by Lena Austin
Kella chose a muffin loaded with nuts, and bit in. “I see,” she said around her mouthful. “That could be dangerous, for you. If I get too hungry, I’ll go into bloodlust.” She swallowed. “It wouldn’t be pretty. Unless I’m really depleted, I’ll retain enough sense to hunt a wild creature.” She grinned, showing off her fangs. “But it might disrupt the lesson.”
“Well, then! Your first lesson tonight will be how to draw from sources other than yourself.” Tanne reached for a muffin and broke it in two. “Sedna would also benefit from this, I should think.”
“Probably.” Kella kept the rich good humor in her voice, though the idea of going into bloodlust around this elegant prince ‑‑ no, stallion ‑‑ made her want to shudder in distaste. He’d be disgusted to see her skin white, her eyes red, and a feral hunger driving her. She vowed to be very careful not to let that happen. She popped the rest of her muffin into her mouth and promised herself she’d eat until she was stuffed before lessons.
Tanne brushed the crumbs from his fingers and sipped his tea placidly. “I’ll take us back to the Vampire village by the easier route, rather than a long ride, if you don’t mind. It would save time, and I’ve much to do. Then I’ll return to meet you under the oak as the sun sets. I need to follow up on that healing today.”
“And I have a report to make to Sedna,” Kella reminded him cheerfully, diverted from worry for a moment. “Sedna is no doubt ready to have a litter of pups, and she doesn’t have a lupine form!” She giggled at her own joke.
His rich laughter boomed in the cavern. “Since shape-shifting to new forms is a later lesson, I’d better take you home.” Before his laughter died, he gestured, and Kella’s entire bundle appeared neatly wrapped on her lap. Only her bedroll on which they sat remained where it was.
The grass beneath the bedroll told Kella they were no longer in the cave, as did a slight breeze that ruffled her hair. Looking up from her bundle and mug, Kella saw they now sat under the oak. Her jaw dropped, and she couldn’t utter a word other than a choked “Oh!”
“Go home, Kella.” Tanne caressed her cheek as if he couldn’t help himself. “I’ll see you tonight.” Then he was gone.
Kella gathered up her bedroll and tied it with the string. “I must learn that trick, and soon!”
* * * * *
Sedna nodded thoughtfully after Kella’s report was done. The simple demonstration of manifesting her own tea and muffins had been enough to cause Sedna’s eyes to widen.
Kella wolfed down her muffins in a matter of moments. “So you see, Sedna, right now I must pay a price for this. Nothing I do is free. I pay for it in hunger and tiredness.” She smiled wickedly. “I don’t know how you are going to report this to the other Elders, but perhaps that will reassure the nervous ones.”
“You always were a strategist, first and foremost, m’girl.” Sedna’s face, while chagrined, was still full of love. “You’re right, of course. I must go report. Now get along with you! Go do something useful until sunset. I’ll meet you at the temple gate that faces the meadow.”
Kella curtseyed to the only person she really loved, besides her own mother. “I’d better eat until I am ready to burst! Until I can master the use of outside sources, all I have is what I carry within.”
Sedna caught her in a hug. “Then go hunt, silly girl. Blood is full of everything you need, and won’t leave you feeling ill.”
Kella ran out the door, laughing, and followed that good advice.
* * * * *
The sunset began its regal splendor as Kella leaned up against the temple gate postern and dropped her basket at her feet. She fluffed her hair with both hands to aid it in drying underneath, and wished she’d remembered to grab a comb to put it up after her bath. She smoothed down her favorite green skirt and the creamy linen tunic with the embroidery she’d just finished last season. It was her best outfit.
She lifted a green-slippered foot to check if the dust from her walk had marred the embroidery on it, and kicked her basket. An apple, highly polished, rolled out from under the cloth cover.
“Ooops!” Kella cursed under her breath and made to chase the apple, but it rolled to a stop against an equally polished boot.
The acolyte priest who wore the boot reached down to pluck the apple from the ground.
Kella smiled and reached forth to take the apple back. “Good afternoon, Leonus.” Handsome and popular, Leonus had never taken notice of Kella before, but she saw no reason not to be polite. They were much the same age.
