[complete] You Only Live Once (Attn: Marla)

[Jenn]

Katrie

The bridge arced overhead, almond shaped dark eyes peering over the shelf cut had been cut into the very stone itself. She didn't think that it was meant to be used in the way they were using it, but that thought failed to find much purchase. Her attention returned to the man that lounged next to her. Katrie smiled at him with unabashed delight and she winked at him before moving to explore his body.

She nibbled along his jawline, moving beneath his chin and across his neck, before kissing back the way she had come, soothing away the little red marks left behind by her teeth with gentle brushes of her lips.

Dax made no move to extricate himself from her, his breathing rapid and uneven. He watched her, those blue eyes of his missing nothing she did. She didn't ask what he was thinking of and he did not volunteer. Katrie pressed a kiss down against his mouth before licking at his lips teasingly. He jumped as her stroking fingers slid down his hips. Her laugh was low and seductive.

[Sunny]

(((Dis)arm Yourself and then Dax's Raising both occur at this point in time.))
Dax

“Do you swear to serve and guard the Grey Tower faithfully?”

Just to earn the right be tested had taken years of training, sweat and blood, sleepless nights, loneliness, and unacknowledged fear.The test itself…..he shuddered as the memory of the Blight, and Shadowspawn, and most of all of Tegana’s blanke eyes, assaulted his mind.

All of those things and more were wound up in that length of fancy cloth that he now wore around his throat. It tugged at his shoulders, caught on his ankles, every movement reminding him of what had happened. Dakson Torellion Gaidin. It felt strange in his mind and on his tongue.

“I do.”

He could almost hear Jemi’s derision. You? They trusted you? Why would anyone do that? His laughter followed Dax through the Gateway that took him back to the Tower. When are you going to run away and disappoint them, little brother? He bowed formally to the woman who had helped him get home, and she graced him with a rare Aes Sedai smile before waving him on.

“Do you vow to devote your life to this cause, to swear yourself to the Light, the Tower, and the pursuit of justice?”

You aren’t worth the time it took to whelp you, his father’s voice echoed in his ears. You would sell your mother’s soul for a few coins and a rusty blade, another voice whispered. He saw Ninya’s scornful glare as she upbraided him for wanting to abandon Enalai, and shuddered again. Abruptly he remembered Riahana’s patient voice teaching him about the forms, the pride he felt when his students won a spar, the quiet pride in Ninya’s eyes when the Mistress of Arms had placed the fancloak around his throat. Something had changed.

“I do.”

His feet carried him blindly away from the Channeling Yard. He remembered to bow to those who deserved it, nod to those who only the day before could have sent him scurrying. He even remembered to keep his shoulders back and his head up as he walked, but his mind still traveled through the cold passes of memory. Eventually he left the noise and bustle behind. The quiet grassy land where the ruins of the first Tower lay enfolded him.

He eventually found a place to prop himself against one of the old broken walls, staring into the sky above. He wasn’t sure how much time passed as he sat there, his cloak spread across his knees and his fingers unconsciously toying with the brooch that had fastened it to him. If I put her down, the Trollocs will get her… Had he really been ready to walk away from that town?

Eventually something new intruded on his solitary brooding.

She picked her way through the ruins, the afternoon sun forming a nimbus around her white-clad body. They had met here before, though not frequently; it was a long walk for two people with busy schedules. He had not expected to see her so soon, and certainly not there. She had been angry the last time he saw her, eyes cold and distant as she walked away. Although it felt like a lifetime to him, he knew it had only been a few days.

He surged to his feet, long legs crossing the distance between them in moments, the cloak falling to the ground unheeded. He grabbed her upper arms, then paused for a moment to stare down at the pretty face he had thought he would never see again. Was it the face he missed, or the person behind it? Does it matter? One moment later and he crushed her against him with a groan, his hands moving rapidly to adjust how they fit together, his body trembling. She was so soft and warm….one hand settled on her waist, the other touched her chin, tilted her face up.

Driven by visceral need, his mouth dropped to claim hers with bruising force. His hand cupped behind her head, holding her in place as their lips slid together. Shivers rolled through his body, demanding attention; he growled in response, catching her bottom lip in his teeth. He tugged at it, tasted it with his tongue before slipping beyond to seek new places to explore. She tried to pull away, but he ignored it until she finally got a hand free and pushed hard against his chest.

