Barbie + Ken Ch. 03

And the inter-pack council is coming, too. How will they think of the developments here? I'm a witch, after all; and not some sweet green witch or ancestor-blessed shaman, but a witch fueled by dark sex magic and demonic power. Oh yeah, and somehow, apparently, also straight-up a gift from the Moon herself. It's a lot mentally to discover and deal with, I'm just barely holding it together, and it's draining. I find myself wishing for the freedom of a fully supplied survival pack, an open sky, and a full moon. Yet here I am, bound by my Mark, hounded by my past, and trapped in this safe little prison- but I'd rather have trees than ever go back to that ritual slab again.

I look at up at the moon, now beginning her wane, just a sliver of dark on her side. "Why?" I ask. I get no response. I wasn't expecting one.

"Trust," I mutter, kicking at the ground. "Believe," I scoff, letting out a huge sigh.

At the edge of mind, I can feel a familiar darkness creeping in. The unsettling feeling of wet tentacles, of an unblinking eye, of an unspeakably evil entity pulling at the fabric of life. I shake my head to clear those thoughts, no no, now is definitely not the time. Those can go back in the box now!

I look about for any distraction at all and see I am lost. Well. I'm still within the bounds of the compound, but I can see the magical energy radiating off my freshly placed wards. I'm at the very edge of the encampment. My night vision is excellent, and my senses are yet sharp. Something's not right. I can feel the hairs on my arms standing up. I'm not alone.

"You can show yourself," I say calmly, not betraying my alert. "It's easier than me forcing you out of hiding." That's right. I'm no Alpha but I'm just as powerful. I'm the bane of the night, feared even by Jareth, else why would he go to such lengths to keep me enchained?

"Come out this instant!"I demand, losing patience. I get no response, even though I Know something is there, just beyond the range of my senses. Pissed, I call a werelight to life in my palm. "Illuminate," I say, then cast it forward. The ghostly purple orb lights the darkness, and it wobbles unsteadily toward whatever it is that is there. Slowly, a figure emerges, hard to make out even with my enhanced perceptions.

"Identify yourself!" I cry, ready to attack.

"Calm down, your pheromones are going to choke me," he says. Marius.

I roll my eyes. "I'm not in the mood."

"So unfriendly," he says, jogging up to me. I wish he wouldn't.

I continue adding to my wards, just an extra layer of protection. Nothing fancy. He follows, I guess to bother me.

"We didn't get to finish what we started," he says chilly, keeping easy pace with me.

"Some things are better left unfinished," I say, with equal ice.

"Something's off about you," he says, jaw tightening. "You're different." His eyes go wide and then narrow. "He Marked you?"

"Aren't you banished?," I say curtly.

Marius laughs, eyes bugging out. "When did he start winning?"

I stop, spotting a wording in my enchantment that could be a little stronger. Best not to leave any weak links. I need to fix this before I move on. I close my eyes and mutter in the ancient language, willing the runes to have stronger grammar and not run on each other so much, how could anyone read or follow this complete disregard, dare I say disrespect for the established conventions of subject-verb agreement? I throw in a few more punctuation marks just for fun, to make my intent extra clear and not seem so wantonly ambiguous.

"Hey, don't ignore me!" Marius calls, indignant. "I'm an Alpha!"

I roll my eyes. It pisses him off a lot.

He comes up and gets in my face. "I said, don't ignore me."

Before, I probably would have had trouble with his proximity. Now, perhaps because of my Mark, it doesn't bother me at all. Actually, it annoys me a little. Nonplussed, I politely ask him to vacate my personal space.

He refuses, coming in closer. So I kick him, aided somewhat by my magic, right in the dick, as hard as I can. And he doubles over in pain.

Then I see It and for a brief moment I forget all about Marius.

What is that thing? I can hear Marius groaning and cursing but he sounds far away. Or maybe It is just messing with me. It's emitting some kind of frequency, or wave maybe. It's so disorienting!

Marius regains his composure and moves to retaliate. "Stay," I call, freezing him in midair, mid-transformation. A curious snapshot of the human-wolf transformation but not a half-man, half-wolf like his uncle. But then again, he's no longer an Alpha. Do I detect a demonic magic in this change? And his fur is differently colored now, too... like a blood red. I don't like this at all, and even though the Knowing is becoming more clear, and I dread what it means, right now, he's distracting me.

