Demonic Secrets

070207

Disclaimer: I own nothing but Michael and I'm not giving him up.

Summary: Seems that everyone has something they're not telling.

Reviews: Yes please. If y'all are still interested, by all means tell me what you think. Readers Rock but Reviewers RULE!

Warnings: Semi-explicit sex and minor bloodplay.

A/N: I honestly had not realized how much time had passed since the last update, what with post-convention blues and an excessive amount of traveling in May. As a peace offering this chapter is a little bit longer than the last two.

Thank you, kim for the pokes. (grin)

Many thanks to the lovely reader who nominated Runaway Mouth at the Love's Last Glimpse Awards. It's still a thrill just to have the recognition. I think I've even picked up readers because of it. THANK YOU!

Hugs and smooches to my favorite muse, WayWard Childe. Thanks for your insightful and valued input. I missed you tons!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Several days later…. Summers house…

Joyce hesitated at the top of the stairs. Going down into the basement grew more difficult with each passing day. It wasn't that she was afraid of Spike. She knew that, even without the chip, he wouldn't harm her. No, seeing him chained tore at her heart. But after the trauma during the Silence, both Giles and Buffy insisted that, if neither of them could be in the house, Spike had to be restrained. The vampire had submitted to the dictate with ill grace but was powerless to do anything about it. Every move he made in the offensive caused lightening to shoot through his head. The tray in her hands wobbled slightly as she stood there momentarily lost in her thoughts. Weariness washed through her, sleep had been in short supply recently. She knew Spike couldn't help it, couldn't control the nightmares – terrors – he suffered every time he closed his eyes. But more than once in the past few days she found herself reaching to turn off the monitor so she wouldn't have to listen to the pain filled groans and pleas for them to 'stop, please stop'. It was at those times she couldn't help but wish that they had never recovered their voices.

Spike gazed moodily up at the staircase opposite of his cot. He could sense Joyce wavering up there. He knew having him ensconced in her basement was wearing on her terribly. He could see new lines of fatigue on her lovely face each time she visited him. It hurt his unbeating heart to see the effect having him there had on her. All he'd wanted those long torturous months had been to get back to her. He'd realized right after he'd said goodbye that last time that he really didn't want to go back to Drusilla. He had actually turned in his tracks to return to Joyce but had been taken instead. Now he was a burden on her, a useless, broken shell of himself, mentally and physically screwed up. He thumped his head back on the wall behind him in frustration. He knew he shouldn't be there, shouldn't be causing her so much stress. But Giles was unwilling to simply let him go. Truth be told - not that he'd admit it to any human - Spike himself was … resistant … to the idea of being out on his own. He didn't want to leave. Now that he was where he'd longed to be, he wanted to stay. Stay forever and hope like hell that eventually she'd look at him with some small measure of affection. He'd make sure she'd never know he desperately wished for more, because he was a monster and didn't deserve her.

He still didn't understand exactly what those people had done to him but he knew he couldn't survive on his own, at least not yet. He could smell the bagged blood she carried and grimaced. He was slowly getting used to the taste of the animal blood but it was really, really hard. Not only that but it wasn't as efficient in healing him as human blood was. Animal blood didn't have the same nutritional value as human. It just simply didn't work as well. He sighed and shifted on his bed. His chains clanked softly with his motions.

"Joyce?" He called quietly. "I know you're up there, Luv. Are you all right?" His voice was low and husky, as it had been since he'd begun talking again.

Joyce flinched at the sound. She'd loved his voice – before. It had been a smooth, rich baritone with a sexy British accent that wavered, between the one he'd affected after he'd been turned and the more cultured Gilesian one from his human life, with the stories he'd told. She and Dawn had sat for hours listening to that wonderful sound. Now the dulcet tones were tainted with a low rasp commonly blamed on too many cigarettes. While it was no less sexy in sound, she'd initially attributed the change to disuse. But as the days passed with no improvement, she had realized that it was entirely possible his beautiful voice had been altered forever. Still beautiful, still sexy but irrevocably changed - as was he.

"Joyce?" Concern began to thread through the husky voice. "Luv?" A clank of steel as he moved restlessly brought her back from her musing.

"I'm fine, Will. I'll be right down. I was just…." She paused. She was just… what? What could she tell him? That she was thinking about how damaged he now was? With a silent sigh, she squared her shoulders, pasted a smile on her face and descended the stairs to give her vampire his first meal of the day.

