Chapter 49.

The journey was swift, and easy. Sarah marveled at how she was adjusting to Fae ways of traveling. The old feelings of queasiness and disorientation were nearly a thing of the past now. When the haze that accompanied the travel cleared she looked around. "Here?" She asked and shuddered. "You brought me here?"

Quinn nodded and looked about. "This is where you first stopped thinking of Jareth as your villain. After he'd told you repeatedly that he was not going to play the villain not even to please you." They were standing out side the tunnels of the town of Azure. "Coming though those tunnels you even joked with him about the False Alarms, remember?"

Feeling as if her soul were bare, the girl blushed. "Yes…I remember." She was even dressed as she'd been during the quest.

Taking her by the hand, Quinn escorted the Mystic into the dark garden. He waited until she was seated and took a seat beside her. "He brought you to this garden while Ryan and Anne went to the temple to complete their task."

Sarah cleared her throat, "Quinn….this is a bit personal."

"Yes, it is." He agreed. "That's why we are here. I am not a patient man by nature, Sareth." He said in a long exhale of breath echoing the words Jareth had spoken here.

No one used that name, except Jareth when he wanted to be secretive with her. She felt odd about Quinn using it, odder about how natural it sounded on his lips. "I recall." She said.

His arm slid over the back of the bench, "Do you?" Sitting straight up, she felt the quick intake of breath. She felt his presence and it was not reassuring. His hand now moving up her forearm to her shoulder, leather glove slid like silk over her robe. "Close your eyes, and remember."

Sareth turned to look at him, "What do you think you're doing?" Her eyes were accusatory. His face was handsome and haughty, intimidating and compelling all at the same time. Now in the dark of night with no moonlight to bathe it, she could see danger in the taunt lines of his cheeks.

"I'm King, Sareth. I am use to having my needs anticipated and seen to without my having to voice them." His eyes traveled over her. "I'm a man, alone in a dark garden with a very desirable and lovely young woman. How do you expect me to react?"

The girl found herself scrambling in her own brain for a quick answer. "Are you throwing Courtly manners out the window?"

"I'm a King, woman…" He growled lightly. "Not a Saint."

Sareth was well aware that he was a King, and a man. The heat of his nearness was all too apparent. "Surly you don't expect me to behave like a common wench, and grapple with you here on this bench."

An elegant brow went up into a delicate arch. "The thought is not…displeasing." Quinn said softly as his mind shared the memory with hers.

"Get your mind out of the gutter!" She ordered.

"Sareth." He whispered her name, giving it the same caressing tone he'd used when he said her mundane name in his Labyrinth.

"Don't." She warned. "It's been so nice up to now. You have been different. You've been…." She was finding breathing and talking more difficult than she would have expected. "You haven't changed at all!"

"Haven't I?" his hand now rested on her throat. "Sareth." His thumb moved slowly up and down on the back of her neck, while the fingers just rested on her throat. It was a very possessive motion, one he did not regret making.

"Why now?" she asked. "Why do this to me now, when I'm starting to trust you?"

Quinn's eyes watched her lips move. "I'm not the villain here, Sareth. Stop painting me as one." He said echoing the memory.

"You're making me very nervous, Jareth." She confessed in a gulp.

"I'm not about to ravage you," he pulled her closer. "However, I also have no plans on releasing you." She stiffened as her body was drawn closer. "How long do you think you can resist me?"

"Stop." She heard the quiver that gave her state away. Sarah tried to pull away, not wanting to go any farther with the memory.

"You stop." He countered. "Look at where we are. A dark and beautiful garden, a blanket of stars above us." His voice was now a drone. "Why fight what has always been meant to be?"

"Let me go." Her heart was pounding in her throat. "Quinn, let me go."

"I'll let you go, if you can say I'm not right." His voice didn't teased.

She tried in vain to find words that would gain her release. "Not fair." She wished she had not said the words.

"No, Sareth, it's not. Is it fair that you waltz in and out of my life without so much as a backward glance?" He flexed his fingers, and breathed in the fragrance of her. "You are so young, so fresh and innocent, and so damned careless. I'm a man, Sareth. You can not use me like a toy, and then put me aside for some new toy. I demand better treatment than that."

