AN: Updates for this story will be short. Probably no more than 4000-5000 words each. I also know I have SO MANY fics to get back to and they'll be updated soon. I'm working on it. This just came to me and I had to get it out. Hope you enjoy. :)
WARNING: there's some violence in this, but it isn't too bad. Here's your warning just in case.
"Emma," she breathed out as soon as she was able to. The sight of the Savior in such a sinful outfit that was definitely more villain than hero stole her words and all the air in her lungs. She still remembered how the blonde used to look long before she'd sacrificed herself. She still remembered Emma as the woman who'd barged into her town and turned her entire life upside down wearing nothing more than a white tank top, tight jeans, and a bright red leather jacket. Sometimes she wore even less, but never in public and Regina had only caught sight of those red lace panties once so the image still floated around in her head but it wasn't how she remembered the other woman. Mostly.
Emma's throaty chuckle broke her out of her thoughts and her eyes focused on the woman at the top of the staircase again.
"Unfortunately, being the Dark One doesn't give me the badass power of reading minds, but I can still read expressions," Emma said as she slowly sauntered toward the second floor landing.
Regina's eyes drifted from green eyes to a pale hand and watched it slide gently and gracefully across the banister as she approached the start of the staircase. Emma had always exuded power, but never like this. She was different. Darker. Bold in an entirely independent way from how she'd held herself as just Emma Swan. It was alluring, much like the darkness she'd faced as she grew into and embraced the Evil Queen.
"You like what you see," Emma said. It wasn't a question.
She cleared her throat and tried to regain at least some semblance of control over herself if not the situation. She was supposed to find a way to make returning to Storybrooke appealing, not gawk at Emma. "What I see is interesting so I suppose I'm intrigued."
Emma abruptly stopped when she reached the top step and snapped her body forward like a solider called to attention. She kept one hand on the railing, but she slid her other hand off her hip and let it fall to her side. A tense couple of seconds passed in utter silence that put Regina on edge before a plume of dark blue smoke engulfed the blonde. In an instant, Emma stood toe to toe with her. Their faces were so close she could feel Emma's breath on her nose and lips and see the golden flecks in her green eyes, which were a much darker shade of green than usual.
She gulped and licked her lips as she watched Emma's eyes roam over her from the top of her head to her neck. It seemed that as soon as Emma noticed her pulse beating through the vein in her neck, the blonde didn't want to look anywhere else. She wondered if Emma was about to suck or lick where her eyes were riveted, but upon her next exhale she felt a hand coil around her throat and she was thrown back against a wall. She swallowed and really felt the weight of Emma's hand around her throat, tight and secure without squeezing.
Emma pulled her head away from her neck and grinned as she met Regina's gaze. Their noses brushed due to their proximity and she instinctively closed her eyes when Emma's breath puffed against her face and tickled her eyelashes. A second later she opened her eyes and Emma hadn't moved any farther or closer to her. The only thing that had changed was the look in her eyes. Before, she'd been darkly satisfied with Regina pinned against the wall, but now her eyes glimmered with amusement as she stared at the brunette.
"I feel something," Emma confessed. "It's familiar, but it's not a memory. Well, it's not my memory. Do you think when the powers of the Dark One transfer from one host to another that their knowledge and memories are transferred too?"
"It's- It's possible. But I'veā¦never been the Dark One so I wouldn't know."
"Then how do you think it's possible for me to know you've been trapped like this before? You wore a headdress and darker makeup. I think there was a necklace. It was a silk tie, not a chain. And there was some kind of pearl-like pendant that rested against your skin. Right. Here." Emma slid her hand toward the back of her neck, but stopped when she was able to press her thumb deep into the hollow point between her sternum and throat.
Regina choked and gasped as she felt the pressure of Emma's nail dig into her where her thumb pushed harder, harder, harder. She gritted her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut while she waited for the pain to pass and for Emma to let go. A long moment later, Emma yanked her thumb away and let her breathe. She coughed and took in deep, deep breaths that were both too much and not enough.
"Maybe I don't have all the memories from the Dark Ones of the past, but I think some of the things rattling around in my head come from Rumpelstiltskin. I'm sure my skin's much nicer than his. Isn't it?"
Emma placed a hand on Regina's chest, palm flat against warm skin, and slid it down the valley between her breasts before she pushed it back up until her fingertips touched the column of her throat. She lifted her palm off of her chest and then ran her fingers down over the swell of her right breast. She cupped it a second later and pressed the heel of her palm against her nipple through Regina's shirt and bra. The brunette groaned at the wave of pleasure that rolled through her, not wanting to feel the way she did but was a slave to the sensations nonetheless.
She tried to remind herself why Emma was touching her in the first place, tried to remember what had started the physical teasing that she wished she didn't want as much as she did. Her skin. Emma wanted to know if it was nicer than Rumple's, presumably when he was the Dark One, and then had started to glide her hand and fingers over her upper body. She didn't have to think about it, she felt it. Emma's skin was as smooth as it had always been, but she wouldn't admit that to the other woman. Emma didn't expect her to answer the question anyway. She'd just wanted an excuse to toy with her. That much Regina did know from experience.
