AN: Yeah, it was a bad week, nuff said. Make my day and leave a review!
This chapter was long in coming but longer than normal so, *shrugs*, fair
trade. =) Hope you guys enjoy it!
Standard disclaimers apply cause, well just cause. Happy now? ;)
******************Sacrifices: Chapter Eighteen********************
The girl, woman, was warmth in his cold arms. He watched her through
a veiled gaze, saw the life that pulsed at her neck, felt her blood
pounding like the surf against her smooth skin. Fingers slid like
liquid from her hand and touched her wrist, felt her slightly erratic
pulse.
She feared him. Draculo could smell it radiating from her. Unseen by
the almost Goblin Queen who stared pointedly away from his beautiful,
sculptured, unnatural face he smiled, baring his fangs more
prominently.
He and his were not like other Sidhe, were a breed apart, even by the
Council's loose guides. Several of the races of the Underground were
known to Above but his, his was special. Only his people walked the
shadow between the two worlds. Only his people were something more
tangible than faded legends and empty tales. Only Vampires were
something that were feared and half believed in when things went 'bump
in the night'.
Not two nights past Draculo had walked the streets of a city that held
more life than any gathering of the Sidhe. He had stood under the
warm sun of Aboveground. Had tasted air that was tribute to science,
not magic. Had seen humans work and live, play and die, some by his
hand. Had watched a child being led across the street by her mother
while he stood, less than ten feet away.
And he was a monster.
Draculo did not deny that, did not expend the energy to maintain the
façade. Above did not truly know his people, for he could bathe in
sunlight if he wished, could drink Holy Water, could eat garlic.
Sometimes it was better to leave the pawns their illusions though,
they feared less that way. Draculo enjoyed fear but, desperation,
desperation and fear, though heady, was dangerous. A cornered animal
will often fight like a rabid one.
Pawns needed their illusions, for their sanity, and the predator's
continued dominance.
But his eyes were a trap. He was impressed that the human in his arms
remembered that much lore, and believed it enough to take legend's
warning to heart. Was more impressed that she resisted him, even with
her knowledge. Impressed and vaguely disquieted when she firmly,
steadily, dragged her wrist away from his fingers.
She gave him back her hand and the fear, the fear in her was still
there but it was tempered, tempered and held in check with, with false
bravado, with a thin veneer of clam, with strength the Vampire King
would not have granted the slight woman. His sneer faded.
He had thought Jareth a fool when he first heard of his actions and
crimes. Now, now he was not so sure. Draculo suddenly doubted the
wisdom of naming this human Goblin Queen, for names had power.
Suddenly wondered if it was truly folly that had bound the human to
Jareth's side for eternity.
Draculo had seen the action as a weakness on part of the Goblin King,
a crack in the might shield of his absolute power. And damn it, he
was suddenly so much less sure. Had the Goblin King lost his mind,
was he just that much more crafty then the rest of the Sidhe, or just
that lucky? How could anyone be that incredibly lucky?
"Have you enjoyed your stay in Jareth's castle?" She tensed in his
arms and sucked breath through her clenched teeth. Darculo heard the
sound more than saw the action.
"My... My King has been most hospitable."
Draculo laughed as he suddenly spun the almost Goblin Queen from his
arms and dipped her. They paused for a moment, Sarah's head so low to
the ground her dark hair brushed it, his nose a mere breadth from
hers.
And in that instant she met his eyes.
There was a moment of shock, surprise, and pain as Darculo saw his
opportunity and took it.
******************************************************************
Sarah cursed herself silently as she hung, clasped in a Vampire King's
arms, held frozen, immobile, trapped in eyes... eyes that burned. She
felt them reaching inside of her, felt them raking through memories,
thoughts, emotions buried so long ago. Felt herself lost in eyes that
were black with no pupil, night with no moon or stars, no sun rise in
sight.
Her heart pounded slow, loud, in her tight chest. And in that eternal
moment Sarah relived half of her life. Relived her mother, Toby's
birth, Jareth in all his terrifying glory, college, Devon, Melanie,
Evirey and...
