The Birthday Present

A/N Alwaysand - glad that you liked the last chapter.
K-blood - Thank you so much for such a great review. It really means a lot :) You hadn't commented of a while so I thought you'd stopped reading. Great to know that you are still enjoying the story.

Oh! If anyone read chapter 28 when it didn't load properly and it was only a few lines - better go back and read the full length version! :)


Chapter Twenty-Nine


Buffy longed for a shower. It had been two hours since Willow had come back to find her locked in the cage in the basement and Spike gone. They’d immediately left to try to find him, even though the fact that Oz’s car was missing too meant that he could be miles away by now.


Willow and Buffy were walking the streets of Sunnydale, hoping that Buffy’s slayer senses would pick up on Spike’s whereabouts. Buffy glanced at Willow; it felt like the old days, back when they would patrol the neighbourhood each night. No need for patrolling anymore – The Initiative had seen to that. She knew that their capture teams must go out to other areas now. She hadn’t seen a free vampire in Sunnydale in years.


“Hey, Willow. You said that Lindsey had left a message for Oz letting him know that the police and The Initiative were looking for Spike. Did Lindsey tell him that Spike was a vampire?”


Willow turned to look at her friend. “No, the message said that his dad had a private detective searching for him. We both decided that he really meant The Initiative.”


“Oh, right.” Buffy still felt sick to the stomach at the thought of what would happen to Spike if he was recaptured. Oh, God. It’s all my fault.


Willow smiled sympathetically and squeezed Buffy’s arm. “We’ll find him.” She didn’t believe it for a minute but knew what Buffy was thinking.


Buffy weakly returned her smile. “I hope so.”


*~*~*~*


Spike parked the car two blocks from the McDonald house and left the keys in the ignition in case he needed a quick getaway. He didn’t want to have to fumble with them if he was seen. He walked as casually as he could along the street, keeping close to the edge of the path so that he was in the shadows more often than not. He crouched behind a hedge from where he could see the front door to McDonald’s house. He’d been there long enough to make his legs begin to cramp, when the front door opened. Spike clapped his hand over his mouth to smother the yell of fear that he couldn’t help but give.


Please don’t see me. Please don’t see me.


Spike was trembling so much that he was sure that even in his secluded spot the person walking down the path would notice him. Spike sank to his knees and closed his eyes. He didn’t want to see the man walk towards him. He’d know that he’d been spotted when the Tazer blast hit.


After two minutes, Spike opened his eyes and peered fearfully out from his hiding place. He sighed with relief. Oh, thank God. He hadn’t been spotted and the soldier from The Initiative had gone away. He cursed himself for not thinking that they’d be looking for him. He squeezed his eyes shut and rocked gently to and fro as images of vampires flooded his mind. All punished for serious misconduct. All of the vampires currently being trained were forced to watch as a hapless victim was set upon by the surgeons. Spike had been glad that he was deaf as the vampire was gelded without anaesthetic. And the other things that had been inflicted…

Spike struggled not to panic. He wished that he was back at Buffy’s house. He shook his head. No, he really wished that he was with Lindsey, in the time before McDonald had begun to scare him. Those days, before the extra piercings had been done, were the happiest in his memory. Even knowing that his feelings were down to the drugs in his system, he still wished that things had stayed the same. He’d felt loved and safe. Spike didn’t know if he’d ever feel either again. Surely it was only a matter of time before The Initiative found him?


He stared at the house across the road from him and growled under his breath. He knew that to have the best chance of remaining free, that he should just get back in the car and drive to some remote town where no one would even know what a remote controlled vampire was. But he couldn’t do it. He had to get his hands on McDonald; he just wasn’t sure how he was going to achieve it.


It was still early evening, a taxi pulled up outside the McDonald house and the driver honked its horn.


Bollocks!


If Lindsey’s father left in it there was no way that Spike could get back to the car in time to follow. To his immense relief, it was Lindsey’s mom who got into it. Her husband carried a small suitcase that the driver put in the trunk of the cab. He kissed her on her cheek. His voice carried over to Spike in the still evening air.


“Have a nice time, honey. I’ll see you in a couple of days.”


Spike smirked as he watched the cab drive away. He’d gotten his opening. As long as he didn’t give McDonald a chance to raise the alarm, time was in his favour. He could see to McDonald and get away before anyone missed the human. The smirk faded from his face as he stared at Lindsey’s father. He couldn’t help but feel afraid of him. The man had total control over him in the past and the feeling remained. Spike hoped that he wouldn’t freeze up when he grabbed the man. If he did, Spike would be worse than dead.