Leonus smiled insolently and bit into the apple. Then he looked falsely contrite. He studied the apple as if he’d never seen one before. “Such a nice apple! I’m sorry, was this intended for your lover?” His tone was so insinuating, Kella’s hand dropped in shock.
“It was a gift for my teacher,” Kella replied with dignity. “No matter. I have another.” She didn’t have to say which teacher, and if he inferred that it had been a gift to Sedna, all the better. Something in his attitude alarmed her.
Leonus stepped forward to pluck at the ribbons that laced her tunic closed. “Very lovely! I haven’t seen you wear this outfit since the last major holiday. You normally wear such dull colors. What’s the occasion, hmm?”
His fingers untied the bow. She knew it wasn’t done to slap a prince’s hands, so Kella backed up until she connected with the solid wood of the gate. “My other clothes are dirty. I…I need to do laundry.” It was true. Between her herb hunt, the night with Tanne in the cavern, and her own laziness, this was her last good outfit. All that was left was this and a ragged outfit she kept for hard, dirty jobs.
Leonus followed her and stood more than uncomfortably close. He yanked the green ribbon out of the lacings and dangled it in his hands. “Really? And here I thought you were wearing it for your Unicorn lover!”
Kella tried to cover her bodice, but Leonus grabbed her arms and pinned them to the gate. Without the ribbon, her breasts threatened to spill out as she struggled. “Tanne is not my lover!”
Leonus laughed coarsely. “No ‘Lord’ Tanne? Just his name? Liar!” He bent his head and nipped hard on an exposed breast mound. “I’ll just have a taste of what he finds a delicacy. When he’s done with you, maybe you’ll be worth my time!”
This was not how Tanne had treated her at all! There was something shameful and demeaning in Leonus’s words. Kella felt her face turn red with both embarrassment and anger. “You don’t want me because I’m Kella; you want what you think a Unicorn has sampled! I’m nothing but a trophy, a symbol, to you!” Rage built within her.
Leonus laughed evilly. “Do you think I care what your feelings in the matter are, bitch?” He loosened one of her arms to grab at his crotch. “With this, I may have my pick of a hundred bitches. You should consider yourself lucky I’m even remotely interested in your used goods.” The hand that had held his crotch so gently now brutally thrust between her legs.
Kella shrieked in outrage, and the burning anger built in her like a raging inferno. “I don’t care if you want me or not, or how you want me! I’m not interested in what you offer! Go away!”
His face twisted in anger. Leonus’s hand cupped her sex painfully. “Oh, so you are now used to a stallion’s oversized cock between your legs! He probably didn’t even bother to change form to human, did he?”
Leonus threw her to the ground, causing Kella to cry out once again. He fell on top of her and knocked the breath out of her body. “Did you enjoy having something so large and powerful taking you until normal sex is beyond your tastes? Are you only fit for beasts, now?”
As Kella struggled for air, she heard Leonus tear her bodice with his hands and sharp Vampire nails. One nail raked flesh and drew blood, but it made Kella gasp and get her breath back. She sucked air gratefully into her starved lungs while Leonus feasted on the scratch he’d made. She beat on his arms, scratched his face, and kicked to no avail.
“No! No!” she sobbed, knowing no one would help her. Princes could do as they pl
eased, and when they broke the law, their punishments were light. There was no law concerning an unwilling female being forced by a prince. All bitches went willingly and eagerly to their backs when it was demanded of them. The entire village would be shocked and say she was in the wrong to deny Leonus anything he wanted.
Anger and self-loathing hit her with more force than the weight of Leonus’s body. While he fought her skirts and she kicked him with every opportunity, Kella reviled herself. She’d thought like the others, too. Had she not longed for a male ‑‑ any male! ‑‑ to pay attention to her?
“What a lively bitch you are! So much more fun than the ones who just lay there and giggle.” Leonus grabbed her breast and twisted, and laughed when she shrieked in pain.