Melani, Dragon Queen, bloomed half formed in her mind and Sarah
suddenly knew what the Vampire King was after.
Sarah screamed and wrenched herself away.
The room spun slowly and seemed to stop. Sarah fell to the marbled,
polished ground of the Ball, her beautiful dress crumpled around her,
sable hair pooled behind it like a thick veil. The music faltered
once and stopped altogether as the thousands of beings in the room
stilled, faceless eyes staring at her from behind convoluted masks.
She felt their disdain, their curious disregard for her like a
physical blow. But she did not fold. Sarah was not a child.
Twenty years ago she would have wept, shamed herself, before them,
before these creatures of politics and magic. Before these masters of
intrigue. She would have been the pawn, the fool, they wished her to
be.
But she was a woman, grown and strong. She had lived for thirty five
years and was promised to live for, forever. She had defeated the
Goblin King. She would not cower, she would not quail. She would not
show weakness, not to these beings, these creatures who she would
stand before and demand that her wishes be respected.
Demand that she be bound to her promises. Bound to the once defeated
Goblin King.
Pale hands clenched into fists as she glared at the Vampire King's
boots. Her gaze traveled upward as she steeled her nerve. She rested
it on the arch of his strong nose, defiant. She could feel his
unease, his surprise.
If looks could kill.
The silent crowd parted with a whisper of noiseless sound. Jareth,
Goblin King, her King, strode through the Ball Room. He stopped
beside her, his own boots in the corner of his vision. Sarah felt,
more than saw, his extended hand.
She stared at Draculo an instant longer before she turned away and met
Jareth's eyes. Sarah swallowed at the, at the sorrow there, at the
unarticulated cry for forgiveness in his strange, strange gaze. He
had not meant, had not meant for her to be here, alone and forlorn,
the center of attention in a Court she feared.
She accepted the apology in her King's pained eyes as she took his
gloved hand. It was warm, and that was enough.
*****************************************************************
Sarah clung to the front of Jareth's half open shirt, head buried in
his shoulder. She hated herself in that instant, as the eerie music
began to play once more and movement took the staring dancers away
from her. The Vampire King melted away into the crowd. She and
Jareth stood like a rock in the middle of the tide, immune to the
eddies and currents.
Hated herself for the weakness that made her cling to the man she had
so passionately hated twenty years ago, the man she had sacrificed
herself to in order to save the only child she had ever thought of as
hers. Hated herself for the tears that crept, unwilling, from
clenched eyes. Hated herself for the fear that made her shake,
tremble from shock in the Goblin King's strong arms. For accepting
the comforting feel of Jareth stroking her tangled, half alive hair,
for allowing him to whisper soothing, meaningless words in her ear.
Hated herself for almost giving up the beautiful, beautiful Dragons up
to the man who was their sworn mortal enemy.
She and the newly hatched Dragon Queen had shared many conversations
of late. Sarah remembered the racial fear in Melani's mind voice when
she had 'spoken' of the Vampires, when she had spoken of Draculo. The
little gold Queen's birth was being kept a secret, for now.
Dragonic politics were rocky as it were and Melani's claim to power
were weak as of yet. In time, in time she would gather the strength
to be the best Queen the Dragons had had in centuries. Drevlyn had
confided in Sarah that he had never heard of power so great in one so
young, let alone see it.
But if Draculo knew of the little Queen's existence then he would do
everything in his own considerable power to kill her, before she
became the Queen she was destined to be. Before she made her people
great once more.
"Jareth?" Hated herself for sounding so damned lost and afraid. His
hand stopped for a moment. Sarah could feel it poised above her hair.
"Yes little Sarah?" She sighed and buried herself deeper in his arms,
not caring about the implications of his embrace, only needing,
desperately, to feel some measure of reassurance, of safety, to
distance herself from Draculo's frightening presence.
"Is, is Draculo powerful?" Jareth hissed softly.
"Not more so than me," he answered finally, after an uncomfortable
moment of silence.
