“Is this true?” the snake vampire demands, staring at me with cold, glittering eyes.
Blushing and stammering, I admit that it is. Then it’s Lexy’s turn to chime in.
You really did that? she demands, shooting me an incredulous glance. You let him go down on you during your time of the month?
I squirm uncomfortably. I was in a lot of pain and he made me feel better. You know how bad my cramps get. Besides, what’s the big deal?
The big deal is that you’re never supposed to let a vampire near you during that time. It gives them too much power—binds them to you way too tightly. She sounds really upset. I can’t believe no one ever told you that before.
Well, I guess I would have known if I had any magic to speak of or the inclination to sleep with half the vampire community, I shoot back, losing my patience. But honestly, Lexy, I had no idea.
She seems about to send me something else but then the snake vampire speaks again. “You would bleed for this witch…this insignificant mortal with lifespan a fraction of your own?” he demands, speaking to Aiden.
Aiden nods. “I would,” he says quietly. “Emma is not insignificant to me. I love her. I would endure anything to keep her safe. Give me the knife.”
He loves me? And he’s going to bleed for me—there doesn’t seem to be any way to stop it. My heart is in my throat as one of the vampires stands and moves from the shadows into the light for a moment. He shows a flicker of white skin as he hands Aiden a long, curving silver blade. Then he slips back into the darkness and becomes just a pair of eyes again.
Aiden holds the knife in one hand and begins to roll up his sleeve with the other. He is wearing a tastefully tailored charcoal suit but he has removed the jacket, revealing the crisp, white cotton shirt beneath. Under that, his skin is almost as pale as the shirt. But a fine tracing of blue veins runs just under the surface, pulsing with blood he’s determined to shed.
“Aiden,” I say. “Please, I don’t want you to do this for me.”
“Be quiet, Emma.” He frowns at me darkly. “There is no choice. One of us must shed blood and I’ll be damned if it’s you.”
“But—”
“Be still and let me concentrate,” he commands, cutting me off.
I feel sick as I watch him make the first slice. Without flinching, he draws the silver blade across the white skin of his forearm. I know how much it hurts him—a thousand times worse than it would a mortal whose body would give blood much more easily. But he says nothing, just holds his arm over the circular trench, letting the droplets fall, like black rubies, into its hungry mouth.
I can feel the blood working, can feel the frayed strands of the spell coming together but slowly…so slowly. Before they are nearly woven together, let alone sealed, the cut on Aiden’s arm closes. His mouth thins to a white line but still he says nothing. He only raises the knife and cuts himself again.
And again and again and again.
It’s agony to watch him torturing himself like this and to know that he’s doing it for me. He’s bleeding himself dry so I won’t have to. Saving me the way he wasn’t able to save Katherine so many years ago.
But after the fifth or sixth cut, I realize with horror that it’s not going to work. The magic is coalescing too slowly, the circular trench etched into the floor is too thirsty. Aiden doesn’t have enough blood in his body to make this happen—especially considering how much blood a vampire body needs to function. He’s going to die if he keeps this up. Surely he knows that.
One look at his face tells me he does. But it doesn’t seem to matter to him—he’ll do whatever it takes to save me. Even if it means giving his own life.
“Master,” I whisper, putting my hand on his arm to stop him before he cuts the seventh time. “Please, no. You’re…you’re killing yourself. There has to be another way.”
“There is no other way,” he murmurs, shaking his head. “Once I thought there might be but this moment has come too soon. We were not prepared, for which I blame myself.”
“What do you mean?” I demand. I’m beginning to panic at his rigid refusal to stop. I can’t lose him like this. Can’t let him sacrifice himself for me. “What are you talking about?”
“Think about it, darling,” he says in a soft voice. “There are only three ways to fulfill a spell. Magic, blood, or…”
“Sex,” I whisper, finishing the thought for him. So this is what he was preparing me for all this time. This was why he demanded my submission, why he wanted me to give myself so completely, even while others were watching. He knew this moment was coming, knew we would have to perform in front of the Vampire Council and he wanted me to be ready. Ready to submit in order to heal the spell.
