Broken Revenge
Story by Lit Gal
Xander/Spike: Slavery, D/s, Hurt/Comfort, Reference to past torture, Bondage
......ADULTS ONLY (not kidding, stop now if you're easily squicked)
Behind him he heard Dareh's heavy footsteps wander away from the enclosure, and Xander breathed a little easier knowing that he wouldn't have an audience because he sure as hell wasn't breeding those women. Not that there was anything wrong with those women. Or what those women were doing, and holy hell Xander hadn't really understood how Tara and Willow could do the whole horizontal mambo, but the two brunettes were giving him a nice clear visual of exactly how lesbian sex worked.
And Xander suddenly realized that he had lost his gay card because his cock certainly was interested in that. Xander had a flash of panic that they might have given him something because he really shouldn't be interested in anything other than escape. Not even *that*. And oh boy, he had to wonder if Tara and Willow did *that*.
Tearing his eyes away from the lesbian porn fest that his 'harem' was putting on, Xander searched the edges of the enclosure with his eyes. In the part of the enclosure where he *wasn't* looking--nuh-uh, no siree, not looking at the lesbians—a couple of trees provided shade for their little fun fest. Next to the gate, a long narrow lean-to ran the length of the fence, and Xander went to explore that.
The solid beams were joined with mortise and tendon joints, so there were no loose bolts or sharp nails that Xander could make use of. A long board running the length of the lean-to had empty tin pans, so Xander figured dinner would eventually be served outside. On the outside end of the lean-to, a huge plastic container sat on a shelf with a tube hanging down. Xander grabbed the tube in his mouth and drank the luke-warm water since he didn't have anything else for his rumbling stomach.
Since standing still involved more thinking than Xander really wanted to do right now, he started off on a slow walk of the fence, visually searching every inch. Luckily, the barrier wasn't electrified, but Xander still didn't have a clue about how to get out, and he wasn't even sure he wanted to. If he proved that he had aggressive traits and more than a few passing thoughts about beating Dareh to a bloody, whimpering pool of demon flesh, he would get sold off in a second, and who knew where he'd be then.
Xander glanced over toward the women. His inspection of the fence had brought him ever closer, and they had stopped their little orgy in order to watch him and whisper. Xander thought he vaguely remembered this nightmare: naked and trapped somewhere while women pointed and laughed. Of course these women had their hands bound, and if they were laughing, they were polite enough to be too quiet for him to hear.
Xander turned his attention back to the fence as he stepped into the shade of the trees.
"If you're looking for some sort of magic door that will respond to 'open sesame,' you're not going to find it." Xander turned around and found himself face to face with one of the brunettes that had earlier put on the cable-worthy porn show. He shrugged noncommittally.
"I'm Brandy," the woman said. Xander opened his mouth to introduce himself, and he found that he didn't know which name to use. If these women called him Xander after Dareh had renamed him, he would be in serious trouble, but he certainly wasn't ready to call himself Onyx. He might be dumb as a stone some days, like when he insisted on going into that stupid ballcourt, but he really wasn't one.
"Yeah, first time you have to say it, it kinda sucks. I don't even think my old name anymore," Brandy said, and Xander found himself considering her with an open mouth. She looked normal with large brown eyes and hair that flowed past her wide shoulders in unruly curls. "I have some empathy," she explained. "Not enough to do anything useful, but enough to recognize that feeling of loss and confusion."
"I guess Dareh calls me Onyx," Xander finally answered.
"Good compromise," Brandy smiled at him. "You'll get used to it." Xander kept his mouth shut since any slip could result in him hobbled and chained when she bought herself some special treat by snitching on him to Dareh. And why did he suddenly feel like he was in the plot of some strange prison porn movie?
"So, how long are you here for?" Brandy asked.
"Um, I don't know. Until he decides to sell me?" Xander didn't mention the more likely possibility that Spike would show up and rip Dareh's head off. Oh please let Spike show up and start ripping heads.
"He bought you?" Brandy nearly squealed, and Xander stepped back so that he was pressed up against the fence.
"Nice, girl. Scare the boy away, and when we finally have a man who isn't some little half pint runt." A woman who was older than Xander, like nearly Joyce-type old walked up. "I'm Sky," she said with a flash of white teeth contrasting against her dark black skin.
"Um, Onyx?" Xander answered uncertainly. Two more girls stood behind Sky, one the tiny brunette Brandy had been playing with and the other the leggy blonde who had watched.
"This here's Sunshine and Carmy," Sky provided introductions with a nod. "So you're here to stay." Xander nodded mutely, caught somewhere between an adolescent fantasy and stark terror at what Dareh and these women expected him to do. "Dareh usually brings guys that don't come up to my chest and have cocks the size of pencils. It's nice to think we're going to have a real man around." With horror, Xander realized that he was significantly larger than a pencil since his cock had far fewer moral issues about this whole deal than he did.
The blonde swerved around Sky and pressed her hip into Xander's groin, making him squirm and groan as his cock came to full size. "Want to mate?" she asked with all the subtly of a rabid bear. That certainly helped his cock deflate some. Xander wondered if this woman had ever been in the vengeance business because she sure came off like a certain ex-vengeance demon he had known.
"Girl, you need to back off. The boy still has sleep spell in his eyes from the crate and you're acting like a bitch in heat." Xander found himself whispering a thank you to Sky.
"I don't want to end up on the breeding stool again. I hate that thing," Sunshine pouted as she flipped her long blonde hair out of her face with a forearm, and Xander could find himself sympathizing. He wasn't fond of the breeding leash and drugs, but that didn't mean he was going to start rutting with the first woman who threw her nicely formed taut breasts and wide pink nipples at him. And oh yeah, he was in trouble here.
"Dareh never expects the male to just start breeding the minute they come in here, and you'd better be grateful for that. Going right from the streets to Dareh you don't know how lucky you got it, girl." At that pronouncement, Sky turned her back on them and started walking back to where the girls had been before, leaving Xander with the three younger women. Taking one glance at the older woman's retreating back, Xander twisted away from the girls and trotted after her.
"So, have you been here long?" Xander asked as Sky reached the small hill under the trees and sat down.
"Been in demon slave pens for thirty years now. Been with Dareh for four," she offered as she waved a hand toward the hill next to her. Xander took the invitation and sat. "You?"
"Um, captured about eight months ago," Xander said.
"Lord, you're a baby," Sky exclaimed as she looked over at him. Xander had a flash of Joyce with her motherly concerned and shocked expression, but he was not going there since he also saw a whole lot more of Sky, and while she was older, her body still had plenty to lust over. His cock sure wasn't complaining about being near Sky although Xander was trying his best to ignore that. He'd gotten through high school classes with Buffy and Cordy in their competing skimpy outfits, so he could get through this. And really the whole drugged water thing was starting to feel like a possibility.
"So, captured?" Sky asked.
"Yeah, grabbed off the street," Xander said in a distracted tone of voice as he tried to push aside the anger he felt at Dareh's manipulation. Well, either Dareh had manipulated him or he was a sick bastard who had a hard on when his heart was being crushed at the thought that Spike might be…. And again with the not going there. Xander bit his lip and tried to concentrate on Sky. Actually he tried to concentrate on her short kinky hair that curled close to her head since focusing on other parts led to problems which led to anger which led to guilt, and oh god he was starting to think that an asylum might be the right place for him.
"Well that's sure dumb. And a good way to have an investigation come entirely too close to home." Sky snorted her disgust.
"But weren't you…" Xander let his words trail off as he looked at the three younger women who had resumed their early activities. Sunshine had her arm across Carmy's stomach, holding her down as she teased the woman's nipple. Xander groaned in pained frustration, and Sunshine looked up with a smile that made it perfectly clear that the show was for his benefit. Xander found the canopy of leaves above suddenly very interesting.
"I can see why Dareh likes you. They aren't going to mind at all if you join them," Sky offered. As if to make a point, Brandy's face disappeared between Carmy's legs, and the woman started making needy panting sounds that Xander's cock reacted to enthusiastically. But he wasn't looking. Nope. Not looking. Of course, if he had a hand, he would have gone behind a tree to finish himself, but that wasn't an option, so he stared at the swaying leaves and tried to use the control Leshar had beaten into him. Taking deep breaths he managed to get himself back to half mast.
Struggling to marshal the three brain cells that still functioned, Xander searched for the threads of the conversation.
"So, you guys weren't captured?" Xander really tried not to notice the way Carmy made little satisfied sighs as the other two women started slowly and gently kissing each other over her sated body.
