Chapter 14 - Protection Spell

Note: Beta'd, ty DreamOfStories.

Chapter 14 - Protection Spell

California, Los, Angeles, Hank Summers House,

Buffy yawned slightly as she made her way to the coffee pot in the kitchen, she was very grateful that she didn’t have any loud nightmares last night. She really didn’t want to deal with her friends or father finding that one out. Or worse, Stacy.

Walking into the kitchen she noticed there still wasn’t anything ready. ‘ Well it was still early, but didn’t her father have an early day today? His secretary must have worn him out.’ She mused then shuddered at the mental image that crept in her head after that thought. She was sooo glad then when Willow, Amy and herself went to bed, her father’s bedroom had been quiet. She really did not want to do a repeat of the night Joyce spent with Mark.

Buffy diverted her attention from her inner musings with making a fresh pot of coffee. When she was done with the coffee she went to make herself some breakfast.

“Morning.” Amy said and yawned slightly then looked at Buffy making breakfast, “is something burning?” she asked the slayer who then proceeded to curse and quickly went to the stove and gripped the pan and took it off the fire. Scowling she looked at her burned mess that was supposed to be her pancake.

Amy chuckled earning herself a glare from the slayer, “It’s not funny. This was supposed to be my breakfast.” Buffy complained.

“It is funny when you look at it from my point of view.” Amy told her. “You can’t cook.” Amy stated.

“I really can’t. I once set the kitchen on fire trying.” Buffy confessed earning her a laugh out of the other woman.

After several minutes of watching Buffy trying to prepare some fresh batter, Amy stopped laughing and pushed Buffy aside. “Move out of the way. I’ll make some pancakes.”

“You can cook?” Buffy asked skeptically.

“And bake.” Amy stated proudly.

“You’re every man’s dream woman.” Buffy informed her.

“Well I think me being a witch, or at least an amateur witch; will put a dampener on their dreams.” Amy replied as she looked at the pancake mix Buffy had made. “How much milk did you put in there?” she asked and received a blank look in return. Shaking her head she went to the fridge and grabbed the milk and started to add more milk to the mix. She hoped that Buffy had gotten the rest right, she was in no mood to start from scratch.

“I’ll get you some coffee.” Buffy quickly offered and went to a cupboard and grabbed three mugs. She grabbed the pot and filled all three mugs and then offered Amy one who accepted with a smile before taking a sip and turning back to making pancakes. Buffy drank a bit of her own mug before grabbing the other, “I’m gonna go see if my dad is up yet.” She told Amy.

“I thought he had an early meeting or something like that?” Amy asked her.

Buffy shrugged in response and left the kitchen.

She knocked on her father’s bedroom door and her a grumbled sound coming from inside. “Dad, it’s Buffy. I don’t know how late your meeting or whatever at work is but I got you some coffee.”

Soon the door opened and Buffy was greeted with the face of Stacy, no make-up, bad hair and worst of all, dressed in her father’s robe.

“I’ll take those.” Stacy said with a fake smile.

“Yeah, right. Like I’m gonna give you my coffee. Go get your own in the kitchen. Buffy told the secretary and walked passed her inside the bedroom. She saw something in the bathroom and walking in seeing her father brush his teeth. Smiling slightly she offered him his mug and he smiled in return.

Buffy watched him quickly finish brushing his teeth and quickly taking the coffee mug she had offered him. “Thanks.” He said and took some deeps gulps of the hot liquid.

“No problem dad.” Buffy replied and walked towards his closet and picked out some clothing for him ignoring Stacy who picked out the wrong tie to go with the jacket she picked out. Not much later Buffy had his outfit laid out on his bed and turned towards his father. “I’m going shopping and maybe stop by the beauty salon with my friends.”

“Oh, sure hon, my wallet is on the dresser, take the visa.” She heard her father reply and smiled victoriously at Stacy who now openly glared at her. Ignoring the other woman, Buffy walked over to said wallet and took out the visa card.