Sex magic, Lexy whispers in my head. If you and Aiden could raise enough energy you could slap a patch on the spell—kind of like melting the fibers of the spell together instead of weaving them. It’s not as elegant but it should work.
It has to work, I send back to her desperately. I can’t lose him like this, Lexy! I can’t let him die for me.
You’re in love with him, aren’t you? Be careful, Emma! It’s never a good idea to get too deeply involved with a vamp.
Yes,I tell her. I can’t help it. I love him even though I shouldn’t. He never told me I was related to Katherine. He never said he was preparing me for this moment—never warned me what was going to happen. He’s kept me in the dark about everything ever since I came to him. But… I love him. I have to save him if I can. I have to.
You can but you’ll have to be completely committed to the act. Lexy shivers. You can’t hold any part of yourself back during sex magic or it doesn’t work. That’s why I can’t do it. I can’t…can’t give myself to any guy that completely. Are you sure you can, Emma?
I have to, I send back grimly. I’ll do whatever it takes.
“Enough, Emma,” Aiden says, calling my attention back to him. “I think you should go stand outside the circle now, darling. Let me finish this.”
“No.” I lift my chin and look him in the eye. “No Master. We’ll finish it together.”
Aiden frowns. “You’re not ready for this—not ready to submit so completely, Emma. I can’t be gentle if we’re going to make this work. I’ll have to use you hard—take you roughly.”
I swallow nervously but I won’t let him see the fear in my eyes. “You mean…like a punishment fuck?”
“Exactly.” Aiden’s silver-gray eyes are half-lidded. “I was working up to this scenario, trying to get you ready gradually. But you never reached the point of ultimate submission. And I don’t think you’re ready to reach it tonight.”
“Yes, I am,” I protest softly, vehemently. “I know I am—I know I can do this.” To prove my point, I pull my shirt over my head and drop it to the floor. Next go my jeans and shoes. Soon I’m left standing in the middle of the circle wearing only my underwear. Aiden’s eyes widen as I reach back to unsnap my bra.
“Wait.” He puts a hand on my arm to stop me and looks at me intently. “Do you really want to try this, darling? Do you really think you can do it?”
“Yes,” I say softly. “Please, Master, I’ll do anything to save you. I-I want to submit.”
“My darling,” Aiden murmurs, looking genuinely touched. “I had no idea your feelings for me ran so deep.”
“You told them you’d do anything to keep me safe.” I nod at the circle of watching vampires. “I feel the same way about you.”
“Do you?” he murmurs.
“You know I do. I…I love you,” I whisper, daring to speak it aloud at last, just as he did when he told the Council how he felt about me. “I love you, Master…Aiden.
“Emma…” He cups my cheek, looking down into my eyes. “This is neither the time nor the place to declare ourselves. But I love you, too. So much, my darling.”
“Then let’s do this,” I whisper fiercely. “We can fix this spell together—I know we can. And I know…” I swallow hard. “I know I can submit to
you, Master. I know we can make it work.”
“Very well.” Aiden nods. He puts down the knife and takes my hand.
“What are you doing?” the snake vampire demands. “The spell is not yet whole.”
“Have no fear, we will heal it,” Aiden says, glaring coolly at the eyes gleaming in the darkness. “We’re simply going to try a different method.” He looks around, frowning. “All mortals must leave the Council Room. I want no eyes but those of the Council upon us as we renew the spell.”
Muttering with irritation, Sanchez and the other satyr push Lexy out the black door Aiden left hanging open. Good luck! Lexy sends, her mental voice dwindling as she gets out of range. Soon all the mortals besides me are gone from the great stone chamber. All except Grant, who just stands there.
“You too,” Aiden tells the warlock sternly. “You must go.”
Grant frowns. “But…what if you need magic?”
“Emma has more magic in her smallest finger than you have in your entire body.” Aiden gives him a withering look. “I will tap into that deep well. You’ll be able to feel the spell mend from outside.”