'Please God, let it be a good day.' She prayed silently.

The Initiative Lab…..

Maggie Walsh schooled her features into an expressionless mask and turned to face the guest Riley Finn had brought into her domain. "So you're the Slayer." She said blandly. "I thought you were a myth."

Buffy smiled brightly even though she inwardly seethed with loathing for the supercilious woman. "I guess you were myth-taken." She quipped.

Riley turned to the table next to him and picked up a clipboard to hide the grimace that flashed across his face.

"I'm sure you'll find that we use the most up-to-date technology to control the demon population. We have the most efficient methods of eliminating the hostiles that you could hope to find. I believe you use a pointy stick?" Walsh smirked at the petite blonde who continued to beam at Riley.

'Up-to-date methods of torture?' Buffy thought acidly. 'Control the demons with little computer chips?' The past few days of dealing with a chipped Spike had taught her a few things about tolerance. While the injured vampire did sleep a lot, the times when he was awake were uncertain at best. They never knew if he would be quiet and biddable or loud and violent. The chaos created by the madwoman in front of her was having a negative effect on all the Scoobies. Xander had admitted to suffering nightmares. Ex-demon Anya was jumpy and obsessed with hiding her past. Willow was growing pale and tense as she worried whether or not the Initiative would be interested in witches. Joyce had taken over the baby monitor and had made looking after Spike her full time job, the task more wearing on her than she was willing to admit to her daughter but Buffy could see the changes. Dawn was quiet and subdued on the vampire's 'bad days' and cautiously optimistic on his 'good days'. Several conferences with Giles and Michael since the Silence had laid the groundwork for their current plan; Buffy would try to infiltrate the Initiative. She didn't like it but it was the best they could come up with aside from letting Drusilla continue to kill the soldiers. And that was not a plan that Buffy could condone but the Master Vampire had proven too slippery for the Slayer to catch in the act. Looking at Professor Walsh with wide green eyes, she shrugged and maintained her dumb blonde expression. "Well, I find that simple works best."

Riley found he couldn't stay quiet even though he'd promised himself he would let Buffy impress his boss on her own. "I was thinking that Buffy would be a great asset to our team."

Walsh raised an eyebrow. "Indeed." She murmured. "Well, we'll give you a short tour and talk a bit more. Then we'll see, maybe Buffy would like to join our organization." She compromised. 'At least until I can figure out a way to get rid of the little bitch without causing any backlash or damage to my project.' Her dark thoughts never reflected on her face as she and Riley gave the Slayer a guided tour of the lesser classified sections of the facility.

Giles' apartment….

Michael was getting rather used to waking up with his arms full of cool feminine curves. He wasn't sure just what the vampire wanted with him but as long as she treated him as nicely as she had been, he could deal with staying with her. The other thing he'd had to deal with was her resuming her hunting of fellow Initiative soldiers. He'd managed to extract her promise that she wouldn't kill anyone who'd had nothing to do with the torture Spike had suffered but it had been difficult. There just weren't that many of them who hadn't been involved. The Watcher had despairingly given up on persuading the Immortal to stop hunting. Her answer was always the same.

"They hurt my Childe. They will die."

Now he was lying on his side in the queen sized bed of Giles' guest room. His head was propped up on one hand as he watched his companion sleep. There was just enough light leaking under the bedroom curtains for him to see her profile. Drusilla was spooned comfortably against him with her back to his chest. It had been seriously disconcerting the first couple of times he'd woken up and realized that the body next to him wasn't breathing and had no heartbeat but he was getting accustomed to the feeling. So far all they had done was sleep together, with the vampire slipping into bed with him every morning a mere hour or two before dawn.

"I can hear you thinking, Pretty." The low murmur from Drusilla made Michael smile. Her British accent reminded him so much of his favorite relative. A pang shot through him at the thought. He missed her tremendously. He'd been only ten when she'd died but the memory of her remained as strong as if she had only been gone a year or two instead of more than a decade.

"Vamp hearing is that good?" He responded softly, amusement clear in the low tones.

She shifted onto her back to look up at him sleepily. A smile curved her lips. "No." She admitted.

