More Than Darkness
9
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This is a crossover smutty story featuring the character of
Tess/Salida ie Tess' Voice in Neon Dasies' OUATIM fics on ff.net, More Than
Eyes Alone Can See, and
More Than Life, and Sands/Jeffrey from Merrie's OUATIM fic on
ff.net, Darkness Rising. This story will make some sense, probably, if you read
it without having read either of our stories, but it'll make a hell of a lot
more if you just read them. They're all worth reading, we promise. Anyway, on
with the show.
Rated for what has happened, and what might happen.
ourselves. On with the story.
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Salida woke slowly, struggling
from the remains of a nightmare in which she’d just killed her husband in
self-defense. For a moment, panic dogged
her on the edge of sleep and reality as she felt a dead weight on her back,
pressing her down into the mattress. She
remembered quite well what one could do when not totally in control of one’s
faculties, and the possibility that her dream had had roots in the waking world
terrified her.
Opening her eyes with a gasp, she
tensed, her mind racing to piece together what was going on.
that was breathing slowly against her.
Relief rushed through her veins as she realize that her dream simply had
been a dream.
But the memory of hot blood and
confused chocolate eyes haunted her . . . enough that she had to get out of
bed. Now.
Moving slowly, she slid out from under Jeffrey’s body, placing his head
on a pillow, and pulling the sheets up around his body.
sleeper he was and how trusting and trustworthy he looked in his sleep.
was going to have to deal with it.
Moving silently, Salida went into the bathroom, intending to take a
shower. She locked the door behind her,
and quickly climbed into the stall, the water as hot as she could stand.
“Oh god,” she gasped as the
near-scalding liquid hit her body. She
looked down to see that she was covered in small bruises – evidence of the
punishing hands that had groped her the night before.
small bump – presumably a souvenir from when Jeffrey had turned the tables on
her and thrown her off him and onto the floor.
But set against all these was the pleasant ache between her legs,
It didn’t take her long to
shower. Stepping out of the stall, she
toweled off and donned panties and a t-shirt, and the hotel provided robe.
into the bedroom. Jeffrey was still
asleep. She hated the mixture of relief
and disappointment that moved sluggishly through her veins.
her husband, and the other because she didn’t like the way she’d become so
dependent on him in the matter of a week.
I’m a mess, she thought, not
thinking about her physical appearance, but the state of her psyche.
and she was determined to use the time she had wisely.
sleeping husband. She didn’t sit in a
chair and stare at him, waiting for him to wake.
She did go into the living room and
have a seat on the couch briefly before jumping back up to collect the knife
from the night before.
Once she had it, she went back and settled in a chair, not wanting to
give in to the temptation to sleep that the couch offered.
She thought. She thought about
herself. About her marriage.
schizophrenic, psychotic man meant. And
the entire time, she played with the knife, running her fingers along the blade
meditatively.
In her mind’s eye she saw her struggle with Jeffrey the night
before. The straps of fabric she’d used
to bind him were still on the floor. The
gun was still on the table. The needle
she’d used to inject him with tranquilizers lay abandoned and broken under the
table.
I love him, psychotic and
sociopath that he is, and I truly like spending time with him – in and out of
bed. I enjoy listening to his voice,
holding his hand, trading barbs and innuendoes with him.
see just how much I manage to confound him.
Her fingers still ran over the knife.
Her eyes still saw the struggle from last night.
need time. And space.
last night. I need to come up with some
sort of plan for what I’ll do if that ever happens again.
. I need time to discover what I need and want and think about life.
I don’t want to leave him.
But do I have any other choice?
“Vixen?”
Salida jumped, not noticing how the blade of the knife sliced into the
pad of her index finger. She stood and
looked at her husband, seeing how his hair was tousled with sleep, how he was
wearing nothing but a bed sheet, how he was looking at her with trepidation,
confusion that bordered on irritation, and a bit of guilt.
emotions to her; hate, fury, disgust, and cold lust.
ringing faintly in her memory. She
couldn’t stay in this room any longer.
She needed to leave. And she
wasn’t sure if Jeffrey’s presence would help or hinder.
“I can’t stay,” she whispered,
dropping the knife, still unaware of the blood dripping from her finger.
into the bedroom where she pulled out her suitcase and started packing.
******************************
Jeffrey woke up to a cold bed,
and he didn’t fucking like it. “Vixen?”
he called out sleepily, patting down the bed next to him with an outstretched
arm. She was nowhere to be found.
the edge of his dreams, but he couldn’t be sure.
doesn’t feel fucking right about this.
He narrowed his eyes and rolled over in bed onto his back looking around
the room. She was still nowhere to be
found.
“Vixen?” he called out again, liking this less and less with every
passing second. Where the fuck is she?
Wrapping the sheet around his waist in an attempt to regain some of the
warmth she had taken with her when she had left, he swung his legs over the
side of the bed and stood up, immediately wincing.
especially his arms and legs where Salida had ridden him last night, and where
he had pulled at the restraints behind his back.
As he walked to the bedroom door, images from last night began playing
themselves across the backs of his eyelids.
kill her. His own fucking mind had
rebelled against him, and he fucking hated it.
