Chapter 43. Lilith's last stand

Ari watched his bride of two months with the eyes of a hawk, she was on lower dosages of the meds, and he should have been hopeful. She was still neither as lively nor as playful as she had been before Samhain, nevertheless she wasn't crying all the time either. He thought that his father's idea of coming to Greece for their honeymoon had been brilliant. At first the air and the sunshine and the people seemed to have breathed life once more into Lilith. Today however, watching the sun come up on the balcony of their villa bedroom, she seemed differant. She seemed to be falling back into old habits. She was plotting, and Ari aware of the directions that would lead. He pledged silently to the Gods to keep the constrained little witch just that, constrained and powerless.

"What are we doing today," she asked as she peered out at the majestic view. She worked at trying to sound interested, not wanting to have the meds dose increased yet again. It had taken her three weeks to get him to lower the dose to what it was now. While her brain was still fuzzy, she could function, and she could plot. At the top of her list was revenge, and Ari and his father were both on her short list right after a certain Goblin King.

"We are going to Ponza, the island that is said to be Aeaea, the onetime island home of Circe…" Ari looked at the day's schedule. He had seen Ponza, and deemed it was of no danger to his bride. With her powers having been bound she was as helpless as a kitten.

"Is that where the legendary Well of Circe is supposed to be?" Lilith asked trying to hide the excitement she felt.

"So they say," Ari joined her on the balcony. "Are you feeling better? Are you up to this little excursion?"

Tiring of his constant observation, Lilith would have liked to have scorned him, to avoid his touch. However she was scheming to make use of the famous witch's well, and to get to that well she needed Ari to believe she was content. When the handsome Greek she had wed reached for her she didn't shy away, but instead she hide her anger and disdain. "I'm feeling much better, thank you. I can't thank you and your father enough for bringing me home to Greece." She smiled coyly at her husband.

Ari had been and still was grateful to his father; the older Karras had seen to it that there were no obstacles in the way of Ari marrying Lilith. Lilith's mother had been given a handsome bride's price, and as a formal member of the Karras family was assured she'd be taken care of for the rest of her life. Ari's father had seen to all the arrangements, and to the dispensations that had to be made with the local Bishop of the Greek Orthodox Church. The elder Karras had insisted on a binding marriage in the church. He knew that both his son and the bride had been practicing the old ways, and while he respected the traditions that were making a resurgence among the young people, he also understood how important a formal marriage in the Greek Church was. The Bishop had been reluctant to approve the marriage, but after many negotiations, had finally agreed to the ceremony.

However the elder Karras was not as accepting of the young woman as his son. He didn't trust her any further than he could see her, but he had allowed the marriage for the sake of peace with his son. He had also put conditions on Ari, conditions that were just as binding as the spell the Goblin King had put on Lilith. Lilith was not to be allowed any real voice in anything. She was not to be given more money than she really needed, and was absolutely to be barred from using the Corporation as her toy. Ari understood his father's misgivings; he had some of his own. However his sense of responsibility for the entire mess at the asylum over rode his hesitation and doubts. Still, each time he held the woman he could feel her tense up. He knew she was still missing Sarah, even though she never mentioned her or Bryn. In his heart of hearts Ari knew that this misbegotten devotion to Sarah was on Lilith. He knew that the missing girl had little or nothing to do with the ardor his wife felt. He hoped that in time the woman would forget the exiled and dead to the mortal realm Sarah. He hoped that this trip to Ponza would please the sulky woman and give her something else to think on, not just the missing Sarah.

"I have our flight to Italy booked, and we'll take a car out to the marina. We'll be taking one of the boats out to the island… it's not really an island... it's more of a marsh surrounded outcropping of rock, I'm told." He gave her a tender smile. "They say Grotta della Maga Circe is beautiful. I've seen Ponza, but I had not gone out to the grotto." Kissing her brow he pushed her toward the bedroom. "Go get dressed, the day is wasting away." She giggled and moved toward the rooms, when she'd closed herself off into the bath, Ari looked out at the city and frowned. She was up to something, he was sure of it. She was almost too eager to see the cave… the cave of the Greek witch Circe…. Was he making a mistake to take her there? He was wondering if the binding of her powers was still holding… he could but pray that it was. Turning from the view of the city he moved slowly into the villa to dress for the day.

