How to Treat Your Lover

Paris, 1897

Darla and Angelus had gone out to see the play Gisele leaving Spike to care for Drusilla. Everything was going fine until the vampiress got it in her head that she wanted to go out. That was something that Angelus had expressly told the young vampire never to do without his Sire present. Okay, so technically Drusilla was his Sire by right, and technically she was there, well not all there. She did have a few screws loose in the noggin.

That was no truer statement than right at this moment as Drusilla tried to cajole Spike into being her partner in crime and go with her to find something to eat, or so she said. She was already tired of the captives that Angelus had chained in the basement for her. Day-old blood was disgusting she had told Spike.

Drusilla had tried everything to get Spike to heel to her wishes. When cajoling didn’t work, she tried to be playful with him. Spike still wouldn’t take her out. She had tried to tell him a false vision of things that would happen in the world if he didn’t take her out to kill the evil-doers. Still he refused to go against Angelus’ orders.

When she was finally at her wits end, she threw a tantrum. She threw herself at Spike’s body and while he did catch her, they toppled to the floor. Drusilla pinned him down and beat on him because he had refused her desire to get out of the house.

Earlier when she tried running out of the house by herself, Spike ran after her and hauled her back with her kicking and screaming, growling and biting at him the whole time. Once they were inside he deposited her on the settee and tried to get her to understand his side of things. Hence the reason she had thrown herself at him and was now beating him back and blue with the occasional scratch of her nails in her furious state.

His black goddess even tried to hypnotize Spike but being familiar with her tactics helped in diverting that plan. Finally, Drusilla gave up and ran to the kitchen. Spike chased after her to see what her mind had gotten her into. When he rounded a corner he was brought up short by Drusilla wielding very sharp cutlery. He backed away from her but with every step he took away from her, she stepped forward.

Spike liked pain and violence as much as any other vampire; it didn’t mean he liked being on the receiving end of Drusilla’s temper any more than he had with Angelus. Drusilla cornered him in the foyer and took a swing at him managing to slice into his chest and stomach.

Spike looked down in disbelief. His Black Goddess, his poodle had attacked him. Yes, he had known she was insane from the first night they met. But this? He had never encountered something like this before, even with her. She must really be furious that Angelus had left her home and didn’t take her out, whether it was to the play or some other gathering. All Spike could do now was to hold her off and hope that she would calm down soon.

Two hours later Drusilla was finally wore out from her tantrum. Spike hadn’t faired must better though. His skin was sliced to ribbons. Angelus found him on the hall floor with blood trickling from the raw wounds. Drusilla had fallen asleep beside the blonde, the knife forgotten a few feet away.

Angelus surveyed the scene. He knew his boy was fine as far as surviving one of his mad childe’s tantrums since he wasn’t a pile of dust. Taking in the aftermath of Drusilla’s short temper, he picked Drusilla up off the floor and carried her to her room. He deposited her in her bed among the cotton linens and chained her there so she wouldn’t hurt herself any more. He went back downstairs to retrieve Spike.

Spike groaned and tried to pull away from the thing trying to move him, but it refused to let go. “No more, Dru. I told you I won’t let you go and disobey Angelus,” he mumbled.

Angelus smiled when he heard Spike. His boy went through Hell tonight trying to obey him. He picked the smaller vampire up in his arms and carried him upstairs to his bedroom shutting the door against the girls. He only shut them out when he and Spike needed Sire/childe bonding time.

He laid Spike on the bed and went about removing the younger man’s shredded clothing. After he discarded the ruined garments in the trash, he took in the sight of his injured childe. Drusilla had done a number on him in her anger. The dark vampire had never seen Spike this bad off after one of his girl’s episodes. Spike’s torso and arms were a bloody mess of defensive wounds and other wounds he could not have deflected fast enough.

Angelus filled a bowl with water and grabbed a cloth. He placed the bowl on a table by the bed and sat down on the edge beside his suffering childe. He set about cleaning the superficial wounds that were already healing before moving on to the most severe.

