Chapter Nine
Pain. A heated line of fire from ear to ear.
The sensation of drowning. Choking. Unable to breathe.
A roar. Splintered wood exploding around her. The sudden intake of breath of the fae woman, her hands up as though she were innocent. As though she had not given the order.
Sarah's throat was slit, but the moment the goblin who held was wrenched away, the grip slackening in death, she put her hands to her neck, trying to stem the tide.
It was wide and it seemed shallow, but there was so much blood. It flowed over her fingers, hot and pulsing, and still she could hardly draw a proper breath. Now that the hand was away from her face she could get some thread of oxygen into her lungs, but it was not enough. Her vision was darkening.
Jareth was on the strange fae, having thrown a crystal at the skinny goblin who still held the bloody knife, making it implode, disappearing with a squealch of bone and sinew. The fae woman had a small blade, but it was knocked from her hands. The Goblin King's fingers turned to talons, and he plunged his fist into the strangers stomach, digging upward toward her heart.
"Wait! You—" she cried, then choked on black blood, her eyes wide and unseeing within moments.
Jareth withdrew an arm drenched in red. He breathed hard. Once, twice, then spun on Sarah, falling to his knees before her and pulling her close with his clean hand, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "You're going to have to be brave, my love. So brave. I'm sorry. This is going to hurt."
Sarah knew she must be dying. This was it. The blood was gushing slower passed her fingers, and soon she would be empty.
"You cannot die," he whispered. He was pulling at the belt of her dressing gown, using it to wrap around her neck, stemming the flow of blood. "I have your mortality, remember? So this is going to be painful, precious one, but it will not be an end."
Sarah tried to respond, but there was no forcing air beyond that wound, and her vision was fading, the darkness overtaking all but Jareth's face as he bent over her.
"You'll be okay," he said, the last words she heard before she lost consciousness. "I will take care of you."
Darkness.
###
Movement.
A ship at sea.
The barnyard scent of clean animal sweat. Alfalfa and hay.
Words and phrases in pieces.
"She should be—"
"—miracle that it is—"
"Full recovery as long as—"
"—kill you before you—"
"Oh? Kill me how?"
At this last, spoken in a heated exchange she could hardly follow, Sarah's eyes fluttered open. Sunlight filtered through green and blue curtains, casting her surroundings in colorful shadow. Even still, the brightness made her close her eyes immediately, shifting a little as she tried to speak.
She could not speak.
Her eyes flew open, blinking rapidly as muted sunlight continued to bear down on the canopy of the howdah. Her hand was like the flash of a white bird flapping in the dimness, and then it was captured by familiar fingers. Jareth's face, the last one she had seen and now the first after—
How am I alive? How can that possibly be? She must have bled out near everything in her body. I know he has my mortality but how could everything…
She tried to self-assess, but other than the deep pain in her throat and neck, the paralysis of her vocal chords, she could not feel anything amiss. Her heart beat. Her mind raced, and toes wiggled.
Jareth smoothed hair off her forehead. He spoke to another while looking at her. "Get out. We will continue this later. Sarah's awake."
"I want to talk to her." Hoggle.
Sarah's eyes widened. She could not turn her head, as there was something stabilizing her neck that prevented movement. She let go of Jareth's hand and extended hers out again. This time the rough, calloused fingers of her friend Hoggle grasped her back.
Jareth made no move to change positions so she could see Hoggle, but Sarah could not exactly blame him. He was sitting at Sarah's side, but her position was flat, taking up half the width and all the length of the howdah. It was as a twin-sized bed. If Jareth gave Hoggle room, the dwarf might be sitting in his lap.
Sarah smiled a little, reaching for Jareth with her other hand, the one furthest from them both. It was an awkward position, but the way that he clasped both his hands around hers, then leaned down and kissed her palm, made the slight uncomfortableness worth it.
"The ones who took you are dead," Hoggle said. "Jareth got them all. There were two others working as sentinels."
Sarah closed her eyes, which burned, then squeezed Hoggle's fingers until he let her go, beckoning with a drawing motion for something to write with. So far, she could not make sound pass from her lips. Even breathing was pained, though with that each inhale and exhale also cooled the area of the wound.