"Sunshine was born on a farm. Carmy and Brandy were junkies living on the street. Brandy used to be a social worker but she just couldn't emotionally deal with what she saw and felt, so she started using. Me? I was an addict by the time I went to school. Ma used to give me stuff to keep me quiet while she entertained her men. When I was ten some weird looking dude offered to give me a better life than she could, she gave me up quick enough."
"Oh god," Xander's erection sagged as he considered the meaning behind those words. "Your mother?"
"Boy, you really are a baby if you don't think stuff like that happens. Truth is, the man probably spoke the truth. I'd be dead if I was still out there, and I saw Brandy when Dareh bought her. She wouldn't have lasted another week on the street."
"But she was free." Xander glimpsed down from the waving green leaves above them.
"Baby, none of us is free, before or after the demons. We got demons in ourselves to fight, and not everyone can win that fight. The demon who took Brandy off the street probably saved her life." Sky nodded toward the pile of women, and Xander glanced over to find Brandy trapped between Sunshine who straddled her from behind and sucked on her neck and Carmy who was locked in the most intense kiss Xander had ever seen. Brandy's bound hands moved as though trying to clutch Carmy's back, but without fingers to grab, they simply slid over Carmy's smooth, tanned skin. All three women made needy little sounds, but Brandy squirmed and groaned and writhed in frustrated need.
Oh god, Xander was walking the edge of orgasm just watching them. And back to tree watching and look the leaves had five points and that meant something. Too bad he never listened to his science teacher because he could use a science lecture to distract him right now. Hell, even a preying mantis teacher would be better than the little fantasies his brain sent up because he would definitely go to hell for doing that without a whole lot more torture or drugs. Nope. No sex, no babies, no breeding for the Xan man. He was just going to stare at the blue sky and green leaves and think monk-like thoughts. And shit, monks probably thought about the bible a whole lot and his brain was coming up with a big zero on that front.
"Go join 'em, Onyx." Sky's use of that hated name brought Xander back to reality.
"It's wrong," Xander whispered as he fought his own body. Oh shit he was in trouble. He tried conjuring the memory of Spike, but that didn't exactly make his cock unhappy.
"Oh please, they're puttin' on that show for you, so don't even try and say they don’t want it." Sky snorted.
"I won't give Dareh children to enslave," Xander hissed angrily even though he couldn't get his cock back under control this time.
"Is that…" Sky stopped. "Yeah, I know it's hard, babe." Xander concentrated on a swaying branch with a long streak of white that was either the world's biggest bird ish or some sort of disease. When something warm and tight and wet engulfed his cock, he yelled in surprise and lust. He didn't even need to look to know what Sky was doing, but the sight of her lips stretched out around his cock, her bound hands braced against his hip bones, pressing him to the earth confirmed it. She slid up and worked her tongue around the slit as she sucked.
"You don't… mphf… No," Xander couldn't form words as he tried to use his elbows to pull himself backwards, but his arms collapsed when she slid down on his cock with her tongue darting out to stroke the underside of the sensitive organ. She buried her nose in his curly hair, and now Xander bucked uncontrollable once and then twice before he felt himself coming.
Slumping back onto the grass with his arms thrown wide, Xander still couldn't form words when he felt Sky lay down next to him, her head cushioned on his arm.
"That's what I love about you guys. Once off and you're putty in a woman's hands," Sky laughed. "You can't fight this, Onyx. Dareh's about as good as you get. You don't breed and he'll just use the stool and breeding leash, and if you fight, he'll sell you, and you'll end up lord knows where."
"I know," Xander said in a quiet rage. "And I'm sure you'll be happy to help him," he said as he yanked his arm away from her. She had given him relief, but it was a cold, bitter form of it. But then, she was just part of Dareh's power over him, and he knew that. He was clueless guy sometimes, but he wasn't out and out stupid guy.
"So don't be a moron." Sky ordered frostily as she stood up. Xander just looked up at her without moving. Hell, he didn't have anywhere to go. Xander struggled against tears of rage, and he couldn't even say why until he realized what this reminded him of. It was straight out of his and Jesse's secret fantasies with the lesbian sex and the older woman, and Xander suddenly felt supremely dirty. Of course it was so close to that old forgotten fantasy that maybe it was an actual dream. Maybe he was still asleep in the crate and imaging this whole thing. Of course, if this was his imagination, Sky would be Spike, so maybe it wasn't a dream.
"Lunch time," a voice announced, and Xander blinked. The women were across the enclosure under the lean to and he realized time had somehow jumped. Or, more likely, he was losing what little bits of his mind he still had. He looked toward the fence where some new demon who looked rather humanish stood next the lean to waiting. Xander pushed himself up and started walking that way himself.
"Come on, Onyx, hurry up, boy," the demon called, and considering he looked more like a teenager than anything demonish, Xander found himself slightly annoyed. Either that or he was annoyed by the name. At least he hadn't picked chocolate because he would have a serious problem if he got annoyed every time he heard the word chocolate. The creamy goodness that was chocolate didn't deserve that kind of disrespect. Xander broke out into a jog as the smell of hot food hit his nose. Oh yeah, he was hungry.
When Xander got close, he wasn't sure about the rules here. Dareh had said no kneeling in the paddock, and Xander wasn't sure where that left him in terms of eating rules because the hand bindings certainly weren't going to allow him to feed himself. When he got within six feet of the demon, Xander realized he was taller than the kid and that the kid had a leather strap of some sort in his hand.
He stopped and ducked his head submissively without going to his knees. A master's words always overrode training orders, but Xander still half expected punishment as the boy came up to him. Instead the boy reached up and slipped the leather around Xander's neck loosely and took the trailing end in one hand. Xander was almost grateful for the leash since he was on unfamiliar territory here.
The boy led him to the board and clipped the leash to the chain link fence so that Xander couldn't move very far in any direction. He noticed the girls were already tied in place, and Xander stared in frustration at the small clip that held him here. All he needed was one opposable thumb, and he could unlatch that clip, but instead he had to stand and wait as the boy unloaded a small truck that stood just outside the gate.
The smell of warm food grew stronger, and Xander's stomach growled in anticipation as the boy carried a pail in. Xander stepped to the side as the boy used a scoop to ladle a thick stew into his pan, and to heck with manners, Xander just started eating ravenously. The boy had to slap him on the arm to get him to stand to one side so that he could add a second ladle before going down the line.
Xander wasn't even half through before the boy put the bucket back on the truck and returned. He tried to ignore the presence behind him, but then warm hands were on his waist. Xander froze. A hand ran down the front of his leg and then pulled on the shin. Xander shifted his weight to the other foot so the boy could pull it up. The boy repeated the action on the other leg, and Xander shifted again.
"Go on, Onyx, eat up." Only Leshar's training kept Xander from making an inappropriate comment about what the kid could do with the stew and the pan it came in. However, since he didn't doubt that would come at the price of a whipping and a whole lot more vigilance, Xander kept his mouth shut and ate, which really, wasn't keeping his mouth shut, but at least he wasn't talking.
The hand slid around and cupped his balls before firmly grasping his soft cock. Xander widened his stance before he even had a chance to realize he was doing it. The boy clucked approvingly.
"Looks like someone has already bred," the boy said with a slap on Xander's butt. "Wonder which girl you went for." Down the line Sky made a snorting noise. The boy laughed as he walked over to her. Xander had enough slack in the leash to watch the boy stroke Sky's shoulder.
"Nice, Dareh finally buys a stallion, and he breeds with the only infertile female on the farm. I guess you had to keep your role as alpha female, huh?" the boy asked.
"Yes, Posk," she said quietly. The boy gave her a slap on the butt.
"Mouthy," he accused her, and she just went back to eating. Xander was nearing the end of his own lunch and slowing down as the hunger was satisfied.
"Well at least we know you're a breeder," the boy, Posk, said as he returned to Xander, running hands down Xander's arms, which Xander carefully allowed to hang motionless. "And Dareh is right about your temperament." Xander had finished his lunch but he licked the bottom of his pan for lack of anything better to do. At least he did until Posk took the pans and left them standing in the lean to, chained to the fence. He walked out the gate to the truck. Xander considered the open gate and the waiting escape vehicle for just a second before he moved his gaze. Sky was watching him, and Xander reminded himself not to trust her. She might think that she didn't have choices, and maybe *she* didn't, but Xander refused to believe that. He had to believe that Spike was out there somewhere.
Posk came back and unhooked Xander before leading over to a section of the fence close to that open gate that taunted him with freedom. Xander could have growled when the boy hooked the leash to the fence and Xander was left to consider just how annoying the world was without opposable thumbs.
"Feet first," Posk said as he knelt down behind Xander. The boy repeated the maneuver with Xander's feet, and Xander allowed him to lift his feet without protest, putting one bound hand on the fence to help him keep his balance. This time Posk rubbed something cool into the skin on the bottom of the foot. When Posk bent the leg all the way up to his butt, Xander was confused until he heard the clicking noise, and somehow being given a pedicure like a horse made Xander so angry that he had a burst of adrenaline at the thought of snapping the kid's neck.
