"Melody would never harm me." Merlin asserted.

Mab laughed at him. "You never thought Nimue would harm you either. But she did. She decided she didn't want to share her daughter with you. For fifteen years, you never saw your child's face nor even knew her name."

"And now Nimue has sided with me to protect what she loves most. I own her."

Merlin gave an inarticulate yell of rage, but could not move. She had him pinned to the ground with her magic.

"And I have Melody now." Mab continued to needle him. "She is mine. She would carve out your heart if I wished it. It was my name she screamed so beautifully for two years while under my care."

Mab bent down to breathe in his face. "And it is my name you will scream before the end.

She grabbed his face. "I screamed your name over and over and yet you would not look at me. You left me to die."

Mab came back inside covered in blood. She had obviously indulged herself. Nydia rushed to clean her off.

"He still lives...barely." Mab commented.

Mab brushed off Nydia's attempts to clean her up. "Never mind that. Bring me my child of darkness."

Their bodies glinted under the moonlight in the courtyard of Tintagel. Her mouth ghosted over Mab's shining white flesh until she reached her mouth. Locking lips, she swallowed air and darkness. Her body rocked with spasms at the taste. "You will be queen." Mab's husky whisper in her ear was barely audible. "They will look to you for guidance."

"And what would you have in return, milady?" Melody asked her.

"Unceasing worship."

"That can be arranged." Melody's fingers entered her. Mab inhaled deeply as Melody stroked her rhythmically.

Nearby, Merlin, barely conscious, watched Mab defile his daughter.

"I saved him for you." Mab told her as she wrapped Melody's fingers around the hilt of a dagger.

Mab moved to defile his body. "I promised him you would be the one to carve out his heart."

Melody brought the tip of the dagger to his chest, but stopped.

"You realize if you don't kill him, I will continue to punish him."

There was a slight pause.

"I know."

Melody's eyes glowed green and her aura pulsed with the darkness Mab had intoxicated her with. But she didn't stab Merlin. Instead, she pulled Mab off of him and back onto her own body. "Leave him be for now. He won't be much entertainment when he cannot move." she purred into Mab's skin.

Mab growled in the back of her throat and kissed her. She stopped suddenly when Melody slid the dagger between her ribs. There was pause as she stared at Melody disbelieving, then she let loose a scream. Melody felt a tug and Mab whisked both of them away into a dark place.

She threw Melody to the floor and walked off clutching her side, "You stupid girl!" she shrieked.

Mab wasn't upset by the fact that Melody literally stabbed her, after all mortal weapons could not truly harm her. But the stabbing represented Melody's lack of trust, lack of faith, that's what had seriously wounded Mab. Melody was the strongest piece at the moment tying her to this existence.

Melody was lying on the floor watching dark things creeping about in the corners of the room. Where had Mab brought her?

Melody cringed when one of the shadow things reached out with a menacing tentacle, as though starving for her. Mab kicked it away from the girl, but continued to pace the room in a temper.

"My world still exists, but it is a faery world of darkness. Without life and light, we are monsters in the shadows. Abandoned to darkness, trapped in darkness."

Mab pulled Melody roughly up from the floor so she could hiss in the girl's face.

" Now I dance in darkness all alone."

How's that for dark and brutal? Please Review.