Jareth released her and summoned a hard-backed pad of paper and a sharpened pencil. She pulled the paper close to her face, taking her time before handing it to Jareth. He read it aloud. "Who was the fae woman? What did they want? How long have I been asleep?"
"She was some kind of assassin from the courts, surely," Hoggle grumbled. "The goblins were, unfortunately, ours. Defectors. So there's someone who is able to get messages from the fae to our ranks. They're trying to do deals."
Jareth did not disagree. "Fae thrive on making deals, and there would be many tempting magics and riches that they can dangle before our people. We might have to increase the soldiers' salaries and benefits." He sighed, then answered her second question. "We can only assume they wanted to remove your ability to speak. I think they then aimed to kidnap you."
Sarah patted the amulet laying now on her breastbone. It gave a happy sort of hum.
He smiled. "Yes. Our amulets share a connection, and the danger pounding out of this one woke me at last. Too late," he said, touching his throat and looking at hers.
"You've been starting to come around for two days, but you were out for three before that," Hoggle continued. "You needed blood. We—uh. He would only let it be him. But it took a while."
A hand on her thigh, giving the slightest squeeze. She stared back at those glittering eyes, wondering if they truly were two different colors, or if the pupil was just blown on the one side, giving the illusion of such.
She wondered what it meant, to get a massive blood transfusion from a fae. I wish I were healed so I could talk.
"It won't hurt you," Jareth said softly. "It may do nothing at all. There is power in blood, yes, but you're not a vampire. We fae are universal donors, but most won't do it, so the full reprucussions are unknown. I just—once the surgeons and doctors worked on your neck to satisfaction, we had to get more blood into you. Your own body was still producing, it just would have taken too long. Months, perhaps, and it would have been so painful during, while—" he stopped himself with a sudden intake of breath, then shook his head. "I am sorry. I wish to tell you all, precious, and I am tired. That took something from me."
"I ain't ever seen someone bleed that much and not die," Hoggle said.
"I've been taking a restorative every night," Jareth explained, still looking at Sarah. Still touching her. "It takes the night to work, but it allowed me to continue to do what needed doing. Luckily, our Sarah is a slight thing," he grinned. "Not as much needed."
Hoggle snorted.
Jareth looked at him and then at Sarah again, drawn back to her eyes as though he were magnetized. "Can I please send Hoggle back to his wagon? I wish to speak to you alone."
Sarah got the paper and pencil back and wrote a quick is there anything in particular he wants to talk about first?
Jareth read back the message, sighing at the end and narrowing his eyes at the dwarf.
"N-no," Hoggle stammered. "I just want you to know we were all here, Sarah. Me, Didymus, and Ludo when we stop for the night and you're off Lily's back. We were all looking out for you."
Sarah wrote, I love you all. Thank you. It's okay if Jareth wants to talk to me alone.
Jareth relayed the information, and then there was the zip of magic, and they were alone. Sarah took the pad of paper and wrote, I can't speak. Is that going to be temporary?
"We don't know," he answered upon reading. "And I do not know if your wishes will work if you do not speak them aloud. You could wish in your mind to be completely healed, perhaps?"
Sarah wanted to shake her head, but instead wrote, I've wished in my head earlier. Nothing happened.
He frowned, then tilted his head. "Perhaps if it was written?"
Sarah put down, I wish I were fully healed. Her breath held.
Nothing.
"Try thinking with everything you have, Sarah mine. Think it as though you wanted to say it with everything in your whole body. Your soul. Wish with intention."
She was tired, but she mustered all she could. Every ounce of her fortitude. I wish, she prayed, to be healed.
It was instantaneous. One moment she had a deep, abiding pain in her neck, and the next she felt strength flood her body. All pain dissipated. "Did it—it worked!" she cried, as Jareth reached for the device keeping her head in place. She sat up, grinning, but the smile faded as he looked at her, weariness in every inch of him. "I'm so sorry, Jareth. I don't know what happened. I don't understand why I left like that."