When Spike groaned in pain, Angelus tried to be gentler in his task. “Aye, my boy, you're lucky to be a vampire. With this much damage as a human ye would have died before I found ye.”

“Sire,” Spike rasped. “I only tried to keep her distracted so that she wouldn’t get into trouble.”

“Ye did, my boy,” Angelus agreed.

“Her temper tonight was the worst I’ve seen so far,” Spike said slowly.

“When she gets that way, it's best te restrain her, for her own safety as well as yours,” Angelus told him.

Spike nodded and stayed silent as he let Angelus clean his wounds as best as he could.

When Angelus did all he could, he put the blood-spattered cloth in the bowl of equally bloody water. He lay down next to Spike and offered the boy his wrist. In his pain-hazed mind, Spike took the offered wrist without hesitation. He skimmed his fangs over the tender flesh on the inside of Angelus’ wrist until his Sire groaned in arousal, and then he slowly sank his fangs in enough to break a vein and then drank slowly.

Angelus was becoming more aroused with each pull of his blood as Spike sipped. He was lying on his side as he watched his boy drink, his pants becoming even tighter as he watched Spike’s lips work around his wrist.

Spike wasn’t immune to the experience. His own arousal climbed with the scent of his Sire’s excitement and taste of Sire’s blood on his tongue. He could feel his body knitting itself together the more he drank. With the healing came the ability to feel his cock harden. Soon he was so on edge that he swallowed the blood greedily until Angelus, who was panting – which was uncharacteristic of his Sire – pulled his wrist away.

Angelus laid on his back, panting from his own reaction to the feel of his boy drinking him in. It was a heady experience having his childe drink from him. His mind swirled and his body was near thrumming with un-life as the blood still in his body had gone to his cock when he felt Spike sipping at his wrist.

When Angelus was finally calm, he sat up and looked the blonde over. The deeper wounds were healing nicely and good enough to clean around them thanks to his blood. He cleansed the angry red flesh on his childe’s chest and stomach and put the soiled cloth back in the water.

Turning back to see the Spike’s noticeably hard cock, he grinned. “You seem to have a bit of a problem there, my boy.”

Spike saw the desire he felt mirrored in his Sire’s eyes. His cock hardened even more as if that were possible after having fed off Angelus just seconds before. His hand moved down to adjust his shaft through his pants into a more comfortable position.

Angelus chuckled when he saw the movement and lay down beside Spike. He leaned over and cupped his companion’s face, softly caressing his cheek. As he stared down into clear cerulean eyes, his hand trailed down his childe’s chest to circle a nipple until it budded under the attention and then pinched the nub.

When Spike’s mouth opened on a moan from the teasing assault, Angelus leaned over and licked around the boy’s lips. He traced their shape with his tongue before delving into the cool wet interior, licking the inside of Spike’s cheek before caressing the softness of his tongue.

Spike took a small initiative to suck on Angelus’ tongue. He groaned into the kiss when his Sire tweaked the other nipple hard. His body was trembling badly with arousal, but he didn’t want the sensation to end. Not with his Sire being so gentle with him now. Instead, he rode each new wave rocked his body from what his Sire was doing, setting each of his nerve endings alight with desire and making his body hum.

Angelus caressed his hand down the still-tender stomach, faintly brushing over the skin, causing Spike to shudder under his touch when he found a ticklish spot. He growled as Spike dug his fingers into his arms when he wrapped his hand around Spike’s shaft and started to stroke the length. He pulled back to watch his boy’s reactions as he caressed the shaft, teasingly grazing the prominent vein along the underside.

Spike arched his back as he rocked his hips into Angelus’ hand. He growled when the dark vampire tightened his hold into a pulsing grip, squeezing a bit at the base and then loosening on the way up. His eyes glazed over in lust before melting into the yellow of his demon, even though he didn’t shift completely.

