Amanda Sefton (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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xp_logs2004-06-13 03:05 pm
xp_daytripper) wrote in xp_logs2004-06-13 03:05 pm
Entry tags:
Amsterdam - Sunday afternoon/night
Manuel and Amanda arrive in Amsterdam and meet Domino and the rest of the Pack. Tensions are relieved with a night of clubbing that gets seriously out of hand.
PG-13 rating for teh Nookie. It's also very long.
Airports were the same the world over, Amanda was finding. Amsterdam was no different, except for the change in the language. Cursing her lack of height, she scanned the crowd as best she could for Domino, who had said she'd be there to meet them.
Manuel looked around the airport with some amusement. Holland was already proving to be a veritable cornucopia of eye-candy, starting with the stewardess on the airplane who filled out her uniform quite nicely and the numerous young backpackers and international travellers, all of whom seemed to like to show off their respective assets. It almost made up for the near-disaster that was Muir.
They had picked a table close to where they could keep an eye on the de-planing traffic, and Domino sipped at her cappucino, her eyes roaming over the crowd. "Anytime now," she murmured dryly, and blinked as Mina laughed at her. "What?"
"You're eager to see these two," her teammate said wryly, an intrigued look in her dark eyes. "Are you that fond of the girl? Or that ready to torment the boy?"
"I am very eager to see Amanda," Domino said, sticking her tongue out at the older woman. Mina, as always, merely looked amused. "As for Manuel, I may have bitched about him, but he's not a bad kid." Lien snorted darkly, and Domino gave her a warning look. "No ball-breaking. Amanda's fond of him. And what the hell's with you two and the black leather today? Trying to be impressive?"
"Would we do that?" Mina inquired softly.
"In a heartbeat."
"Over there." Amanda finally spotted a familiar face sitting at a table with two other women, and grabbed Manuel's hand so she didn't lose him in the crowd.
Manuel allowed himself to be steered towards Domino and two truly stunning women sitting alongside near her. Cheering up somewhat, he smiled charmingly at the three of them. "Hola, Domino." he called over to her. "You look well. I take it your companions are part of the Pack?"
"Why thank you, Manuel," Domino said mischievously. "And yes, these are two of my teammates. Amanda Sefton, Manuel de la Rocha... Mina Rabin and Lien Sakai."
Amanda retained her dignity long enough to nod at the other two before pouncing on Domino and hugging her breathless. "You look good," she said, grinning at her. "Been having fun blowing things up?"
Manuel made fully sure that his dark sunglasses were firmly in place before extending a hand towards Mina, ignoring Amanda's exuberant hug for the moment. "A pleasure to meet you, Mina Rabin." he smiled at her, turning the charm on (empathically!) as far as he dared - and as a way to block everyone _else_ in the airport out. Crowds were not good for his nerves.
Mina gave him a delicate smile, taking his hand. "Likewise," she said, letting just enough electricity slip to make the fine hairs on his arm stand up. "Welcome to Amsterdam, Manuel. We've heard so much about you."
Domino coughed, noticing the interplay. "No large explosions lately, sadly," she said sorrowfully to Amanda. "Lots of other assorted fun, though." She shot a merry look at Lien. "Lien's been having all the explosions this month."
"What can I say?" Lien said a bit curtly, eyeing Manuel suspiciously. "I like Semtex."
Having released Domino, Amanda turned her attention back to the other two Pack members, sizing them up. "Nate misses the explosions, I think," she told Lien, grinning.
Lien relaxed a little, smiling at the girl. "He taught me everything I know about explosives," she confessed.
Manuel's charming grin slipped for just a second as he felt the hated electricity slide up his right arm. "Shocking." he said smoothly, then let her had (and the empathic charm) fall as soon as he could. "All good, I trust?" he said with a smile before turning to Lien with another smile, extend his reclaimed hand to her as well. "Pleased to meet you as well." he said with a smile.
"Hello," Lien said, the cool mask returning as she shook his hand.
Domino sighed, giving Mina a stern look. Don't play with the boy, she mouthed, and then turned back to Amanda. "So, why don't we get out of the damned airport?" she suggested cheerfully. "It's the least interesting part of Amsterdam, to be honest."
"Fuck, yeah," Amanda agreed; she hadn't missed the stressed feelings she was getting from the link, and she didn't like crowds that didn't involve dance music herself much. "So, who's here for this?"
"We'll be meeting the others for some decent food, first," Mina put in smoothly. "If that's all right. Then we can make plans from there."
"You two get to meet everyone but Hammer," Domino said brightly. "Don't you love how things turn out..."
Manuel rubbed his hands together briskly and spent a quick moment concentrating on reinforcing his spotty empathic shields. "Sounds delightful." he said, trying very hard not to notice the misandry vibe coming from the Asian woman, and Domino's unholy amusement at the entire setup. "We've got a few things we need to recover from the baggage carousel."
Rolling her eyes at Manuel, Amanda added: "_You_ have a few things. I have just the one bag. You pack like a girl."
Mina softened a little at Manuel's obvious discomfort. "It's quite a nice restaurant," she said, giving him a warmer smile. "Small and rather informal, but excellent food."
Manuel looked over to Amanda, and snorted at her. "I don't like looking like a vagrant, either." he shot back, clearly tired of the teasing. "Let's go."
***
"AMANDA!" Theo boomed, lifting her off her feet in a literal bear-hug. "How's my favorite witch - whoops, sorry about that, didn't mean to crush you," he said cheerfully, setting the wheezing girl back down. "Hey there," he said to Manuel with a friendly grin, and then waved back at the two young men sitting at the table. "That's Garrison and Vasily. They're antisocial. Don't let that worry you. Gar, Vas, wave hi or something."
The two of them blinked at Theo for a moment, then waved, almost in unison.
Manuel smiled at Theo - his simple friendly emotions were a balm on his stressed mind, especially after being bathed in misandry for the entire trip to the restaurant. "Hello, Theo." he said with a smile. He also waved to the two recalcitrants sitting back at the table. Adjusting his glasses again, he smiled thinly towards Lien with mocking - she hadn't managed to make him lash out or go insane yet, although the book was still open as the night wasn't yet over.
Once she'd gotten her breath back, Amanda gave Theo a friendly punch on the arm. "'M good," she said. "Much better than last time." Noticing Manuel's tension, she pushed some of her happy feelings down the link at him. "Nate says hi, by the way."
"Not managed to get himself mangled again yet, huh?" Theo said, his grin showing all his teeth. "He must be improving."
Domino opened her mouth to scold Theo for the bad joke, but frowned as she noticed the two noticeable absent faces. "Where are G.W. and David?" she asked instead.
