S C A R S- (Roderic)

[Dominique]

The garage had been closed down for the night. It didn’t take much to do. An immaculate workspace made the process a whole lot easier. HOPE brushed downward over the light switch and her feet carried her towards the glow of the fires that illuminated the distant section of the underground of Vita Bella. The moisture of the water that pooled to swimmable depths could be drawn from the parting of her lips. Then she tasted the presence that was undeniable.

Somehow he had a hold on her and gripped her so hard that she could feel it even when she was out of his reach. Only one other came close to such and that was her sire. It wasn’t uncomfortable or unwanted. Quite the contrary. He had her every which way but loose and she was nowhere close to wanting to be free of it. It left her in a silent awe. Transfixed with the power of it she watched him quietly. It wasn’t the sweet little nothing flowery feels that Hallmark made a fortune slapping lines on card stock so lazy fucks could buy three versions of it and send it out to the semi special and keep them feeling worthy. Nor was it the ‘ermagerd I will never breathe again without you’ ********. No.

This was so intense that it was blood and bone deep. It would over ride self preservation and the pathetic, terminal human inspired vows of ‘it will be good until I suffocate then you are on your own’. **** all the till death do us part. What they were about had no expiration date, no limits, no conditions to be held to. So why not ask for what she wanted.

“I think it is time to cut to the chase.”

She finally said it out loud because it gave her the same sensation that one would get viewing the effects of a natural disaster. The rush of what could or should not be as the result. So fresh the that the scene was unstable, the screams of the dying could be heard, the scent of warm blood blooming beneath the space under her petite nose and the unseen particles of temptation littering the surface of her damp hungry face. In the silence between them her tongue curled behind her lips as she thought about how twisted it was that she wanted to get so deep within him that she would see his core. Bypassing all that bad boy exterior and get all of what he really was about beneath her nails. That’s right. She was asking to get her hands so dirty she could read him on the centers of her palms. There she would see the filthy monster that complimented her own. The ringmaster within his personal sinful circus was reachable and she was finally calling him out.

“Show me all the things that I shouldn’t know.”

Her inked form settled against a wooden crate as perched her backside on it. In the firelight she was bare at the shoulders and from her thighs down. It didn’t really matter that she was in a tank top and cut off shorts that barely reached her hips. It would make no difference that the name of the property they were deep in the bowels of was permanently scrolled across her lower abdomen for observant eyes to see. He had seen it all. All that she had. Any memory he asked for, any lie she ever told and every promise she tried to keep. He tasted all her fears she would never admit to, the failures that once haunted her and every sin she never confessed. No one had dug as deep as he had and swallowed her whole. Now she was ready to do the same in such a way it would mark her for the remainder of her existence.

[Roderic]

There is a space in Vita that is dedicated to...work and other tasks that may end up being messy. I do not know if it always existed, or if it came into existence because of me. I tend to believe the latter, but I don't like to assume either. Assuming things just isn't in my genetic make up. I work with facts and logic and not on presumptions. While I had not seen it before, does not mean that this place did not exist before Dominique showed it to me.

Currently, I am sitting by the fire that's roaring from a metal barrel in the room, looking down at the rabbits I acquired from off the property of Vita Bella. I no longer get the animals out of spite or trying to get a rise from Dominique, I think she's come to accept that on the rare occasions things might disappear from her property. It's nature really, and in the spring there will be twenty bunnies to replace the two I have taken.

I smell and hear her moving before I lay eyes on Dominique. She's coming from behind me, but I don't pay her any mind. Her presence doesn't threaten me or make me unsettled. If the woman wants or requires my attention, I will know soon enough, that I can be sure of. I pull a tool off from the crate to my right, and proceed to snip off the four legs of both rabbits. I've decided that these two will become the ever infamous jackalope and need some modifications. I will need to acquire other parts later, from other animals, such as a fox and a deer.

I give Dominique a quick glance as I set the tool down and move the feet off to the side. They can be utilized later on. She sits and I recognize that Dominique requires my attention, by both her words and by her seated position. I am confused as to what she means, and glance down to the rabbits. Perhaps I misjudged and she does care about these flea riddled vermin more than I suspected. I nod, and sit up taller, stretching out my arms as I allow her to know that she may proceed with whatever it is she is looking to discuss, my dark eyes on her. Not on her body, but on her face. Her eyes, because I find that while people say one thing, sometimes, their eyes say something entirely different. Not so much in her case, but old habits die hard. I want the truth and whole story before I make any input or decisions on what she wishes to discuss.