Under the lean to, Brandy pulled at her leash sharply, and Xander started chanting his acceptance mantra before he got himself in trouble. Of *course* he had to have an empath in his paddock. Once again proof that the universe hated him because having Brandy around meant he didn't even get privacy in his own head.
The boy put down one foot and pulled at the other, and Xander shifted to accommodate as his second foot was tended.
"Okay, down boy," Posk ordered as he unhooked the leash. Xander went to his knees, and Posk attached the leash lower down before stepping up behind him. Sneezing as something with an alcohol smell was sprayed into his hair, Xander squirmed a bit, and Posk was obviously stronger than he looked because firm hands held him immobile until he stopped. Xander froze in horror expecting some sort of punishment, but Posk just started brushing out his hair.
"Hands," Posk asked, and Xander raised his arms uncertainly. Taking two buckling leashes, Posk attached his hands to the fence before unlocking the small clasp that held the hand bindings in place and pulling them off. Xander watched curiously as the boy rubbed some sort of lotion into his hands and encouraged him to flex his hands several times before reattaching the hand bindings.
Xander patiently endured the rest of the grooming including a rubdown with some sort of powder before Posk moved him back into the lean to. Because he had been first, Xander then had nearly an hour of watching Posk briskly groom the others before finishing and taking them all off the leashes. At the end of this time, Xander had come to a number of conclusions, including the fact that Posk could get downright careless when he was comfortable. Sunshine and Sky had both had their hands leashed close enough that they could have unbuckled their own restraints if they had just a small distraction.
Feeling a lot more confident, Xander spent his afternoon under the trees and staring out across the farm at the dozen or so paddocks he could see from here. In most, groups of women huddled and looked back at him, and Xander decided he really needed to get out of here before they brought out the breeding leash because if he got all these women pregnant, there was no way Spike could buy them all.
Three days later, and Xander was ready to climb over glass to get free. Sunshine had taken it as a personal challenge to mate, and Xander was getting ready to revise his 'don't hit women' rule. Xander avoided her as much as possible, but then in the stable Dareh had put her in the same stall, and Xander had spent the evening with her rubbing on him until he had finally had an orgasm against her leg.
She had been furious that he didn't mate with her. Furious enough for her to pee a long stream down his leg as he tried to push her away. The girl could take subtle lessons from Anya. And it really wasn't very comfortable sleeping with her pee drying on his legs and making him itch. Damn that woman had a temper… a temper and a big bladder. His only revenge came from watching her drink his water, which he had learned to avoid. Let her spend the day horny and hot.
The next morning Dareh had looked at them both strangely, and Xander retreated to the comfort of his training, turning his mind off in favor of focusing on his body. When Posk came to feed them, he had laughed and slapped Xander on the back as he looked at the yellowing stain down Xander's leg.
"Seems like you don't go for the aggressive girls, huh boy," the handler laughed. Xander could tell him all sorts of stories about the aggressive women he'd gone for… or who'd gone for him, but Xander just kept eating. "Well since you're going to need to be washed down, I might as well do the girls first. That way they don't have to stand in the mud," Posk said as he rubbed a rough hand up and down Xander's back. Xander ignored the casual touches since at least they weren't the sexual touches he got from the girls.
With nothing better to do, Xander watched as Posk took the woman aside and groomed them one by one. He even managed to avoid snickering when Posk tried to groom Sunshine only to find that every touch on her body made her press back into him and moan pitifully. Served her right, Xander thought as he waved an arm to chase away a persistent fly.
When Posk finally took Xander aside for grooming, he had to get water from the truck to actually wash down Xander's legs before he could start with the normal grooming. The result was a damp ground and a Posk who was swearing in two different languages about the time. When the time came for Posk to care for his hands, the boy clipped the leashes far too close together, and Xander didn't even blink. He did, however, conjure his most violent fantasy: an image of Leshar slowing being gutted while bound with those leather ties that Xander could still remember cutting into his own flesh. The pain and anger rose up to an overwhelming raging fire that left Xander desperate to destroy something.
In the lean to, Brandy cried out incoherently and yanked back against the leash.
"Steady…" Posk started with a rather mild tone, but when Brandy screamed 'no' and pulled back hard enough to make the entire chain link rattle in protest, the boy took off for her. Not wasting any time, Xander unclipped his own hands and ran for the truck through the open gate.
Out of the corner of his eye, he watched as Posk discovered his error and reversed direction. "Onyx!" Posk shouted, and Xander realized that he would never get off the property before Posk could raise the alarm.
Spotting a post hole digger in the back of the pickup, Xander pulled it out and swung it before Posk could even slow down. Between Xander's swing and Posk running into it, the kid went down hard and turned a brighter shade of green.
"The name's Xander," he yelled as he swung the weapon again, catching Posk on the leg as the demon struggled to get up. Posk retreated toward the enclosure on his hands and knees, and Xander dropped the post digger so that he could grab him by the neck and drag him toward where the leather leashes still hung from the fence.
"Onyx," Posk coughed out, and Xander tightened his hold around the demon's neck until he could hear Posk struggled to breathe. After that, he found it easy enough to drag him back to the trees. He buckled the wrist restraints around Posk's wrists.
"My name is Xander and I'm not some fucking animal you can chain up," Xander snarled as he pulled the end of a wrist restraint to a tree and fastened it.
"Okay, Xander. Xander, you know you're going to be in trouble," Posk said slowly, still gasping to get his breath back. He also started struggling up onto one arm, and Xander aimed a punch that sent him crashing back to the ground so that Xander had a chance to grab the second wrist leash and pull it to another tree, spreading Posk wide between the two.
"Onyx, you need to stop. I don't want to get caught being careless any more than you want to get caught attacking a handler, so just unbuckle these restraints and we can forget this." Posk demanded, and Xander raised his fist to shut the demon up. Posk flinched, closing his eyes tightly and pulling his head to the side. Xander stopped as he noticed the demon's trembling arms and the slight catch in his breath. Xander knelt beside the tied up demon and looked down into brown eyes that at the moment looked entirely human even if the face was a bit green.
The rage drained from Xander as he realized that Posk couldn't hurt him any more. Or, Posk could hurt him, but only if the plan went bad, and if the plan went bad, Posk was the least of his worries. "You're right. I don't want to get caught. But I'm not going to turn into an animal just because you treat me like one," Xander said in a voice that came out more tired than angry.
"Onyx," Posk whispered as Xander stood up.
"My name is Xander," he repeated before running back to the lean to. The four girls all glared at him murderously, but only Sky spoke up.
"Babe, you have really fucked up this time. What the hell do you think you're doing? How far do you think you're going to get?"
Xander stopped and looked down as he realized that he wouldn't get far even if he did find a human town. Sky had been able to tell him they were somewhere in the Southwest part of America, but he didn't think any small town sheriff would be amused by a naked crazy guy. Xander turned back around and darted back to the trees where he pulled Posk's pants off.
"Onyx," Posk's voice promised pain, and Xander knew this was his only chance out because as much as he had humiliated Posk, he was never going to get another chance. Hell he was going to get locked into a tiny room chained to a wall if this failed. At least until Dareh sold him, and Xander wasn't betting on anyone wanting him for breeding after this stunt. Hell, Dareh would probably sell him to Leshar if this didn't work.
"Sorry, Posk, but considering how many times you've tied me up, I think I still owe you," Xander pointed out as he slipped the pants on. They stopped mid-calf, but at least he wasn't dangling his danglies any more. Xander started toward the truck at a good trot, ignoring the yells behind him, and just hoping everyone else would ignore them until he got clear.
As Xander pulled open the door to the white truck, he could feel his hands shaking in terror. A huge part of him wanted the leash. A huge part of him would have even welcomed the whip at this point. The sheer terror that struck him as he slid behind the wheel of the truck took his breath away, and Xander had to focus in order to hold his hand steady enough to turn the key.
Xander struggled to slow down his breathing as he felt the world start to grey and fade. The brilliant sunshine seemed to dim as though clouds had blocked it, and somewhere in the back of his brain Xander realized he was hyperventilating. Great, he could fight off the trainer but he couldn't deal with his own psychosis. Xander somehow thought there was something rather appropriate about that. Holding his breath on each gasp, Xander slowly fought his way back to rational thought.
Steering his way past the barn and main buildings, Xander floored the gas once he reached the drive leading up to the main gate. He considered crashing through the gate, but he really didn't want to disable the truck, so he pulled to the side and got out to see if he could open the gates. Using his fingers which felt strange after being bound so long, he explored the main gate latch and eventually twisted it open.