"New job offer," Vasily volunteered unexpectedly, as they came over to the table and sat down. "They are doing, how do you say, the good-cop/bad-cop thing?" He tossed back a shot of what looked like vodka. "They will come soon."
"No need to ask who the bad-cop is," Domino snorted, then grinned at Amanda and Manuel. "David is doing his best to step into Nate's place. G.W. does need someone to play off, after all."
Manuel scowled as Amanda pushed happy-vibes at him, and he shoved back out of sheer irritation. His face kept its amused smile pasted on out of long practice and sheer habit.
Amanda repressed her own flare of annoyance at what came back down the link, and decided to let Manuel fend for himself, at least for a while. Taking a seat between Domino and Lien, she nodded at the vodka. "Flight was a bastard for bein' so short. That looks like a good idea."
Manuel nodded in agreement with Amanda. "I could also use a drink." He shot a sidelong look at Amanda, then as a "see what they're doing to me?" demonstration, her let her share in Lien's misandry for a few
seconds.
"Oh, barkeep!" Theo sang out. "Vodka all around."
Mina shook her head. "Not for me. I will have water, thank you," she said, giving the rather intimidated-looking bartender a gentle smile as she settled down beside Manuel, sliding her jacket off. Theo gave a wolf whistle and she winked at him. "Don't be foolish," she scolded him lightly and then turned the smile on Manuel. "Commercial flights are very tiring, I find. I imagine with your mutation, they are even more difficult."
Manuel shot a look and feeling of sheer undying gratitude towards Mina, his eyes glowing red behind his dark shades for a split-second before resuming his pleasantries mask. "Stressful, yes, but worth it." He admitted. Throwing caution to the winds, he focused in on her emotions to block out Lien and her misandry.
"Probably didn't help I had me nose stuck in a book all the way over," Amanda said, more to Domino than Manuel. "Nate's teachin' us Arabic an' Mandarin, an' I've been doin' some advanced readin'." She grinned up at the waiter as he reappeared with glasses and a bottle of vodka. "Cheers, mate, yer a lifesaver."
"I still can't imagine Nathan in a classroom," Lien said a bit quizzically. "How he's not going to find it dull..."
"I told you," Domino said, "he's all enthusiastic about it. Very cute, really." She grinned and threw an arm around Amanda's shoulders. "But you're going to stand in loco Domino, right, and drive him nuts? For me?" Amanda giggled, and Domino would have continued, but caught movement out of the corner of her eye and looked around in time to see G.W. and David walk in. "There you are," she said cheerfully. "Job all negotiated?"
G.W. nodded. "We leave for Iran in three days," he said quietly as he reached the table. "All of us, with the heavy gear." He smiled down at Amanda. "Hey, trouble," he said affectionately, and gave a polite nod to Manuel. "Good to see you again, too." David came up beside him and he remembered his manners. "Amanda, Manuel, this is David Rabin."
"Hello," David said a bit wearily. "I need a coffee." He went over and took the empty chair beside Mina, leaning down to kiss her cheek before he sat down. "Evening, love."
"Have you not been eating?" Mina asked gently, taking his hand and squeezing it as he wilted. She smiled a bit apologetically at Amanda and Manuel. "You'll have to forgive him. His mutation means he has a very unusual metabolism." She gave the bartender her best imploring look. "Could we get a cup of coffee? And perhaps a dozen sugar packages?"
"It can't be any worse than the Bottomless Pit of Brighton over there." Manuel said, nodding over at Amanda. He was revelling in his lack-of-misandry for the time being - he could even handle the wave of affection for the slender man who had just arrived if it meant not hating men for hours on end. Not for the first time or the last, Manuel wished he had his power available to him in full. However, there was an acceptable substitute - alcoholic oblivion. So he snagged a glass and the bottle, and poured himself a generous splash of the Russian alcohol.
Amanda shrugged. "Ain't my fault," she said mildly, nodding at David before answering Domino's question. "An' I've been workin' on it. Silly man thinks he can unsettle me by talkin' 'bout the fact he an' Moira have sex. I've been givin' him guff 'bout his dirty week in the Greek Islands."
"Nathan willingly taking a vacation," G.W. said with a chuckle, taking the other empty chair and gesturing at Garrison to shift over a little. "My Lord, he's certainly mellowing." The bartender came back with the cup of coffee and the requested sugar packets, and he chuckled at the way Mina was fussing. "Don't get him too high," he said. "We don't need him literally bouncing off the walls tonight." He turned back to Amanda and Manuel, smiling. "So how'd the rest of your term go?"
Manuel shrugged at GW. "I'm not really too concerned the whole academic thing right now. I have other priorities." he said, unconsciously fingering the dampener on his right wrist, and the scar tissue on his left. To steady his jangled nerves, he took a deep drink of the vodka.
Domino, leaving her arm around Amanda's shoulders, eyed Manuel a bit more kindly than she had yet today. "So long as you have priorities - "
" - it doesn't matter what they are," everyone but Manuel and Amanda said with her in unison.
Domino grinned at the startled look the two of them got. "Saying number three hundred and twenty of the collected wit and wisdom of one Nathan Dayspring," she said. "He's a big fat hypocrite, of course."
"Yes," Lien said dryly. "He has no trouble dictating other people's priorities to him. I think he believes it's endearing." David looked up from his coffee cup, frowning at her, and she raised a challenging eyebrow at him.
"Ignore her," David said, looking directly at Manuel. His fatigued demeanour was rapidly fading. "Lien is a sour bitch by nature."
"Love you too, asshole," Lien said pleasantly.
"Lien," Mina said, very softly, and Lien immediately found something very interesting about her shot glass.
"That sounds like Nate," Amanda said, jumping in to cover the momentary awkwardness. "Likes dishin' out the advice an' not takin' it himself." She tossed back another shot, feeling the muscles in her shoulders loosen as she started relaxing. "I passed everythin' but maths," she told GW, wrinkling her nose. "An' I've been workin' for a bit at a horse farm not far from the school. Strange's orders. Thinks I overdid the healin' stuff."
Manuel took another shot of vodka, feeling the liquor burn its way down his throat pleasantly. Maybe if he drank enough he would stop feeling. That would be a relief. Mina's emotions were steady and soothing, which was helping, but her adoration for her husband was starting to grate just a little.
"Amanda," Theo said with a deep, rumbling laugh, "Everyone at this table knows you overdid the healing stuff."
Domino shrugged cheerfully as Amanda gave her a mildly suspicious look. "What can I say? I'm a big gossip. I mean, it's not as if I didn't have to listen to Nate--" She cut herself off, smiling brightly. "So basically," she said, "You're not buying any of your own drinks while you're here. You either, Manuel," she added graciously, winking at him.
