Chapter 18.

Linda listened to Sarah's tale, frowning at her daughter's lack of control and at having wished way the younger brother. "I thought I raised you better than that!" her mother glowered at her. She listened as well to the girl's tale of her most recent encounters. "My, my." She said quietly. "I take it you've not informed your father."

"Oh yeah, I can just see it now, Daddy chasseing after the Goblin King demanding he return my virtue." Sarah placed her chin in her hand. "Well that's the lot of it."

"Of all the Fae to get embroiled with, Sarah!" Linda stood up, her arms akimbo over her chest. "He's one of the nastiest!" Linda looked off toward the weeping willows with the Spanish moss hanging like long hair. "Well, spilt milk can't go back and undo what's been done or said." She looked at her daughter, "But we can and will give you what you need to go on from here."

"I knew you'd have the answers." Sarah said smiling up at her mother.

"Oh I don't." Linda confessed. "Although I may know who does." She winked at her daughter. "Care to do a little shopping, Sarah?"

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The old section of town was host to many tourists, and Linda walked swiftly past the traps. "Come on." She ushered her daughter toward the boutique.

Sarah looked at the erotic and exotic mannequin in the window. "Mom? This is an S&M shop."

Linda nodded as she opened the door. "And this is where we will buy you your arsenal of weaponry." She pushed her daughter into the shop and called out. "Chantal? Are you here?"

A curtain parted, and a woman's face appeared. "Linda Williams." Slowly the woman moved though the parted curtain. "I've got a client here, give me five minuets." She vanished back into the back area.

Linda took Sarah's arm, "Let's start looking at some of the things you are going to need."

Sarah looked at her mother. "When did you start playing this kind of game?"

Linda winked wickedly, "Right after Jeremy came along." She laughed, "I mean you can't see your father in a place like this, can you?"

"No." Sarah admitted laughing at the thought of Robert Williams sporting a leather mask.

It was exactly five minuets later when Chantal joined them. "Now, what you need?" She smiled at Linda then looked at Sarah for the first time. The black woman clutched her throat and stepped back. "Baby why you bring such bad juju here to me?"

Linda grabbed the woman before she could flee. "Because you know how to fight dirty."

"Fight dirty….she's got dark magic on her already." Chantal pointed at Sarah. "You don't think we got enough of our own dark spirits, you go and bring something here to anger another?"

Sarah listened to the argument, not understanding any of it.

"She's in hiding." Linda insisted.

"Not in my house." Chantal pointed to the door.

"I not know you such coward." Linda said in an accent Sarah had not heard her use before.

"Coward?" the dark brown eyes of the black woman filled with fire. "I no coward."

"Then help us." Linda challenged.

The beautiful and exotic black woman looked at Sarah, "Come here girl." She placed a blood red nail under the girls chin. "Oh baby, you been playing with bad juju."

"Goblins." Sarah corrected.

"That what I say!" Chantal crowed, "Bad juju." The woman looked at Linda. "Who is this woman-child?"

Linda placed her hands on Sarah's shoulder. "My daughter."

Chantal made a face, and then looked back at the girl. "I help you, but you not gonna like it." The erotic creature placed her arm over the girl. "Leave her with me, you come back in a few hours." She led Sarah to the back. "We have some Blue Curacao tea, and you tell me how you come to be in this mess."

Linda watched her daughter disappear behind the curtain and took a deep breath. She walked to the door and found Jeremy standing on the curb waiting for her. She held a hand out to him, "Chantal accepted the challenge."

Jeremy looked at the store front and smiled. "This should be interesting."

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Jareth paced, something was nagging at him. Something felt…wrong. He could not lose the feeling. Something was out of place. He had not felt like this since….since Sarah had rejected him in the Escher like room. "Sarah." He drew a crystal from the air. "Show me the girl!" he demanded. The orb was silent, still and empty. Jareth began to shake with anger. "Show me the boy!" His voice roared. Again the crystal was empty. "Damn that girl, what has she done now?"

Pablo heard the roar and rushed to his Master's side. "What is it?"