"Onyx," a deep, soft voice called, and Xander found himself really hating that name as he spun around to face Dareh.
"Oh shit," Xander whispered as he felt his legs go weak so that he had to grab the side of the gate that now swung open.
"Onyx, where's your trainer?" Xander found himself giggling in a state of near hysteria.
"He's a little tied up right now," Xander said in a pun too horrible for even Droopy Harris to use.
"But he's okay?" Dareh asked as he took a step forward away from his jeep and closer to the truck. Xander could feel the urge to go to his knees make his whole body tremble.
"He's a little grumpy," Xander hedged as he tightened his fingers around the metalwork of the gate. The edges of the scrollwork dug into his skin, and he focused on that rather than the growing panic both at Dareh's appearance and at his own reaction to the leash held in Dareh's hand. Part of his brain whispered that it would just be easier to let Dareh put that around his neck. As long as he was leashed all he had to do was accept, which really… that actually sounded good compared to the blind panic he felt now.
Run for the truck and get clobbered. Run for the road and get run down. Try to attack Dareh and get clobbered. All he needed was Buffy and a stake and it would be just like old times. Xander struggled to slow down before his own body took away his choices.
"It's okay, boy. Just breathe. Calm down." Dareh took a step forward, his massive bulk vibrating the ground beneath Xander's bare feet. And then he reached into the truck and pulled out the keys. Xander took a deep shuddering breath as that escape route disappeared. "You don't want to fight. I can see that."
"Never did want to," Xander admitted with a whisper as he watched a huge demon creep toward him, and it was the truth. He fought with Spike, he'd fought for Buffy, because he thought it was the right thing to do, but running had always been his first line of defense. Usually the second and third lines too. He was a regular Forest Gump, well except for the going to college part and the war hero part and the ping pong which he had never gotten the hang of, and Xander officially recognized that he had reached babble land. Dareh made little soothing noises, and Xander knew that he had to do something now or the decision would be made for him.
Xander went with his strength. He ran. Since the keys to the truck were in Dareh's hand, Xander dodged around the truck without stopping, his owner's heavy footsteps pounding the ground behind him. Without even glancing to see whether a hand was about to yank him off his feet, Xander flung himself into the Jeep and turned the key that waited in the ignition. Oh yeah, score one for being underestimated Xander crowed as he slammed the Jeep into gear and hit the accelerator.
Almost immediately he could feel the Jeep veer off to the left, and he knew what he would find if he looked back, which explained the whole not looking back thing because he didn't want to see what he wasn't looking at. He just jammed the Jeep into second and fought the wheel to keep it on the road. He didn't even know where he was going, but anywhere not here was a good start as far as he was concerned.
The wheels skidded on the gravel road and the growls of unfamiliar profanity were so close to his ear that Xander flinched and hunched forward over the wheel as he kept driving.
"Onyx," Dareh howled over the sound of gravel pinging against the underside of the Jeep, and Xander tried really, really hard to ignore the voice in his head that said he was doing something so monumentally wrong because he wasn't. He had a right to fight back even if his whole brain had been rewired to make him not believe that. He had a right to say no, and damn it, he had morals. Obviously, since he was okay with being tied up and spanked by the evil undead, he didn't have good morals, but still, he had morals.
Xander let the wheel go, pulling the vehicle to the left before he yanked the wheel back making the Jeep fishtail madly. "My name is Xander," he yelled over the sound of the tires digging through the gravel. Xander hit the brakes and actually drove off the road altogether before hitting he accelerator again and bouncing over the uneven ground next to the road. He heard something heavy hit the ground at the same time that the Jeep's steering suddenly returned to normal.
Shifting into second, Xander drove back up onto the road and had gone several hundred yards before he decided he had to know. Stopping the Jeep, Xander looked back to see Dareh standing in the middle of the road with his hands on his hips in obvious frustration.
"Onyx, you get back here," the demon yelled.
"Fuck you," Xander shouted back. "I won't fucking give you my children to raise and sell, you bloodsucking pig. We're people. We have hopes and fears and families just like you do. You fucking asshole. We have people we love." Xander could feel a familiar fury rise up until he was left shaking, wanting to put the Jeep into reverse and run the bastard over at the same time he wanted to sit down and cry. Deciding that neither one was very safe with a demon the size of Dareh only a few hundred yards away, Xander got back in the Jeep and put it into gear as he headed down the gravel road praying that he was heading for some place safe because if Dareh found him now, he was going to be in serious trouble.
Xander pulled the Jeep in behind the dirty white café. A sign hanging by one hook said the "The Hungry Romantic" and Xander wasn't even going to guess at how stupid a person had to be to name a restaurant something like that. Besides, the peeling boards and dark window painted with the latest $1.99 special didn't look very damn romantic. Of course Xander was more interested in the pay phone hanging on the side of the building.
He parked the Jeep in the shade of a scraggly tree and then jumped out, hissing as his feet hit the hot gravel of the lot. "Fuck," he whispered as he picked his way to the corner. A quick glance told him that no one was around the phone, which was good considering that Xander looked a little strange in his bare feet and his short, tight pants.
Tiptoeing gingerly over to the phone, he picked up the handset and punched in numbers that Spike had made him memorize when they had first reached Joyce's house: calling card numbers and Spike's cell phone. Xander rested his forehead against the warm black metal of the phone box as he waited for the connections to make.
The phone made a shrill squawking sound. "The phone you are trying to reach is out of service," the automated voice answered, and Xander felt his chest tighten around his heart as he gave a sob. It didn't mean anything. Spike could have lost the phone or broken it fighting some baddie. Or maybe he forgot to charge it. Spike wasn't always big on the old responsibility scale. Then again, maybe he left the cell phone in the room that day at the auction. There were a thousand reasons why the phone wouldn't be in service, and yet the only reason Xander could focus on was that the phone was gone. What if the phone, and his Master, were dust?
Xander felt the heat of the late afternoon sun on his back as he gasped for air and tried to breathe despite the crushing weight of grief that threatened to destroy him. Slowly, Xander took the phone away from his ear and gently laid it back into the cradle.
He couldn't do this. Not without Spike he couldn't. Xander gave a little hiccup as he felt tears warming his eyes even while he stood there and wondered what to do. A little part of him said to just curl up in a ball and give up because it didn't matter what he did. It didn't matter how hard he tried, it all just fell apart anyway.
So what if he'd saved Buffy from The Master, he'd only saved her so that she could die a death far more brutal. And Jesse. And Miss Calendar. And the sweet little Willow who he had known, she was gone. In her place was a brittle woman who he didn't really understand. Xander took deep breaths as he tried to fight back against the despair that stole every bit of pride that he'd felt in freeing himself.
If he were in New York, he would seriously try his 'explaining the whole plan for the cops' plan. Right now some Thorazine would be of the good. Instead he picked up the handset a second time and punched in another set of numbers.
As the phone on the other end rang, Xander practiced the possible speeches in his head. He just had to do this without sounding completely and totally pathetic, and avoiding bawling over the phone would be step one. As the phone rang for the third time Xander took a deep breath and then pushed it out as he tried to regain control.
"Angel investigations, we help the hopeless," Cordelia's voice announced cheerfully, "we're out right now, but if you leave a message, we will call you back." The sound of that voice from another lifetime helped Xander push the fear into a corner of his mind and focus on getting himself out of trouble.
"Angel? Um, I think I need some help here. Oh, this is Xander. Spike and I kinda got separated, and I'm really hoping you know where he is because I don't. But, that's not really why I'm calling. I kinda got sold at the auction, and I think I'm in New Mexico. I'm on Highway 60 at a place called The Hungry Romantic, and hey, stupid name for a restaurant, huh? So, here's the problem. Short on the money front, nearly as short on the clothing front, and not doing so well on the gas front either. So before the demons who are chasing me catch up with me, I'm really kind of hoping that you can come and do the whole helping of the hopeless thing. I mean, if you have time." Xander physically flinched even though no one could see him over the phone. If he had time. Yeah, pathetic much? "So, I guess I'll just wait."
Xander slid the phone back down onto the cradle and sent a prayer up. Maybe Spike was with Angel. That would explain the whole dead cell phone because Angel and cell phones didn't mix well. Yep, he would just blame it all on Angel. Because Spike wasn't dust. No sirey. No dust for Spike.
Xander turned around and rested his back against the warm wood slats as he looked down at his tattoo. With his left hand, he touched the image with his fingertips, feeling how the skin was slightly tougher where the ink was darkest. He traced where the hawk's claws gripped the snake.