"I don't know what you mean." I tell her, my voice flat, because the sentence is too broad for me to understand. I work in absolutes and specifics, and I know she knows this by now. "You want to know more about me?" I'm not sure what else there is to know about me. Does she want my birthday? My biography in essence? "I will discuss anything that is not related to any faction information." I tell her, then move the crate with the bunnies to my left and scoot the barrel I'm sitting on, closer to her. "It is impossible for me to show you things. No one can show things, unless you require a trip to my home town. Is that what you are requesting?" I would not be against it, but I would definitely not be making a stop to my mom's apartment since she just met Skylar, my wife, about half a year ago. It would be too complicated and have too many questions and there was one other problem. Dominique didn't know that I was still, legally married. Not that I saw myself as being married. Not for some time. She made the choice to leave, and so I choose to move on about two months ago. I had filed for divorce, but had never gotten around to finding Skylar and giving her the paper work, because she flat out vanished from Harper Rock and anywhere else I could look and search. Where ever Skylar went, her scent and being just didn't exist outside our apartment months ago. Still, chicks usually didn't like to hear that there was some other woman; tangible or not, in your life.

[Dominique]

Dominique isn’t interested in his faction.That was at best an owly bunch of bad tempers that banded together so they can squeeze the joy out of the city drop by bloody drop. **** them. Of course luck would have it her sire is in there and so is Cubby. She would rather burn down their club house down and stuff a few of them like some of Ric’s creations were but she had a bit of an issue.Something creeped up on her and set in her like a deep sea fishing hook where it came to Doc. Some crazy curse, or so it seemed, That had her pretty much concerned with keeping the vampire who whooped her *** in that drawn out war that ended on New Year’s Eve 2013 essentially as happy as he could be and checking in on him from time to time. At first it was enough to have her in some awkward situations but time had calmed it down.

As for Ric there was a little more on her mind than who he ran with to pulverize **** when it didn’t behave. She watched him respond to what she had said and once it was over she allowed the silence between them to be drawn out a bit more. What did he think she wanted to do? Go meet his mother? No eyeroll took place but she thought about it. And no she didn’t want to visit the scenes of his crimes. She knew there were skeletons around and saw some of the things he did with some of them. Ric had bones everywhere. Visibly and also unseen. Where, what, when and why wasn’t her motivator for approaching him either.

“You can stop sweating. There are no laws to abide by here.” She glanced around briefly taking in the way the firelight danced against the dark stone walls that surrounded them. There once was. She had them nearly set in stone. Now they didn’t exist. ”Not anymore.So, you got kids? A wife? A boyfriend back home? A white picket fence somewhere that I may burn down if I don’t like the answers you give?”

Dark eyes waited and watched him. It was an interesting standoff of sorts. She could have looked for the answers herself but that wasn’t how she handled things. If she wanted to know something she asked. Not that it would change anything because really it wouldn’t. Everyone had ties to what they were. Some severed them nice and clean when the darkness recruited them. Others held onto them because they weren’t ready to let go. The shadow held on to hers like they were the last line she had left to save her rotting soul while she dangled over the flames of hell. She was right up there with Linus refusing to give up his blanket. Took a few years but there she was sitting in the warm light of the fires beneath Vita Bella looking at Ric and waiting for answers that were up to him to give or hold back.

"Don't worry about me burning your **** down." She wasn't a firebug. Not a career one.

[Roderic]

There is silence between us, and I wait. At some point Dominique is going to have to tell me what's on her mind, and I know she will. When she is ready and not a second sooner. I go back to playing with the bunnies while the silence is grows between us and a few seconds later, she's asking me a slew of questions that came from out of no where. We've never talked about this stuff. Why was there the need to talk about it now?

I wait until she's done with threatening burning down my stuff, and shrug. If she thought I was materialistic, or tied to anything I possessed or owned, she couldn't have been more wrong. I don't think that was what was implied, as I'm sure by now Dominique knows I'm a minimalist in every capacity, but I'm trying to understand why she's asking these questions. Why she cares.

Some months ago; the both of us had taken part in a 'cleansing' of sort. Whoever she had been tied to, and even intimate with was no longer any concern. The same could be said of me. That seemed fine and good enough for her, but I know that with time, things change. I've been seeing more and more of that lately.

