Love Through Touch

Disclaimer: See Part 1
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"Why'd they have to take mine!" Anya balled "Couldn't they take one of the lesbians kids?"

"Anya!" Xander hugged her close, intentionally burying her face in his shirt so she could no longer move her mouth.

Faith was sitting on the couch, a still frightened Kolby clutching at her leather jacket.

"Why'd they take Jeanie anyway?" Buffy paced "The angel thingy came after Kole too"

"Alito" Hyatt corrected.

"I don't care 'who' he is. Why didn't he take someone else's kid? I just got mine!" Anya wailed, her voice half muffled by Xander's chest.

"Fine, you know what? I'll go trade places with Jeanie would you be happy then?" Star yelled at the bawling Anya.

Anya abruptly stopped as she thought about what she'd just said "No actually. It would be just as bad if he took you"

"Good, now get over it. He's got Jeanie, we want her back" Star said calmly and with more maturity than Anya had ever shown "We find a way to get her and Mycah back. Then we kick his ass for taking them"

"Don't say ass" Tara reprimanded lifting the child off her feet and into her lap.

"No" Buffy shrugged giving the taller blonde a weak look "She's got a point"

"See" Star managed to get out before Tara covered her mouth.

"Well there goes Thanksgiving" Willow sighed, which elicited a chorus of groans when Anya's wailing began again.

"You had to bring that up?" Xander huffed as he once again was force to smuther his girlfriends face into his chest to control the noise.

"Sorry, it kinda slipped out as more than a thought" Willow shrugged.

"Will he kill them?" Faith's question brought silence.

Even Anya's wails died away as the morbid though crossed all of their minds.

"Goddess I hope not. But if they are..." Tara paused unable to even say the word hypothetically "These vamps will be fighting two slayers, a couple of pissed off witches, and their badass super friends with cold revenge on their minds" she stated, her voice eerily calm.

Anya lifted her head and stared at the quiet Wiccan "It's always the quiet ones.

Buffy's eyes met Tara's. In them she found something she thought she'd never see associated at all with the Wiccan. She turned to Hyatt to see if she saw it too, only to find the characteristic mirrored in her lovers eyes, as well as Willow's.

She turned to Xander, only to find his face set. His usually smiling mouth a grim line of suppressed rage. His eyes burning. Buffy recognized the look. And she understood it.

It was thest tst time Xander had something precious to lose.

She had a feeling he'd do anything to get her back.
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Giles sat in the partially lightened Magic Box, staring down at the multiple texts and codecs that surrounded him, positive he was missing something.

A sudden gust of wind blowing through the open door dragged his attention away from the serious research. He moved quickly to close the door, wondering belatedly if he 'had' locked it as he was sure hed done hours before.

"It's an interesting little shop you have here" the woman's voice came from somewhere in the dark reaches of the shelves.

"Yes it is. It's an interesting entrance you made as well" Giles replied calmly as he slowly made his way behind the counter. To the weapons hidden there.

"Oh no no Mr. Giles. You won't be needing that crossbow tonight. Or those stakes" the voice came again. This time closer.

"And why won't I?" Giles questioned standing upright. He noticed the slight accent he couldn't quite place. It was familiar though the voice was not.

"I'm here to 'help' you. Not 'hurt' you" a shadow moved not far from him, coming nearly into the light, only to stop inches before being illuminated enough to see the face.

"Well if you're so friendly show yourself" Giles said becoming forceful.

"Well if you are so brave. Come to me" the woman said backing further into the dark reaches of the store.

"Why must you be so contrary?" Giles grumbled as he followed the shadow further into the shelves of magic books.

"I am a woman. Isn't that a common trait of our species?" the voice chuckled several feet before him.

"Apparantly. Though I wonder 'why' you are insisting upon being so contrary when you are 'aware' of the fact that you 'are' contrary" Giles spoke, becoming very british in his annoyance.

"As my lovely niece would say 'I am milking it'." the woman smiled into the dark, knowing that her comment would reveal to the watcher whome she really was.

"You're 'milking it?" Giles stopped finally placing the fading accent. His mind flashing back a few weeks to a conversation wherein the Scooby continuously kept changing his words to sounding like innuendo. No matter how he tried to rectify it, he seemed to dig himself in deeper.

~ "Why must you give me such a hard time?" he'd asked Anya when the exdemon simply refused to stop playing on his words.

"Aw Giles. We make you hard?" Faith placed a dainty hand to her cheek "Oh my. I guess some of 'Ripper' is still with us"

"No! My lord, you do not make me 'hard'. You make it hard 'for' me -" He cut himself off realizing a moment too late what he'd just said.

"Don't deny it Giles. It's only natural that us 'lusty' young things would get to you eventually" Hyatt added to his misery.

