Slip Slide Melting

* * * * * * * * *
Part 8

The third time had been against the tiled wall in the shower, and Xander had found himself glad that he had some small skill with healing his own body. If he hadn’t, he was sure his ass would have been screaming by the time Spike had wrapped pale, soapy arms around him and lifted one tanned leg to wrap around the equally white waist.

Now, of course, they were both as clean as they were likely to get until after their ‘paid time’ was through.

Xander chuckled softly and licked his lips as he pulled back from the vampire’s finally softening shaft. “Wow… gotta love vamp constitution,” he said with an admiring grin.

Spike smirked and wiped one small white drop from the boy’s lips before lapping at the bit of fluid and smirking again at the moan that action earned.

He’d been wrong before, when he’d thought the boy’s ass would be as good as his mouth. That ass was better. But still, he’d thought the reddened and abused sphincter could use a bit of a break, and that mouth… Oh, that mouth was definitely the next best thing.

“What can I say, pet?” he murmured, leaning in as the boy shimmied up his body. He pressed his lips lightly over the racing pulse in the bloke’s neck and left a small kiss behind. The boy didn’t want to let him kiss his mouth, but his neck… oh, the shifter seemed to like that a lot. “Vampires are a sexual bunch, yeah?” he added, finishing the thought.

“Oh, yeah,” Xander moaned, arching against the cool lips then cursing as he felt the vibration in his head. “Unnngh. Sorry, S… Will. I have a call.”

Spike’s head cocked as the boy wandered over to his pile of clothing and started pawing through it. ‘Looks good like that,’ he admitted smugly, ‘all bent over, that well-fucked ass in the air… bloody hell, need to keep this one on retainer.’ He ignored the sense of disappointment that the real Xander would never have responded so well to his interest, but then again, at least this bloke was a sure thing. ‘And a bleeding amazing thing, at that.’

He couldn’t hear the soul rattling around inside him, but it was definitely still there. Just busy, apparently. ‘Probably trying to find some way to feel guilty for fucking the boy’, his demon said snarkily and Spike chuckled. Probably so.

“What?” Xander demanded as he clicked his portable hexicon on. “Kinda busy here…”

Spike watched, getting a little worried when the bloke suddenly tensed.

“Shit! What about the wards?” Xander snarled, forgetting for the moment that he was in Spike’s living room and entirely naked. “No… no, okay. Yeah, I’ll see if I can find him. I don’t think he knows about the tracers. I’ll… yeah, I’ll be there in like twenty. I just need to…” he blinked, then blinked again.

“No. Nothing’s wrong. I… like I said, I was busy. I’ll… yeah… yeah, I… SHIT! Shut the fuck up! I know what to do, okay? Just tell Fai… uh. Tell her to calm him down! You know he has a habit of going off half-cocked… and stop with the stupid giggling! Gods, Andr… Uggggh! Act your age! And I’ll be there sooner if I can get off the fucking hexicon!”

He was almost afraid to look at the vampire once he’d ended the call, but he sort of had to. His smile was a little sheepish and a little scared. “Uh…”

“Problem, pet?” Spike managed to say, even as his mind raced to figure out what the fuck was going on. He’d thought at first that the boy’s handler was calling to tell him the allotted time was up, but that hadn’t sounded like a simple call. Something was wrong, obviously, and while Spike shouldn’t care, somehow… he did. “Anything I can help you with?”

And Xander was relieved and flattered at the same time.

Relieved that the vampire hadn’t figured it out… and flattered that Spike seemed to care. Still…

“No, I… family emergency. I… I’m sorry, Will. I’ll have your money refunded, okay?”

The blond growled and stalked closer to the bloke. “Don’t care about the money, do I? Just thought… got a couple friends—well, not friends as such, but… know some people with pull, yeah? Figured they could help if it’s something bad, is all.”

What was funny to Xander was that… as far as he knew, Spike didn’t know anyone in this world now other than himself, Andrew and Thomas, and… had Spike just offered to get him to help with his own problem?

Well, yeah. And again with the flattered.

“I appreciate it, Spike,” he said distractedly as he pulled his clothes on quickly, “but I think I’ve got it covered. It’s… not exactly something new, just… shit, he has the worst timing.”

“Who does, luv?” the vampire questioned, his brow furrowing as he tried to figure out what was bothering him about the boy’s words.

“My… son,” Xander said softly before shaking his head and moving to stand in front of Spike.

He reached out, pulling the naked vampire hard against him.

“I… it was… amazing. But I have to go.”

He waited until the vampire nodded, then gave a mental ‘to hell with it’ and leaned in, pressing his lips hard against Spike’s pale pink mouth, his tongue sweeping out and into the cool cavern, plundering it willfully for a good minute before he forced himself to pull away.