Who’s to say it won’t
voice playing devil’s advocate asked quietly.
No one, Jeffrey thought, his
shoulders slumping. It could happen again.
if I’m being fucking honest with myself, it fucking will happen again.
about it, or if there was even anything he could do about it, but what happened
last night couldn’t happen again.
or whatever it was that she fucking gave me. . . .
frame. He didn’t know what would have
fucking happened exactly, but it was a safe bet that it wouldn’t have been
pretty.
he called out again, louder this time. “This
isn’t fucking funny. Where are you?”
sitting there, twirling his knife in her hands absently.
as she jumped in the seat. He winced
slightly to see that he had caused her to cut herself, but either she didn’t
notice it or didn’t care because it didn’t seem to be slowing her down any as
she got up and walked toward him, the bloodied knife having fallen to the floor
from her limp fingers.
stay,” she had whispered before striding past him before he could react.
what the fuck does that mean?
He rounded into the bedroom, his eyes blazing as he watched her grab her
suitcase and begin packing. “What the
fuck does that mean, vixen? What, you’re
just leaving me? Like that?
fuck it all and pack your bags without a second thought?
She looked up at him, as if surprised by his anger.
and a pair of shoes in the other, she examined him, her forehead creased in
puzzlement. Then her eyes slipped shut
at him. “I can’t stay
ran a hand through her damp hair agitatedly.
“Here. In this room.
hair behind her ear, she went to her drawer and pulled out her pajamas.
fucking haunted here,” she whispered. “I
can . . .” she faltered, remembering her thoughts from earlier.
see here is him.”
struck by how young she looked. “If I
stay, it’ll get to me. It already is.”
trembling. “I dreamed I killed you last
night,” she whispered in a pained voice.
“I killed you to save lf, lf, and I felt your blood wash over my hand,
and I saw the confusion in your eyes.
And I suppose it makes sense. I
was . . . I had no knowledge of what psychosis is like before last night, and
my . . . my innocence of that died here.
That’s what I’m running
from. Not from.
from you. I might as well run from Tess
for all the good that would do me.”
what are you going to do? How long will
you be fucking gone, vixen? es'> I don’t want
to lose you again. I know you’re saying
I’m not, but that’s what it fucking feels like.
than a week ago, and now I’m losing you again,”
Jeffrey said quietly. “And it’s
causing you to leave, isn’t it? You can’t
fucking deal with it.”
He moved into the bedroom and sat down hard
in the chair she had used to keep vigil on him the morning after their wedding,
all anger he might have been feeling draining out of him as his entire body
slumped dejectedly. All he could think
about was her leaving him.
These heated lines repeated themselves
in his head growing louder and louder until he placed his hands against his
temples in an attempt to shut them up for at least a few minutes.
Cool hands on his wrists pulled both at his body and
his concentration. Slender
fingers wrapped themselves around his pulse points, pulling his hands from his
face.
Salida whispered pleadingly. “Jeffrey,
listen to me. I blame
accidentally caused a situation where your psychotic side could break out.
enough to admit that I was fucking terrified last night, but not just of my
possible death. I was terrified of what
would happen to you when all was said
and done. If I died or if I lived, I was
afraid of the . . . the pain you might suffer.”
Her hands were firm, even if her voice was shaking.
something in you, that I knew but I didn’t understand.
in a textbook, and then having to perform an autopsy.
only because I’m not sure enough within my own mind to absorb what I saw, but I
am in no means giving up. Everything I’ve
ever said about loving you, and needing you, and never wanting to leave you is
still the same. It’s true that I need
time to think, but what good will thinking do me if I can’t discuss anything
with you?” She had no idea whether her
words were reaching him or not. “If not
for you, I wouldn’t have kept trying to exist after I left your room in
living in a fantasy world, and when she collapsed, I wouldn’t have known about
it. But you fucking challenged me, and I
never back away from a challenge.
Never. I’m running now because I
honestly cannot stand this room anymore.”
Jeffrey felt a trail of hot liquid running down his wrist; he looked and
saw a crimson trail of Salida’s blood. “I’m
running, and part of it is to escape memories . . . but who ever said I was
running without you?” she looked honestly puzzled.
than I possibly could afford to – but I’m not one to take back what I’ve freely
given. That was true that night, and it’s
true now.”
She kissed his hands. “I need to
reconcile all the different parts of you to form the portrait of the man I
love, and I can’t do that without you. I’ll
likely drive you mad with questions and such, and you might regret it all
later, but I don’t want to leave you.”
“Then what will you do?” Jeffrey
asked quietly, confused by what she was asking of him.
and I can understand that. I’m sure it
holds a lot of bad . . . memories for the both of us,” he said, looking down at
his lap. “But what then?
softly that Salida barely heard it and probably wasn’t meant to at all.
“I’m your wife.
little heart desires. I don’t care if it’s
or
set up a home. Someplace
that is mine and yours if that’s what you want.
If we travel, I’ll buy books on medicine and psychosis and I’ll see what
I can do to make us both safe. If we
settle, then I’ll find a job somewhere.
