The Sacrifice

by Evangeline Anderson

  “And did she?”

  “In time.” He frowns. “Her body was young and strong but her mind…” He shakes his head. “I’m afraid she was never completely free of what had been done to her. It made her sexual tastes…peculiar, when they finally emerged.”

  I raise an eyebrow at him. “Peculiar?”

  He laughs briefly. “Well, no more peculiar than what you and I have been doing for the past month, I suppose. But back then, the erotic practice of Domination and submission wasn’t nearly so well known or widespread.”

  “I imagine not. But…” I hesitate, trying to think how to phrase my question delicately. “I don’t understand how Katherine could want to be…to be dominated after what she’d been through.”

  “Oh she didn’t,” Aiden says blandly. “It was she who did the dominating. I submitted to her.”

  “What?” I can’t help staring at him in disbelief. There is nothing he could have said that would have surprised me more. Just the thought of my tall, dark, vampire master wearing a collar and being punished is…well damn, actually it’s hot. But still extremely surprising.

  “You needn’t look so shocked, darling.” Aiden sounds amused. “It wasn’t the first time I had been on the receiving end of the whip—she-who-made-me was French and notoriously hedonistic, even among my kind.”

  “Is, uh…” I clear my throat. “Is that what you prefer?”

  He shakes his head. “I am a Dominant by nature. But Katherine was frightened. She had deep sexual desires—urges that tormented her. However, she needed to be in control.” He shrugs. “So I let her.”

  “You let her what, exactly?” I can’t get the picture of him, naked and wearing the same kind of collar he has put on me, out of my head.

  “I let her whip me, bind me…” He looks me in the eyes. “Fuck me.”

  My breath falls out of me in a long sigh. “She…you let her…”

  Aiden nods. “You can rest assured, darling, that nothing I have done to you has not been done to me many, many times over.” He looks briefly troubled. “The only thing I would not let her do was bleed me. I never gave her my blood…not until the very end. But by then, it was too late.”

  “Too late? Too late for what?” I’m caught up in the story now, not caring that my eggs and tea and toast have all gone cold.

  “Too late to save her life,” Aiden says somberly. “You see, though our love was passionate, it was also forbidden. The other creatures in the supernatural community didn’t like a vampire consorting with a witch. They felt there was too much power concentrated in one place—too much potential to draw the humans’ attention and wrath down upon us.”

  “But that’s silly,” I say. “We’re much stronger and safer when we stick together inside our own community—all of the supes together.”

  Aiden nods. “Exactly so. Which is what Katherine tried to tell the other witches of her coven and what I tried to tell the vampires of the Council. But no one wanted to listen.” He takes a sip of tea. “So we made plans to move away from here. Katherine made me a ring…” He holds up his hand, the gold and onyx glinting. “Which enabled me to withstand sunlight and eat human food again. The plan was to move to someplace far away and live as humans. No one would be the wiser and we could keep our love.”

  “It sounds perfect,” I say.

  “It would have been.” Aiden looks troubled. “I was even making plans to form a life-bond with her. She didn’t want me to—she worried about me cutting my lifespan in half. I told her I didn’t care. I was planning to convince her once we moved and started our new life…unfortunately, I never got the chance.”

  “What happened?” I ask softly, dreading the worst but unable to help wondering.

  “Word of our departure leaked out—I don’t know how—and Katherine was captured. She was brought before the Vampire Council. Then, as now, they were the most powerful supernatural force in our area—a power to be reckoned with.”

  I think of asking him about what Lexy said—that the same Council forced him to serve as the Sovereign—but I don’t want to interrupt his story. “Go on. Where were you when this happened?”

  “I was making last minute travel arrangements—we were to have left the next day. We were that close to getting away.” He closes his eyes briefly and then opens them to continue. “When I got back to my old house and found Katherine gone, I knew something was wrong. There were signs of a struggle and I could smell that other supernatural creatures had invaded my territory. I followed their scent and Katherine’s, but by the time I reached her, it was too late.”