He pulled away then, but only to let his forehead rest against hers, haunted blue eyes staring into brown only inches away, stripped bare for her to see. “Please….I need to forget.”

[Jenn]

Katrie

She had come here for a fight.

What she found instead was anything but.

It wasn’t difficult, finding him. All she had to do was follow the whispers, the backhanded comments - Dax was infamous… just the way he seemed to prefer it. She knew he cultivated those rumours and those stories with unreserved pride, but she had seen glimpses of… more. He was more than those rumours and those stories, even if he enjoyed pretending otherwise.

Her chest rose and fell rapidly, her emotions coiled so tightly within her body that she felt as if she would snap apart at any moment. She had not forgiven him, nor had she forgotten, what he had made her remember that day in the Yards. Katrie noticed the colour-shifting cloak that Dax had let fall to the ground in utter disregard, just as she noticed the way he trembled against her. Unsatisfied with being denied, yet strangely exhilarated with the way he had greeted her, the tall Cairhienin simply looked back up into blue eyes. She was unnerved by the wild intensity she saw there, the… vulnerability? She was imagining it. She had to be. She didn’t know how to respond to him if it was true.

His body pressed in against hers, molding perfectly against every curve and swell. She closed her eyes and swallowed with great difficulty. She forcefully exhaled through her nose, opening dark brown orbs to face perfect blue. Fingers toyed with the stiff fabric at his neck, the fingers of her right hand snaking around his throat. She pressed down, ever-so-slightly, and was surprised when he did nothing to stop her. A glint of gold flashed as she slid fingers up the side of his face, stroking upwards before burying her hand into his hair. Gentle fingernails ran over the scalp on the side of his head.

To her utter surprise, crystal blue eyes slid shut and Dax’s head fell forward, his forehead coming to rest against her collarbone. His lips grazed against the hollow of her throat, and he seemed content enough for the moment to keep planting hot, searing kisses there. Against her will, Katrie shuddered, the breath rushing past her lips as she tried not to arch into his mouth. She would die before she admitted that she had missed his lips… his body… his voice… the way he moved… the way he made her feel. She had even missed him… a little… but no. She couldn’t tell him. She wouldn’t. Dakson Torellion needn’t ever know. Shakily, she breathed in his scent that had become as familiar to her as her own name.

She tugged at his hair, slowly clenching that hand into a fist and made him look up into her eyes again.

“Why?” she whispered, pulling back as he tried to claim her mouth yet again with his. Katrie placed her finger over his lips, exerting just enough pressure to fend off his advance. “Why should I help you forget when you made me remember. Why?”

[Sunny]

Dax

Katrie’s gentle touch undid him. As her fingers slid into his hair, his strength leeched away as if it had never existed, his mind going blank and clear for the first time in days.. He clung to her lest he fall, his head rolling forward to rest on her chest. From there he could hear her heart pounding a counterpart to his own, feel her skin, inhale her scent. She was real, right? His lips slid over her skin; he wanted to devour her, desperate for the release he knew they could find so easily.

Her fingers abruptly wrapped in his hair and yanked his head back to look him in the eyes. Her free hand pressed one finger against his aching lips as she spoke, demanding his attention.

He studied her with shadowed eyes for a long moment, making no move. If she turned him away now, he thought he might go mad. Then his hands shifted, scrambling across her body, pulling her closer to him with every movement. “We can’t change the past, kitten,” he said at last, his voice hoarse and unsteady, “but together we can banish it.” The hand that had been at the back of her neck moved up to brush her cheek.

She made a small sound and released him, her hand falling to his shoulder. He rolled his head forward and dropped his mouth to her neck again, running hot kisses down her throat, along the neckline of her dress, and up the other side. “Don’t tell me you don’t want to.” She made another sound, her fingers curling against him...and he could take it no longer.

He shifted his weight and pulled them down, cushioning her fall with his body. They rolled as they landed until he straddled her, his face once again inches from hers. Her chest rose and fell as rapidly as his own, her mouth half-open and her hands...he shuddered, feeling her fingernails drawing down his back.

“Please.” Their lips met.

[Jenn]

Katrie

Each time his lips pressed against her skin, she flew apart into a thousand sparks, her thoughts shattering into lurid motes of lightning. She couldn’t remember how to speak. Her fingers dug into the muscle of his broad shoulders, raking slowly down his back. Despite the fabric of his uniform impeding the intended effect, Dax growled out his approval.

