Chapter 7: Hesitation Marks

Phoenix: Saturday Midnight

I woke up with a horrible neck cramp from sleeping on Vaughan's comfy chair as Taffy shook me awake. I could sense the dueling brands on Taffy before I rubbed the darkness out of my eyes. "Up and at 'em, bub. I'm taking you home."

I gurgled a confused question.

"Erin told me she stranded you here. So, I'm taking you home. I've spent enough nights in those horrible chairs. I've got back problems now." She yanked me out of the chair.

I stumbled, I leaned forward to grab something to support myself. My hands landed on her rather remarkable chest. "That's probably not why you have back problems," I mumbled.

"Oh, shut up," she laughed. "Don't say anything bad about the girls. I paid good money for them! They don't cause problems." She dragged me out of the building. "C'mon, let's get you into bed."

I looked at the two marks feuding, doing collateral damage to her psyche, and remembered what I had to do. I looked up at her, and brought my full suite of seductive tools to bear. "Join me?"

She just rolled her eyes. I never said I was any good at seduction. Hell, my recent successes were all thanks to the mojo. I was too tired to make any additional effort, so I let her lead me over to her SUV - its pink paint matched the Taffy's signature bubblegum hair. She loaded me into the passenger seat, where my head almost immediately hit the door's window with a thunk, and I began snoozing.

My dreams were filled with storm clouds and a barren landscape. The ground was shifting beneath my feet. I heard weeping. It sounded in pain.

I called out. "Hello?" Unfortunately, the wind drowned my voice. So, staggering across the quaking ground, I started looking for the source of the wailing sobs that cut the air like a knife.

I stumbled down the inside slopes of a gully, and found a young woman, maybe 15 years old. She had pink hair, like Taffy, done up into pigtails. She was slender - her breasts were only just starting to show. She was curled up into a ball, whimpering with fear. I put my hand on her shoulder. "Taffy?" She looked up at me, recoiling, as though my touch had burned her.

"Eric?" Her voice was so small, then it turned harsh. "You shouldn't be here!"

Thunder cracked in the air, and rain started falling. The ground almost immediately started turning to mud. Taffy started sinking into the quagmire. She reached out to me. "Eric! Help!"

I grabbed at her and started pulling her out of the mire. But the muck was stronger. Lightning hit the ground at the top of the gully, knocking me off my feet. Suddenly, I was embrangled in the struggle, sinking as well. I reached out, looking for anything that I could use to drag us out. My hand found a gnarled root. Clutching at it with one hand, I wrapped my other arm around her nubile form as I pulled us out of the gully.

The hairs all over my body started standing on edge - they say lightning never strikes twice, but it looked like it was about to change its ways. There was no time to move, so I reflexively put my hand up as a shield. Suddenly, there was a flash of multicolored light, and a shower of sparks exploded above me. I'd stopped the lightning strike.

Taffy was clinging to me, her adolescent dream-body molding to mine. She looked up at me, her eyes shining with gratitude. "Wake up, bucko," she said. "You're home."

The broken dreamscape faded from my view as I opened my eyes. I was back in the car, and sure enough, there was my house. "Thanks for the ride," I said, opening the door.

"Hold up a minute. I'll make sure you're tucked in." I gave her a look. "I'm a nurse," she added, "I like taking care of people." Her eyes grew soft as she gave a smile. I chuckled.

She led me up the walk, in the front door, and up the stairs. I kicked off my sandals and almost immediately collapsed on the bed.

"No, no, get up! I'm getting you under the covers." I gave her another look, she just blushed. So I heaved myself back onto my feet. She pulled off my shirt, then yanked off my shorts. I tried to pull down my underwear, but her hands stopped me. "Those are staying on," she said.

After that, she pulled the covers back on the bed, making noises about my unmade bed, and how men never make the bed. Finally, I crawled in the bed. "Now," she said, stripping off her top, "don't get any ideas." She shimmied out of her bottom and climbed into the other side of the bed. She snuggled up against me; I could feel her body pressed against me like out of the dream. I fell asleep again.