"You can't be gone because I didn't let you go," Xander whispered to no one in particular. Even as he told himself that Spike was still unalive in the walking around way, he felt tears sliding down his face. He reached up and brushed them away angrily. "Great," he snapped at himself sarcastically, "Just sit here and get your ass captured again you big goober," he told himself. Xander had skipped the gas station that was a little too conveniently close to the ranch, and he had skipped the rundown little house 30 miles past that, but he didn't really think he'd escaped.
So, give Dareh's boys an hour at each place to search for him, and he had a little time to spare. Xander couldn't get much farther with the gas in the Jeep, so he turned his mind to making a stand. Well, either making a stand or finding a way to end things quickly, depending on how fast Angel showed up. Either way, the one thing Xander knew he had to do was avoid making little slave babies. He shivered at the thought, and he knew that if he did that, he would break in a way that not even Spike could save him from. He tried to ignore a quick flash of an image of some demon feeling up a little boy with wide brown eyes who looked suspiciously like Xander's school pictures. Of course, if Dareh had his way, Xander's children wouldn't ever have school pictures or schools or normal friends. They would grow up with women who thought that slavery had somehow saved them from the streets and they would grow up thinking that demons had a right to own their bodies.
With that thought in mind, Xander strode across the gavel lot, the tiny edges of the stones digging into the bottoms of his feet as he headed over to move the Jeep. That would happen over his dead body.
Xander pulled the last of the short scrubby branches over the hood of the Jeep before studying the trinkets he'd recovered from the glove box and under the seats and in the backseat. Fifty-nine cents, four paperclips, a book of matches, and a blanket with more unidentifiable stains than Xander cared to thing about. Xander picked up a paperclip, and fingered the thin metal gently.
He remembered how he had slipped Spike the paperclip in Lirowaus' dungeon. He'd truly believed he'd never see Spike again. He remembered the empty ache that had filled his whole body when he had given up on his Master, given up the chance to ever feel safe and loved again. And now, he felt that same pain, only it was someone else who had ripped Spike from him. He knew that. Spike would never leave him, not to Lirowaus and not to Dareh. He closed his fist around the paperclip, feeling the end prick him.
Lirowaus had imprisoned Spike to make Xander behave. He had asked Spike to go to that auction, and he had wanted to go into the ballcourt. The vampire had survived over a century of Angelus and Darla and revolutions and slayers, but a couple of months of Xander and…. Xander stopped himself from finishing that thought. He'd given up once and Spike had surprised him, so he wasn't going there. Xander opened his hand and looked at the paperclip before putting it back down with the other things he'd scavenged.
Grabbing the blanket, Xander started pulling at it, rubbing a side against the medal edge of the wheel well to try and start a tear. Running barefoot in the desert wasn't going to happen, and he sure wasn't going to trust The Hungry Romantic staff, so he was on his own. The fabric of the blanket suddenly gave, and the blanket ripped in half. Xander took one half and repeated the process until he got strips.
Right. Matches plus wick plus an eighth of a tank of gas. That worked. And everyone thought his countless hours of MacGyver worship had been wasted. He'd learned more practical stuff from MacGyver than his history teachers. Of course, he wished he'd paid a little more attention to geography because he didn't even know how far away Angel might be. If he had to hold out for days, he might be in a little trouble. Okay, he might be in a lot of trouble. And if Spike wasn't there, Angel just might consider a local apocalypse or demon infestation a higher priority than rescuing one human who seemed determined to just get captured again. Really, he had preferred his old demon-magnet reputation where the demons came to him. This new capture fetish he seemed to have was just not of the fun.
Pulling the gas cap off, Xander pushed the end of a strip of blanket down into the tank. Using a branch from a nearby tree, he shoved the fabric down until he knew the end was soaking in the gasoline, and then he took the matches in hand. Four matches. Even he couldn't screw up that many times.
Xander settled himself in the bottom of the ditch. A particularly sharp rock dug into his ass, and he fished under him and tossed it away. He'd made himself as hard to find as possible given the wide open land, but he wasn't betting that it would fool anyone for long. His best hope was that after not finding him at the first two places, Dareh might think he'd gone the other way. Or maybe Dareh would just wash his hands and say 'good riddance,' not that Xander was expecting that after Dareh had spent all that money on him.
Xander leaned his bare shoulder against the tire and thought back to the day Spike had fallen asleep on top of his sleeping cage. If he couldn't have Spike, at least he could indulge in some Spike-shaped memories and fantasies as he waited.
The afternoon sun was just starting to dim as it headed for the horizon when the white truck pulled into the restaurant. Two men got out, and Xander stopped breathing as he watched them scan the surrounding area. He thought they would be more likely to thoroughly search the area behind the restauraunt, so he had the Jeep sitting in a ditch across from the place. One of the men nodded toward the back and started walking around the side by the payphone. The other started toward the restaurant itself, and oh god, Xander knew that walk. Posk. Great, if that one caught him, he could bet on some nice revenge torture before he was dragged back to Dareh, not that he intended to be dragged back to Dareh, because his days of being dragged were over. Xander reached down and picked up the matches from the ground where he'd left them.
After a while, Posk reappeared and wandered around the far side of the café. Xander had to remind himself to take nice slow breaths so he didn't pass out. 'Come on guys,' he silently shouted at them. 'See, no escaped slaves here, just keep right on a going. Go search for your cranky stallion somewhere else… anywhere else.'
The sun had turned the sky red before the two men-shaped demons came walking back to the truck together, and Xander chanted a fervent 'move on… move on… move on,' in his head. For once his luck held and the demons got in the truck and started backing out of the parking space. Xander kept his eyes focused on the truck's back window as the demon behind the wheel backed onto the road. He went from holding his breath to softly cursing when the demon's eyes suddenly went from scanning the road to locking in on Xander. Well, probably the Jeep, but the results were the same.
The truck stopped, right there in the road and both demons got out and started trotting toward him. The cleared the road and the shoulder, and had just started hurrying across the desert when Xander stood.
"One more step, and me, the Jeep, a chunk of desert, and hopefully you two will go boom," Xander said as he pulled a match out of the matchbook and stood next to the gas tank with the rag sticking out of it.
"Now, Onyx," Posk started.
"And if I have to tell you my name is Xander one more time, I'll blow us all up on general principle," Xander said in his best 'I'm crazy and just might do it voice.' And really? Not that hard to come up with that voice right now. The only thing that kept him from going through with it was the chance that Spike was still out there.
"Okay, not a problem," Posk said as he backed up, putting out an arm to force the other demon, a grayish looking flabby-faced thing, back with him. Posk whispered something to the other guy who then turned and ran back for the truck. "So, do you really think you're going to be able to just walk away here?"
"Um, I'm thinking that's a no. I'm also thinking rescue is on the way so all I have to do is wait. Either that, or finish this by blowing myself up so I don't need rescue any more. Either way," Xander gave a shrug to show it didn't matter to him even though his stomach knotted and curled unhappily at the thought of the whole self-immolation thing. He really wasn't into pain… well, not that pain anyway.
"Okay, it's okay. We'll just wait here with you, okay?" Posk asked. He backed up toward the highway where his friend had moved the truck out of the middle of the freeway and parked it on the highway closest to the Jeep.
"And if I say no?" Xander asked.
"We'll be right here," Posk answered as he leaned back against the white truck. The second demon got out and stood looking from Posk to Xander and back again until Xander thought the guy was going to get neck strain. Knowing he didn't have any other choice, Xander leaned against the Jeep and watched them suspiciously.
Before long, a second truck, a blue and white thing with scraped fenders and a dented hood, pulled up behind Posk's truck, and Dareh wiggled his way out of the cab. Xander bit down on an urge to suggest the man give Jenny Craig a call. Posk went to talk to Dareh while the second demon dude watched as Xander stood up straight and took the matches in hand again.
Sure enough, Dareh started lumbering toward him.
"Keep coming, and we're going to find out if you're flame proof," Xander said as he raised the matches. Even in the slowly fading light, the demon should be able to see them.
"Xander, calm down," Dareh said gently.
"Oh yeah. Sure. I'll calm down so that you can have them sneak around and shoot a trank dart into me. That's a good reason to calm down. Yeah. Not even." Xander turned to look at Posk and the other guy, but they were climbing in the white truck without looking at him at all.
"Where are they going?" he asked. The only thing worse than having enemies cutting you off from escape was having enemies that you couldn't see any more. Xander crouched down and pressed his back to the Jeep. Great, you moron, he told himself. Just put a few ideas in the demon's head what with the trank gun suggestion.
"They're heading back to the farm. No one's going to sneak around you, boy," Dareh said as he inched closer, crushing desert plants under his wide heavy feet.
"And why am I not believing that?" Xander asked with a roll of his eyes. "Oh yeah, because you're still standing in my way."
