A/N: It's been awhile since I last updated this story. Sorry about that guys, but I haven't really had any inspiration to write thanks to life getting in the way and my Muse locking himself up in the closet…I thank you to those who stuck with this and patiently waited for this update. I'd like to point out that this is a really awkward chapter – bordering on filler and disconnected ramblings. I apologize for that…

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Mai had come to moments after being shot, her blood pouring out of her with each heartbeat. Avery tried to convince her to let him take her to the human hospital, but she shook her head. Her eyes were clouded with pain and her breath hitched with each stab of pain coursing through her.

"Stop asking me…if I want to go to the hospital…" she ground out through her teeth as she stumbled up the stairs to her apartment with his arm around her. "I can – I can handle…this."

"You're bleeding out," Avery commented and she heard the primal growl in his voice, a reminder of what he was.

"I'm fine!" Mai hissed, letting him open the door and guide her inside. "Wait a second…" She turned back around and whispered something with a flick of the wrist.

The blood trail left behind her vanished slowly, receding back into itself so that no trace was left. With a small nod of approval, Mai turned and closed the door. The Halfling leaned heavily against the door and closed her eyes. Avery made a small noise of disapproval.

"I know what you're thinking," Mai whispered, opening her caramel colored eyes to look at him. "That I should go to the hospital, maybe even report the incident to the cops. But it wouldn't do good… There are no security cameras near the cemetery and I didn't get a look at the assailants, so there is no way of tracing them…"

"But the hospital could help you –"

Mai shook her head. "I'd require surgery…and I can't chance them putting me under. To sleep would be to dream…all of my dreams concern him...if he finds me…" Her body shuddered violently and she sank even farther down the door. "I can't go back…not yet…"

Avery reached out and lifted her up into his arms the way that Mai had once dreamed that Jareth would. The vampire's skin was cold as ice, but soothed her burning body. The effect was only temporary because he deposited her on the couch seconds later.

"You need to call someone from the Underground," Avery stated bluntly. "A Healer or…"

"I am a Healer, the only one I need right now," Mai snapped, removing her bloodstained shirt with a long hiss of pain. She threw the shirt aside and looked down at her bullet torn torso. "Dammit!"

There were eight bullets lodged in her soft flesh, each a pinpoint of pain that spider-webbed through her body. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to clear her mind from the pain. Her magic, now better with healing and defense, awoke in her body and spread through her like a warm blanket.

God, please give me the strength needed to do this…I ask that you stop my blood from flowing through these holes and that you help me heal…without going back to the Underground and its healers.

Mai lifted her hand up and held it an inch away from her torso. The girl's eyes turned towards Avery. "Let us begin…"

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Mai's body was still sore an hour later, but the bullets were no longer in her body. She stood at the sink in the bathroom, wiping away the congealed blood that covered her skin. The shirt she'd worn had been unsalvageable and now resided in a pile of ashes in her vacuum cleaner. Not one trace of the incident remained except for the memory that would never be erased.

Mai wiped the makeup off of her face and then looked at herself. She was skinnier than she remembered and the bones of her face slightly more noticeable than three years before. The dark circles under her eyes had not been given to her through genetics – considering her mother had been an Elf and her human father had no history of dark circles – but had come from the lack of proper sleep. Her skin was pale under the foundation, mourning its sun-kissed glow that was long gone.

What has become of me? Was Jareth really the center of my life, the one that kept me in balance and beauty? Mai wondered, frowning at her reflection. I'm wasting away? What about Jareth? He didn't seem so…

"No!" Mai hissed under her breath, wrenching her gaze away from the mirror. "I will not think of that. I'm not ready!"

Will you ever be ready?

Mai shook her head to be rid of that voice of reason. Without looking back, Mai wandered out of the bathroom and into the hall. She could feel the warmth of the season spreading through her as it had for many years prior. Only twice had she been satisfied to the extent that the season brought along. Every year since, she had suffered alone with hot flashes and nights where she could not find relief in sleep.