“Well, go find one of them and make them cry, you bastard!” The rage was back. There were plenty of others who were amenable. He wanted her only because he thought she was already Tanne’s lover, and for no other reason. “Get off me!” Her anger built until it was a tangible thing.
Miraculously, Leonus suddenly flew backward. Kella sat up in time to watch him land in an ignominious heap several feet away. They scrambled to their feet simultaneously.
“You’ll pay for that, bitch!” Leonus’s shriek was even higher pitched than hers in his outrage.
Had she done that? An internal check revealed she was hungry and tired again. Yes, she had. However, she wasn’t starving or exhausted. “You will not touch me again, Leonus. Never again.” Her voice was an enraged growl and laced with threat.
It was a shock to her eyes to see a grown prince throw a temper tantrum that would have earned a toddler a swat on the bottom and a nap. He stomped his foot and shouted. “No one denies me what I want! Who will stop me? You?”
He struck a ludicrous pose designed to show off his long black hair and perfect physique, but Kella could tell he actually meant every word. “I am a prince! You are a nothing bitch, with ugly orange hair and even uglier freckles. The only thing you have going for you is an enormous set of tits!”
His sneering words hurt, but Kella had a temper of her own. “You are not impressing me, Leonus. And I do have something more to recommend me.” She reshaped her ball of energy in her mind to be larger and stronger than she’d ever attempted, and in the form of a wall. She did not call it out of herself, but held the image in her mind, and prayed Leonus would go away to sulk like the spoiled child he was.
Leonus snarled. “I don’t give a damn if you are impressed or not. What I want, I take! The world is mine if I want it!” With that, he lunged.
Praying with all her heart her energy wall would be enough, Kella called it forth. Her rage set the wall ablaze, and Leonus ran full force into a solid wall of flame. He fell sideways into the grassy verge, shouted for aid, and rolled around to put out his blazing clothing.
Kella’s vision wavered, but she heard a shout in the distance and saw Tanne change to his Unicorn form. He charged up the slope to the village at full speed. The wall of flame winked out, her energy spent.
She was beyond hunger, and beyond bloodlust. When she hit the unyielding paving stones, the world winked out.
Chapter Six
Tanne’s hands hovered scant inches from the body of his unconscious student. He poured all the magical energy he could gather into her.
“Will she be all right?” Sedna stood at the entrance to the tiny cubicle in the healing hall, barring entrance to all but Tanne and one attendant nurse.
Tanne spared a glance for Kella’s surrogate mother and took pity on the worry he saw there. Vampire society spoiled what few males it possessed, but that was not Sedna’s fault. “It was close, Sedna. She is in drain shock. I’m replacing what she spent as fast as I dare, but when she awakens, she’ll be in bloodlust unless you can spoon broth or blood down her throat.”
Sedna closed her eyes, and relief was evident in her sigh. “We have that ability, but I would advise you not to watch.” She signaled the attendant, who nodded and brushed past her out the door. “I know I shouldn’t ask, but could you spare a moment to look at Leonus? His injuries are minor, but, well…” She shrugged. “It’s a political move, frankly. By you doing even a small healing on him, you remove much of the damage done this night.”
Tanne forced himself to calm. “You’ll have to explain that.” He didn’t move his hands from their position. “Leonus attacks Kella, almost rapes her, and he deserves healing? He deserves much more than minor burns that are unlikely to scar.”
Sedna shrugged, distaste heavy in her voice. “His status is higher than hers, by virtue of his being male. By our rules, Kella was wrong to refuse his advances. That’s the way this whole ugly situation is judged.” She rubbed her forehead with one hand and stepped aside as the attendant returned with a bowl and spoon.
The vile smell of the contents of the bowl made Tanne stop the energy flow and back up. “I suppose I don’t want to know what’s in that. Very well, Sedna, I’ll look at…Leonus.” He barely restrained himself from calling Leonus “your brat prince.” He covered his nose with one hand and gestured Sedna out of the room.
Sedna pointed to an open doorway down the hall and stepped back, her lips twisted into an ironic smile. “I’m sorry the smell of blood soup makes you ill, Tanne. But it will alleviate her hunger even faster than a bite.”