I’ll get a license to practice medicine.
I’ll make friends with the doctors in psychiatric wards just so I can
pump their brains.” Salida felt some of
the lyzilyzing fear and uncertainty that’d been weighing her down
disappear. “I don’t care what
happens. I don’t care if I have to do
battle with your psychotic side once a week.
I can’t leave you,” she stated
plainly. “That’s why I said that I’d
want you to kill me after the second date that night.
for good . . . would do to me. And I
intend on enjoying life for some time to come.
I intend on enjoying you
so
some time to come.” She cupped his
cheek, still crouched on the floor in front of him.
I don’t care if we simply go and stay in Sands’ room for another week
before deciding where and what we’re going to do.
She could feel her body trembling again, but this time it was out of
pure need. Not lust, not desire, not
love. Need.
for the sound of his heart in his chest and his arms around her.
she’d never seen him, and what she needed was to be able to shield him.
necessary.
“You’re not leaving me then?”
Jeffrey asked quietly, too relieved to care how he sounded.
chest, resting over his heart. “The only
reason I would leave you, is if you wouldn’t come with me, or if it’d be better
for you if I did. An example of that
would be last night when I came back here before you did.
and I waited, even knowing what your intentions were.”
time to work through that, and I might ask for a few hours alone in the
afternoons for the next week or so, but I want to know that you’re in the next
room, waiting for me to emerge.”
Standing, she went over and closed the door to the bedroom.
his seat, directing him towards the bed.
Pushing on his shoulders, she got him to lie down, and then she settled
next to him, wrapping her arms around him from behind, holding him
securely. “I love you, and I would do
anything for you. If by my life or death
I can give you anything, I give it,” she murmured against his shoulder.
Jeffrey closed his eyes then, reveling in the warmth of her touch.
experience to be fucking sure. “If it’s
in my power, I won’t ever take your life, vixen.
your life or your death. I just want
you. That’s all.
fucking words to describe how you make me feel, vixen.
life without you. And I don’t want
to. I. . . .” his throat double-clutched
on him then, choking off what he was attempting to say.
wasn’t facing her. He didn’t think he’d
be able to say such a fucking declaration while looking her in the eye.
Salida felt her heart stop for several seconds before resuming its
tattoo within her chest, a rhythm that was now slightly accelerated.
lover, she whispered, “Then my love I give.”
She felt a single tear slide down her face, but didn’t let go of Jeffrey
to brush it away. “Not to mention that I
seem to be poetic enough for the both of us.”
She pressed a kiss into his neck, burying her face in his warm, smooth
skin, inhaling his scent and locking it away in her memory.
admitted shyly.
“Well I’m certainly not going to
say no, my little voracious vixen,” Jeffrey joked softly, his neck arching
under her mouth. “But you do realize
that we have to be face to face for the . . . main event, right vixen?
be facing the other direction. And as
much as I would like to grant you your request, I don’t want to fucking move
just yet.” He didn’t exactly say why he
wanted to remain how he was for a little while longer – he liked being held by
her – and he wouldn’t, but he felt that she understood.
. .” she hummed against his skin. “Well,
I’ve always assumed that ‘making love’ meant taking one’s time.
rest of the day to do this.” She kissed
him again, this time murmuring, “I’m serious about getting out of here
though. I want to spend the night in
Sands’ room.” Her nose was busily
tracing a meandering path along his back and shoulders as she pulled herself
closer to him, spooning against his body.
Her eyes closed and her mind slowly let go of everything that was
bothering her, until there was nothing but her body weighted with warmth and
strange peace, and Jeffrey’s body pressed against hers.
“You just had to say his fucking
name didn’t you, vixen?” Jeffrey said with a groan.
morning, sunrise. Did you miss me?”
Sands asked, not turning to look at her, but assuming that it was her body
pressed against his.
Salida sighed, but didn’t necessarily move.
. afternoon . . . entirely wasted.” She
sighed. “I don’t suppose I could bribe you
to disappear for another hour or two, can I?”
where exactly do you propose I go, sunrise?” Sands asked with a frown on his
face that she couldn’t see, intrigued by the fact that
she wasn’t moving. “Why are you two
still in your room? My fucking suite’s
much nicer than this. I had thought
Jeffrey might have been able to get another key since I hid mine, but perhaps I
gave him too much credit.”
you, Sands,” Jeffrey said wearily. He so
did not want to deal with Sands’ bullshit right now.
“So, did you two have fun last night?
all about it, or nothing. I’m curious,
as I fucking should be since it’s technically my body you’ve married and are
currently fucking, but something tells me ignorance might be fucking bliss in
this case. Am I right?”
I’m not exactly fucking anyone right now, thanks to you, and I don’t think I
really want to share what happened last night either.”
“Will you at least turn your back so I can give my husband a
good-afternoon kiss? And don’t tell me
you don’t know how to, because I know from experience that it’s possible.”
Sands grumbled about know-it-all schizophrenics but did as he was asked
for once. “He’s gone for now, vixen.
Jeffrey muttered into the pillow beneath him, frustration lacing his words.