"No kids." I tell her, before smirking a little. "Well, maybe. But not the snot nosed types." I say before putting the remains of the bunny back down. "Done for experimental purposes, some years ago. Might be one or two of those beasts running around still. Unlikely though." I finish before moving on. "No white picket fence. And no boyfriend either." I almost give her a look that says 'really?' but don't. If I liked dick, well, she wouldn't have seen mine as much as she did.

There is one question I've not addressed or answered, but the answer requires my full attention on her. It wasn't as if I was trying to keep things a secret from Dominique, I just hadn't thought of Skylar as my wife in a long time. Not since my back and forth with Jules. Doc, along with Jules and in some weird, fucked up way, Dominique, had been the only ones there for me when I was trying to process what it meant when someone just vanished off the face of the earth and what to do about that. Not that I, or even Dominique had known that in those moments. I hold no ill will to those who probably should have been there for me as they had been, it is just a fact that I think about in this second. People had lives; even the undead.

My eyes lock on Dominique's face, watching the flickers of shadows dance across the contours and curves of her skin. There is no emotion on my face, because whatever weaknesses I had when Skylar left without a word had been worked out some time ago. I could avoid the topic, having answered the others, but I don't lie. "I have a wife." I tell her, no indication of anything other than that. It is the truth. "She disappeared some time ago. Few months before I met you." I tell her, and that's all I can say. I can't tell her anything else, because I know nothing else. "I have not envisioned myself married to her since she vanished without a trace. She made the choice to leave and do, or go, wherever." It's that simple for me, though I know legally, it's not that simple. And for some women, who are the 'other woman' it may not be that simple. I was about to find out how simple or complex Dominique actually was.

[Dominique]

Dominique blinked. Nothing changed as far as an expression surfacing on her face. She still appeared unfazed even by the revelation that Ric had a wife. She didn’t doubt it was true. It wasn’t something he needed to lie about. He never had to lie and she would never give him a reason to. Why or how the wife disappeared didn’t tug at the darker side of her curiosity either. Not with as well as she knew Ric. Wherever she ended up certainly wasn’t her business. It was between him and whatever her name is.

Just like the fact the one she considered as close as one could ever get to being her husband was resting not that far from where they currently stood. It was of no concern of his either. It wasn’t like Verne was going to come up and interrupt their current conversation. He had not been heard from since the casket was dropped six feet under nearly fifty yards south from the spot her feet were planted. A few months for ric and his wife. A couple years for her and Verne. She finally nodded once and rather lightly. No white picket fence was involved in either situation. No kids either. At least not the breathers that needed to be dropped off or exchanged for visitation.

“I was right on all accounts.” She looked at him after she said it.

It was all pretty much what she expected. Being married for her was as limited and conditional as the human lives who abide by such customs and laws. She wouldn’t ever say till death did she part. Who would she be kidding expecting for it to be taken seriously? She already died. Well as much as she could without being a buffet of maggot and worm food. With all that they had seemed to give and take with each other she started to wonder what if she was looking at the one. Not the one she would have a piece of paper saying she is legally wed to because really that was a little silly seeing as he was already married,

There is a ritual that eternally binds two who enter into it. It was said to be unbreakable and offer protection to one another. So far it was working like a charm for Doc and Cyth. Why not her and Ric? Sure they both fought their own battles. They didn’t need anything or anyone saving their *** but there was something to be said for having someone willing to have your back at all costs if hell came knocking. Someone who you were willing to go in place of if came down to it. Screw the flowers, the gifts, the **** that could be said a thousand different ways and taken back with a receipt. She continued to look at him thoughtfully.More So than she really had anyone in particular quite before. Certainly not for the same reasons and not to the degree she was eyeing Ric.

“Care to share a bond that can never be broken? No expiration date. No loopholes or hidden clauses. You don’t try to change me and I don’t try to change you.It will mean I got your back for eternity and put you before all else if hell comes for you...including me. I will go first. Pretty sure that is how it works. You can keep the wife. I got my heart buried out in the lawn. That is about as domestic as I get. I never really quite got the meaning of it all until you. Now it makes sense.” She let it all sink in what she was proposing. Hell, it felt like she actually was now that she replayed the words in her head. She was fine with it. “You are the one, Ric.I want you there and I want to be there with you when this world goes up in flames. We both know it eventually will. I don't want your past just your eternity.” She settled back and waited. Whatever he came up with given the current topic would be anything but predictable.