She managed to keep up with Tanne’s long strides to Leonus’s chamber, but plowed into his back when he stopped in the doorway.
Torn between nausea and laughter, Tanne stared into the room dominated by a huge and luxurious bed. His gaze flickered over the whining male in the bed surrounded by at least five scantily clad, and barely nubile, cooing bitches. If that were not bad enough, the room was stuffed with Unicorn symbols, even to a life-sized Unicorn statue complete with saddle and reins.
Tanne turned and faced Sedna. He let his disgust and nausea show. “You want me to go in there?” He didn’t attempt to modify his tone, just lowered the volume.
She had the grace to look embarrassed and cleared her throat. “Leonus shows his devotion to our religion in, um, tangible form.” She pulled Tanne out of sight outside the doorway.
“If that were true, he would show respect and reverence and not have a statue to ride upon.”
“You let Kella ride on you,” she accused softly.
“That was for the convenience of both of us, and to give her time to adjust to all the revelations. It also served to let her see I am a living creature, not a god. I don’t want an acolyte. I want a student.”
“I don’t know who saw or told, but it became known immediately that night when Kella rode away on your back. Leonus demanded a saddle and reins be put on his statue that very hour.” Her conciliatory smile turned wry. “All the young dream of a ride on a Unicorn’s back, now that the least of them has accomplished the feat.”
Tanne made a low snort of disgust. He didn’t have words to describe how he felt.
A wicked, mischievous smile creased Sedna’s face. “Do you want a small measure of justice for Kella?” She jerked her head toward Leonus’s door. “Yon in there devises new punishments hourly to be enacted on Kella, each more inventive than the last. But if you heal him and make him promise not to harm her in any way, he must obey a Unicorn.”
Tanne knew from personal experience that promises could be broken easily, when dealing with a spoiled brat. The bargain would have to be made with a threat that could not be ignored. Tanne nodded. “You are a devious female, and I like that. Very well, you have a bargain. But I will do it my way.” He turned and started for the door. “We’ll bargain again after I’ve finished this unpleasant task.”
Leonus greeted his visitor with a pathetic moan. “Lord Tanne! Forgive me for not rising. I’m indisposed.” His face contorted with anger before he modified it to pitiful.
Coolly, Tanne strode to the bed. “I hear you had an altercation with my magic student.” He forced the courteous request a healer always made past his lips. “Permit me to ease your pain?�
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“Why, certainly!” Pride at such treatment evident in his voice, Leonus thrust his bandaged hands from under the heavily embroidered coverlet. Then Tanne’s words caught up with him. “Magic student?” he repeated in shocked tones.
Making a show of it seemed appropriate, so Tanne waved his hands over both of Leonus’s bandaged appendages in an exaggerated manner and added a little harmless sparkle to the magic. The burns themselves healed in seconds. The females in the room, who had fled to one corner, oohed and aahed, their eyes wide. Tanne ignored them.
He tossed his hair back. “Yes, of course. She’ll be a fine sorceress once she gains some self-control. Unfortunate that your, er, discussion with her happened before she could learn that.” He couldn’t resist using the truth against Leonus. “Until I can teach her that control, I fear upsetting her in any manner could result in even more unpleasantness.”
The insinuation wasn’t lost on Leonus. “Upsetting her in any manner, you say? Hmm. What sort of unpleasantness?”
Tanne did not look up from the healing he was supposed to be doing for fear that his amusement might give him away. “Oh, it’s a bit like playing with a baby Dragon at this point. You never know how you’ll die, but you assuredly would do so, horribly.” He pretended not to hear the alarmed whispers from the gaggle in the corner.
Leonus silenced them with a hiss in their direction. “I see.” Leonus kept a respectful look on his face, but Tanne could see fear lurking in the back of his eyes.
Tanne favored Leonus with a sweet smile of reassurance. “Oh, there’s not much danger unless she’s upset. No doubt, she’ll remain as she has always been, for the most part. I wouldn’t worry too much over it. I’ll have her trained to control the magic in only a few years, if she’s quick.”