Finally, after watching the myriad of emotions scatter across Spike’s face, Angelus’ spoke. “What do you want, childe?” he asked huskily.

It took Spike a minute to comprehend what his Sire asked of him. “You, Sire.”

“You have me,” Angelus whispered hotly. “What else do you want?”

Angelus continued the pulsating stroke on Spike’s throbbing cock while he waited for his answer. On every other stroke, he would rub the tip of the blonde’s cock, causing the younger vampire to whimper.

“Anything you wish for me, Sire. Just please don’t stop,” Spike begged. He didn’t want the euphoric feeling to end. He wanted it to go on forever.

Angelus gave a deep chuckle. Oh, yeah. Spike was gone . . . lost to passion. At this moment, he could do anything to his childe and could get away with it as long as the exhilarating feeling stayed in place. With practiced ease, from years of dealing with a demanding Sire himself, Angelus unfastened his pants with one hand while he kept pumping Spike’s erection with the other, freeing his own erection.

“Spike,” he whispered near the blonde’s ear, “if you don’t want me to stop stroking, then you’ll have to make yourself ready for me. Can you do that?”

Spike gave a jerky nod of his head and took a small jar of cream from Angelus with shaking fingers. He had never felt this good before with his Sire. Angelus helped raise his legs as he reached down to his ass with fingers covered in cool cream. As he gently slipped a finger inside, Angelus nibbled on his ear with sharp teeth as he stroked Spike’s throbbing member.

Spike panted with unneeded breath at the combined feelings. He gently slipped another finger inside himself, carefully stretching the small, tight muscle. He added a third finger when his body had adjusted. With Angelus stroking his cock, he rocked his hips between his lubed fingers and his Sire’s fist, simultaneously teasing the prepared opening and trying to keep the pleasurable feeling running through his body.

After what seemed like forever, Angelus ran his tongue along the column of Spike’s neck to his ear. “Are you ready for me, childe?”

All Spike could do was nod and whimper as he gingerly removed his fingers from his ass.

Angelus reached over to the table and pulled out a drawer, reaching in blindly, he felt around until he found what he was looking for. He pulled the item out and moved to his knees between Spike’s legs. The blonde’s eyes were trained on the dark vampire and nowhere else. He felt more than saw Angelus place a small leather strap around the base of his cock before he leg go. Spike sobbed in dismay at the loss of contact and what he had been ‘gifted’ with.

Angelus took some cream from the jar that Spike still held and slicked up his dick. He smiled at his childe while he took the jar from him and put it on the table by the bed. He settled back between Spike’s thighs and stroked the cream along his erection.

Spike’s eyes went wide. It wasn’t that often lately that his Sire used any lubrication before fucking him. He silently thanked Drusilla for injuring him to the point that he needed Angelus. The older vampire seemed to care about what pleased the blonde tonight.

“Are you ready, boy?” Angelus asked as he rubbed the head of his dick against the small rosebud hidden between the blonde’s cheeks.

Spike wanted to cry with joy that his Sire cared enough to ask. He nodded erratically as his whole body vibrated with arousal. “Please, Sire,” Spike begged.

Angelus pressed against the clenched muscle until it slowly opened for him. He growled deep in his chest when he met the resistance of Spike’s inner muscles. The dark vampire kept pushing, and the blonde kept trying to open himself to the invasion. Angelus lay over his childe as he rocked his hips a bit harder seeking entrance into his boy.

“Come on, William, open up for me, let me in,” Angelus cooed near his ear.

Something in the purr of his Sire’s voice against his ear broke the opposition inside Spike as his body stretched to accept the cock slowly moving deeper inside him. Both vampires released a cry at the feeling. Angelus for finally being buried deep inside Spike, and Spike for finally being stretched and filled by Angelus.

“Oh, God, Sire!” Spike groaned as his body adjusted to the sweet invasion.