“Thank you daddy.” Buffy called towards the bathroom.

Not getting a reply Buffy smiled at Stacy took another drink from her own coffee mug all the while smiling at the woman, before she headed out the bedroom and towards her own to see if Willow was up yet.

***

Buffy had found her room empty and soon found Willow bouncing around in the kitchen, she raised an eyebrow, “What happened to her?” she asked Amy.

“She had coffee. Willow on coffee, meet Buffy. Buffy meet Willow on coffee.” Amy introduced the two.

“We have so much to do today Buffy, maybe you could show us is a magic shop around here. I would love to see if they’re different from the one in Sunnydale? Do you know if they’re different than the one in Sunnydale? I mean on one hand the ones here are in a major city so they have to be better stocked, but hey on the other hand our magic shop is on the hellmouth, the center of mystical convergence. That has to count for something right? I mean all the monsters and demons come there so the best witchcraft stuff has to come there too right? Buffy are you alright? You look a little pale? Buffy? I asked if-” That was as far as Willow got as Amy wrapped her hand on Willow’s mouth, preventing her from speaking.

“Thank you.” Buffy said to the other blonde.

“You’re welcome.” Amy replied, removing her hand from Willow’s mouth.

“You’re not to have any more coffee, ever again.” Buffy ordered the redhead who merely nodded.

“It makes me jittery and-” Willow stopped seeing Buffy’s look.

“Hey, instead of you having to slay vampires. You should just let them talk to Willow on coffee and they’d stake themselves just to get some quiet time.” Amy suggested.

Willow pouted but this disappeared when a pancake appeared on her plate.

“Guys, keep the supernatural stuff down while my dad’s in the house. He doesn’t know.” Buffy reminded them. Then almost smacked herself, “Oh look what I got from my dad?” she said taking out her dad’s visa from her pocket.

“You actually got him to give you his credit card?” Amy questioned, thinking Buffy had just been bragging the night before, or at least overestimating herself.

Buffy smiled at the memory, “Oh, you should have been there. The first part was not pretty but then it kept getting better. You should have seen her face at the end. It was priceless. I wish I had brought a camera with me so I could show you later.”

“What did you do?” Willow inquired sounding a bit worried.

Buffy grinned at the memory, “Oh you know. I was being the helpful daughter. Bringing him his coffee, picking out the clothes he should wear today. After him forgetting to pick me up yesterday and not spending any time with me last night. So of course when I mentioned I was going shopping, he told me to take his visa. I love a father who wants to buy my love and in this case forgiveness.”

“Your make it sounds easy.” Amy stated.

“After years of practice, it is.” Buffy said trying to keep the sadness she felt out of her voice. She quickly changed the subject, “so I was thinking we first go and get our hair done, then hit the stores, I’ve been aching for a new pair of shoes and we’ll see form there.”

“Sounds good.” Amy agreed and Willow nodded hesitantly.

“Then let’s finish breakfast so we can go.” Buffy suggested before pouring syrup on her pancake and digging in. “This is good.” She informed Amy after she finished her first bite.

Amy grinned and started on her own pancake.

***

As they got to the hair dresser’s, Buffy and Amy had convinced Willow to dye her hair more red and cutting it shorter so it came to her shoulders. The other girls hadn’t changed their hair, Buffy still going with her natural dark blond color and Amy still a blonde as well.

Buffy hadn’t felt so alive as she did as she stopped focusing on the mission and just having some fun with friends. Of course, some part of her felt guilty for taking the time off, but she decided to not listen to that part and worry about the more important things when she got back to the Hellmouth.

So after a fun afternoon, the three girls came back to Buffy’s house, arms full with bags filled with clothes, make-up, for Buffy a lot of concealer and of course the most important thing to buy for a teenage girl, shoes. Aside from all that, the three girls also paid a visit to one of the magic shops in L.A. getting the necessary things for the spell.