"You are all very lucky I adore you" Giles snuffed turning away from them to make his escape.

"Yeah we know, and we're milking it" Hyatt assured him.

"Yeah baby we're milking it goooooooood" Faith emphasized by making unmistakable jerking motions with her hand to a lower portion of her body. ~

"Fatima?" Giles eyes lightened as he realized he was finally meeting with a true elder vampire. And one who 'didn't' want to kill him no less.

"Very astute. But you missed this" Fatima whispered.

A heavy spellbook dropped at his feet. He hefted in up, realizing it was one of the few 'Grey' Magic texts the store carried.

"Duodestine" Fatima announced "Be well Watcher" and with a flash of light and a gust of wind she was gone.

"But what am I supposed to-" Giles stopped and sighed, realized he was fully alone once again "Why 'must' you be so cryptic" he griped flipping open the text.

He opened towards the middle of the book, and the title of the spell leapt out at him.

"Duodestine indeed"
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The 'clink' of chains was the first thing that Mycah registered as she came too. The second was the whimpering of a child.

Her head shot up, the room spun for long nauseating moments before coming to a stop. The whimpering had turned into sobs by the time sd red regained her equilibrium.

"Baby?" Mycah managed just above a whisper. The sobbing stopped immediated, the only sound the random sniffle from the other side of the blackened room.

"Mycah?" Jeanie's voice came after a tense silence.

"Oh god, are you ok sweetie?" Mycah tried to move closer to the girl. The 'clinking' sound finally made sense when she realized her feet were chained to the floor. She could only move a few feet in any direction.

"It hurts" Jeanie whimpered.

"What hurts baby?" Mycah asked stretching. Reaching out her arms she felt her fingers brush up against the overly warm feeling Jeanie.

"My eyes. My whole head" Jeanie whispered.

Mycah heard the rustle of fabric and felt the air shift as the little girl curled up on the floor facing her.

Shifting a bit herself her hands came in contact with Jeanie's skin. She immediately felt the feverish warmth that permeated the childs skin.

"B'sides your head does anything else hurt?" she pulled Jeanie closer, happy when she realized that the little girl wasn't chained as she was.

"N-no" Jeanie shivered anc curled closer into Mycah "B-but I'm s-so c-cold"

Mycah gripped the little girl closer.

She made to to keep fear and nervousness inside.

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"I thought you said the child would not survive the night" Kalindi growled to Naida.

"She should not have" Naida conceded "But this does work well in with your plan" the Seer acknowledged.

"Yes. That foolish witch nearly set us back" Kalindi smiled grimly "Remind me to ask Alito how she tasted"

"Yes Mistress" Naida continued to watch their two 'prisoners' in the quicksilver of the sacred urn "I have a theory"

Kalindi picked up on the gleeful note in her tone "Yes?"

"On why the child did not die" the Seer continued "She gave her too much at once. As you know all sacred ceremony of this magnitude take 'months' to gestate, sometimes 'years'. I think..." She trailed off deep in thought.

"What do you think?" Kalindi asked sweetly moving to stand behind her slave and lover.

"It's a Succubus. That energy we've given the girl, it overloaded her system. It was after all pure black magic. It should have poisoned her to death by now" Naida moved around the urn, her eyes never leaving the e ofe of the two entwined on the floor.

"I'm well aware of that" Kalindi created a throne of shadows, resting her weary body into it. The fight with Fatima's 'special one' had taken a bit out of her. She would pay the little shit back for burning her with a blessed cross.

"She's feeding off the white magic inside the other" Naida said finally getting to the point "Her body is correcting itself, by making a balance of power"

"How is there white magic inside the other?" Kalindi quirked a brow interested "She's kin to one of the most dreaded vampire assassins in 'several' ages. What pure good can there be inside her?"

"A vampire assassin who gives her lifes blood in order to grant life to those of her 'human' family" Naida reiterated "A selfless act.."

"Of pure love" Kalindi finished sounding disgusted "This means I can't kill the little shit doesn't it?"

"Not until the child is ready. Or that witch 'did' set us back" Naida finally met the cold black eyes of her mistress.

"Then she lives" Kalindi gave summoning the Seer to her with a meer look.

"For now"
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The Scoobies were seriously worried. It had been nearly two weeks since both Mycah and Jean had been taken. And nearly two
weeks since they'd seen or heard from Giles.

"They're gone" Hyatt announced as she and Tara returned from Fatima's lair.

"What?" Buffy and Faith snapped in unison.

"Fatima and Lucita. They're gone. It looks like the lairs been empty for a while" Tara sat neavily on the couch "This can't be happening"

"Is there some kind of 'keep the slayers life fucked up' clause in that Destiny Legend somewhere? 'Cause for me this shit keeps hitting the fan" Buffy yelled throwing herself down into the chair across from Tara.