Mike gazed down at her human features. She had silky dark hair, nearly black in color, long and flowing over her shoulders. Her icy blue eyes were now warm and soft as they gazed up at him, framed by thick dark lashes. Her lush mouth didn't ever seem to need lipstick and was proving to be a nearly irresistible temptation. Cautiously he leaned down, his blue/gray gaze focused on the red curve of her lower lip. "Ah, some form of telepathy then." He whispered just as their mouths connected.

Hazily, Mike realized that kissing a vampire was a revelation. After several nights of sleeping with her in his arms, he knew that she was closer to a cool room-temperature than cold and her mouth proved to be no different. The closest he could come to comparing the warmth and flavor of her mouth was taking a bite from a ripe peach that had been in a tabletop fruit bowl. Her taste was surprisingly sweet and a low moan rose up in the back of his throat as the kiss deepened.

His control of the situation lasted only seconds. Dru used a mere fraction of her strength to push him over until she was hovering over his boxer clad form. She pulled back from him far enough to stare intently into his eyes. An evil smile bloomed across her lips as her gaze roamed over his handsome features.

"So like my William, you are." She tilted her head as she continued to study his face. "But so very different. You have had others, yes?"

Mike swallowed in sudden apprehension and nodded very slightly. "Yes, a few." He admitted reluctantly. He'd had girlfriends, one semi-serious one in high school and had dated a bit in college. The main problem with his social life during those years had been that he was so much younger than his classmates. At that age, two or three years difference is an impassable chasm. He could feel her fingers gliding down his torso until they reached the waist of his boxers. His stomach muscles contracted as the slender digits danced along the edge the khaki cotton. Slowly, carefully, she slid her razor sharp fingernails back up his abdomen. He swallowed again. "Don't hurt me?"

She stilled, her entire body rigid with sudden tension. "Why would you think that I would hurt you, Pretty?" Her voice was gentle as she asked the question. He couldn't tell if he'd angered her or not.

"I don't think you would mean to but you are a lot stronger than me." Mike whispered, his gaze dropped from hers and he bit his lower lip with an attack of anxiety.

"You could have strength such as mine." She murmured as her icy gaze drifted down to his throat.

"I'm not sure I'd like that." The former soldier's voice was barely audible.

A sad chuckle from the vampire brought his eyes sharply back up to hers. "I know I wouldn't. I promised that I would not remove your spark." A tear sliding down her ivory face startled the human. "There is no guarantee that you would be as unique a vampire as my darling Spike. I don't wish to take that chance."

Mike relaxed as his hands rose from the mattress to slide around her waist. The old-fashioned shift she wore bunched slightly in his grasp as his fingers tightened. "So…." He began as she lowered her mouth back to his. "Now that that's settled, what did you have planned for me?"

She halted less than an inch from his lips, her cool, unneeded breath puffed out across his skin. "Now or later." She asked.

"Ummmmm….. both?" He smiled as the infinitesimal distance decreased.

Once more she stopped, her lips nearly touching his. "Now…. I'm going to show you what more than a century of experience and do for you and later….. I'll explain that…" She smiled back at him. "later." She finished her descent and proceeded to kiss his brains out.

Several long minutes later, she rose to allow him a chance to catch his breath. Then she swung a leg over him so she could straddle his waist. He gasped at the move, his interest in the position very evident in his tented boxers. She smiled down at him lasciviously and caressed his tanned chest with elegant fingers. Panting with arousal, he gazed up at her with lust clouded eyes. Her hair curled softly over her shoulders, swaying gently as she shrugged out of her shift. The sight of her pale skin hovering over him raised his interest yet another notch. He was so focused on her abundant attributes that he failed to notice what her fingers were doing until a white-hot flash of pain yanked him out of his haze.

"Aaaahhhhhhh!" He yelped, his blue/gray eyes flew wide with shock. He watched her lower her head to lap delicately at the two inch slice she'd made in the skin just above his left nipple. "You said you wouldn't hurt me." He accused resentfully. He lowered his voice and hoped their host hadn't heard his cry of pain.

She licked her lips as she rose up slightly. "No, Pretty, I asked why you thought I would. I needed to taste you. I promise that I will not hurt you any more than you can bear." She smiled and a shiver ran through his body. He just wasn't sure if the shiver was due to anticipation, lust or just plain fear. She purred slightly as she resumed her light licking of the wound she'd inflicted. "You taste soooo gooood." She wiggled down so she could remove his shorts. Then she crawled back up his body until she could kiss him deeply on the mouth.