She shook violently at the sound, spasming with need, aching for him. That somehow did not surprise her, as if her body had known from the beginning what would happen. Her chest burned for air, but she couldn’t pull in enough, her sharp gasps rapid and shallow. He was driving her mad, his frenzy doing nothing but sending the need for release higher than she could bear.

We can’t change the past, but together we can banish it…

“Yes,” she breathed out, her lips parting as that single word floated up. She did want to. With him. His reply was not so much a word as it was a guttural sound, somewhere between a groan and another growl. His reaction was wild and uncontrolled, and she felt herself being bodily lifted by hands that had let go of her hair. The callused palms splayed across her back, Dax somehow managing to crush her against him.

Acting purely on instinct, Katrie embraced saidar and wove a ward around them that would keep sound in, like she had done once before in the loft above the barracks. It wasn’t very large, but she didn’t have the presence of mind to do more.

She felt his hands cup her face, and for a moment, crystal blue eyes stared into hers. His forehead pressed against hers, his breath hot on her lips. “Kitten…”

“My name,” she told him as she leaned over to run the very tip of her nose up the side of his neck. She didn’t think he would say it. Dax pulled away slightly, his face going still for a long, heavy moment. The shadows were back across his eyes as he gazed at her. She met him stare for stare, her hands sliding over his shoulders and his chest. “My name, Dax.”

“Katrie…!” he managed finally, his voice catching in his throat.

She seized fistfuls of his hair and slammed her lips against his. She did not stop until his voice was a choked and ragged gasp, the pristine white of her banded Accepted dress hiding the rivulets of sweat that trickled down her back. He was trembling in her arms. She kissed him when he finally stilled, gentle hands smoothing away the slick hair from his face.

Almond shaped dark eyes were soft, Dax unresisting as she stroked feather-like fingertips across his face. Slowly, so as not to startle him, Katrie leaned in and pressed her lips against his forehead, his nose, against each of his closed eyelids, and finally the corners of his mouth. She disentangled herself from him then, pulling at the white fabric that bunched at her hips. By the time she dismantled the ward, she turned to find that blue eyes were fixated on her every move.

“You know where to find me when you want me, peacock.”

[Sunny]

Dax

Her eyes filled his vision, long lashes fluttering. His heart pounded and his body ached for her. The Gaidin needed something he could not express, his tone pleading as his fingers flexed around her face. “Kitten…”

She shifted downward. His skin tingled and Dax realized he was holding his breath waiting for a kiss that did not come. Instead, she paused and murmured, “my name.” He froze for a long moment, then pulled away. He had used her name before, but never…. he did not...he could not. He gathered himself to -do what, exactly?- but she caught his eyes and held them, her hands slipping over his body in intoxicating patterns. “My name, Dax.”

His name on her lips, bruised by his kisses, took his breath away.

You can’t seriously think… He shut the mocking voice off.

He still cupped her face, he realized as if from a great distance away. Their bodies were entwined on the ground, oblivious to rocks, dirt, or unknown witness. Her eyes cut straight to his soul, and her fingers felt like ice cold fire, each line a battering ram to the walls around his self control and every rule he had ever set himself.

“Katrie…!” the Tairen gasped, his voice breaking mid-word as his surrender hung between them. She barely allowed the sound of her name to fade before she claimed her victory from his lips.

Make it better, Katrie.
* * * * When at last they fell still, Dax rested with his head on Katrie’s chest and his arms around her waist, sweat-drenched hair clinging to his face unheeded. He listened to the steady beat of her heart, thoughts drifting, and willed the Wheel to stop spinning. She moved too soon, her lips pressing against his. Her fingers pushed his hair away and drew along the contours of his face; then she gave him a series of gentle kisses that stole his will to move away, fingers curling into her back.

He forced himself to stay still when she pulled away, but his eyes remained on her, feasting on her movements as she made herself respectable again. “You know where to find me when you want me, peacock.” She said at last, as she turned to go. Her face reflected his own state of satisfaction, glowing more than the late afternoon sun could account for. He cocked an eyebrow and grinned at her, blue eyes twinkling, and she flushed before hurrying away.