It is impossible to ignore. How could this be? A plain mask of glass, cold neutral features carved onto a body of marble. It moves with a slow, agitated disjointedness, as if skipping frames. It walks toward me, and instead of presence I feel only void.

A demon? I have never encountered such a one. It makes no sense! And in full moonlight, in open country, within the boundary of the lycan ancestors' blessings no less! How strange. I know I am safe behind my fortified boundary, yet I take a few steps back involuntarily. This thing, it fills me with dread. It feels like it's antihuman, like if you get too close it will unmake you atom by atom. It's unnatural and unnerving in the worst uncanny way, pretending to be humanoid but really it is some unexplainable thing, some machine of perverse creation.

Then I realize. It's a golem. But definitely not the average!

The marble man with the glass face twitches its way up to my wards, sparks flying as it attempts to enter. Ha! I'd like to see it try. It'll melt, there's no way any kind of threat could possibly pass through that barrier. It stops, looks down at the wards. Then at me. A chill goes through my spine. I can feel its murderous intent. It tries to cross the barrier again but is unable. It looks down at my wards again and stomps. It spots the weak wording I didn't quite get to finish fixing. Fuck. The wards glow in response, undamaged. It stomps again.

"Stop that," I say, annoyed. I can't let it know how afraid I am. I light a fireball, just to be safe, but this seems to agitate the thing even more. With open palms, it slaps at my border. A piece of it goes dark and the thing takes its shuddering, staggering steps forward and I am rooted to the spot in fear. I have never felt so much like prey in my life. This is unlike being tied down. This is unlike being in the back of a van. I am free to move, so why can't I? I'm stuck. I can't even scream! My fireball dies out, I feel for the first time ever a morose lack of faith in my own power.

Marius drops to the ground and completes his transformation, but far from completing his attack, the blood red demon wolf whimpers. I want to whimper too. He tucks his tail between his legs and roos despairingly. He turns and runs, taking off as fast as four supernaturally strong legs can bound, rapidly disappearing into the darkness. Morosely I am glad he left, but feeling a little more doomed at the same time.

It crosses the border and is only steps away from me. I can't let it touch me! I don't know why, but I can't allow it to touch me! Finally I regain some control and spark off a fireball, though it's weak, I can't seem connect to my well of magic for fear, and the fireball hits the thing straight in its glass face-

And it's gone. Unmade. What the fuck!? Now I'm pissed!

I reach into the well of magic, pushing through my fear, and launch a proper fireball. And it's gone too! The thing is still advancing, undeterred by my effort, like I haven't done anything at all. I place one hand out in front of me, draw the other across and back, igniting a deadly white-hot fire arrow, imbue it with the intent to kill, and launch. It's a direct hit, but the marble body is unaffected, and the glass face doesn't even register a hit. What the fuck!!

Earth! I think. Try another element! And I beg the earth to respond, I I imagine the earth swallowing up this evil thing, and it does, rolling in waves across the ground, sinking the marble man all the way up to its glass face, finally, thankfully stopping it, mere feet from my position. It struggles to move, it's disjointed, creaking, halting shudders put my anxiety at a level I've never known before, and I know it's not finished. "Bind!" I cry, madly pouring in way more magic than is probably necessary, but I can't help it, this thing absorbed my fire attacks like they were nothing!! And I can't even sense it!

From behind me I get an insane urge to duck, so I do, and from above me is an unearthly roar and a flash of white, it's Ken, and he is in that same strange half-man, half-wolf form I saw his father take earlier. The Alpha-inherit snarls at the thing, only its glass face above ground, and I drop myself, sobbing, shaking, unable to contain my fear at the unnatural thing. The Alpha Ken, in one swift move, snaps its jaws, and the head comes clean off. j

Everything below the neck, held still in the embrace of my earth bind, evaporates in a puff of black sulphur. The head, still stuck in Alpha Ken's jaws, the unseeing eyes on the glass face looking straight through me, opens its mouth.

With a strange, high, tinny voice, devoid of any inflection or emotion, it says, "This is an invitation from the Circle. Most High Oracle is invited to return home for the First One's rebirth. This is an invitation from the Circle. Most High Oracle is invited to return home for the First One's rebirth. This is an invitation from-" and its voice dies as the Alpha Ken snaps it up into little pieces with its savage jaws. It too dissolves into a cloud of sulphur, and suddenly all that is left is the rumples left behind by my earth bind.