***

California, Los, Angeles, Hank Summers House, Buffy’s room,

Buffy opened the window while Amy and Willow were reading over the protection spell they were gonna do. Some take out Chinese food was laying scattered around them.

Buffy moved back to the girls and began to clear out the middle of the room while asking, “so what do you guys think? Think we’ll be able to cast this?”

“I don’t see why not, it seems fairly simple.” Amy responded.

Buffy grinned, “It’ll be easy between the three of us.” She grabbed the bag with stuff they bought at the magic shop and pulled out some herbs and handed them to Willow.

“But what are we gonna use as personal object to Cameron?” Willow questioned as she took the herbs and set them aside the small cauldron Amy had put in the middle.

“You remember me hugging him before he left. I kinda took something of his during that time.” Buffy answered her.

Willow’s mouth opened in astonishment an stammered, “You- you stole something from him?”

“Hey, I have his best interest in mind.” Buffy defended her action.

“Cool, what did you take?” Amy inquired.

Buffy smiled and took out a knife causing Willow to yell out, “You stole his knife!”

“Little louder Will, I don’t think the whole block heard you.” Buffy replied after rolling her eyes.

“Sorry,” Willow apologized softly but was still looking in disapproval at Buffy.

Buffy ignored Willow for the moment and placed the knife next to the cauldron, next she took out some chalk and began to draw out a pentagram. “Ok I stole his knife, it was a bad thing to do. You wanna glare at me some more or do you wanna do this spell?” she wanted to know from the redhead.

“Just so you know, I’m only doing this since it’ll help make up what you did.” Willow half lied, she still really wanted to do this.

Amy rolled her eyes and took a seat at one end of the three point pentagram, Buffy had drawn out. Willow took another and Buffy finished up the last bit before putting the chalk back into the bag and taking out an athame before she took the final point of the pentagram.

Amy looked at the book outside the circle to check the beginning part of the spell. Buffy took the initiative and threw the herbs in the cauldron. Amy lit a match and threw it in the cauldron.

All three began to chant:

“ Goddess of War, Wisdom & Arts, Athena”

Buffy added some more herbs to mix and grabbed the Athame and made a small line over her hand, drawing blood she squeezed her hand shut and handed the Athame to Willow, who looked a bit reluctant but did the same. Amy was last, and they waited until the blood welled up from her own slice before moving on.

As the three held their hands above the cauldron and opened then, letting the blood hit the mixture they continued to chant.

“ Take of our blood and protect the one we want
Bind him in love, protect him from harm”

The mixture began to sizzle, and smoke began to rise from the cauldron. Buffy threw in Cam’s knife.

“ With our blood and will
protect this man both night and day
To the ones who wish to harm him
We implore you to punish them.
By the Law of Three, within this pentagram
so mote it be!”

An electric blue/purple-ish flame rose high from the cauldron.

“ This is our will, so let it be done.
Taketh from us and protect the one we chose from harm”

Buffy’s hand began to shake and more blood came from her hand falling into the flame which turned brighter as result. As opposed to Buffy very little blood came from both Willow and Amy’s hands.

Buffy could head a nagging voice in the back of her head whisper something she couldn’t understand or fully grasp. She pushed the voice back and repeated.

“May the brightest of blessings surround him
For his is cared for
As we will it, so mote it be.”

The flame seemed to explode outwards first before turning back into itself and a bright flash caused all three of the girls to cover their eyes. When it vanished Buffy was the first to react. Standing in the middle of the three of them, was a big ugly looking demon.

Drained as she felt Buffy tackled the demon away from Amy and Willow, “This wasn’t in the spell description.”

Amy and Willow reacted at the same time. Amy grabbing the book to see if there was a way to kill the demon while Willow went for the athame.

As Buffy flew back and landed next to Willow on the ground she smiled taking the athame from the redhead, “Thanks.”

Both Slayer and demon back on their feet and careful to advance on one and other.