"You were bespelled. And I, stupidly, had wards set to alert me if someone was attempting to come into our tent, but I never thought to alert for someone leaving. You're still mortal. You're susceptible, even with your wishes, to fae magics. If there is information leaking, surely the rest of the fae now know of this weakness." He sighed, running both hands over his face, blocking it from view. When he spoke next it was muffled. "This is not ideal. Fae are a powerful lot, and I did not expect their direct involvement this soon." He chuckled ruefully and finished running hands through his mussed hair, staring into the middle distance.
"They're threatened," Sarah said, sure of it. "They know we can win." She rubbed her neck and said quietly, "They also want me to burn through my wishes."
"Yes. I thought so, too."
Three down, she thought. I have gone through three wishes in a week.
"Jareth?"
His gaze snapped to hers.
She took his hands, which had been hanging down by his knees. "You need to sleep."
"I can take another restorative. We're almost done with the day's march."
Frowning, Sarah asked, "If that's akin to the methods we used in the Above to keep ourselves awake when we needed real sleep—"
"It's magic, precious, and far more potent." He gave her a crooked smile. "I would offer you one, but you might not sleep for days."
That almost enticed her enough to ask for one, but when he pulled a corked bottle of ink-black liquid from his inner pockets, she wrinkled her nose. I wonder what's in that.
He laughed, and put it away. "I'll take it later. For now, let me check our progress. We should finally be nearing the edge of the wastes, but I want us to stop on this side of it. The moment we pass into the centaur kingdom, I'll have to do the diplomatic song and dance."
Sarah pulled him into a quick embrace, and he grunted, wrapping arms around her in turn and squeezing. "I thought I was going to die."
"You would have, if not for—"
"I know."
Jareth sighed and pulled away enough to look in her eyes. They were kissing distance, and she wanted to close that gap, to taste him, but he still telegraphed an exhaustion that made her bite her bottom lip instead. He groaned. "Don't do that, precious. When you do that it…" he trailed off and nuzzled at her neck instead, pressing lips to her pulse point. "Let me check on our progress."
Sarah nodded, and moved back, smiling back at him before he disappeared with a slight rush of magic.
The howdah swayed with Lily's long steps, but Sarah found that her legs were automatically bracing and relaxing alongside her mounts movements. She went to the curtain and opened it just enough to peer out.
The other mammoths were further forward. In fact, most of the army was, with Lily taking up the very end of the main forces and only the supporting groups of cooks, doctors, blacksmiths, carpenters, engineers, nurses, and others stretching behind her.
She withdrew from her peek and touched on the bed that had been made of half her howdah. The blankets were dark with sweat, and she could hardly blame herself. The heat from the late afternoon sun was beating down hard on the canopy. Part of the reason she had kept the curtains closed.
Jareth reappeared as she was poking through the center console for food, her stomach growling. He looked as weary as ever, pulling on his hair as he spoke. "We are about an hour from the border. The scouts already found an area to set up camp. The process has begun."
He was sitting on the edge of her bed, and she slid onto the spot next to him, abandoning her hunt for food. She took his hand, sliding off the glove he wore. Jareth stared at what she was doing as though he were hypnotized by the moves.
The contact of skin against skin sizzled similarly to a slight electric current, and shot all the way to her groin. Sarah bit back a gasp, but when her gaze snapped up it was met by his, and then his other hand, still clad in linen, cupped her face, and drew her closer.
The kiss started and stayed soft for some time, and when Jareth pulled back his breathing was labored, his eyes closed. "They should be done with the pavilion by now. I need to check, and then address the generals, at least."
Sarah frowned at him. "You're barely conscious."
His eyes opened, glittering darkly and piercing her where she sat curled tight against him. Her heartbeat ticked up, as did her breathing. "If I can lie with you, which I very much intend to do, then I can address the leadership."
###
When Jareth transported her to the pavilion, the front door was wide open, allowing her to see and hear what was transpiring with him and his troops. She was also able to beckon Sir Didymus into the tents opening, smiling as he gaped at her. "Can you tell the others I've been healed?"
"My lady! You look very well indeed. How did this come to transpire?"