“Sorry, I… bye.”

And with that, he was gone… leaving behind a very confused—and very hard from just that one kiss—vampire who was still trying to understand what had seemed… off.

* * * * *

It wasn’t until he was halfway back to the Citadel—meaning the Hyperion Hotel and the surrounding three block radius—that Xander realized he’d never done what he’d actually gone into the Vampire Sector to do. Of course, he’d been kind of… distracted.

“That’s a laugh,” he mumbled, thoroughly disgusted with himself. “How could I do that to him? I mean, fuck! I had sex with him—repeatedly—and let him think I was someone else and… Gods, talk about betrayal, right? Because the whole bunch of us didn’t lie to him and use him enough back in Sunnydale, did we?”

‘Get over it,’ his inner voice ordered, sounding a good bit more like its usual snarky self now that they weren’t with Spike anymore. ‘So you lied. Big deal. He had a good time, judging from the come leaking out of your ass, Xander. And so did you. So instead of getting all boo-hoo-y, you need to figure out how we’re gonna get Spike into bed again. With you and not some alleged ‘rent-boy’ this time.’

Well, okay. Alex had a point. He did want Spike and Gods, he’d proven it just by being so fucking needy when the vampire had been in him earlier. There was still the problem of how to approach the idea with the blond, of course… and the question of whether Spike would even consider it, once he knew how committed Xander was to his job.

Hell, it was more than just a job. It was… his duty.

‘This is hopeless. You realize that, right?’ he demanded silently as he strode through the darkening streets.

‘Nothing is ever hopeless, Xander,’ Alex answered quickly. ‘Some things are easy and some things are hard. But hopeless? You know better. And okay, probably not an easy one here, but… hey, he’s alive again. That makes it… less hard than it would be if he were still dust, right?’

And Alex was still an asshole, Xander knew, but… at least sometimes he was optimistic. Maybe too much so, but… oh, well.

‘Fine. I’ll give it some thought. Now can we please just find the PB already?’

The voice snorted. ‘I told you that one was gonna be trouble, didn’t I?’

Brown eyes rolled, even while Xander darted around a group of slow-moving Fyarl demons. ‘At least he keeps things interesting.’

And as that was true enough, Alex stayed quiet for all of a second. ‘You know, maybe you should take the sensor with you when you go out from now on. So the next time he does this, you won’t have to go run back home before you find him…’

‘And you couldn’t have thought of that sooner? Thanks so much. But I’d still need to meet the teams…’

The internal bickering continued as usual, though this time to the point that both ‘voices’ were entirely unaware of a certain bleached blond vampire following closely behind and keeping to the shadows.

* * * * *

The boy had had a good five minute lead by the time Spike had managed to find clothes, dress and run out of his apartment. Of course, being a vampire had its advantages and he’d caught up just before the border to the rest of the city.

He spared a glance and a grin for Michaels in his booth and headed over there for a bare moment when the bloke waved back.

“Yeah, mate… what’s going on, then?” Spike said quickly, eyes still locked on the retreating brunette.

“Nothing, Mister… Will. I just… was there something wrong with the first hire-lad? I mean, he was in and out in like ten minutes, so… I was curious. I… my Sire’s Deathday is coming up and I was thinking…”

“First lad?” Spike’s brow furrowed. He’d only rented one boy, so what the hell was this bloke talking about?

‘He called us ‘Spike’,’ the soul whispered, suddenly back but sounding oddly… awed. ‘The boy… he called us Spike. More than once. We never told him to call us Spike, did we?’

And no. In fact, he’d clearly told the hire-boy to call him Will. He’d never mentioned the name Spike; not even once, which meant…

He blinked, realizing the guard was still waiting for a response.

“Uh, no. The first bloke was fine, Michaels. The second had more of the look I was going for, is all. Tell you what, I’ll call the agency. Tell them you’re considering their service for your Sire; how about that? Get you a good rate, if I can. Look, mate, got to go, yeah? Trying to catch up with a friend of mine. Later days.”

The younger vampire was blinking as the blond strode away. Mister Nemoy had to be the least class-conscious Master he’d ever heard of, much less met.

This time, an entry in the log book wasn’t gonna cut it.

He pulled out his porta-hex and started calling his work contacts. A little extra effort guarding the blond wouldn’t hurt at all; especially if Mister Nemoy did what he’d promised. His Sire had been a little cold to Michaels lately, but a hire-lad of the quality he’d seen today—even the first one—would go a long way towards pleasing her.

* * * * *

‘I should have known,’ Spike told himself as he stalked Harris, carefully staying out of sight although the bloke seemed to be paying no attention to the world around him whatsoever.

