Prompt 530 - Exile - Dragon's Phoenix - In a Corner of My Soul - BtVS

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Title: In a Corner of My Soul
Fandom: BtVS
Prompt: 530 - Exile
Rating: PG
Word Count: 575
Note: Locked to members of Taming the Muse

Giles’ Volante, parked in an abandoned factory, had been bespelled to hide it from magical sight. The working had drained Willow’s power - not that the girl would know what had exhausted her - but he couldn’t hunt down Weirick with Miller on his tail.

The change of clothes, pulled out from the sedan he’s stolen earlier that day, made for a halfway decent disguise. No one would be looking for a staid Englishman under a <?> baseball cap. The bluejeans and white T, more Ripper’s style than Giles’, fit like a glove.

Losing Miller had taken longer than he’d expected. Giles, finally ready to leave, checked his watch. Damn, he was late. With any luck Weirick hadn’t left the zoo. Giles could, of course, hunt him down no matter where he’d gone to ground but he also wanted to destroy Weirick’s ritual space. It would be so much easier to find them both together. Weirick’s original ritual space, the one to invoke hyena possession, had been at the zoo. It was likely he’d stuck to pattern and had drawn Eyghon’s Mark somewhere at the zoo as well which is why Giles had planned to meet not only Weirick but Tucker also. The lad could make himself useful by cleaning up Weirick’s mess.

To avoid attention, Giles parked a few blocks from the zoo. He could bring the car around once he had Weirick under control. The walk through the largely residential neighborhood would have been relaxing if losing Miller hadn’t taken up so much of his time.

Tucker was waiting at the side gate just as Giles had arranged. “You’re late,” the boy called out. “You’re lucky I waited.”

Giles merely stared at the boy as he thought about exiling his soul to a demon dimension. Not that he could, given how Enyghon valued the little brat. “Unavoidably detained. Shall we go in?”

“It’s locked.”

The lock was nothing, so easy to pick that Giles didn’t even have to give it a moment’s thought. The zoo, lit by a waning moon, had enough light to see by even though there wasn’t much to see. The nocturnal animals had their own enclosures. The rest were nowhere in sight.

The light from Weirick’s office provided the only spot of light in a dark hallway. As they entered, Weirick glanced between Giles and Tucker but if he wondered why the lad was there, he didn’t voice his concern. Standing behind his desk as if behind the walls of a fortress, Weirick must have thought himself invulnerable to attack. He wasn’t. The spell removed Weirick’s conscious control of his somatic nervous system without disrupting his autonomic functions. He’d continue to, for example, breathe, but he couldn’t move, for a short while at least, long enough for Giles to bind his hands and feet. After draining Willow’s magics earlier that evening, he’d had to use his own power to disable Weirick but it was a small enough price to pay to get rid of such a large nuisance.

Predictably, Tucker’s jaw seemed to have hit the floor. “Wicked. How’s you do that?” Giles didn’t reply. If the lad didn’t have the discipline for demonology, he wasn’t about to teach him higher magics.

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?”

Ah, good, the spell on Weirick had worn off. Giles turned to Tucker. “I’m going round for the car. Get him to tell you where his altar to Eyghon is.”