"Yeah wet, runny shit" Hyatt mumbled sitting on Buffy's lap.

"As opposed to that hard dry shit that hurts when you try to force it out?" Faith asked her eyes never leaving the floor before her.

The temporary silence was deafening.

"You two have some 'serious' shit issue's" Willow informed the room at large.

Slowly the chuckling began. Within seconds the stifled chuckles turned into hysterical laughter, catching all five young women firmly in it's grasp.

Dawn, Star and Kolby raced down the stairs after a series of thumps and renued laughter carried into the teens shared bedroom.

"What's going on?" Star questioned the other two girls.

All three stared in awe as the women who'd been solemn for the last few weeks, acted as if they hadn't a care in the world.

Hyatt on her back on the floor, laughing breathlessly, her hands tangled in Buffy's hair. The slayer lay crosswise, her face buried in Hyatt's belly as her shoulders shook.

"I'm calling Anya" Dawn shook her mead miserably. With the atmosphere around her home being how it had been lately, Dawn fearhat hat the young women had simply gone mad.

It took several minutes for the laughter to die down. Though a few giggles were renewed when both Faith and Tara snorted while trying to collect themselves.

Hyatt glanced up from her spot on the floor, catching the worried eyes of the youngest Scoobies "We're okay. Really, just needed to cool down a little"

"Well next time, do it in a sane way" Star suggested before turning on her heel and stomping back up the stairs. Dawn followed her, her footsteps quiet as she muttered to herself about the strangeness of her family.

Kolby stood looking at them all silently. Her dark eyes flowing over each woman in the room before stopping at Faith. She ran to the darker slayer, who gathered the child up into her arms, hugging her so tight she squeaked before releasing her embrace.

Kole knelt in her lap, looking at her in rapt surprise "I love you Faith" she whispered before kissing the slayers cheek and vacating the room.

Faith touched her face where the childs lips had been so briefly. Her eyes shining with tears.

"Do you guys realize that it's 16 days until Christmas and we've done 'no' shopping whatsoever?" Buffy asked, her voice muffled slightly as she'd spoken into Hyatt's belly.

The chorusgroagroans made her lift her head "In all this hubbub we forgot about Christmas!" Buffy thumped her head down once, the effect lessened as her forehead came to rest of the warm softness of Hyatt's belly.

"According to Nicodemus Millejo, this 'Awakening of Elders' thing comes about on Christmas Eve" Tara reminded them.

"Shit. What do we do about that?" Faith wondered aloud. Though she hadn't really thought much on Christmas. She had people to share it with now, and she wanted the upcoming Holiday to mean something.

"I say we plan for the best" Anya's voice surprised the gathered women. They hadn't heard the door open, much less two people entering the house only feet from where they rested.

Yeah" Xander added in looking serious "This year we have a family to plan the holiday's for. I say we go all out and party til we drop"

"Or until the world ends. But the way I'm hoping it'll be everyone together, Mycah and Jeanie included, basking in the warmth of this commercial holiday!"

"Sometimes I'm glad I'm Jewish" Willow muttered.
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"So do you think they're insane?" Star asked as she flipped through a codex they'd nabbed while 'calling' Xander and Anya.

"No. Buffy and the Scoobs always get a little goofy before an Apocolypse" Dawn looked over the little girl's shoulder, glancing at the book periodicalltweetween looking through another of the three texts they'd lifted "Kole you said this wall was made of shadows?"

"Yeah, it just came out of the ground" Kole spoke without looking up from her magic text "Here's a light spell. It says it's original use was for a Watcher to create magical sunlight if his or her slayer needed to run from a vamp that was too much for them"

"Willow's tried that spell. Made a troll appear" Dawn said flippantly.

"Oh" Kole turned the page.
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Jeanie was in too much pain to scream. The ebb and flow on the dark power eminating from the woman clasping her head was making her weak. Her head spun and her feet felt like lead.

"Can she take much more?" Kalindi asked Naida. Her connection to the child was weakening her quickly, if she gave the little girl too much she'd kill her. Much as witcwitch nearly had.

"You can stop whenever you'd like" the Seer said negligently.

Kalindi released her. Jeanie slid to the ground with a low groan, her body twitching and convulsing as the 'borrowed' magic flowed through her system.

Naida knelt beside her and lifted her into a sitting position. Tilting up Jeanie's chin she looking into the little girls eyes.

They room they were in was lighted by nothing more than torches. Even with the light being dim as it was, Naida could tell the childs eyes were black, no longer the rich brown they'd been when she'd been captured.

"They aren't brown anymore" she spoke aloud "And I haven't seen her fight the magic in nearly a week"

Jeanie whimpered and slumped down again, curling into the fetal position.

