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Just a Little Bit Longer
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He didn't save them. She cried out his name and he didn't arrive. A part of Sarah's heart shriveled thinking Jareth abandoned her and Toby to the Banshees. Swallowing her pride and rising terror, Sarah desperately cried out for him a second time. Bitter, frustrated tears collected in her eyes, but she refused to allow them free reign over her cheeks for the Banshees to witness. The circling wraiths would see her strong to the last in defense of her brother—damn the Goblin King!
'This must be his revenge,' she thought,
'trick his way back into our lives, make me feel...things...then desert us when we need him!' "Sarah." Toby tugged her pant leg, "Why aren't they attacking?"
Glancing down quickly at her wide eyed brother, Sarah shrugged minutely. He was right. The Banshees continued to surround them and occasionally lunge, but none made physical contact...yet. As if they waited or desired to escalate the tension. Well, their tactic worked; much more of this shrieking and mid-air pacing around them and the tethers holding her fear in check might snap. If only they could reach Toby's bedroom door. Still holding the bat threateningly, even though she knew it did nothing against the insubstantial beings, Sarah took comfort from the thick column of wood gripped in her hands regardless of its general uselessness.
Where was Jareth? Was this new relationship all a ruse? Unless something happened to him? She felt her heart rate speed up further, unsure which frightened her more: them being left for the Banshees to torment or Jareth's unknown reason for not arriving.
"Sarah!" The excitement in her brother's voice tore through her spiraling fears. "Look!" He pointed to his window. The blinds had been left drawn up exposing their backyard at night and the dim outline of the nearly forest. She turned in time to register the sight before the crash of shattering glass startled her. Between the shards of window glass a small glowing object rocketed inside Toby's room coming to an immediate stand still a few feet from them and hovered at Sarah's eye level.
"It's one of his crystals!" Toby exclaimed and pointed as if she couldn't see the white orb for herself.
"Jareth..." she whispered feeling suddenly buoyant.
The Banshees wailed in obvious anger and ceased their incessant circling to focus entirely upon this new threat. Sarah suspected they recognized the crystal's source as well as they did. Against her will, a faint smile pulled at one corner of her lips. He hadn't abandoned them! But why only a crystal...Which as she watched emitted a blinding light and doubled itself; the second one dropping to the floor. The first crystal began a high pitched hum and both maintained their internal white glow.
"Ow!" Releasing Sarah's leg finally, Toby covered his ears with his hands. Cringing in pain, but hating to lose the bat, she resisted copying her brother's motion and instead awkwardly protected her ears with one hand and a hunched shoulder. They stared, baffled, as the humming orb expanded, its light surpassing normal brilliance until neither Sarah nor Toby could look without pain. The Banshees, however, appeared mesmerized gazing into the depths of the slowly growing sphere of light and sound.
Amid this show, something bumped Sarah's shoe and she looked down, squinting. The second crystal...it repetitively tapped her foot as if trying to gain her attention before racing to the bedroom door.
"Toby!" She shouted his name. He didn't hear her so she grabbed his forearm and yanked him toward the now unguarded door. His surprised eyes followed her frantic, facial sign language as she opened the door then towed him through, the crystal rolling behind them faithfully. As soon as all three cleared Toby's bedroom and shut the door, the crystal entrancing the Banshees flashed with a brighter explosion knocking the wraiths to the floor, where they lie motionless.
Sarah and Toby stumbled when the house shifted from the crystal's force against the Banshees, and Sarah barely kept her footing at the top of the stairs, gripping the railing with one white-knuckled hand. Toby ended up on his rear beside her. Their unintentional delay allowed the second crystal to pass them and bounce down the stairs where it waited for them to catch up. It rolled to and fro impatiently, blinking its soft white light madly.
"I think it wants us to follow it," Toby stated as he ran downstairs, still in his PJ's. The bat clutched securely in one hand, Sarah trailed after him, nodding.
"I think you're right...look!" The eager crystal spun off to their back door until it smacked the closed obstacle, rolled back and smacked it again.
"It wants out!" Toby rushed to unlock the door.
"Toby, wait!" Sarah said, raising the bat in attack mode as her brother flung open the door to the night shrouded back yard.
"It's going outside!" He said as the crystal zipped enthusiastically over the threshold, its glow illuminating several feet around it as it bounded down the porch, and through the tall grass aiming for the nearby forest edge. Heedless of any danger, Toby ran off after it.
"Toby! Damn it! Toby!" She wavered at the open door for a second as her brother chased the orb.
"Come on, Sarah! It's taking us to Jareth!" He said from the bottom of the porch stairs. One of her legs through the doorway, and both hands strangling the bat, she answered him.
"You don't know that!"
"Yes, I do! Hurry!"
"Toby!"
Both of her feet now on the porch then a renewed wailing from upstairs which made her ear drums tingle and the hair on the nape of her neck frizz, and Sarah gulped. The Banshees...they weren't dead?
"Oh hell...Toby, wait!" She yelled and ran behind the rapidly diminishing glow of the crystal; her brother's shadowy online traced by its light. They headed for the forest. She lengthened her stride, unwilling to lose her brother to whatever lured him. For once she prayed it
was Jareth doing the luring.
She'd forgotten how overgrown the small meadow separating their house from the trees had become, and the tall grass slapped her legs, stinging through her jeans. Coming even with Toby and the still rolling crystal just passed the tree line, Sarah reached out for him intent on chastising his rash behavior when she noticed the edge of crystal's glow shine upon a body. A very naked, prone, inert and not at all healthy looking body which very much appeared to be...