As usual, Didymus had very little volume control. Jareth looked over his shoulder toward them from where he was standing before a line of approximately a dozen officers, and Sarah flashed a grin and a little wave. She whispered back to her friend, "I'll tell you all about it tomorrow? I'm tired."
Didymus bowed, and his next words were blessedly aimed at the ground. "As you wish it, my lady."
Sarah stepped back, letting the dimness of the tent throw her into cool shade. Moving away from the entrance she went first to the table laden with camp food. Fresh fruits, crackers, cheese. Wine. She drank, ate, and then wandered over to the bathing area, where a giant copper soaking tub was filling actively with cool water scented with something floral and woody.
She turned away from that to examine the available clothing, pulling from a hanging rack a silky black robe and setting it on a table next to the tub and the stack of drying sheets.
Pulling the fabric of her shirt away from her sticky skin, Sarah noticed that the ebb and flow of Jareth's conversation had ended, and then the lighting in the pavilion changed. Lamps flared everywhere, and the weak bit of daylight the front door flap had let it was suddenly gone.
Just to be sure she peered around the privacy screen and saw it was Jareth who padded through the living area, boots making no noise on the layers of rugs and furs. He spotted her and his pace quickened. She smiled and retreated, pulling her shirt over her head.
Hands captured her mid-motion, so that she was blind, arms trapped in soft cotton. Her breasts were bare to the air, and she could feel her nipples harden, a sound of wanting escaping her when teeth grazed the side of her neck.
"I was afraid I would never hear you again," Jareth said, releasing the shirt and helping her throw it to the ground. She spun to look at him. His eyes were red-rimmed but dry. "I feared… much. Your mortality belongs to me, but the rest of you can still hurt, still experience great pain, and—" he stopped himself, then reached into his inner vest pocket and withdrew a vial.
It was the restorative from earlier. Jareth took it in one shot, his eyes closed as his head was tipped back. A glow came under his skin, just a little, like the sheen of moonlight on water.
"Will that make you fall asleep?" she asked.
"No, but I do need to take it an hour or more before I go to bed." He grinned. "Will an hour suffice, my love?"
She stepped back and shook her head, shedding her pants and undergarments before skirting away from his reach, finding her way instead into the great tub. He watched her as he started undoing his own clothes.
Using a large natural sea sponge to lather up soap and scrub at her skin, Sarah was not watching for Jareth as she spoke. "Is my first wish still working? The one to know more?"
"Yes," he said, kneeling down next to where she bathed. "Let me help you with your hair."
She did, closing her eyes when he bade her to and enjoying the feeling of being pampered.
"I love your hair," he murmured to her. "Almost all fae are blonde or white, or some variation thereupon. Colors and darkness are rare indeed."
"And you like my darkness," she whispered, eyes still shut.
He chuckled. "You know I do."
When he finished and she was done scrubbing her body, Sarah stepped from the wash basin and wrapped herself in one of the crimson bathing sheets.
Jareth cleansed the bathwater with a wave of his hand, then took off the remainder of his clothes and slid into the tub with a sigh.
"Do you want any help with your hair or back?" Sarah asked, belting the black robe around her.
"No, love. But I do want you to do something for me."
His eyes were closed, and the sentence had been innocent enough, but Sarah found herself blushing. "What's that?"
"I want to be with you," he said, eyes now open and piercing her where she stood. "So I want you to go, now, to the bed and pleasure yourself. Come as many times as you wish or are able to. Finger and fondle yourself until I finish with my bath and arrive to finish you off with my cock." The last word he enunciated with a clear pop of the tongue, then grinned.
Sarah must have been beet red, she was sure of it. "I, uh—"
"You told me the first night we were together, the night of our bonding, that you touched yourself thinking of me. Was that true?"
She nodded.
Jareth sat up in the bath, leaning over the tub with his arms folded on the lip, looking michevious and feral and ready to pin her to the ground—
She swallowed, throat suddenly dry.
He looked as though he knew exactly what she was thinking. "Well, Sarah. Do you want to touch yourself in here, instead? I would not mind the show while I tend to my ablutions."
She scurried off, climbing onto the bed and then pausing as she knelt in the center. Her hair was still damp, so she took off the robe and folded it to lay over the pillows, lying back completely naked on the coverlet.