Okay, maybe he shouldn’t have known at first, but when the bloke had called him Spike, something should have clicked. Then again, he’d been thinking with the smaller head by then, so…

And when the bloody fuck had Xander gone and turned gay, anyway? He’d never shown any sign of it back in the ‘dale, had he?

Well, no… not really, although the boy had seemed to watch him a lot. He’d always figured it was because he didn’t trust vampires, though—souled or not—rather than because he was harboring any secret yearning for his tight body.

Obviously he’d been wrong about that. The way Harris had pressed back onto his cock, ridden him, opened for him in the shower proved that much, but then again…

“Son? Bleeding Xander Harris has a son. And that would imply that he’s been bedding a few birds here and there too. Bi, then?”

‘Ask him when we catch up to him,’ his soul suggested; ‘Speaking of which, why aren’t we moving faster?’

‘Don’t want to catch him, do I?’ Spike answered slowly. ‘Not when I can follow him and find out what the bloody fuck is going on, right?’

And apparently, what was going on was that Xander was meeting three groups of guards and the Mighty Poof.

Spike stared at the human from a good forty feet away. ‘Sire,’ the demon muttered, flashing to the fore for a moment, but… how was that possible? The man was clearly human, and… he’d think about it later. Right now, he was to busy frowning at the words he could just make out.

* * * * *

“Okay,” Xander snapped as he reached the men, “PB One, take the beach to the north. Check the arcades and the strip clubs up there. He’s been acting skittish lately, so he might be trying a new location. PB Two. Check wherever the unaffiliated blood whores are hanging these days. He likes to think he’s immortal… which he is, but that doesn’t mean he’s not an idiot sometimes. PB Three, you’re with me. We’ll be taking the Pier, so conceal your weapons a little better than you did last time. Anyone gets a piece lifted this time and the whole team is going on rotation with the Captain’s family… for a week. Got it?”

He gave each team a hard stare, nodding when team three paled and started strapping blades and tasers under their shirts. “Good. Andrew?”

The Lieutenant nodded and handed Xander a small silver box. “We’re not picking up any signals, but if he’s far enough away, we wouldn’t. Uh, also if he thought we might have him bugged and bought new clothes or something, which… you know. But there’s no activity on his cards, so who can say?”

Xander growled softly. “Yeah. He can be fucking sneaky when he wants to. If he thought of it, I can guarantee you he paid cash. Okay, everybody. You have your assignments. Locate and report only. Do not engage. I’ll handle that part once he’s found. Now, move out!”

“Well?” Andrew demanded when it took the men a few seconds to get up to speed, “You heard the Magus Prime! Move out!”

* * * * *

Bloody hell, Harris had sounded… commanding! And even more, the Guard teams had listened respectfully, not even one of the blokes questioning the orders.

And then he’d heard Andrew—the bloody Lieutenant!—call Xander Harris the Magus Prime, and…

“Bloody hell,” Spike growled even as he took off on foot after the squad the bloke was leading, “He’s been playing me the whole time! That’s how he could give me a place like that to stay without asking anyone… and manage the rest of it! He’s not the fucking Magus Prime’s Assistant, he’s the bloody bloke in charge!”

He would have been ashamed of himself for being fooled, except who would have expected that of the boy who’d been such a bumbling disaster back in the day? And…

“Bloody hell! He did it on purpose! Pretended he was still missing that eye, and… and he got bloody Thomas to lie for him, too!”

He had no idea of how the bloke had gotten the eye back, of course, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was… Xander had lied to him! In word and deed and by omission, as well, and that was before he’d shown up at his place pretending to be a rent-boy!

What he didn’t know-- and what the soul seemed very interested in finding out-- was why. The demon, on the other hand, didn’t much give a fuck.

Harris had lied. Harris had lied and let them fuck him.

Harris had lied and let them fuck him and then he’d kissed them, no matter what he’d said about it being too personal, and…

Harris—‘Xander,’ the demon muttered—wanted them.

Suddenly lying didn’t seem that important.

Or not as important as what had the bloke all in military-mode, anyway.

Spike smirked and watched the SUV as he paced it on the sidewalk. The freeway would be a parking lot about now; he figured that was why the blokes were on the city streets.

Of course, those streets weren’t much better, which was how he was managing to keep up without even breaking into a run.

Yeah, he was for bloody damned sure going to find out what the hell was so important that Xander had needed to run off almost mid-shag.

He’d said it was a family thing, and mentioned a son, but… what would a wee bloke be doing with blood whores or at strip clubs?

He hugged the sides of the buildings he walked beside, eyes locked on the vehicle as he and it slowly grew closer to their destination.

* * * * *

tbc...