Grant grumbles but at last he shrugs and goes out the door, following the satyrs. He shuts it behind him and I for one am glad he’s gone. Not because I didn’t want him watching Aiden and I do…whatever it is we’re about to do. But because I hope he’ll protect Lexy from the satyrs.
“Never fear, darling. Your cousin will be safe,” Aiden murmurs in my ear. Then he reaches into his pocket and pulls something out—something that gleams red in the firelight.
I give a little gasp when I see it. “My collar!” I took it off before I went to take my herbology final…which seems about a thousand years ago at this point.
“Yes, your collar.” Aiden frowns at me fiercely. “Do you have any idea, Emma, how frantic I was when I found this lying on the dresser and you nowhere to be found?”
I bite my lip and nod. He must have remembered the night he found Katherine missing. Must have felt that history was repeating itself, and unfortunately, in a way, it is.
“You removed it.” Aiden’ voice is steady but his eyes are flashing solid silver now. “You took off my mark of ownership and left the house without permission, putting yourself in terrible danger.”
“Yes Master,” I whisper in a small voice. My heart is drumming against my ribs and my pussy is becoming wet as it always does when I know he’s going to punish me. But this time the punishment is going to be so much worse than ever before.
“Emma,” he says in that soft, deep, scary voice. “This kind of deliberate disobedience calls for the strongest penalty I can inflict. Strip and get on your hands and knees. It’s time for your punishment fuck.”
“Oh,” I whisper, unable to say anything else. Part of me can’t believe we’re really going to do this but another part, a part buried so far down I can barely even access it, feels a surge of anticipation. This is the ultimate surrender—the moment we’ve been working up to from the first minute he claimed me as his Sacrifice.
“Finish undressing,” Aiden say sternly. “And if you think I’ll go easy on you because of your inexperience, you’re wrong. I’m going to fuck your pussy hard and long, Emma. You deserve nothing less.”
“No Master. I know I don’t,” I whisper. My knees feel weak as I unsnap my bra. I can’t help thinking of all the eyes watching me—all those cold, inhuman eyes waiting to see me get taken and used. To see me get fucked by my Master.
“Keep going,” Aiden commands when I pause. “And look only at me,” he adds, when my eyes wander again to the Council members around the circle. “Just like you did at Bern’s, darling,” he continues in a softer, most reassuring voice. “Close your eyes if you must but you have to submit—both our lives depend on it.”
After seeing the predatory way the vampires of the Council are watching us, I don’t doubt him for an instant. If we don’t manage to repair or at least patch the spell, they’ll be on us. And though I know without asking that Aiden would die fighting to protect me, there’s no way he could take on twelve ancient, powerful vampires alone and win. We’d both die—they’d bleed us until the spell is mended.
That’s not going to happen, I tell myself sternly. I won’t let it happen!
Determined to make this work, I hook my thumbs into the elastic sides of my panties and prepare to push them down. But this time Aiden stops them.
“Wait,” he murmurs. Then he kneels in front of me, just as he did that first night, and looks up into my eyes. “Let me,” he says. Holding my eyes with his, he slips my panties down, revealing my bare pussy, making me utterly vulnerable—claiming me as his. “Spread your legs, darling,” he says softly.
The word why trembles on my lips but I clamp down and don’t ask. Whatever he wants, I’ll give him. I need to focus only on him, just as he said. I need to forget the ring of hungry eyes surrounding us and concentrate on submitting completely to my Master.
“I need to make sure you’re wet enough,” Aiden murmurs, as I spread my legs without protest. “Need to taste your sweet little pussy until you’re hot enough to take me, Emma.”
A soft moan of submission comes from my lips as he spreads me with his long fingers. I brace myself with one hand on his broad shoulder, trying to be open enough for him, trying to give myself completely.
“Good girl,” Aiden says softly, sending a shiver of pleasure through me with his praise. His breath is hot against my inner thighs. “Such a good girl to let me spread open your pussy and taste you, Emma.”
