Not great.
Determined to try again, Alli picked up the new fork which had appeared by her plate and stabbed one of the purple chunks. She nibbled it carefully, not sure what to expect.
The purple chunk had a flavor rather like cooked sweet potato but the chewy texture of tough steak. It was edible, but only just barely. Alli ate it because she was so hungry and then tried one of the pink chunks. This one had the texture of a cooked carrot—which was okay—but the flavor of a half-sour pickle mixed with blackberries, which wasn’t so great.
She ate a few more of the rubbery steak-textured, sweet potato-flavored chunks and then gave up on the stew.
“Please take this away and give me, uh…” She scanned the Dessert listings. Well, the U’ka-tok was definitely out—she had no interest in eating tentacles and antennae, no matter how buttery the pastry they were wrapped in was.
“Give me some of the blib-blabs,” Alli said. They sounded like some kind of fruit, which was nice—she hoped, anyway.
At once the soup bowl and spoon disappeared to be replaced by a magnificent silver ewer filled with a perfectly arranged pyramid of grape-sized fruit. They were round and seemed to glow slightly with a yellow light from within. Their pale, silky golden skins were covered in sparkling crystals of what looked like light purple sugar.
“Okay now—this looks pretty good,” Alli murmured to herself hopefully. Maybe for once she would like what she had ordered.
She picked up one of the glowing fruits and touched her tongue to the pale purple crystals that encrusted its outer skin. The flavor reminded her of candied violets—which happened to be a taste she liked very much.
“Mmm!” Alli murmured to herself. “Finally—something good!”
She popped the whole fruit in her mouth and bit down, expecting the juicy sweet gush of a ripe grape covered in crunchy sugar crystals.
She got the sugar crystals all right, and the juicy gush as well—but it wasn’t sweet.
“Ugh!” Alli moaned as she chewed. “This tastes like…like turkey gravy.” She spit it into a napkin and balled it up. “Who ever heard of grapes that taste like gravy?” she muttered to herself. “Gross.”
Looking at the menu again, she said, “Give me a glass of golden wine.”
It was the plainest name under the Drinks section and she was hoping for something to get the gravy-grape-candied-violets taste out of her mouth.
She was expecting a white wine—maybe a champagne. Instead, the crystal goblet was suddenly filled with a liquid that looked exactly like melted gold. So much so, in fact, that Alli touched her fingers to the side of the crystal carefully to make sure it wasn’t boiling hot.
The liquid gold appeared to be chilled, however, so she lifted the goblet and took a tiny sip.
The golden wine tasted a lot like melted cinnamon sticks, Alli decided, rolling the rather thick liquid around on her tongue. It wasn’t too sweet and it didn’t really taste like wine at all, but the beverage was silky on her tongue and didn’t taste too strange or spicy or weird to enjoy. She drank half the glass and was about to look at the menu again when a deep voice said,
“I trust you’re enjoying yourself, Allisandra.”
Fourteen
Alli gasped and dropped the goblet of golden wine from a suddenly nerveless hand.
Moving too fast for her to see, Kane caught it in midair before it could spill a single drop. He returned it nonchalantly to the table as though his incredibly fast reflexes were of no account. Then he fixed his mirrored gaze on Alli and frowned.
“I hope you’ve had your fill,” he said. “Because it’s time for your first Stinging.”
“My…my first what?” Alli’s heart was pounding. “What are you talking about?”
“You’ll see. Come.” He held out a hand to her.
Though every instinct she had told Alli to run, she found she was taking his offered hand instead and letting the big Kru’ell One lead her from the rooms he had designated as hers.
They walked down the long, dimly lit corridor again until they reached the room she remembered from her dreams—the Hall of Shadows.
Alli looked around fearfully, her heart beating in her throat as he led her to a new piece of equipment. It was a large black metal structure shaped like an X and there were manacles at all four corners. There was also a kind of padded bench below it, which was obviously meant to be knelt on.
