Arrant Nonsense

sunnyd_lite

Ten minutes later, he was blissed out and half asleep. He barely noticed when she trailed a series of kisses up his spine, from his waist to his neck. She rolled him over gently to his back and snuggled into his side.

He wrapped an arm around her automatically. "You're cuddly today," he murmured.

She kissed his pec, running her hands across his chest, working her lips up to his throat. "Want more than cuddles," she breathed against his neck.

"Married man, Ange."

"You're not getting out of here. You're never going to see her again. You're an immortal werewolf." She walked her fingers down his thigh. "A lifetime that long is too bloody long to be celibate."

He caught her hand before it went anywhere too personal. "I've been here less than a month. I'll cope for now."

"Your misplaced sense of loyalty is going to get us in trouble. They know me, and they all expect--"

"We'll deal with that when it happens." He moved her down to pillow her head on his shoulder, gently but firmly, and squeezed her. "This was nice. Don't spoil a good thing."

She gave a little growl and pricked him with her nails, but if she'd meant it, she'd have drawn blood. "You're trying my patience, choirboy." Moving his chin with her finger and making him look at her, she asked him seriously, "Will you be able to sleep now?"

He smiled lazily with one side of his mouth, but it never reached his eyes. "Think so. Thanks, Ange."

"Well, you know," she mumbled. "One of us has to stay sane."

She unlocked the door and he collapsed inward. "In more, Ben, I can't shut it." He scooted. "That's it, good boy." The deadbolt clicked home and she knelt beside him. "Easy. You're all right."

"Really not. Fuck." She reached for his shoulder. He got as far as the first word in "Don't touch me" before a series of facts crashed onto his head.

Janni wasn't here. (Thank god.)

He would probably never see her again, because getting out looked nigh impossible.

He'd been without human contact for too damn long. Angeline wasn't human, but then, neither was he, strictly. When he and Janni were in a room together, they were always touching, maybe no more than a hand on a leg or a lap as a foot pillow, but he missed that. So. Very. Much. So much it physically hurt sometimes.

Angeline had removed the collar and the wrist cuffs. She was murmuring to him, the same words over and over. Her hands weren't anywhere near him. "You'll be okay, Benji. Shh. I've got you. Breathe. You're safe in here."

The knot in his chest tightened. Despair crushed him. She wasn't, he couldn't--

He had to.

He let out a long, shuddering sigh, moved, and laid his head on Angeline's leg. She froze, and he was almost afraid she'd dump him off and leave him truly alone. "Ben?"

"Please."

"I don't...'please,' what?"

He could barely form words. "Please."

The backs of her fingers stroked his arm. "This?"

He closed his eyes. He could breathe again. "Yes."

"I can touch you now." It wasn't quite a question.

"Yes."

Ben...

That was Janni's voice. Soft hands in his hair, soft lips on his. Oh, god, was she here? Had to get her out. Couldn't move, not even to open his eyes. Should warn her, then, but couldn't talk either.

He sensed her being ripped away from him, heard her shriek cut off in mid-cry, smelled her blood, felt its warm spray across his face and chest.

Wrenched awake.

Angeline stood beside him with a hand on his cheek. "That looked like a bad one," she said.

"Don't touch me...and get out of my head," Ben rasped, without opening his eyes.

"Oh, I'm not in your head, dear puppy, not yet. But I know a vivid nightmare when I see it." She removed the hand. "I can take them away."

"Can you take...yourself away? Let me die in peace."

"You don't have any peace. You're in ghastly pain, you're having nightmares and panic attacks, and that wolfsbane isn't going to kill you gently." Her nails stroked the inside of his forearm. "I'm willing to help you with all that, but you have to give me something in return."

"I'll give you the finger." He did so. Weakly.

She exhaled against his throat. "See, Benji, this is why I like you. Even in a situation like this, you're spunky." Her canine nicked him under the ear, and her tongue flicked out and licked away the blood that welled up. "I could just take what I want, you know. The fact that I'm asking is something of an honor."

"Honor among vampires." He almost laughed, but it turned into a cough. "That's new." Memories of Idna, who hadn't asked. "Have I mentioned that I hate vampires? And that you're not helping? Because I do, and you're not."

The tall one weighed a cattle prod in one hand and the stun gun in the other, eyeing Ben crossways with an expression that wasn't a smile. "This," he said casually, holding up the stun gun, "puts out about five hundred thousand volts, according to the manufacturer. It knocked you out in the parking lot pretty as you please. However, we don't want to knock you out. Knocking you out is counterproductive."

"I'd prefer it," Ben rasped, spitting blood. His blurred vision had honed in on the cattle prod, which brought back all kinds of memories from Afghanistan. None of them were happy ones.

"Of course you would. Now this--" He hefted the cattle prod. "--only puts out about eleven thousand volts. It's actually one of my most favorite toys, because it's painful as hell but doesn't cause any lasting damage, so I can use it again and again." He paused. "Tell us what we want to know, and I won't use it on you."

Shit. Ben closed his eyes and tried to breathe. He thought about making something up, anything to stop them, but if they didn't believe the truth after all this, then a lie wouldn't convince them either. "I. Don't. Know."

"That's really a shame."

Pamela stepped out into the sun. "Are you gonna go all grr and try to eat us? Because I gotta say, Ben, that what I saw in that room was all kinds o' disturbin', and I ain't sure I want my daughter dating, not to put too fine a point on it, a bloodsuckin' fiend from beyond the grave. Let alone living with one."

"Been watching Buffy reruns again?" Now Ben just looked tired. "It's not like that, okay? I ate that dude because he was one of the bad guys and he hit Janni. And, if I can put my own fine point on things, they took three pints of my blood before they decided that using me as a live dialysis machine for a vampire would be an excellent idea, so I was strung out and damned hungry when I woke up from being dead. The nanotech can't heal me without food." He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. "Also, I'm not on the verge of a panic attack for the first time in, like, ever, and I'd like to stop and smell the roses before you break out the stakes and garlic. If that's all right."