Chapter Four – Reasons and History

Buffy walked into her room and headed for the bathroom. She was sticky, disheveled, and in need of a shower. She'd had four clients last night, all of them completely useless at satisfying a woman. Well, a woman's sexual needs anyway. They'd managed to fill her stomach with their blood, so at least she wasn't hungry. They'd also filled her vagina and ass with their spend, but she was still pent up and unsatisfied because not one of them could locate a clit with both hands, a flashlight, and a map, never mind a G-spot. No wonder they had to hand over a stack of cash to get laid. They sucked at it.

Spike watched her walk into the bathroom from his spot in her bed. She hadn't touched him since he'd buggered Andy four days ago… well, she'd bathed him, shaved him, fed him, and snuggled with him when they slept, but she hadn't touched him sexually. She'd spent the last four nights in the room next to this one shagging at least two men at a time. Last night had been four. He'd spent those nights sat in her bed, unable to concentrate on the book she'd given him to read as he'd listened to them pound into her, tears of anguish coursing down his cheeks. Andy had explained that she'd punish him if he displeased her, and he wondered if she was punishing him for what he'd done, even though she'd told him to do it. If the last four nights were meant to be a punishment, then he thought he'd rather be beaten than ignored.

The shower turned on and Spike rolled over, putting his back to the bathroom door as he listened to her clean the previous night off herself. He squeezed his eyes shut when he felt her weight on the mattress and held his breath when her arm snaked over him and she cuddled up to his back. She murmured against the back of his neck, "Good night, my pet."

He hitched out a quiet sob and whispered, "Good night, Mistress."

Buffy lifted up on an elbow and leaned over him. "What's wrong?"

He buried his face in the pillow and choked out, "Nothing, Mistress."

Buffy sat up and tugged his arm until he rolled onto his back and opened his eyes. "Bullshit. What's wrong? Are you hurt or sick or something?"

He shook his head. "No."

"Then what's going on?"

He closed his eyes and whispered, "Did I do something wrong, Mistress? I thought you wanted me to shag him, but you haven't… touched me… since I did. And you've been…"

"Fucking other men."

Spike nodded miserably. "Yes, Mistress."

"Spike, open your eyes." He did and she reached out, sliding her fingers through his hair. "You haven't done anything wrong. I was just letting you rest and rebuild your strength. I was too hard on you right out of the gate, and you weren't healthy enough to be used that hard. I was just so excited to have you, and you're so hot and sexy that I let my libido run away with my brain. In case you haven't noticed, I have an extremely high sex drive, but it's my responsibility to take care of you, not fuck you to death. I want you to be mine for a long time, so I'll have to use other men when you need a break." She cupped his cheek and slid her thumb across his bottom lip. "Although, I'll be thinking of you whenever I do, wishing it was your mouth or your cock."

Spike leaned his head into her hand. "All right, Mistress. I understand."

"Good. How do you feel? Still sore anywhere? Have you been eating enough? Getting enough sleep?"

"Yes, Mistress, I feel fine. I'm not sore anymore and I think Andy thinks I'm a Christmas goose, he's been stuffing me so full of food."

She laughed quietly as she eyed his lips. "Yeah, I've noticed how he looks at you. Probably wants you to fuck him again."

Spike nodded. "He said he'd let me shag him again in a hot minute."

"I think I'd like to watch that, but right now I want you to use your mouth."

Spike's eyes flicked down to her crotch then back up. He swallowed hard. "Yes, Mistress, of course."

Buffy turned and laid back against the pillows, lifting her knees and opening her legs. "Don't worry, I washed them off me and out of me." Spike rolled over and positioned himself between her legs, leaning down to give her a long lick before sucking her clit into his mouth, tasting nothing but soap and her unique flavor. Buffy grasped his head in her hands and moaned as he put his skills to use. Several hours later, she was sticky and disheveled and in need of a shower again, but at least this time she was completely satisfied.

