“You’re the best, Sidney. No other faery would have been so selfless.”
“Selfless? I took my plea sure first, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
“But you did it so we could both come.”
“Yes. You just need to learn patience, Dart.”
“I’ve always been impatient. If I want something, I get it. I don’t wait around. Guess that comes through in my sex life as well. Here I thought it was some childhood thing that I needed therapy for. You’re perfect, Sidney.”
“I wouldn’t go quite so far. But I have been known to have my moments. Ready for another go?”
“Only if you’re ready for another nap.”
Hours later, Sidney counted five orgasms and four catnaps. Not a bad tally for an afternoon well spent.
As Dart exited the shower, scrubbing his hair with a towel, he sang a pop tune all the mortal kids were currently raving about. He shook his entire six-foot-plus body, wings flinging droplets about the room and across the sheets.
“You are worse than a dog.”
“But you like me anyway?”
An irresistible smile curled her mouth, and her whole body tingled with the delicious lingering vibrations of after-sex. “I think I just may.”
“You don’t commit easily, do you?”
“I can’t help but wonder how the rules are going to interfere with our liaisons. Dart, I don’t break the rules; I follow them. I don’t want this to end, but you know . . .”
“No fraternization between Night Workers. It’s easy to get around those rules. I do it all the time.”
“Yeah, but I have a feeling all those fraternizations have been overlooked for the very fact they all lasted less than ten minutes. Am I right?”
He sighed.
“Come here, you big hunk of sex god.”
Dart crawled onto the bed and snuggled next to her. The wet from the shower shimmered like jewels on his moonglow flesh.
“I’m saying a relationship might be harder to hide from the guild. We’ve got to be careful. I don’t want to get sent back to Faery now that I’ve found someone I want to spend all my off-hours with.” Yawn. “You know?”
“I won’t tell a soul.”
“They have ways of tracking us.”
“I know. I’ve always wanted to be off the radar, you know? Suits my free and easy lifestyle.”
“If you were off the radar you wouldn’t be able to work as a sandman.”
“Yeah, but I don’t define my life by my job, Sidney. I could do anything if I put my mind to it.”
“In this realm? How would you live? You don’t have a mortal job.”
“I’ve got my ways. Let’s not worry about it just yet. First, I want to save your job, because it is so important to you.”
“Thanks for understanding.”
“It’s what I like about you, Sidney. You have a purpose, and you don’t sway from that. It’s all about the kids.”
“It is. And their Belief only grows thinner the closer this tooth faery gets to retrieval.”
“We ready to enact the backup plan?”
Sidney yawned, tracing the edges of sleep. “Right behind you, Studman.”
Chapter
13
“You tired?”
Sidney stifled a yawn behind her palm. “What makes you think that?”
The sandman’s dust packed a heck of a wallop. This relationship would take some work, but she was determined. Certainly, she couldn’t argue with being well rested.
“Sidney?”
A nudge stirred her from insistent slumber. “I’m good, I’m good.”
“We should leave now. There’s not much time.”
“I know. The plan. To save . . .”—yawn—“the . . .”
“The tooth faery!” He tickled her.
Sidney shrieked out laughter and rolled from the bed to land on the heaped bedspread on the floor. “All right! I’m awake! Let’s do this!”
Ten minutes later, they were dressed, and ready for action. Tight, dark blue jeans emphasized Dart’s huge attributes. And Sidney intended to make sure no flutter-twits ever got their hands on that again.
Herself, she’d searched her closet for an understated outfit (no small task). Finally, Dart paged through a magazine and showed her a picture of a fashion model. Perfect Sidney glamourized the look. Simple black leggings and a fitted black T-shirt. Stealth and blending with the surroundings were necessary for reconnaissance work.
When Dart got an eyeful of her figure, hugged in all the right places by the clingy black fabric, he tugged her into his embrace. A kiss beneath her chin stirred up silly shivery bumps along Sidney’s arms, and she giggled.
“I love your laughter, Sidney. It’s like rain on bluebells. Let me see if a touch here, under your breast where I know you’re ticklish, will make you laugh again.”
