New chapter! Yay! Hope everyone is sitting down... wouldn't want anyone to faint or anything. I know it's been a while since I posted, but things are smoothing out around here and I've actually had time to write. I have two more chapters completed after this one and I'm well into the third, so hopefully there won't be such a long span of no-posties. Thanks to everyone who has stuck with this. I appreciate each and every one of you. :-)

Service Unit

Chapter Twenty Six – Defiance

Liam turned into the hallway and stopped, giving his cock one last hard squeeze. "There you are, Willy! You must be looking forward to this as much as I am..." He motioned to the front of his pants. "...since you came out to meet me."

Spike stared at Liam, still unable to make himself leave the room, and watched impotently as Liam walked down the hall, the front of his pants tented obscenely. Another shiver worked its way down his spine as memories floated across his terror-frozen brain, reminding him of what that cock had done to William. Spike could only stand there, reliving those memories, his body flinching with remembered pain as Liam stopped at the guest bedroom door, holding one finger up towards Spike in a 'hold on a minute' gesture.

Liam sniffed deeply then opened the door and barked out a laugh. "Hey, look! It's your trainer, Willy! Well, I'll be damned! I thought he'd be long gone by now... or dead. I'm surprised Buffy didn't tear his head right off during the demonstration, especially if he used that huge dildo on you. My demon just loves watching him ram that thing up your ass... well... it likes watching anybody ram anything up your ass. Remember that one punishment? The one that broke you? I think it watched that one close to thirty times." Liam chuckled, "I'm getting off topic here. We'll talk more about ramming things up your ass when we get back to LA. I'll even show you my demon's favorite scenes, if you want. Now, back to why your trainer's still breathing. He did do a demonstration, didn't he?" Liam chuckled again. "Of course he did. Buffy's not one of your regulars, so he would've had to show her how to play with her new toy." Liam winked at Spike. "I'll bet she didn't kill him because she liked it. Right, Willy? Did she like watching your trainer fuck you with that thing?" Liam smirked at Spike then looked back at the trainer, completely missing the expression of horrified shock that settled onto the younger vampire's face.

Spike goggled at Liam, his brain furiously trying to make sense of what he'd just heard. He was watching me? He knows about the demonstrations for new renters? My punishments? When I broke? How? He wasn't there, so how could he have seen it at all? Much less more than once? Confusion was whirling through him, temporarily pushing his terror aside, and, unbeknownst to Spike's conscious mind, Liam's flippant admission had started something stirring deep inside the traumatized vampire's fractured psyche. Something that, along with Buffy's blood, was working to prod his demon out of hiding. That something was naked, white-hot fury.

When Liam's gaze settled on the trainer, still lying exactly as Buffy had left him, the trainer squeaked quietly and blanched, his skin turning a pale yellow. He swallowed heavily and tried to bow his head respectfully, but the position he'd landed in made that difficult, so his head just bobbed weirdly. "Miss Summers did not enjoy the demonstration, sir, and she's read the unit's records. She was not happy about those, either, and I believe it is her intention to kill me, but if you will intervene on my behalf, I will be completely at your service, Master... Angel, is it?"

Liam smiled evilly. "No, not Angel, but you can call me Master, if you like. And I'll keep Buffy from killing you if you get up and come here right now." The trainer immediately heaved himself off the bed, one hand coming up to rub at his sore throat, then he quickly walked... well, more like scurried in a frightened fashion… over to the door and stepped out into the hall.

Spike visibly paled and started to tremble as soon as he saw the small yellow demon. His knees knocked together and started to bend so he could assume his regular subservient position, and his hands twitched and started to move toward his back. They'd nearly made it when Spike clenched his jaw and brought them forward again, forcing them to hang at his sides. Then he straightened his legs and locked his knees. Spike glared down the hallway at the two creatures looking back at him and squared his shoulders, lifting his chin defiantly.

Liam barked an amused laugh at Spike's reaction then indicated the naked vampire with a nod of his head. "I noticed that Little Willy there is wearing a different collar, and unless you switched yours to red silk, I'm gonna guess that it's Buffy's."

"Yes, Master. Miss Summers placed her collar on the unit and completed the ownership transfer. It belongs to her now."

"Ah. So will he obey commands from anyone but her?"

The trainer shook his head. "The unit has been trained to obey only its owner when collared. She would have to remove the collar herself to let it know that she wishes it to obey others."

"That's what I thought. So he won't do anything I tell him to do, but can I make him do things?"

"Yes, Master. It will not resist you should you attempt to move it, so you can force it into whatever position is needed to use it as you wish."

"And he won't resist because..."