Her lips parted to protest words died in her throat. Eyes darted away, not wanting to see the accusation or the judgment in the mismatched eyes that resembled storms at sea. "I never meant for you to feel like that."

"Didn't you?" He moved the gloved fingers over the length of her throat.

Her breath was coming in labored gasps. "I'm not that calculating."

"You're a woman, Sareth." He chuckled. "All women are that calculating." His index finger traced the outline of her ear. "Be honest with yourself and with me."

"Stop." Sarah begged.

The tip of the glove entered the opening of her ear. "I promise to be honest with you, Sarah."

Hot lava shot through her veins like a river, as every nerve in her body reacted to his touch. "Quinn, stop."

"Is that what you really want," he asked as his finger began to caress the opening of her ear. Making slow delicate circles and then pressing gently against it as if to penetrate the way Jareth had done that night. "Do you really want me to stop?"

"Damn you!" her hand gripped the bench edge.

"Damn you." His voice dropped an octave.

"I'm not ready for this." She panicked.

The tip of the glove moved over her ear, vigilantly. Repeatedly he caressed the opening of the ear. "I excite you, can you deny it." She shook her head, and he let his finger rub the opening in an erotic motion. The girl shuddered, and let out a ragged gasp.

Quinn smiled, "Look at me, woman." His voice was commanding. He removed the fingertips from her ear, and turned her to face him. His hand captured her chin, forcing it up. "Look at me, woman." Emerald green eyes traveled up to his. "You belong to me, Sarah, as I belong to you." He let his eyes travel over her. "Do you understand me?"

"No." her voice shook almost as much as her body trembled under his touch.

"The day will come when I will press my claim. On that day, you will no longer wish to resist." His breath bathed her face. "We've unfinished business betwixt us, for NOW it must remain so."

"That's it?" she asked shaking like a leaf.

"You didn't really expect me to take advantage of you on but a cold stone bench did you?" he kept her face in his hands. "I promise you this, my beautiful adversary. When I press my claim, it won't be in some garden out of the deranged mind of Robin Zaker. When I press my claim, and I will press my claim, it will be on my terms."

Sareth's eyes watched his lips. "Then, what was this whole…seduction about?"

"Think of it as the beginning of…foreplay Sareth." He teased. "Just the tip of our iceberg."

"My brother was right; some things are too good to be discussed banally." The hand under her chin began to stroke the length of her neck.

"You're a pervert, just like he was…is…damn." She jumped as his fingers touched the hollow of her throat.

"You won't think so when We've give you your lessons, Sarah." He promised with a gleam in his eyes. His expression was the same as the one he had worn in her parent's bedroom. Somewhat condescending, somewhat amused. He leaned forward, whispered in her ear. "Are you telling me I don't get you …hot?"

She tried to pull back, only to find his arms were now holding prisoner. "Stop!"

He teased, with his lips at the ear he'd teased moments before. "Perhaps just a taste for both of us…" the tip of his tongue darted in her ear. The hand that had been gripping the bench released as she gasped in thrilled shock. The assault was her undoing, her hands moved to his waist, then snaked up his back as she tilted her head and craned her neck to his lips eagerly. The tip of his tongue moved in and out of her ear canal, erotically and intimately. His hands held her with the gentlest of pressure. He paused. "Still afraid?"

"Terrified." She moaned in a husky voice.

"Yet you want more," he slipped his tongue back over her ear. "Don't you?"

"Yes." She panted. "I want more."

Quinn took her lobe between his teeth, not biting down hard enough to cause pain, but it still had the effect he knew it would. Her hands crimped down on his back.

"We are each other's heat." He said against the skin of her throat. He pulled back, looked at her dazed expression and gave her a satisfied grin. "Do we understand each other?" She nodded, closing her eyes. He put his lips to her ear again. His tongue slid back into the ear.

Sarah found herself moving closer, moving her neck to give him access to her ear. Her mind began to cry out, her body ached, and wanted more. "Jareth…"

He felt her quiver, and sensed the awakened desires within her. "I won't start something I can't finish." He warned her. "If I begin touching you, I won't stop. We do not have the luxury of giving in to our… carnal selves, my dear. He must discontinue this for now." He pulled back, took a long dragged out breath. "I promise you this, when the time is right, I won't stop."

