Just a little something for the budding Ryodan/Dani lovers out there! Please also check out my LJ.
Run-run-run. Fast-fast-FAST! Instead of giving in to her instincts, Dani yanked the sword free from her wriggling prey and glanced over her shoulder with only a smidgen of trepidation. She wasn't stupid. If it were an unseelie, she'd have known and would have been out of there and out of the city before they could say, "Burn the sidhe-seer!" In fact, she was sure she knew exactly what, if not who, it was.
"Oh feckin' hell..." She muttered under her breath.
It was her heightened sense of smell that tipped her off, her eyesight that confirmed her fears--suspicions! Jeez, I'm no scurrying mouse. Dani had a good idea of who it would be. Not only did they all resemble Barrons--yum--and move like him, but they also all smelled similar. She couldn't describe it, even when she spent endless minutes trying to as she hacked her way through the sunny afternoon streets. It was just masculine, and having spent most of her life locked up with a bunch of women and girls, it usually made the small hairs along her back and arms stand up. Right now they were doing just that.
"Such language. Is that what they teach you at that...convent?" Ryodan stood a few yards away, close to the entrance of the alley Dani had lured a Rhino-boy down.
"Obviously feckin' not." She didn't bother denying it was basically a convent, if convents existed in hell. "And if you don't mind, I'm a tad busy at the moment."
Dani flicked her sword to rid it of the writhing blood and goblets of tissue trying to escape its killing metal. She couldn't help but admire it once again. Probably not the best idea when cornered in an alley with someone--something--that could survive a stab or two from her beloved weapon. Ryodan had gotten noticeably closer when she looked back. It freaked her out, how they could sneak around and move so quickly. It just wasn't...human.
She raised the pointed tip a tad in his direction but quickly lowered it when his eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly. She wasn't here to tangle with one of the nonuplets. Yeah, I looked that word up! Of course, hunting this close to Chester's was pushing her luck and she knew it.
"Did Mac not tell you the rules?"
His hands were in his pockets and his shoulders relaxed, but Dani wasn't born yesterday. He was only at ease because he could pluck her out of the air and mop the floor with her.
"Like no killing inside yer club?" Dani pressed her sword to the ground and leaned one hip against it nonchalantly as she pretended to examine her nails.
She had time to react, but really, she could turn this into an all-out-balls-to-the-wall fight, or try to worm her way free by playing nice. So when one massive hand grabbed her by the chin and the other wrapped around her weapon-hand, slapping her against the alley wall, she tried to limit her reaction to a vicious glare.
Aimed at his sternum.
Christ! Were they bred in a lab?
Dani grunted as his fingers tightened around her own. Her bones would be crushed against her own sword-the irony.
"Very cute." She glanced up quickly at the sound of his voice. "I think I may have to amend that rule, seeing as you keep killing all my customers before they can even get inside."
He was talking very low, as if afraid someone would overhear them, and it made her shiver slightly. It was enough for him to notice, a small smile twisting his lips.
"Maybe we can come to an agreement--" she began, only to be cut off by a hearty laugh.
Ryodan shook his head back and forth very deliberately. She started to really doubt her sanity. Whatever had made her come out here and start purposely hacking at everything in a three-block radius of his club was obviously suicidal.
"Agreement? No, I don't think you understand." She understood all right. She tried to nod her head but his fingers slipping around her throat froze her. "This is how it works. I make the rules, and you follow them. It's really that simple."
Dani regained enough feeling to blink. "So, what yer sayin' is, no killin' inside yer club or within a block of it? I wouldn't want to be cuttin' into your drink sales too much, of course."
Feckin' Mary Mother o' God. I do want to die.
Ryodan closed his eyes and pressed the tips of his fingers rhythmically into the back of her neck. Dani was sure he was doing that instead of giving in to the urge to throttle her. When at last he looked back down at her, she wished she'd never have come without Mac. His eyes were alien, bright and clear, like some sort of animal surveying its prey. She hoped she never looked like that, even when she was slicing up unseelie scum.
He smiled again, a more human look creeping back into his eyes. It didn't help though. She'd seen what was inside, like with Barrons there was something other shifting, flexing in there, and it wanted to get out.
"You're trying to piss me off on purpose, aren't you?"
"No." She gulped, stopping a quiver as his fingers tightened slightly over her throat. "I can swear to you in all feckin' honesty--"
"You use that word a lot. Fucking." His thumb pressed against the pulse point beneath her jaw. "Any particular reason?"
This seemed quite the drastic change of conversation, pointing out her foul language. Even so, she blushed when he said 'fucking' and felt her pulse speed up a bit more. His searching gaze turned it into a flush and then she was sure her face turned white when he gripped her hair and leaned down.
"I think I might try to use it." He breathed across her lips. "Don't. Fuck. With. Me."
Dani had no idea what to do. Usually, superspeed would be enough to get her out of any situation, even with the unseelie. Did he just want her to agree with him? She'd cut off her own hand before she'd agree to do whatever he said. He seemed to be a man who didn't put much stock in words. Since her words always came out wrong, she decided to go a different route. She let her gaze slip from his dark eyes and move off to the side, consciously relaxing her body. Her free hand slipped from his arm. She wasn't even really aware that she had grabbed him when he'd done the same to her. Once her body hung limply in his grasp, she knew she'd made the right choice. Her heart fluttered in her chest. She wasn't sure what she was suppose to feel or even what she was feeling as she gave up.
Ryodan twisted his hand in her hair, and she closed her eyes, knees twitching together in response. A moment that felt nigh on eternity passed for Dani until he eased his grip. When his hands slipped away, catching a bit on her tangled locks, she opened her eyes and looked up. He was standing a few feet to her right, looking more intrigued than pissed now.
"Touch me again, and I'll feckin' rip your cock off."
"Nothing would give me more pleasure than to wrest that toy from your grip as you struggle in vain against me."
She sucked in a gasp of astonishment and surge of feeling as his gaze heated. She made it out of the alley and a quarter of a mile away with his laugh still rolling off her skin. Stumbling to a stop against a a newly repaired streetlamp she waited and looked back, only relaxing when he didn't appear around the nearest corner. She gulped in a deep breath and muttered heatedly.
"Holy feck.
I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it!