McDonald turned around and walked back up the path and into the house. Spike closed his eyes and pulled up the memories of himself before the chip. He needed to be that ruthless hunter again. Two minutes later he stood up, marched boldly across the road and up to the front door. He rolled his shoulders a couple of time to loosen them and flexed his fingers. He glanced at them as they moved. Three years of them being useless. He suppressed a growl.


Spike took a deep breath and rapped sharply on the door.


*~*~*~*


“You don’t think that he’s gone back to Lindsey do you?” asked Willow, as she walked with Buffy.


“What? No way! Why would he?”


“Oh, I dunno, it’s just we’ve looked everywhere else.” Willow glanced at her wristwatch. “Oz will have changed by now so we can’t get him to call Lindsey. We can’t do it without a bunch of awkward questions. Maybe he has just left town.”


Buffy stared at Willow. Has Spike gone back to Lindsey? They’d never had a rescue that wanted to return to its owner, but then again, they’d never had a rescue quite as thoroughly screwed up as Spike was. She shook her head.


“I can’t see him going back there, and if he has, he’ll be back in the program by now.” Her voice broke a little.


*~*~*~*


Oz had barely removed his clothing before the change started; the stress of the past few days making the wolf anxious to exert its authority. He screamed in agony as his body began to alter, falling to his hands and knees when his bones crunched and morphed. His last conscious thought before the change was complete was that he never got used to the pain.


The wolf raged against its captivity and thoroughly tested the strength of the bars enclosing him. After a couple of hours the growls and snarls were replaced by whimpers and whines as the wolf settled itself on the raised bench in the corner of the cage, curled up tightly and resigned itself to the fact that there would be no hunting that night.


*~*~*~*


McDonald opened the door with a smile. “What have you forgotten this time?”


His smile disappeared when he saw a man standing there and not his wife. His eyes widened in fear as recognition kicked in. It was the vampire.


Spike tilted his head on one side and smiled nastily. “I haven’t forgotten how to do this.”


Before McDonald could react, Spike grabbed his shirt and pulled him towards him. He dipped his head and cracked his forehead against McDonald’s. With a grunt the man fell limp into Spike’s arms. A quick glance around to make sure that he hadn’t been seen and Spike pushed the body backwards and stepped inside the house.


“Fuck that hurt.”


He rubbed his head with his hand and stared at McDonald who was beginning to stir. Spike closed the door and sighed with relief. He hadn’t been sure that he would be able to get inside the house without a formal invite, but the fact that he’d lived here must have meant that the barrier didn’t apply to him. If The Initiative had asked the vampires more questions instead of just torturing and programming them they might have worked out that a dis-invite should be done.


Spike sighed. With the chip, I don’t suppose they ever thought it’d be necessary.


He bent down and firmly gripped McDonald’s shirt collar with both hands and dragged him down to the basement. Spike saw that the apparatus that he’d been strapped to was still there, and had to fight the urge to run, to escape. He was panting with fear by the time that he had managed to tie McDonald to it, unable to forget the pain that he’d suffered here.


Spike stood and surveyed his handiwork. McDonald was positioned as Spike had been not so long ago. Bent over the table-like structure, his arms pulled down and chained to the floor, his head angled so that it faced forwards and his legs spread wide and secured by the ankles. Spike hadn’t strapped the bars on to McDonald’s legs to keep them rigid. He didn’t care if McDonald could move a little.


Now that McDonald was well and truly tied up, Spike found that his fear was slowly abating. He glared at the man - at his torturer - and wondered if he should simply leave him like that for his wife discover him on her return and just get the hell out of Sunnydale. He vamped up his features and rage surged through him as his crooked fang cut his lip. He slapped McDonald across the face.


“Time to wake up now.”


*~*~*~*


Buffy and Willow collapsed wearily onto the couch when they got back to Revello Drive. There had been no sign of any vampires, let alone Spike. They hadn’t found Oz’s car either.


“Hot chocolate?” asked Buffy, a short time later.


“Oh, yes please.”


Buffy heaved herself up and plodded to the kitchen. Her thoughts were on Spike. Had he made it out of Sunnydale without being recaptured? The Initiative was sure to be monitoring the roads out of town and a heat detector could pick out a vampire driving a car very easily.


Please let him be okay.


Even though he had hit her and tricked her, she still couldn’t help but care for him. She shook her head in bewilderment. She should want to stake the son of a bitch for out-witting her. She made the mugs of chocolate and carried them back through to Willow.


“Here you go.”


“Thanks, Buff.”