“That’s right,” Kane said, clearly answering her thought. “And that’s where I want you to kneel right now—on the bench with your legs spread and with your back to the frame.”
“What…what if I don’t want to?” Alli asked through numb lips.
“I could make you, of course.” His mirrored eyes flashed. “But it would be better if you would recognize and admit your own desires and allow me to strap you to the Stinging Frame willingly.”
“The…the Stinging Frame?” Alli asked.
Kane nodded.
“This is where you will begin every day—until you learn to hold still without being restrained for your daily Stinging.”
“But what do you mean when you say ‘Stinging?’” she asked. Then, suddenly, the most frightening part of her dreams rushed back to her. The part where Kane opened his mouth and his tongue grew long and sharp like a needle or…
“A Stinger,” he finished her thought out loud for her. “Yes, it is a trait of my kind of Kindred to want to inject our concubines with lust-honey—the same way a Blood Kindred injects his mate with his essence.”
“But…but what if I don’t want to be injected?” Alli exclaimed. She had never liked needles.
“You may not like it at first,” Kane replied. “But in time, you will come to crave it.” He looked at her, his mirrored eyes half-lidded with lust as his voice dropped to a seductive growl. “You’ll crawl into my lap and offer me your breasts, begging for my Stinging kisses, baby.”
“You’re going to sting me there?” Alli looked down at her silky nightshirt. Her nipples were hard with fear and the tight little points were clearly visible under the thin material.
Kane raised an eyebrow.
“Among other places. Come on now, Allisandra—kneel for me.”
“And let you cuff me up and stab me all over with your needle tongue? I don’t think so!”
She broke and ran, dodging around the crazy bondage equipment, trying to get away—to get anywhere—but here.
Rushing down the deserted hallway, she threw a desperate glance over her shoulder…and saw that he wasn’t even chasing her.
“What the hell?” Alli muttered, coming to a halt. Where was Kane? Was he far back behind her, giving her a head start so he could hunt her down? Was that his sick, sadistic little game?
“This is no game, Allisandra.”
The deep, gravelly voice came from behind her.
Gasping, Alli whirled around to see Kane standing there at the end of the corridor. He had gotten around her when she wasn’t looking—but how?
“This is my fortress. Don’t you think I know every possible way in and out of it?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “Allisandra, I am going to Sting you—taking my Sting is part of being my concubine. You must accept that.”
“What if I don’t want to?” she asked, backing away from him.
He frowned.
“Then I suppose I’ll have to do this the hard way.”
Alli started to run again but he was suddenly right in front of her, blocking her way. God, how could he move so fast?
“I can do a lot of things, baby,” Kane told her. Then he was swinging her up into his arms and throwing her over one broad shoulder.
“Hey! Let me go—let me go!” Alli exclaimed, beating on his muscular back with her fists.
She might as well have been hitting a brick wall. Kane didn’t even flinch from her blows. He simply carried her back to the black metal X and put her down with her knees on the padded bench.
Alli struggled to no avail—before she knew it,
both her hands were above her head and manacled to the arms of the black metal X. This had the effect of thrusting her breasts up and out under the thin nightshirt she wore.
“And now for your legs,” Kane rumbled. Leaning down, he manacled her ankles as well, making certain her thighs were spread wide apart as she knelt on the padded bench.
“Please!” Alli tugged on the black leather manacles with their thick silver buckles. “I know you said you can read all my fantasies but I’ve never fantasized about being stuck with needles!”
“My Stinger is not a fucking needle,” Kane growled. “Now be still while I do what needs to be done. But first, this is in my way.”
Abruptly, he leaned down and grabbed the neck of her nightshirt. As easily as though he was tearing tissue paper, he ripped the silky material right down the middle, so that the tattered shreds of the night shirt hung on either side of Alli’s now-mostly naked body.
Alli gasped and tensed, automatically trying to cover herself. But of course she couldn’t, since her wrists and ankles were manacled to the Stinging Frame.
