Spike tripped and stumbled as he followed the scent of the humans. His artificial knee joint had been damaged when he’d been trapped underwater and he was alarmingly unsteady on his legs.
The sound of a vehicle had him flinging himself on the ground, unable to see the white, shocked faces of the car’s occupants at seeing a naked man at the side of the country lane. The woman wanted to stop, to see if the man needed help, but her husband had noticed the strange reflection from the man’s eyes and pressed firmly on the gas, speeding away from the scene.
Panting as he waited for the car to go out of earshot, Spike then struggled to his feet and tried to regain his bearings. The scent of humans was now mingled with that of horses and Spike hoped that there would be somewhere he could hide. Close to exhaustion and unsure how far away dawn was, Spike badly needed to rest.
As he got closer, he heard the scurry of paws and a dog nipped at his legs when it got close. Spike staggered backwards, stumbled and fell heavily, winding himself. Suddenly the dog was on him! But instead of biting, it began to lick his face.
“Pack it in,” complained Spike, unsettled by the friendly welcome, even if only from a dog.
He pushed the dog away with one hand as he got to his knees and then slowly to his feet. The dog had a long thick coat and from the smell of it Spike guessed it worked with the sheep and was probably a collie. Stooping slightly, he put a hand on the dog’s broad leather collar and said softly, “Home, boy.”
The dog’s body swayed as it wagged its tail and began to lead Spike towards the house. The smell of raw meat greeted Spike as the dog took them closer to his kennel, and Spike bared his blunted teeth with a low growl as his hunger made itself known. The dog let out a startled yip and slipped free from the vampire’s grasp. Spike sank to his knees and ran his hands over the stone slabs trying to find the source of the smell. His fingers touched something and he growled again, drool escaping from the corner of his mouth. A bone. Uncooked. Full of marrow.
A bright light flooded the area, and a man’s face appeared at the window.
“Oh, my God!”
“What is it?” His wife went to the window and peered out.
Her hand flew to her mouth as she saw what her husband had spotted. A naked man, kneeling beside the dog kennel, licking at the bone she’d thrown out for the dog.
“Love, go and call that number,” the farmer said quietly. “The one the man gave us this morning.” He glanced away from the window to check that his wife had found the card with the number on. When he looked back, Spike had turned slightly and his face was now bathed in light. “What the hell are you?” he whispered. The eyes – dear God, the eyes! This was no escaped mental patient.
Spike became aware that he’d been sucking desperately on the bone for too long. The kennel must be close to the house and he needed to hide. Keeping the bone in his right hand, Spike stood and sniffed the air. The scent of horses was stronger now and he walked towards it. Sweet scented hay joined the smell of horses and Spike found himself at the entrance to a barn. He moved inside, climbed the bales of hay until he got the top, and then found a gap to hunker down in. Using his metal thumb he scraped the morrow out of the bone cavity, before falling into an exhausted sleep.
*~*~*~*
Thirty minutes after Craig had gotten in his room, there was a sharp tap on the door, it opened and Buffy walked in. For a second or two she stared at her eldest son. He was wearing only a pair of blue jeans and the scars across his disfigured elbow were plain to see. Her heart lurched as he reached out for a long sleeved t-shirt; he never wore short sleeves anymore, preferring to keep it covered. She’d failed to keep him safe and now his brother could already be dead.
Pushing down her despairing thoughts, she acted in the only way she knew how. To concentrate on the job ahead of her. To focus her anger and pain into something that she could use.
“Right, I know from what Jerry told us that the training base is in this area. Tomorrow we’ll search for it. There’s a large outdoor compound so it shouldn’t be too difficult to locate.” She sat in the only chair the room had.
“What then, Mom?” asked Craig, wishing his voice hadn’t had the slight tremor.
“I don’t really know,” said Buffy honestly. “I was hoping to get more details from Jerry but I can’t raise him on the phone.
“What if they see us? What if they panic and…” Craig couldn’t bring himself to say it.
“Then we’ll just have to make sure they don’t see us.” Seeing her son’s stricken expression she stood and hugged him. “We’ll get him back,” she whispered. Please God let him be alive.
Unable to really plan anything, the pair went downstairs and into the living room. A log fire crackled and a slim woman, looking a good few years younger than Maurice greeted them.
“Come in and sit yourselves down near the fire. It’s a chilly old night. I’m Dora, by the way.”
“Hello. I’m Buffy and this is my son, Craig.”
Craig nodded to Dora as he slumped down in the chair closest to the fire. He had felt cold ever since he’d seen the note supposedly from Cam, and he wondered if he’d ever feel warm again.
Dora left them with a promise to call when dinner was ready, and gave them directions for the dining room.
Dinner was a test of endurance for both Craig and Buffy. The Carmichaels joined them for the meal, and as a consequence conversation had to be made. Buffy pushed her food around her plate trying to look as though she was eating, but was heartened to see Craig tucking into the pork chops and vegetables with gusto.
The Carmichaels were good people and with Craig asking the right questions of Maurice, the older man soon kept them entertained with tales of his life in the army. Refusing a dessert, Buffy and Craig retired to their bedrooms. Both wondering where Cameron was and fervently hoping that he was okay.