David's hands started to blur as he added the rest of the sugar packets to his coffee. "I think I'll have to just watch the rest of you drink," he said, the words speeding up as he went on. "A little out of whack today and if I don't get some actual food I'm probably going to start acting quite bizarrely, which would be very badsocanwepleasegetthemenusnow?"
"Superspeed?" Amanda asked, watching David with interest. "Wicked." She poked her tongue out at Domino, but let the matter rest.
Manuel barely glanced at the speedster, being busy reinforcing his delving into Mina's emotions and consuming as much vodka as his liver would tolerate. "Thank you, Domino. That's generous of you." he said to her gratefully.
***
The club was truly packed with bodies in motion. The temperature was enough to make a lifelong Bedouin sweat, and the sheer volume of Beautiful People gyrating to the beats being pushed out by the state-of-the-art sound system would make that Bedouin willing to forego the pleasures of Paradise. The Pack and their guests, by dint of being intimidating and well-equipped with cash, had acquired a table to use as a base of operations.
"Life is good," Domino said blissfully, slouching in her chair and sipping at her martini. "Quite good." She grinned at Amanda. "You look better than I expected you to," she confessed, leaning in so that she didn't have to shout. "But I don't mind being pleasantly surprised."
Manuel was out on the dancefloor, burning off a lot of the vodka he'd consumed at "dinner". Currently his dance partner was a local girl - very attractive, and most importantly - very shallow. But she didn't have the moves he liked to see, so he left her and cast about for another dance partner. Deciding to live a little dangerously, he worked his way through the crowd towards Lien.
"Well, are you just going to sit there and poach in your own hate, or are you going to get up and dance?" he asked her aggressively. "You've been doing your level best to hate me out of existence since we landed."
Lien tossed her long hair back over her shoulder, giving him a dark look. "Getting on your empathic nerves, am I?" she said acidly. "What a pity."
Amanda, interrupted from responding to Domino by Manuel's sudden reappearance, swore not-so-under her breath. "Distraction time, I think," she said to Domino. "I'll take Lien if you take Manny?"
Not waiting for an answer, she sld out of her seat (adjusting the skirt of the infamous Red Dress) and approached the Asian woman. "You up for a it?" she asked, jerking her head at the floor.
Lien raised an eyebrow, glancing from her to Manuel and then back again. "Why not?" she said almost amiably.
Domino watched Amanda and Lien go, then sighed and tossed back the rest of her martini. "Want to try a different kind of sparring?" she asked Manuel, sauntering over with a broad smile. "I'm almost as good on the dance floor as I am with with my knives." He didn't look happy,. and Domino reached up to pat his cheek, her smile turning almost fond. "Ignore her," she said. "I know it's easier said than done, but try. I'll get Mina to come over and dance with you too if you want."
"Christ, I feel like a weight around people's necks." he muttered as he watched Amanda and Lien head out onto the dancefloor. "Yeah, sure, let's dance." He told Domino, with a certain reckless glazed-over look in his eye.
***
Out on the floor the music was deafening, vibrating through Amanda's body, and despite the earlier tension, she grinned. This place was a lot wankier than her usual haunts, but the music was good and the people so very pretty. She watched Lien move, appreciating the woman's easy, dangerous grace and leaned in so she could talk in her ear. "So, how long have men been evil bastards?" she asked, with that irrepressible grin.
Lien smiled back, very slightly. "Since my last boyfriend tried to stab me while we were in mid-fuck," she admitted freely.
"That'd do it," Amanda said, nodding - if Lien had been expecting her to be shocked, it wasn't happening. "Manny can't shield that well, so yer makin' him right cranky. Which is givin' me the shits, since we're linked an' all." She shrugged. "Not that I expect you t' do anythin' 'bout it, just sayin, is all."
***
"You're not a weight," Domino was reassuring Manuel as she drew him out onto the dance floor. "You're just at a bit of a disadvantage. Not just talking about Lien, either."
"And you're a terrible liar." he told Domino with a smile as he started to dance. "She's been dipping my brain in battery acid since we landed. Have I offended her somehow, or does she normally hate me for no reason?"
"She's an equal-opportunity ball-breaking bitch these days," Domino said cheerfully. "You tried to be polite. Hence the violent loathing."
"Would it go better if I, I don't know, stabbed her or something? Played with her feelings? I'm really getting tired of hating myself, and I'm running out of people to use as shields," he complained as he moved. Despite the alcohol and the late hour, he really was quite graceful.
"Actually, sweetheart, I think that would just lead to her trying to kill you in your sleep," Domino said with a laugh of real amusement. "Anyone ever tell you you're a passable dancer?" She took a deliberate step closer, matching her movements to his.
"Several people, actually." he grinned at Domino, appreciating her own dexterity and skill on the dancefloor. "And you're not half bad - guess you got lucky that way." he said with a wink. "And speaking, as I was, of luck..." he leered.
***
Lien sighed, giving Amanda a wry smile. She was about to answer when Mina appeared, flinging an arm around both of them and beaming from ear-to-ear. "Oh, lord," she sighed, seeing the sparkle in the older woman's eyes. "You and Speedy Gonzales did something lewd in the men's room, didn't you?"
Mina threw back her head and laughed. "Several different varieties of lewd 'somethings', actually," she said, all but glowing. She winked at Amanda.
Amanda snickered, giving Mina an approving glance. It seemed the woman wasn't quite the pure goddessy type she seemed. "Guess he needed somethin' t' burn all that energy off," she said, with a wicked grin.
"I blew the fuses in that whole part of the building," Mina said, mock-repentantly, and then spun away, giggling, to land in David's arms as he came out onto the dance floor.
"They're quite sickening at times," Lien confided to Amanda. "Yet you get them out in the field and they're probably the best of us, apart from Nate and Dom." She shot a look at Domino and Manuel. "Speaking of Dom... do you want to go hit her for poaching? Because she looks like she's well on her way."
***
"Is that an offer I heard?" Domino asked Manuel wickedly, twining her arms around his neck. "Because I have been very sadly deprived since I got back from Rio. Northern European men are no fun at all."
Manuel seemingly tried to meld himself into Domino, matching her move for move, letting his body move against hers. "I think it is." he said into her ear. "Spaniards make for the best lovers of all." He grinned. "We know what women want, and we take great delight in giving it to them. At length."
***
Amanda glanced over at Manuel and Domino apparently trying to occupy the same space and grinned. "Thank fuck for that - might give me a break from the shite he's leakin' down the link." She laughed at Lien's raised eyebrow. "Dom might've said - I don't exactly have what you lot call normal morals. He's allowed t' have his fun, as long as I am."
"Hmm," Lien said, eyeing Mina and David, then glancing back at Domino and Manuel. "I suddenly feel like a third wheel."