“Chill, big boy. I’m not sure I can stay awake as it is.”
“Right. We have a mission. But first.” He grabbed her hand and led her outside to the front stoop, cluttered with wilted flowers. “I want to be with you, Sidney.”
“I know that. I do, too.”
“I mean forever. And I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen.”
She smiled, but it was forced. Whatever it would take was asking too much of him. Forever wasn’t possible so long as they both belonged to the Night Worker’s Guild. “Let’s just get through to night, all right?”
“All right, lover.”
Sidney hid another yawn behind her hand before she turned to kiss her lover. “Let’s stop and get some Red Bull at the gas station first. Fruiting stones, what’s that?”
Dart mounted the huge street chopper parked in front of her house. “Hop on, baby. Now I’m going to take you for a real ride.”
“I thought . . .” That they’d get small and fly.
The deafening rumble of the engine startled Sidney so she almost fell from the stoop. “That’s not what I’d call stealth!” she shouted over the roar.
The sight of the powerful faery sandman seated upon a huge titanium monster did things to her resolve.
Resolve? Turkish toadstools, it did things to her libido.
Did they have time for a quickie? On the bike?
“Stones. Let’s do this before my tawdry sex goddess crown sparkles so brightly I attract all the resident faeries.”
They arrived at the Hanson house and fluttered outside the mother’s bedroom door. Sidney pulled a white dust mask out of her pocket and pulled it on, placing it over her nose and mouth.
“What?” She caught Dart’s confused expression. “It’s a safety mea sure. You know, in case you decide to get crazy with the dust.”
“I understand. You might catch some residual dust. No problem, sweetie. I still love you.”
Sidney paused, halfway into the room. She spun about, wings fluttering madly. “You what?”
“Love you.” He flew by her, brushing her forehead with a barely tangible kiss. “Cat’s here,” he said.
Sidney joined his side. Love, eh? Ah. Well. Great. Nice. “I guess I um, er . . .”
“You what?” He focused on the cat across the room, sleeping on top of the open dresser drawer where the baby teeth were stashed. “Get all horny with a medical mask over your face? Can’t wait to jump me?”
“Are you going to dust the woman, or what?”
“Not until you finish your sentence, Sidney. What is it you guess about me?”
“I don’t guess anything. I love you, all right?” She punched him on the arm. “Now get to work. Dust the woman while I distract the cat.”
Rubbing his arm, Dart flew over the bed. “Gotta love a woman who likes it rough.”
The two of them had known that Dart couldn’t not dust this mortal woman, as he had the others. She was divorced, so it wasn’t as though a sound sleep was making her dissatisfied and grumpy.
With a grand motion of his hands, Dart dusted Sandra Hanson, who was already sleeping. No chance
would be taken tonight.
Sidney flew toward the cat, pushing up her sleeves as she did. “Here, kitty, kitty,” she called. “You want a piece of me?”
The cat sat upright, sniffing the air. Its whiskers flickered. It looked directly at Sidney and narrowed its wicked gaze.
“I know, I’m so sexy you want me, don’t ya?” Sidney teased. She turned and tugged down the back of her pants, mooning the feline.
It was probably the tongue-sticking-out part that really pissed off the cat. The feline leapt, slashing the air with razor claws, but missed Sidney and landed on the floor with a frustrated meow.
“Huh?” Anorexia Divorsosa stirred on the bed.
“More dust!” Sidney cried, and then bulleted toward her furry opponent.
“Got it!” Dart, in position over the dresser drawer, redirected aim and flew back over the pillow.
Sandra Hanson woke and saw the faery glowing like a shard of moonlight. “What the—?”
A shower of dust spumed her face. Her head dropped onto the pillow, blond curls splaying over her gaping mouth.
Sidney flew back and forth at the end of the bed, luring the faery-ichor-hungry feline in her wake. “Hurry, Dart! Get the teeth!”
“Working on it!” He soared down to the box and lifted the lid.
