Love Through Touch

Disclaimer: See Part 1

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There were indeed Vipers in the grass in Sunnydale.

"Captain, we've identified and captured another with the genetic signal" the soldier reported staring at the young girl "Female approximately 19 years of age. 5'4 roughly 120 lbs. Black hair, blue eyes, no identifying marks. I.D. says her name is Martie Broswell"

"Good catch soldier. What do you believe this girl posesses?" Commander Ashleigh Cash returned.

"I saw her leaping through the tree's like some kind of monkey. But I think she's a Feral ma'am. She hissed at me when I caught her in my net" the soldier turned away as the girl once again made a rude gesture at him "She's hostile but contained at the moment"

"Where are you soldier?" Cash demanded zoning in on the radio wave for co-ordinates.

"Safe House T-78493" he reported briskly.

"Transport will arrive for the subject in approximately 40 minutes" Cash sent out the command "Have her ready for immediate transport to HQ"

"Aye ma'am"
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"Did you retrieve the text Hyatt?" Giles entered the Magic Box nearly 30 minutes after Hyatt had returned.

"Yes. I also brought a few extra codices for some light reading" Hyatt smiled "They're out in my car, help me get them Buffy?"

The slayer readily agreed. Even a few moments alone would suffice for now.

"They just wanna make out" Anya told the room at large "They have that kissy look on their faces"

"Well thank you for that observation Anya" Giles cleaned his glasses. It seemed that all the Scoobies were pairing off "I'm sure they'll enjoy themselves"

They were.

Buffy had Hyatt braced up against her car, and was kissing her senseless.

"I really wanted you to help me bring in the Codices" Hyatt breathed once Buffy let her up for air "And I wanted to make out to"

Buffy smiled and licked her bruised lips "I'm just making sure your okay after going there this morning"

"Well if I wasn't I'm peachy now" Hyatt blushed as she turned to open the car door. Buffy grabbed her ass and squeezed gently "Well your awfully chipper today"

Buffy smirked "You just stuck it in my face. What did you expect me to do? Just look?" she squeezed again.

"I didn't stick it in your face" Hyatt argued "yet"

Buffy took the books Hyatt offered up. Some of them where as thick as the length of her middle finger.

"You call this light reading?" Buffy scoffed.

"No. Giles does though. Besides those things are older than England" Hyatt straightened holding several thick texts herself.

"So who's gonna open the door?" Buffy asked when they reached the entrance.

Hyatt waited, a few moments later Giles pulled the door open and looked out "Oh there you are"

Buffy rolled her eyes "I think he could smell the books"
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" I think, there's something funny going on" Star turned to look over her shoulder once again.

Dawn sighed "Star sweetie your just paranoid"

"What's Para-noise?" Star asked checking the area behind her once again.

"Para noid. It's when you think something is happening, but nothing is" Dawn explained turning the little girl bodily.

"I swear I can feel eyes on me Dawn" Star whined, something the teen had never heard her do.

"Ok" Dawn looked around herself suddenly feeling like she was being watched "Let's hurry to the Magic Box"

Star didn't argue, she just started running.

They reached the Magic Box in record time, out of breath and slightly frightened.

They burst through the door and everyone present looked at them.

"Where's the fire?" Buffy asked standing. She was sitting at the table with Tara, Hyatt, and Willow.

"I think someone was watching us" Star's face screwed up as tears began to fall "It scared me. I thought they wanted my heart" she ran and threw herself into Buffy's arms.

Dawn hung back "I didn't notice until she said something, But something out there doesn't feel right"

"Feel? Like you mean, spidey senses feel?" Willow asked "Cuz I got a wiggins a few nights ago. Thought someone was watching me from the trees. I checked but no one was there"

"Why didn't you say something Will?" Buffy shifted the frightened little girl onto her hip "Stuff like that should be mentioned"

"Did you sense anything on patrol?" Hyatt asked. She didn't know of any demons that stalked beings for their hearts. Usually it was just attack, cut out heart, leave tortured body to be found.

"No, nothing out of the ordinary. Besides the fact that there weren't many vamps that didn't hold Vivione insignia" Buffy sat back down cradling Star in her lap.

"That's expected. Their power helps them recruit fast" Hyatt frowned "Are there any missing people? Un-explained murders?"

"I could check" Willow said pulling out her lap top. She hacked into the Police Files quickly. She'd made shortcuts for herself since she needed these files so often, and was in the database in seconds "There are a few. Uh a Helena Tennimen, disappeared from her back yard, her children had been visiting her at the time. Gregory Newton, didn't show up for work and hasn't returned to his home in almost a week, and oh.....a 6 year old girl named Ainsley Baker, was picked up from school by someone claiming to be her uncle with a, valid I.D. No description of the man"

"Did you say Ainsley Baker?" Hyatt and Star questioned in unison.

"Yeah. Why do you know her?" Willow asked shuffling between the case files looking for more disappearances.

"Yeah. She comes from a family of Sprites. She's their only child that carries the 'gift'" Hyatt explained.

"And you know this how?" Buffy set Star down and Dawn joined them at the table.

"There's a whole community of demons and mystical creatures in Sunnydale. The Good know the good, the Bad know the bad. Each sticks with it's own type. Mostly." Hyatt sighed " the Bakers are one of the better families. Rebbeca, Ainsley's little sister, used to come over and play with Star all the time"

"There's a demon community?" Buffy was still stuck on that piece of news.

"Yeah. The one's the look 'human' live above ground like normal humans. They go to the same school's eat at the same places, live just like us" Hyatt shrugged. "Do you know Mia Fortune?" she asked Dawn.