XXXX

Faith opened the door and poked her head in when nobody responded to her knocking then she stepped fully into the room. Spike and Buffy were snuggled together in the middle of the bed, still asleep, even though the sun had been down for almost an hour. Faith walked to the end of the bed and reached out, smacking Buffy's foot. "Wake up, B. Things to do and people to hunt. Everybody's ready. Just waiting on you."

Buffy groaned and extricated herself from Spike then sat up, blinking sleepily. "What time is it? Is it even dark yet?"

Faith chuckled, "Been dark for a while and we need to get going if we're gonna get anybody for that client. Andrew's ready for tomorrow's appointment, but if he's used as hard as Xan was, then we'll need some more bodies soon. Xan still isn't up to full speed. He doesn't sit down unless he has to."

Buffy smirked, "He doesn't need to sit to use his mouth. I saw you at breakfast yesterday. You had him kneeling under the table going to town on you while you drank your coffee."

Faith shrugged with a grin. "He crawled under there on his own. He's still trying to make me cry. Hasn't yet, but I'll let him try as much as he wants." She laughed. "He was under the table not an hour ago, too. Made me spill my coffee this time. I think having Xan with my coffee is my new breakfast routine."

Buffy slid to the edge of the bed and stood up. "You think any more about soldier boy being your pet?"

Faith nodded. "Yeah. His name's Riley, by the way, but I'll probably just call him Boy. Riley doesn't seem much like a pet's name. You'll have to walk me through it, though. How much blood do I need to give him? Before or after I bite?"

"Not much, just a few mouthfuls. Make sure he's about ready to come then slice your wrist and let him suck until he does. When you bite him, do the same thing… right at the edge. Take as much blood from him as you gave. Honestly, just biting him on the neck would probably bond him to you. He's been wanting it since he first showed up here, but if you want him to be a pet instead of a thrall, you'll need to exchange blood while having sex."

Buffy turned and leaned down to shake Spike awake. "Spike? Time to get up. We're going hunting."

Faith raised an eyebrow. "For boys the client will use, right?"

Buffy nodded. "That, and I want to find the men who hurt my pet. We have room in the basement for three more."

"Not really. All the food spots are occupied… at least until I bring Boy upstairs… but that only leaves one open spot, unless you're planning to drain a couple of them."

"The rapists aren't going to be food. They're going to be entertainment… for as long as they hold up… and then they'll be food before we toss their drained corpses into the incinerator. They're going into that room just before the tunnels."

Faith broke into a grin. "The family playroom. Haven't had anybody to play with yet, not since we moved in here, so all the toys are still packed in their crates. I'll have to get the boys down there to unpack and set up."

Buffy nodded. "Yep. Get them moving on that while I get Spike ready. I want the playroom set up and ready to go by the time we get back."

"All right. See you downstairs."

Spike was laying quietly, watching the two women. When Faith left, he looked at Buffy and asked quietly, "Playroom, Mistress?"

Buffy nodded. "Yeah. We have all sorts of fun things… well… fun for us. Not so much for the men we 'play' with."

Spike grimaced slightly and nodded. "Ah. Um… do I have to…"

"Participate? Watch? No, not if you don't want to, but I am going to hurt those men. And then I'm going to kill them."

Spike looked relieved then he closed his eyes and swallowed hard. "Thank you, Mistress." He opened his eyes. "Not for not making me watch, but for helping me to get…" He paused, not sure exactly what word to use.

Buffy supplied two words that she thought fit the situation, "Revenge? Justice?"

Spike nodded. "Yes, Mistress. Thank you."

XXXX

Buffy and Spike joined the group by the back door about half an hour later. Buffy was dressed in all black: leather pants and boots, a black silk tank top, and a leather jacket. Spike was also in all black: a t-shirt and leather jacket, button-fly jeans, engineer boots, and an intricately stitched black leather collar with a small silver ring on the front.

Buffy pulled a leash out of her pocket and showed it to Spike. "This is your first time going out as my pet, so I should probably leash you to make sure your status as mine is perfectly clear, but since we're hunting and I may need to move fast, I don't want you to be tied to me. You could get hurt. Will you be able to follow me and stay close without it?"

Spike nodded. "Yes, Mistress."