"But enough," she continued bitterly, voice muffled by his shirt,
"enough to make keeping me very costly." More silence before...
"Yes Sarah."
"Enough so that you would be weak, weaker than normal." The hand
hovered for a moment before stroking her hair once more.
"Yes." The last answer was short.
"Enough so that, so that you could not protect Melani or Drevlyn."
Sarah felt Jareth's heart beat quicken as she pressed her cheek
against the heat of his chest. Felt his proud body stiffen and
still.
She swallowed bravely when insisting fingers touched her chin and made
her meet his sharp, questioning face. The Goblin King stared at her
tear stained face and tried, for the life of him, to figure out where
she was going with her conversation.
"I will not let them have you Sarah." She swallowed again at the
simple unadorned truth in those words, in his unshakable resolve.
Swallowed and shivered at the truth he did not speak here, tonight,
but that lay raw and real between them. Her scarred hand burned and
Sarah tucked it, curled, to her body before she broke away from
Jareth's fingers.
She did not leave his arms. Draculo's memory was too stark for that.
His presence still felt.
"Promise me this," she said softly, eyes glued to the Goblin's King's
shoulder once more. "Promise me," Sarah continued before she could
falter, "that no matter what, no matter who, who tries to claim me,
that you'll let them. That you'll let me go if the fight proves too
great.
"Promise me that you will not fail Dragon's Trust and your dearest
friends for a servant." Jareth growled and leaned low to whisper
harshly in her ear.
"You are not my Queen Sarah. You have no right to tell me what I can
and cannot do. If I wish to fight with all that I have to keep you
then that is my choice. I cannot baby sit the Dragons forever! And
you are more than a damn servant!" Pain, pain in his fierce voice.
Sarah heard it and shook at it.
But she did not back down.
She twisted in his arms and faced him once again, face carefully
neutral, eyes heated. "You're right," she spat suddenly, frightened
and angry at having to be so brave, at having to risk herself at
Evirey's or Draculo's hands. "I cannot order you Jareth but I can
tell you this. If Melani dies because of your actions or lack there
of, because of me, I will hate you. I will hate you like you have
never seen me hate. And I will hate myself and the eternity you gave
me, forced upon me, will be hell."
Jareth, the Goblin King, stared down at her, mismatched eyes wide,
surprised. "You mean that, don't you?" Sarah sighed and closed her
eyes, tired, weary from her trials already. She sagged against him
and Jareth held her because he didn't know what else to do.
"Yes," she whispered and started to weep.
*********************************************************************
Sometimes there were things to be said in times like this.
Sometimes there were things to be said but no more words to say them.
This was one of those times.
Sarah clung to Jareth as they danced, moved finally by the haunting
melodies that entranced creatures from a hundred different races and
cultures, her face once again buried against her chest as she ignored
those beings from a hundred different races and cultures.
They both pretended not to see her tears. Sarah's hand burned. She
ignored it as well.
She hadn't said that she loved him but Jareth didn't care. She let
him hold her, expected him to hold her and right now that was enough.
The Sarah of old would never have been strong enough to admit when she
needed to be held.
Screw promises made, he would lose his kingdom before he lost her,
this precious, precious thing. He, the immortal Goblin King, would
die first. Would die willingly.
Would let the Dragons fade if it kept her safe.
He kissed the top of her silken head and Sarah let him do that too,
ignorant of any world but the one in his arms. Jareth glanced up and
caught Draculo's masked stare from across the room. He was King of
the Goblins. He was above the Vampire King's magic.
Draculo nodded from across the room and tilted his head in bland
mutual acknowledgment, sneer back on cold, pale lips, amusement
glinting in dead black eyes that seemed stark against the blood red of
his molded mask.
Jareth's hold on Sarah tightened as he straightened and smiled lazily
back. Trumpets sounded, loud, in the Ball. The music stopped for the
second time that evening as the Lord of the Court appeared from the
balcony directly across from Jareth's own. The King of the Phoenixes
had arrived.
