Who: Maricha/Marsha Clellan, Leonard (NPC) What: Opening the door between life and death When: Week Six, Friday evening (day after Thanksgiving) Where: Clellan Estate, Los Angeles Status: COMPLETE
Maricha hung the phone up in a fit of pique, and then flopped back onto the bed. "That was the world's most useless phone call," she complained.
"What was that all about, anyway?" asked… Maricha couldn't even remember the man's name.
"Oh, I just needed to call a friend, see how he was doing and if he wanted to meet later today, that's all."
The man in bed with her frowned. "Man? Meet you? What are you talki--" his words got cut off in mid-sentence as Maricha's mouth widened and bit his head off at the neck.
She crunched his head thoughtfully, spitting out pieces of bone as she sulked. It wasn't fair; Wesley was supposed to be her puppy, but he was sniffing Angel's butt and wiggling for treats at his desk instead of hers. She took another bite of the man's body, then kicked it off into the floor.
"Did you have to kill the messenger this time, too?"
Maricha nearly shot out of bed at that, hand to her pounding heart. "Leonard! What are you doing here?"
The creature named Leonard came and crawled into bed beside Maricha, long legs stepping delicately over the body as he stretched out alongside her. "Progress report, my dear. The Partners are well aware that your little puppy project is not working out at all like we'd intended."
She pouted at him for that. "He just… ran back to that stupid vampire like he's forgotten everything I did for him." A snarl came out of her throat. "I'm going to kill him."
"No, you're not." Leonard took both her hands in his. "Word from on high is, you're going to leave Price and Angel both alone. We're going to change the game plan. Price was supposed to feed you information, and that failed. So we're going to screw up the plans they've made by introducing a few new variables in the game."
Maricha looked interested, then. "Variables? What variables?"
Leonard smiled. "We're opening the door."
- - -
It was just as well that Maricha had killed the man she'd been sleeping with, because they needed fresh blood. Blood adorned the walls and the floor in sacred sigils of the Death-Gods and the nightwalkers.
A circle of blood and stone stood in the middle of the room, and Leonard had just finished painting Maricha's face with the blood. A streak across the forehead, an unbroken line down the nose, a streak on each cheek under the eye; a red death mask.
Leonard's face was painted in the same mask, his graying hair matted with blood. He stood behind and to the right of Maricha; a feminine energy had to cast the spell. A life-giver could only bring this forth.
"Worlds above, below, and around, hear me as I make the sacred sounds." Maricha knelt before the fire, head bowed and arms outstretched. "I died as a mineral, and I became a plant."
Leonard threw a handful of gold dust and a leaf from a peace lily onto the fire.
"I died as a plant and rose to be an animal."
Leonard threw a dead rose onto the fire, and followed it with animal bone and sinew.
"I died as an animal, and I was human."
Leonard threw a dead rat onto the fire, and then a toe from the man Maricha had killed.
"Why should I fear you? When was I ever less by dying?"
Maricha raised her head, and took the silver knife from Leonard as he offered it to her. She cut a lock of her own hair off, and threw it onto the fire.
"Yet once more I shall die as human, to soar into the Blessed Realm! I shall become a God, but I shall pass on, even from God-hood, because Your power is absolute!"
Leonard took the knife from Maricha and cut his hand, making his own offering of blood into the flames. "Come forth, Demon of Illusion, Master of Fate, Knower of Self. You are the one thing that all men and all Gods must bow to, and we ask Your favor upon our humble request."
The fire was swallowed by a dense black mass, shapeless but opaque. The oily mass writhed and roiled like boiling oil, and finally a mouth appeared. "You have called forth the essence of Death, the breath of the Dragon, the teeth of the monster. What is it you require?"
Maricha kept her head bowed. "Great Power, we ask a favor of your mightiness. You have those in Your power that have gone before their time. They were touched by the powers of Good and Evil, unnatural forces manipulating the lives and deaths of those people. We ask Your forgiveness for interfering in Your realm, and we beg for the return of those souls."
The mass roiled over the fire, and silence blanketed the room. Finally the mouth reformed, and spoke again. "We have many such in Our care. We shall release them. They are free to go, whenever they wish. They will not be stopped if they choose to rise. We cannot force them to leave, however We also shall not bar them from leaving should they choose to come back to their world."
That was more than Maricha had hoped for. "Thank you, Great Power. You are truly the Great One."
The black mass exploded with no further words, and the fire died entirely.
"It's open," Leonard said softly from behind Maricha, helping her to her feet. "The door is open."