As soon as she disappeared around the corner, he rolled to his back, holding his head in his hands, elbows nearly meeting in front of his face. I said her name. She had asked for it, and he had thrown caution to the winds and given it. She had given him much more in return -the very thought sent hot prickles rolling down his body- but…. Light, what have I done?

[Jenn]

Katrie

The sun was bright in her eyes, and though the pretty Cairhienin wanted nothing more than to shade them against the brilliant glare, her hands were otherwise full. The basket she carried wasn't so much heavy as it was unwieldy and wobbly. One of the handles was loose and it was only a matter of time before it snapped off. Dark eyes glared at the joint in question. Please not while I'm holding it.

A Gaidin had requested that lunch be delivered. While far from unusual, she wasn't sure why she had been singled out to deliver it. Maybe the Novices couldn't be trusted? That thought nearly made her laugh. Maybe the kitchens were too busy? Or maybe it was just something odd that the Wheel or Pattern did. Her feet stirred up small eddies of dust and sand as she crossed the Warder Yards quickly, going through the directions yet again in her mind.

Not Rav's room.

The thought came in a disjointed rush. She didn't know how she felt about that, disappointment and relief in turns. He wasn't Gaidin yet anyway.

As the tall Accepted entered in the Barracks, she passed uniformed Drin and Ji without paying them much heed. She actually had a good reason for being here this time, so she kept her head high and her steps unhurried. She kept her mind focused on the task at hand... or at least she tried to, but she couldn't quite stop her thoughts from drifting to the loft above where she stood... Light.

She still hadn't fully recovered her composure when she reached the appointed door, the basket teetering precariously to the side as she shifted its weight to one arm, lifting the other to rap her knuckles against the door.

“Hello?” she called. “You requested your lunch to be brought to you??”

There came a muffled sound, vaguely reminiscent of a curse, and the sharp crash of something hitting the floor. Katrie felt her brows lifting. What -

The door opened with such force that she heard it ricochet off the far wall, leaving her with her thought unfinished. Crystal blue eyes filled her vision and for a moment, she could only stare.

“Well. Bring it in,” was all the Tairen Gaidin said. His voice was remarkably even, but the way he looked at her, the way he let gaze travel unhurriedly down the length of her entire body... Katrie flushed, heat staining coppery skin red. In a daze, she stepped through the threshold and turned her head so that she could watch him over her shoulder. He slammed the door shut and she felt her knees go weak as she realized where she was. His room. Light, oh Light...

“Dax,” Katrie breathed, the awkward basket looped through her arm completely forgotten.

He slowly advanced towards her, his expression beyond pleased. “Kitten.” The word rolled off his tongue. She shivered at it.

Callused hands relieved her of her burden, Dax unceremoniously dropping the basket full of food onto the nearest flat surface all in one fluid motion. He did not break stride, each purposeful step bringing him closer... closer... and then he was pressed right up against her. His hands settled on her waist, the touch deceptively light. He paused a moment, grinning down at her. A booted foot nudged at the toe of her white slipper and he pushed forward, and forward again, each step deliberate... each step forward with his body forcing her to retreat a step back. Soon, she ran out of space and felt her back collide with the wall.

She gasped as he pushed forward a final time, trapping her bodily between him and the wall. She couldn't even attempt to struggle, he was pressed in so tightly against her. Her eyes were perfectly round and they stared up into his, Dax's blue orbs bright and smoldering. He winked at her. Katrie’s lips parted slightly and the tip of her tongue darted out to wet suddenly dry lips. Dax grinned at that, bending forward to catch her tongue with his mouth. He grabbed her wrists, driving her arms above her head, his lips devouring and tasting hers in dizzying turns, rough then demanding.

Teeth nipped along her chin, the Gaidin following the line of her rapidly racing pulse, finding that one spot behind her ear where her neck met jawline. He paid extra special attention there, and Katrie's knees buckled, the wall and Dax's body the only thing keeping her upright. She whimpered, the sound quickly overcome by his rumble of approval. Her head rolled back, exposing her throat. Her arms were guided around his shoulders, and after a moment, he hoisted her up, using the wall behind her as balance for them both. He adjusted her legs and then his hands went to curl against her back.

She panted out his name, her voice pleading. “Dax...”

“Dax what?” came the low whisper into her ear.

Katrie made a noise of sheer frustration, her lips seeking his, but he evaded her, lavishing her neck with teeth and tongue instead.

“Please!” she gasped out. “Dax, please!”