Kane stood back and nodded, as though in approval.
“Much better,” he rumbled. “Now you have nowhere to run, Allisandra—and no way to hide your luscious body from me.”
“Please!” She tugged on the manacles again. “I don’t want this!”
This declaration would have stopped a normal Kindred in his tracks. The race, as a whole, was biologically hardwired to protect and revere women and never to hurt or abuse them.
But Kane was no ordinary Kindred—he was a Kru’ell One. And so, he didn’t stop.
“Easy now, baby.” Leaning down, he stroked the side of Alli’s hot cheek.
She jerked away and tried to bite him but he quickly withdrew his hand.
Smiling, as though she’d passed some kind of test, he nodded.
“Ah, there it is—the fire in you. You didn’t show it much last night when I took you from your home and gave you my seed. But here it is today—I knew you’d show it eventually.”
Alli’s heart was pounding as she struggled uselessly against the thick leather straps that held her to the Stinging Frame. But his words still filled her with shame.
“I…I was disorientated last night! I didn’t know what I was doing.”
“Oh, you knew all right, baby,” Kane rumbled, frowning. “Don’t bother to lie to me or to yourself. More than any sexual fantasy you have—and you have plenty of them—you desire to have a child of your own. That was why you opened yourself so submissively to my cock last night and let me come in you again and again.”
“I don’t…don’t want a baby!” Alli protested. “I don’t want to be pregnant!”
But was that really true? She couldn’t help remembering the way her heart had sunk when Douglas had told her he had no wish to have children. Could it be that Kane was right about her?
But no—surely not! Surely—
“My Sting is like the bite of a Blood Kindred’s fangs,” he said, interrupting her frantic thoughts. “A split-second of pain followed by deep pleasure.”
“But I don’t want you to—” Alli began.
“Now let me see…where shall I Sting you first?”
There was a frown of concentration on his face and it was clear he wasn’t going to stop. Then he appeared to make up his mind. Leaning down, he cupped Alli’s right breast in one big, warm hand.
“Please,” she whispered tightly, her whole body tensing against the leather straps which held her in place. Her heart felt like it was trying to pound its way out of her chest as Kane opened his mouth and his tongue elongated and sharpened, becoming the needle-like appendage that had haunted her dreams for months.
“Hold still, baby,” he murmured—and how his voice could still come out sounding so normal when his tongue was like that was beyond Alli. “It won’t hurt so much if you hold still,” he told her.
And then he sucked her right nipple deep into his mouth.
Fifteen
Alli stiffened as the wet heat enveloped her tender bud. She tried to draw away, but the leather manacles and Kane’s big hands were holding her in place.
A part of her recognized that this was inevitable now. She tensed, trying to be ready to bear the pain. Trying not to think about what was happening—what was about to happen.
Over soon, she told herself frantically. It’s all right—everything is going to be all right because it’s going to be over s—
Her frantic thoughts were cut off by a sharp, piercing pain right in the middle of her nipple.
But the pain was so brief, she barely felt it. The next moment, she was enveloped in pleasure and the strange feeling of her nipple growing. It was as though the big Kru’ell One was giving her too much pleasure to contain and her nipple and areola were swelling and expanding as a consequence.
When Kane drew back at last, she saw that the strange feeling hadn’t been her imagination. Her right nipple, which had been a little on the small side before, was now twice as large as it had been. Her areola on that side, which had been about the size of a silver dollar, was now as big in diameter as a teacup.
“Oh my God,” she moaned, staring down at herself. “What did you do to me?”
His eyes flashed.
“Only marked you as my own, baby. Come on—give me your left breast and let me Sting your other nipple too.”
Alli told herself she didn’t want to do it, yet she found she was thrusting out her breast and feeding her left nipple into his parted lips.
Kane laid a gentle kiss on the pink point.
“Very good, Allisandra,” he murmured, just as he had the night before. “Such a good girl to let me Sting you.”