"You are an invited guest in its owner's home, and as such, it is assumed you have permission to make use of her possessions. However, should Miss Summers indicate that you are not allowed to use her property, it will resist you as much as it is able so that it may maintain whatever position it has been put into or follow whatever order it has been given."

Liam nodded. "Good to know. Why is he standing in the doorway?"

"Miss Summers ordered it to remain in that room."

"So what will he do if I try to take him out of that room?"

"It will do nothing if you use the command stick, because it still wears its owner's collar, but you can pick it up and move it, you can push it ahead of you and it will walk, or you can take hold of part of it and make it follow you."

"And when I get him to where I want him to be, I just move him into whatever position I want and he'll stay that way?"

"Yes, Master. It will only move when physically guided by you. For example, should you wish it to service you orally; you will have to manually open its mouth because it will not respond to the tap command for oral service."

Liam grinned again then tossed the guide stick into the spare bedroom. "Guess I won't be needing that then." He clapped the demon on the shoulder as he said, "Thanks for the info," then he took one step back and reached up with both hands. He grasped the trainer's head and twisted sharply, cleanly snapping the trainer's neck. Liam closed his eyes and shuddered as he let the body fall heavily to the floor, and he looked pleased when he opened them again and looked down at the crumpled demon. The trainer's dead eyes - all of them - seemed to be staring up at Liam accusingly and Liam shot Spike a smile and a shrug. "What? I said I wouldn't let Buffy kill him. Never said I wouldn't." He shoved the demon's corpse into the spare bedroom with one bare foot and closed the door. "I'll be back, Willy. Don't go anywhere." He laughed heartily, "Not that you could. I have my very own life-size, pose-able Willy doll. This is going to be so much fun."

XXXX

As he stared at Liam's retreating back, Spike wasn't exactly sure how he should be feeling just now. There were several emotions roiling through him and he couldn't pick out which one he should pay attention to. The terror was there, of course, flailing around like a two-year old throwing a tantrum as it screamed that Buffy was in danger. Relief that his trainer was dead was a cool, refreshing breeze from a lazily spinning fan, while hot bursts of anger popped like bacon grease in a skillet because he hadn't been the one to kill the sadistic bastard. A small bit of disgust was stomping around because the trainer's death had been quick and essentially painless. After all the pain the little yellow demon had inflicted on Spike, a healthy dose of karma would have been nice, but no... Liam had buggered that right up. The disgust huffed and stomped harder.

Spike was trying to sort through all of it when a firework of defiance exploded in his mind, as bright and loud as rock concert pyrotechnics. Spike blinked as all the emotions that had been clamoring for his attention suddenly stilled – shocked into complete silence. Liam thought he was going to force Spike to do whatever he wanted… and what he wanted Spike to do would undoubtedly be painful, degrading, and humiliating… pretty much par for the course where his dealings with Liam were concerned, but… Spike straightened his spine and shook his head. Nope. Not going to let him use me. Not this time. I'll fight him. I will. I can.

Then Uposs stepped out of the darkness and stomped on the firework, crushing it under his heel and extinguishing the defiance. Spike gaped at it for a few seconds... and then he got mad. Anger boiled up from he knew not where and he railed against Uposs. You son of a bitch! You're just going to let him use me? Probably torture me? Why? I could fight him if you'd let me! Spike struggled to lift his right foot off the floor. Let me move, damn you! If you won't let me protect myself, at least let me help Buffy! You know, my OWNER? He's done something to her! I have to get out there! I have to stop him from hurting her!

Uposs countered that it wasn't their responsibility to protect her or save her. Their only function was to service her… and her invited guests. Period. So no, they weren't going to go anywhere until Buffy commanded it or Liam forced him to.

Spike's fevered brain hit on an idea and he hurriedly shouted it at Uposs. She said that I could go anywhere in the flat! You heard her! So let me go!

Spike could hear the definite smirk when Uposs countered again, stating that they were meant to follow the most recent order, which was to remain in the bedroom, so they would still not be going anywhere. The 'so there' wasn't actually voiced, but Spike heard it anyway.

Spike flew into motion, twisting his upper body this way and that, even going so far as to grasp his leg and try to move it with his hands, but it was no use. He'd been defeated by his own damn logic and wasn't yet strong enough to overcome Uposs. The terror had apparently clubbed the rest of the emotions into unconsciousness, because it was starting to creep back in as Spike stood in the doorway, grinding his teeth in frustration. He sighed deeply and his shoulders slumped in defeat as he backed up a step then sank gracefully to his knees, moving his hands into position at his low back. He'd been ordered to stay in Buffy's bedroom and he'd be right there waiting when Liam came back, probably with chains. Liam liked chains.