The Dark Rose

By darkmagickwillow

Copyright © May 2003

Chapter 5 (Shadows of the Heart)

Willow awoke in the dark.

She was surprised by the absence of light as she normally woke late in the day. Surely, it had to be morning by now. She waved a hand, causing the blinds to open. It was pitch black outside and a heavy rain was falling.

Getting out of bed, Willow walked to the window and looked up at the dark sky. Layer upon layer of ominous black clouds covered the sky, completely blocking out the light of the Sun. Now she understood how the vampires were going to attack the Slayer at noon.

Willow was sure the slayer would be at the library. Slayers didn't avoid traps; they always walked right into them. She had planned to watch the encounter anyway since Tara was probably going to be there, and she wanted to be sure she was safe even if it was just some vampires.

Now the situation had changed. Only powerful dark magick could bring such unusual weather to Sunnydale and hold it over the city. Willow had to be there. There could be real danger. She couldn't let something happen to Tara so soon after she'd found her.

Looking over at the digital clock by the bed, she read "11:44." That didn't leave much time. Willow hurriedly dressed, picking up her leathers from the floor where she'd left them last night.

Tara had completed her circuit of the school, returning to the grassy field outside the library. She had found no way to reach Mr. Giles and Spirit in the library. At least, no way except those guarded by four or more vampires. She couldn't take that many at a time. Even Spirit would have trouble with those odds.

Water dripped from her wet hair onto her nose, causing her to shiver. Tara was soaked through to the skin from running here in the cold rain. She wished she had woken up on time, but she woke up with the sun and there hadn't been any this morning. If she had just arrived in time, she would be inside with her friends instead of being stuck out here.

Looking up at the black clouds that hovered motionlessly over Sunnydale, Tara knew that they were unnatural, but she couldn't imagine the power required to summon such weather and maintain it over one spot. Who could have created this darkness?

Vampires didn't tend to have much in the way of mystical power. An image of Willow's dark-clad figure flashed in her mind, and Tara remembered her aura of tightly bound power. She shook her head. It couldn't be Willow. Somehow she knew deep inside that she could trust Willow with anything.

If she could just dispel the clouds and expose the Sun, everything would be fine. The vampires outside the building as well as those inside the library with its tall windows would be destroyed. But she didn't know if she had the power to do this. Tara heard sounds of combat from the library and knew that she had to do something soon. Mr. Giles and Spirit couldn't hold out for long if the number of vampires inside the school matched the number outside.

Tara raised her hands to the sky and threw her head back, wet hair slapping against her back. Looking up she called to the spirits of sky and water to end this unnatural weather and restore the natural order. Tara felt her power flowing lightly through her as she pushed again and again at the spell holding the weather, but it felt like she was trying to move a mountain. The black clouds continued to sit eerily still above Sunnydale, showering her with cold rain. Finally, Tara lowered her hands and looked down despondently. She just didn't have the power to break such a spell.

Tara heard and the wet sound of footsteps approaching her. She quickly looked up, expecting to see a vampire, but saw Willow instead. Willow offered her a black gloved hand and asked, "Do you trust me?"

"What?" Tara asked, startled by Willow's sudden appearance. Hope rose in her heart. Together they might have the power to break the spell. However, she could feel that Willow was asking for more than Tara's trust with this spell. Somehow she knew that if she took Willow's hand, it would change her life forever.

"Do you trust me?" Willow repeated her question, her hand still extended.

Tara looked up and tried to find more than the shadows of a face in the depths of the hood of Willow's cloak, pondering for a moment. It was a scary decision to have to make so quickly. What did she really know about Willow? Despite all her questions and all that she didn't know, she knew one thing for certain. She trusted Willow. All her feelings told her that she could trust Willow with anything. Trusting her heart, she reached up and clasped Willow's hand, answering "Yes."

Willow felt the touch of Tara's hand like a ray of sunlight piercing the veil of darkness around her heart. She knew that Tara was accepting her into her life, not just trusting her for help with this spell. It was only the first step of many, but it felt so right to finally be on the path towards being together again.

"Ready to try it together?" Willow asked, clasping Tara's fingers tightly.

Tara was surprised by the heat she felt from Willow's gloved hand. It warmed her chilled flesh, evaporating the cold droplets of rain from her hand. The contact of their hands felt so right, like they had done this together so many times before. She nodded her assent.