. . I bet. In fact, I know exactly how
sorry.” Salida sighed again, and
reluctantly let go of Jeffrey. He turned
onto his back and she leaned over, kissing him slowly and thoroughly, delighted
when he kissed her back the same way.
She kept it short, knowing Sands could be back at any time, but she made
the most of the few seconds she had.
When she pulled away, she was quick to turn her head in the other
direction, not wanting Sands to see the haze of contentment and thwarted need
on her face. “I suppose I should finish
packing, then. You’re more than welcome
to sleep again, if you need to. I know
how exhausting being . . . free like that can be.
“If you say so, vixen,” Jeffrey
said, feeling the warmth she had been giving him with her touch push him into
sleepiness once more. “Just, be careful,” he murmured, his eyelids heavy.
will be. Don’t worry about me, lover.
kissing him lightly on the shoulder. He
made a contented noise deep within his throat and then didn’t make any more
noises at all. That was, until a few
minutes later when the contented silence was shattered by a rather irritated
and irritating voice.
I don’t want to fucking sleep. That’s
all I’ve been fucking doing for the last,” Sands lifted his head from the bed
and glanced at the clock on a nearby table, “thirteen fucking hours.”
Jeffrey asleep, Sands?” Salida asked him with a sigh.
Sands paused and searched for Jeffrey’s presence in the back of his
head. “Yeah, it fucking seems so.
said with a smirk. “And fucking me too,”
he muttered with a wince, stretching his aching arms.
could cause my arms to hurt so fucking much?”
. . . I believe I tied them behind his . . . your back rather tightly.
me. Not that it worked.”
her back on Sands. Slipping the pants on
under the robe was relatively easy . . . but now she needed a bra.
pulled one out, then ggleggled to get that
on without removing robe or shirt. It
was a tad bit harder than the pants, but it was done quickly enough.
“You fucking amaze me, sunrise,” Sands said, propping himself up off the
bed on an elbow to look at her. “How do
you fucking deal with the two of us in the same body?” he asked with a frown.
him. “Tell me the truth.
‘til death do us part thing kind of seriously, right?”
Thinking back on the previous night, she smiled wryly.
shorts. “As for two men in the same
body?” she shrugged. “I don’t know how I
deal with it. I just do.
life before, I suppose.” She suddenly
realized that Sands wasn’t wearing anything but a sheet.
td bed been left in her room out of a drawer and threw them at him.
teeth. I want to find you wearing those
when I get out.”
Sands quirked an eyebrow at the ‘cowboy’ remark, but didn’t rise to the
bait. However, once he had snagged the
pair of boxers out of the air that she had thrown at him,
his mouth seemed to run of its own accord.
little and sigh deeply. “You’re no fun
at all, sunrise. Do you realize that?”
he muttered, sitting up on the bed, and pulling the boxers on quickly under the
sheet.
Salida shook her head and sighed as she brushed her teeth.
don’t need e fue fun for you. I’m not
your . . . what was the word you used?
Fucktoy?”
I do recall using that charming little descriptor, yes.
wry laugh. “And you must take into
consideration the fact that I had just met you.
If I had known you better, I might have been able to come up with
something a little more . . . creative,” he spoke to her as he moved about the
room, searching for something to wear long enough to get upstairs to get some
new clothes. He picked up a red long-sleeved shirt that he didn’t even remember
buying and shook his head to see that most of the buttons had been ripped
off. Shaking his head he dropped it
unceremoniously to the floor and picked up his pair of leather pants.
time being.
He sat down on the bed and pulled them on and buttoned them
quickly. “And who says you can’t be fun
for me? If you and I are really going to
be together until one of us kicks it, the least we can do is try and fucking
get along, right?” he asked, not thinking that she would accept such an offer,
but offering it up anyway. He didn’t
like having this woman at his back whenever he was around.
her. She was Jeffrey’s wife, for God’s
sake. Anyone insane enough to marry him
was someone to be wary around.
Salida reappeared, wrapping a band-aid around her finger.
hitting it off, Sands. And don’t push
me, or I’ll resort to my own nicknames, and I’m going to assume that you ry
dy
don’t like the name ‘Sheldon.’” She
smirked, going about the room and packing more clothing away, before
disappearing into the bathroom and re-emerging with several bottles.
throwing in several pairs of socks.
God I hate that fucking name, Sands
thought to himself. He would have glared
at Salida if he didn’t think such an action would be a
exercise in futility. So he simply rose
to his feet and began searching the room for his fucking jacket and cigarettes.
After a few minutes of searching he
called out to Salida, “
you see where Jeffrey fucking put my coat?
the bedroom without luck.
It was in the living room that he found the knife and gun, the knife red
with blood. He automatically looked down
at his chest to check for cuts – there weren’t any.
the bedroom, just in time to hear Salida call, “They must have gotten left at
the restaurant. We left in something of
a hurry last night.”
“Something happened last night
between the two of you, didn’t it? I’m
not a fucking idiot, sunrise. Tell me
what happened. Tell my why this,” he
said, holding up the knife, “is fucking covered in your blood.
Salida looked at the knife, then at Sands.
moment. But she turned her back on him
anyway, still packing up. “I was clumsy,”
she said, leaving her explanation at that.
