrabbling movements on her chest, which then subsided. She could make out something black, but her vision was a bit blurry from the fall. “What happened?” she asked slowly.
“You-you were only out for a minute.”
“I fell… Something hit me…”
Tara looked nervous but slightly amused. Willow was startled by a loud noise coming from her side. She looked down to see Miss Kitty staring at her with big, innocent eyes, purring contentedly. “Huh?”
“Miss Kitty… she was up on the pipes…” Tara said sheepishly. “I think the magic bolts must have scared her… so she jumped down… and from that height, the force was enough to knock you down…”
Willow foggily remembered the shadow flying towards her. That must have been why her bolt missed… Miss Kitty was too small for it to hit.
“Oh…” She was suddenly aware of the pain in her head.
“When you fell, you hit your head. There’s a little blood…” The cool compress felt nice against her skin, which felt burning hot. Tara stared at her. “I think we should get you to a hospital, get you checked for concussion…”
“No… I mean, I’m fine. Being knocked unconscious is like a Scooby rite of passage. But if anyone asks, it was a big, flesh-eating demon, and not a… kitten.” She wrinkled her nose, lost in thought. “Then why did the sirens go off? And the traveller spell lead us down here? Miss Kitty… hardly evil, is she?”
“I don’t know, but there aren’t any big evil people with light-sucking knives of death, so I’m happy.”
“I suppose, but I don’t get it. Perhaps the house is built on an Indian burial ground or something. The amount of stuff that happens here, it wouldn’t surprise me.”
Tara was nervous at the anger in Willow’s voice. But then again, if she’d been the victim of a flying feline she’d be annoyed too. But at least the Miss Kitty theory didn’t result in gory death. It made more sense, too, After all, they’d been sat in the living room like sitting ducks for an hour. If Willow’s black-haired woman had been in the house then, she wouldn’t have passed up the opportunity to deal out some slice and dice. Willow turned to her.
“Did you say there was some blood?”
“Oh, no… not much, you have nothing to worry about, sweetie.”
“No, some blood is good… I saw a spell in the book. It needs blood, and now we have it…”
Shadi was annoyed. She’d had the perfect opportunity to kill them. All she had to do was rise from the earth beneath the basement and they’d have been dead. But she’d been stupid and let herself be caught by that stupid spell. Her knife was useless against that. Sure, if someone wanted to throw magic bolts at her, then fine, but passive defensive spells were harder to step around. She’d become shadow as soon as the sirens had begun to blare, moved onto the roof. She had to get a talisman to protect her from any more shielding or barriers they’d put up. She didn’t have much time left before it would happen. She cursed. Forty years of slumber had left her careless, lacking her previous skills. But every minute she was acclimatising to the new world, growing stronger. She’d be back at night, under the veil of darkness. And she’d bring some friends.
Willow sat on the couch, holding the tea towel Tara had been pressing against her head. There was some blood, but not much. But she was always one to be resourceful. Five years of Scoobydom had taught her that everyone was useful. She could use the blood in the black lightning spell. It was exciting. She’d felt the pull of the magic volume as soon as she’d picked it up. And now she could try a super-powerful spell. Tara sat next to her.
“I don’t know if you should do this, Willow.”
“Why?”
“Because you just had a bad fall and you’re hurt. You shouldn’t be playing around with powerful magics in your condition.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”
“Willow, I mean it. The spell requires a blood ritual for a reason. ‘Darkness Reborne’ is a rare and guarded text for a reason. I don’t even know how Giles got hold of it. It’s just that the spells are old and powerful. Black magic at that level… it’s dangerously luring. People can get sucked in by the power and completely lose themselves.”
“Tara, it’s just one spell. Besides, we need it if we don’t want to be dead. It’s not like I’m some weakling witch who can’t handle a simple spell. I’m powerful. I managed to fight a God and hold my ground.”
“I know that, Willow. I know you’re powerful, and I trust you. But you don’t… you don’t always have the proper… respect… for magic.”
“I do! You know I do! Okay, I might have messed up a couple of times, but I’m not an amateur any more. I totally respect the dark forces.” Tara bit her lip. The last thing they wanted to have was an argument right now. And she didn’t want to upset Willow. But what she’d said was true. Willow looked at magic like a science experiment – if you go wrong, just do another spell. As much as Tara loved her, she had to admit that Willow was very defensive when it came to magic. She didn’t like to be questioned, felt it was like a direct attack on her. Tara wondered: why did Willow feel that she had to be an uber-witch? What was she compensating for in her life? Willow had always been sweet, funny and smart, and confident… or had she?
“I didn’t mean to question you, Willow. Just… just let me help, okay? I trust you with everything, but this magic is strong. If we’re both present we can control it better… no nasty surprises.” Willow nodded, appeased.
“Okay, we need a bowl to put this in, and some salt to spread around” she said, holding up the tea towel. “And then it’s just an incantation, in English – so no funny words to pronounce.” Tara nodded and got up, going to the kitchen to fetch the things. When she got back, Willow was sat on the floor, the book in her lap. Tara sat down opposite her, placing the bowl in the centre. “Ready?”
Willow nodded. “Okay, let’s do it.”
& 
will be together and is using her to stop that from happening. If that's the case then she'd probably not going to be very happy about it.
i could 
more!