My dreams were filled with pink-haired princesses needing to be saved from ferocious dragons.

Phoenix: Saturday Morning

I woke up to a peculiar sensation. Taffy was running her finger along the staples holding my head together. The sun was just barely rising out the window.

"Should you be doing that?"

"It's healing up nicely." Still, she stopped, starting to run her hand along my cheek. She smiled at me, a perplexed girlish smile. "What is it about you, Eric?" She sighed, contentedly. "You make me feel safe." Then her face twisted; I could see the shame and pain pulsing behind it. "Even Mr. Rocco doesn't make me feel that way." Hesitating for a moment, she blurted out, "He called me, you know. Last night."

"Really?"

"Yeah. He wanted to hang out, you know what I mean?" I nodded. "But I was already driving you home. I told him I'd try to come by after, but I got into bed with you, instead." She looked confused again. "Why did I do that?" She pouted, and climbed out of bed. Grabbing her purse, she said, "Now I've got to call him and let him know what happened. Oh, I hope he forgives me. I hate to disappoint him." The brand from Demetrius suddenly flared in her mind.

"You don't have to do that, right now," I said. "Why don't you come back and join me in bed?" My brand flared, and started to stifle his.

If I get back into bed with you, sport, I don't think I'll be able to control myself." His brand flared again. "And I'll disappoint Mr. Rocco, and I'll hurt Erin, too."

"She'll get over it."

She looked at the phone, then at me, then back at the phone. "Fuck it," she said, as my brand flared up. "He's probably asleep right now anyway. I don't want to wake him up." She shoved the phone back in her purse and tossed the purse on the ground, then looked at me and stripped off her bra and panties. "You better be ready for this."

I'd had morning wood since I woke up with her body pressed against me and her fingers dancing on my skin; I was ready. When she climbed on top of me, I showed her how ready I was. And I learned what Heather had been talking about - since I make love, as opposed to simply fucking, I could see Demetrius's mark slowly get consumed by mine. As I continually thrusted into her, I watched his brand dwindle and die. It was quite a turn-on, a most definite rush. I wondered if that's what all of us felt when we removed a brand, or if it was just my hatred of Demetrius giving me the thrill. Since I wound up entering her mind - and battling another's presence, the sex was more intense, and more forceful, than my average encounter. It ended with a screaming, thrashing orgasm from Taffy.

She leaned back on the bed, panting. "What the hell was that?"

"I erased Demetrius from your soul."

"No wonder I feel like a squashed grape," she added, laughing. "So, does that mean you're my Master now?"

"I guess," I made a face.

"What, I'm not good enough for you now?" She hit me with a pillow.

I climbed on her and pinned her down. "You know better than that," I said, looking her in the eyes.

"Well, then what was that face all about?"

I shrugged. "Not too fond of that word."

She started wriggling. "You have control over me, right? Like Mr. Rocco did?"

"Of course."

"So, there you go." Her grin was impish, so I attacked her with tickles, and soon another lovemaking session ensued. When we separated, she laughed.

"Oh man, Rocco is going to be pissed!"

"Sure, think of another man!"

"I didn't like him very much." She shuddered. "He saw us all as just playthings." Her eyes widened. "Shit, Eric. He's got Jordan, too. What are you going to do?"

"Um, pretty much the same thing?"

"Hot," she said, grinning. "Can I join?"

"Maybe after," I said. "I think the first time needs to be just her and me, you know?"

She shuddered again, sending a rather delightful jiggle through her tits. "Anything to save her. So, sex is the only way? Mr. Rocco didn't have sex with any of us - well, at least, not at first."

"Sex is one of the best ways to remove someone's control."

"Ooooh. So, you've got to fuck your way through Rocco's menagerie of babes?"

"Pretty much."

"How horrible for you."

"It's worse than you think."

"Goddammit," she said. "I still should call him."

"Why?"

"Otherwise, he'll suspect." She shuddered. "I don't think we want to make him unhappy, just yet."

"Oh, right, right. Yeah, go call him."

