A/N: An update, finally! The chapters will come a little faster from now on.
Black sap dripped from the dead trees and streaked my shoulders. I touched the sticky substance with tentative fingers. With a grimace, I scrubbed my fingers against the ground. Though I couldn't force my arm to cooperate, I'd managed to shake most of the depression threatening to consume me.
Jareth did this to me, so he could fix it.
All I had to do was wait for him to come to me.
He would. I knew it deep down inside. We orbited one another, never able to get far enough apart to break out of the other's gravitational field.
While I was waiting, I had to keep moving. Aleeathar wouldn't save herself.
I staggered to my feet and plodded onward. I set my sights on one door in particular. It wasn't so much a door as a stark rectangle cut out of the wall. No locks to deal with, no riddles or puzzles to hang me up. As I neared the last few rows of dead trees, the scuff of stealthy footsteps nearly hidden under the sound of my labored breathing became prominent, purposeful.
I froze and looked over my shoulder.
Something stood a few trees away. Stooped and cat-like, the being growled low in her throat. Hair matted into thick red-gold dreads fell around a face that held traces of familiar features. Deep scars shaped like claw-marks marred her sallow cheeks. She wore tattered clothing and clutched a dirty spear in her hands.
Another sound alerted me to another presence. To my left, another one of the creatures stepped out of the shadows. She wasn't as hunched and twisted as the other creature. She appeared more human. Sad eyes bore into mine. Familiar eyes. One her shoulders dipped lower than the other, and the arm on the side hung limply at her side. In her other hand, she clutched a doubled-over strip of leather with a small pouch in the middle. A slingshot?
Yet another creature slipped out of the shadows, this one bent nearly double. She galloped around me, yipping and yelping wildly. If her intent was to drive me towards the wall of doors, she succeeded. I stepped into the wide path between the trees and the wall, and all three rushed me, yowling and brandishing their weapons. With a spear at my heart, a dagger at my throat, and the tallest one whirling the sling over her head, I dared not move. My breath stuck in my throat. Lungs felt like stone. My gut trembled.
The longer the women-creatures stood staring at me, the angrier the spear-wielding one became. The wicked, dirty spearhead trembled from her barely-restrained anger. She slashed it at my face, so close I felt the chill from the metal, the hiss of it slicing through the air.
The point of the spear traveled from the tip of my nose down my throat, over my heart to the center of my chest between my breasts. The sharp edge dug into my skin, drawing a bead of blood that dripped warm and wet down my belly before it soaked into my filthy dress.
"Varket myo shithe!" the thing growled, her voice rough and scratchy.
The meaning of the words trickled into my head, dropping out of the foggy ether of half-memories. Prepare to die, traitor.
I sucked in a pained breath and clenched my eyes shut.
To my surprise the spear dropped away. I cracked my eyes open as the deformed women scuttled backwards, their attention on a figure emerging from the shadows of the garden of dead trees. Unlike the others, this woman walked tall, her shoulders and back straight. As she drew closer, I saw her deformations were not as severe. Her skin looked thin and wrinkling, like a paper bag wadded up and flattened out far too many times. She walked with a limp that the motions of her long, loose skirt turned into an almost graceful swaying gait. She clutched the knobbed head of a walking stick in one arthritic hand. She had something else in her other hand, but I couldn't make it out.
The other women made a path between them so she could approach me. My height, her big, cat-like eyes peered right into mine, then scanned up and down my body. She waved her hand in front of my face and muttered a few words.
A second-long flicker of dizziness made me wobble on my feet and blink hard. She'd taken the glamour away, the one I hadn't thought about since Qlea told me of it. The other women-creatures hissed and grumbled, their complaints sounding like the rumbles of angry cats.
With grace and strength belied by her stooped posture and twisted limbs, the first woman-creature I'd seen flung her spear at me effortlessly. Driven by force I couldn't imagine, it sank into the wall so close to my head it nicked my ear.
No retreat, no weapon, I had nothing. Absolutely helpless, I pressed back against the wall as hard as I could. I stayed as strong as possible in the face of this threat.