In synchrony, Tara and Willow extended their opposite unclasped hands to the sky and gazed up at the dark unmoving storm clouds. Together they repeated the call to the spirits of sky and water. As they said the words, Tara almost gasped as she felt the warmth from Willow's hand surge upwards through her arm.

Her eyes fluttered shut and her surroundings fell away as the warmth filled her body. She opened herself fully to Willow, fiercely eager to feel the fire of their connection. She felt a certainty that she had never had before. Together they could do anything.

The clouds shuddered and began to move. First one shaft of sunlight speared through an opening in the clouds to the ground below then another sunbeam shot through a second hole followed soon by a third and a fourth. The vampires guarding the school's doors cried out in dismay and scrambled to find shelter.

They were too late.

Vast spaces opened in the clouds, revealing the full force of the Sun. The school was instantly covered in brilliant sunlight. The hapless vampires burned then collapsed into dust as the power of the Sun destroyed them.

Tara stared at Willow, lips quirking into her characteristic crooked smile, and said, "That was amazing!" She felt her body fully alive with magic for the first time. Her skin tingled and her blood sang to her. It was wonderful beyond anything she'd experienced before.

Smiling back at Tara, Willow thought how different their union in casting this spell felt than the dark rituals she had performed in the past. There was the warmth and love and their togetherness that she almost forgotten. She had cast much more complex and powerful spells, but they didn't compare to what she had just shared with Tara. The dark magicks left her empty inside. She thought back to the Ritual of Thirteen.

Willow stood in the center of a 13-pointed star made of colored marble tiles fixed to the otherwise bare grey stone floor. An adept in black robes stood at each point of the star, head bowed in a contemplative pose. The rest of the huge domed chamber was empty. Only two exits led out of the room. The one that they had all entered, and the huge gate of bone that she alone would go through.

"She is the darkness," the adepts chanted and 13 tendrils of dark power flowed from them, reaching towards the shadowy aura of Willow's own dark power. The strength of their magic began to trickle into her. They were fools, but she would open the gate as they desired. After she had absorbed all the power, that is.

"She is the darkness," they repeated and dark magic surged into her from each of them. The feeling of power was exhilarating yet also painful, like fiery ice flowing through her veins. The icy burning didn't stop her from wanting more of the darkness though.

As they repeated the chant the third time, she pulled the magic from them with all her strength, draining the dark adepts until they collapsed into unconsciousness. It didn't feel like enough, but she resisted the urge to pull for more, knowing that it would kill them.

Stepping over their bodies, she walked up to the gate of bone. The dark gate loomed over her like a mountain, dwarfing her tiny form. Hundreds had been sacrificed to seal this ancient Hellmouth. Their bodies and spirits had been used like bricks and mortar to make this gate and seal it, but she had more than enough might to open it.

Focusing all her puissance into her right hand until her body felt drained, her hand filled with such darkness that it seemed to suck all the light out of the room. She reached forward to open the gates of Hell.

All that she'd experienced in magic in the last nineteen years--the excitement of acquiring new skills, the thrill of magical combat, the rush of powerful magic flowing through her--none of it compared to this single moment of union. As she answered Tara, her happiness in their accomplishment together was evident even though her face could not be seen. "It was amazing."

"I've never cast a spell with another person. Have you?" Tara asked. She shifted to let her wet hair fall forward, shielding her face.

Willow felt a pang of loss as she remembered that this Tara had no recollection of their spells together. Even if she was able to share her life with Tara again, the memories of their past together would remain hers alone. No one would ever have them but her. She felt fiercely protective of those memories now, especially the important ones like how they had first met, the nether realms spell, and so many other moments of perfect connection. "I have," she answered.

"Oh," Tara said. She felt a little embarrassed. Of course, Willow had. Just because she was inexperienced didn't mean Willow was too.

Noticing Tara's discomfort, Willow attempted to reassure her, "But not for a very long time." Willow looked down at the ground as she thought about how long it had been. She wished she could tell Tara everything and reassure her that this togetherness was just for the two of them.

Willow's comment made Tara wonder about how old Willow was. She'd somehow just assumed that Willow was near her own age, but now she wasn't certain. "Why not?" she asked.

"You have to be very close to someone for casting together to work," Willow explained. She remembered their first spell together in the laundry room, moving the soda machine to barricade the door so the gentlemen couldn't get in. She hadn't even known Tara's name at the time, but the connection had been there, stronger and more wonderful than anything she'd felt before. It was here again today.

