She remembered the way his hands had felt on her body that night, so smooth with slight calluses on the inside of his dark palms, she remembered his hands gliding over her waist and stomach, touching the soft curls at the juncture of her thighs, she remembered his lips, touching, tasting. In her dream she was back there, lying on his blanket on her back while he moved over her, the darkness of the cave and of the night blanketing them both. She could almost feel his body over her, his eyes drilling into her, she could almost taste the sweat that beaded on his hot flesh as he came inside of her. It was then that the dream changed drastically from Ardeth and his gentle loving to Khaldun, instead of being able to fight him like her mind was screaming desperately for her to do she couldn't move, her arms and legs were pinned by a heavy weight.

A scream was caught in her throat and her body felt like it was on fire, her cheek burned with pain from where he had hit her.

"You belong to me, Hatshepsut." He growled.

"I'm not, Hatshepsut!" she screamed at him.

"You belong to me…." The voice was fading but that face was still there, looming over her.

Something was drastically different about this man from the one she had met was that this man was wearing strange make-up and robes that would have been better suited to ancient Egypt than modern day. Fear bubbled up in her chest and threatened to overwhelm her unless she did something, unfortunately nothing came to mind, every nerve in her body was frazzled and shredded and her brain was practically on auto-drive. Already she could feel her mind switching to pure emotion instead of logic, her feelings increased tenfold, the fear and humiliation she was feeling was only bound to get worse.

"Stop!" she screamed.

His hands were touching her stomach through the thin cotton of her gown, his mouth was on hers, grounding hard while his tongue thrust deep between her teeth, his dark eyes met hers and seemed to be taunting her. His hands were nothing like Ardeth His hands were nothing like Ardeth's as they gripped her breasts and moved down her waist to her hips, his lips moved over her jaw to her throat where he bit her hard on the side of her throat. A cry escaped her lips….

Ardeth

"Cassandra!" Ardeth boomed at her.

She was stuck inside of a nightmare that Ardeth couldn't get her out of, he had no idea what had happened to her while she was at the camp but whatever had happened was obviously haunting, her lips were moving with unspoken words, her arms tightly bound to her sides so she wouldn't hit anyone. He touched her forehead again, heat rolled off of her and sweat beaded on her skin, she whimpered in her sleep.

"C'mon Rohi, you can do this. You just need to wake up, Rohi." He crooned. "Wake up, Habiibii."

"Sir?" a man at the entrance said.

"Do you have a cold compress?"

"Yes, sir. And a doctor, sir."

"Bring him in! Hurry."

"Yes, sir!" the man said.

A man entered the tent, he was meagerly dressed and held a leather bag in his left hand, Ardeth had no idea when he had called for a doctor, for moments had melted in years for Ardeth, minutes were like weeks waiting for Cassandra's fever to break. He felt utterly helpless as he looked down at the woman he had come to have feelings for in so short a time, he moved damp hair out of her face again and placed a kiss on her forehead.

"Doctor?" he said with impatience.

"Yes, sir. Is this your wife, sir?"

"No." Ardeth said, never taking her eyes off her.

"Then I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"I'm not leaving her side."

"It's standard…"

"I don't care!" Ardeth yelled. "I am not leaving her side."

The doctor seemed momentarily taken aback but said nothing more, swiftly he opened his bag and pulled out some instruments.

"What are you doing?"

"I am checking her heart rate, I want to be sure what kind of fever she has."

"Isn't one fever the same as the next?"

"No, wounds are more likely to become infected which causes a more severe fever since it is a direct access point into the body, unlike a disease that enters through a system of filters. It takes the body longer to understand what kind of infection it is before it can attack that infection, thusly a higher fever."

"Will she survive?"

"She is young, it is probable that she will survive. Now tell me, does she have an wounds that I should look at?"

"She has a long cut on her abdomen that I stitched up, she has bruises on her leg, and I believe that she may also have a sprained if not fractured ankle."

"What happened to her?"

"It is none of your affair."

"Ardeth…" Cassandra moaned.

"Cassandra?!" Ardeth looked back at Cassandra and crooned to her some more. "Everything's alright, Habiibii."

"He's…. here….." she whispered.

"Who is?"

But Cassandra was quite, her moans and flailing had also ceased or lowered in their intensity, the doctor looked worriedly at Cassandra and pressed a flat object against her chest while placing two buds into his ears. Her heart beat was frantic as it pounded against her chest and her pulse was racing madly, next the doctor placed an object into her mouth taking it out a few moments later and peering at it.

"She is worse off than I thought."

TBC

Sorry it took so long! But it's back and I will write another chapter soon!