Meanwhile, Sidney lost sight of the cat. She hovered next to the dresser, catching her breath. “How you doing, Dart?”
“It’s heavy!”
“Just get them out, and I’ll take care of the transport. Yeiih!”
She hadn’t seen the feline sneaking under the king-size bed. Sidney’s reaction time was limited. Two furry paws pinned her to the thick Berber carpet.
Dart dragged the tin of teeth out from the underwear drawer and dropped it to the dresser top with a clatter. He swung a look to the bed. Still snoring.
“Should have changed size for this,” he muttered, pushing the tin toward the edge of the dresser. “I don’t know how she does it. Course, she only has the one tooth to retrieve. Wonder where she carries the money? Must be a tooth faery trade secret.”
Like his dust. Only that was a secret he was trying to tame. And Sidney had helped him. He’d actually had sex with a woman, and brought her to orgasm before dusting her to a snore. Who would have thought?
He really was the studman she claimed him to be.
“Nice, Dart. You are the faery.”
But he still had a lot of work to do. Fast was fun, but he wanted to linger with Sidney, draw out her plea sure, and make her so giddy that she dusted him. He’d meant it when he’d said he wanted to spend forever with her. But that wasn’t going to happen without sacrifice and hard work.
Sidney was right; he needed to learn patience, to delay gratification. It would be tough, but the learning part—which involved Sidney, naked—would be worth the challenge.
He sat on the corner of the mint tin and leaned backward onto his palms. “Stars, but I love the woman. Any chick who can tame my dust problem, and kick a cat’s—”
It suddenly struck Dart—he didn’t hear anything. Not the sound of mortal snoring, or the sound of a faery’s wings frantically fluttering as she led the furry white predator on a goose chase.
Diving to the edge of the dresser, Dart peered toward the floor. The cat had his woman pinned, and as far as he could see, Sidney wasn’t moving.
“That—that . . . underskinker!”
He dove.
“What the hell is going on?”
Dart put on the brakes mid-air. The mortal sat upright on the bed. He’d already overdosed her. “How much dust does one mortal need to stay asleep?”
Hanging there, Dart looked down. The cat flicked its tail madly. The love of his life lay pinned beneath vicious clawed paws.
To his left, Sandra Hanson crawled across the thick down bedspread. Being seen by a mortal would surely see him instantly retrieved back to Faery.
But nothing was going to hurt his woman.
“I’m coming, Sidney!”
Dart rocketed downward. He landed on a mass of fur and whis kers. Impossible to get a grip on the silky thick stuff. Sprawling out his limbs, he managed to grope and secure whis kers with both hands. Demonic green cat eyes held his stare.
Faeries made tasty kitty treats. Dart had lost a good friend last year after a run-in with a Persian prizewinner. Nasty ball of fluff. He still couldn’t banish the image of his friend’s wings sticking out from the cat’s mouth.
The beast shook its head, Dart plastered across its face.
“I don’t think so!” Dart yelled. “No cat is taking this faery down.”
He couldn’t get a look at the ground. “Sidney?”
“I am not awake,” boomed out from the edge of the bed. “I have to be dreaming. Pussums, what is that awful thing on your face?”
“One very brave sandman,” Sidney said as she fluttered by Dart.
“You’re alive!” he yelled, and then the cat flung him across the room. The wall caught his flailing faery limbs with a smack and a crack of wing.
“Big nasty bugs!” the mortal woman cried.
Dart shook his head to jar the reverberations of the landing. Just in time, he opened his eyes to see a paw swipe toward his face. Claws glinted with deadly threat. He dodged but took a cut to his shoulder. He shook off the pain and flew beneath the cat’s belly. Long cat fur tickled his shoulders.
Dart chuckled, and dusted the cat. The feline dropped.
“Why didn’t you think of that in the first place?” Sidney called from her position on the dresser. She wielded a crisp dollar bill, folding it to shove into the Altoids tin.
“My dust has never worked on animals before,” Dart said. “You must have worn the critter out for me.”