"I'm not going to leave you alone out here; it can be dangerous out here."
"Oh yeah, I might get grabbed and tortured by some demon from another dimension who thinks that I'm nothing more than an animal. I'm there on the danger part."
"I was actually thinking something more along the lines of dehydration."
"Really? 'Cause I'm thinking the first is a lot more probable here."
"Onyx, did Posk do something to hurt you?" Dareh demanded, pulling himself upright so that his bulk was suddenly redistributed into a creature that stood seven or eight feet tall and had the girth of a wrestler, and oh buddy, Xander really preferred the six foot fat-looking version of Dareh.
Then Xander's brain processed what Dareh said, and he really couldn't resist laughing at that, laughing hard enough that tears trailed down his face until he had to wipe away. "No, you were the one who did the hurting," he gasped. Dareh's weight collapsed back in on itself so that the wide sloping face once again looked like the non-threatening blobby demon Xander knew and most definitely didn't love.
"How did I hurt you, boy?"
"You don't even see it, do you? You really think I'm so much of an animal that I don't feel something for my children? Do you really think I would stand by and let you turn my sons and daughters into slaves?" Xander could hear his own voice become shrill and unstable. "I'll die first. I won't let you do that to my kids." And suddenly the tears that Xander felt on his face had nothing to do with laughter.
"Oh my sweet little boy," Dareh said as he bent his thick, short legs and lowered himself to the ground.
"Not yours," Xander snarled in frustration.
"Perhaps not. Perhaps your master will come, and perhaps he'll reimburse me the price I paid for you. In which case, this is just a discussion between friends." Xander snorted his disbelief that the word friends, but Dareh ignored that.
"Have you heard of evolution?" Dareh asked, and Xander had to mentally review the question before he could quite believe his ears. And people accused *him* of changing topics.
"Duh. Darwin and birds and monkeys. I didn't sleep through school, and may I point out that is one more advancement brought to you by the primitive human brain. For animals, we don't do too bad," Xander said sarcastically.
Dareh laughed softly. "Cuomsi identified the process of evolution a couple of millennia before Darwin was born. But you're right that your species does show some promise. So perhaps you know about natural selection."
"You're not going to distract me you know."
"I'm actually not trying to. So does that mean you don't know natural selection?"
"And again with the thinking I'm stupid." Xander sank down the last few inches to rest his butt on the ground.
"I've never thought you were stupid, or I wouldn't have bought you," Dareh said with a shake of his head. "So natural selection happens when an individual member of the species..."
"Yeah, yeah. An individual that has a favorable mutation will succeed and have more babies. An individual that has a mutation that's unfavorable, dies. So an owl that can turn white in winter so that it can't be seen against the snow will kill lots more prey and have lots more babies," Xander quickly finished. He'd actually been awake and non-daydreamy that day in class. "Told you I wasn't stupid."
"And so you did. So, over time as the strongest individuals survive and produce and the weak individuals die, what happens to the species as a whole?"
"It evolves. Or it adapts. I got that question wrong on the test because I kept getting the two terms confused." Okay, there went his non-stupid argument.
"And it evolves for the better?"
"That is the point. Species don't exactly evolve for the worse."
"Ah, but they do. Think about it, Xander. If you had a diseased dog that couldn't digest its food properly, what would happen to that dog in the wild?" Xander searched Dareh's face looking for some clue about where the demon was going.
"And again, we're back to the 'I'm not stupid'. It would die."
"And what if someone gave this dog medicine so that it would survive and then fed the dog and protected the dog so that it could have 200 puppies while a wild dog that was healthy would only have 50?" Dareh asked as he inched closer. Xander raised his hand with the match and he stopped. "Over time, would that species become stronger or weaker?" Dareh continued, inching back until Xander lowered the matches again.
Xander suddenly didn't like where this conversation was going. "I think I'm done talking with you."
"That's fine. But you need to listen. Cuomsi called it interferant adaptation. The humans who are strongest and smartest are choosing not to have children. Many intelligent attractive women have their first child 35 for 40 and then they only have one or two children. The whole human culture encourages those who are successful to reduce their reproduction.
"But those who are least successful, they keep right on having kids. They may have six or eight or 10 kids in the course of their lifetime. And then modern medicine takes people who have severe genetic defects and makes it possible for them to pass those defects off to another generation. I've lived in this dimension for nearly 200 years, and I'm watching your species become more fragile.
"So, given these facts, what do you think is the fate of free range humans? The day is going to come when the only genetically healthy humans are the ones on the farms. And your species is far too unique to allow you to destroy yourselves. So, will you waste your strength and your beauty in a gene pool that has already doomed itself, or will you allow yourself to admit that this is the only way for your species to survive and that you're just part of their survival?
"That's bullshit," Xander said. He wasn't quite sure where the bullshit came in, but he was sure it was bullshit.
"Now that I know you have objections to breeding, I won't ask you to breed freely. If it bothers you, we can even keep you in a separate paddock away from the mares so you don't see the pups."
"Not gonna happen. Spike's coming," Xander said despite the fact he didn't even know whether Spike was still in one piece.
"And if he doesn't? Will you truly destroy yourself even though you could have a long and productive life ensuring that your species survives its own stupidity?"
"Oh please. The only thing in my future is a trip back to the auctions, and I know who was runner up in the bidding now that I've proven that I'm not so good tempered after all." Okay, that was a stupid thing to say because the only thing in his future was a rescue when Spike roaring in and ripped Dareh to little itty bitty Dareh pieces. He had to believe that. If he didn't believe that he should just have the strength to light the damn match. Xander looked down, but Dareh's voice became louder, interrupting his thoughts.
"Have you? Onyx, what did you do to Posk when you had him helpless?
"I stole his pants and generally humiliated him. And that was after taking a post hole digger to his stomach."
"And did you kill him?"
"What? No."
"Exactly. Another male would have killed him. And right now, you're threatening yourself instead of me."
"That's only because I don't have anything to threaten you with," Xander pointed out as he held up the matches.
"Really? So if I gave you a gun, you'd shoot me?"
"Oh hell yes!" Xander answered immediately. "Shootage would be of the good right now. I'd shoot you and run for the hills."
"Shoot me to escape, possibly. But would you kill me?"
"I've killed plenty of demons," Xander hedged. He tended to kill the demons who didn't remind him of some sort of weird Mr. Rogers with a bondage fetish. Fledges he could kill without a thought. Lirowaus he would have killed, Dareh he wanted to kill, but he wasn't sure if he could actually do it.
"I don't doubt that. You fought beside a slayer and a vampire, but if you had no one to fight beside, would you go out and fight on your own? Is it in your nature to fight?"
"Hey, I've chosen to stupidly throw myself into plenty of fights," Xander pointed out.
"And my guess is that you've done so for your friends. Your nature is to follow the pack, to protect the pack. You aren't naturally aggressive or you would have killed Posk. I will not allow Leshar or any other trainer to touch you, ever."
Xander could feel the arm that held the matches trembling slightly at the offer of protection, but he kept his mouth shut for once.
"Why don't I just sit here and let you think about that?" Dareh suggested as he shifted his large body and crossed his arms over his knees. Then he lowered his head onto his arms as he watched Xander with small, black eyes. Xander just leaned against the warm metal of the Jeep as the last orange and pink streaks faded to gray in the evening sky. Right. Now all he had to do was wait for Spike. Or Angel. He never thought he'd say it, but he'd be thrilled to see Angel right now.
"Good night, boy," Dareh said softly. Xander gritted his teeth as he ordered himself to stay awake until the cavalry came to the rescue.
Xander jerked his head up again as he wrapped his arms around his knees and tried not to shake. The moon hadn't even moved an inch from the last time he had jerked himself into wakefulness, so Xander didn't think he had lost too much time. Dareh hadn't moved, those dark eyes stayed closed and didn't reflect any of the light from the nearly full moon.
"Just hang on," Xander whispered to himself as he clutched the matches. Maybe he should make a little fire. But he didn't think he could afford to get distracted from the demon sleeping near the highway. Nope. He wouldn't be distracted or fall asleep or let himself think too much about what Dareh had said. Nope. He was not-thinking guy and he had proved that more than once.
Xander squirmed a little to ease his sore back, but he hated to move too much. The Jeep was still a little warm where his body heat leeched into the metal, but the night had gotten cold a lot faster than he expected. Normally he was in his stall before night fell. Xander's teeth started chattering and he tightened his jaw. Putting his head down on his knees, Xander slowly tuned his body's pain out as he focused on watching the long strip where the moonlight reflected off the yellow centerline stripe. Pulling the paperclip off the matchbook cover, he fingered it. He just had to trust Spike. Closing his fist around the piece of metal, Xander went back to watching and waiting.