The creatures murmured among themselves as they advanced on me, one scuffing step at a time. The language struck a familiar chord in my heart, a tangible twang of nostalgia. I squinted at the hunched, contorted creatures edging closer.
Matted blue feather earrings hung from the spear-bearer's ears. Tomi.
Red tattoos spiraled up another's arm, distorted by crinkled, dry skin. Skal.
The other was Rahj, and the one that stood tall in the midst of them bore the name Virin.
Memories surfaced. The six of them guarded the sacred tomb of the goddess of Aleeathar. A fire crackled merrily near the entrance, and the pretty priestesses and their female consorts clustered around it, gossiping and cooking the evening meal. Nighttime, bright with stars and the double moons cloaked us as Virin, the high priestess of Aleeather, tried to read the stars for me.
She found no answers. Puzzled, she laughed and joked, "You have no future in Aleeather. The stars don't lie, even when they won't talk."
"Virin." The name escaped my lips. It had the effect of a shotgun blast. The women stumbled backwards, then surged forward, weapons at the ready.
Virin flung out her hands. They froze in place, teeth bared. Low growls rolled from their throats. The hatred radiating off of the women was palpable. Chills raced up and down my spine.
"Krith," Virin snarled.
The translation popped into my head, dropping out of the ether of my lost mind. Run.
"Virin—" She'd been in my friend in my past life. Surely she'd be my ally now.
She lashed out, slashing her clawed hand across my face. "Krith!" she howled. My blood beaded up on her claws. I didn't need any further urging. A stone slung from the sling Skal carried slammed into the wall where my head had been. I launched myself forward, toward the door.
They chased me, yowling like enraged animals. I veered into the darkened doorway at a full-on sprint, legs pumping through the pervasive ache deep in my joints. Every step sent another jolt of agony through my clenched arm and chewed-up shoulder. I ignored the pain and pushed myself faster.
Fear-blinded, I realized I'd launched myself into empty space.
In dreams, I always fell in slow motion, with enough time to look around, to see the rushing ground, to feel the air buffeting my body.
Not so in this questionable reality. I had enough time for terror to shuttle through my body with lightening speed, enough time to grab at the magic bubbling in my throat and wordlessly wish to survive the fall. The stairs rushed up to greet me as I plummeted to my fate.
I slammed into the ground with enough force to knock myself out. Drifting in nothingness, I was barely aware of cold dirt beneath my cheek. A vivid kaleidoscope of color and pain swirled around me. My fragmented consciousness waxed and waned, drawing closer and spreading thinner. My eyes were open. Dense, bare tree limbs formed a mesh overhead. The rough bark sparkled like it had been sprinkled with sugar. Tiny flashes of light sparked and burned in my peripheral vision. I tasted copper. Vision in my left eye seemed blurry.
I didn't hurt yet, but the pressure of the impending agony lay heavy over me. Somewhere in the periphery, I saw ball gowns swish by, all a-sparkle with diamonds and fairy glamour. Strains of music tinged like a jewelry box. I wanted to hum along, but I couldn't breathe.
Tiny bursts of pain broke through that wonderful numbness. My ribs had a strange, crunchy feeling, and a hot, metallic liquid thickness bubbled in the back of my throat.
Pulling air into my lungs was more than I could manage.
I sat up. I don't know how, or even when, but one moment, I was on my back staring up, and the next I faced the tree trunks. A wave of dizziness nearly laid me out again, but somehow, I stayed upright. A second later, I vomited a frightening amount of blood into my lap.
A dull, dark reflection caught my eye. I don't know how long I stared at the phone, my vision lopsided like my eyes had been knocked sideways, blurry on my left side as if looking through a wet windshield. Making my heavy, reluctant hand move toward the phone took an even longer stretch of time. I touched it, the sensation faint and far away.
The order to 'close' took forever to reach my fingers. Even then, it got all distorted. I grabbed dirt and leaves and air until by some lucky chance I got my numb fingers around the phone. I couldn't see…I rubbed my thumb across the smooth screen. It lit up and pulsed once.
Couldn't see what flashed across the screen.
Hot blood poured out of my mouth in a thick, foul stream. Flaming barbs of pain tightened in my chest. Fuzzy darkness closed around me once more.
