Chapter 13



Spike had been reluctant to head back to the mansion. There were still enough hours left of the night to be spent tracking down Buffy. She hadn’t been gone long from the crash site when he had arrived and chances were she hadn’t been taken far, but he couldn’t be out tracking down Buffy while he had Dawn with him. She needed her head cleaned up and bandaged and while he could probably drop her off at home, they weren’t that far from the mansion.

So he had bundled the teen into his car, shielding her gaze from the sight of the dead man on the road ahead of them, and turned around to head back in the direction of the mansion. He just hoped he’d be able to slip in and out again without running into Angelus.

Spike chuckled softly at the absurdity of the thought. Chances of that happening were equal to a snowball’s chance in hell.

Dawn gave Spike a curious look at the noise he made but didn’t comment. Thoughts of her sister were weighing heavily on her mind.

Silence seemed to hum through the car for almost the entirety of the drive, breaking only as Spike pulled in through the mansion’s heavy gates.

“This is where you live?” Dawn asked as she stared in awe at the estate before them.

“This is home,” Spike replied as he let the car roll to a stop before cutting the engine. Reluctantly, he opened the door and got out. On the opposite side of the car, Dawn threw the door open and climbed out too.

“This is so cool! I could totally live here!” Dawn said enthusiastically.

The comment squeezed a small smile from the blonde vampire’s lips. “Come on, pet.”

Spike could feel his sire hovering just inside the door—most likely waiting to pounce as soon as he set foot inside. The minion that was positioned at the front door bowed deeply without making eye contact as he pushed the door open for Spike and Dawn to step through.

Spike expected the punch, but what he didn’t expect was the crushing hug that was dealt afterwards. Reluctantly, he brought his arms up to lightly band around his sire’s waist.

“You didn’t find her?” Angelus asked as he pulled back from his childe. Spike gave him a curious look but shook his head.

“No, but her trail led to a crash site. Either she was taken from there, or she decided to leave her sister bleeding in the driver’s seat of the car and managed to get far enough away not to be sensed by me when I got there. Personally I think it’s the first of the two,” Spike said seriously, deciding not to question why his sire wasn’t angrier with him.

“And I’d agree with you. Christian apparently put a familial claim on Buffy’s mother a few years before she had Buffy, marking her and all her kin as Occasian property. They want to perform a Second Turning on her,” Angelus growled out. “They had minions out there searching for her before they even entered the mansion to meet with us.”

“Well if they have got her, then we don’t have much time. Our only chance at getting her back without waging a full scaled attack is to intercept them before they manage to get her back to their holdings,” Spike said as he turned around to start out the door again.

Angelus’ arm shot out to stop him. “Think before you act, childe. What plan do you have other than running out there half-cocked to save her?”

Spike wilted slightly under his sire’s reproach. “We don’t have much time, sire.”

“I know,” Angel replied. “Their Order is probably halfway back to the rest of their clan by now.”

A slow smirk spread over Spike’s face as he thought of the small device he had planted on the bottom of their car—forgotten until now. “Actually, they may be having a little more trouble with that than anticipated.”

Angelus gave his childe a questioning look.

“I planted a small distraction on the bottom of their car. You know the ones, triggered by motion to count down from fifty before it detonates?”

Angelus threw his head back and let out a barking laugh as he slapped his childe on the shoulder. “I like the way you think, boy,” Angelus smiled at Spike as he calmed. “We’ll get her back.”

Spike sobered and nodded, dropping his eyes so that his sire wouldn’t see the doubt that plagued them.

“Spike,” Angelus said firmly, waiting until Spike’s eyes rose to meet his. “We’ll get her back. If they think I’ll just sit back while they try and take my childe from me they have another thing coming. Buffy is ours and I’ll be dammed if I let that little shit of a vampire Christian and his fucking Clan leader think they can take her from us.”

Spike couldn’t prevent the smirk that pulled at his lips in amusement.

Angelus smirked as well and stood up straighter. His eyes flicked to the young girl standing just inside the door before looking back at Spike. “Go show our guest to her sister’s room quickly. We don’t have long to plan this and we need every minute that we can get.”

“Come on, Nibblet,” Spike said with a smile, feeling better than he had all night about getting Buffy back. Dawn, who had remained unnoticed up until this point, jumped slightly at being addressed before scurrying after her sister’s boyfriend, the other vampire—Spike’s sire—gave her the creeps.


*****


Buffy rolled over and snuggled herself deeper into the covers of her bed. The silk of the sheets against the bare skin of her legs made her shiver as she slowly rubbed herself against them before settling down again. The pillow underneath her aching head felt wonderful. The tranquillity of the moment only lasted for a moment; however, before it was shattered as the memories from the night before came roaring back.

She knew even before she opened her eyes that she wasn’t within the walls of the Aurelian mansion. Something in her chest tightened in fear as a cold burst of tingles broke out over her skin. The feeling caused her to look down at herself and her state of undress. She lay in the strange bed in nothing but the lacy black underwear she had put earlier that night.

Buffy clutched the sheet desperately to her chest as she sat upright and allowed her eyes and senses to scan the room for the presence of another. She breathed a sigh of relief when she could sense nothing but herself in the room.

Throwing back the covers, she quickly searched the room for her clothing, only to find that it was nowhere within the room. Her hand flew to her mouth to stifle the sob that was threatening to make itself known as she realised for the first time the situation in which she had somehow found herself. Buffy pressed her lips together to try and stop the tears that were pooling in her eyes from spilling over.