“Oh no, you’re not just going to
fucking leave me hanging here, sunrise.
Something happened. Tell me what
fucking happened! If something’s going
to come crashing down on my fucking head sometime soon, I have a right to know
about it!” he seemed to realize that he was shouting and took a deep breath,
attempting to rein in his temper. “You
said you were clumsy. How were you
clumsy? What did you do?”
“It’s really none of your fucking
business, Sands.” Salida turned from her
packing, arms crossed over her chest.
“There’s nothing to come crashing down on anyone.
off and chose another word. “The only
people who were injured in the slightest were me and Jeffrey.
You don’t have to worry about dodging any murder convictions in the
great state of
but not murder.an san style='mso-spacerun:yes'> She stared him down,
noticing that he didn’t appear as if he were ready to give up.
that’s all.”
Sands rolled his eyes. “And
what’s that supposed to mean?” he
asked with narrowed eyes. “Stop beating
around the fucking bush and tell me what happened between the two of you last
night.”
assertion that if he wanted any information, he was going to beat it out of
her. “No one is dead, no one is looking
for you, and you were not involved.
Knowing anything about last night wouldn’t do anything but assuage your own
idle curiosity, and I refuse to do that.
I may be a freak, but I do enjoy a tad bit of privacy now and again.”
Sands narrowed his eyes again, recognizing stonewalling
when he saw it. “Fine.
got another thing coming, sunrise,” he said through gritted teeth.
of them last night rankled. He didn’t
like secrets. “Well this is fucking fun.
Now what?” he asked her, his eyes
slightly cold. “Where are you going,
anyway?” he asked, gesturing to her open suitcase with a wave of his right
hand.
let’s just say that I’m very glad that you extended the use of your suite to
me. Jeffrey and I decided that this room
isn’t habitable any longer, and that perhaps, moving in with you might not be a
bad idea for the time being.” Grabbing
the pair of stilettos’d b’d been wearing the night before, Salida threw those
in the suitcase as well before closing it and fastening it closed.
stay in one of the guest rooms.”
Sands blinked at that. “You’re fucking what?
me? What’s wrong with this room?” he
asked, looking around the room with a confused frown on his face.
Salida wasn’t sure how to explain that without going into the painful
details of last night, so she didn’t answer, instead going into the living room
to collect the blankets for the bed, them coming back to make the bed itself.
sat down with a book, intending on reading for a bit, he got irritated again.
“What’s fucking wrong with this room, sunrise?”
just . . . uncomfortable in it, okay?”
Sands rolled his eyes. “My god,
you’re acting like he tried to kill you last night or something.”
Salida tense slightly.
night?! But I thought you two were
supposedly out enjoying wedded bliss or some such bullshit like that.
tried to kill you?” Sands exclaimed incredulously.
didn’t say anything,” Salida explained slowly.
didn’t fucking need to. Are you going to
tell me what the fuck happened last night?
What the fuck did you do to set him off?
And why the fuck aren’t you dead right now?”
Suddenly fed up with everything, Salida got up off the bed, walked
across the room, and stood directly in front of Sands – the look on her face
was not a friendly one. “You want to
fucking know what happened last night?
Fine. But understand this; you
say one word about this to Jeffrey, and I swear I will make you pay for it, one
way or another. Savvy?”
“Savvy.”
standing up to him, and he didn’t doubt she’d come up with some way to punish
him but not her lover, but he simply leaned against the nearby dresser with his
arms folded over his chest and waited.
“I fucking injected you both with too much dopamine, thereby setting
off a chemical reaction in your head. It
granted Jeffrey the ability to be the dominant personality for awhile, but then
it induced a fucking psychotic episode, and since I was the one that triggered it, I was the one he went after.
I'm alive because I threatened to kill myself, which would defeat the
entire purpose of him wanting to kill
me. I managed to get him back here,
managed to lull him into a false sense of security, and then I fucking gave him
nearly enough tranquilizers to drop a charging elephant.
“Oh,” Sands said, his face going slack in shock.
else to say. He was a bit floored to say
the least. That wasn’t what he had been
expecting at all.
“What do you mean ‘oh’?” Salida demanded harshly, now up
in arms in defense of herself and of Jeffrey.
“Oh fuck you.
you decided to play mad scientist on me and fucked up royally.
at least my fucking body, into a psychotic episode and had to tranquilize me
like a fucking animal to stop me. Or
excuse me, fucking Jeffrey. Your dear
beloved husband,” Sands said with a sneer.
yes, I can see why you’d be fucking upset.
After all, you came out of it with a single puncture mark.
bruises, cuts, and a shitload of things to figure out for herself.
fucking don’t. You don’t remember it,
you certainly wouldn’t have cared had Jeffrey actually succeeded, and the only
reason you’re badgering me about this is because you’re
worried about the consequences to you.
no fucking consequences for you, so either shut the
hell up, or leave. I certainly don’t
need your company.”
spare me the sob story. You brought this
down on yourself. You fucking said it.
shouldn’t be fucking surprised when you get burned,” Sands said, his eyes
flashing with rage. “And who says there
aren’t any fucking consequences to me? You
can’t fucking know that.
night, and you don’t know what fucking might
have happened. Sure, I might have killed
you. But I also might have fucking wound
up in jail. And that’s a fucking consequence for me, savvy?” he asked coldly.