“You need to get the heart with the Athame.” Amy cried having found the demon in the spell book.

The demon charged and Buffy slammed a roundhouse kick into it’s mid-section making it fly back against the door. Waisting no time Buffy threw the Athame and smiled in satisfaction as it buried itself in the heart.

The demon growled and stood up taking the Athame out. Buffy shot Amy a questioning look. Amy shrugged helplessly and went back to the book, Willow reading over her shoulder.

As the demon advanced on her, Buffy sidestepped a swipe with the Athame and countered with an elbow against the wounded portion of the demon.

“Any time now,” Buffy called out ducking under another swipe of the demon and made a leg sweep which the demon jumped over and kicked her back against her bed.

In a moment the demon was on top of her and Buffy winced at the breath of the thing.

“Oh, oh.” Willow exclaimed, “The heart of the demon is in the middle.” She quickly informed Buffy and both witches turned towards the fight to see the demon on top of their friend, athame almost cutting her throat as it was barely being held back by the slayer.

Buffy braced herself and head butted the demon making him loose focus for a bit, giving her enough time to reverse their positions by using her legs and rolling them over.

The Athame flew out of the demon’s hand and hovered next to her free one. Buffy took no time to analyze this and took the knife burying it in the demon’s heart. She jumped back and glanced at Willow and Amy to see them holding hands. Letting out a breath, both girls jumped back as the demon suddenly burst out in ashes.

Buffy dropped her fighting stance and walked over the place the demon had been, picking up the athame she turned sharply as the door to her room opened.

Buffy’s eyes widened in fear as she saw the figure standing there mouth open in horror at the state of her room and the girls.

“Buffy Anne Summers, what the hell is going on here!” Hank Summers exclaimed. Another figure came by the door way and placed her perfectly manicured hand over her mouth.

“Oh God, what happened here?” Stacy let out in fake horror.

“Uhm, girls night in?” Buffy tried to cover with a vague answer as she quickly dropped the athame back in the bag before facing her ex-stepfather again.

Hank Summers stormed into Buffy’s room and pointed at the cauldron still smoking slightly. “What the hell were you girls doing!?” he demanded to know.

“Well you see Willow found this book with protection spells and we thought it’d be fun trying something like. It’s completely harmless.” Buffy quickly lied.

Hank turned to face the nervous redhead before turning back to Buffy, obviously pondering her statement. “And you thought that was good idea, after all you went through back in Colorado?”

Buffy bleached as Hank continued, “Are you that eager to go back to that place? For God’s sake Buffy it hasn’t even been a year and you pull this? Do you want me to send you back there?”

“No,” Buffy managed to get out still looking very pale.

“She obviously didn’t learn her lesson. She’s just looking for more attention from you Hank. She’s confused, maybe some time back there will do her some good.” Stacy suggested.

Buffy glared at the woman, “Oh you would love that, wouldn’t you.” She exclaimed, her anger for the woman surfacing.

“Maybe you’re right.” Hank agreed with Stacy.

“No, she’s not. I’m not looking for more attention from you Hank, I’ve given up hope on that years ago.” Buffy stated.

“What is that supposed to mean!?” Hank demanded to know.

“It means that you’ve never taken any interest in me except a casual look. Just look at this weekend dad, You knew I was coming but ‘forgot’, you then went to bed early and left early, never once asking me anything. Just offering me some money as apology. I’m not mad about it, I’m used to it. But don’t go expecting a father of the year award from me. Neither you nor Jack deserve one!” Buffy informed him angrily.

“I did the best I could so you could go buy the things you wanted.” Hank defended himself.

“No, you just didn’t like being tied down as family man while you could screw your secretary!” Buffy yelled at him. As soon as the words left her mouth her head snapped to the side and she raised her hand to the place Hank had hit her.

“I’m sorry Buffy, I just- please.” Hank pleaded with his daughter.

“Girls, go pack. We’re leaving.” Buffy stated.

