Tainted Returns

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Part Six
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That question stalled Spike's thoughts for a moment, but only for a moment. "Yeah, right, Harris, like you wouldn't be trying to escape every second, too," he sneered, leaning back against the half-destroyed headboard.

"Actually," Xander replied, "if I was in your position, I would have slept while my jailor was gone. I would have conserved my energy for when I needed it to fight him."

Spike rolled his eyes. "Sure you would have; Mr. Attention Deficit himself, would have slept while he was scared out his mind."

"Nice to know you can admit to being afraid," Xander replied.

"I did no such thing!" Spike exclaimed in outrage. **How *dare* the whelp!**

"Right," Xander said drily, suddenly darting forward and clamping one manacle around Spike's ankle before the vampire realized he was even moving.

He groaned. This was just *not* his night. He'd let the *whelp* get the jump on him.

Spike sighed, giving escape as a lost cause -- for the moment -- and merely watched as Xander hooked the other end to the proper ring -- the one attached to the steel post that was imbedded 3 feet down into concrete of the crypt floor. He knew there would be an opportunity to escape at *some* point.

Xander then moved silently toward the deer he'd left on the floor beside the bed. It was only then that he noticed the thing was still *alive*. He'd been so focused on thoughts of escape, and of what Xander was doing, he hadn't heard the heartbeat until now. His eyes widened; he was impressed, despite his best intentions. He didn't *want* to be impressed by Xander, and that was happening far too often for comfort lately.

"You know," Xander began conversationally as he crouched next to the animal, "why Normal Xander was always so hyper don't you?"
ot rot really," Spike admitted, "just always figured it was all the sugar you ate."

Xander shook his head. "Nope. Normal Xander kept so much buried, hidden away, it had to come out somehow."

**Normal Xander?**

"When I was younger, it was anger, anger and hurt. You may -- or you may not -- have noticed that my family life sucks. When I met Buffy, and Willow and I joined in her fight against evil, I replaced my old family with a new one, and the hurt and anger went away -- most of it, anyway. For a while after that, it was fear.

"After the hyena possession, it was all the hyena instincts that got left behind when the spirit was banished, those and the memories of what I'd done. It was the longings to be that free again that, no matter how much I wanted to deny them, always rose at the most inconvenient times.

"Then came the soldier; that halloween night I spent as a green beret was exhilarating. Of course, afterward, I was expected to be the same old Xander."

Spike swallowed, trying to wet his suddenly dry mouth. If his heart beat, he knew damn well it would be pounding about now. Throughout Xander's quiet, unemotional explanation, he'd been drawn closer and closer to understanding the man. So much of what Xander had just said applied to *him* as well. He'd never realized just how much there was that Xander kept hidden behind his goofy, sarcastic exterior. It was startling to know just how much they really had in common -- more than the boy knew about even, and Spike wondered if he'd ever reveal just how *he'd* started out life.

The slow smile that spread across Xander's face caught Spike's immediate -- and wary -- attention, jerking him out of his thoughts, and had him berating his inattention. The smile was wild, holding very little of Xander's remaining humanity, and Spike unconsciously licked his lips. Eyes locked with his, Xander bent down, bringing his head near the just stirring deer. Nostrils flaring wide, he inhaled the scent of the awakening animal. His eyelids dropped to half-mast as he savored the smell.

Spike quivered, sharing the sentiment, remembered excitement racing through him, his tastebuds coming alive as he re-lived doing the exact same thing with kills of his own. It was intoxicating, that moment before the kill, savoring everything about the life you held in your hands.

Just as the animal jerked, instantly struggling, Xander's head darted down, and he clamped his blunt, human teeth on the thing's throat.

Spike jumped at the sudden movement, his body responding intensely to the incredible scene unfolding in front of him. Rock hard, he watched, anticipation watering his mouth, every single fiber of his being tensing, wanting to join the boy, *aching* to sink his fangs into hot *living* flesh.

He whimpered as the heavenly scent of fresh blood hit the air. It didn't matter at this point that it wasn't human. It was hot, fresh, and pumping itself uselessly onto the ground as Xander ripped the deer's throat out.

Spike panted as Xander silently rose, heedless of the blood dripping from the sides of his mouth, over his chin dis disappearing from sight below his collar. Frozen, mouth half-open, he watched in helpless need as Xander crawled onto the bed, straddling his legs.

The scent of arousal rolled off Xander, teasing his senses with yet another, tempting, odor. He swallowed, shuddering against the need that raced through him, the fresh blood -- and the man -- so close, yet so far. He held himself absolutely still as Xander leaned forward, stopping when his face was less than an inch from his own. There Xander stayed as Spike fought with himself, the blood staining Xander's mouth taunting him, calling to him. All he had to do was lean forward the *tiniest* little distance and *take* it.

Xander was so obviously offering to let him do *just* that. Spike's lips parted further, his tongue darting out once again to lick his upper lip. There were strings to that offer. He knew that. He could see it in the dancing light of Xander's eyes, in the knowing smirk that just touched the edges of the youth's mouth, in the aroused anticipation that fairly made him tremble.

"Oh, bloody hell!" he growled, darting forward, at last giving in to the incredible desires racing through him. Sucking lightly, he licked the deer blood from Xander's chin, moaning softly as the taste of the blood, laced with the living warmth of Xander, danced across his tastebuds.

Xander remained motionless, inhaling sharply through his nose.