Angelus growled as Spike’s internal muscles continued to contract around him.

“Sire, please, move!” Spike was so out of it that he feared if Angelus didn’t move he was going to die from the arousal that was held in check by the leather strap.

Hearing the urgency in his childe’s voice, Angelus wrapped the boy’s thighs around his waist and struck up a steady pounding rhythm that bumped Spike’s prostate on occasion so much that it was distracting for the blonde. The younger vampire whimpered and growled as his maker repeatedly kept him on the edge of the precipice.

“God, boy, you’re tight. Every time, you’re so tight,” Angelus said through his own growls and groans as he pushed faster and harder with his thrusts causing Spike to cry out and claw his nails down his back.

“Sire, please! I need to cum, please!” Spike begged, whimpering softly. He couldn’t last much longer at the rate Angelus was going.

Angelus reached between them and freed the blonde’s painful erection from the leather strap. He leaned over the body under him and bit down into the neck of his childe, shooting cold dead seed inside his boy. “Come!” Angelus commanded.

Spike roared as his orgasm volleyed through his body, ending up cold and wet on both his and his Sire’s stomachs.

Angelus collapsed over his childe and, after a moment, rolled over on his side, pulling out of Spike’s body. He pulled the blond against him and caressed his shivering body. The younger vampire purred contently as he nuzzled against his Sire before falling asleep.

Angel was still watching Spike sleep when his mind refocused on his surroundings. He was in his childe’s home helping the blonde heal. The vampire beside him was the biggest pain in his ass in the last century, but also his greatest achievement.

Spike wasn’t dimwitted and insane like Drusilla, nor was he a sociopath like Penn. He really couldn’t classify Lawson since he wasn’t around the ensign enough to teach him how to be a vampire. But Spike, he had taught the boy how to be what he was, and to revel in it, to take pleasure from it.

Angelus had spent twenty years trying to break Spike, to beat him down, to make him work harder than any childe or minion at being worthy of Sire’s attention. Spike was by far his strongest childe, even if he was impulsive. Through it all, the blonde had kept a conscience, his sense of self and his human feelings, even though he was a soulless demon.

Angel begrudgingly respected Spike for some of those traits. Angelus was pure evil who lived to see others at his mercy. Those very traits that Angel respected, Angelus had used against the younger vampire until Spike figured out how to hide them from the world and be what his Sire taught him to be.

Angel ran his fingers through Spike’s hair and pressed a kiss to his temple. He moved out from under Spike carefully so that he didn’t awaken the healing vampire. Once he was on his feet, he grabbed the mug from the nightstand and climbed up the ladder to the upper level to heat up some more blood.

Angel opened Spike’s refrigerator and got a bag of A-negative. He ripped the bag open with his teeth and poured the contents into the mug he had used before. He shifted into his demon and used the fangs to cut into his wrist. Holding his bleeding wrist over the mug, he let as much flow out as he dared before licking the wound closed. He put the mug in the microwave and turned it on.

When the mug was hot enough, Angel climbed back down to the lower level of the crypt and set the mug on the nightstand. He sat down beside Spike and examined the healing wounds which were starting to close from when Spike drank his first mug of blood. This mug ought to do the trick, Angel thought. He found a little-known ticklish spot on his childe’s body and teased it.

Spike growled softly in his sleep as he felt something tease his flesh. When it refused to desist, he opened one eye and glared at Angel. His Sire gave him another genuine smile before holding a mug of hot blood in his view.

“Why are you smilin’, mate? I thought you were the patent-holder on brooding,” Spike was slightly amused. Then a thought hit him. “Oh no, you didn’t shag anything until you were deliriously happy did you?” This was the second genuine smile that Angel had given him. Angelus smiled, Angel brooded. He couldn’t be Angelus.

Angel chuckled softly and shook his head. “No. I still have my soul, Spike. I’m just glad you’re recovering well.” He handed the mug of blood over to the blonde, once the man was sitting upright against the pillows.