--

Circe watched her father taunt the Harpy mercilessly. She thought he would have tired of this nonsense, but it seemed he never found it a bore. Standing back, out of the eye sight of the winged woman in the cage Circe watched and frowned. He was a fool, perhaps not as big a fool as other men but fool enough. She wondered how it was he had managed to accumulate so much land and power over the years. In her estimation he was neither as talented nor as cunning as some in the courts of the High King. She would if asked put him on the same level as the foolish Goblin King whom she detested. Neither one was worth her trouble, she told herself. Both would need to be eliminated. When the lands of the Talagon and the Goblin's Labyrinth were joined together it would be a Queen who would rule them, she vowed. Seeing herself in her mind's eye seated upon the Goblin Throne. A cunning little smile crossed her grim lips.

--

The little Lear jet that Ari had booked had made short work of the trip from Greece to Italy. He kept a smile on his face, but in the back of his mind he was keeping alert, watching for trouble. Lilith seemed to be very peaceful as they flew over the ocean and landed in the little airport outside the City of Ponza. But things with Lilith were a quilt of deceptions, and Ari knew he had to keep alert.

Ponza was idyllic, a city that had become a tourist haven yet remained old fashioned and low keyed. The car that Ari had hired carried them to the marina without stopping in the fashionable town. Ari had murmured something about stopping for shopping after they had seen the grottos. He could have saved his breath as his wife was only interested in seeing the cave that had belonged to one of her hero's.

The boat that took them to the beautiful bay that was the only means of reaching the grotto was comfortable if small. Ari, playing the doting bridegroom, kept an arm about his lovely young bride. The men who manned the little ship commented in their own language about the lovers. Lilith ignored all of them, thinking only of how close she was to the grotto. She painted a contented smile on her face, and prayed the man at her side was fooled by it.

Pulling into the notched out outcropping the Captain of the ship said something to Air. He in turn said to Lilith, "Grotta della Maga Circe."

Eyes sparkling with the old fires, she looked at her husband and simpered. "Can we go in?" Nodding, Ari smiled back. 'Fool,' she thought to herself. 'Now begins my revenge.'

--

Tiring of her father's antics, Circe headed for the hidden chamber she'd kept secret from the old Fae Lord. She opened a portal, needing fresh sea air. Stepping out she found herself standing in the grotto which bore her name. She knew that tourist now came here, seeking a touch of the magic that had been used in the caves. Seeking a touch of the one who had wooed adventurers, and turned the unworthy into dogs. She detested the desecration of her personal space by what she considered to be mortal scum. She felt her private lands had been violated. This day there were very few tourists, too close to the coming of the mortal New Year she mused. However there was the one little boat anchoring and a young couple climbed out of the little ship and onto her shores. Circe hid from their view by means of the old magic, and watched them. Inquisitive of what would bring one out to her grotto. She sensed something of magic in both the young Greek and his woman as they approached. But it was the female who drew Circe's attention.

Lilith wanted to wretch, the touch of Ari's hand holding hers gave her no pleasure. She smiled, but didn't enjoy his company. She would have preferred to have been exploring the cave that had been used by Circe alone. The young Greek man had read up on the cave and was telling his uninterested bride what he had learned. Lilith was not impressed, for she knew things about the caves that were not printed in any tourist guide. She knew the secrets of the Sect of Circe, she knew of the hidden well that could restore one's soul. She prayed it could also restore powers that had been stolen.

Circe, hidden in the darkness, wondered how long it would be before the mortals would tire of her cave and leave her in peace. She longed to drink from the sacred waters that few even noticed. She desired to remove her garments and dance naked upon the sands at the mouth of the grotto and bath in the sea.