[Roderic]

I keep my eyes trained on Dominique and listen as well as watch. I'm not really sure what sort of reaction to expect, but when she says she was right on all accounts, I blink. I've never talked about Skylar. I've left no real tall tale signs that anyone but me has lived in my apartment at some time. Outside the food in the fridge, that I keep forgetting about. I need to take care of that pronto. Nothing should be good in there anymore. Not with as much time that has passed since I saw her last before her disappearing act. I'm sure she's still with Elliot, or Lancaster. Whatever he calls himself these days. I didn't try and figure it out. I searched for her for a while and she made it a point to make it harder than hell to track her down. Skylar didn't want to be found-even by me. Her husband.

I stand up from the make shift seat I made as I had been working and pull out my pack of cigarettes. The lighter follows next. I pop one between my lips, bring the flame up and light it as I wait for her to continue on, or throw me through a wall, as I nod. I'm agreeing with her statement and suspicions. What she says next has me pulling the cigarette out before I even take an inhale in and then I inhale in through my nose. This makes a light sniffing noise, as I'm trying to wrap my head around what Dominique's trying to say. What she IS saying. I've always considered Dominique nontraditional in most senses, but when she tells me I can keep the wife, I shake my head. I don't want the wife, but it seems I don't have a choice in the matter. It's hard to serve someone divorce papers when they've been gone for sevenish months now. I was told to put it in the paper, but that's not my style. I don't like my business; professional or personal out for the world to see and make judgements about. It's my life, not theirs. It's really that simple for me.

I finally put the cigarette back between my lips after flicking some ash off my cigarette. I don't claim to know all things in life, but this certainly sounded very...serious. Long and indefinite. How long have we even known each other at this point? "We have only known each other for around three months. Since July, by my recollection. So by my calculations, that makes it just three months." I tell her after taking a long drag from my cigarette, then think longer. "Unless you count the night you put a hole in my apartment after breaking in it. Then it has only been four months. Which is more preferable to the three." I nod slowly. "That is enough time for you to determine that you would chain yourself to someone for an eternity?" That was a big claim, seeing as I couldn't even keep a wife for twelve months.

[Dominique]

Dominique barely blinked as he lit up his cigarette and went over the length of time they had been preferring each other's company as opposed to anyone else’s. He had a point. It was not exactly the ideal several year long history of tolerance that seemed to be the given prerequisite to taking some big leap of faith. Then again she wasn’t looking to marry the guy. Someone else settled for that. She felt a brief tickle over the side of her cheek and HOPE brushed the fingertips at her skin just enough that it was gone, whatever it was. Gradually her lips bunched up as her consideration of what he was saying sank in. It didn’t take long for her to nod in agreement. There was the answer.

“Sounds about right. Don’t forget a little time served in the attempts to destroy each other which kind of backfired…” She pauses narrowing one eye down as if she is speculating. “Or not.” She shrugged and curled her hands over the edge beneath where she was sitting. “Tell you what…” She pushed down and lifted from her seated position and moved to check the crate beside him. If the contents were what she presumed they were then she would be making use of it in the next hour or two. She picked up a crowbar that was laying on the ground nearby. “Get back to me when you work it out in your head. I wouldn’t have mentioned it if I wasn’t already good with where I am at with it. It would have been pretty pointless to suggest such a thing if I needed no less that two years of time served with the typical six months of flawless behavior prior to final agreement. I am not interested in getting married, Ric. That dream died two years ago for me. What I want is far more serious than that. As I said, get back to me when you have figured it out.”

With that said soon the sounds of wood cracking with wedging of the crowbar beneath the top of the crate splintered the cool damp air. Tossing it to the side along with the crowbar gave her the freedom to start pulling out the inner cushion of packing products and cleared the visual of what was nestled inside. A hydraulic lift would be required to get it in place but that wouldn’t be difficult. No less than thirty yards west she had one. The two of them could drag the crate that far. She had moved nearly as much on her own when the time would call for it.

“If you got a few minutes would you mind helping me move this crate over to the shop?” She eyed the mass of the super-sized shipping crate and finally looked at him. She could go for the industrial dolly stored in the back of the garage but why waste an able body and the extra set of hands? “I can tell you where you can find an impressive moose if you do.”

[Roderic]

I see what Dominique is doing as she talks more and more. At least on the latter bit she's on about; the crate ordeal. She wants my help and she's offering me something I want. Bribing me. Manipulating me. It;s a typical woman tactic, I'm aware of this, even with my lack of knowledge on the opposite gender. That's not how I roll and how things get done. She should know that better than anyone by now. So maybe I did want that moose, but I don't need her to tell me where it is. If I wanted it bad enough, I could track it down with no problems.