She had never heard him make that noise before, somewhere between a purr and a growl that started deep within his chest. The sensation reverberated through them both and Katrie had to close her eyes.

“Best make that ward again, kitten.”
* * * * “There's a way to make this even better.”

The sound of her voice was both too soft and too loud at once from within the ward. Roused by her words, they both stirred from their blissfully numb stupor. She still wasn't sure how she had managed to embrace the Source with Dax doing what he did, much less create the ward itself... but she wasn't going to complain.

The tall Accepted and the taller Gaidin were still tangled together in a heap on the floor, Dax making no move to push her off of him. Katrie lifted her head off of his shoulder, finding that blue eyes were already looking back at her, his expression unreadable. In that moment, the pretty Cairhienin could not say what insanity gripped her mind; no thought was spared for what that would mean; no notion given to the ramifications or consequences... but now that she had said it out loud, there was no escaping it. This terrible, glorious madness... whatever it was... rose between them, looming and suffocating.

“I've always wondered what it would feel like,” she mused quietly. “Having someone else in your head with you, feeling what you felt while you felt everything they felt... haven't you?”

He was silent for so long that she knew that he was traveling down the same twisted lines that she was.

Finally, unable to bear it, Katrie broke the silence. “Dax?” He refused to meet her eyes, a hollow echoing sound breaking between them as the back of his head struck limply against the floor. “What's wrong?”

“Nothing,” came the flat reply.

“You're lying.” That flew out of her mouth, raw and accusatory and she pushed herself up with her hands, removing herself from his chest, sitting upright of her own volition.

“I did not come to the Grey Tower to become some channeler's toy,” he snapped with barely restrained fury, blue eyes hot as they met hers. The air between them was dangerous and charged, pulsing with heat and fire. “And I have no intention of changing that. Find someone else to bind to your bidding with the One Power, and leave me be.” He tried to turn away from her, but Katrie hissed angrily between her teeth, slamming her open palm down onto one of his shoulders. She leaned her entire weight down into it, keeping him pinned in place.

“A toy? You think I want a toy? To 'bind to my bidding'?” She mimicked the way he had said it, dark eyes disappointed and angry. “You think I want that?” She ended it with another hiss, before delivering a stinging slap across his face, driving his shoulder for the final time into the unforgiving wooden floor. “I saw enough of that in Cairhien and I've had my fill of it. All I wanted was to make what we have better for a little while, just to see what it's like. I have no desire to have you in my head any more than you want me in yours, peacock.”

Katrie watched as Dax turned his head back towards her, expecting... The will to fight left her body. He was smiling at her. She frowned at him, but his thoughts were hidden from her by half-lowered eyelids. What happened next... she couldn't say. He moved too fast for her to see, but she felt his arm hook around her shoulders just before he yanked her back down on top of him. His callused hands were warm as they slid up her back. His lips were on hers again.

“Do it,” he said breathlessly when he finally allowed her to come up for air some time later.

“What?” Katrie tried to pull his hands away from her body. Hadn't he... why did he...? “No, Dax!” His arms only tightened around her, keeping her in place.

“You can undo it, right? It's just for a little while?” She nodded reluctantly, staring into his face. He kissed her again. “So do it. Let me feel you, kitten.”

She hesitated still, almond shaped dark eyes searching. Time stretched and slowed as she embraced saidar, the flows of Power coming together in a similar way that she had seen done once before. It was not the exact same weave, but as she let it settle it over Dax, the end result was the same. The awareness of someone else blaring across her very sense of self was terrifying, Katrie recoiling from it. It... she couldn't... No, no... She pushed back against it, this strange knot of emotions inside her mind that were not her own. The Source slipped from her grasp.

And then she felt his lips on her neck, his hands on her hips. And suddenly, she was burning, hazy lines of searing fire spreading across her body as the strange presence inside of her consciousness resolved itself into Dax. Katrie gasped his name again, or maybe she only thought it, but it didn't matter. The inferno rose to fever pitch as it roared between them, consuming them from the inside out.
* * * * Dark eyes were glazed over in mute horror, Katrie clenching the broken basket as if her life depended on it. She couldn't... if she looked at him, she would lose herself. Her own panic-stricken disgust and blistering guilt override everything else, even Dax's presence still inextricably trapped inside her mind. The room stank of spilled food and drink, and his knuckles were bruised and bleeding from where he had lashed out against the wall.