Then he sucked her left nipple into his mouth and Alli felt the same intense pain and pleasure combination she’d felt before with her right nipple.
She moaned—she couldn’t help it. She found she was thrusting her breast out, trying to offer him more, trying to get more of the intense, addictive pleasure he gave her with his Sting.
Kane drew back, a cruel smile playing over his sensuous mouth.
“Didn’t I tell you that you’d offer your breasts to me and beg for my Sting?” he growled. “Now let’s see—should I Sting you lower, as well?”
He knelt in front of her spread thighs and Alli had the suddenly, uncomfortable remembrance that she had never taken a shower to wash his seed out of her from the night before, as she’d meant to.
Kane seemed to notice it too, because he looked up at her with a sardonic smile on his face.
“So you claim you don’t want to get pregnant. If that’s so, why did you retain my seed instead of trying to wash it out of yourself, Allisandra? I can see it dripping out of your pussy even now.”
Reaching between her thighs, he casually slipped one long finger into her pussy to prove his point.
Alli winced in shame when he drew it out, covered in his own seed. God, why hadn’t she taken a shower this morning as she’d meant to? What was wrong with her?
“There’s nothing wrong with you, sweetheart.” Kane looked up at her and was there something besides cruelty and sadism in his black and silver eyes for a split second? Was there…compassion? “It’s normal for a female to want a child,” he told her. “Your body longs to be filled with life—there’s no shame in that.” He slipped one long finger into her inner folds and began caressing her sensitive clit as he spoke. “Which is why I’m going to Sting you here. So you’ll crave both my kisses on your sweet pussy, and my seed inside you.”
“No,” Alli whispered. “No, please…”
But he was already spreading her outer pussy lips and sucking her clit into his mouth.
Alli gasped at the wet heat and then the sharp sting of his tongue in her tender flesh. But the pain was only for a moment before it turned into a deep, intense pleasure.
Immediately, she began to come.
“Ahh!” she cried. Her hips jerked, the orgasm hitting her as hard and fast
as a freight train. She could feel her inner muscles contracting, fisting tight inside her, and suddenly she wished she could feel the big Kru’ell One’s cock deep in her pussy, as she had last night. Only this time she wanted him in her to the hilt—filling her, fucking her, coming in her deep, so deep to fill her womb with life…
No! Alli tried to tell herself. No, I don’t want that—I don’t!
But if that was true, why did her pussy contract so hungrily, begging to be filled? Why did she ache inside with longing, with need?
At last Kane withdrew, licking his lips as though he savored the taste of her pain and pleasure.
“There.” His deep voice was thick with lust as he looked up and held her eyes with his. “Now you’ll crave my cock and my seed inside you, baby.”
“No, no I won’t,” Alli denied, but she knew she was lying. And moreover, Kane knew it too.
“Yes, you will,” he said implacably. “And when you do, you only have to come to me and beg to be filled.” Leaning forward, he placed another gentle, sucking kiss on her clit, which also seemed to be swollen and extra sensitive, just like her nipples were after he had Stung them. “Remember,” he told her, pulling away. “I’m always ready to help you conceive.”
“I don’t want that,” Alli whispered. Something hot and wet was rolling down her cheeks and she realized abruptly she was crying. “I…I swear I don’t, Kane.”
He frowned.
“Call me, ‘Master.’ And if I want to get you pregnant, Alli, I will do it—whether you want me to or not.”
He stood before Alli could deny his words again and cupped her face in both hands.
“But you do want me to, baby,” he murmured, stroking her tears away with his thumbs. “I’ve seen the desire inside you—it’s buried so deep you don’t want to acknowledge it, but it’s there. So I’m going to make it come true—going to fill your sweet pussy with my seed and swell your belly with new life. Before I let you go, you’ll know that my child is planted in your womb.”
Dark and Light: A Kindred Tales DUET Novel. Contains: Saved by the Drake AND Captured by the Kru'ell One Page 20