"Well, you never know yer luck in a big city," Amanda said, tugging Lien's attention back to dancing. "An' 's still early yet."
Lien laughed, her first real smile of the evening slipping out. "True enough," she said. "And hell, if nothing else, a few more martinis will make it all good."
***
Domino laughed wickedly, making brief eye contact with Amanda to make sure there were no protests forthcoming. "Oh, what the fuck," she said cheerfully. "Little sis doesn't seem to mind. And Nate would have a cow, there's a big incentive right there." She reached up, touching the dampener thoughtfully. "You give me your word of honor you'll let me put this back on you afterwards and I'll take it off. How's that?"
Manuel's eyes widened just a little bit. "Now you're just being cruel, love." he said with a reproachful frown. "You don't know how to unlock it. But if you manage it, I swear to you on my name that I will put it back on once I've had my way with you."
Domino tilted her head, staring up into Manuel's eyes without putting up any kind of a front, trying to assess what she saw there. "What," she teased lightly, "Did you forget me telling you I can pick any lock on the planet? I wasn't exaggerating, believe it or not." A challenging smile tugged at her lips. "I understand you're a dangerous guy and all, but I find men are really fucking boring if they're safe. Not to mention being boring fucks."
Manuel quirked both his eyebrows, and _grinned_ at Domino. "If it's danger you want, danger I can supply. I can make you feel, well, just about anything I want. Ask Amanda, if you haven't already - one taste of me, and you'll never, ever want to go back." And as a free sample he projected as hard as the dampener would let him - a nice solid safe lust-wave, aimed right for her deep primal emotions that governed such things.
It was probably a good thing that Manuel had a fairly secure grip on her, because the feeling of need that suddenly pushed in on her - from outside, Domino realized dimly, but couldn't care less - was enough to make her knees go a little weak. "Well, that was cool," she said a bit huskily, clinging to him just a little. He didn't seem to mind. "Shit," she sighed, feeling oddly wistful all of a sudden. "I'm just getting so bloody tired of being the responsible second-in-command type here. Would you just drag me off to a corner and fuck me senseless or something? I'd be all grateful and so forth."
Manuel supported Domino as she went weak. They always did, at times like that, and he was well-prepared for it. "And that was me _blocked_. Now try to imagine me at full strength." he whispered into her ear, nibbling on it slightly. "Now, where to go, where to go..." he mused, studying the crowded confines of the club to find just the right spot to claim his prize.
***
Lien eyed Domino a bit wonderingly, not getting the body language between the two at all. "Definitely more martinis," she said, turning back to Amanda.
Amanda nodded absently as Domino's lust, filtered back and heightened by Manuel's powers and own feelings, hit her squarely. "Lots," she agreed.
"Do I even want to know?" G.W., having reappeared at the table, asked as Amanda and Lien came back with fresh martinis. His eyes were on Domino and Manuel, vanishing into the crowd.
"Depends if yer as straight laced as Nate," Amanda told GW distantly, her mind definitely somewhere else. She took a large gulp of her drink and tried hard not to launch herself at any of the extremely attractive Pack members - that could be awkward.
***
"Hmm," Domino said, examining the dampener as Manuel led her - well, actually, she really didn't care where Manuel was leading her. She wanted to stop worrying about the team coming apart at the seams and this job in Iran that sounded like several different kinds of hell, and this was precisely the ticket. "This isn't all that complicated," she said, bending down for a minute and nearly falling over - she was kind of excessively drunk at the moment, really - as she pulled one of her smaller lockpicks out of her boot. "Here I was thinking you were going to have to try and hit me or something so it would fall off--"
Manuel smirked as he led Domino into a relatively dark corner of the Club. "Why, do you like it rough? I could, if you'd like." he said. And then he pinched her behind _hard_ as she bent over.
Domino shivered at the pinch, straightening with the lock-pick in her hand and a wintry little smile on her face. "Since we're all with the straight-talking," she said, taking his wrist and applying her attention to the dampener as he drew her towards a secluded booth, "I generally have to settle for rough, Manuel. Settling... I hate settling..." Her voice shook a little with anger, and she felt something stirring inside her, something dark and hungry and not particularly pretty. "Can't fucking trust the men I get, can't get the ones I trust... I sympathize with Lien sometimes, I really do." The dampener clicked open, and she looked up at him, trembling with a fury that wasn't directed at him but at herself, or maybe just at the world in general. "I just want to not have to think, just once," she whispered. "And I want to remember this every time I move for the next two days, Manuel. Think you can handle that?"
"Then don't settle." he said, shivering as the dampener fell away from him, freeing his mind from its shackles. "I can give you everything you want. I can take that anger, and stoke its fires..." and then his eyes glowed red, doing exactly what he said, stoking the fires of Domino's inner hate "... or I could quench them, and bring you the peace you've never known." Again with the red eyeglow, and a feeling of utter serenity, of acceptance, descended upon her brain. He only let it sit there for a second or two before wiping it away, restoring her emotions back to the way they were. "You'll remember me. I can guarantee it." And his mouth descended to claim hers, his eyes blazing cherry red.
Hell of a kiss, Domino thought dizzily, not precisely sure which way was up at the moment. Part of her brain was screaming at her to pull it together - but not a very big part. The rest of her was clinging to Manuel, shaking with need and anger and bitterness that was almost choking her. "I told you," she whispered fiercely, forcing the words out. "I told you, I don't want to think..."
Manuel came up for air with a gasp and then pinned Domino against the wall as best he could. "I'm an empath, not a telepath. I can make you feel." he said, before claiming another rough kiss and projecting as much lust as he possibly could into her brain. The loop to Amanda he dampened somewhat, letting her get enough of it to desperately turn her on, but not enough so that she'd just jump the nearest person and ravish them.
***
Amanda whimpered slightly as the wave of feelings washing over her reduced somewhat. Partly-regretful and partly-relieved - it wouldn't do to embarrass herself in front of the Pack just yet - she finished her drink and smiled brightly at the others around the table, who were looking at her oddly. "So, who's for a dance?"
***
Exactly what I want, Domino said, or tried to. All that came out was something between a growl and a sob, and her hands clenched into fists around the fabric of his shirt as she fought that last, resolute shard of self-control, the urge to push him away. "Please," was what came out instead, almost in a moan, and she pressed herself against him almost desperately, reeling inwardly as pride fell away, all at once.
Manuel was more than willing to oblige, and laughed cruelly before he set to it. His eyes were still glowing demonically as he judged her wants, her needs as quickly as his mind could bridge the gaps - and then set his body to meeting those demands to the best of his not-inconsiderable ability. Such a depth of passion to Domino, such feelings that she kept locked away. All of it was his to play as he saw fit, the full palette of her feelings ready and begging for his touch. Clothes were shoved out of the way, hot flesh caressed with fingers and tongue, as gently or as rough as the need demanded. In his mind, his discipline broke and he widebeamed his primal, near-feral intensities into the brains of everyone around him.