Xander jerked awake again as something strong locked around his ankle. Grabbing for the matches, he ripped one out of the book and tried to strike it. His hands trembled, and the match didn't flare. He reached to try again, but the arm with the matchbook was yanked forward with enough force to pull Xander to his feet. Rather than pull back against that strength, Xander pushed into it, bringing the hand with the match close enough to strike it, and the smell of phosphor filled the air as the match lit. Xander instantly touched it to the matchbook, and the flash of brilliant orange-white light illuminated the side of Dareh's head as Xander twisted in his grasp. He could see the Jeep. He just had to…
Xander went to toss the matches, and Dareh pulled his arm up at the last minute, throwing Xander's aim off so that the matches sailed up into the air and then fell far short of the Jeep, setting a small grassy tuft on fire. Xander put his knee into Dareh's side and pulled for all he was worth while Dareh stomped on the small fire, ending Xander's whole self-immolation plan.
"Hush, Onyx," Dareh said as the hand that had grabbed his wrist let go only to snake around his waist. Xander used the extra bit of freedom to aim a punch as Dareh's side. The flesh gave under his hand, like punching a pillow, but Dareh didn't even twitch. Xander pulled back his hand to punch again, but then Dareh pulled him in so close that he was near suffocating in the mass of warm demon. Since he couldn't pull back his arm enough to get any force behind a punch, he brought his knee up with pretty much the same results.
"Hush, now boy." One of Dareh's arms circled around his back, trapping his arms to his side as Dareh used his other hand to grab the attacking leg. Xander was left pressed into Dareh's stomach, feeling the little plastic buttons of the demon's shirt dig into his bare chest, as his one leg hung helplessly.
"No!" Xander gasped as he tried to worm his way out of the embrace.
"Shh, boy. Just hush now. You've created quite enough of a stir without bringing humans out of the café. I'll kill them to protect you, Onyx." Xander trembled even though his body was quickly warming.
"No. Please no," Xander begged although he wasn't sure whether he was asking for himself or the people in the café.
"It's okay." Dareh tightened his hold, and Xander watched the cacti and scraggly tufts of grass and stones go past as he stared at the ground. Soon enough, the rocky land gave way to the black asphalt of the highway. When Dareh released his leg, Xander tried to kick again, feeling his last chance of escape slipping away, but Dareh just leaned into the truck, effectively trapping Xander as he opened the truck's door.
Changing tactics, Xander tried taking a small piece of Dareh's skin and pinching it as hard as he could as Dareh picked up a CB radio.
"Dareh one to home. I need two extra drivers and a van out near the Romantic."
"Sure thing, boss," a voice answered. Xander let himself sag as his last hope disappeared. He couldn't fight his way free and he sure as hell wasn't talking his way free. Helpless in Dareh's embrace, he fell back on the only lesson that seemed to apply and let himself go limp.
"And have the vet on call when I get there."
"You got it," the voice on the other end offered, and Dareh dropped the radio back into the cradle before reaching farther in for something else. Xander trembled. He'd tried to run and he had no illusions about what would happen now. He knew just how badly he was about to need that vet. But maybe all wasn't lost. Maybe Angel could still find him now that he knew to come to this part of the country. And maybe Dareh would move him. And maybe Spike was dust. Xander didn't fight as Dareh pulled back from the truck, and he felt the cold asphalt under his feet.
"Hush now, boy," Dareh said, and then Xander felt a rough fabric slide around his bare shoulders. Dareh backed off a step, and Xander stood still, his eyes down as he waited for whatever judgment his master made. Instead, he watched as Dareh pulled a rough brown blanket around him tight enough to pin his arms to his side before Dareh pulled him into his body again.
"Are you okay, Onyx?" he asked.
"Yes, master," Xander answered quietly. He really didn't have any other options as Dareh slammed the truck door closed and then stood with his back to the truck, pulling Xander up so that Xander's feet hung helplessly. Xander lay his head down on Dareh's shoulder and let his mind empty out so that he went into that same half sleep that he had lived so much of the last several months in.
"You will be punished for running," Dareh said, and Xander had enough control of his body to prevent a shiver from running down his back even though it ran through his mind. He'd figured that out the minute Dareh had asked for the vet.
"But I didn't lie to you, boy. I won't sell you to the likes of Leshar, and I won't ask you to breed freely. You will, however, breed, and you will obey me. Do you understand?"
"Yes, master." Xander answered. He watched as headlights appeared from down the road, praying to see Angel's convertible racing through the dark. Instead a black van pulled up, and the two farm hands from earlier, including Posk, got out.
"Posk, drive the Jeep. Laist, you have the truck," Dareh said as he carried Xander to the open side door of the van. Xander flashed on an image… another van pulling up in the dark, and how could he have been so stupid? He tried to accept as a slave should, but the memory of those first hands on him, gagging him, tying him down. He remembered the terror as he looked into red eyes and he started struggling against a memory that would never change because he hadn't been strong enough to save himself. He was never strong enough.
"Shhh, boy," Dareh whispered, and then Xander felt himself folded up as Dareh gathered him into his lap.
"No," Xander gasped as he struggled against the large, warm, gray hands that held him and the memory of those cold hands that snatched and grabbed at him. He struggled until he pulled an arm free and then he clawed at the demon holding him even though he couldn't even see that demon through the fog of his own memories.
"Hush, Onyx. Whatever is frightening you, it isn't real. You're safe." Xander trembled to a stop then as he realized who had him. It was too late for struggling, so he let himself go limp.
"And you think that will save the stable?" a cynical voice asked.
"I know this will. He stopped short of seriously hurting anyone. He's just panicked." Dareh told whoever was up front. Xander was turned the wrong way to see, and he didn't have the energy to try and twist around.
"Onyx, what's panicking you?" Dareh asked, his arms tightening around Xander. Xander took a deep breath and tried to not panic at the thought of giving Dareh another part of himself. But he couldn't lie to a master.
"I remembered being taken," Xander admitted.
"Ah, they didn't do it kindly then. It has to be done right to avoid the stock panicking," Dareh's large hand brushed curls out of his face, and Xander barely avoided another shiver of revolt.
"How did they do it?" Dareh asked curiously. Xander sat in silence as he decided how to answer that without lying and without giving too much of himself away.
"They pulled up in a van, opened the door and dragged me in. Several held me down while the others ripped the clothes from me. When I started screaming, one of them shoved my underwear in my mouth and then they chained my arms and legs before dropping me in a cage." Xander tried to keep the emotion out of his voice because that belonged to him… him and Spike. Despite the calm tone, Dareh's hand froze and the arm around Xander tightened.
"I am going to gut that trainer. More to the point, I will make sure no one ever buys stock from any place that hires him," Dareh growled in a voice that sounded suspiciously Spike-like.
"You do that, but you'd better hope the pups don't pick up their father's nervousness."
"They'll be perfect," Dareh assured his partner, but Xander didn't find it comforting at all.
Xander sleep-walked through the rest of the evening, the lack of sleep and cold and fear and shock combining to make him only half aware as the driver of the van examined him, taking his pants and checking all his fingers and toes for damage from the cold. He followed quietly as Dareh held his wrist. He watched without comment as Posk attached cuffs and a short chain to his ankles. He held out his hands so that Posk could reattach the hand bindings.
"Okay, now for the punishment part," Dareh said as Posk finished the second hand. Xander was sitting on the edge of the metal examination table, the cold of it contrasting with the warm stable air, and he let his bound fist fall to his lap as he waited with his head bowed.
"You will stay in the stable for two weeks, which means dry food. And the leg restraints stay on until I can trust you, even if that means forever. Do you understand?"
"Yes, master," Xander said with a confused glance up.
"Onyx, is there something you want to ask?"
Xander hesitated as he considered whether he really did want to know. "Is that all?" he asked quietly. "After I… you know," Xander stopped since he really didn't want to repeat all his crimes.
"Some of those mistakes are Posk's, and he'll have to answer to those," Dareh said, and Posk hunched his shoulders. "I do believe I told you stallions were more high-strung."
"Yes, sir, you did," Posk answered quietly.
"And I believe I told you this one was fast and clever, and more expensive than any three mares put together."
"Yes, sir."
"Well, then I think you can share Onyx's punishment. As long as he's confined to the stable, you'll be cleaning the stables and not the paddocks."
"Yes sir," Posk said quietly.
"So get him bedded down and get some sleep because you have an early morning." Dareh turned and walked out of the room, and Xander sat on the cold steel waiting for the revenge to start. After the post-hole digger to the stomach, the kid had a right to take a swing or two. Instead Posk pulled a familiar piece of leather out of his pocket.