The Alpha-inherit whirls toward me, speaking with Ken's voice. "Barbie", he calls, "Barbie baby, can you hear me? Barbie!" and all I know is the creeping darkness, and the grimy feeling of wet tentacles, and high-pitched laughter of a man I loathe...

* * * * * * * * *

"Here again?" I say, unimpressed.

"I've missed you, Oracle," Jareth says, his impossibly long and demanding cock already deep within me.

"Them too?" I sigh, turning my head to confirm that the crusty old men who worship at this altar are indeed there. Don't they have families? And yup, I'm on the sacrifice rock, in chains again.

"This is getting kind of old," I say, and Jareth harshly slaps me. It knocks a tooth out and I feel some blood trickling.

"I'll thank you to spare me your insolence," he hisses, picking up the pace. I can feel the sheen break out on my body from trying to keep up, to minimize the pain. I can't just allow it to happen anymore.

"Is this gonna happen every time I sleep?" I say, faking a yawn. Jareth is not impressed.

He chokes me with his hands, forcing a millimeter deeper inside. I gasp, not thinking he could go any further. He sneers. "That's right. I've got plenty of tricks for even you, brat," he spits. I can hear the chanting of the dark priests all around, more fervent than usual.

"Is this a bad-" and I hmphhh as he hits me with a particularly nasty jab- "time? I can come back," I wheeze, and am rewarded with a tighter hold on my throat. Okay, maybe that was too far. The redness is creeping in and now I'm numb in the extremities. I think I'm actually starting to die a little.

Can I die in these? Isn't this just a dream? Or is this like, one of those things where astral harm corresponds to the physical realm?

Wow. I'm really floating now. I can't sense anything at all. Jareth is pissed. I haven't made him this mad in a long, long time.

He needs me alive right? Don't I have to be alive for his designs? Jareth? I think he's really going to do it this time...

Well, if this is all true, then doesn't it work the other way too? Don't I also have the capability to bring my physical power into the astral? And if that's true, then why not magic? Why am I always powerless in these... what do I even call them! Night terrors.

Well if this really is the time... then I'm going to fuck it all the way up.

I reach way down deep into the well of my magic, and to my surprise I find a whole new place underneath, something I was previously unaware of! Like something you can't unlock until you've done a certain amount of maturing. And suddenly it makes sense.

Oh.

This is why.

And I command this amazing new seat of my power to open!

Bring me back!

And I can feel myself anew. I can feel my talons stretching and rending, I can feel my leathery, scaly, supple skin, ooh there's a new edge to my posture huh? My snout tapers forward and my whiskers unfurl, my rows of pearlescent sharp teeth glint and salivate for the hunt, isn't that a whiff of fear that I smell now? Delicious... I can hear the heartbeat. I can hear a few heartbeats. They sound delicious.

Are my eyes closed? Why?? I'm not sleeping!

Who is before me? Jareth. I growl, deep in the seat of my power, arch my back in royal disgust. There is a fire in my belly. A hunger to consume. An unspeakable urge to destroy. A cold and righteous fury that burns like frost and devastates in totality.

Who is before me?

Dinner.

The fire in my belly rises to my throat, the human's face twists in rage, and I launch the purest white flames of Her Radiance, the Shining Moon Mother Herself, calamitous flamethrower, and suddenly-

* * * * * * *

It's quiet and I'm alone. No injuries that I can tell. Even the old ones are healed up, like they never happened. I toss back the covers, exposing my tattoos and burns and scars, my lithe human body, and spring up with new vigor.

"What's going on?" I wonder aloud, marveling at my new found vitality. Something smells really good. Crispy. I stride to the door, it opens so easily, I think I overdid it. I pad down the hallway to find Ken frying sausage links in a cast iron skillet. A full array of other breakfast is in various stages of development. It's weird, I can tell he's the only one in the house because I can just sense the whole house now. Some of the outside too, all my senses are just absolutely jacked.

I can smell Ken and he smells real good too. Like breakfast but better. "Good morning," I purr, wrapping my arms around his stomach and settling into his body from behind. "It smells amazing."

