Hello all. Sorry about the pause between chapters. I've hit a slowdown here so please be patient.
Still ***Cliffhanger warning***
Enjoy!
Chapter 23
Silence answered her call into darkness. Willow felt the still, vacant space of the neglected cabin. She struggled again to remove the final inches of tape half clinging to her lips.
Willow felt broken and torn, struggling against the binding. In a fragile instantaneous breath the barrier between herself and her lover collapsed. “Tara.”
In the same moment the blonde Wicca felt the cry penetrate her soul. Every point of pulse pounding against her desperate body, quenching her thirst for connection. Her foot slipped sharp to the brake pedal forcing the slayer tight against the strap of the safety belt. Their bodies slapped back against the seat.
Buffy turned, bracing her body stiff armed against the dash. “What?”
Tara closed her eyes listening for her lover, raising her hand to quiet the car. "Shh." Summoning every raging breath of life, drawing in the thick air around her, their souls collided. “Willow…” The whispering essence of her lover's soul filled her body, tapping gently over her racing heart, pouring over the hungry voids.
“Yes Baby, I’m here I can hear you." She felt the desperation in her lover's thoughts. The flaming current of fear, the smoldering need for physical connection. "It’s ok, I’m ok.” Willow’s body rushed with comfort feeling every heaving breath of her lover, replacing the fear and panic with rich warm tides of hope.
“Willow, where are you?” Tara eased into the connection.
“I’m not sure. It’s too dark to see anything.” She struggled to focus on the walls around her, still hazy and confused, every blink clouded with hollow darkness.
Desperately Tara formed her thoughts, folding hope around every word. “Please… tell me that Abbey is there with you?” The sharp silence pierced chest, plummeting her mind into deep hollows of panic.
“Oh…goddess yes baby.” Willow’s eyes cast down toward the quiet child, feeling the tension of her lover penetrate the barriers of space, knowing the reality of their situation would crush the frail tendrils of hope. “But she’s unconscious.”
Abandoning her fears, Tara focused on her family. “Will, you have to protect yourselves, put up a barrier around you, until we can find you both.” Tasting the desperation in the briny cascades on her cheek, she focused every sliver of power toward their safety.
Willow watched her daughter. Knowing she couldn’t concentrate on a spell this important. “Help me Tara.”
The blonde stretched behind her, reaching for her book of shadows, flipping quickly through the pages. Her palm rested across the open book, feeling the energy of the words. “I love you.”
“Baby, I love you too.”
“Follow my words Will.” Tara opened the seam of space and energy. The red head listened, repeating every thought, until they were a perfect catalyst of elemental power. The women felt an immediate connection, shattering the exhausted edges of self-doubt. Willow felt the force of pure love spring from every pore enveloping the child in a warm embrace of safety.
The room filled with a soft mist creeping across the walls, climbing and filling every deep gouge of wood, every tiny spindle of earth. The magic moved slowly, without warning the connection vanished leaving Willow alone, disconnected from her soul mate once more.
“Tara.” The sudden loss consumed her resolve, twisting her down into the spiraling abyss of darkness. With one sinister breath the walls of the cabin swallowed the mist like a ravenous bear. Containing the magic, covering the path of freedom.
She buried her pain, rubbing her raw flesh against the ropes, intent on reaching the unconscious child. With one final stroke the last gripping edge of tape fell between the webs of braided twine. “Tara!” Her desperate cries went unanswered.
“Abbey.” Willow called softly through the darkness. The child lay still alongside her mother. The red head panicked, struggling against the binding of tape strapped around her wrists.
“Dissolvo.” Willow asked the goddess to free them. Nothing happened.
“Release.” Again she asked for freedom. Again nothing happened. The red head lay against her child, rolling toward her, pressing her fingers under the tape across her face. “Tara…baby can you hear me?”
Alone in the darkness she struggled to reach her girls.
*******************
“Willow.” Tara called with her mind, the cold, echoing silence thickening inside her. Their connection severed as quickly as it formed.
With one loud resonant cry she called out to her lover. “Willow.” The brittle sound shattered the silence of the car.
Buffy turned, watching the hope vanish from her face. “What? Was she there?”
“Yes, she was. But I don’t know what happened to her.” Tara turned away watching the looming darkness through the window. “Buffy, she’s gone.” Her head fell against the glass.
The slayer reached her hand, offering comfort. “Is Abbey there?”
“Yes, thank the goddess.”
“What else did she tell you?”
Tara shook her head burying the frustration and regret. “Abbey is unconscious.” As the final word slipped from her lips, a cascade of tears snaked down her cheeks. “It was too dark. She couldn’t see.”
Her fingers slipped over the edge of her sleeve, lifting without thought, to wipe her cheeks. “Oh… my girls…they’re lost in the dark Buffy. We need to find them.” She dropped her expression into the palm of her hands, rubbing the disappointment up across her brow, squeezing the intense panic from her thoughts.
The slayer picked up the laptop pounding her fingers against the keys, following a list of commands, pecking out the responses. Emotion frightened the slayer. Every day she fought against the forces of the evil, drawing a fine line between living and undead. Somewhere in this dichotomy, lay the shadow of gray for human waste. The slayer fought her instinct to attack, beating the defenseless laptop. “I really hate technology.” A small grin followed. “Give me a sword and an Axe and I’m all kinds of good.”
Tara frowned, watching the screen flicker from page to page. “Something broke the connection between us. I don’t know what happened.”
“Magic.” Buffy dropped her smile, fighting against the image of Donnie, filling her head. “He doesn’t use it, does he?” The slayer hid her fear, concerned with facing magic that evil.