Ari released Lilith's hand, moving to look at an old pictograph on the wall. Seeing a chance for a moment of freedom the young bride moved stealthily toward the shadows as if honing in on something. She knelt keeping an eye on the young man, found a sharp rock and cut into her hand. Allowing a few drops of her blood to drop on the floor of the cave, and she urgently evoked the name of the Sorceress in a quick whisper. "Circe, hear me!" More drops of her blood she caused to fall on the ground Lilith looked down to be sure the blood was soaking into the crevasse of the cave. "Save me, sweet vengeful spirit!" She looked over her shoulder at her husband who was unaware of her having sacrificed her own blood to the Goddess/Sorceress. "Help me sweet spirit, help me avenge myself."

Circe used Fae Magic to still time about the girl, freezing the handsome Greek man. She stepped out of the shadows and answered the girl. "What is it you seek? And why do you evoke my name?" she asked allowing the girl to see her.

Lilith looked at the woman who now stepped forward; she was exactly what Lilith had expected. "I was once a user of magic," she lamented in a shaky voice. "Part of a powerful circle of three… until the damned Goblin King banished me from the lands of magic and bound my powers… and took my beloved from me."

Circe glanced past the girl, toward the man frozen in time. The man was handsome, young and full of vigor. "He is not your beloved?" The Sorceress inquired with mirth.

"He is the husband I've been saddled with," growled the soul wounded girl. "My beloved was one of my circle sisters."

Amused and absorbed by the faint energy the Greek girl gave off Circe smiled, "Tell me more," she encouraged. "What is it you want?"

"I want Sarah back," Lilith's voice filled with anger and demanding. "In time she would have loved me…. I know she would…. For I understood her, and no man would ever be able to do that." Her delusion was now absorbing her soul. "I want what the Goblin King stole from me."

Moving in a circle about the angry Greek, Circe drank in the essence of ire the girl was giving off. It was a heady brew, better than the waters she'd hungered for moments ago. The intensity of the Greek girl's hate for the men of the world was like nothing Circe had ever tasted. She murmured a pleasured sound, filling with the lusty energies. "If I help you, you will have to pay me… and my price is not inexpensive." She warned.

Lilith looked to where her husband was frozen, "I'll pay you whatever you want to be free of that which binds me. I have no desire to be bound power-wise or with this… man."

Circe reached forward; her hand caressed the line of Lilith's cheek and then her jaw. "You don't even know what my price is, as yet." The young woman turned her face into the gentle hand that caressed her face. Circe's hand moved slowly down the girl's neck to her collar bone, "How can you be so eager to pay, who is this Sarah and is she really worth what I will demand? Why are you so eager to be free of this virile male? Does he not please thee?"

"Sarah's the most powerful mortal witch I've ever met in this life," Lilith purred as she felt Circe's hand slid into her blouse. "And I'd pay any price to have her back…living in her presence, being able to feed off the energies she exudes… being able to direct her," Lilith grew excited, and aroused. "I would be happy to just bath in the stray energy field that surrounds her… to breath in her scent…" Her dark eyes looked over at the frozen male. "He thinks he can control me… thinks he can use me for his own pleasures… thinks he can keep me under his thumb; stupid man."

The long fingers of the Fae who had been known as a Goddess in times gone by, by mortals who didn't know the difference between Gods and Fae moved into the girl's undergarment and teased her nipple. "You are not unaccustomed to the touch of a woman… or her hungers," She stated with pleased conviction. "Perhaps we can strike a bargain… for I too wish to unseat the Goblin King."

Lilith favored the other with a simpering smile. "Perhaps we can scratch each other's itch." She suggested reaching forward to touch the Sorceress as she was touching Lilith. Seeing the look of pleasure that crossed Circe's face, the Greek girl moved closer. "I will pay whatever you ask." Her voice was excited, and she was aroused. "And then some."

Circe began to open the buttons on Lilith's blouse; she pushed the fabric aside with expert hands. "You may find yourself not wanting that which you longed for before," she warned before she leaned forward to kiss the Greek girl's long neck. Her teeth grazed the soft skin of the girls' exposed neck.