"Down, Onyx," he said, and Xander slipped off the table and to his knees. Posk slipped the leash over Xander's head and then gave a small pull. Xander nearly lost his balance as the hobbles pulled him short, and he really wasn't used to wearing such short hobbles. Instead of falling, he found himself leaning against Posk's hand as Posk pulled him up.
"Come on, let's get you to bed so I can get at least a couple of hours of sleep before I have to be up again." Posk pulled on the leash and Xander shuffled after the boy, looking slightly down at the back of the demon's head. "I can't believe I did something that stupid and next time I'm in a hurry, I'm going to be a whole lot more careful. You know, you cracked one of my chest bones, Onyx, and I have to say that hurts. Not to mention the fact that I missed one seriously hot date tonight, and while your sex life may come easy, some of us have to work for it."
The whole time Posk walked slowly down the length of the stable, and Xander could see curious eyes looking out at him. Xander flinched at just how many eyes there were… dozens and dozens of women in their stalls, and now Dareh had all but promised to use the breeding leash. Xander shuffled a little faster since he wanted to get to the relative privacy of his stall in the corner before breaking down and crying.
"In ya go," Posk said as he held open the stall door. Xander stopped long enough for Posk to slip the leash off, and then he shuffled in and sank to the ground. "I hope you like the view because you're going to be seeing it for a while," Posk offered, and Xander kept his eyes focused on the wooden slats of his prison.
"Don't worry, boy. Time will be up sooner than you think and then we'll both be back out with the grass and the trees and the pretty girls," Posk said. "Just don't think you're going to get away with *that* a second time."
Xander didn't answer or move as Posk slid the door to the stall shut. He looked up at his water bottle, but somehow standing up seemed like more effort than it was worth. Stretching out and putting his arms under his head, he let himself finally fall asleep.
Xander woke briefly when Posk appeared with a scoop of dry food and a new stall liner. Moving from one side to the other to make it easier for the demon to clean up his stall, Xander waited for a swift kick that didn't come. He almost wished it did because it would be so much easier to hold onto his hate if someone would just kick him. When Posk left, Xander lay down again and let himself drift back to sleep. He wasn't sure how much time passed when his stall door opened again.
"You haven't touched your food, boy, are you feeling sick?"
"No," Xander answered as he pulled his legs up.
"Well, up on your knees. Dareh called for you at the house, so if you need to pee, do it here." Xander used the side of his stall to brace himself so he could get up to his knees. He still hadn't had any water, so peeing really wasn't first on his mind. After a second, Posk slipped the leash around his head and then pulled to get him up. Xander stood with a sigh and shuffled slowly behind the trainer.
"Oh, and Dareh has company, so let's show good manners, okay, boy?"
"Yes, Posk," Xander answered quietly as he hobbled along after the trainer. The house turned out to be a stone building with a wide porch. Xander couldn't get up the stairs, so Posk got a shoulder in his stomach and lifted him from the ground to the porch before leaping up himself. And then Xander was back to the shuffle bit as he followed meekly. When the doors opened, Xander flinched at the sight of Angel standing next to a wide stone fireplace with Dareh seated on the biggest chair Xander had ever seen, and yes the universe did really hate him.
Posk walked slowly to Dareh, forcing Xander to follow until Posk handed over his leash and Xander went to his knees at Dareh's feet. Angel stood there with his spiky hair and red shirt, and Xander didn't even want to think what he looked like after sleeping in his stall, and some days he wondered how Spike could pick him after having Angel. Not that he'd ever had Angel, but Angelus was just as handsome.
"Xander," Angel breathed softly, and Xander could hear the shock in his voice, and really, considering that Spike had told Deadboy all sorts of slave stories, it really made Angel look a little on the clueless side. Either that or Xander was feeling resentful and just a little terrified that Angel and not Spike had shown up.
"So you see that Onyx is just fine."
"So, I'm still willing to pay $14,500 for his return." Angel turned his eyes from Xander to Dareh.
"Ah, but that doesn't take into account his care and feeding, or the trouble he all put us through last night."
"Fine, I'll add another $500." Angel said with clipped tones that suggested to Xander that these two had been arguing for a while. Dareh's hand reached out and rested on Xander's bowed head. Xander continued to watch these two
"You have my final offer. $14,000 and ten confirmed pregnancies. You can take delivery of him in six or seven days when I've finished breeding him."
"And I told you that I'm taking him today. Either you sell him or Spike is going to tear this place apart, but I won't allow the boy to be bred."
"I thought I might leave that up to him." Dareh's hand moved to under Xander's chin and tilted his head up and toward the gray demon. "It seems the Aurelius vampires are rather stubborn so let me explain this to you Onyx. We have several possibilities. One, you stay here until you have been bred ten times, and as I promised, I will not try to make you do it willingly, so your conscience can be clear. You know I'll take care of your pups, and I certainly will never sell any males. Then after you have impregnated the mares, your Master's sire can pay the $14,000 and you can go back to the Master you adore. I will certainly not have any hard feelings." Dareh pushed the curls out of Xander's face in a gesture that would have been gentle except for the rough skin of the demon's thumb against his forehead.
"The second option is that your Master's sire angers me and I throw him off the farm. He attacks, but he can't possibly know the defenses I have around this place so many if not all of his supporters, including your Master, will die, and then I will have you for the rest of your life. I will build this stable up into one of the most successful breeding farms in ten dimensions.
"The third option is that your Master's sire angers me, but when they attack they actually do manage to rescue you. Your rescue will come at the cost of some of them dying, and the mares and their pups will be caught in the crossfire, and those like Posk who have cared for you may die fighting. Who knows, your Master may not survive. Or maybe your Master will lose his sire in his fight to get you back. How would he look at you if Angel died in your defense?" Dareh looked over toward Angel, and Xander glanced that way as well.
"You tell us what you want, Xander." Dareh's voice was soft, confident, kinda creepy, and Xander looked up at the demon who held his leash.
"I won't breed."
"Onyx," Dareh said warningly, "that isn't an option, and we have discussed that."
"Angel," Xander said, looking up even as he knelt at Dareh's side. "I know Willow's magic is a little wonky right now, but she has it in her to do a destructive spell… trust me she has it in her right now," Xander said with a bit of a dramatic shiver. "So tell her that I truly want to end it. I need to end it before things get any worse. Please," Xander said quietly. Xander summoned up the feeling of black despair he'd once felt when he'd walked out of that room where Spike had hung in chains. Intentionally allowing that memory to rise, he allowed the loss and pain and misery to fill his heart until the tears threatened to spill over. "Tell her I want it," he said, his voice trembling with the emotions that threatened to crush him.
He looked up at Dareh's shocked face. "She has some control issues, so I might end up being ground zero of a small nuclear explosion, but I know she'll do the spell. I just can't do what you want," Xander said as his body started shaking. The memory nearly overwhelmed him so that he could feel Lirowaus' shackles on his body instead of Dareh's.
"Perhaps I shouldn't let Angel communicate that." Dareh answered quietly.
"Spike already knows. As you say, we are sire and childe," Angel said, and Xander could have smiled as Angel picked up his bluff. "If you're sure," Angel said sadly.
"I'm sure. I'm not doing so well in the not getting captured department, and I'm tired. I actually tried to blow myself up last night, but I didn't do so well with it," Xander said with a helpless shrug.
"Onyx," Dareh snapped as he gave the leash a yank. Xander sank back onto his knees and dropped his head submissively.
"So, it looks like negotiations have changed. I'll give you $16,000 and walk out of here now, or the witch with whom Xander has been friends since they were 'pups' will make him the center of a very large explosion."
"You wouldn't blow him up." Dareh said confidently enough.
"Yes, I would," Angel said flatly. Xander could only wait as Dareh shifted.
"Vampires. You really shouldn't be allowed to trade. Inhabiting human bodies makes you entirely too conflicted when it comes to training them," Dareh finally announced with a huff of frustration. Xander took a deep breath and allowed relief to push back the edges of the memory. "Posk, get in here and remove the restraints from Onyx," Dareh shouted at a volume that made the glass in the windows rattle. Posk appeared and quickly darted forward to take the leash.
"And find him some clothes," Angel requested. Xander considered wiggling his naked ass at Angel as he followed Posk from the room, still on the leash, but he wasn't sure he wanted to push it that far. Angel had said Spike was here, but if that had been a bluff along with everything else they'd said in the room, he couldn't afford to piss Angel off. If Spike was still missing, he would beg, bribe, or torture the broody one into finding his Master. And if Spike was out there waiting, Xander was going to kill the bleached menace. Okay, maybe not kill, but there was going to be some butt kicking just as soon as he made sure the butt in question was still undusty.