*~*~*~*
The door opened and a man Cam had seen in one of the video clips strode into the room.
“Well, well, well, look what we have here,” said Mark with a smirk. “I take it you know who I am – what with decrypting the disks regarding Seventeen.”
Cameron nodded slowly, his eyes never leaving those of the man he’d seen torturing Spike. He cringed as much as his broken body would allow when Mark walked behind him and began to push the chair, twisting his head away as he felt the man’s breath near his ear.
“I’m the one who activated the spinal clamp,” Mark whispered. “I thought it might make you a little easier to handle! Worked a treat, didn’t it?”
The chair whizzed forwards as Mark laughed and gave it a hard push, letting its momentum carry it through the doors. The man caught up with the chair and pushed Cam along seemingly endless and identical corridors before they went through a heavy door that required Mark to use a plastic key card to open it.
“Professor Walsh thought you might like to see first hand what you discovered in our files.”
“No! No, I don’t,” said Cam desperately. “Please…”
His words trailed off as his eyes fell on a creature huddled in the back of a cell with padded walls and floor.
“Oh, Christ.” He turned his head away and sobbed with frustration when Mark cupped his chin and brought it back.
“Look at it, boy! This is the future!”
Cameron closed his eyes, but he knew that the image would never leave him. This was insane! This was science-fiction!
*~*~*~*
“What did they say, Jackie?” Brian asked his wife as she returned to the living room.
“They’re sending some people over right away. I’m scared! What if he attacks us?”
Brian wrapped his arms around her and hugged her close. “Shh, love. We’re safe in here.”
He didn’t add that if the creature out there had intended doing them harm, then the stout wooden front door would probably have done little to prevent it. Nor did he share his concerns that, what was currently chewing his dog’s bone like the savage it obviously was, most likely was a vampire. He’d seen the news items when they were shipped into the country. But they were supposed to be in London somewhere – so what was one doing, alone, up in the Peak District of Derbyshire?
An hour after seeking sanctuary in the barn, Spike startled awake when he heard the dog barking. He cocked his head on one side and then began to shake. A vehicle was approaching but not any vehicle. The engine noise was familiar – he’d heard it so many times before.
The transporter.
The barn doors opened with a squeak and Spike’s head exploded in pain.
“I guess the chip wasn’t damaged then,” stated the man in charge of the recovery, Riley Finn.
Jackie flinched at the terrible cries heard soon after the men arrived.
“Stay here. I’m going to take a look,” Brian said.
“No! They said to stay indoors!”
Shrugging off his wife’s clutching fingers, Brian went to the door. “I’ll be careful, love, but this is my land and I have a right to know what the hell is going on.”
At the back door, he thrust his feet into Wellington boots and pulled on his thick padded jacket.
Jackie ran to the kitchen window to try to catch a glimpse of what was going on.
Spike’s writhing took him to the edge of the haystack and he fell off it, just as Brian appeared at the doors. For a moment, Spike’s cries were cut off as the fall winded him so badly but soon they returned even louder than before. He curled up and cradled his head in his hands.
“What’s going on?” Brian asked Riley, unfazed by the man’s size and bulk.
Riley turned to him and pressed a button on the small plastic gadget in his right hand and to Brian’s astonishment the creature’s cries faded into harsh rasping sobs.
“Sir, you were told to remain indoors,” Riley said, scowling at the farmer.
“My land. I’ll do as I please. What the hell is a vampire doing running loose on my farm?”
Riley sighed. Containing this escapee was turning out harder than anticipated. He pressed the button again and Spike rolled onto his back, his screams echoing in the stillness of the night.
“That’s enough!” Brian grimaced. “He’s helpless.”
“Not so helpless that he wouldn’t try to drain you in a moment, if he had the chance,” replied Riley, but he cut off the pain chip’s shock all the same.
“I want a closer look,” said Brian, unable to resist seeing more of the first vampire he’d ever encountered.
Riley waved a hand. “Go knock yourself out.”
Moving forward cautiously, Brian peered down at the sobbing figure of Spike. Snot was running down the vampire’s face and his lips were drawn back in his distress.
“What’s happened to his teeth?” asked Brian, taking in the almost bare gums.
“Their fangs are clipped monthly, but this one still likes to bite so we ground them all down.”
Brian screwed up his face. “Sounds painful.”
“They’re not like us,” replied Riley with a shrug.
“Why are his eyes like that? No way are they natural.”
Riley snickered. “As if vampires are natural! The Goddamned things are freaking against nature.” He pushed Brian out of the way and brought his heavy boot down on Spike’s genitals.
Spike yelled and rolled onto his side curling up around the pain.
“Keep back. I’ll go get the chains,” ordered Riley.
A hand touching his leg caused Brian to leap a foot in the air. He glanced down and saw the vampire feebly clawing at his boot. The remaining guard was looking out of the door so Brian stooped and gazed down at the inhuman creature on the ground.
“Help me…please don’t let them take me…stake me,” Spike whispered.