The answering machine at the end of the hall pulsated with a red light, indicating messages waited to be answered. With a reluctant sigh, Mai pressed the button to listen.

"Mai!" Sarah's voice cried out. "How could you have pulled a stunt like that? You could have been seriously hurt or killed! Why aren't you picking up your phone? Are you home? Where are you? Please call me back!"

Delete.

"Mai, are you insane?" Peter's voice demanded. "Why would you do something so stupid?! Normal people don't bail out of cars – unless they're guilty or stupid! Which one are you?"

Delete.

"Mai, I'm really getting scared," Sarah said. "Why aren't you picking up the phone? Are you hurt? Are you lying on the floor of the bathroom, crying? Please don't make me come over and break down the door. I'm not going to judge you, if you call. I just want to talk to you…Please just call back."

Delete.

There was one final message. The person on the calling side was silent for a moment and then spoke coldly. "How you turn my world, you precious thing…"

A chill spread through Mai's body and she quickly deleted the message. The voice was not welcome in her waking moments. It had haunted her dreams for months, but it wasn't Jareth's. No, it was colder, darker…almost demonic in nature. She had had enough of demons in her life, why did God see fit to add yet another to torture her? Hadn't she suffered enough?

"Avery…" Mai said, finding him in the kitchen. "What are you doing?"

The vampire turned and looked at her, his hand holding the string of a tea bag in a large mug. A dark eyebrow rose up. "A Healer should recognize tea," he said.

"I don't need a caretaker," Mai commented, leaning against the entry way to the kitchen. He snorted. "Tonight was just like many others that I have survived, Avery. And each of those nights, I have recovered from."

Avery's violet eyes didn't turn to her as he threw the used tea bag in the trash. "You were lucky in the past, but it is clear to me that someone is trying to kill you, Princess."

Mai nodded in agreement and turned, walking towards her tiny kitchen table that was covered in her mother's and her own journals. "Add a tablespoon of honey to that tea," she muttered, sitting down.

The girl flipped through one of her journals, filled with the words that she couldn't speak aloud. All of her musings, rants, yearnings and desires were there as were her heartbreaks, tears, and pain. Drawings scattered across the pages – some small and some taking up the whole page – depicted various creatures that she'd studied and images of things she saw. Haunting eyes the color of light blue ice stared back at her from many of the pages, filled with the same fire and longing that she felt.

"You never draw the Goblin King," Avery commented, setting the steaming mug on the table within her reach. "Not completely…"

Mai shrugged, not meeting his gaze. "I can't draw him. Memories of him are bittersweet, tainted by pain and evil, of love and happiness that can't be anymore." She sighed. "He's better off without me. The whole Underground is."

"Do you believe that wholeheartedly?" Avery questioned. "Have you no concern for the condition of the Goblin City and its inhabitants? What of the relations between the Goblin City and the Elven Country that you sought to seal so that war would not happen?"

"I am not part of that world anymore," Mai said softly. "The instant my baby died, my place in the Underground was taken away. I couldn't face the Goblin King – he'd blame me." Her eyes turned to his. "Even if the letter I wrote before I left said that something beyond my control had caused the death of Madylyn, he'd still blame me."

"He wouldn't," Avery whispered, watching her.

"Don't give me that crap! I disobeyed his orders. I didn't stay in the castle during his absence. I rode a horse while being very pregnant. It is my fault that our baby is dead!" Mai snapped, her eyes misting with unshed tears. "I should have listened to him. I should have stayed in the castle. Why did I have to be so thick-headed?"

Avery was silent for a moment. "That is part of your personality, Mai. A part of which the Goblin King found so fascinating, endearing." He folded his hands on the table before him. "Your letter made his heart break, but he would have forgiven you and moved on with life. Instead, you ran away and that is why he would be pissed."