“No you’re not. You’re gonna sit down so we can talk about this.” Hank insisted.

“No,” Buffy spoke dangerously, “we’re leaving.”

Hank swallowed, he had never seen that look in his daughter’s eyes before. It was sending chills down his spine and actually made him want to reconsider backing down. “We are talking about this. I’m not letting you leave with people who enforce your delusions.”

Amy and Willow who had been silent until now, not wanting to get involved in the family drama, but had begun packing as Buffy had told them turned to face the man. “That’s not fair, you don’t know anything about us.” Willow exclaimed.

“Or your daughter.” Amy added.

Hank sent them a glare but Buffy stepped between her friends and the man, “They’re right. And now it’s too late for you to change that. This father daughter thing between us is done. Don’t bother calling mom or I’ll tell her you hit me and you can enjoy some jail time.”

“Buffy please.” Hank tried again.

“No, you’re out of my life.” Buffy informed him.

“You’re just gonna cut me out like you did to Jack?” Hank half stated, half asked.

“Yes.” Buffy answered showing no emotion about the decision.

“Well, tell your mother good luck.” Stacy instructed Buffy. “She’s going to need it with a trouble maker like you. Don’t call us if you burn down another gym.”

“Don’t worry I won’t.” Buffy reassured her as she began to pack her own stuff as well.

“Just in case you wanted to know, Buffy is doing great at Sunnydale High. She’s practically caught up if not ahead of most of the class in some subjects.” Willow informed Hank.

“I have to call my mom, telling her we’ll be home early.” Buffy informed the two girls, “You can probably stay at my house. Can you please finish packing my stuff up?”

Amy and Willow nodded and followed the Slayer out with their eyes before resuming packing, ignoring Stacy glaring at them as Hank had followed after Buffy.

***

California, Sunnydale, Buffy’s house,

It had been about three hours later that the three of them arrived at the bus stop in Sunnydale where Buffy’s mom was waiting for them. It had taken Buffy some pleading with her mom to not drive all the way to L.A. to pick them up but rather wait at the bus stop for their bus.

On the way, Willow and Amy hadn’t gotten much out of Buffy other then the place Hank had been referring too was a mental hospital her biological father, Jack, had put her into after her spilling the beans about her being the slayer, vampires, demons and magic.

Now the three of them were in Buffy’s room going over the protection spell and why a demon was summoned.

“I think it’s because you’re the slayer.” Amy spoke up, “Athena must have known that from your blood and since she’s is the Goddess of War had wanted to test you.”

“It could also be a cost of the magic we cast. Magic always has a price. Maybe the demons was it.” Buffy suggested.

“How about a combination of both things. A slayer casting magic has a higher cost so a demon was summoned in order for you to earn it.” Willow shared her thoughts with them.

“Maybe you should ask Giles, he seems to have some magical knowledge.” Amy proposed.

“No way. Giles will lecture me about the irresponsible use of magic, and the stealing of a knife. Besides the spell will only continue to work as long as Cam is in the dark about it. Giles might call him and it’ll all be for nothing. We’ll just have to take some precautions next time.” Buffy informed them.

“Next time?” Willow inquired.

“Well we did do good spell-work together. Be a shame not to have any repeats.” Buffy stated.

“We’ll be like our own little coven.” Willow exclaimed excitedly.

“What the hell, we’ll be able to do more interesting spells together.” Amy agreed with a shrug.

Willow jumped, “Slayer/Witch coven.” She eagerly named their newly formed coven causing both Amy and Buffy to look at her strangely.

“How about “The Hellgate’s witches coven” Since we’re located above the Hellmouth and all.” Buffy suggested.

“Sounds good.” Amy agreed.

“Well, ok. I guess that does sound good too. But I still like Slayer/Witch coven.” Willow informed them earning an eye-roll from the other two.

“Maybe we should lock her up in the insane asylum.” Amy suggested earning a laugh from Buffy while Willow swatted Amy’s arm.