Quinn ended the memory. "This is where your heart turned."

Sarah opened her eyes, and nodded. "Yes. This is where I admitted to myself that I wanted him." She looked up into the face that was a mirror of the man she loved. "I still want him."

Quinn took her face into his hands and kissed her softly. "Now come with me to where you began to see I was not all villain." The garden faded and they were standing in the dark Escher room. Voices could be heard plotting and Quinn's hand covered her mouth. When the voices faded Quinn moved his hand to her shoulder, just as he had that night. "This was Free pass number two, Sarah." He snickered. Sure there was no one else in the room; he led her toward one of the sets of stairs. "Sit, and stay calm."

Sarah looked up at him, no longer was he the mirror of Jareth, but was Quinn as he had been that night. "Stay calm? Quinn! You look like your old self." she looked at him with more questions then she could ask.

Quinn sat down beside her, "What can I say? I'm captivated by you." He raised one of her hands to his lips. "I think I was from the moment you turned and faced me when Jareth presented you. Infamous indeed." Reaching forward with a naked hand, his long elegant fingers stroked her cheek. "It was here you rendered me helpless against you."

"Quinn…" she felt unsure of what she should say.

"Deny it if you can," he challenged. "You were not afraid of me here. In fact you were relaxed and even found humor in the situation."

"Yes, I did." She leaned back on one of the stairs, and then sat upright. "Is this the same landing…" she looked around the room.

"That I demanded my payment? Yes." He smiled faintly.

"That's perverse!" she objected.

Curving a finger and placing it over his upper lip, Quinn nodded his agreement. "What can I say?"

Sarah turned away and looked over the edge of the stair and into the heart of the Escher room. "That's just wicked."

Edging closer, he slid on hand on the stair behind her. The other hand he placed under her chin. He gently turned her face back to his. "I wanted to kiss you that night, but had no right to." His lips moved over hers. "Now I have the right, as you belong to us equally."

"Quinn…" she murmured softly.

"I love you, Sarah." He said honestly. "I fear that my time with you is growing short…"

"Is Jareth any stronger?" she asked somewhat hopeful and some what fearful.

"No." He sighed. "I can't always hear him now…It's so lonely." Wrapping her arms about him, she let him weep into her shoulder. "You are our only solace, beloved." He whispered in her ear. "Sarah…I'm afraid."

"I'm not letting go…not of either of you." She promised.

"I love you, Sarah…with every fiber of our being." He whispered.

"I love you…too." She felt the tears slid down her cheek. "We'll get the meaning of the prophecy, and I'll save you…I promise..I'll save you."

Quinn clung to her. "Dark thoughts are coming to me these days. Just as they did before the merge." He confessed. "Sometimes I worry I don't have the strength to fight them." He sat back and looked at her. "I have such dark desires where you are concerned my darling."

"You think I don't?" Sarah asked. "You have two halves of one soul that have lived two separate lives…and I have desires toward both."

"I want you, and sometimes I fear that want will prevail over my desire to save my brother." He stated seriously.

Sarah didn't look surprised. "I want you too, Quinn. Not the way I want Jareth, and yet it is… it's very confusing. When you kiss me…it's not like his kisses. Both fire me up…and both scare the hell out of me."

"I want …we…want more than just kisses." Quinn whispered hoarsely. "Do you?"

Sarah nodded.

Quinn leaned toward her. "WE want to touch you." His voice was husky with eagerness. He stroked her throat with one hand. "We want to know you." He moved with slow grace. "We know you are innocent, unknowing…and we don't want to make you fearful." He watched her as his hand moved down over her collar bone.

Sarah shivered. "I don't know what to do." She warned. "I've never…"

Quinn was now leaning over her. "Trust us, Sarah." He kissed her softly as his hand cupped her breast. "We will not hurt you."

"Will it be both of you…or one?"

"Both." He promised as his mouth came down on hers. "Both of us."

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Angus felt the shift in the fabric of magic, the other dragons felt it as well. "She wields the unseen sword." He muttered. Then rose to his hind legs and let out a long howl. It was not a pained, nor a lamented howl. The other dragons of the Clutch joined him.