Jareth had said that he would put a sound warding on the tent, and so she could pick up only a muted version of the nighttime camp noises that surrounded them. Those outside would hear nothing from within. The occasional slop of the water reminded her that he was doing something that had an end. He would come to her, and expect that she—
She slid hands along her stomach, hugging herself for a moment, shivering in the warm air. Her skin was cool to the touch, and gooseflesh rose as she traced the fine hairs of her abdomen that led down to…
Oh, she thought, trembling a little as she cupped herself. It had been a long time since she had done this. Before coming to live with Karen. A year? More?
She traced her seam with one feather-light touch, and her back arched, her other hand rising to caress her breast, fingers skimming over one hardened nipple.
Dipping a finger between her folds, Sarah found herself freshly wet, slick from top to bottom. Letting out a shivering gasp, she heard the sounds from the bath suddenly cease. As though he were listening.
Sarah let out a high noise of pleasure when she first stroked her clit, fingers sliding over it with no resistance. She had her knees up and pressed together, her legs shaking as she kept up the slippery movements, her breath coming faster. Higher.
Eyes slid shut and she threw her head back as she came, legs trembling, her core slick as oil.
"My gods," he said, his voice so close she snapped her gaze open even as she continued to pant, her heart hammering. All sign of exhaustion was wiped from Jareth's visage, and he was staring at her with a hunger that made her whimper.
Jareth stood at the base of the massive bed, naked but dry by some magic no doubt. She hated how still he was, when she knew very well that he wanted her just as much as she wanted him.
She let her knees fall apart, spreading herself for his gaze. She left her hand there, tracing the path between her opening and her clit. "Come fuck me, Jareth."
He let out a low growl, his cock twitching upward, bumping against his stomach. He took it in hand as he crawled onto the bed, going straight for the spot between her legs. She was losing her breath for entirely new reasons now as he stopped, grasping her hip and pulling her closer, angling her upward. The motion dislodged her hand, and she gasped when a silk scarf wound around her wrist like a living vine.
She looked to Jareth, eyes wide. "This is you?"
"Yes," he affirmed. "If you don't mind, lover. I've wanted to see you held helpless for some time." The tip of his cock he pressed against her, running the same path her fingers had traveled.
She squirmed. "If I tell you it's too much, we stop, okay?"
"Always, precious," Jareth assured her, moving her other hand up and over her head, where another scarf waited. Once both had twined around her wrists they snapped taught, and she felt it immediately, like a lightning strike to her core.
Sarah gasped and writhed even more, sure she might come from this strange sensation alone.
"Well, well. Someone likes being bound quite a bit, it seems." His tone was teasing, but then it hardened. "Tell me again, Sarah, what do you want me to do to you?"
He held her hips, her body suspended, his thick cock nestled against but not yet pressed into her. She wanted him so much that she could scream from the lack. "Fuck," she said first, the word containing all the frustrating she felt. "Me."
Another grin, and he was not shy. He had worked her not at all, but she was so turned on that he slammed home easily. Still, she choked at that first thrust, certain that this time, she would shatter. It was too much. Too good.
And then he moved, and it got even better.
Sarah moaned and cried out at each deepening thrust, as his body bent over hers and she could feel every inch of his pent-up worries and fears from the last few days. All the longing. The intense need that had not been sated.
She opened to him and came apart in the same moment, gripping the scarfs tight and pulling as he continued to pound into her, relentless.
"Fuck," she moaned. "Jareth, please—"
She did not know what she was begging for, but he seemed to. Simultaneously spreading her legs wider and moving faster, one hand traveled down to where their hips met and his thumb brushed against her clit.
Sarah screamed, all her muscles tightening down as she came.
Jareth was the one who choked on a breath this time, his motions suddenly erratic. His grip near-bruising, he pounded into her several more times and then she was being filled with deep warmth.
Sarah shuddered, full-body, and wrapped her legs around Jareth's hips, preventing him from leaving. "I don't want to be done."
He kissed her, but still slipped away. "There's something I want to try before I succumb, precious."