Buffy tucked the leash back into her pocket. "I'll keep it on me just in case we need to go into any demon bars. I don't think your collar will be enough to keep their claws off you. If we do need to go into one, I'll leash you and you'll stay just behind my shoulder, keeping your eyes down and your hands behind your back. You'll kneel whenever I stop, and if I sit, you'll kneel beside whatever I'm sitting on."

Spike nodded again. "Yes, Mistress, I understand."

"Okay." Buffy motioned to Faith to open the door then looked at Spike. "Where do we start looking for our new playthings?"

Spike listed several of the places the men who'd assaulted him usually bedded down and the group filed through the door and started across the back lawn, Buffy leading the way.

They roamed through dark alleys, their movements nearly silent, except for the clomping of Spike's boots. Spike had always been afraid to be moving around this late at night when the sky was darkest. He'd always tried to be in some sort of shelter, hidden away as best as he could manage before the light completely left the sky, but now he wasn't frightened at all. Aside from Faith and Buffy, who he'd found out were both almost 300 years old, he was surrounded by four other vampires, the youngest one being Amanda at 42 years old.

On the second day of his 'recuperation period', Buffy had heard his stomach growling when she'd come back to her room, so she'd sent him down to the kitchen to eat while she showered the previous night's clients off her. Andrew and Xander had both been in there, doing their before bed chores, and they'd told Spike about all the vampires in the scourge while Andrew made him something to eat and Xander washed the dishes.

Spike had asked when his Mistress was turned and Xander had explained that the term was 'sired', even for female vampires, then they'd given Spike a rundown of who had sired who. Buffy had sired Darla, Vi, Fred, and Amanda. Faith had sired Amy, Willow, and Harmony. They were all family – of the same bloodline – because Buffy and Faith had both been sired by the same vampire way back in the 1700s, and they took turns adding new members to their family. The next one to be added would be sired by Faith. Besides being the youngest vampire, Amanda was also the youngest when she was sired at only sixteen. Darla was the next oldest after Buffy and Faith, at 127, and the oldest when she was sired at 31.

Spike had asked why none of the vampires were male and Xander and Andrew had given each other a look before Andrew had sat down at the table with him and Xander had leaned against the wall, both wearing serious expressions.

XXXX

Xander started, "Okay, it's like this… Um…"

Andrew continued, "There's only one male vampire in the family, and he's kind of…"

"A psycho. Complete nutbag."

"This was about 200 years ago. He was Miss Buffy's first pet. She found him when he was 17, like me, and I guess he started to slow down when he was around 29 or 30, so she sired him. It didn't go well."

"He was already kind of psycho before he got the vamp upgrade, she apparently had to punish him on the regular, but he went all the way psycho and started killing anyone he came across in increasingly horrific ways. From what we've been told, he attacked a bunch of nuns and slaughtered their entire orphanage. Miss Buffy tried to rein him in, get him back under control, but then he tried to kill her, too, so…"

"She and Miss Faith beat the ever-loving shit out of him then got as far away from him as they could. Miss Buffy was only about 80 when she sired him, and he was her first, so she thought maybe she did it wrong and she didn't sire anybody else for another 80 years. At least not family. She and Miss Faith both made minions whenever they needed some, male and female…"

"…But after what happened with Angelus, they won't sire males into the family. We're only allowed to be thralls… or pets."

Spike blinked. "Why didn't Mistress kill him?"

Andrew shrugged. "She didn't dust him because… I guess she still cared for him. I don't even know if she knows why she didn't. As far as I know, they've just been avoiding him. They moved here because he'd turned up in the last place they had a house."

"So this Angelus is still… alive? Or around, rather?

"Last I heard, he was in LA. That's where they moved from."

Spike blinked again and sputtered, "That's only two hours from here! What if he comes after Mistress again?"

Xander shook his head. "He won't." He shrugged. "At least he hasn't so far. After the beating he took last time, he'd have to be crazy…"

Spike interjected, "Which you just said he was…"

"No, I said he was psycho. That's different than crazy, and he's psycho, not stupid. Coming after Miss Buffy would be crazy stupid, especially since there's nine badass vampires in the scourge now."