Sands asked, his brow furrowing with incredulity.
are. And if I thought I could get
fucking away from you, I would leave.
In a mother-fucking heartbeat.
why don’t you just fucking go!?”
There was a pause as both combatants stared at each other, trying to
contain their rage at each other. Then
Sands turned on his heel, and left the bedroom, flinging the door open so hard
that it bounced off the wall.
Salida watched him go for a moment before yelling after him: “I wouldn’t
have let you end up in jail.
damn eager to get Jeffrey back to the hotel room?
who intended on killing me. But I knew
it at least would be fucking private. If
anything did happen, you could have been on the next plane out of here without
anyone knowing what had happened.” He
stopped, but he didn’t turn to look at her, but she still took that as her cue
to finish what she had to say. “I’ve
already fucking taken the blame for all this, so I don’t need you reiterating
it all. I learn from my fucking
mistakes, alright?
You’re not going to have to worry about me and my ‘mad
scientist’ proclivities for some time to come.
get laid, because I really think you need a good fuck.
action and you’re not is fucking getting to you I think.”
suppose you’re offering?” Sands asked with a raised eyebrow and a smirk,
turning to look at her over a shoulder, ready to duck and run should she throw
something at him.
find another one of your bottle blonds with an IQ dimmer than a dead light
bulb. You should be able to hold up your
end of a conversation with someone like that,” Salida said, glaring daggers at
it the entire time. She then slammed the
bedroom door hard enough to make the walls rattle.
For a long moment Sands just stared over his shoulder at the closed
door. Then, turning to grab whatever was
close at hand – a rather nice looking table lamp – he
then wrenched it off of the table and out of its socket with a growl, throwing
it against a far wall with all his might.
but it wasn’t enough to cool his rage. He
felt the need to destroy something fucking beautiful tonight.
hotel room, slamming the door behind him.
It took Salida some time to calm herself down, not just from her
argument with Sands, but from the recriminations he’d heaped upon her.
rest despite all Jeffrey’s assurances that he didn’t blame her.
but that was tempting fate, and she wanted to avoid that.
Jeffrey for not being there for her, but she discarded that quickly.
quite some time to come. She needed to
come to terms with that. Before the
stress of it drove her insane.
Looking around the room, she decided to go out.
shopping, and then get a coffee or something and then drink it along the canal
that ran through the miniature Venetian town downstairs.
her mess, and go to Jeffrey’s room, hoping to sneak in without him knowing.
and hope that sooner or later, Jeffrey would wake or Sands
would calm down enough to approach.
******************************
“What the fuck?” Jeffrey asked
aloud, coming awake with a start. He
flikelike a fucking new man; well, except for the confusion of where he was
anyway. He couldn’t recall having slept
so soundly in his entire fucking existence.
me working its way out of my system,” he mused, glancing around the darkened
room he found himself in.
are you there? Answer me, you fucking
bastard.”
“Fuck you, go back to sleep. You’re interrupting,” Sands muttered in a
sleepy voice. No, not sleepy, fucking contented.
fucking bastard. That woman next to us
isn’t Salida, is it?” Jeffrey asked, feeling a rather odd sensation work its
way thought him. It left him feeling
vaguely uneasy. I just fucking cheated on vixen.
brain like a bullet before he could rein it back.
God. I’ve had fucking enough of that
little wifey of yours,” Sands muttered into the sleeping woman’s shoulder.
related to her, Jeffrey noticed.
“Well you’d better wake the fuck up, because I’m going to go back home
to that little wifey of mine right
now, whether you like it or not, you bastard,” Jeffrey said, lifting his head
up off of the woman’s shoulder.
“What makes you think she’s still there?” Sands asked cruelly.
packing before I left, and hearing something about how she blamed herself for
something. In fact,” he added, “she’s
the one who told me to go out and get laid.”
fucking bastard. What the fuck did you
say to her?” Jeffrey asked, the color draining out of his face.
wouldn’t really leave, would she? She
fucking said she wouldn’t. He’s just
trying to fucking mess with you. Don’t
fucking listen to him, Jeffrey thought to himself.
not so much what I said to her as what she said to me, Jeffrey.
and tempers. She was in quite a tiff
when I left,” Sands said with a smirk that Jeffrey couldn’t see, but felt on
his own face all the same.
the fuck did you say to her, you bastard?!” Jeffrey yelled, his temper going
from pissed off and irritated to nuclear fucking meltdown in a matter of
seconds. The woman beside them
unfortunately chose that moment to wake up.
the hell are you screaming about? It’s
late, go back to sleep,” the woman who could have been Salida’s sister said,
rolling over in bed to look at them. One
minute she had been looking up at them, sleepy-eyed and annoyed to have been
awoken by his screams, the next she was gasping like a fish out of water, her
throat having been slit from ear to fucking ear.
was much too late to save herself.
began to flow in thick rivulets down the sides of her neck and onto the sheets
and his bare skin.