Let the fight begin.
This chapter was long in coming but longer than normal so, *shrugs*, fair
trade. =) Hope you guys enjoy it!
Standard disclaimers apply cause, well just cause. Happy now? ;)
******************Sacrifices: Chapter Eighteen********************
The girl, woman, was warmth in his cold arms. He watched her through
a veiled gaze, saw the life that pulsed at her neck, felt her blood
pounding like the surf against her smooth skin. Fingers slid like
liquid from her hand and touched her wrist, felt her slightly erratic
pulse.
She feared him. Draculo could smell it radiating from her. Unseen by
the almost Goblin Queen who stared pointedly away from his beautiful,
sculptured, unnatural face he smiled, baring his fangs more
prominently.
He and his were not like other Sidhe, were a breed apart, even by the
Council's loose guides. Several of the races of the Underground were
known to Above but his, his was special. Only his people walked the
shadow between the two worlds. Only his people were something more
tangible than faded legends and empty tales. Only Vampires were
something that were feared and half believed in when things went 'bump
in the night'.
Not two nights past Draculo had walked the streets of a city that held
more life than any gathering of the Sidhe. He had stood under the
warm sun of Aboveground. Had tasted air that was tribute to science,
not magic. Had seen humans work and live, play and die, some by his
hand. Had watched a child being led across the street by her mother
while he stood, less than ten feet away.
And he was a monster.
Draculo did not deny that, did not expend the energy to maintain the
façade. Above did not truly know his people, for he could bathe in
sunlight if he wished, could drink Holy Water, could eat garlic.
Sometimes it was better to leave the pawns their illusions though,
they feared less that way. Draculo enjoyed fear but, desperation,
desperation and fear, though heady, was dangerous. A cornered animal
will often fight like a rabid one.
Pawns needed their illusions, for their sanity, and the predator's
continued dominance.
But his eyes were a trap. He was impressed that the human in his arms
remembered that much lore, and believed it enough to take legend's
warning to heart. Was more impressed that she resisted him, even with
her knowledge. Impressed and vaguely disquieted when she firmly,
steadily, dragged her wrist away from his fingers.
She gave him back her hand and the fear, the fear in her was still
there but it was tempered, tempered and held in check with, with false
bravado, with a thin veneer of clam, with strength the Vampire King
would not have granted the slight woman. His sneer faded.
He had thought Jareth a fool when he first heard of his actions and
crimes. Now, now he was not so sure. Draculo suddenly doubted the
wisdom of naming this human Goblin Queen, for names had power.
Suddenly wondered if it was truly folly that had bound the human to
Jareth's side for eternity.
Draculo had seen the action as a weakness on part of the Goblin King,
a crack in the might shield of his absolute power. And damn it, he
was suddenly so much less sure. Had the Goblin King lost his mind,
was he just that much more crafty then the rest of the Sidhe, or just
that lucky? How could anyone be that incredibly lucky?
"Have you enjoyed your stay in Jareth's castle?" She tensed in his
arms and sucked breath through her clenched teeth. Darculo heard the
sound more than saw the action.
"My... My King has been most hospitable."
Draculo laughed as he suddenly spun the almost Goblin Queen from his
arms and dipped her. They paused for a moment, Sarah's head so low to
the ground her dark hair brushed it, his nose a mere breadth from
hers.
And in that instant she met his eyes.
There was a moment of shock, surprise, and pain as Darculo saw his
opportunity and took it.
******************************************************************
Sarah cursed herself silently as she hung, clasped in a Vampire King's
arms, held frozen, immobile, trapped in eyes... eyes that burned. She
felt them reaching inside of her, felt them raking through memories,
thoughts, emotions buried so long ago. Felt herself lost in eyes that
were black with no pupil, night with no moon or stars, no sun rise in
sight.
Her heart pounded slow, loud, in her tight chest. And in that eternal
moment Sarah relived half of her life. Relived her mother, Toby's
birth, Jareth in all his terrifying glory, college, Devon, Melanie,
Evirey and...