"But what if he has his own scourge? What then?"

Andrew spoke up, "He does, sort of. Miss Faith saw him with two brunette women just before they moved. One he's had with him for about 150 years and she's crazy… not psycho, but batshit crazy. Talks to the stars or something. I don't know much about the other one. Miss Faith said she felt new, not much more than maybe ten or fifteen."

"So Mistress is safe?"

Andrew nodded. "Yeah. I don't see why he'd even want to come after her after so long, and even if he did…"

"Nine badass vampires."

Spike looked at them both then said quietly, "But most of them are much younger than he is, and you said vampires only get stronger as they get older."

Xander said, "Which they do, but from what Miss Buffy and Miss Faith have told us, Angelus wasn't big on the fight training, so yeah, he's strong, and he can fight, mostly because he's also kind of big, but the Misses have been training for almost 300 years, and they've trained the rest of them since they were sired."

Andrew nodded, "They've even trained us, and they'll start training you soon, too, I bet. Plus, Miss Willow and Miss Amy are both witches, so they can use magicks against him, if he shows up."

Xander added, "And Miss Fred, Miss Vi, and Miss Amanda are all wicked smart besides being skilled fighters. Miss Fred likes to invent things, Miss Amanda does game design and website design, and Miss Willow keeps the books and figures out investments and whatever. This scourge is loaded, by the way. I saw a bank statement a few weeks ago and the balance looked like a phone number."

Spike lifted his hand and ticked off his fingers, "Okay, you've named two witches and three geniuses… what about Miss Darla and Miss Harmony?"

Xander and Andrew both shared an amused look then Andrew replied, "They were… in a specialized profession when they were added to the family. Miss Darla designed our… business model, and Miss Harmony…"

"Brought it into the modern age. She helped Miss Amanda design our website."

Spike smirked, "Business model? This is a brothel."

Xander smirked back. "It is the oldest profession."

Spike nodded. "Right. So… did you two know vampires really existed before you were… thralled? Became thralls? Because I had no idea. I'd read books about them, of course, but they were all fiction, like Dracula, not encyclopedias."

Andrew said, "You'd be surprised at how many fictional stories get the facts right, and Dracula is also real, by the way, but yeah, I knew they really existed. I've been interested in vampires since I was about nine when I saw one eat the neighbor lady. I went to the library and started researching them."

Xander added, "And I got real interested in them when Andy showed me a bunch of newspaper articles about how most of the people in this town die from freak BBQ fork accidents."

Spike asked, "So how did you end up here? Did you just knock on the door and ask to be thralled? Was there some sort of advert in the newspaper? Did you click the 'thrall me' button on the website?"

Andrew took a breath. "No, no advertisements, we didn't show up at the door, and we didn't even know about the website until after we got here, but if we had... then maybe..."

"It wouldn't have mattered, Andy. We were, well… kidnapped, I guess. We suspected the new owners of the Crawford Street mansion were vampires…"

"So we started investigating them. We'd stake out the mansion and follow them when they left."

"And we suck at being spies, so we got caught following Miss Willow and Miss Fred when they were out. Miss Willow used some sort of binding spell on us and brought us back here."

"And Miss Buffy and Miss Faith gave us a choice – be food or be thralls, because either way we weren't leaving the scourge. They'd only been here a few weeks and didn't want us blabbing to the wrong people in town about the vampires in the mansion."

"Wrong people?"

"Most of the population… the human one, anyway, is mostly oblivious to the demons living right under their noses. This town is probably at least thirty percent demon. And the humans who are aware – like the clients who pay to be fucked and bitten by vampires – don't want the demon element discovered or removed. But there are a few that are aware and they kill demons or capture them to experiment on. Those are the wrong people."

"And those were the people you were going to tell?"

Xander chuckled. "No. We were going to go to the cops once we had enough evidence, but the cops here are some of the aware ones who happily co-exist with the demon population, so we'd have probably ended up as demon chow to shut us up."

Spike asked, "So what's the difference between you and me? What's the difference between a thrall and a pet?