PG-13 rating for teh Nookie. It's also very long.
Airports were the same the world over, Amanda was finding. Amsterdam was no different, except for the change in the language. Cursing her lack of height, she scanned the crowd as best she could for Domino, who had said she'd be there to meet them.
Manuel looked around the airport with some amusement. Holland was already proving to be a veritable cornucopia of eye-candy, starting with the stewardess on the airplane who filled out her uniform quite nicely and the numerous young backpackers and international travellers, all of whom seemed to like to show off their respective assets. It almost made up for the near-disaster that was Muir.
They had picked a table close to where they could keep an eye on the de-planing traffic, and Domino sipped at her cappucino, her eyes roaming over the crowd. "Anytime now," she murmured dryly, and blinked as Mina laughed at her. "What?"
"You're eager to see these two," her teammate said wryly, an intrigued look in her dark eyes. "Are you that fond of the girl? Or that ready to torment the boy?"
"I am very eager to see Amanda," Domino said, sticking her tongue out at the older woman. Mina, as always, merely looked amused. "As for Manuel, I may have bitched about him, but he's not a bad kid." Lien snorted darkly, and Domino gave her a warning look. "No ball-breaking. Amanda's fond of him. And what the hell's with you two and the black leather today? Trying to be impressive?"
"Would we do that?" Mina inquired softly.
"In a heartbeat."
"Over there." Amanda finally spotted a familiar face sitting at a table with two other women, and grabbed Manuel's hand so she didn't lose him in the crowd.
Manuel allowed himself to be steered towards Domino and two truly stunning women sitting alongside near her. Cheering up somewhat, he smiled charmingly at the three of them. "Hola, Domino." he called over to her. "You look well. I take it your companions are part of the Pack?"
"Why thank you, Manuel," Domino said mischievously. "And yes, these are two of my teammates. Amanda Sefton, Manuel de la Rocha... Mina Rabin and Lien Sakai."
Amanda retained her dignity long enough to nod at the other two before pouncing on Domino and hugging her breathless. "You look good," she said, grinning at her. "Been having fun blowing things up?"
Manuel made fully sure that his dark sunglasses were firmly in place before extending a hand towards Mina, ignoring Amanda's exuberant hug for the moment. "A pleasure to meet you, Mina Rabin." he smiled at her, turning the charm on (empathically!) as far as he dared - and as a way to block everyone _else_ in the airport out. Crowds were not good for his nerves.
Mina gave him a delicate smile, taking his hand. "Likewise," she said, letting just enough electricity slip to make the fine hairs on his arm stand up. "Welcome to Amsterdam, Manuel. We've heard so much about you."
Domino coughed, noticing the interplay. "No large explosions lately, sadly," she said sorrowfully to Amanda. "Lots of other assorted fun, though." She shot a merry look at Lien. "Lien's been having all the explosions this month."
"What can I say?" Lien said a bit curtly, eyeing Manuel suspiciously. "I like Semtex."
Having released Domino, Amanda turned her attention back to the other two Pack members, sizing them up. "Nate misses the explosions, I think," she told Lien, grinning.
Lien relaxed a little, smiling at the girl. "He taught me everything I know about explosives," she confessed.
Manuel's charming grin slipped for just a second as he felt the hated electricity slide up his right arm. "Shocking." he said smoothly, then let her had (and the empathic charm) fall as soon as he could. "All good, I trust?" he said with a smile before turning to Lien with another smile, extend his reclaimed hand to her as well. "Pleased to meet you as well." he said with a smile.
"Hello," Lien said, the cool mask returning as she shook his hand.
Domino sighed, giving Mina a stern look. Don't play with the boy, she mouthed, and then turned back to Amanda. "So, why don't we get out of the damned airport?" she suggested cheerfully. "It's the least interesting part of Amsterdam, to be honest."
"Fuck, yeah," Amanda agreed; she hadn't missed the stressed feelings she was getting from the link, and she didn't like crowds that didn't involve dance music herself much. "So, who's here for this?"
"We'll be meeting the others for some decent food, first," Mina put in smoothly. "If that's all right. Then we can make plans from there."
"You two get to meet everyone but Hammer," Domino said brightly. "Don't you love how things turn out..."
Manuel rubbed his hands together briskly and spent a quick moment concentrating on reinforcing his spotty empathic shields. "Sounds delightful." he said, trying very hard not to notice the misandry vibe coming from the Asian woman, and Domino's unholy amusement at the entire setup. "We've got a few things we need to recover from the baggage carousel."
Rolling her eyes at Manuel, Amanda added: "_You_ have a few things. I have just the one bag. You pack like a girl."
Mina softened a little at Manuel's obvious discomfort. "It's quite a nice restaurant," she said, giving him a warmer smile. "Small and rather informal, but excellent food."
Manuel looked over to Amanda, and snorted at her. "I don't like looking like a vagrant, either." he shot back, clearly tired of the teasing. "Let's go."
***
"AMANDA!" Theo boomed, lifting her off her feet in a literal bear-hug. "How's my favorite witch - whoops, sorry about that, didn't mean to crush you," he said cheerfully, setting the wheezing girl back down. "Hey there," he said to Manuel with a friendly grin, and then waved back at the two young men sitting at the table. "That's Garrison and Vasily. They're antisocial. Don't let that worry you. Gar, Vas, wave hi or something."
The two of them blinked at Theo for a moment, then waved, almost in unison.
Manuel smiled at Theo - his simple friendly emotions were a balm on his stressed mind, especially after being bathed in misandry for the entire trip to the restaurant. "Hello, Theo." he said with a smile. He also waved to the two recalcitrants sitting back at the table. Adjusting his glasses again, he smiled thinly towards Lien with mocking - she hadn't managed to make him lash out or go insane yet, although the book was still open as the night wasn't yet over.
Once she'd gotten her breath back, Amanda gave Theo a friendly punch on the arm. "'M good," she said. "Much better than last time." Noticing Manuel's tension, she pushed some of her happy feelings down the link at him. "Nate says hi, by the way."
"Not managed to get himself mangled again yet, huh?" Theo said, his grin showing all his teeth. "He must be improving."
Domino opened her mouth to scold Theo for the bad joke, but frowned as she noticed the two noticeable absent faces. "Where are G.W. and David?" she asked instead.
"New job offer," Vasily volunteered unexpectedly, as they came over to the table and sat down. "They are doing, how do you say, the good-cop/bad-cop thing?" He tossed back a shot of what looked like vodka. "They will come soon."