“Oh?” Spike’s scarred brow shot up.  “Are you dying to get away from me? Not bear my company anymore?” Spike pouted before he took a sip of the blood. He was just waiting for the pouf to abandon him again.

Angel’s brow furrowed at that. Spike thinks I just stayed here until he was awake to leave him? “No, nothing like that, Spike. If I wanted to leave you, I would have left before I let Buffy know I was here to bitch her out over her treatment of you tonight.”

“So I should feel grateful that you had a lover’s spat with your ex-honey over me?” Spike didn’t mean to actually voice that thought. Even he flinched from his own question. He blinked up at Angel to see his reaction.

“What the hell is wrong with you, Spike?” Angel didn’t know where this animosity came from. He knew that he and Spike had had their differences over the years and some of them had come to nearly trying to do the other in. Didn’t the Sire-claim mean anything to the blonde?

“Nothing, Peaches. You know that I’ve had worse than this,” Spike pointed to the healing wounds on his person. “So why did you stay?” . . . Just to abandon me, again?

“I stayed because . . .” Angel started to say.

What could he tell Spike, the truth? That he had stayed because he was worried about him? That he had stayed because he didn’t want to leave him when he needed his Sire? That he had stayed because of the Sire-claim that he himself had renewed drew him closer to Spike than he had ever remembered? That the claim had brought a lot of buried feelings to light. It had awoken Angelus deep inside him and with that a craving to reclaim his boy completely? That he wanted to own him again, only now, with less of an iron fist? That he had profound emotions for Spike, emotions that ran even deeper than those he had felt for him before? That Buffy had been, at first, a diversion after years of loss, that he had fallen in love with her and in her arms he could for a moment forget what he was and how he mourned for the loss of Spike and Drusilla because Darla had kicked him out of their life? He didn’t think his childe would accept any of those reasons.

Spike was looking at Angel expecting an answer but none came. There was no ‘I worry about you’, there was no ‘I miss you and wanted to be here of my own free will,’ there was nothing. Angel was here because the Sire-claim demanded it of him that was all. Spike wanted to cry though he wouldn’t, not now in front of Angelus, his Sire. For all Angel’s blustering that he was different than his unsouled counterpart. To Spike he would always be Angelus. In either incarnation, the vampire before him didn’t want William when Drusilla brought him home, he didn’t want Spike two years ago when he lost his soul, and other than to baby sit Buffy, Angel didn’t want him now.

Angel saw the pain flutter over Spike’s features at his silence and immediately regretted not saying anything at all. With the younger vampire’s emotions, came eternal love and devotion. His face fell at the sight of his childe trying to hold his emotions in check.

“It’s fine, Angel. You’ve left me before and I’ve managed to make it on my own all these years. Besides I’m used to you leaving me. You didn’t want me in the beginning and the only thing keeping you here now is your sense of duty,” Spike said dejectedly.

“How could you say that I didn’t want you?” Angel asked perplexed.

“Oi, come off it, Angel! You didn’t want me when Drusilla brought me to that hotel. You didn’t want me when we met again in Sunnydale. When you lost your soul, all you did was make my life a soddin’ hell. You knew damn well that with just one drink from you I could have healed twice as fast. But no, you just enjoyed seeing me stuck there in a bloody wheelchair as you swooped in and took Dru away from me. All she ever wanted was her precious Daddy back and there you were . . . Back in our lives like nothing happened. You purposely forgot about me . . . sentenced me to a chair while you traipsed around Sunnyhell. Then, when I came back after Dru finally left me, do you really think that whole speech about me being love's bitch was an act? Didn't you even listen to any of it? You claimed me Angelus I was yours for twenty years and then you just up and left us . . . without so much as a word or a reason. You left me to take care of Dru without even saying goodbye! You abandoned us and I don't know when or if ever I will forgive you for that. So, don't come back here and tell me you wanted me because based on everything I've seen and felt through the years, Angel, your words are nothing more than just that -- bloody words, words that don't mean anything. I'm just a tool for you, an end to your means . . . just like Lawson. That's why you re-established the Sire-claim, isn't it? So, you can control me? So, I can do your bloody will and be nothing more than someone to spy on that ignorant blonde bint of a Slayer for you!”

