A/N I sincerely want to thank anyone who's been reading and especially those who reviewed (yes, for us poor ff writers it really means a lot :)) Here are the last two chapters of the story, hope you enjoy!

Chapter 6

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"There will the river whispering run
Warm'd by thy eyes, more than the sun"
(J. Donne)

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Someone was whispering his name.

"Jonathan."

He opened his eyes to the half light preceding dawn, to discover a woman crouching half a metre from his head, peering at him. He met her eyes and studied her face, her pale cheeks, high forehead and large mouth. She smiled.

"Listen," she invited, whispering again and raising her right hand. The gesture looked familiar. He could hear faint noises in the distance, sounding like barking dogs. "They're after you," she explained. "We must go." She got to her feet, and stood waiting for him. "Hurry!"

He rubbed his eyes, uncertain. Dreams and reality had started to mingle, to the point he had begun to doubt if he was ever awake at all. He didn't know the woman in front of him, nor could he say who she was, should someone ask him. But there wasn't anyone around to ask such a question, and something inside was urging him to follow her without any hesitation.

He got up, swayed a little on his feet, feeling light-headed. She was waiting, looking at him over her shoulder. As soon as he got to his feet she disappeared into the underbrush. He followed her into the wood.

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The rain water he drank from a shallow, musky stone tasted unexpectedly sweet. He raised his eyes to his guide, who was intently looking at him.

She offered him an apple.

"Eat."

Her hazel eyes never left his. The apple was green and red, speckled with rust, and tasted sharp and sweet at the same time.

He wanted to ask a million things, but every question seemed to die before reaching his lips, lost in the all-important task of looking at her. He couldn't stop interrogating her golden eyes, silently. There was an aura of silence around her.

He had the strangest feeling that many words had ceased to exist, and only a few were left.

"They take pleasure in the hunt," she said.

She had led him in the woods, in spiral patterns repeating until he had completely lost any sense of the path they'd followed. She waited till he was done eating, then took his hand and pulled him to his feet, resuming the task of guiding him through the forest.

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The branches were softly moving in the slight wind which touched the top of the trees. The sky was intensely azure, only a white fluffy cloud swiftly traversing it now and again, occasionally covering the sun. Jonathan Archer took in every particular, lying flat on his back, his face turned to the sky. He heard a light shuffle and pulled himself to a sitting position. His escort materialized at the edge of the narrow glade.

She smiled, the glowing warmth flowing from her eyes to his veins.

"We left them behind. We can rest a little."

She sat next to him, her arms circling her knees. He could see the beating of her pulse on her white throat. She turned to him, raised her hand and tenderly cupped the side of his face.

"Jonathan," she murmured.

He closed his eyes. The sound of her voice, the touch of her hand felt overwhelmingly right.

She was like water, and like grass. He touched her flowing chestnut hair, and hid his face in there. It smelled like a meadow, of earth and flowers. He embraced her, pushing her to the ground, burying his face in the hollow of her neck. It was like embracing a river, struggling with the stream, welcoming the cold of the water, letting it win. It was like embracing a field covered in gold wheat under the sun. It was like embracing night, and her eyes were bright stars.

He felt lost and found again, the world topsy-turvy and finally all right, the sun in the sky and his feet on the ground, and his soul singing above the whisper of her voice in his ear.

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Her eyes looked like honey in the sunshine, with tiny brown flecks.

"Listen!" she whispered. He picked in the breeze the faint barking noise. "They're coming. They are very near, Jonathan!" Now her voice sounded urgent. "Are you ready?"

He was still lost in the enchantment of her gaze, feeling that no harm could ever exist in her presence.

"You are wrong, Jonathan!" she murmured, and lowered her eyes, breaking their connection. She swiftly got to her feet and looked downward at him. "It's you who must help me."

She turned away from him, stopped and looked at him above her shoulder. "Remember the stars, Jonathan." Her voice was a whisper, her eyes were pleading with him, her lips twitching. Then she turned away.

A swift silent motion, a rustle, and he was alone in the glade.

"Wait!" he cried out, jumping to his feet. He tried to follow her into the underbrush, feverishly, but she had simply disappeared. "Wait!" he called again, but the only answering sound was the barking of the dogs getting closer by the moment.

He was suddenly overcome by fear. The sweaty cold kind which twists your stomach and makes you want to run, but you know that there is no escape.

He wanted to crumple to the ground and cry. He could hear the fury in the baying and growling carried by the wind, he knew they would never relent and leave him alone, he knew that fiendish creature would chase him ruthlessly and enjoy himself immensely doing it.

But there was still something left to him. He squeezed his hands into fists, straightened his spine and clenched his jaw. His right hand touched briefly the patch on his uniform's left shoulder. He inhaled deeply, calming the churning sensation in his gut, and took a step ahead.

Suddenly, the bushes in front of him opened to let in a blur of brownish motion, accompanied by the sound of snapping twigs and whirlwind. He felt a heavy thump on his chest and fell behind, the dead leaves damping his dive. A sharp pain tore at his shoulder, the lithe warmth of an animal growling body over him. He tried to struggle. Other cutting sensations registered from his right arm and his left leg.

A snappish command resonated in the glade and all went quiet.

Archer lay on the ground, breathing heavily, tasting the pain in his body and the alarming feeling of warm blood dampening his uniform. The sky above was still azure, but the sun had gone. A booted foot scrunched the dead leaves just a breath away from his right ear. A shadow appeared above him, the white familiar skull and red eyes staring at him, that hateful smile on his lips.

"Jonathan, you stupid boy! Won't you ever learn, I wonder?"

Archer tried to get up, but the sharp pain in his shoulder stopped him. He tried again, clenching his teeth, and finally managed a sitting position. He stared at the creature, all his hate in his eyes. How would he like to just tighten his hands around his neck and choke him. The red eyes glowed.

"Don't worry, we'll have all the time in the world to resolve our differences, Jonathan." His voice had changed, had turned to a monotonous chant, and, while he spoke, the light of the day seemed to dry away. The air around them turned dull, grey, unnatural, then began to darken more and more. "I'm bringing you with me, Jonathan." The darkness of night was now surrounding them, curdling around them, until it seemed it had almost turned to a solid state. "In the darkness, we can be together forever."

The promise sounded like a ghost's whisper in the blackness of a night where no living body could exist.