"No need to ask who the bad-cop is," Domino snorted, then grinned at Amanda and Manuel. "David is doing his best to step into Nate's place. G.W. does need someone to play off, after all."
Manuel scowled as Amanda pushed happy-vibes at him, and he shoved back out of sheer irritation. His face kept its amused smile pasted on out of long practice and sheer habit.
Amanda repressed her own flare of annoyance at what came back down the link, and decided to let Manuel fend for himself, at least for a while. Taking a seat between Domino and Lien, she nodded at the vodka. "Flight was a bastard for bein' so short. That looks like a good idea."
Manuel nodded in agreement with Amanda. "I could also use a drink." He shot a sidelong look at Amanda, then as a "see what they're doing to me?" demonstration, her let her share in Lien's misandry for a few
seconds.
"Oh, barkeep!" Theo sang out. "Vodka all around."
Mina shook her head. "Not for me. I will have water, thank you," she said, giving the rather intimidated-looking bartender a gentle smile as she settled down beside Manuel, sliding her jacket off. Theo gave a wolf whistle and she winked at him. "Don't be foolish," she scolded him lightly and then turned the smile on Manuel. "Commercial flights are very tiring, I find. I imagine with your mutation, they are even more difficult."
Manuel shot a look and feeling of sheer undying gratitude towards Mina, his eyes glowing red behind his dark shades for a split-second before resuming his pleasantries mask. "Stressful, yes, but worth it." He admitted. Throwing caution to the winds, he focused in on her emotions to block out Lien and her misandry.
"Probably didn't help I had me nose stuck in a book all the way over," Amanda said, more to Domino than Manuel. "Nate's teachin' us Arabic an' Mandarin, an' I've been doin' some advanced readin'." She grinned up at the waiter as he reappeared with glasses and a bottle of vodka. "Cheers, mate, yer a lifesaver."
"I still can't imagine Nathan in a classroom," Lien said a bit quizzically. "How he's not going to find it dull..."
"I told you," Domino said, "he's all enthusiastic about it. Very cute, really." She grinned and threw an arm around Amanda's shoulders. "But you're going to stand in loco Domino, right, and drive him nuts? For me?" Amanda giggled, and Domino would have continued, but caught movement out of the corner of her eye and looked around in time to see G.W. and David walk in. "There you are," she said cheerfully. "Job all negotiated?"
G.W. nodded. "We leave for Iran in three days," he said quietly as he reached the table. "All of us, with the heavy gear." He smiled down at Amanda. "Hey, trouble," he said affectionately, and gave a polite nod to Manuel. "Good to see you again, too." David came up beside him and he remembered his manners. "Amanda, Manuel, this is David Rabin."
"Hello," David said a bit wearily. "I need a coffee." He went over and took the empty chair beside Mina, leaning down to kiss her cheek before he sat down. "Evening, love."
"Have you not been eating?" Mina asked gently, taking his hand and squeezing it as he wilted. She smiled a bit apologetically at Amanda and Manuel. "You'll have to forgive him. His mutation means he has a very unusual metabolism." She gave the bartender her best imploring look. "Could we get a cup of coffee? And perhaps a dozen sugar packages?"
"It can't be any worse than the Bottomless Pit of Brighton over there." Manuel said, nodding over at Amanda. He was revelling in his lack-of-misandry for the time being - he could even handle the wave of affection for the slender man who had just arrived if it meant not hating men for hours on end. Not for the first time or the last, Manuel wished he had his power available to him in full. However, there was an acceptable substitute - alcoholic oblivion. So he snagged a glass and the bottle, and poured himself a generous splash of the Russian alcohol.
Amanda shrugged. "Ain't my fault," she said mildly, nodding at David before answering Domino's question. "An' I've been workin' on it. Silly man thinks he can unsettle me by talkin' 'bout the fact he an' Moira have sex. I've been givin' him guff 'bout his dirty week in the Greek Islands."
"Nathan willingly taking a vacation," G.W. said with a chuckle, taking the other empty chair and gesturing at Garrison to shift over a little. "My Lord, he's certainly mellowing." The bartender came back with the cup of coffee and the requested sugar packets, and he chuckled at the way Mina was fussing. "Don't get him too high," he said. "We don't need him literally bouncing off the walls tonight." He turned back to Amanda and Manuel, smiling. "So how'd the rest of your term go?"
Manuel shrugged at GW. "I'm not really too concerned the whole academic thing right now. I have other priorities." he said, unconsciously fingering the dampener on his right wrist, and the scar tissue on his left. To steady his jangled nerves, he took a deep drink of the vodka.
Domino, leaving her arm around Amanda's shoulders, eyed Manuel a bit more kindly than she had yet today. "So long as you have priorities - "
" - it doesn't matter what they are," everyone but Manuel and Amanda said with her in unison.
Domino grinned at the startled look the two of them got. "Saying number three hundred and twenty of the collected wit and wisdom of one Nathan Dayspring," she said. "He's a big fat hypocrite, of course."
"Yes," Lien said dryly. "He has no trouble dictating other people's priorities to him. I think he believes it's endearing." David looked up from his coffee cup, frowning at her, and she raised a challenging eyebrow at him.
"Ignore her," David said, looking directly at Manuel. His fatigued demeanour was rapidly fading. "Lien is a sour bitch by nature."
"Love you too, asshole," Lien said pleasantly.
"Lien," Mina said, very softly, and Lien immediately found something very interesting about her shot glass.
"That sounds like Nate," Amanda said, jumping in to cover the momentary awkwardness. "Likes dishin' out the advice an' not takin' it himself." She tossed back another shot, feeling the muscles in her shoulders loosen as she started relaxing. "I passed everythin' but maths," she told GW, wrinkling her nose. "An' I've been workin' for a bit at a horse farm not far from the school. Strange's orders. Thinks I overdid the healin' stuff."
Manuel took another shot of vodka, feeling the liquor burn its way down his throat pleasantly. Maybe if he drank enough he would stop feeling. That would be a relief. Mina's emotions were steady and soothing, which was helping, but her adoration for her husband was starting to grate just a little.
"Amanda," Theo said with a deep, rumbling laugh, "Everyone at this table knows you overdid the healing stuff."
Domino shrugged cheerfully as Amanda gave her a mildly suspicious look. "What can I say? I'm a big gossip. I mean, it's not as if I didn't have to listen to Nate--" She cut herself off, smiling brightly. "So basically," she said, "You're not buying any of your own drinks while you're here. You either, Manuel," she added graciously, winking at him.
David's hands started to blur as he added the rest of the sugar packets to his coffee. "I think I'll have to just watch the rest of you drink," he said, the words speeding up as he went on. "A little out of whack today and if I don't get some actual food I'm probably going to start acting quite bizarrely, which would be very badsocanwepleasegetthemenusnow?"