"The girl is missing." He said loudly. "I don't know how, but she's missing…and so is the boy!" He moved past the Artist on his way to the elevator.

"Where are you going?" Pablo asked.

"To the castle."

"Why?" he was sure he wasn't going to like the answer.

"To call out the guard!" Jareth spat. He stood in the cubical, when the doors opened again he moved swiftly to the passage between the moral realm and his own. Jareth didn't stop until he reached the throne room. "Call out the guard." He shouted. "She must be stopped."

One goblin made the mistake of asking who must be stopped and found himself flying though the air after having been kicked aside.

"Find that girl and find my baby!" Jareth ordered sharply.

Goblins and other minions of the Goblin King raced thought the portal into the world of man.

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Sarah sat across from the exotic woman, "And I found the old Celtic symbols, had them put on medallions." She finished her explanations to the Voodoo priestess.

Chantal sipped her tea. "You either crazy or vey brave." Chantal laughed softly. "To take not one baby but two away from Goblin."

"Only one, just twice." Sarah said.

Chantal put her tea cup down. "Two." She said firmly.

"Oh but he does not think of me as a baby." Sarah said. "HE wants me to play the slave game."

"I'm not talking about you, Sarah Williams." Chantal said firmly. "You don't know, do you?" The beautiful black woman began to laugh.

"Know what?" Sarah watched the others face.

"You carry his git in you belly!" Chantal said knowingly, "and you don't even know it."

"His what?" Sarah choked on the tea.

"He not going like you running off with this baby anymore than him like you winning back you brother." The priestess mused.

"His what?" Sarah repeated.

"His baby." Chantal stood up and poured more tea for both of them. "And I would not be thinking o getting rid o it, either."

Sarah opened up her purse. "No, that's not possible…" she pulled out her pocket calendar and began going back ward. When was it, she looked tracing dates with her finger. "No."

The black priestess sat quietly watching.

"I just had…" she looked down, there was no red x, not a one since before Halloween. "Shit."

"Double that." Chantal said in agreement. "Now you gonna have hard time keeping that bastard at bay."

Sarah placed the calendar down on the table, began to thump her fingers over it. "No I won't. I'm going to find a nice big iron stake and drive it into his non existent heart!"

Laughing Chantal patted the hand doing the drumming. "Effect, but somewhat overkill."

"Kill being the operative word here." Sarah frowned.

Chantal was quiet a moment. "Oh oh," she heard the wind begin to howl. "He know you gone."

"He can't." Sarah looked up, she too heard the wind. "That's just the wind."

"That be one angry Fae!" Chantal walked out of the curtain to the shop and pointed toward the dark shadows on the street. "You want to tell me that is just the weather?"

"Goblins," Sarah said. "He's sent Goblins to track me down."

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Jareth paced the throne room, his hand at his worried lips. Where could she have gone? It had been hours since he'd sent the guards out to track her down. He looked up when he saw the small band of goblins milling about the entrance. "What is it?"

One was pushed forward by the others; he cowered as he approached on shaking knees. "Sire." He bowed deeply.

Jareth looked down at him. "What is it?" he repeated wearily.

"We…found the boy…."

Jareth looked at them, "You found the boy?" He closed his eyes. "Where?"

The cowering goblin whispered. "His crib."

Jareth's eyes darkened. "Impossible."

"It's true." One of the others said from behind a shield.

Jareth pulled a crystal from the air. "Show me the boy." He ordered calmly. The orb did nothing. "See?" He showed the dark orb to the group. "Nothing."

"The boy is in his crib, sire….but we cannot go near him." The cowering goblin cringed as he was sure he was about to be sent flying.

Jareth ignored the group and moved to the portal that would take him to Toby's nursery. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the boy sleeping in his own crib. It was the stabbing pain that halted his movements. He felt his knees buckle and he went down. He backed away from the crib on crouched limbs. "Iron?" he gasped aloud. "Damn that girl!" He pulled back and headed back to his kingdom where he collapsed on the dais and began to weep.