Andrew replied, "A thrall is sort of a servant or familiar. We're bitten and claimed, but they don't give us any of their blood like they would with a pet. And we're not having sex with them when we're claimed. We can go out in the daytime, so we deal with all the stuff that happens before the sun goes down. Human stuff like shopping, legal paperwork that you have to go to the bank, the courthouse, a lawyer, or the post office for, getting utilities turned on, license plates on the cars, paying property taxes – all the stuff living people have to do to exist in society."

Spike blinked, "But you're both minors, so how can you deal with legal paperwork?"

They said at the same time, "Fake IDs."

Xander chuckled, "Hi, I'm Frank Smith, a thirty-five-year-old real estate developer."

"And I'm Anthony Smith, his forty-year-old brother and business partner."

"Neither one of you looks older than sixteen and you don't look like brothers…."

Andrew waved a hand. "Miss Willow glamours us to look like the IDs they got from a demon broker. We only have to do that when we're doing legal stuff for the mansion or the cars or whatever. We can just be us when we go shopping and stuff."

"So you like being here? Serving them? What about having to shag strangers for money you don't get to keep?" He motioned to the bruises and welts still visible on Xander's naked torso. "You like what happened to you a few days ago?"

Xander shrugged then nodded. "Yeah, being here is tons better than being at home. Believe me, my dad did a lot worse than this to me, and I didn't get to keep any of the money he got from selling me to his friends, either. At least here I get fed regularly, I have an actual room with a bed to sleep in, and I don't get the shit beat out of me every day. I also don't have to have sex with the clients if I don't want to, but since I'm Bi, I usually want to, and I also get to have sex with the Misses as much as they want. Which is a lot. I'm kind of living the teenage dream here… all the food I want, I don't have any bills or a job, I have a kickass gaming system, a sixty-inch TV, all the streaming services, a brand-new smartphone, I don't have to go to school, and I get to sleep all day and have sex all night." He pointed at the sink full of dirty dishes. "Doing a few chores for all that is a hell of a deal."

"Mistress said something about your parents not giving a shit that you were missing. They didn't report it?"

Xander shrugged. "I doubt it. My mom died when I was five and my dad had thrown me out like a week before we were captured because he started in on me again and I was completely over it, so I punched him. I'd been staying with Andy until I could figure out what to do or his parents came back and threw me out."

Spike nodded at Andrew. "And you? Did you have a shite home life, too?"

Andrew shook his head. "My parents didn't beat me or sell me to their friends, they just ignored me. I've basically been raising myself since I started school. They travel a lot for business and were on a three-month trip to Spain when we were brought here. I'm not even sure they've noticed I'm gone, since all my stuff is still in my room."

"So are you living the teenage dream, too?"

Andrew shrugged. "I guess, although, aside from being fed on by the Misses, it's not much different from being at home. Miss Faith and Miss Buffy don't really notice me unless they're hungry or need something – they're the only ones who feed on me – and the others don't really pay much attention to me unless I haven't done something they expected me to do, like clean their rooms, or do their laundry."

"You don't have sex all night like Xander?"

Andrew laughed, "Not usually. I'm gay, and since Xan's usually with one or more of the Misses, I only get to have sex on the rare night that Xan's free or with the clients who are into that." He smiled at Spike, "And, you know… you."

Spike blushed and looked down at his plate. "Yeah, um… I'm not gay… or Bi. I only did that because Mistress wanted me to."

"Which is the difference between a thrall and a pet. You can be compelled to do things that go against your nature, like having sex with me. Xan and I can't be compelled. We can be asked if we're willing, but if we say no, then we can't be forced. If Xan hadn't wanted to let that client fuck him, they wouldn't have made him do it and I probably would have instead. If you'd said you didn't want to fuck me, Miss Buffy might have let it go, but once she looked into your eyes, you didn't feel like you didn't want to, did you? Even though you're not gay."

Spike thought about it then shook his head. "No, I wanted to do it because it would please her, even though I've never been attracted to a bloke, and I apologize for saying so, but I'm not attracted to you now, either, even after shaggin' you. Don't get me wrong, it felt good, and you're good with your mouth, but I'd probably only do it again because Mistress wanted me to."