Lilith shrugged out of the open blouse, reached behind her and unfastened the bra she wore. She pulled it away, freeing her breasts and offered them brazenly to the Sorceress. "Kiss me," when the other leaned in and began to kiss her, she begged, "Suckle…Sweet Sorceress…"

Circe licked her lips before placing her mouth about the offered breast hungrily. "Delicious little witch," she murmured. "I will grant your wishes." She slowly pulled the Greek girl into the shadows and to the hidden cot in the darkness. "We will be the undoing to the Goblin King, you and I…and you will take back what he has stolen from you including your powers once he is no more." Circe heard Lilith moan with delight as she removed both their garments. Lilith moved her hands down the soft smooth skin of the Fae Sorceress, grasping the fleshy rounded ass with both hands and squeezing with demanding fingers, Circe teased the perky nipple in her mouth with her tongue and her teeth. She mewled in pleasure as Lilith arched, she released the nipple to smile at her co conspirator. "You are no novice, are you?"

"I know how to fuck," Lilith stated with pride. "Male or female…" One hand moved from the Sorceress's ass to the folds of her sex. "Does my lady prefer finger fucking or to be tongue fucked?"

Circe's eyes narrowed to slits as the Greek girl slid long skilled fingers into her. "Both," she murmured delightedly moving one leg to give the girl more access to her. "Please me; and you will be rewarded." She promised.

Lilith placed her head on the shoulder of her new lover, "You feel like silk," she purred as her fingers moved in and out of the other. "I bet you taste good too…." Flicking her tongue over the skin so close to her mouth, she drew a startled response. Removing her long fingers she slid them into her mouth to suck off the goo, "Better than good," she purred. "You taste magical…"

--

Circe watched with reluctance as the other dressed, "There is no rush," she murmured wanted to be pleasured just one more time. "I can keep us outside the realm of mortal time for an indefinite period."

Dark Greek eyes looked at the beauty on the cot, "Much as I'm tempted," Lilith sighed. "We must begin our work to bring down the Goblin King."

Poised like a cobra, Circe gave the mortal a simpering smile. "You have not once asked why I wish to take down this King."

"I don't care why," Lilith answered with complete honesty. "All that matters to me is that you do." She smoothed her garments, taking care with her wounded hand. "Your reasons are yours, and I'm sure you have no need to share them with a mere mortal."

Circe swung her legs over the side of the cot and sat upright. "True enough; I thank you for your respectfulness." She flicked her wrist, once more her garment were covering her body. She stood up and moved toward the Greek girl with outstretched hands. "That which the Goblin took from you will be restored, and given the information you've supplied me with I will be able to bring down the reign of the Goblin King once and for all…"

Lilith's hands clutched those of the Sorceress, "I am honored to have been of use to you, my Lady." Raising one hand, Lilith planted a tender devoted kiss in the palm of the Sorceress.

Fae eyes looked at the mortal, keeping a mask of delight on her face. The Fae was trying of the game, and longed to return to the FairyLands. She looked at the hand holding hers, with its open wound. "You must let me heal that," she insisted. "We don't need that man of yours smelling the traps that are about to snap." Kissing the wound, Circe used magic to heal the open gash that had a red angry welt surrounding the injury. Instantly it closed, scared and healed. "Now you are mine," Circe stated softly; "A devotee of the Circle of Circe."

"I am your servant," Lilith said with a bow of her head and eyes closed in what appeared to be supplication.

"I will begin the wheel turning, your Sarah will be returned to you, and you will bring her into my service;" instructed the Sorceress as she released the hands of the Greek witch.

"Of course," Lilith said turning toward the frozen man. "Blessed be the name of Circe…" She let the simpering expression fall away, and her loathing crossed her face for an unguarded moment.

Circe moved toward the shadows, "Fare thee well, my sweet…" she said in taking her leave of the mortal and the moral realm for the sanctuary of the Fairy Realm. "Fool," she whispered in a gloat under her breath.

Lilith moved with her back to the Sorceress, moving to where she'd been standing when the mortal temporal frame had been frozen. "Fool," she growled under her breath, cursing the immortal who had just left her. She then pasted the smile on her face that she knew Ari would be looking for. 'What I endure at his hands is nothing compared to what I've just endured at the hands of Circe… and it's all for you Sarah,' Lilith thought to herself as she joined her husband. 'Soon, sweet Sarah, soon we'll be together again.'