"Superspeed?" Amanda asked, watching David with interest. "Wicked." She poked her tongue out at Domino, but let the matter rest.
Manuel barely glanced at the speedster, being busy reinforcing his delving into Mina's emotions and consuming as much vodka as his liver would tolerate. "Thank you, Domino. That's generous of you." he said to her gratefully.
***
The club was truly packed with bodies in motion. The temperature was enough to make a lifelong Bedouin sweat, and the sheer volume of Beautiful People gyrating to the beats being pushed out by the state-of-the-art sound system would make that Bedouin willing to forego the pleasures of Paradise. The Pack and their guests, by dint of being intimidating and well-equipped with cash, had acquired a table to use as a base of operations.
"Life is good," Domino said blissfully, slouching in her chair and sipping at her martini. "Quite good." She grinned at Amanda. "You look better than I expected you to," she confessed, leaning in so that she didn't have to shout. "But I don't mind being pleasantly surprised."
Manuel was out on the dancefloor, burning off a lot of the vodka he'd consumed at "dinner". Currently his dance partner was a local girl - very attractive, and most importantly - very shallow. But she didn't have the moves he liked to see, so he left her and cast about for another dance partner. Deciding to live a little dangerously, he worked his way through the crowd towards Lien.
"Well, are you just going to sit there and poach in your own hate, or are you going to get up and dance?" he asked her aggressively. "You've been doing your level best to hate me out of existence since we landed."
Lien tossed her long hair back over her shoulder, giving him a dark look. "Getting on your empathic nerves, am I?" she said acidly. "What a pity."
Amanda, interrupted from responding to Domino by Manuel's sudden reappearance, swore not-so-under her breath. "Distraction time, I think," she said to Domino. "I'll take Lien if you take Manny?"
Not waiting for an answer, she sld out of her seat (adjusting the skirt of the infamous Red Dress) and approached the Asian woman. "You up for a it?" she asked, jerking her head at the floor.
Lien raised an eyebrow, glancing from her to Manuel and then back again. "Why not?" she said almost amiably.
Domino watched Amanda and Lien go, then sighed and tossed back the rest of her martini. "Want to try a different kind of sparring?" she asked Manuel, sauntering over with a broad smile. "I'm almost as good on the dance floor as I am with with my knives." He didn't look happy,. and Domino reached up to pat his cheek, her smile turning almost fond. "Ignore her," she said. "I know it's easier said than done, but try. I'll get Mina to come over and dance with you too if you want."
"Christ, I feel like a weight around people's necks." he muttered as he watched Amanda and Lien head out onto the dancefloor. "Yeah, sure, let's dance." He told Domino, with a certain reckless glazed-over look in his eye.
***
Out on the floor the music was deafening, vibrating through Amanda's body, and despite the earlier tension, she grinned. This place was a lot wankier than her usual haunts, but the music was good and the people so very pretty. She watched Lien move, appreciating the woman's easy, dangerous grace and leaned in so she could talk in her ear. "So, how long have men been evil bastards?" she asked, with that irrepressible grin.
Lien smiled back, very slightly. "Since my last boyfriend tried to stab me while we were in mid-fuck," she admitted freely.
"That'd do it," Amanda said, nodding - if Lien had been expecting her to be shocked, it wasn't happening. "Manny can't shield that well, so yer makin' him right cranky. Which is givin' me the shits, since we're linked an' all." She shrugged. "Not that I expect you t' do anythin' 'bout it, just sayin, is all."
***
"You're not a weight," Domino was reassuring Manuel as she drew him out onto the dance floor. "You're just at a bit of a disadvantage. Not just talking about Lien, either."
"And you're a terrible liar." he told Domino with a smile as he started to dance. "She's been dipping my brain in battery acid since we landed. Have I offended her somehow, or does she normally hate me for no reason?"
"She's an equal-opportunity ball-breaking bitch these days," Domino said cheerfully. "You tried to be polite. Hence the violent loathing."
"Would it go better if I, I don't know, stabbed her or something? Played with her feelings? I'm really getting tired of hating myself, and I'm running out of people to use as shields," he complained as he moved. Despite the alcohol and the late hour, he really was quite graceful.
"Actually, sweetheart, I think that would just lead to her trying to kill you in your sleep," Domino said with a laugh of real amusement. "Anyone ever tell you you're a passable dancer?" She took a deliberate step closer, matching her movements to his.
"Several people, actually." he grinned at Domino, appreciating her own dexterity and skill on the dancefloor. "And you're not half bad - guess you got lucky that way." he said with a wink. "And speaking, as I was, of luck..." he leered.
***
Lien sighed, giving Amanda a wry smile. She was about to answer when Mina appeared, flinging an arm around both of them and beaming from ear-to-ear. "Oh, lord," she sighed, seeing the sparkle in the older woman's eyes. "You and Speedy Gonzales did something lewd in the men's room, didn't you?"
Mina threw back her head and laughed. "Several different varieties of lewd 'somethings', actually," she said, all but glowing. She winked at Amanda.
Amanda snickered, giving Mina an approving glance. It seemed the woman wasn't quite the pure goddessy type she seemed. "Guess he needed somethin' t' burn all that energy off," she said, with a wicked grin.
"I blew the fuses in that whole part of the building," Mina said, mock-repentantly, and then spun away, giggling, to land in David's arms as he came out onto the dance floor.
"They're quite sickening at times," Lien confided to Amanda. "Yet you get them out in the field and they're probably the best of us, apart from Nate and Dom." She shot a look at Domino and Manuel. "Speaking of Dom... do you want to go hit her for poaching? Because she looks like she's well on her way."
***
"Is that an offer I heard?" Domino asked Manuel wickedly, twining her arms around his neck. "Because I have been very sadly deprived since I got back from Rio. Northern European men are no fun at all."
Manuel seemingly tried to meld himself into Domino, matching her move for move, letting his body move against hers. "I think it is." he said into her ear. "Spaniards make for the best lovers of all." He grinned. "We know what women want, and we take great delight in giving it to them. At length."
***
Amanda glanced over at Manuel and Domino apparently trying to occupy the same space and grinned. "Thank fuck for that - might give me a break from the shite he's leakin' down the link." She laughed at Lien's raised eyebrow. "Dom might've said - I don't exactly have what you lot call normal morals. He's allowed t' have his fun, as long as I am."
"Hmm," Lien said, eyeing Mina and David, then glancing back at Domino and Manuel. "I suddenly feel like a third wheel."
"Well, you never know yer luck in a big city," Amanda said, tugging Lien's attention back to dancing. "An' 's still early yet."
Lien laughed, her first real smile of the evening slipping out. "True enough," she said. "And hell, if nothing else, a few more martinis will make it all good."