Tara looked down at their clasped hands, pondering Willow's words. Was she that close to Willow? She hadn't even seen her face. Yet somehow she did feel safe and sheltered when she was with Willow, even under the most dangerous of circumstances. She just knew that Willow cared for her deeply and would never hurt her. Their togetherness in casting the spell had felt like the connection she had shared with their redheaded girl of her dreams. Could Willow be that girl? If she was, why did she hide her face so carefully? What had happened to her?

Willow followed Tara's gaze and noticed that they were still holding hands. It felt so natural to her, but she thought Tara must be uncomfortable so she unwillingly released her clasp. "Sorry, I forgot."

"No," Tara said, shaking her head in denial, "That wasn't..."

"You'd better check on your friends in the library," Willow interrupted then started to turn away.

Tara had completely forgotten about Spirit and Giles in the aftermath of their spell. "Wait!" she said. "Before you leave, when can I see you again?"

Willow paused then said "I'll see you on patrol at the VanOlsen crypt." As she walked away, she felt a happiness as she hadn't experienced for so many years. Residual magic sang in her veins, reminding her of how magic was supposed to feel. It didn't have the sudden feeling of raging force that dark magic had, but it had a warmth and a light that made it infinitely better. Dark magic felt great when she was casting, but she felt so cold afterwards.

Tara watched Willow walk away, wondering if she could ever have a normal relationship with this person. The connection she'd felt wasn't just magical and the feelings she'd had weren't just physical. They had shared a deeper emotional and spiritual connection than any she'd experienced before. Tara wasn't sure what kind of relationship she wanted with Willow. It was all so sudden and Willow was so different than anyone she'd ever imagined meeting.

Was it love at first...well she hadn't really seen Willow, not her face anyway...so was it love at first spell? Not traditional, but maybe that was how it was for witches. Was she really thinking of love so soon? She wasn't ready. She didn't even really know who Willow was.

All she had were the stories she'd made up since their first meeting: Willow as a masked heroine, dedicated to fighting the forces of darkness; Willow as a princess under a spell, cursed to hide her face until she found her true love; Willow fleeing from a tragic past that she wanted to forget and coming to Sunnydale to start a new life and find a love. She could weave so many stories to explain her feelings, but she didn't know if any of them were true.

With a sigh, Tara shook off her thoughts and headed towards the library. She had to tell Mr. Giles something about what happened today, but she thought she could leave Willow out of it for now. She wasn't ready to tell anyone about Willow until she had a better idea of what Willow meant to her and why.

In a cavern deep beneath Sunnydale, a young vampire shrieked in pain, dropping a glowing green gem from his hand. The large uncut stone fell to the ground and rolled across the floor of the cavern, its cold emerald radiance scintillating on the smooth, slick stone ceiling overhead. He looked at his hand and saw terrible burn marks where he'd held the stone. Looking down at the Heart but afraid to touch it, he curled his hand around the pain and wondered how something that cold could burn him so terribly.

He glared at the witch who shared the cavern with him. "What happened?" he shouted. "What was wrong with your instructions?"

"Well..." the witch said, looking down at the stone whose radiance had dimmed to a faint glimmering of green.

"Don't even think it!" the young vampire said harshly, following her gaze. "I don't need to touch the Heart to burn you to a cinder with its power."

"Master, of course the Heart is yours," she said, bowing. Careful to keep any sign of her contempt for the vampire from her eyes, she continued "I was just thinking that the gem outputs more energy locally when it expends energy to change something externally."

The Master shook his head, confused, "What does that mean?"

"It means that you shouldn't hold the Heart while maintaining a long lasting spell like weather control," the witch answered. "Perhaps we can get a jeweler to set it so you can use it for spells without constant contact." She still didn't understand how a young fool like this one had found the Heart. It had to be luck. He didn't have the brains for serious planning and he certainly wasn't a master vampire except by right of the power he wielded with the gem.

"Then go and find one," the Master growled. "And find a minion to tell me how the attack on the Slayer went. I don't suppose it went well if the weather failed too early."

"Of course, Master, I will do as you ask," she said. "You will soon attain full mastery of the Heart's power."

The Master stared coldly at her, "I'd better, Amy."

Amy Madison turned away from the Master and walked out of the room. Once safely out of the vampire's sight, she smiled. She had spent her youth in search of dark magicks and her brown hair was heavily streaked with grey. But it wouldn't be much longer now. The Heart would likely destroy such a foolish user on its own and if it didn't, she wasn't above giving him a push. Then the Heart would be hers and so would everything she had ever wanted.

Continued...