  “But…you said…you told me her secrets killed her,” I say softly.

  “And so they did. Katherine always wanted to plan for every contingency. Unbeknownst to me, she had been working on a binding spell—one so vast and complicated its web would encompass every supernatural race in the entire Tampa Bay Area.”

  “What?” I frown at him. “But…I thought it was the Vampire Council’s idea to bring all the supes together under one rule and break down the barriers between us.”

  “Yes, that’s because they want you and everyone else the spell affects to think so,” Aiden says darkly. “But it isn’t so. My Katherine was the witch who wove the spell—she did it so that we could always be together one way or another. But she had already used so much of herself and her magic to make me this.” He holds up the ring again. “She poured herself into it—body, soul, and magic. By the time she was brought before the Council, she had almost nothing left to give to complete the great spell she had started.” He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. “And so she gave her blood.”

  My heart seems to stop in my chest. The sacrifice of blood—of life—is a last resort for any witch. When all of your magic is used, the life force in your blood can compensate—but at a price. And usually that price is your life.

  I can’t help thinking that it’s the same way my mother gave herself for me. She spent all her magic holding back the fire and when there was nothing left, she gave herself in order to get me out of the house and keep me safe.

  “What are you thinking?” Aiden looks at me intently.

  “Just…how sad it is.” I swallow hard. “My mother…when I was eight, she died in a house fire. But what most people don’t know is that she died saving me. The way Katherine gave herself to her spell so that you two could be together—my mother gave herself to the fire to keep me safe.”

  “Yes, I know,” he says gently, surprising me yet again. “I know all about that dreadful night.”

  “You do? But how—”

  “I know a great deal about you, my darling Emma,” he says softly. “Do you really think I would choose just anyone for my Sacrifice?” He sighs and shakes his head. “Katherine was the first Sacrifice, you know. That is why the girl chosen to serve is called so—although now it’s little more than an honorary title.”

  I can’t help being glad about that. Being bled out to complete a binding spell isn’t my idea of a good time. Of course, it couldn’t have been for Katherine either. “What happened to her?” I can’t help asking. “Katherine, I mean. Did she really think she could complete the spell and still live to spend her life with you?”

  “I like to think that was what she thought.” Aiden sounds sad. “Sometimes I can make myself believe it. Other times…” He shakes his head. “I don’t know. She never really got over what had been done to her that night I found her. There was no such thing as therapy, no medication for depression. She had periods of black despair when even I could not reach her. There were times when she railed at me—told me that I should have let her die or killed her the moment I found her.”

  “How terrible,” I whisper. “How sad.”

  “Yes.” Aiden looks at me somberly. “Her fate has tormented me for over a hundred years. I always think if only I could have gotten to her sooner, I might have saved her. But by the time I reached her side, she was bled white and beyond even the healing power of my own blood.”


  “Oh, Aiden…” I put my plate of cold eggs and toast to the side and put a hand on his knee. He covers it with his own and squeezes lightly.

  “Never mind.” He takes a breath and sits up straighter. “Of course, once the spell took hold, the Council saw that Katherine had been right all along—the supernatural community is much stronger and safer united than it is divided into squabbling, segregated groups. So they took the credit for Katherine’s spell and set up an overlord—a Sovereign—to symbolically rule over the entire community.”

  I think again of Lexy’s gossip. “And…how do they decide who’s going to be Sovereign?”

  “It’s a title passed among the oldest and most powerful of us every ten years or so.” Aiden frowns. “This year it devolved upon me though I did not want the burden or responsibility.”

  “But if you hadn’t taken it on, you never would have met me,” I point out.

  Aiden looks at me seriously. “I knew about you long before this office was thrust upon me. Although I admit you were…off my radar, so to speak, until I walked into your shop and saw you standing there, looking so beautiful.”

  “How?” I ask, wondering if he’s been checking into my background—he must have been to know about what happened to my mother when I was eight. “How do you know about me?”