"You want the crate moved?" I tell Dominique, still enjoying my cigarette, making no inclination that I'm about to move from my spot. "Why didn't you put it where it needed to be when you got the crate?" I ask, my eyes narrowed. I didn't find marriage to be something that wasn't 'serious.' Quite the opposite. My parents divorced when I was a kid and I always had a big chip on my shoulder about marriage. It wasn't for me, I always said. More than fifty percent of marriages failed; I was living proof of that as a kid whose dad walked out on him and his mom, and now here I am as an adult, walking proof that even the best of us could be a ******* statistic. "Since you have the answer to everything-do it yourself." I scowl harder at Dominique. All I was asking for was some insight and she flipped the script and turned off the switch as quick as she turned it on. Maybe, deep down, like the crate's location; Dominique didn't know what she wanted.

[Dominique]

“I didn’t deliver it and I wasn’t here when it was dropped off.”

She eyes him. So much for assumptions. The crate was lifted up and the petite shadow moving it made her way carrying it around him. His scowl was noted and yet she left it where it was. It wouldn’t affect her either way. So she asked him and he wanted to break it down into something it didn’t need to be. The proof was in his less than sober expression. She was over it right there.

“Good idea.” She commented on doing it herself. Which she went about doing.

The crate lands with a heavy thud on the spot where she wanted it to begin with. HOPE reached over and pulled a crowbar off the shop table. LESS joined in the tight grip formed and wedged it under the top. A few pushes down and up with the iron bar had the wood creaking with her efforts. After a few repetitions she had the top popping up and dropped the crowbar with a sharp clink on the shop table.

Inside was the parts she needed to finish off the project she had put on the back burner for other jobs that kept arriving in place of it. Part of being in business and being successful at it was consistently meeting deadlines of the customers, which she did. Now that she had a few free hours it was time to start investing them in what she hoped to have completed the year before but never got around to. He could hang out and watch, jump in and lend a hand or he could continue to scowl. She was over it. What she said still stood. If he wanted to share that bond with a die hard loyal inked up shadow who would take on hell and all that went with it for him when it came then he could let her know. It wasn’t like she asked him to turn over his nuts in exchange. He would get over it.

[Roderic]

I listen and note some things about Dominique. She's more trusting than I am. If I am receiving a delivery, I am there to make sure it if delivered and that the people delivering the thing(s) didn't break anything in transit. Not that I get a lot of deliveries, but occasionally, I do have things shipped to my place of work. I always specify the latest delivery time possible and am always there. I have as much trust in the postal services as I do in, say, Jesus Christ and that whole mythology. Sure, worse case scenario the things arrive and whatever is inside is broken, but the things I order are needed for business and that sets me back, as well as how much I make on something, so heads will roll if I am inconvenienced by the bitching of a customer who expected something on Monday, but had to get it on Friday instead. I shrug at what she says, because it's her fault in my mind. Or she could have told me to be here and I would have made sure it was in a logical position. So, I don't offer any act of chivalry, I just watch her as she picks it up and moves it around.

It lands with a heavy blow to the ground and I resist the urge to ask if it was heavy, even though I know the answer. I've been a dick once already tonight, no need to keep on. Unless she gives me good reason. Plus, I enjoyed watching her struggle a little with it. Even if it was for a few seconds; the actual lifting it up and then putting it down. Dominique can handle things once she sets her mind to something and gets things lined up, a trait I can appreciate. And did I, as I watched her move it from point A, to point B. The crate is opened with a crowbar, which I think wasn't really needed. Again, I know Dominique's strength-the woman could toss me through a wall, so was the crowbar really needed? Unless, she wanted it near her for other reasons-but I doubt it. I might use it later for 'other reasons,' if she won't.

Parts were brought out, parts I'm not familiar with. The things she does are not the things I do, or find interest in when it comes to Dominique's professional life. I've introduced her to my world, but I doubt she would ever take a real solid interest in doing what I do with animals. And that's alright. It's cool that we have our own interest and the other doesn't feel the need to hang over the other while they're working or just tinkering around. Not that she would have to worry about that with me. I like my space, and she knows it. Which is why we work so well. We have our own things we like to do, we like our own space, and respect that about the other and have a few other quirks that we share in together. I'm not saying we're not compatible, but there is a question that comes to mind. One that no one has addressed yet. "And if she ever comes around again?" I ask, but I find that unlikely. I assume Skylar took off with her band mates and was taking part in some massive orgies by now, but crazier things have happened. Take for instance, millions of people buying into the whole Jesus thing.