She tilted her head, then jerked as his exploring fingers traced the seam of her ass. "Wha—"
"Not tonight. Not all the way. I doubt you've explored the darker pleasures?
She shook her head. "Not at all."
"Are you intrigued?"
He continued to tease near that part of her, and she wriggled, simultaneously wanting closer and also nervous, shamed.
"I want to finger you there," he murmured. "Maybe fuck you one more time tonight if I make you come prettily enough."
His finger ringed her ass, she gasped and arched, a whispered, "Yes," falling from her lips. Whatever kept this going.
He kept her bound, and teased her mercilessly, kneeling between her legs and keeping her knees back, legs spread, and hips angled up toward him. He ringed her ass again and again, the sounds leaving her lips giving the impression of pleading.
"Oh, you are sensitive," he whispered. "But we're going to go slow. And then someday soon, I'm going to take you here, too. I'll be the first and the last to have access."
She mewed, trying to get his fingers to slip inside her, but he kept her on the edge, teasing the sensitive flesh around that spot. He was warm, but then he poured a cool oil over his two fingers, pressed against her tight opening. When the oil hit her she bucked, and he prodded the area, letting the oil slip inside her.
Sarah's eyes widened, and she wanted to beg, to plead—to hell with it. No one can hear but him. "Please," she said. "I want to feel you in me."
"Oh," he murmured, pressing the pad of one finger one against her. "Very soon now."
She gave a little yelp when he pushed passed the ring of muscles to slip into her heated channel. Even though his finger was not so long as his cock, she could not help but gasp at how deep he seemed to go before he hit the maximum depth.
His eyes met hers. "I'm going to move now," he said, the words like a warning. "I'm going to simulate how it'll be when I fuck you here."
Sarah trembled, and then he was doing just that, gliding his finger in and out of her most secret place, and she—
Her eyes rolled back, and she strained against the bonds holding her. Wherever they were tied to, it was a nice and secure, for she felt no give. After the first few times that Jareth slid in and out of her, she began to move with him, her hips simulating the thrust. He made encouraging noises and then she gasped again to find a second finger having joined the first.
She let out a low groan. "Oh, my gods." She was being stretched, and already it was so much, so full. She could not imagine having his cock there.
"Tell me you're going to come, Sarah," he said, near-pleading. "You're squeezing me so tight. Relax."
He was still slipping in and out, but the moment she relaxed her muscles, sensation rocketed upwards. She gripped the bonds tighter. "Jareth!" she cried, entire body trembling.
Fingers probbed her for a moment more and then slid away. She keened at the loss, head lolling, but then his cock was pressing inside her newly soaked folds, filling her with a single thrust.
Sarah begged, pleaded that he keep going, that he stretch her like that again and again. Jareth grinned, bending down to take a peaked nipple in his mouth. Tongue rolling over her, teeth scraping ever-so-slightly before pulling away. All the while he kept his rhythm.
Then the bonds fell away, and Sarah was flipped onto her belly, hips raised toward him. She sighed as he pressed into her again, then writhed when he urged a single finger into her ass. This time it stung a little and she whimpered. He eased his intensity, slowing what he was doing but keeping up the long, thick thrust of him at her dripping entrance.
Sarah did not know how he did it, focusing on the both at once, but she was quickly becoming a quivering puddle of lust and sensation. "More," she demanded, pressing back against the pressure. He was being careful but she did not want him to be. A thought to ask for his cock there flitted through her mind, but she knew she would come to regret that choice. Instead, she found a second finger joining the first.
She was nothing but sensation.
Each push and pull had her swelling, until she burst. Over and over and over again.
When he finished with her, releasing himself with a groan, Jareth pressed magic against her skin, and she had that fresh, just-cleaned feeling of a shower again.
Sarah was so incredibly thankful for this small power, because the only thing she wanted to do at this point was pass out.
Then wake up and do all this again.
Author Note:
Hello, folks!
We'll get into more explanations and a little less boinking next time, but I did want to give our OTP a bit of a break.
Things are weird. The world is bizarre.
Hopefully we'll see chapter 10 soon-ish.
If you liked this or have feedback please put a contribution in the little box.
Thank you, much love,
~CS