Mai brought the tea up to her lips and sipped it. The warmth of the drink which usually soothed her, made her feel warmer than normal. Fae mating season, Mai thought with a frown, setting the drink down. Why must we be like animals for three days – and then not care about whether or not we should be intimate the rest of the year?

The girl's eyes glanced at the vampire, noting that he was still watching her. Having read about vampires, Mai knew he could see the heat coming off her body and that he could probably – no, he definitely could smell the pheromones wafting from her. Mix that with the smell of her life's blood, she knew it was a dangerous cocktail.

"Have you had your heart broken?" Mai asked, flipping through her journal without really looking at the lines scrawled across it.

"What?"

"You speak as if you know what it's like to be in a relationship that…didn't work out." The Halfling looked at him curiously when he sighed heavily. "I know there is this unverified fact about vampires that I've read about in many books. It says that a vampire will feed off of anyone easily until they come across the one that they are most drawn to. After that point, they may only drink from the veins of their bonded mate or…something bad will happen."

A slight smile turned up the corner of Avery's lips. "Do you really call being poisoned something bad, dear Princess? Why use the kiddie gloves on me after everything you've done tonight and know what I am?"

"I don't know…" Mai's brow furrowed as she looked back at the journal before her.

A large black cat stalked across the page, white designs circling its body in intricate patterns. Mai had never seen a cat with a glowing purple eye before. It can't be a cat, not a normal one anyway…Why am I seeing such a creature? The Halfling flipped through many other pages, seeing the same cat on some of them. What does this mean?

Jareth's eyes peered up at her from the last page, his face half drawn and half in crosshatched shadow. Mai stared at the picture, her breath catching in her throat. Unexpected and unwelcomed tears came, blurring her vision. A chair scraped against the floor and suddenly, Avery was beside her.

"Princess?" Avery whispered.

"It's not right," Mai muttered, shaking her head. "I should be cut off from them - all of them. I should be unable to feel anything except for sorrow and pain. No desire, no warmth in the black hole I have created within me…" She closed eyes and let out a raspy breath of air. "Why is it so damn hot?"

The Elf Halfling made a small sound of surprise as Avery picked her up, his body still cold as ice even through his clothing. Instinctively, Mai pressed herself closer to him though her heart told her that she was betraying Jareth. Down the hall they went to her bedroom, a place where dreams tortured her and sleep evaded her.

Mai was set down very carefully onto her feet beside the bed. "I'm not sleeping with you," she said bluntly, watching the vampire pull his shirt off. "No matter how good-looking you are or how many times I said I was going to find a real vampire and marry him. That was years ago before…"

"I have no intention of being intimate with you," Avery assured her. "Your blood only calls to me like everyone else does. You are not the one I am fated to bond with." He gestured at the bed, its blankets rumpled from nights of tossing and turning. "I am merely doing this as a friend and as someone who wishes to ease your suffering."

The young woman nodded, accepting his answer. "All right then."

Mai climbed onto her bed and rolled onto her side, facing away from the door. The mattress sank a little as Avery moved beside her, his arms wrapping around her and pulling her closer to his chest. A soothing chill spread through her limbs from his touch, but she was not at peace.

Jareth should be the one to share my bed, Mai thought sadly, closing her eyes. No one but him should be in my bed. Would he hold me in his arms this way now, like he has so many times before? Or have I ruined everything?

As sleep started to creep into her body, Mai had only one thought left. I still love you, Jareth…

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

A/N: Okay, yes – this is a rather stupid way to end the chapter. And yes, I know there is no return of Jareth in this chapter. There will be more opportunities for him to show up in the next chapters or whenever I decide to bring him back. So please be patient.

I know you all want weekly updates for this story, but I can't really do that. I am in the third year of college, so papers upon papers are set before me. I only really have time to write out a chapter on the weekends and sometimes not even then. As I am also working on other projects for this site, I cannot guarantee exactly when I will update. So there will be no promises to be broken.

Thank you all for supporting this story. Please Read and Review! -Scarlet