I want him so much I can barely breathe. I grip his shoulder harder and moan as his long tongue slips between my pussy lips to tease my clit. Honestly, I’m already wet and hot for him—just the idea of giving in so completely, of offering him my pain as well as my pleasure—has me more turned-on than I can ever remember being in my life. But it’s not as if I’m going to turn down a tongue bath by my oh-so-orally talented Master.
It seems to go on forever, the soft, slow licking, the feel of his tongue inside me, probing my depths. I get closer and closer to the edge, feeling at any minute I might tilt over. But somehow he keeps me just on the edge, never quite pressing the magic button for long enough to get me off. Finally I’m panting in frustration, my hand on his shoulder gripped into a fist, my entire body tense with need.
“Master,” I gasp as he laps me gently, sucking my swollen clit into his mouth and teasing it unmercifully with the tip of his tongue. “Oh Goddess, Master…please, I’m so close!”
To my disappointment, Aiden pulls back. “I know, Emma,” he says in a soft, stern voice. “But I don’t want you to come—not yet.”
I want to ask when I’ll be allowed to come but again I bite down hard, stifling the question. This is all about submission, I remind myself. I must give myself completely and not question my Master’s every move.
“I think you’re ready now.” Aiden rises, towering over me, a look of stern disapproval on his face. “It’s time, Emma. Get on your hands and knees and spread your thighs for me.”
Trembling, I do as he says. The flagstones are hard and cold against my hands and knees but I put my head down and try to ignore my discomfort. I can feel Aiden hovering over me, the heat of his skin like a flame against my spine.
“Wait,” one of the vampires says, forcing me to remember that we’re being watched by the entire Vampire Council.
Aiden looks up, irritated. “What is it?”
“She’s too hidden.” The eyes gleam in the darkness. “Too hard to see. If you’re going to do this, Aiden, you must do it properly. Bring out the breeding bench.”
I have no idea what a breeding bench is but the words turn my blood to ice water anyway. Still, before I can protest, one of the other vampires is bringing a strange contraption, which looks like a medieval torture device, into the circle.
The breeding bench is kind of an inclined plane that slants slightly upward. Clearly my body will lie along the wooden bench. There are holes i
n the wood for my breasts to fit through as well as straps for my wrists at the top and stirrups coming out from the sides. Adjustable stirrups, I realize, feeling ill as I look at them. They’re made so that once my feet are strapped into them, they can be winched higher or lower, effectively lifting my ass and spreading my legs, giving Aiden much better access to my naked, unprotected pussy.
I look at this thing in disbelief. It’s one thing to kneel on my hands and knees, to open myself to my Master and let him hurt me or pleasure me as he sees fit. It’s something else entirely to allow myself to be strapped into this monstrosity—held in position whether I want to be or not. Goddess, who invented this thing anyway—some kind of sadist?
I open my mouth to protest…and catch sight of Aiden’s face. He knows what I’m thinking, how vulnerable and frightened I’m feeling. I am certain of it. And I’m also certain that the Vampire Council expects me to refuse to be strapped into this strange sexual device. The minute I defy my Master and refuse to submit completely, this little foray into sex magic will be over and we will have failed.
I can’t let that happen.
Taking a deep breath, I approach the breeding bench. I press my chest and abdomen to the cool, varnished wood of the supporting plane, fitting my bare breasts through the holes provided, noting as I do that the vampires of the Council now have an excellent view of my tight nipples. I put my hands into the straps and fit my feet in the stirrups. I lean forward, getting into position—almost the same position I would be in if I were riding a horse and leaning over its mane. Then I wait.
I feel incredibly exposed. My ass is on display and my pussy is open, showing the slippery pink of my inner folds. I can feel every eye in the place trained on my nakedness but I tell myself I don’t care. The only eyes I care about are my Master’s. The only man I want to see is Aiden.
When I risk a glance in his direction, he is looking at me with something like wonder in his eyes. Now he’ll see, I think, not letting my gaze waver from his. Now he’ll know how much I love him. How I’ll do anything to keep him alive.