"Yeah, she's in like three of my classes" Dawn smiled "She's sweet and really a good friend"

"She's a natural witch. Her mother has a gift for healing, she passed it on to Mia" Hyatt pointed out "See how easy it is for you to be friends with a Mystical creature."

"Wow, I'm convinced" Dawn sat back.

"Maybe we should look into the other disappearances. Talk to this H-helena Tennimen's family. See if the connection is m-magical. If it doesn't pan out. No h-harm no foul" Tara took a deep breath. Sometime's it really took alot for her to speak out.

"That's a great idea Tara" Buffy stood "Hyatt come with me. You know about this stuff, and these people might even know you"

"Your the slayer Buffy, you'd be part of it too" Tara pointed out "Y-your m-mystical in nature"

"True"
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"Does anyone else in your family carry Helena's 'gift'?" Buffy was getter comfortable with this.

"Yeah, my daughter Nina, she's away at college right now in Boston" Helena Tennimen's youngest daughter, Leanna, had been the only one home when they'd knocked. Fot this they were thankful "They don't believe in the magic. Mine was always weak. It faded as I got older. I think they smothered any 'gift' Mother passed onto them"

"Your family's demon type is?" Buffy asked slowly so Hyatt could take notes.

"Nahunya" Leanna answered "We were the demons that protected the Unicorns and other 'wishing' creatures. Though our we no longer serve a purpose"

Buffy looked to Hyatt "Unicorns are real?\ "Y "Yeah, but the species has moved beyond into the Astrial Dimension" Hyatt said without looking up "It's a sub-dimension of this Universe"

"Oh. Are leprechauns real?" Buffy squeaked a bit. She hated Leprechauns.

"Yes. but they went extinct centuries ago. They cursed the favorite son of the Fairy King. So her cursed them all to become beautiful flowers. First their faces began to change color. usually a white face with wide red lips and a round bulbous nose. It's the modern clown face derives from. Then they formed into flowers, which would trapped their powers until they overflowed and went......well....poof" Leanna explained.

"Clowns?" Buffy's face fell "I wish I didn't know that. But atleast Xander is afraid of them for a good reason"

"So your the slayer?" Leanna asked Buffy "Your so young. How old were you when you came into your destiny?"

"I was 15" Buffy smiled at the woman.

"So young for such a hard job. But alteast you've found it" Leanna sighed.

"Found what" Buffy and Hyatt asked in unison.

"Found Love"
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"Well Tara was right" Buffy said upon entering the Magic Box.

She stopped short when she realized there were customers inside.

"What was I right about?" Tara said coming out of the training room.

"That thing wscusscussed earlier" Buffy said heading her way.

Hyatt entered behind her and smiled at the customer who was ringing out.

"Oh" Tara's eyes widened.

"Did you hear that baby you were right" Willow looked up from the Pagan site she was studying on her laptop.

"That's for a protection spell" Hyatt said seeing what the customer had just bought.

"There's something bad in Sunnydale" the customer said softly "It's stealing magics. It can see what's in our hearts" She customer left without another word.

Hyatt was unsettled for some reason she just couldn't place.
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"Thanks for letting me research Buffy" Dawn was excited that she was being included in the search for this new evil.

She flipped through the text and once again came across, a heart eating demon.

"What about this one. It's called Legas demon, hearts the hearts of magical beings to absorb their powers and gain eternal life"

"But Helena's power is far from it's peak. The woman was pushing 85 years old" Buffy huffed.

"Quite true. But the Legas demon leaves behind a remarkable stench" Giles added "Did you smell anything when you were there?"

Both Hyatt and Buffy shook their heads.

"Not a Legas demon" Dawn turned the page "Wow that thing has alot of horns"

Star who had been playing with some hearbs on the floor rose to see what Dawn was talking about "A Jaruko demon. They impale their victims then smash them into dust" she paused studying the picture "Or mush. It's a rather peculiar demon really. Their species is long lived and is slowly dying out. The males became over agressive and destroyed the females. Jaruko means 'foolish'."

"It still has a whole lot of horns" Dawn said joking.

"It is kinda horny" Star agreed.

Everyone at the table stopped for a moment.

"Oh god. This child has been around you all to long" Giles stood and walked away.

"I meant it has multiple horns all over it's body" Dawn squeeked.

"Actually there's something very strange about this demon" Star remarked dragging her finger over the drawing "Ayumi told me about them"

"Star" Hyatt tried to silence the girl.

"See this horn right here" Star pointed to the groin area, Dawn's eyes widened "This actually isn't the genitalia" She pointed to a curved dangling horn in the middle of it's chest "This isn't a horn. It's a penis"

Willow's chair collasped backwards, tossing the witch onto the floor ungracefully.

Buffy dropped her head to the table to keep the others from seeing the laughter in her eyes.

Hyatt buried her face in Buffy's back and laughed until her eye's watered.

Tara found herself with her hand over Star's mouth.

Dawn just sat with her mouth open saying nothing.
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It was far past closing time, when the locked door was kicked open from the outside.

The all instantly reacted assuming fighting stances.

Drusilla's insane figure stood in the doorway.

"There's a Viper on the campus" she rocked herself back and forth.

Everyone froze, unsettled by her words.

"It's knows what's in our hearts" she twirled her hair around her finger.

"Uh" Buffy turned to her friends "I don't know what to do here"

"The Sun want's the Light, and the Fire" Drusilla began to back away putting on her game face.

"Look out for the Sun. It'll be out to get you"

She vanished into the night.

"Now that was firckin' weird" Star remarked after the door slammed closed by itself.
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