Angel took a step back from the sudden anger in his childe. It was as if he had waited all this time to finally lay into him. For a moment, he couldn’t speak as his mind processed all that Spike had said. He knew there was always a rivalry between them. Their lives centered on violence and destruction, whether it was toward each other or the people around them. But, the seething animosity coming from the blonde was unexpected. He had never known Spike to hate him before.

“Is that what you really think?” Angel was bewildered. His voice was a dead calm. “That I abandoned you? That I don’t want you? The Sire-claim means more to me than you think it does Spike. I wouldn’t have renewed it if I didn’t want the connection with you again. Yes, I did it for an outwardly selfish reason, but I did it because I wanted . . . I wanted a part of my childe back.”

“The bloody hell you did, it’s always been about you, Angel. Everything has always been about you. Darla, Drusilla, me, now the Slayer. I’ve given you everything I was and you walked away from me.” Spike was near tears with a mix of anger, frustration and hurt. “Just leave, it’s what you’re good at isn’t it? I’ll watch after your bloody ex for you.”

“No, Spike,” Angel growled. He pounced on the bed, straddling Spike’s waist and held the smaller vampire down with his size. His hands were clamped around Spike’s biceps almost painfully. “I’ve listened to your outburst. Now you’ll listen to me before I leave. And I hope to whatever higher power you believe in that you think hard about what I tell you. You got me, boy?”

Angel had used his Sire voice, which brooked no argument. Spike glared at him through blue-gold eyes as his demon was trying to shift. After a few minutes of inward struggle, he nodded and kept silent.

Angel’s voice returned to its soft burr when he spoke again. “You are my childe, Spike. I stayed with you tonight because I was concerned about you. I didn’t mean to abandon you when I got my soul. It wasn’t my choice to leave, either. Darla banished me from the family. In her eyes, I was tainted and she wanted nothing to do with me. She made me leave and refused to let me see you and Dru. When I came back to you in China, she banished me again, because of my soul. I don’t know what she told you but that’s the truth. Even if you did forgive me, I don’t think I would want you to. As for the Sire-claim, I will use it as I choose because it’s a link to you. It’s a tie between us that cannot be broken.”

Angel stared down at Spike as he watched his childe’s eyes shift back to their human color and soften at his words. He eased the grip on the blonde’s arms and sat back when he saw that some of what he said had gotten through, if not all of it. Angelus growled inside to take possession of his boy but Angel tamped the urge down. He wouldn’t take Spike this way. Not when they were both seriously angry and hurt by the other.

Mentally brushing Angelus aside, Angel leaned down over Spike and slowly laved his tongue over the aforementioned claim mark sending a violent shudder through the vampire under him. Even though he tried not to, Spike purred at the pleasurable sensation that ran through him.

Angel pulled back and barely brushed his lips against Spike’s ear. “You are not just an end to a means, my childe, you never were,” he whispered.

The whispered words tugged at some unnamed thing deep inside the younger vampire so hard that he had to squeeze his eyes against the pain. Spike was deathly still when Angel let him go and removed his weight from his body and the bed. He couldn’t look at his Sire even as he felt the chocolate eyes boring into him. So, it was a surprise when he heard Angel’s voice from across the room in the area where the ladder to upper level was.

“I’ll mix the other bags of blood with my own. It should be enough to help you heal and then some. Think about what has happened tonight and what I’ve said. If you ever . . . you know where to find me,” Angel told him. He was about to climb up to the ground level of the crypt when he stopped. Not looking at Spike he said, “Watch out for her, Spike, please, for me?”