  But Aiden only shakes his head. “That’s a tale for another time.” He lifts my hand and kisses the inside of my palm, his warm breath tickling my flesh in a way that makes me hot and cold all over.

  Impulsively, I throw my arms around his neck and hug him tightly, my towel falling down to pool around my hips. “Thank you,” I whisper. “I know it wasn’t easy for you to share Katherine’s story with me. But, well, I feel like I know you so much better now.”

  “Oh, Emma…” He strokes my hair gently and holds me close so that my nipples rub against his bare chest, sending little sparks of pleasure through my body. “There is still so much you don’t know,” he murmurs. “I wonder if you’d be so affectionate if you knew everything I have to tell.”

  “I’m sure I would. I think you’re too hard on yourself,” I say, stubbornly. “But you’ve always been a kind and patient master to me…even when I disobey.” I frown. “Speaking of which, you’ve told me several times that my submission is important to you, not just because you want it, but because you need it for some other reason. Why is that?”

  Aiden pulls back from me, a little frown on his face. “I’m afraid I’m not ready to talk to you about that yet. You’ll simply have to trust me, my darling. It’s very, very important that you give yourself to me completely and submit to me in all things.”

  I bite my lip. “Even when you want to…to do things to me in public?”

  “Especially then.” Aiden’s voice is soft and stern—his Master voice. It makes me shiver with a strange combination of fear and desire. “I was very disappointed in you the other night at Bern's, you know.”

  “I know,” I whisper. “And…I don’t like disappointing you. I just…I was so embarrassed.”

  “You should never be embarrassed to show yourself when I want you to.” Aiden cups one of my breasts and thumbs the nipple gently, making me gasp. “You’re beautiful, Emma. You may not know it, but there’s a light all around you. Sometimes I need to share that light.”

  I don’t understand his need to share me but all my other questions seem to have melted away in the heat of his gaze. “Yes, Master,” I whisper, nestling against him so that my head fits under his chin.

  “I still owe you a punishment, you know,” he murmurs, his deep voice rumbling through me as I press against his chest. “For taking off your harness. And for giving yourself a sexual release when I had forbidden you to come.”

  My heart jumps into my throat. But for the first time, my initial reaction to the word 'punishment' isn’t fear—it’s anticipation. Still, I try to argue with him.

  “Okay, I know I shouldn’t have taken off the harness and I swear I won’t do it again,” I said. “But you have to believe me when I tell you I came by accident.”

  “So we’re back to that again, are we?” He pulls me away from him and eyes me skeptically. “Explain to me, Emma—how exactly does one have an orgasm ‘by accident'?”

  “It was because of the damn harness being so snug,” I say and go on to explain exactly how it happened—how the harness was stuck, Barnes was knocking on the door, the vibrator somehow got turned on and lodged right against my clit… “I was all tangled up in my clothes and I fell on the floor,” I explain to Aiden. “And you hadn’t let me come for three days before that so I was already on the edge. When the damn vibrator hit my sweet spot, I just couldn’t help it—I went off like a freaking rocket.”

  “Is that right?” Aiden murmurs, his eyes dancing.

  “Yes, that’s right,” I say with as much dignity as I can muster. “And if it’s any consolation, I didn’t enjoy it at all. I mean, I was basically writhing all over the floor trying to tell Barnes how many people were coming to lunch while my body went crazy. It’s really hard to concentrate on pleasuring yourself when you have a proper English butler banging on the door and demanding a head count for high tea.”

  Aiden throws back his head and laughs, loud and long. It’s a deep, rumbling chuckle that seems to come from the bottom of his chest and fills the whole room. It occurs to me this is the first time I’ve ever heard him really laugh and even though his amusement comes at my expense, I can’t help liking the warm, intimate sound immensely.

  “Poor Barnes,” he says at last, wiping his eyes where pinkish tears have begun to emerge. “He must have thought you were going mad.”