***
Domino laughed wickedly, making brief eye contact with Amanda to make sure there were no protests forthcoming. "Oh, what the fuck," she said cheerfully. "Little sis doesn't seem to mind. And Nate would have a cow, there's a big incentive right there." She reached up, touching the dampener thoughtfully. "You give me your word of honor you'll let me put this back on you afterwards and I'll take it off. How's that?"
Manuel's eyes widened just a little bit. "Now you're just being cruel, love." he said with a reproachful frown. "You don't know how to unlock it. But if you manage it, I swear to you on my name that I will put it back on once I've had my way with you."
Domino tilted her head, staring up into Manuel's eyes without putting up any kind of a front, trying to assess what she saw there. "What," she teased lightly, "Did you forget me telling you I can pick any lock on the planet? I wasn't exaggerating, believe it or not." A challenging smile tugged at her lips. "I understand you're a dangerous guy and all, but I find men are really fucking boring if they're safe. Not to mention being boring fucks."
Manuel quirked both his eyebrows, and _grinned_ at Domino. "If it's danger you want, danger I can supply. I can make you feel, well, just about anything I want. Ask Amanda, if you haven't already - one taste of me, and you'll never, ever want to go back." And as a free sample he projected as hard as the dampener would let him - a nice solid safe lust-wave, aimed right for her deep primal emotions that governed such things.
It was probably a good thing that Manuel had a fairly secure grip on her, because the feeling of need that suddenly pushed in on her - from outside, Domino realized dimly, but couldn't care less - was enough to make her knees go a little weak. "Well, that was cool," she said a bit huskily, clinging to him just a little. He didn't seem to mind. "Shit," she sighed, feeling oddly wistful all of a sudden. "I'm just getting so bloody tired of being the responsible second-in-command type here. Would you just drag me off to a corner and fuck me senseless or something? I'd be all grateful and so forth."
Manuel supported Domino as she went weak. They always did, at times like that, and he was well-prepared for it. "And that was me _blocked_. Now try to imagine me at full strength." he whispered into her ear, nibbling on it slightly. "Now, where to go, where to go..." he mused, studying the crowded confines of the club to find just the right spot to claim his prize.
***
Lien eyed Domino a bit wonderingly, not getting the body language between the two at all. "Definitely more martinis," she said, turning back to Amanda.
Amanda nodded absently as Domino's lust, filtered back and heightened by Manuel's powers and own feelings, hit her squarely. "Lots," she agreed.
"Do I even want to know?" G.W., having reappeared at the table, asked as Amanda and Lien came back with fresh martinis. His eyes were on Domino and Manuel, vanishing into the crowd.
"Depends if yer as straight laced as Nate," Amanda told GW distantly, her mind definitely somewhere else. She took a large gulp of her drink and tried hard not to launch herself at any of the extremely attractive Pack members - that could be awkward.
***
"Hmm," Domino said, examining the dampener as Manuel led her - well, actually, she really didn't care where Manuel was leading her. She wanted to stop worrying about the team coming apart at the seams and this job in Iran that sounded like several different kinds of hell, and this was precisely the ticket. "This isn't all that complicated," she said, bending down for a minute and nearly falling over - she was kind of excessively drunk at the moment, really - as she pulled one of her smaller lockpicks out of her boot. "Here I was thinking you were going to have to try and hit me or something so it would fall off--"
Manuel smirked as he led Domino into a relatively dark corner of the Club. "Why, do you like it rough? I could, if you'd like." he said. And then he pinched her behind _hard_ as she bent over.
Domino shivered at the pinch, straightening with the lock-pick in her hand and a wintry little smile on her face. "Since we're all with the straight-talking," she said, taking his wrist and applying her attention to the dampener as he drew her towards a secluded booth, "I generally have to settle for rough, Manuel. Settling... I hate settling..." Her voice shook a little with anger, and she felt something stirring inside her, something dark and hungry and not particularly pretty. "Can't fucking trust the men I get, can't get the ones I trust... I sympathize with Lien sometimes, I really do." The dampener clicked open, and she looked up at him, trembling with a fury that wasn't directed at him but at herself, or maybe just at the world in general. "I just want to not have to think, just once," she whispered. "And I want to remember this every time I move for the next two days, Manuel. Think you can handle that?"
"Then don't settle." he said, shivering as the dampener fell away from him, freeing his mind from its shackles. "I can give you everything you want. I can take that anger, and stoke its fires..." and then his eyes glowed red, doing exactly what he said, stoking the fires of Domino's inner hate "... or I could quench them, and bring you the peace you've never known." Again with the red eyeglow, and a feeling of utter serenity, of acceptance, descended upon her brain. He only let it sit there for a second or two before wiping it away, restoring her emotions back to the way they were. "You'll remember me. I can guarantee it." And his mouth descended to claim hers, his eyes blazing cherry red.
Hell of a kiss, Domino thought dizzily, not precisely sure which way was up at the moment. Part of her brain was screaming at her to pull it together - but not a very big part. The rest of her was clinging to Manuel, shaking with need and anger and bitterness that was almost choking her. "I told you," she whispered fiercely, forcing the words out. "I told you, I don't want to think..."
Manuel came up for air with a gasp and then pinned Domino against the wall as best he could. "I'm an empath, not a telepath. I can make you feel." he said, before claiming another rough kiss and projecting as much lust as he possibly could into her brain. The loop to Amanda he dampened somewhat, letting her get enough of it to desperately turn her on, but not enough so that she'd just jump the nearest person and ravish them.
***
Amanda whimpered slightly as the wave of feelings washing over her reduced somewhat. Partly-regretful and partly-relieved - it wouldn't do to embarrass herself in front of the Pack just yet - she finished her drink and smiled brightly at the others around the table, who were looking at her oddly. "So, who's for a dance?"
***
Exactly what I want, Domino said, or tried to. All that came out was something between a growl and a sob, and her hands clenched into fists around the fabric of his shirt as she fought that last, resolute shard of self-control, the urge to push him away. "Please," was what came out instead, almost in a moan, and she pressed herself against him almost desperately, reeling inwardly as pride fell away, all at once.
Manuel was more than willing to oblige, and laughed cruelly before he set to it. His eyes were still glowing demonically as he judged her wants, her needs as quickly as his mind could bridge the gaps - and then set his body to meeting those demands to the best of his not-inconsiderable ability. Such a depth of passion to Domino, such feelings that she kept locked away. All of it was his to play as he saw fit, the full palette of her feelings ready and begging for his touch. Clothes were shoved out of the way, hot flesh caressed with fingers and tongue, as gently or as rough as the need demanded. In his mind, his discipline broke and he widebeamed his primal, near-feral intensities into the brains of everyone around him.