"Stupid girl." The voice I love, the voice I hated, growled low in my ear. Arms scooped me up. The jostling of my injuries zapped me to full consciousness. My stomach felt full and hard, and the sensation of drowning had me on the verge of panic. Jareth jostled me again and the movement forced another belly full of viscous, hot blood up.
"Disgusting, Sarah," he groaned, straining his neck so he could see the thick red mess running down his shoulder. "You really did a number on yourself this time. How the hell did you wish yourself across the labyrinth?"
I floated in and out of the tangles of pain and unconsciousness. He carried me away, his every step thudding through my body. The haze in my head thickened. Nothing cut through the fog. I slipped further away, deeper into the warm ether of nothingness. Content to be in his arms, I drifted away.
"No, none of that now. Open your eyes. Wake up. You're not too far gone yet." He slapped my cheek gently, hard enough to draw me back a measure.
I forced my eyes open a crack. He was beautiful, all jagged lines and dark shadows. Blazing eyes and brilliant lies. With his arm behind my shoulders, he helped me sit upright in the big bed. Through the fog of impending death, I realized we were back in the palatial bedroom once more.
"Stupid human," he grumbled. "You're too frail like this. One little tumble and you're dying." He sighed. "What would you have done if I didn't have my cell phone on me when you called?" He moved and I couldn't keep track of his hands. Something cool touched my lips. Water. I managed a weak swallow.
He laid me back on the pillows. "You're getting blood all over my bed…" he grumbled. "I assume you want me to help you, right?"
Things got fuzzy and distant for a while. Slowly, I came back from the soft, quiet place I'd drifted. Jareth leaned against one of the solid posts at the foot of the bed. The worst of the pain was gone from my body, although the heaviness remained in my chest. My throat burned. My headache eased somewhat.
And I was naked again, cold and shivering. Jareth drew the blanket over me. Grateful for the warmth, I closed my eyes and relaxed against the pillows. I sensed no threat from Jareth.
I never truly did. He loomed at the foot of the bed, larger than life, wanting—
I didn't know.
After a moment he sat down on the side of the bed. His weight made my hip dip towards him a bit. "I could have left you to die," he said, not looking at me. "Would have made my life lot easier if I had. With you dead, most of my problems would be gone."
"Why'd you save me, then?"
He shifted sideways, turning towards me slightly. His hand caressed my hip, an almost unconscious stroke. "I need you. It's as simple and as complicated as that."
"Why'd you bite me?" I felt a little stronger, physically, but being so close to him left me breathless and woozy. I wanted nothing more than to feel him next to me, holding me until all the hurts and aches went away.
He chuckled softly and grinned. "Leverage."
"What?"
He traced a line up my arm. "Every hour, the poison creeps deeper into your cells. It changes them and then it kills them, slowly. Painfully. You feel it, don't you?"
I could, a deep burn in the center of my right arm and shoulder. It had moved up my neck a little ways, and down my ribs.
Jareth touched my cheek. "It'll wither your muscles and weaken your bones. Your skin will turn as thin and frail as old parchment. Your hair will fall out." He picked up a strand of my hair and let it trail through his fingers. "In a few days, the fever will burn out your mind, and you'll be just a dried up husk."
Though I hungered for his touch, I drew back, horror picking through my mind. In the few short hours since he'd bitten me, the aching burn in my arm only eased when I held it tight against my ribs. As he sat over me and watched with a smirk on his face, I tried to extend my arm. To my absolute terror, I could barely move it away from my chest without excruciating pain ripping through my chest and shoulder.
"Why would you poison me?"
"To make you need me. I'm the only one who can save you. Otherwise, you'll die a miserable, lonely death."
I turned away so he couldn't see me cry. He wouldn't allow me the dignity to suffer in peace. Instead, he watched me, his eyes blazing.
"I can save you, Sarah. Let me." Old words echoed from the depths of my mind. Fear me, love me, and I will be your slave.
It would require surrender, and that I would not, could not, give him.
"I'm prepared to compromise," he said, his voice a low drawl that cut through my hate and grief like a knife made of pure lust. "I know better than to ask for what you wouldn't freely give."