Melani, Dragon Queen, bloomed half formed in her mind and Sarah
suddenly knew what the Vampire King was after.
Sarah screamed and wrenched herself away.
The room spun slowly and seemed to stop. Sarah fell to the marbled,
polished ground of the Ball, her beautiful dress crumpled around her,
sable hair pooled behind it like a thick veil. The music faltered
once and stopped altogether as the thousands of beings in the room
stilled, faceless eyes staring at her from behind convoluted masks.
She felt their disdain, their curious disregard for her like a
physical blow. But she did not fold. Sarah was not a child.
Twenty years ago she would have wept, shamed herself, before them,
before these creatures of politics and magic. Before these masters of
intrigue. She would have been the pawn, the fool, they wished her to
be.
But she was a woman, grown and strong. She had lived for thirty five
years and was promised to live for, forever. She had defeated the
Goblin King. She would not cower, she would not quail. She would not
show weakness, not to these beings, these creatures who she would
stand before and demand that her wishes be respected.
Demand that she be bound to her promises. Bound to the once defeated
Goblin King.
Pale hands clenched into fists as she glared at the Vampire King's
boots. Her gaze traveled upward as she steeled her nerve. She rested
it on the arch of his strong nose, defiant. She could feel his
unease, his surprise.
If looks could kill.
The silent crowd parted with a whisper of noiseless sound. Jareth,
Goblin King, her King, strode through the Ball Room. He stopped
beside her, his own boots in the corner of his vision. Sarah felt,
more than saw, his extended hand.
She stared at Draculo an instant longer before she turned away and met
Jareth's eyes. Sarah swallowed at the, at the sorrow there, at the
unarticulated cry for forgiveness in his strange, strange gaze. He
had not meant, had not meant for her to be here, alone and forlorn,
the center of attention in a Court she feared.
She accepted the apology in her King's pained eyes as she took his
gloved hand. It was warm, and that was enough.
*****************************************************************
Sarah clung to the front of Jareth's half open shirt, head buried in
his shoulder. She hated herself in that instant, as the eerie music
began to play once more and movement took the staring dancers away
from her. The Vampire King melted away into the crowd. She and
Jareth stood like a rock in the middle of the tide, immune to the
eddies and currents.
Hated herself for the weakness that made her cling to the man she had
so passionately hated twenty years ago, the man she had sacrificed
herself to in order to save the only child she had ever thought of as
hers. Hated herself for the tears that crept, unwilling, from
clenched eyes. Hated herself for the fear that made her shake,
tremble from shock in the Goblin King's strong arms. For accepting
the comforting feel of Jareth stroking her tangled, half alive hair,
for allowing him to whisper soothing, meaningless words in her ear.
Hated herself for almost giving up the beautiful, beautiful Dragons up
to the man who was their sworn mortal enemy.
She and the newly hatched Dragon Queen had shared many conversations
of late. Sarah remembered the racial fear in Melani's mind voice when
she had 'spoken' of the Vampires, when she had spoken of Draculo. The
little gold Queen's birth was being kept a secret, for now.
Dragonic politics were rocky as it were and Melani's claim to power
were weak as of yet. In time, in time she would gather the strength
to be the best Queen the Dragons had had in centuries. Drevlyn had
confided in Sarah that he had never heard of power so great in one so
young, let alone see it.
But if Draculo knew of the little Queen's existence then he would do
everything in his own considerable power to kill her, before she
became the Queen she was destined to be. Before she made her people
great once more.
"Jareth?" Hated herself for sounding so damned lost and afraid. His
hand stopped for a moment. Sarah could feel it poised above her hair.
"Yes little Sarah?" She sighed and buried herself deeper in his arms,
not caring about the implications of his embrace, only needing,
desperately, to feel some measure of reassurance, of safety, to
distance herself from Draculo's frightening presence.
"Is, is Draculo powerful?" Jareth hissed softly.
"Not more so than me," he answered finally, after an uncomfortable
moment of silence.