"Jareth!" Toby said and she heard every bit of pain and shock in his voice that she dared not admit to within her own gut. He ran the last few feet and flung himself down at Jareth's side. After a clandestine glance around their immediate area, and the bat held at the ready for whomever or whatever could do this to the Goblin King (which would certainly make short work of them), Sarah followed her brother and knelt at Jareth's opposite side and laid the bat down.
"Sarah, what happened to him?" He looked up at his sister, great tears already tracing over his face. His hands laid flat on Jareth's bare, pale upper back; emerald bruises and burns criss-crossed and trailed all the way down his slim torso, buttocks and legs. Blushing, Sarah averted her eyes as she realized just how nude he was underneath his injuries.
"I don't know, Toby, but three guesses says same ones who attacked us happened to him." She glanced back to the house as an answering shriek pierced the night. "And they're not done with us yet." Toby shuddered at her words. If Banshees could hurt the Goblin King so badly why hadn't they even touched them? He wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer.
A low moan from Jareth made Sarah reach out and brush back his matted hair from his face before she thought to stop herself, and she gasped. More bruising, burns and swelling decorated his face making him barely recognizable. A dried greenish fluid caked his one exposed ear and she noticed the upper edge was slightly pointed. Unable to help it, she caressed the pale tip and jumped when Jareth bodily shivered but did not wake.
"Whadya do, Sarah?"
"I...I don't know," she said trying to sound innocent. She knew very well what she had done if not the whys or the hows. While not excessively experienced with men, specifically fae men, Sarah was not inexperienced either. She'd spend a few years in college attending frat parties and such. She had plenty of boyfriends, just none lately, and they'd done...things, lots of things...adult type things. And she enjoyed most of the adult type touching from A to Z, but she had never, ever, seen any man react as Jareth just did from such a delicate touch to his ear. Swallowing down her own indefinable reaction to his unconscious shiver, Sarah filed both away to be dealt with at a more opportune time.
More wailing and shrieking cracking through the night sounding closer; they must be searching for them. Could they hide in the forest? But Jareth needed medical aid...they couldn't take him to the hospital...could they?
"Toby, douse that crystal! They'll see the light!"
"Got it!" He said and threw himself upon it as if it was a grenade and he was saving them from its explosion. Rolling her eyes, Sarah sighed at his dramatics, but admitted to herself that his body slam did the job as his action plunged the forest into darkness.
"Keep quiet and still, if they can't find us maybe they'll give up," she whispered then scooted down next to Jareth. Hearing Toby whimper in the dark, Sarah flung her arm over Jareth's shoulders in order to touch her brother's back to reassure him. It order to do so, she had to snuggle intimately up to Jareth, face to face.
"Shhh...Tobes, it'll be okay, just hang in there," she said very softly, her voice carrying in the night air.
"Okay," he whispered back and she felt him shifted closer to Jareth's opposite side while still keeping the light of the crystal shielded. They waited in tense silence, hearing the distant wailing of the frustrated Banshees, sometimes farther, sometimes closer. Gradually the sounds of the forest and their bodies overrode everything else and Sarah discovered they helped her push back her fears.
Toby's rapid pants, the feel of his staccato heart beat through her hand at his spine, and how warm he felt. His occasional soft whimper and shudder of controlled fear; she rubbed slowed circles on his back to help calm him. Her own clenched teeth and deep breaths as she tried to remain in control, and the smell of the damp earth and the sharp edges of leaves and sticks which they lay upon...and Jareth.
Everything about him assaulted her senses. The feel of his motionless, naked body next to hers, knowing he was injured and vulnerable and how that made her angry, defensive and protective all at once. Over the smell of the humus soil, she made out something thicker and familiar which until now she hadn't realized her brain, or body, had categorized. His scent: definitely masculine, slightly musky but not cloying, a hint of ozone she thought and something new...flowers?
She heard his slow, even heart rate and breathing which was good, right or was it bad? Difficult to know since he wasn't human. Facing each other, his warm breath tickled and she felt light-headed due to the enclosed space. As her eyes adjusted to the gloom, she made out the outlines of his unconscious face, studying them leisurely as she'd never been this close to him before without feeling either threatened or uncomfortable.
It was a nice face, she decided; not too harsh, not too soft. Not the classic version of male beauty, Jareth somehow redefined those limits, pushed them and made them his own in an oddly effeminate manner which didn't diminished his masculinity one iota.
'
How odd,' she thought, '
I've never really noticed how handsome he is before...' "Sarah." Toby's harsh whisper interrupted her ruminations on the helpless Goblin King, "I think they're gone."
"What?" She raised her head from the ground, blinking in the bit of light Toby allowed to escape.
"I haven't heard them for awhile."
"Oh...oh...I must have dozed off."
"Uh-huh...what should we do?"
"Umm...maybe what here a bit longer to be sure," she met his questioning look, "then get Jareth into the house and see if we can help him."
"Okay," he nodded, lying back down and covering the light again. As Sarah looked away from her brother in the fading light and back to Jareth's face, she saw that his eyes were open and watching her. After a second of stunned shock, she comprehended that he appeared dazed, and his eyes glazed over and fluttered shut. Uncertain as to what he understood of their situation, she took comfort that at least he was progressively regaining consciousness and took it to mean he was also healing somewhat on his own.
'
Just a bit longer, Jareth...hang on...' she said to herself willing him to hear her though she feared speaking to him in such a manner aloud and especially in front of Toby.