--

Circe found her father as she'd left him, taunting. She shook her head in passing and moved toward the dining hall of the fortress her father called home. She was in need of a repast.

--

The Grotta della Maga Circe was empty, or so it would seem. From the shadows came grotesque little figures, peering to see if mortal or Fae still inhabited the space. They had gone undetected, weather it had been due to the stupidity of both or their arrogance the presence of the Goblins had gone totally undetected. The leader of the little band shook his head, and nodded to the messenger who opened a portal close to the one that the Fae Sorceress had used to travel back to the Fae Realms. Another was sent to follow the bound Greek witch. The leader than ordered the others, "Salt the ground," he then turned and opened a separate portal and passed through.

Jareth stood outlined by the lights of the stars in the night sky, deep in meditation he stared out the window. The leader of the moles bowed, moving closer to the King. "It is as you suspected, the Greek plots to gain back her powers, and the daughter of Talagon plots to bring down you. Both plot to stab the other in the back." He sneered.

Jareth nodded, placing a finger to his nose, "Let us give them the rope…"

--

Ari looked at the pleased look on his wife's sleeping face. She was not thinking of him, of that he was sure. He had a sneaking hunch she was about to bolt, and he would not have that. He rose from the bed, lit up a cigarette and bitterly watched his wife sleep and dream. "Not this time," he muttered as he opened a draw and removed a little back medications case. He stuck a fresh syringe into the bottle of GHB he'd packed along with the rest of the meds that were being used to control Lilith. He made sure there was no air in the line, and then moved quietly to where the woman lay asleep. Without regards for how it was going to affect the woman, he jabbed her with the needle and roughly shoved the plunger down to dispense the liquid in the syringe. Lilith sat up and looked at him with wide eyes. She gasped for breath before the drug racing in her blood stream achieved its result.

"Ari, no!"

Coldly he stood back waiting for the drug to take effect, he held up the empty syringe. "I warned you, bitch… there's no going back."

"I didn't do anything," she moaned as the drug burned into her system. "You were with me all day… I never left your side…"

"Lying bitch," he spat at her. "Don't you think I know when you've been sexing it up?" He placed the needle on the end table beside her side of the bed. "I don't know how, or who… but you were unfaithful to me… and you've plotted to get Sarah back… call it a hunch, Lil… but it goes no further…from here on out, you'll be my obedient little sex toy… but you can forget ever being more… I'm going to keep you stoned out of your gourd."

"No… she'll think I betrayed her," gasped the girl whose body began to betray her. "Cir…" the rest became a slur.

Ari moved away from the bed, moved to the phone and dialed a number. "Snake, we've got trouble coming our way. Set up the wards, I'm coming home… get the asylum ready." He hung up the phone before calling for his servant. "My wife has taken ill, we are leaving." He was now seated on the side of the bed, behaving like a concerned husband should. The servant nodded, and promised to have the couple packed in a few hours. When the maid came to see to the mistress, the drug container and syringe had been returned to the little black medicine case, ready to be packed with the rest of their belongings. Only then did Ari leave his wife to dress, telling the maid to stay with her and not take her eyes off her. He also told the young Greek girl who was acting as maid to listen carefully and to report to him whatever his wife muttered. He was certain the girl would obey him out of fear of his family if not out of loyalty.

While he dressed, he mentally went over the events of the day, and cursed his carelessness. 'Circe,' he thought to himself. 'How stupid could I be?' he looked in the mirror and focused every bit of his mind. "Hear me, o Goblin King," he evoked, "you are in danger! Be watching for a witch named Circe…." He took a deep breath. "If you wish to keep the two who targeted you at Samhain, keep your wits about you." He turned from the mirror having seen something that should not have been there. A pair of eyes, mismatched blue but like storms at sea. The most powerful eyes he'd ever seen. His message had been delivered and received; he moved back into the bedroom and looked at his unconscious wife, oblivious to everything happening about her. He also looked at the maid who was sitting beside her. "Get her ready," he ordered sharply. "We are leaving here."