The two girls just stared at each other, neither knowing what to say. Buffy twirled the mug around in her hands, not really wanting it now that she had made it. She still felt sick to the stomach when she thought of what might happen to Spike.


When Willow had finished her drink, she stood up. I’m going to go to bed now, I’m beat.”


“Oh, okay, Will. Goodnight.”


“You should go to bed too. You look exhausted.”


Buffy smiled at her friend. “I’ll go up soon.”


Willow sighed and reached out to Buffy, resting a hand on her shoulder. “What’s done is done. We can’t change it and so you’re just going to have to deal, whatever the outcome.”


Buffy dropped her gaze. “I know, I know. I don’t know why I behaved with him like I did.”


Willow chuckled. “I do.”


Buffy looked up and met Willow’s eyes.


“He is a hottie,” said Willow, grinning at Buffy, “even though he’s a vampire. Much cuter than Angel.”


“Willow! How can you say that?”


“It’s the truth though, isn’t it?” Willow’s smile faded. “That’s why he could turn your head and get away. You were putty in his hands.”


Buffy buried her face in her hands. “Oh, God, Willow. I was so dumb.”


Willow sat next to Buffy and put an arm around her. “Yeah, you were,” she said gently. “But we all make mistakes. Don’t keep beating yourself up about it. Like I said – deal.”


Buffy leaned into her friend’s shoulder and took a deep breath. “I’ll try. I just need to know what’s happened to him.”


*~*~*~*


Spike thought that he might enjoy this. Whilst he waited for McDonald to come to his senses, he walked up into the kitchen and took a beer out of the refrigerator. He flipped the cap off it without the need of a bottle opener and took a couple of long pulls. He wiped his hand across his mouth and belched loudly, making him chuckle. Spike glanced at the door to the basement; would he be ready now? He shrugged and opened a few cupboard doors until he found a bag of pretzels, then he went in to the lounge room and turned on the TV. He flicked from channel to channel before settling on a comedy, he got comfortable on the couch, put his feet up on the coffee table, and drank some of the beer and nibbled on a handful of the snack. No rush.

Down in the basement, McDonald came around and promptly wished that he hadn’t. There was pain in his shoulders from his arms being pulled ruthlessly down before being tied to the legs of his specially designed apparatus. He panicked, tugging at his restraints in much the same way as Spike had just a few days previous. Like Spike, he found that the shackles wouldn’t budge. McDonald wasn’t surprised to find that he was naked. His whole body began to tremble as he recalled what he’d done to Spike.


How could he have head-butted me? Why didn’t the chip fire?


McDonald opened his mouth to cry for help but then closed it again. No one would hear him and if the vampire was still in the house, he really didn’t want the creature to know that he was conscious.


Spike was on his third beer and had finished the pretzels by the time the comedy show ended.


Time to go to do a bit of work.


He got up, and with the beer bottle in his hand he made his way to the basement. There are many things that vampires do well and one of them is getting places quietly. McDonald was unaware of Spike’s entrance until the vampire put a cool hand on the naked ass of his captive and spoke.


“Hello, Mr. McDonald. Sorry that I didn’t greet you quite as politely earlier.”


Spike was satisfied to see the man jerk in his restraints and try to turn around to look at him.


“Not so easy to move when you’re tied on that thing, is it?” said Spike conversationally, stepping in to McDonald’s eye-line.


“Stop! I order you to untie me immediately,” growled McDonald.


“Oh, I’d better do that right away.” Spike brought his hand up to his face in mock horror. “What was I thinking?” He laughed softly. “Newsflash, pillock; you can’t tell me what to do anymore. Didn’t realise you were so stupid. I thought the smack on the head might have told you that the rules have changed.”


He chugged the last of the beer down and threw the bottle in to the far corner of the basement, where it shattered. Spike reached out and stroked McDonald’s cheek with the fingertips of his left hand.


McDonald strained to move his head away from Spike’s touch. “Get your hands off me you filthy creature. The representative for The Initiative will be here soon. You’ll be sent for correction,” he yelled.


Spike kept on stroking the man’s cheek. “Really? Would that be the one that left not an hour ago? Next, you’ll be telling me that your wife will be home any minute.”


Spike smiled as he saw fear take a stronger grip on his captive as McDonald realised that the cavalry wasn’t coming anytime soon.


“They’ll get you in the end. Do you think a hair cut can disguise what you are?” McDonald was still defiant but his voice quavered a little.


“Maybe they will, maybe they won’t,” replied Spike, still in the same calm manner. “But it’ll be too late for you, whatever happens to me.” His fingers stilled on the man’s cheek and Spike pinched it firmly.