"No need to apologize. I'd let you fuck me again in a hot minute, because you're hot and I haven't come that hard in a long time, but I get that you're not into it, unless it's to please Miss Buffy."

"So you've never shagged one of the Misses?"

"Not full-on intercourse, no. I've gone down on most of them, but that's it. For me, it's just another chore, like the laundry or cooking. They'll ask me to do that if their clients were inept and they haven't come. They get really scratchy and irritable if they don't get the release, and apparently masturbation doesn't really do the trick, so I help them out."

"So, besides being threatened with death and coming from crappy homelives, what keeps you both here?"

Xander and Andrew looked at each other then Xander asked, "Do you like it when Miss Buffy bites you?"

Spike nodded. "Yeah, quite a lot. She's only bitten me a few times, and if I wasn't really ready to come yet, it pushed me right over. If she walked in here right now and bit me, I'd probably come all over the table."

Andrew said, "And that's why we stay. Not the only reason – the sex, the food, the security, knowing we'll always have a family no matter what. Even though most of them ignore me, I know they'd kill to protect me, and they won't allow us to be permanently damaged or force us to do things we don't want to – those are the main reasons, I guess, but the pleasure we get from being bit is just… it's addictive. I think we'd both go crazy if we left and weren't being bitten anymore."

Xander nodded with a laugh. "I know I would. I start getting twitchy if it's been more than a couple days since my last bite."

"So you two hang about because you want to and you like being bit, but, in theory, you could leave if you wanted to?"

Andrew shrugged, "Eh… sort of, but not really. Physically, yeah, we can leave the mansion whenever we want. We have to be able to be out by ourselves in the daytime to get things done, but… there's a pull, I guess. Yeah, there's the addiction to the bite, but we're fully functioning near-adults. We don't act like junkies needing a fix, like some of the food in the basement. They start freaking out if they haven't been bitten in a while, and if we did leave, we'd probably go through withdrawal, like coming off drugs, but we'd get over it eventually and be fine. So we can leave, but when we get too far away, we just… feel pulled back to the Misses. It kind of starts to hurt, like how your muscles ache when you've got the flu. I don't know if we'd get over that if we tried to move to a different town. It would probably always be there, and we could try to live our lives, but we'd be in steadily worsening pain the whole time." He smiled wryly, "At least until they hunted us down and dragged us back or killed us, of course. They weren't kidding about not leaving the scourge."

"So what's different about me? Could I leave if I wanted to?"

Xander shook his head. "I wouldn't, man. You're marked, and not just that bite on your neck. You've had her blood and once she took yours and claimed you, some kind of supernatural balloon showed up over your head, like those green diamond things over Sims characters. Humans don't see it, but anything demon can look at you or smell you and know that you're a vampire's pet. Some demons respect that and will leave you alone, but some… won't. If they catch you out by yourself, they'll see it as a challenge and try to kill you… or worse."

"So I'm basically her sex slave?"

Andrew answered, "In the sense that you belong to her and serve her and only her, but she won't treat you like just a human-sized dildo. She'll take care of you and protect you, but she'll also punish you if you displease or disobey her. She'll care about your health and your feelings and your mental state and will probably come to love you, if she doesn't already. You're more like her mate than her slave. At least you would be if you were a vampire. If she'd sired you and then claimed you, you'd be mated, and if one of you dusted, then the other one would, too. It's an eternal bond that can only be broken by final death. But since you're human, you won't die if she dusts. You'll be in a lot of pain for a while, but you'll eventually recover once her claim fades. If you die, though…" He shrugged. "I'm not sure. I've never read anything about that or heard anything about it, either. I mean, if she sired you, you'd die, obviously, so she wouldn't dust, and you haven't claimed her back, like a mate would, so if you died for any other reason, she'd probably just mourn you like losing her husband."

"So she didn't claim Angelus after she sired him? Didn't her original claim carry over?"

"No. The person she'd claimed as a pet was dead, so she would have had to do it again to claim the vampire wearing his body and he never gave her the chance."