“Who’s the psychopath now?” Jeffrey asked coldly, looking down at the
bloodied knife in Sands’ hand. The knife
Salida had held on herself last night.
thought, his eyes going wide.
“Where are we going to dump the body?” Sands asked.
******************************
Salida had been on the edge of
falling into a restless sleep when she heard a door slam and raised voices
coming from another room in Sands’ suite.
Not that there hadn’t been raised voices some time before, she thought
to herself, but these were different.
They were angry, and not yelling so much as
sounding almost direly intense. For a
moment she contemplated staying in bed and letting whoever had the problem work
it out themselves, but then she sighed.
having a problem.
Groaning, she got out of bed, still fully dressed in everything but her
shoes. She walked to the door of her
room, pausing halfway there when she heard the talking stop.
part of her whispered, but she’d come this far so she might as well go all the
way.
She slowly opened the door to her chosen room and stepped into the
hallway . . .
. . . only to be thrown into the wall, face
first, her cheekbone hitting it painfully.
Jeffrey froze his place when he heard a familiar sounding whimper of
pain in the dark. “Oh God, vixen?
dark for? I could have fucking killed
you!” Jeffrey screamed, annoyed at her carelessness.
now, he probably could have killed
her on accident before he even realized.
Salida relaxed, realizing her husband was the one who’d just
y-sly-slammed her into the wall. “I
was about.” Jeffrey let her turn away
from the wall to face him. Continuing,
she raised her hand to her sore face. “I
assumed he’d said something to upset you or something, and I wanted to step in before
someone lost it.”
Jeffrey laughed then, and the sound chilled the blood in her veins.
vixen. I just fucking fled the scene of
a fucking homicide thanks to my resident sociopathic bastard here,” he said, gesturing
violently at his temple.
like I haven’t had to do the same, you fucking hypocritical bastard,” Sands
muttered.
Salida shook her head at that, as if she didn’t believe what she was
hearing. And then almost comically she
added, “Sands, I told you to go get fucking laid.
come on,” Sands defended himself in an almost pouting tone of voice, “you’re
fucking married to Jeffrey. He must have
told you that between the two of us, sex and murder are almost
inseparable. Except in your case, that
is,” he added as an afterthouglw~>
that’s rented under a pseudonym?” she asked.
Sands shrugged. “I suppose,” he
said at last, rather amused that she seemed to take this all in stride.
fuckhead here failed to mention is that when we left, the cops had already been
called. I don’t know how they discovered
the body so fucking quickly, and I don’t fucking care.
vacationing a little early, vixen. You
ready?”
She sighed, thinking longingly of bed, but nodded, knowing this was
something she was going to have to adjust to as well.
be here long enough for me to unpack,” she said to whoever was listening.
She reached out and took Jeffrey by the left hand, having noticed that
her husband was left-handed. She then
ducked her head back into the room and grabbed the suitcase that was sitting
right by the door.
“I’m sorry about all of this, vixen,” Jeffrey said with a sigh.
not. Why should I be?
anything,” Sands added with a frown.
Salida ignored him and spoke directly to her husband.
“Then whose fault was it?” Jeffrey asked, the frown already on his face
deepening.
“Whoever decided to put two
stubborn men in the same body, that’s who.
suggested Sands go get laid.
Sands?”
Sands winked at her. “You said
it, not me, sunrise,” he said with a short laugh.
******************************
“Are airports always this crowded
this late at night?” Salida asked her husband as she blurrily watched tourists
fly by, intent on going to wherever it was that was so fucking important to
them as fast as they fucking could. To
tell the truth, it was giving her a headache.
Jeffrey had just reappeared from the United Airlines counter, two
tickets in hand. She glanced at them,
curious as to where they goi going, but waited for an answer to her original
question.
Vegas, sunrise. What the fuck do you
expect?
fucking playground. Isn’t that what
people say? Of course it’s fucking busy.”
the hell up, Sands. I’m still mad at you
for earlier.’
get over it,” Sands said with a roll of his eyes.
you feel any better,” he said with a smirk.
ever so much reassured. And now that I
know that as long as I never let you fuck me, I’ll live a long and happy life,
I’ll sleep peacefully for the rest of my life,” Salida threw back.
jab, but Jeffrey placed his hand over her mouth.
“It’s bad enough that he and I always argue without having to fucking hear
the two of you going at it.”
but we haven’t ‘gone at it’ yet,” Sands said with a large dose of
innuendo. “However, if you’d like us to –”
to call a cease fire for the time being.
Then, turning her attention back to Jeffrey, she asked, “Where are we
going?”
Before he answered, Jeffrey took a moment to absorb the way Salida had
taken to focusing on different sides of his face, depending on who she was
addressing. Left for him and right for
Sands. Clever vixen.
“Well I had a craving for Cajun food all of a sudden and I heard
Orleans
going there,” he said with a truly warm smile, not a smirk, holding up two
first-class tickets.