He turns his head to kiss me a little, not saying anything about my morning breath. "Good morning," he says, going back to cooking. I am already starting to get hard, and position myself snugly between his cheeks. Is it my imagination or is my dick raw? For that matter, his hole feels kind of battered. I reach around front and peek over his shoulder. His dick is actually bruised. What did we do! "You're feeling good this morning," he says warmly.

"I am," I say, then I remember lots of things in quick succession. I remember that terrifying glass face marble man and how none of my magic worked and Ken crushing it into pieces and the awful awful void it felt like, the draining and terrible null feeling that sucked me dry of anything good. And Marius ran away and then ending up back in Jareth's nightmare.              

And turning into a dragon.

Right. Cause I can do that now. Or could I always and just didn't know?

"Um, Ken," I start, dreading the answer, "what happened after you crushed that thing?"

Ken's whole body flinches. "Do you seriously not remember?" he says, stopping his spatula mid-scramble.

"What do you mean?"I say.

He turns to face me. "You turned into a dragon and burnt the shit out of that thing!"

I feel my face go ashen. "That wasn't a dream?"

Ken looks at me like I am a danger. "NO!!"

He gently moves me to the side so he can complete other elements of breakfast, and I lean against the counter dealing with reality's weight. "I barely got out of the way in time," Ken says, pausing quickly to give me a peck on the lips.

"I'm sorry," I say, embarrassed.

"Well, my ass does kind of hurt today," he says, "so you should be."

"Did I burn it?" I say, brows furrowed.

"Oh come on. Surely you remember that!" Ken says, look at me in disbelief.

"...what else happened?" I ask.

Ken laughs at me, whipping me with his towel. "We fucked as Alpha and dragon."

"WHAT."

"Yeah, like six times."

And suddenly I remember scales on fur, the heat of breath, the growls and yips and groans, the feeling of being mounted like a bitch in heat, showing him what a real bite feels like, the incredible feeling of scorching that soulless golem until it was literally nothing, until it literally did not exist, and then taking that Alpha and making him my bitch.

"Now I remember," I say meekly, thinking about exactly how rough and wild we got. "I think I uprooted a few trees."

"You almost started a forest fire," Ken chides. "We should really start keeping neosporin next to the lube," he says, laughing darkly. For some reason that really turns me on. I can smell my own pheromones change and his too, changing in response. Suddenly I realize why Grandma Elvira isn't home.

"We're not going to have to go in front of the council again, are we?" I moan.

"Yeah, we have to apologize for all the property damage we did."

"And I'm sure we destroyed the wards too." I said, adding it to my list.

"And Grandma wants to see you, by the way. She said to meet her in the north grove when we're done."

"When we're done what?" I say innocently, drinking in the man before me.

He winks at me. "I think you know." He sets the pan of eggs aside and turns off the stove, leaving everything atop it to finish cooking in its own time. He turns around and wraps his arms around my neck, my arms low on his waist, and I pull him in for a deep kiss. It makes him growl and I feel something rising in my belly in response. He's a little taller than me, and I can feel his dick digging into my stomach, mine is at the perfect height to slip in between his thighs.

We make out softly, and I pump his thighs lightly, kneading the muscles in his lower back. He pulls me in a little closer and lightly bites my lips, making me realize they are in fact pretty swollen already. On an impulse, I reach up and grab him by his long, silvery white hair, weaving my fingers deep into the roots, and he lets out a needy little moan. I grab that beautiful hair and pull, exposing his neck, and he whimpers. Such a needy boy. That's when I see it.

An angry red bite mark. Sharp and jagged, truly a wicked bite. Wait. That's no ordinary bite... I run my tongue across it, just to be sure, and his knees give out. I put my thigh in between his for support, lapping the bite mark again for fun. He actually cries out and gasps. It's a Mark. My Mark.

"Barbie," he pants, "Baby I really don't think I can take any more," and I stop, kissing my way up his neck until I meet his lips. His eyes are apologizing for some reason. "I can barely walk today, you really fucked the hell out of me last night," he says. "I've never had it like that," and I laugh.

"What, you can power top but not power bottom?" I tease, and he blushes.

"Guess I'll have to learn," he says sheepishly.

I bite his earlobe softly, "We can practice anytime."

He is so hard, and leaking a little. I've been hard basically since I woke up. I think I know how we can fix this problem. "Let me do the work this time," I say, "and once you're a little healed up, you can treat me next time," and he nods, his eyes shining with lust.