McDonald yelped and his eyes watered. “You won’t get away with this.”


Spike shook his head slowly. “I think I sodding will.” He vamped up his face and let out a ferocious growl.


McDonald cried out in fear and Spike laughed out loud as a splashing sound was heard.


“Aw, c’mon, don’t tell me you’ve…” Spike bent down and glanced at the floor in front of McDonald’s feet. “Bloody hell, you have, too.” He wrinkled his nose as the stink of the urine assaulted his nostrils. Spike slapped McDonald’s ass. “Brave fella aren’t you? I’ve a good mind to make you lick that up.”


McDonald began to breathe in ragged breaths; he struggled desperately as Spike traced his fingers towards the crack between his buttocks.


“Don’t please. I’ll give you anything you want. Money – I’ve got money.”


“Shut up,” snapped Spike, raising his voice for the first time and slapping McDonald’s ass once more, making the man yelp.


McDonald tried to follow Spike’s movements but being unable to turn his head, he soon lost sight of him. He shook with fear. Spike was rummaging noisily in some boxes behind where McDonald was tied. The man started panting heavily as he heard Spike walk back towards him. McDonald knew exactly which box that Spike had been looking in; he didn’t need to have seen it to know. He struggled to bring his legs together but to no avail.


“Shall we try this on for size before I really start to have some fun?” Spike stood in front of McDonald holding a gag. “’Cause I know that you panting means that you’re hot for me.” He slapped McDonald’s face. “Now you know how I fucking felt, you bastard.”


Spike rammed the penis shaped gag into McDonald’s mouth. The man retched and coughed as the length of it hit the back of his throat. “Nice feeling isn’t it? Having that rammed down your neck.” Spike growled. He bared his teeth at McDonald. “See what your handiwork has done for my fangs? They’re ruined.” Spike angrily wiped the blood from his mouth, the tooth having snagged his lip again.


McDonald gurgled and gasped as he tried to say something. Spike tilted his head and stared at him. “No, you’re right. You didn’t get that done to me. You just did stuff like this.” He stuck his tongue out and then moved it so that the stud rattled against his teeth. “All the other shit is gone, but I like this so I kept it. My choice.”


Spike walked closer to McDonald and stroked his hand down his back. He felt empowered by the way that McDonald’s body tensed as he touched it. When his hand got to the man’s hips he slid his fingers around to McDonald’s stomach and then down to where his cock hung down limply. Spike grabbed it and squeezed until he heard the muffled scream of his captive. He chuckled and lightened his grasp, and began long slow pulls on it.


It wasn’t long before McDonald began to respond to Spike’s nimble fingers. “It’s great how your body can betray you, isn’t it?” asked Spike, bending low and whispering in McDonald’s ear. Still in game-face, Spike nicked the lobe of McDonald’s ear and chuckled as the man tensed. He licked the blood from the wound, his mouth literally watered at the taste of fresh, warm human blood. Oh, God.


Spike continued to pump McDonald’s cock until it was fully erect and moist at its tip. Just as he felt McDonald’s body tighten with the impending orgasm, he pulled a strap tight around the man’s genitals and stepped back to let McDonald catch at glimpse of him.


“That feel nice?” he asked politely. “Hours like that I was left; fucking hours.”


McDonald closed his eyes. How did he stand it? I’m going to die and he’s going to have fun killing me.


Another selection from the box was made and this time Spike’s attention was on McDonald’s puckered hole. The man went rigid as Spike began to probe with his index finger. A steady series of moans and cries came from McDonald as he retched around the gag. Tears were now falling freely. Spike paused when he saw them. He closed his eyes as he was hit with images of himself, bound, weeping…hurting. With a growl he rammed his finger in, breaching the resistance. Working quickly, he roughly shoved another in and then scissored them to widen the opening. He glanced at the plug held in his right hand; it was long and looked impossibly wide but he knew that it had been inside him. He scowled at it. It was smooth and whilst it would hurt like hell, it was actually well designed for its job. Abruptly he pulled his fingers out and walked away. He could hear McDonald’s muffled sobs as his eyes searched the basement.


Spike grinned when he spied the object lying near the wall.


Perfect.


Spike picked it up and turned it over in his hand. It was still smooth but it sure wasn’t made with this job in mind. He walked around McDonald, making sure that the man saw what he was holding. His prisoner’s eyes widened in horror and he struggled uselessly, trying to plead but just making himself retch and heave round the gag.


“Always did like baseball.”