“Stake you? You mean kill you?” Brian couldn’t believe he was having this conversation.
Spike nodded frantically. “Please! Don’t let them—”
His body arched backwards as another blast from the chip seared his brain. By the time he was once more aware of his surroundings, he’d been hogtied and was being carried out of the barn.
Brian watched as his collie dog, Moss, sneaked between the men’s legs and licked the vampire’s face before scooting out of the way of their feet. The men threw the vampire into the back of the van and Brian winced as he heard the creature cry out yet again in pain. Moss pressed his cold nose into Brian’s hand as the van sped out of the gates.
*~*~*~*
Cam wanted to look away, he really did, but he remained transfixed on the creature opposite him. It was different to the one he’d seen in the files. He had known there must be others. He just didn’t realise quite how much they could…vary.
As if becoming aware of Cam’s presence, although he knew that the glass didn’t allow them to look out, the creature moved to the front of the cell. It reared up until its front limbs were on the glass and then began to scream. Its face contorted and it banged its head against the glass until the skin on its forehead split open.
“Some of them don’t adjust so well.” Mark’s voice in his ear caused Cam’s heart to miss a beat.
“W-why do you do it?” Cam stammered.
The creature had given up now and gone back into the far corner, where it curled into a ball.
“Because we can,” said Mark simply. “When we discovered that infusions of vampire blood meant that any transplant would be a success, that none would be rejected by the body, we wanted to see just how far we could take the procedure.”
“I was given vampire blood. Why don’t they use it to cure things?”
Mark spun the wheelchair round until he was staring down at the ashen faced teenager. “Look how much good it did you.” He slapped Cam on his unfeeling legs and grinned. “You can barely make a fist. What if we needed you to move quickly again? Without the wheels?”
“Give me more?” asked Cam, his breathing becoming ragged.
“It would probably heal you eventually. We tried it, years ago, but it would take weeks, maybe even months before you were back to normal.”
Cam dropped his gaze.
“If we do that.” Mark waved to the cells. “Do you know how long it would take for you to be fully functioning?”
When Cam didn’t respond, Mark grabbed his chin and roughly brought his head up.
“A day. Twenty-four hours. That’s all.” He tapped Cam’s left temple with the fingers of his free hand. “And all this knowledge remains intact. We’ve discovered what to do to keep the subject’s sanity intact. These are the early ones. Amazing really. The scientist in you must be fascinated.”
“I’m gonna be sick!”
Cameron dry heaved several times. The blood he’d been given had long been absorbed into his system and the intravenous drip was his only sustenance. Mark chuckled as Cam wiped at his eyes with the back of his left hand.
“Best be moving on,” said Mark turning the wheelchair around and pushing it along the corridor between the cells. “The professor wants you to go to work for her.” At Cam’s slight shake of his head, the man added, “Just take a look at the last cell on the right and remember that Maggie can do to you absolutely anything that she wants. Maybe even a mate for this one, eh?”
He spun the wheelchair round so that Cam was facing the creature in the cell. Cam’s eyes widened in horror.
“No,” he whispered. “This isn’t real – it’s not happening.” He shook his head as rapidly as he could, hands trembling on the armrests of the chair.
“Oh, it’s real all right.”
The creature in the cell walked effortlessly to the front of the cell when Mark flicked the switch to make the glass transparent to its inmate. Her face was pretty enough that Cameron knew ordinarily would have had him half-hard and as he watched she winked at him and ran her fingers through her long dark brown hair. He moaned softly when her hands travelled lower, caressing her breasts, tweaking each nipple until they stood erect. She licked her lips.
“I think she likes what she sees,” said Mark, softly.
Her hands left her breasts and trailed their way to her waist where they fingered the raised scar that ran the whole way around her body. The pale white skin changed to dark chocolate and the contrast of her hands against her lower body was stark. Cameron gagged as she took hold of the large flaccid penis and arched her back as her other hand caressed the heavy testicles. Within moments, the glass was splattered with rivulets of semen as she brought herself swiftly to climax. She was licking the spendings from her fingers as Mark returned the front to opaque and pushed Cameron away.
“Lilah’s a horny bitch isn’t she? Always puts on a good show,” joked Mark. He leaned forwards and rubbed his hand over Cameron’s inert genitals. “Fancy swapping this for a fully functioning pussy?”
Cameron let out a sob and tried ineffectively to swat the man’s hand away. “Please…”
“Or maybe you’d prefer to become man’s best friend?”
Thinking back to the creature in the padded cell, Cameron’s vision greyed out and he thought for a moment he was going to faint.
The creature in that cell had been a large breed of dog – a deerhound maybe – all apart from its head. Cameron screwed his eyes shut and weakly clenched his fists. He’d never forget the sight of a man’s head attached to the body of a dog. For the first time, but he feared it wouldn’t be the last, Cameron prayed for death.
[Reviews - 161]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | 
Chapter or Story
Has been viewed 1552 times
- Text Size +
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | Chapter or Story - Text Size +
Author's Chapter Notes:
Beta and banner by dawnofme
Chapter End Notes:
Hope you're not too shocked by this one! Thanks for reading.