Kalindi made an agreeing sound before lifting the child into her arms "Accepted her fate" Kalindi smiled in triumph as she carried the child back to the dungeon like room where she kept them. Instead of entering she placed Jeanie just inside the door, and gave her a light shove so that she rolled into the dark room.

Once her momentum ceased, the little brunette made her way to where Mycah lay, chained to the wall, as she had been since the Master Vampiress had captured her.

Jeanie curled into Mycah's arms, shivering from the cold inside, though her skin remained fevered.

Mycah, though severly weakened, wrapped her arms protectively around Jeanie, giving her warmth and assurance.

"Did she do it again?" Mycah whispered into the tangled brown hair, shifting a little to get comfortable.

"Yes" Jeanie managed between her chattering teeth. She was slowly warming up, but the cold always seemed to remain in her head "Mycah I want my d-daddy" Je bee began to wail, burying her face into Mycah's neck.

"Oh sweetie believe me. Your Daddy's gonna rescue you any day now" Mycah prayed she was right, she didn't know how much longer either of them could survive this.

Together they wept, sometimes silently, sometimes in wailing sobs that made Kalindi bang on their cell door, demanding they be silent.

But their tears flowed on well into the morning. Mycah's falling on Jeanie's skin, inexplicably warming her. While Jeanie's fell on Mycah's neck, cold and thick.

Neither realized, due to their dark room, that Jeanie's tears flowed red with blood.
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The days seemed to fly by. Christmas soon loomed mere days over their heads. The end was nearly upon them.

Faith stood in the shower, letting the warm water wash over her. Cleaning away the vampire dust and tears.

They'd tried. For over a week they tried to get information out of the undead. But none would talk, though more and more were dusted wearing the charm of the Vivione Kadesh. Some with one bar.

Faith's heart was breaking, and her hope was dwindling fast. She'd just found love only to have it torn from her by some vamp with a so called 'mission'. And she was sick and tired of being the one to lose.

She sat down in the shower, letting the water fall over her like a warm rain, drenching her hair and further hiding her tears. Her sobs remained silent, though prayprayer was spoken, in a clear sad voice.

"Oh please, god if your listening. If you 'ever' listen to me" Faith's voice turned to a growl for a mere second "Bring her back, bring them 'both' back. Don't let this family lose them. Bring them home" her tears began to creep into her voice "I can't do this alone. I love her so much, and I just found her. Kole's all I got now. She'll be enough, but... I can't do right by her on my own. Give them back god. Please..." she managed before breaking down, no longer caring if her tears were heard.

5 miles away and 500 feet down. They were.

Mycah's eyes shot open at the sounds of Faith's voice in her head.

Jeanie sat up as well. Her eyes glowed eerily in the pitch black room.

"Wha-" Mycah began but froze when the child turned towards the door.
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Faith was the first to react to the screams.

The terrified cries came from Dawn's room. All three girls were scing.ing.

Faith tore out of the shower, barely grabbing a towel before barreling down the hall. Willow and Tara hot on her heels.

Dawn, Star and Kole were curled up at the top of the teens bed.

Drusilla stood at the foot, swaying and singing.

"Do you hear the nightingales, singing songs of death?
When the Queen awakens, she'll order their last breath,
Remember to be quiet, but do not let them sing,
or everything is lost, and every hell to us she'll bring"

The vampire crooned before going stiff and collapsing to the floor.

Jeanie stood behind her. The little girls body glowed in a gastly fashion, her eyes were the only part of her that remained shadowed.

"Jeanie?" Staved ved towards her and reached out. But the spector shook it's head.

"No. Help" Jeanie turned to where Faith, Willow and Tara, and now Hyatt and Buffy stood "She's getting too strong. I...so cold, Mycah's so weak. And the time comes"

"Jeanie sweetie where are you?" Willow asked biting back the tears everyone else was letting to fall.

"They..." Jeanie paused at her light flickered and grew dimmer, dark rivulets seemed to run down her body, blocking out the light left "They brought me up, over graveyards, then down through hills. There's water, they took us to an old place. She was bad, very very bad. Westrich..." Jeanie's imflicflickered again "Sin" then she was gone.

Dawn scrambled to the edge of her bed, flipping on the light.

Drusilla still lay on the floor, her eyes open but no life (or unlife) in them.

"Tie her up" Buffy spoke her voice hard "When she comes to-"

"If she comes to" Hyatt interrupted.

"We'll question her" Buffy gave her lover a look.

Faith tied off her towel and bent to lift the vampire into her arms.

Drusilla's head turned, her eyes coming alive as she looked up into the startled brown eyes of the darker slayer "You were heard" she said in a clear voice, unlike the one she used when rambling in her insanity. The voice was powerful and assured.
e the then turned to dust in Faith's arms.

A small silver cross fell to the floor at Faith's bare feet.
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