Spike hesitated only the briefest of moments longer, and closed his mouth over Xander's, his tongue carefully lapping up every trace of blood to be found.

Xander's mouth opened the slightest bit, and Spike suddenly found himself the recipient of a mouthful of hot, Xander tasting, deer blood. He swallowed automatically, accepting the erotic offering without thought. Plying his lips across the human's, he teased his tongue inside Xander's mouth, seeking and finding every last trace of blood, learning and reveling in the moist contours of Xander's hot, human mouth.

Xander pulled back suddenly, panting for breath, his eyes dilated with unrestrained lust, and dancing with victory. With eyes now only half open, Xander's tongue slid slowly out from between his parted lips, the pink tip slowly, enticingly, tracing a trail over his upper lip.

A jolt of electric arousal shot straight to Spike's groin at the display, and he leaned forward intent on reclaiming that mouth.

The moment Xander chuckled, Spike realized he'd made *every* single move. Xander hadn't once made a single attempt to touch him, or to initiate a kiss, yet he'd so very *thoroughly* succeeded in seducing him completely.

Spike sighed, leaning back against the headboard again.

"Apparently," Xander said quietly, reaching up to trace Spike's mouth with a single, gentle finger, "having girls as my only friends is finally coming in very handy."

Blinking at the odd statement coming out of the blue like that, Spike just *had* to ask. "What?"

"Listening to all the 'girl talk'," Xander explained, grinning crookedly, "I learned early on that the way to a man's heart was supposedly through his stomach."

Spike chuckled. "It wasn't the blood, Pet." Spike paused, frowned, then began again. "Well, okay, yeah, it *was* the blood, but not *just* the blood, ya know? It was the way you went about it." Spike's breath hitched as the picture of Xander bent over the deer flashed through his mind once more. "You'd have turned on a *dusted* vamp with *that* routine!"

Xander grinned, and for a moment, Spike saw 'Normal Xander' shine through. "That good, huh?" he asked, his hand coming up to cup the side of Spike's face.

"Oh, yeah," Spike breathed, unconsciously leaning into the touch, "that good."

"Good," Xander said firmly. Eyes never straying from Spike's, Xander slipped his hand behind the vampire's neck. As he gently pulled, he inched forward.

Spike went willingly, his mouth automatically opening under Xander's as it was claimed with a passion-filled kiss. This time, Xander's tongue invaded his mouth, dueling slowly with his own. He moaned low in his throat as Xander's free hand ghosted down his chest to trail lightly over his abdomen. It stopped, resting teasingly above the waistband of his jeans. He bucked without taking his mouth from Xander's, silently demanding the hand continue its path.

Xander pulled back the merest touch, their lips now only barely touching. "More?" he asked, his voice a low, husky whisper.

Spike moaned. He was expected to make decisions *now*? Instead of replying, he leaned forward, trying to restart the kiss. He growled when Xander matched him inch for inch, maintaining their distance.

"Spike."

"What, now?" Spike demanded. Hadn't he made it bloody obvious he wanted to continue?

"You say no, or don't answer me, and it stops here and now. No reprieve."

"Bloody, Wanker! I'm in *chains*, tied to the bloody bed, and you're *asking*?!" Spike's eyes narrowed. That *wasn't* how the game was played!

Xander rolled off the bed, landing gracefully on his feet. "I said, I wasn't going to force you, Spike. And this *first* time," Xander leered, "I won't even *play* at it. You want me, you gotta say it -- loud and clear."

Spike's growl was now virtually continuous, his frustration growing by leaps and bounds. The boy wanted him, it should have been obvious to a blind *IDIOT* that he wanted the boy in return. Why the *hell* did words have to come into it at all?

"Tell me, Spike," Xander purred, running his splayed hands down his own chest, slowing long enough to circle each covered nipple before continuing downward.

Spike gasped, the smallest of whimpers escaping as he watched the wanton display.

"Tell me you want me. Tell me you want me to *take* you."

His traitorous body twitched as pure, unadulterated lust shot through him, his jeans suddenly becoming tighter, even as a small fissure of uncertainty clouded his thoughts. Not since he'd been newly turned, and Angelus had been his *god*, had he bottomed voluntarily. Until Xander's taunting words, he hadn't thought that far ahead, hadn't really thought through, where this would go.

He swallowed convulsively. Did he want this? **Hell, yes, I do!** Did he want it badly to enough to accept Xander's terms.

"Tick, tock, Spike," Xander said, a single finger clicking back and forth like a taunting metronome.

**Fuck! He did!** "Fine!" he snapped, all his lust, anger, and yes, fear, poured into that single word. "I want you! Happy?"

"All of it, Spike," Xander demanded, one knee now on the bed. "Say it *all*"

Spike groaned as, unbelievably, his lust shot up another notch, the fire racing through his body enough to make his eyes drift shut in response. He couldn't believe he was getting *this* turned on by the mere *thought* of Xander dominating him. He hadn't--

All thought stopped as Xander lay a hand firmly on his thigh, the warmth of the fingertips, that *just* missed being where he wanted them to be, seeping through the jeans he no longer wanted to wear as they slowly, teasingly, moved back and forth.

"God, yes!" Spike finally exclaimed, not opening his eyes. He couldn't look at Xander and say what he wanted to hear. "I want you to take me. Do it, Xander! Do . It . Now!"


TBC ::grins::