"Yes, Master!"

After Taffy left, I popped the headphones from the ILYSKN mp3 player back in my head, and decided to take a nap. The Ilyskn language murmured in my head. It was dark out by the time the phone rang, waking me from my reverie.

Phoenix: Saturday Evening

"Hello?"

"Hi honey," it was Erin's voice. "Truce?"

"I wasn't the one at war," I reminded her. "But I'm willing to take peace."

"I know you slept with Taffy."

"You knew it had to happen, angel."

"Yeah. I told her she should take you home. How was it?"

"It took a lot out of me."

"She's a firecracker."

"I finally got to find out."

"Can I buy you dinner? To make up for last night. Goose Egg?"

"I guess." I looked at the mp3 player; I got the feeling I was done with it. "Oh, I've got something for you."

"Great. You can give it to me when I swing by to pick you up."

"I can't wait until I can start driving myself again."

"I like it that you're dependent on me."

"Oh, shut up."

"See you soon, honey."

I got up and took a shower; all that sex with Taffy had left me sticky and sweaty. She was a very sweet girl. I was barely out of the shower when the doorbell chimed. I quickly threw on a shirt and some shorts, slipped on my sandals, grabbed the mp3 player off the bed and ran downstairs.

Sure enough, it was Erin at the door. She gave me a hug, taking a deep breath. "You smell clean."

I groaned. "Let's just get dinner. I'm still tuckered out from this morning."

She made a face. "Oh. Right. Taffy." Forcing a smile, she added, "How did that go?" It looked like a grimace.

This was getting eerie. "What's going on?"

"I'm trying to be reasonable. I have to accept that we're not together anymore, that we're just partners, just friends." Her face started to break, so I moved in to hug her. She pushed me away, and smiled. "I'm fine, see?" Her eyes were still shimmering from tears, but for once I knew better than to say anything.

"Okay, angel. Let's get going. Oh, wait!" I handed the mp3 player to her. "That's for you."

"What is it?"

"It's from ILYSKN. It's ... a training manual, so to speak. You just have to listen to it."

"Training in what?"

I shrugged. "Mostly their language. Remember that weird phone call? This will make it comprehensible."

"They have their own language?! That's creepy."

"Think of it like sign language, or braille. But kind of in reverse."

"Um, okay?"

"Look, just listen to it when you get home."

"Fine." She shoved it in her purse. "Let's get going."

The drive to the Goose Egg was an exercise in awkward silences. "I don't know what it is about you," Erin finally blurted.

"I'm nothing special," I said, shrugging.

"That's where you're wrong, Eric."

"I'd expect that sort of talk from my harem, angel," I shrugged. "But not from you."

"So the only way someone can ever come to love you is through mind control?"

"Seems that way."

"Oh, get over yourself, honey." She snorted as we pulled into the parking lot that the Goose Egg and the Audubon shared. As we climbed out of the car, Erin continued, "I wanted you to try to hypnotize me BECAUSE I thought you were great, not the other way around. You can't use your mind control excuse on me."

"Yeah, but..."

"But what?"

"You're kind of crazy, angel."

As we climbed up the stairs that led to the landing separating the Audubon from the Goose Egg, she hit me in the shoulder. "Only about you!"

I gave her a look.

She flushed, frowning as her face turned red. "Okay! Well, mostly about you." She made a face. "I'd never been jealous before you. I'm still dealing with that." She sighed. "Poor Lee and Hugh."

"I can only say what I've seen, angel..."

"Stop that!"

"Stop what?"

"Calling me 'angel.'"

"Why?" I opened the door to the Goose Egg.

"It still makes me gooey inside."

"Why didn't you tell me that before?!"

We took our seats. "I thought it was your way of saying you wanted to get back together."

I made a face.

"Seriously! We had some good times."

I smiled. "Yeah, we did. But we also had a lot of bad times. You seem happier with Lee and Hugh."

"I am. But I still miss you."

"You need to get over me."

"I'm trying! But I also want to keep you in my life. And you keep being wonderful."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be! It's something I need to get over."