As Emma's head moved from side to side, the little bit of light the blonde allowed into the palace struck her face and made the milky white skin glow in certain places every couple of seconds. The woman sparkled. She tried to recall if Rumple had appeared the same way when he'd been the Dark One in the Enchanted Forest and recalled one of the reasons she'd given him the name Gold in Storybrooke. But Emma's skin wasn't golden and didn't shine gold. There were specks of something on her face that had a cleaner and more appealing look to them.
Glitter.
"Wake up!"
Regina gasped and her eyes popped open. The first thing she saw was Emma's face in her moonlit bedroom as the blonde stared down at her with a wicked grin spread widely across her face. Emma's hands were on her shoulders and pushed her further into the mattress as the other woman bent over the side of the bed and her body to hover uncomfortably close above Regina while she slept. Or tried to, anyway. She hadn't woken up naturally and nothing in her dream had scared her awake. No, Emma had done that by sneaking into her bedroom in the middle of the night and touching her. Regina had been a light sleeper since she was young, at first because Cora's magical abuse was enough to worry her that her mother would discipline her at any time and later when the King interrupted her sleep for highly unpleasant sex.
Despite knowing once she was awake that it was only Emma's hands on her, Regina had yet to relax. Normally, she trusted that Emma wouldn't hurt her because they hadn't come to physical blows in a long time, but she was the Dark One now. If the other woman lost her temper, there was no telling how Emma would flare up. There was no doubt in Regina's mind that Emma wouldn't hesitate to use her magic no matter how much control she had over it. She didn't think a lack of control would be the younger woman's problem anymore. She'd never once seen Rumple struggle with his, even when he was weak from his pitch black heart before Emma let the darkness tether itself to her. If he'd been desperate enough, and there times that he had been, he had still made it work for him even though it mostly likely cost him a lot of energy and caused him a lot of pain.
"Where's the dagger, Regina?"
Emma's stern voice brought her back to the moment and she shook her head, tangling brunette hair as it rubbed back and forth against her pillow, while she stared up into dark eyes.
"Where is it," Emma barked in a hushed tone.
"I don't have it," she answered.
"But you know where it is?"
"What would you do with it once you had it?"
"What does it matter? I want it and you know where it is. Tell me and I won't have to hurt you."
"Like you could easily hurt Henry if you had the dagger? I don't think so."
In one fluid movement, Emma straddled her hips and aggressively gripped a fistful of Regina's hair. She tugged Regina's head to the side and leaned in until her lips grazed the brunette's ear when she hissed her demands. "I won't hurt Henry. He's the one person in this world and any other that I wouldn't touch. But you? I can hurt you and believe me when I say I'll take great pleasure in doing it. So, you can tell me where the dagger is or you can suffer the consequences."
"You would make me suffer with our son less than ten feet away?"
She wasn't sure if it was the use of "our son" or the fact that Henry was in the house that made Emma hesitate, but for some reason the woman above her stiffened and pulled back just enough that Regina saw her eyes spark with some kind of recognition or realization. The look disappeared and Emma's pause ended just as soon as it had happened and Regina's hair was yanked down. She was forced to tip her head back and bare her neck while the strain on her hair made her scalp burn at her roots. She let out a strangled cry and hoped she could be quiet enough to let Henry sleep through whatever Emma was about to inflict on her.
Without warning, teeth sank into her throat and sharply bit down. She yelped before she clamped her mouth shut tight and tried to breathe through the pain. She writhed beneath Emma and scraped her nails against toned biceps as she struggled to free herself or relieve the sting of the bite.
Thankfully, Emma gave her a reprieve and released the skin she'd bitten. She slid her tongue over the mark she left and licked up and down over the bruising imprints a few more times to give Regina some relief. When Regina collapsed back onto the mattress and heavily sighed as she relaxed, Emma pulled away.
"I can make you feel like I did in the palace or I can do worse than bite you," Emma said. "What's it going to be?"
"Emma," she softly began. "This isn't you."
"I'm the Dark One. This is me. Don't forget why I'm like this, Your Majesty," Emma growled when she said Regina's former title.
"I could never forget," Regina confessed. "Do you think what you're doing now makes me happy?"
"Your happiness has nothing to do with me. I gave up everything for you, but that's as far as my involvement in your happy ending goes."
"Is it? Because you threatening to torture me if I don't tell you where the dagger is seems like further involvement in my happiness. How can I be happy when I'm being tortured?"
Another flash of a familiar emotion in green eyes. Regina saw a hint of the old Emma Swan in that moment and wondered if maybe it would stay a little longer. Maybe just long enough for Emma to leave the mansion for the night.
"I'm gonna find the dagger with or without your help, but you might regret it if you don't help." And just like that, she was gone with a flick of the wrist under the guise of dark, dark blue smoke.