"I don't have anything to give you," I said.
He smirked. "You do, Sarah. You have the only thing I've ever wanted." He moved quickly, straddling my body and leaning down to kiss me deeply, pulling at my heart and soul with his lips. Only his lips touched me. He kissed a searing path down my jaw, to my collarbone, where he skirted the wounded area on my shoulder. His hot, damp lips found one of my nipples and he bit down, hard enough to hurt. I cried out and he sucked the pain away. My other nipple was worshipped in the same way, with pain and pleasure, and his body dipped lower until he ground his pelvis against mine.
He bit me again, suddenly, on my inner arm. I couldn't move fast enough to escape his hands. "Stop fighting me," he growled. His tasted my blood again, lapping the slow ooze away. "I could take you places, SArah. Higher than you've ever been. You and I are meant to be. My darkness is your darkness. How you turn my world, you precious thing." He kissed me. I tasted my blood on his tongue. "Your own stupid mythology casts us together, as Consort and Vessel."
His fingers dipped into my hot center, stroking me higher and higher, closer to rapture. Deftly, I worked the button and the fly of his jeans open and slipped my hand into his pants. His thick, engorged cock filled my hand, jumping when I closed my fingers around his shaft. He grunted and pressed against my hip.
"You're killing me," I whispered between moans, my breath hot against his ear. I spoke of his fingers moving deep inside me, and of the persistent agony of his bite. Our hands moved together, seeking release, until I clenched my thighs around his hand and dropped mindlessly into the promised rapture. The threat of changing our world irrevocably kept our bodies from fully joining, even though he urged me to roll over and settled against me, hot and heavy and hard, and used the friction of our bodies and his own hard to bring about his own release. He tensed, every muscle in his body convulsing once, and he ground out my name through clenched teeth as his seed spurted across my lower back.
After a long moment he relaxed and eased down on his side. He gathered me close, looping his arm around my chest. "I only want one thing from you," he said. "But I don't need it."
"What are you talking about?" I asked. My body still throbbed and my mind hummed from the intense orgasm. I just wanted to stay still and silent, warm and safe in this place between time and realities.
"I want your heart." His fingers stroked the side of my breast. For once, the deep burn in my arm and right side abated.
We weren't enemies here. We were just…together. "I offered it to you. You chose to steal my kingdom instead." Hot tears of regret, anger, and helplessness stemming from the event decades past filled my eyes, filmed my vision. I rolled over and put my hand against his stubble-roughened cheek. My right arm cramped painfully. I pressed it against my ribs. "I offered you everything I possessed, and would have given it freely. Don't you see that, Jareth?"
The emotions in his eyes ran deep. He brushed the tears of my cheeks. "You can't possibly understand."
"Try me."
He shrugged and rolled over on his back. He squirmed around until he was comfortable, adjusting his limp cock and rezipping the fly of his pants. With both hands splayed across the finely-sculpted muscles of his stomach, he sighed. Unable to keep my hands off, I traced the ridges and valleys of his torso. "What secrets have you kept hidden from me?" I asked before I ran my tongue over one of his nipples. He grunted softly and pushed me away. "Why are you so different here?"
"This place exists for me and you alone. The parts of me that desire to destroy you can't be in this place. Here, you only have the real me."
I ran my hand up his stomach and fingered the sparse hair on his chest. He was so beautiful, it hurt. So perfect, I couldn't stand it. "Tell me your secrets, Jareth. Make me hate you again. I can't stand not hating you."
He laughed. "Why? Wouldn't it make it easier?"
"I don't want to love you. I hate needing you. I hate it because of what you did, and what you want to do, and what you will do to me."
He gathered me into his arms and I buried my face in his strong shoulder. This man should have been my king. We should have been standing together in the shining castle of Aleeather, gazing over our joined lands, which should have been beacons of justice and prosperity and strength.
I bit his shoulder, just enough to hurt. He yelped and jerked away. Naked, powerful, and angry, I pushed him down to the mattress and threw my leg across his waist. Straddling him, I stared down into his glittering, dark eyes. I wondered who actually had the power at the moment when his smoldering eyes raked from my face to my breasts and downward. His cock hardened in his jeans, between my legs. My heat soaked into him.