Summers' house….

Michael needn't have worried about whether or not Giles could hear what was happening in the guest room. The former Watcher was sitting in the basement of Joyce's house staring at the younger man's ancestor, not that Giles knew that for sure but he had his suspicions.

"Don't you have anything better to do?" Spike growled. He was sitting Indian style on his bed, hunched over with his hands clasped together on his calves. The Watcher's unswerving scrutiny was making him twitchy. "I've had enough of bloody humans looking at me." His fingers clenched tighter as he wished desperately for a cigarette.

Rupert leaned forward in his chair, mentally noting Spike's increasingly nervous fidgeting. "There are some things I need to ask you."

A sneer crossed the vampire's handsome face. "Well ask then. I'm not getting any older but you are."

A frown crossed Rupert's face as his sage green eyes blinked once in confusion. The frown cleared as he processed the statement. "Ah, yes. Well, then. What I need to know… what I want to ask about…" Not for the first time he wondered just how to approach the subject of Spike's captivity and torment. He felt uncertain, something he was unused to. He didn't like the feeling.

Spike jumped up from the cot and began to pace, irritation in his every move. The chains had been removed and Rupert had made sure there was a fully loaded tranquilizer gun close at hand. The human stood up to keep them on even ground. He watched the vampire carefully, ready for any sudden move.

"Sodding hell, Watcher! Just spit it out already! What did you want to know? Were you curious about the hell-bitch in charge of the place? Do you want to know how many ways I want her to die? Did you want to know what her little pet soldiers liked to do after she went home for the day and all good little demons were tucked into their cages? Were you wondering if their methods were any better or worse than Angelus'? Do you want to know how many times she laid me out on her cold table and poked her way in and around my naked body? Do you really need to know just how many ways she found to torture me for I don't know how… fucking… long?" Spike's voice rose with each question until he was screaming the last few words into Giles' shocked face.

The Watcher blinked again as he stared into golden eyes. Spike had vamped midway through his tirade and Giles wasn't sure the blond was even aware of it. "Well, yes." He reached up with slightly trembling fingers and pulled his glasses off. Spike backed up a few steps and turned his back, hunching slightly as if in pain. Giles continued, "Those are a few of the questions I was planning to ask."

A low bitter chuckle rumbled deep in the blond's chest as his face reverted to his human visage. "What is this? Payback for when I sat and watched Angelus play with your fragile little body?"

Shocked surprise spread over Giles' face. He concentrated on his methodical cleaning of the glasses lenses. He thought about that for several long minutes all the while watching the vampire's back stiffen until he resembled a statue. With a deep breath, he replaced his glasses and nodded to himself. He saw Spike start slightly when he spoke again. "Yes, it is payback but not for that."

Fear shuddered through Spike's thin body. He forced himself to still once more in an effort to hide his less than vampiric reaction. Yet another human that wanted something from him. Problem was, he didn't know if he had anything left to give.

Giles' house, guest room….

Michael lay on his back drenched with sweat that stung in the half dozen little cuts the vampire had scattered across his torso. He gasped as she rocked again, teasing him with his long-denied release. He's nearly reached the pinnacle several times but she'd done – something - to stop him and he was getting desperate. He found himself pleading, his voice barely audible. "Please, Dru. I need to… ah…" He groaned again as her hands caressed his chest, rubbing the sweat deeper into the cuts. They burned. He grimaced, his teeth bared and his head pressed hard into the pillows. "God, that hurts." He panted as the worst of the burning faded. He'd been dumbfounded when he'd realized that the pain in no way interfered with his arousal.

"Shhhhh." Dru crooned softly as she leaned over him, placing her mouth against his ear. "It'll be all right, Pretty. Mummy will make it better soon." She smiled as she backed up enough to look into his flushed face. "It'll feel soooo good. You're going to fly." Her slender fingers fluttered over his tormented chest. "You smell divine, Pretty. So desperate, so…" She broke off as she threw her head back, her waterfall of hair spilling down her back as she sat upright again. She twisted and Michael felt the urgency building yet again. "Yes, Pretty, you may please Mummy now."

Somehow that seemed to be the permission Mike's overwrought body needed. As his climax roared through his body, he was stunned to see golden eyes and fangs descending. A second release ripped through his system as needle-sharp fangs sank quickly and cleanly into his throat. There was no time to think as his world went black.

TBC