She needed to find a way out. Buffy’s eyes instantly flew to the door, knowing that even if it was unlocked she would only find more trouble on the other side. Her only other option was a window at the far end of the room, which was covered by heavy black bars. Despite that, it still looked to be the better option.

She made her way across to the window quickly and as soundlessly as possible. Her hands found the ledge of the window and she tugged it upwards. Nothing moved. She tried lifting it again with the same result. Pointlessly she jiggled the window up and down in frustration before her fist shot out in anger and careened into the glass. It impacted with a dull thud sending a shock waving of paint shooting up her arm, but the glass didn’t even dint.

She let out a growl of frustration and made to kick the wall before she thought better of it and went to sit back down on the bed. She was stuck in a room with no way out and no clothes. At least she was alone.

Buffy eyed the door with contempt. At best it would lead to a way out, at worst… she could think of so many things worse than sitting alone in a room in her underwear. There was nothing to say that her captor wouldn’t come back though. She could take her chances sitting it out and waiting to see what would become of her, or try the door and possibly make her way to freedom. She wouldn’t think of what else it might lead her to.

Making her decision, Buffy stood up and made her way to the door. She stood behind it and placed her hand against the wood as she stretched out her senses. Someone—a guard most likely—stood just outside the door. Another presence was making its way down the hallway to her room.

A muffled conversation made its way through the door allowing her enough warning to quickly find her way back to the bed just as a key could be heard in the lock. She made a dive for the covers and pulled them up around her neck as the door was pushed inwards and two vampires entered the room.

“And so she awakens,” a lanky looking vampire said, not unkindly. Despite the smile he wore and his friendly nature, she pushed herself further back into the pillows of the bed as he slowly walked towards her. She eyed him warily as he held his arms out and laid a dress out along the foot of the bed.

He smiled at her fear of him. “Something for you to put on, unless you’d rather wear the sheet?”

Buffy scowled at him. “I’m not changing with you in here, if that’s what you’re waiting for.”

“You’ll need help doing the back up; I’ll send someone up, shall I?” He said as he motioned for the minion beside him to exit the room before slowly turning and making his own way out. The doors were shut securely behind him.

Buffy looked down at the garment stretching the width of the bed. Dropping the sheet she slowly stretched out to pull it towards her. Like most things she wore nowadays the material of the skirt was black—the only colour showing through was the rich crimson red of the underskirt from the long slit in the top layer. The bodice of the dress was made of red silk with an overlay of black lace. Whale boning gave the bodice that corset look that Dru was so fond of. The whole dress was something her older sister would gush over. Black ribbon laced the back of the dress up completing the corset look. While beautiful, it was not something she would normally choose to wear.

Buffy jumped and scrambled for the sheet again when the doors to her room flew open. The vampire entering barely looked at her as she made her way swiftly across the room and took the dress from Buffy’s loose hands.

“I’m here to help you dress, Miss,” the vampire said with a small curtsey. Buffy stared at her in bewilderment. “Please, Miss, the Master will be back any moment. You need to be dresses and cleaned up before you can be presented to him.”

“Presented to him?”

The vampire nodded and began to coax Buffy out from under the sheet. She never spoke as she worked, slipping Buffy into the dress before she had time to voice protest and tightening the strings that held the bodice together to the point where the whale bone dug uncomfortably into her waist.

Buffy gasped as all the air was pushed from her lungs. “Is this meant to be so tight?” she asked, wincing as the bone dug into her flesh again.

“Why shouldn’t it be, Miss?” the vampire asked mildly. “You have no need to breathe and the smaller your waist looks the more attention it will bring to your hips and breasts.”

“My hips and…? Well what if I don’t want attention brought to those aspects of my body!”

“I only do what the Master orders and he asked that you were made to wear this dress.” The vampire tied the final knot. “I’ll be back in a moment with something to clean that cut on your head with,” she said, before exiting the room as quickly and as quietly as she had entered.

Buffy looked down at herself as she heard the lock turn in the door. Her stomach rolled nauseatingly at the thought that someone who she had never met—but who obviously knew who she was—wanted to see her dressed in something that accentuated her hips and breasts. She couldn’t be here when the time came for her to meet the Master of this clan.


*****


Spike and Angelus sat side by side in the old black Desoto in silence. The house before them loomed over them like a shadow, taunting them for having arrived too late.

“What now, Angelus?” Spike asked. His voice was a deep growl betraying the emotions that were running rampant through him. “She’s inside and any chance we had of getting her back without starting a war is officially gone. They have the advantage. She’s on their territory and that means any fight that takes place will be here, where they have unlimited resources and where we would be forced to travel between here and the Mansion.”

“I know,” Angelus replied, staring up at the building before him as he sorted through what little options they had. “I guess that means we’ll need to take a different path. We’ll need to find out everything we can about their leader and his weaknesses. If we can’t attack them physically, we’ll attack mentally. The mind can be so much weaker than the flesh anyway,” he said, turning to his childe with a look that Spike hadn’t seen on his sire’s face for an age.

If there was one thing Angelus excelled in it was mental torment. If there was a weakness to be found, Angelus would find it, open the wound, and then rub salt into its raw flesh.

“In the meantime, we need to find out everything we can about Second Turnings and if anything can be done to stop them.”


AN: Thank you so much to Andrea for editing this chapter for me and to everyone who has reviewed so far *hugs you all*