Tara shook her head. “He wouldn’t. He’s as disgusted by it as my father was.” The memories of his anger swarming her mind, “Judging by his reaction to us the other day, he’d die before he’d use it.”
“So then who?” Buffy shrugged, watching the computer screen flash graphic layouts of the area. “Beth?”
Frustration seeped through Tara’s ragged sigh. “Not Beth, she always wanted to do magic but never could. She doesn’t trust the forces of nature enough to give herself over the their power.” Tara offered a summary, hoping Buffy wouldn’t get lost in the information. “We really belonged to a family that had little use for women.” Trying to hide her shame, “you probably noticed that by now.”
The slayer smirked nodding her agreement. “Hard to miss that one.”
“Subtlety doesn’t play well in my family.” She paused, remembering the struggle of her childhood. Opening her mind to the idea that magic; something she cherished so, could be used to harm her family. She focused again on the conversation. “Anyway, I know she was always curious, but I think it would take real power to block us like that. I can’t think of any one that could do that.” The blonde witch looked down at her book of shadows flipping back and forth trying to figure out a way to reconnect with her family. “No one that’s living anyway.”
****************
“Where’s Tara?” Anya burst into the hotel room, showing little regard for the child sprawled across the bed, his tiny chest, rising and falling with a dulcet rhythm. “Are they here?”
Dawn forced her finger to her lips. “Shhh, he’s sleeping. Be quiet.” She hurried the group into the next room. “What did you find?”
“This.” Anya waved the pungent shirt in the air. Flipping the piece of cloth wildly in front of her.
Dawn skirted backward masking her nose to the growing odor. “Gees guys, thanks for the gift.”
Anya tilted her head with confusion. “It’s not a gift.” She surveyed the room searching for the witch and the slayer.
“It’s sarcasm Ahn.” Xander chuckled at her. “Haven’t you noticed how foul that thing smells?”
“Well of course I have, but I, unlike some here, have a mission to accomplish.” She grabbed her cell phone from her pocket. “Now where did they go?”
“Tara figured out a way to find them, so they left.” Dawn watched the blonde dial the phone.
“Hey.” Anya’s outburst startled the crowd in the room. “Did anyone think to call Willow on her cell?”
“Yes, but it didn’t help.” Dawn pointed across the room. “She left it on the table.”
“Is anyone wondering why they couldn’t do the thing?” Anya smirked tilting her head. “I mean they were quite capable of feeling each other up until this morning.”
“They did what? When?” Xander blushed, watching the wild display of spell casting witches feeling each other, in his mind. Anya slapped him across the back of the head.
“Hey, what was that for?”
“Thinking of the lesbians feeling each other.” She stared down his innocent look. “Don’t even try to deny it.”
“Okay, right then. We were talking about finding Willow and Abbey.” Dawn interrupted the conversation, saving Brenda from the embarrassing details. “Call Tara.”
Brenda watched the group gather trying to contact her friend. Slowly she backed out of the room walking toward her son. The fragile boy lay outstretched across the bed, tiny in form, occupying the very center, leaving little room for her.
She reached into her purse pulling out a small bottle. Her fingers flipped open the cap. She unfastened the snapped seam of his pants, unbuckling the straps of his brace. Gently she squeezed the medicine from the container. Rubbing the lotion between her hands, warming it with quick circular motion. Tenderly she massaged the scars of his legs, with each touch, apologizing for her failure. Her finger rested on the long scar on his hip, lost in the thought of his emotional wounds.
Gently she shifted him to the side easing her self against his frame. Her hand slipped across his abdomen, slowly lifting and falling with each peaceful breath. She closed her eyes drifting in thought.
Wandering into the image of her husband snatching Willow and Abbey. She watched his form chase them through a field, snapping the tall blades of sweet grass with every step. They trailed across a creek dragging the heavy weight of water soaked clothes up to a rocky cliff edge.
Horror filled her mind as the vivid images changed. Without fear or consequence she watched him slash at the red head throwing her over the cliffs edge. Her eyes focused on the frightened child. Abigail watched in horror as her mother plummeted to the jagged rocks below.
Brenda snapped quickly from her dream staring around the room. She glanced at her child, knowing for the first time in her life, that if she did nothing, her nightmare would become reality. She walked from the bed catching a glimpse of the group trying to call Tara on the cell phone. Slowly she closed the dividing door.
She glanced back at her son once more. “I’ve made my decision Tara. I hope I can live with it.” She opened the door slowly, walking out into the night air. “I hope you can live with it.” It closed behind her cutting her off from her son and his family. “I love you Patrick.” She turned away, never looking back. Her feet fell slowly dragging at first, as momentum of fear and shame built inside her she started to run. No real destination in mind, just freedom. Just the sudden urge to escape from everyone and everything.
****************
“Abigail.” Willow’s voice cut through the darkness. She watched as the tiny blonde started to move.
Slowly Abbey wiggled her eyelids attempting to focus on the outside world.
The red head watched in horror as terror filled the tiny eyes. Knowing in that dark silent moment that her life had changed forever. Knowing that she had failed to do the one thing she had always promised she would.
Feeling in the deep gasping breath the unrecoverable innocence of childhood. Willow leaned in to comfort her daughter. “I’m here Abbey girl. We’ll be okay. Somehow we’ll be okay.”
TBC
Urn Of Osiris
Anyone else waiting for it to go poof? My thoughts on S7
Edited by: Urn of Osiris 
at: 11/8/02 11:29:57 am
by Tara22 » Mon Nov 04, 2002 3:43 am 
(recommend Anya to be last in that line).
NOT FAIR!!!
Relax I can't do everything all at once. Breathe, I'm getting there as fast as I can.
Shovel and all. 