"But enough," she continued bitterly, voice muffled by his shirt,
"enough to make keeping me very costly." More silence before...
"Yes Sarah."
"Enough so that you would be weak, weaker than normal." The hand
hovered for a moment before stroking her hair once more.
"Yes." The last answer was short.
"Enough so that, so that you could not protect Melani or Drevlyn."
Sarah felt Jareth's heart beat quicken as she pressed her cheek
against the heat of his chest. Felt his proud body stiffen and
still.
She swallowed bravely when insisting fingers touched her chin and made
her meet his sharp, questioning face. The Goblin King stared at her
tear stained face and tried, for the life of him, to figure out where
she was going with her conversation.
"I will not let them have you Sarah." She swallowed again at the
simple unadorned truth in those words, in his unshakable resolve.
Swallowed and shivered at the truth he did not speak here, tonight,
but that lay raw and real between them. Her scarred hand burned and
Sarah tucked it, curled, to her body before she broke away from
Jareth's fingers.
She did not leave his arms. Draculo's memory was too stark for that.
His presence still felt.
"Promise me this," she said softly, eyes glued to the Goblin's King's
shoulder once more. "Promise me," Sarah continued before she could
falter, "that no matter what, no matter who, who tries to claim me,
that you'll let them. That you'll let me go if the fight proves too
great.
"Promise me that you will not fail Dragon's Trust and your dearest
friends for a servant." Jareth growled and leaned low to whisper
harshly in her ear.
"You are not my Queen Sarah. You have no right to tell me what I can
and cannot do. If I wish to fight with all that I have to keep you
then that is my choice. I cannot baby sit the Dragons forever! And
you are more than a damn servant!" Pain, pain in his fierce voice.
Sarah heard it and shook at it.
But she did not back down.
She twisted in his arms and faced him once again, face carefully
neutral, eyes heated. "You're right," she spat suddenly, frightened
and angry at having to be so brave, at having to risk herself at
Evirey's or Draculo's hands. "I cannot order you Jareth but I can
tell you this. If Melani dies because of your actions or lack there
of, because of me, I will hate you. I will hate you like you have
never seen me hate. And I will hate myself and the eternity you gave
me, forced upon me, will be hell."
Jareth, the Goblin King, stared down at her, mismatched eyes wide,
surprised. "You mean that, don't you?" Sarah sighed and closed her
eyes, tired, weary from her trials already. She sagged against him
and Jareth held her because he didn't know what else to do.
"Yes," she whispered and started to weep.
*********************************************************************
Sometimes there were things to be said in times like this.
Sometimes there were things to be said but no more words to say them.
This was one of those times.
Sarah clung to Jareth as they danced, moved finally by the haunting
melodies that entranced creatures from a hundred different races and
cultures, her face once again buried against her chest as she ignored
those beings from a hundred different races and cultures.
They both pretended not to see her tears. Sarah's hand burned. She
ignored it as well.
She hadn't said that she loved him but Jareth didn't care. She let
him hold her, expected him to hold her and right now that was enough.
The Sarah of old would never have been strong enough to admit when she
needed to be held.
Screw promises made, he would lose his kingdom before he lost her,
this precious, precious thing. He, the immortal Goblin King, would
die first. Would die willingly.
Would let the Dragons fade if it kept her safe.
He kissed the top of her silken head and Sarah let him do that too,
ignorant of any world but the one in his arms. Jareth glanced up and
caught Draculo's masked stare from across the room. He was King of
the Goblins. He was above the Vampire King's magic.
Draculo nodded from across the room and tilted his head in bland
mutual acknowledgment, sneer back on cold, pale lips, amusement
glinting in dead black eyes that seemed stark against the blood red of
his molded mask.
Jareth's hold on Sarah tightened as he straightened and smiled lazily
back. Trumpets sounded, loud, in the Ball. The music stopped for the
second time that evening as the Lord of the Court appeared from the
balcony directly across from Jareth's own. The King of the Phoenixes
had arrived.
Let the fight begin.