Then he soared up to float before the mortal’s face. Blond curls poinged here and there. Pink tape stuck across each eyebrow peeled back like cringing caterpillars.
“You’re so stubborn even the sandman’s dust won’t put you out.” He then made a rude gesture he’d seen Sidney perform earlier.
The mortal woman’s eyes rolled backward; she wobbled, and passed out.
“An offensive gesture,” Sidney said, joining Dart’s side. “That’ll do it every time for the leader of the Hyper-Anal No-Fun Brigade.”
“You okay?” He turned and gripped her by the shoulders, inspecting her from crown to toe. “You don’t look the worse for wear, but you could have broken bones, inner trauma.”
“I’m fine.” She tugged down the dust mask. “A little stunned a cat finally got the better of me. If you hadn’t jumped on it when you did, I might be kitty nibble right now. You saved my life, Dart.”
Dart hugged her. “Promise me you’ll never do a dangerous thing like that again?”
“Now that would be a tough promise to keep. What say we go haggle over the possibilities of it between the sheets?”
“You got the teeth?”
“All collected and sent to central receiving,” she confirmed, fluttering out of the bedroom.
Dart followed her down the hallway and into the living room. “Should take you off the retrieval list, eh?”
“Let’s hope so. Oh, Dart, there’s ichor on your shoulder.”
He puffed up his chest and Sidney pressed her hand over the wound. He was warm and had been working hard. She loved the smell of him, all ichor and virility and residual dust. Her hero.
“A claw slashed at me hyper-speed,” he said. “Nothing to worry about. War wound—wait one spriggan second.”
“What?” She searched her lover’s eyes but couldn’t figure what he was thinking about.
Dart groaned, gripped his chest, and dropped, landing on the plush cushion of the couch.
“Dart!”
“Maybe it’s bigger than a wound,” he muttered, moaning and coiling in on himself. “Aggh! I think . . . I’ve been killed.”
“What?” He was joking, surely. The ichor had already stopped dripping—
“Call it in to headquar
ters,” he gasped, reaching for her hand and dramatically clutching at his chest. “I’m down. I’m hit. Dart Sand is no more.”
“Dart, I don’t understand. What are you . . .” And then a mini LED lit above Sidney’s head. “Right. The sandman is dead. I’ll contact them immediately.”
She whipped out the ScryeTracker™ and dialed in to headquarters.
“We’ve just received an entire set of Sandra Hanson’s teeth,” the operator confirmed as a greeting. “Good going, number one-seven-eight. Your retrieval has been marked in abeyance.”
“Great. But I’m calling to report a fallen sandman.”
“Which one is that? Let’s see, Dart Sand is the Reverie sandman. What’s up, Tooth?”
“He’s dead,” she said, perfectly calm but with a wink to Dart. “Cat got him.”
“Eww. That’s never pretty. I’ll send in cleanup immediately.”
“Unnecessary,” she hastened. “There’s . . . nothing left to clean up. He was swallowed whole.”
The operator made a gagging noise. “Very well. Thanks for reporting the casualty, Tooth. We’ll get a new sandman on the job immediately. Signing out.”
Sidney tucked away the ScryeTracker™ and bent over Dart, who now lay casually across the couch, smiling.
“You’re good at the sneak, you know that, Sidney?”
“I’ve never lied to headquarters before.”
“But don’t you see? We did it. I don’t exist in the MR now. We can be together without worry of breaking any rules.”
“Clever. But you gave up your job. For me?”
“I couldn’t imagine a day without you in my arms. I need you, Sidney.”
“You do?”
“Come here and kiss me, darling.”
Dart’s kiss was better than anything Faery had to offer. Toadstools, his kiss could make everything in Faery more palatable. Because when she was in his arms, the rest of the world didn’t matter. She loved this sandman, and he’d sacrificed for her.
“I need you, too, Dart. Let’s make this work. What’s this?” She shrugged her fingers through her lover’s hair and pulled out a long white cat whisker. “You know these things are good luck?”
Faeries Gone Wild Page 21
