The Assassin's Folly

Jareth lifted her and set her back down on the bed, getting in beside her. Just as he was going to pull the blanket over them, he saw a white scar on her stomach.

“Please don’t kill me!”

Had it happened before? He tucked the blankets around them and moved so that her head was on his chest again. He meant what he said: He wasn’t going to kill or leave her.

True, it was taking some time for his head to accept everything. A contract out for his life, he could understand. But a vampire? They were just stories, weren’t they? Legends to scare adults on Halloween. And yet here he was in bed with one.

He didn’t sleep at all that night. When Zarah woke back up, she started crying again.

“Shh,” he said, holding her. “Please stop crying. It’s ok. But I have some questions.”

She sniffed and sat up again. But this time she propped the pillow up against the headboard, covering her breasts with her knees.

“Anything you want to know,” she said earnestly.

“Is that why you started seeing me?” he asked. “Because you were told to kill me?”

She looked down. “Yes,” she whispered shamefully. “But I decided two days ago that I couldn’t do it.” She looked at him again. “I didn’t want to live – if you can even call it that – with regret.”

He nodded. “How is it possible? The vampire thing. I thought it was just a fairy tale.”

She sniffed again and sighed. “I thought so, too.” She rested her head on her knees. “Until 30 years ago when I was attacked. I was out walking, it was dark, and he was hiding in the shadows. He was going to leave me to die but decided to turn me instead.”

“And the assassin part?”

“His name is Damien,” she explained. “He runs an underground operation of all the people he’s turned. All of us made a pact: if we killed a certain amount of people for him, he would turn us back into humans. I’m so ashamed of what I’ve done, Jareth,” she sighed. “He kept telling me, ‘Just one more kill, Zarah. Just one more and I’ll turn you human again.’ But he always breaks his promises.”

“Is that how you found my brother?” She nodded. “Does anyone else know about this?”

“Just Dimitri.”

“Your cat?”

“He’s not really a cat,” she admitted. “He was a vampire assassin, too, until he failed just like I have.”

“Is this Damien guy really going to punish you if you don’t kill me?”

“Yes. But I don’t care.” She looked up at him and he saw a fiery passion in her eyes. “I’ll take whatever he does. I’m not killing you.”

“Do you know who wants me dead?”

She shook her head. “At first Dimitri thought it was your brother because we found out you had a falling out. Then when we found out your brother was dead, Dimitri spent some time on the computer. For a cat, he’s pretty good with computers,” she said with a watery chuckle and Jareth smiled kindly. “We learned that another business loaning company is opening on the other side of the city. I mentioned it to Damien and he confirmed it. He won’t tell me who it is, though. I think he knows by now that I love you,” she finished, looking away again.

“Last night you were terrified I’d kill you,” he said and she nodded. “Why?”

“As a human, isn’t our first instinct to kill something that tries to kill us?”

“It’s more than that,” he said and moved her legs. “Last night I saw this.”

He ran a finger along the scar and she sighed.

“It was another target,” she said. “I thought he loved me. I told him about everything. It turned out, though, that he already knew. He wanted me to confess. He plunged a silver dagger into my stomach. It took a year to heal and sometimes it still hurts….”

Jareth was finding all of this a little dizzying.

“I’ll make a deal with you,” he said finally and she looked up eagerly. “If you’ll find out who put a contract out on my life, I’ll keep your secret.”

“Really?” she breathed, sitting up straight.

He nodded and tucked her hair behind her ear. She leaned into his hand.

“When are you supposed to kill me?”

“Christmas Eve,” she sighed. “At the party.”

He kissed her deeply.

“Do you think nine days will be enough?” he asked.

“Yes,” she assured him.

“I have one more question,” he said.

“Of course.”

“Can we have a replay of last night?”

She grinned and kissed him, pushing him onto his back.

-

Later that day, he took her home and went in to truly meet her cat. When he walked in, Dimitri was sitting by the window and meowed at them.

“He knows, Dimitri,” she said softly.

“You told him?”

Jareth blinked. That was something he wasn’t expecting. A talking cat.

Zarah nodded. “He wants our help with something.”

The cat stretched and jumped up on the couch to look at Jareth.

“If you kill her, I’ll make your life miserable,” the cat said bluntly and Zarah, who had gone to the kitchen, threw a cat toy at him.

“You don’t have to worry about that,” Jareth promised. “Besides, I don’t even know how you’d kill a vampire.”

Dimitri chuckled. “What do you need?”

“I want to know who is trying to get me killed,” he said, accepting a bottle of water from Zarah. “Vampires can really eat and drink what we can?”

She nodded.

“That’ll take some serious work,” Dimitri said and gestured at Zarah. She picked him up and took him to the computer. Jareth sat down and pulled Zarah onto his lap. Dimitri seemed to smile. “We’ll have to be discreet. If Damien finds out you’re not going to kill him, there will be hell to pay.”

“I know,” they said in unison and all three laughed.

Zarah logged in and he saw the article she had mentioned.

“Who’s the owner?” Jareth asked.

Dimitri scanned the article and had Zarah navigate around the Internet. He hissed when they weren’t getting anywhere.

“It looks like the only way to find out, is to visit him ourselves,” Dimitri said finally. “But I have no idea how we’re going to manage that. Damien will flip if he finds out we’re digging and, whoever wants you dead, will surely contact Damien again if you show up, Jareth.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Then Zarah gasped.

“I know who we can call.”