Salida looked at the tickets, then at Jeffrey, and back and forth once
more before murmuring, “Remind me to thank you ever so thoroughly once we no
longer have an audience. Although, I
think it’s only fair to inform you that I plan on sleeping the entire way
there.” She stood up from the
uncomfortable airport chair and stretched.
“When do we leave?” she asked through a yawn.
“Our flight’s in a little less than a half an hour, vixen.
you want. Although,” he drawled, his
face taking on a wicked smirk, “don’t you want to join the mile-high club?”
Sands rolled his eyes at that but didn’t comment, knowing that he would
have been ignored.
Salida simply blinked at him several times before answering.
cubicle-like, extremely unsanitary bathroom that’s only a step up from a
port-a-potty,” she stated in disbelief. “What
makes you think I’d say yes to something like that?”
“Maybe he thinks you’re as easy as some two-bit whore.
their mouth.
Jeffrey waited for a moment; his mouth still clamped shut until he
figured Sands had gotten the message. “You
have no sense of adventure, vixen,” he said with a slight pout.
“If you mean I don’t want to get some horribly unpleasant disease, then
yes, you’re right. Not to mention that a
three by three cubicle doesn’t seem like an . . .
inspiring setting.”
“Don’t mind him, he’s just a horny bastard,” Sands said with smirk.
a slight sigh.
only you’d stop then,” she snapped.
picking fights, but she didn’t care.
“What’s wrong? Past your bedtime,
sunrise?”
Jeffrey groaned. He wasn’t
fucking used to feeling like the mature one in a conversation, nor the rational
one, but this was fucking ridiculous. “Sands,
shut the fuck up, you bastard. Vixen,
you’re only encouraging him. I don’t
want to have to put up with this all the fucking way to
Orleans
Salida simply pouted, because she knew he was right and she wasn’t going
to win a conversation at the moment.
However, she hadn’t calculated what the effect of her out-thrust lip and
wide eyes would be on her husband.
Jeffrey leaned forward and took her out-thrust lip between his own,
nibbling on it a bit forcefully. His
nibble soon turned into a passionate kiss that left the both of them
breathless.
“See? I told you he was a horny
bastard,” Sands said in a breathy tone of voice.
For once, Salida ignored the opportunity to spar verbally with
Sands. Instead she watched her husband .
. . getting a wicked thought as she did.
Cupping his face in both hands, she started placing kisses over his
face, as she whispered in what was supposed to be a love-struck voice, “I love
you, Jeffy.” She heard a moan – and
while it could have come from either man, she sincerely hoped it’d come from
Sands. “You’re just my little cupcake,
aren’t you?” she cooed, making sure Sands had no desire to stick around any
longer.
was very devious of you, vixen,” Jeffrey said with a smirk.
right? Because honestly, I’ll be
extremely fucking happy if you don’t ever do that again,” he said with a wince
that caused her to laugh.
again. “We should head towards our gate,
shouldn’t we?”
Jeffrey checked his watch. “Fuck,
yeah we should. Let’s fucking blow this
town, sugarbutt,” he said with a smirk.
******************************
Salida and Jeffrey soon found themselves seated in the first-class
section of a newer 747. Jeffrey was
seated by the window, and Salida was sitting to his right, trying to pay
attention to the stewardess who was explaining what to do in case of an emergency
water landing. Salida bit back the
comment that in case of an emergency water landing, the impact alone would
probably kill a lot of the passengers.
The stewardess giving the lecture moved on to give it to coach, and two
other women moved in to make sure that their first-class passengers were
comfortable. When they got to Salida and
Jeffrey, the woman asked for a blanket and a pillow, fully intending on getting
some sleep. The flight attendant handed
them over, and Salida took them, but Jeffrey soon removed them from her
hands. “You’ll get them back after we
take off,” he promised.
Salida looked at him for a moment, but didn’t say anything; all the
anger-fueled energy that she’d been running off of was
leaving her.
This time, Jeffrey’s word was his bond, and once the seatbelt sign had
turned off, he reached over and unbuckled her seatbelt.
guided her head down to rest on it, spreading the blanket over her.
before arranging herself so she was facing his chest.
to all appearances, went to sleep.
******************************
Sands awoke a few hours later to
find that his legs had gone completely asleep under
him. He looked down with a confused look
on his face and frowned to see Salida stretched out on top of his lap,
he asked softly, not necessarily wanting to wake her for some reason.
wasn’t one he could see. He sighed and
leaned his head back in the seat briefly before looking down at her again.
her breath hot through his shirt. He
reached up a hand tentatively to her face to move aside a stray lock of hair,
praying that she wouldn’t wake up. He
knew that if she did and saw what he was doing, there would be . . . fireworks.
I
probably shouldn’t be fucking doing this at all, he thought with a frown.
didn’t entirely understand.
yelling at me, he thought with a smirk.
Suddenly, Salida murmured Jeffrey’s name and moved into his hand’s
caress, not opening her eyes. Sands
froze, his eyes going wide. She murmured
a few more unintelligible words before growing silent and motionlesse moe more.
It was only then that Sands pulled his
hand back as if he had been burned.
that, he would not have been pleased.
leaning far back into the seat, praying for sleep to take him again.