“I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!” She didn't know if he heard her, and she didn't care. Katrie turned and ran out of Dax's room, stopping somewhere along the way – in the gardens somewhere – where she noisily emptied out the contents of her stomach.

She couldn't undo the bond.

The weave hadn't dissolved like it was meant to.

Light. Oh, Light. Oh Light! What had she done?

[Sunny]

Dax

The Gaidin's cheek burned from Katrie's slap, his head turned to the side from its force. His eyes shifted upward to her face, astounded and mesmerized by her anger. Her tousled hair framed her face in wild glory and she looked more than ready to slap him again as her weight pressed him against the floor. He would find no calm in that face, no pristine composure arrogantly assessing his willingness to do her bidding. The woman who leaned over him with flashing eyes was no Aes Sedai. Even once she earned the shawl, he could not imagine Katrie as anything other than what she was: vibrantly alive, straightforward, and real.

Dax could not stop the smile that spread on his face when he twisted to face her, but his eyes stayed half-closed, assessing her reaction. Her expression shifted to one of worry, and his thoughts jumbled. Why does she care? He had seen her in passion, anger, and total disdain. Caring had never entered the picture. Caring led to things he did not want to think about.

Abruptly all his fear washed away, replaced with a searing need to feel her against him, to erase the complicated thoughts that had risen between them. He yanked her down and pressed his mouth against hers, lips and tongue working to ease the tension he could feel in her body. When at last she relaxed, he pulled away to stare into her eyes. "Do it," he murmured. If he thought about it anymore, he would break.

"What? No, Dax!" She tried to push away and he simply locked his arms, holding her in place.

“You can undo it, right? It's just for a little while?” The words came from a long way off, as if someone else spoke them. This is Katrie. She nodded slowly, and he brushed her lips with his. “So do it. Let me feel you, kitten."

Her eyes studied him intently, but then she pulled her hands free and placed them on either side of his face. Gently…Light, so gently. He tensed, expecting to feel something, but several long moments passed before anything happened. He let himself relax, fingers sliding up and down her spine gently. Suddenly something new blossomed in his head, a distinct presence that he had no words to explain. He knew her body as well as his own now, could tell where she hurt and where she didn't. That bundle of emotions that was her flared with fear and intent to escape, and his own mind responded in kind, scrambling away, away….Light, he had let her bond him! What had possessed him?

Gradually he came back to his senses. He loosened his grip on her, his hands gentle, soft, soothing, responding to her unspoken wants in a way he had never been able before. His fingers and lips explored, and as they did, her fear grew more faint, and something else…..something that reminded him of fire…took its place. She gasped his name, and he lost control, his mind and body wrapping around hers as they spiraled to a place neither had ever imagined could be.
* * * * The Tairen closed the door with precise care, his mind painfully clear. I'm sorry, she had cried before she fled. He knew she was. He knew, because he could still feel her fear and distress as she fled from him. He knew exactly where she was, knew she wanted comfort that he could not give, could feel every twinge in her body as she struggled for control. He could feel her.

Light, he could feel her.

One part of his mind wanted to disbelieve her claim she could not remove the bond. That part wanted to paint her as just another conniving channeler. How dare she lie to him? He wanted to rage, to punish her for her crime, to remove her from his mind no matter the cost. The other part of him, the part that had attended the class on bonding that all Ji'alantin were required to attend, knew she spoke the truth. The horror that washed her when she had finally pulled her fingers away and shaken her head had been genuine, the rush of disgust and fear and anger completely uncalculated. He didn't remember what happened after. Had he thrown her off him to get to the wall now stained with his blood, or had she jumped away? The details mattered for some reason; his mind fixated on them, struggling to put the puzzle together.

Katrie’s stomach rebelled. He could feel it, feel his own stomach turning in response. His fist met the wall again, the spike of pain a life line to sanity as Katrie threw up in the Gardens. Again. And again.

He turned away when his fists could take no more, eyes searching. He found the flask, yanked the cork out with his teeth. Some small part of him whispered something about duty and responsibility. He kicked the thought away and drained the bottle, ignoring the searing pain as the liquor burned his throat. He needed oblivion….only this time he needed it from her.

Her growing distress chased him into darkness.

((The Strongest Oath happens next, then Watch Me Burn))