It would be so simple, just a few quick movements, a single thrust of his cock, and we could complete what we'd started so long ago. In just a thrust, our destinies would be sealed.
Magic hummed between us, hot and powerful, urging us to come together. A heady, intoxicating sensation fell over us, and I wondered if the starry, dazed look in his eyes was mirrored in my own. Jareth's hand slipped between us, caressing me as he urged me to move so he could unzip his pants.
I had to touch him. Had to kiss him, had to inhale the mingled scent of his magic and his flesh. I pushed his pants down and he kicked them off, and finally he was as naked as I, as bare as the night and as mesmerizing as the depthless sky.
Jareth sat up and pushed me down. Poised over me, he kissed me deeply and his fingers slid through my damp folds and invaded me. "All your years in the human realm, and no one has ever touched you?"
I arched against his touch, seeking his mouth and wringing more kisses from him. "No, never. There's only been you. I couldn't bear the touch of another man." He sent me to the stars with the soft strumming of his thumb against my clit.
I crashed back to earth, gasping for air and fighting the urge to grab his hips, drive him into me, and wrap my legs around his waist. I'd hold him there forever and never let him go.
He was so close, the tip of his cock nudging the hot core of me. He held himself back, biting his bottom lip, one hand holding my hips down to keep me from rising to meet him. "Sarah…"
The tone of his voice was tortured and shaky. "Yes?" I reached between us and gripped his cock, pumping him with firm strokes until he shivered and pushed inside me until it hurt, just until it hurt. His hand held me down and I tossed my head back and groaned with the need to damn the pain and draw him into me.
Energy swarmed around the point where our flesh joined, fiery and static, all but screaming for us to complete the ritual. But Jareth held back, eyes clenched shut.
I saw fear etched in his face. It tempered my lust and I didn't fight him when he drew back and bounced off the bed. Empty, needing him, I cried out.
"We can't," he ground out. "Gods, I need you so bad. It hurts every fiber of my being, I need you so badly, but now's not the right time, and—Even I can't control the power our joining will release."
He gripped his cock and stroked himself, eyes still clenched shut. I saw the muscle flex, and it sparked another searing wave of desire.
"Jareth," I murmured, rising and touching his waist. I knelt, my hands trailing down his hips, and pulled his big hands from his cock. He laced his fingers through my hair and guided my mouth to his turgid member. I took him between my lips and he groaned loudly, thrusting his hips toward my face. His musky scent and salty taste became my world. His cock pulsed, hardened even further. He growled my name, a gruff litany, and thrust deeper into my mouth. I fought the urge to gag as his seed burst against the back of my throat. He held me tight, my throat clenching around his cock, my jaw aching from his girth, and barely able to breath, but I welcomed the discomfort because I sensed it was a goodbye, a preamble to a separation from his presence, a dismissal from this sweet place where we weren't enemies. Tears ran down my cheeks.
I didn't want to leave him.
He let me go and untangled his fingers from my hair. He dropped to his knees and framed my face in his hands. The look on his face frightened me, just as much as it broke my heart. "You will be my wife and my queen, Sarah."
I shook my head. I couldn't. If he only knew what I must do to free my country, to save my people. They would cast me out, afterwards, but I would be redeemed.
And alone.
So, so alone.
He was my consort, and at some point in the near future, I would have to kill him. The knowledge beat around my brain like frantic birds, echoing and screaming.
I closed my eyes and my tears dripped down his hands. In the space of a blink, he was gone. The taste of him remained on my tongue, and the burn of his hands glowed on my skin.
The door to the room opened into nothingness. I closed it quickly and paced the perimeter, peeking out the windows and searching for a way out. He said the room was a special place, one he'd created for us alone. Frustrated, I plopped down on the rumpled bed. I had no control here. Leaving would be impossible, until the magic wore off.
An indeterminate amount of time passed. The ache in my arm returned with a vengeance and crawled down my ribs, up my neck. The chill in the room increased. I wrapped up in a blanket. I closed my eyes for a moment, and only dimly realized I was falling asleep.