  “I don’t know what he thought and I don’t want to know,” I say primly. “But I thought you should know it was an accident. I know I disobeyed you by taking off the harness but I didn’t lie to you.”

  “Very well, I won’t doubt you again,” Aiden says, suddenly sober. “And I won’t punish you for your orgasm.”

  “You won’t?” I’m surprised to hear a note of disappointment in my own voice.

  “No.” Aiden shakes his head. “I will, however, take you to task for removing the harness in the first place.” He gives me a severe look. “I’m going to clear breakfast out of the way and then you’re going to assume the position, Emma.”

  My breath catches in my throat and heat blooms between my thighs. “What…what are you going to do to me, Master?” I whisper, hardly able to get the words out.

  “Five strokes with the belt across your ass ought to teach you a lesson,” Aiden says sternly. “And two more to your pussy, to teach you proper submission.”

  “My…my pussy?” My hand creeps down to cover my tender, bare pussy lips reflexively as I remember the sharp sting of the belt’s kiss in this most sensitive spot.

  “Don’t worry, darling,” Aiden murmurs, his eyes half-lidded now. “You know I’ll kiss you better afterward. But for now, I need you to submit.”

  “Yes, Master,” I whisper again. And without any further protest, I do.

  Chapter Twenty

  “Absolutely not,” Professor Canton, who teaches my Advanced Herbology lecture, says flatly. “You’ve missed enough class as it is, Ms. Krist. There is no way I will consider letting you take the final exam anywhere but right here in the classroom.”

  “I understand,” I say humbly. “It’s just…I don’t have a ride to class tonight.” Also, I have been forbidden to leave the house by my strict vampire master, who is concerned about my safety. But that isn’t something I can really share with my prof.

  “Look, Ms. Krist, I’ve been extremely patient with you,” he says. “I cut you a lot of slack because I think you’re the most promising student I’ve had in years. But enough is enough. You can find yourself a ride to class tonight and take the exam with all the rest of the students, or fail the class.”

  “Fail it?” I say, horrified. “But…but the damage that would do to my GPA would be irrevocable!”

 
; “Then you’d better find a way to get here, hadn’t you? Eight o’clock tonight and don’t be late.” There’s a click and the phone goes dead…along with my future.

  Thoroughly upset, I throw my cell on the bed and start pacing. This can’t be—I can’t let this happen. It’s way too late to drop the class and there’s no way Professor Canton will let me take the test online. Not that I blame him—it’s not really even fair for me to ask him. But I didn’t know what else to do.

  I wish for the millionth time that Aiden was here. I’d been planning to talk to him about this, to get him to agree to let me go. Surely if he knew my whole academic career and future hung in the balance he’d be more reasonable. Hell, he could even drive me to and from the test himself if he wanted to. Thinking about it, I’m sure he would go for that idea—too bad I didn’t mention it to him before he left.

  For the past two days, since Aiden had to leave suddenly, I’ve been on my own, knocking around the big glass mansion with nobody but Barnes to talk to. And since his conversation seems to be limited to what he ought to fix me for lunch or dinner, he’s really not very good company.

  I hate to admit it, but I miss my master sadly. I’m worried about him, too. I wish he had left me a forwarding address or phone number, but he left in such a hurry. He simply woke me up in the middle of the night and told me there was trouble. His gray eyes were worried and when I asked him what was going on, he said that she-who-made-him needed him. He promised to be back as soon as possible and made me promise to stay in the house. I was so sleepy and disoriented, I agreed to everything at once. Now, however, I’m having second thoughts—lots of them.

  Aside from my own current problems with school, I can’t help wondering about Aiden’s maker. All I really know about her is that she’s French and into kinky sex. Do vampire parents have the same relationship that humans do with their children? Or is their affection for those they awaken to the vampire life more…incestuous?

  I try to push the thought out of my head but it won’t go. Or rather, it won’t go until something even worse and more pressing takes its place—like the idea of failing my test, ruining my GPA, and being forced to work in the family herb shop for the rest of my natural life.