by Aja James
Blood Slaves and humans marked with a vampire’s bite or sex were the most closely guarded possessions of all.
“It wasn’t official,” Ana said. “Though the Consul and our queen did have a Blood Contract. That contract ended three years ago, however.”
“Still,” Devlin said, giving a nod to his Mate, “Grace has a point. The queen has right of First Blood. Katerina’s move on the Consul was an outright Challenge, which Jade answered accordingly.”
He rubbed a hand over his face.
“Doesn’t help with our current predicament though. The other Hives will find any excuse to stir up trouble. The Countess had interrupted a peace talk, which the Dark nobles will twist in their favor as evidence against the queen’s ability to rule. They will say that Katerina was in the right to apprehend a subversive Pure instigator, trying to weaken the rule of Dark houses. They will continue to make demands that the queen break all alliances with the Pure Ones and humans.”
“We have human alliances too?” Grace asked out of curiosity.
“We must,” Maximus answered, “if we are to keep the secrecy of the race as well as maintain balance and order. Humans may be the weakest race, but they outnumber Dark Ones tens of thousands to one.”
“Which Dark Houses do we have solidly on our side?” Ana asked.
“Not enough,” Maximus said.
“Over the past three years, Jade has let her tight reign slip. She hasn’t paid much attention to political maneuverings. I’ve tried to step into the void, but this is definitely not my forte. Besides, I don’t have the history and sway that she has over many of these Houses, both domestic and abroad.”
“I do,” Ramses finally spoke up again.
“A number of the European Houses owe me favors. I know that some of them supply the Mid Atlantic and Great Lakes with weapons, soldiers or resources. I will travel at once to the Continent to secure their loyalty, and if not, their neutrality.”
“And I’m good at persuasion,” Devlin contributed. “Grace can help me dig up some skeletons to hold over the Dark nobles within our own Hive. I will convince whoever we have the most dirt on to play nice.”
“I will accompany you in your visitations,” Ryu added. “If you can’t persuade them with words, perhaps my ninjaken will provide further inducement.”
Simca growled and flicked her whip-like tail. Looked like she intended to accompany the Hunter and Assassin as well.
“I’ll follow the money trail,” Anastasia said. “Many members of the Dark Houses are modern businessmen. Surely they won’t want their empires threatened.”
“Perhaps I can turn some of the human investigation agencies onto the Dark Houses that are most likely to cause trouble,” Maximus mused. “Though I’d have to balance that with maintaining our secrecy.”
“Better leave humans out of this,” Ramses advised. “They cause more trouble than they’re worth.”
Maximus shot him a silent look.
He’d spent more time than any of the other Chosen with Ramses since the male joined their ranks. While the ancient warrior tolerated Grace when she was human, and liked her much better now that she was a vampire, he’d never bothered to hide his disdain for other races, Pure and human alike.
In fact, if Ramses weren’t one of them, Maximus would have pegged him for a formidable enemy.
Aside from his loyalty to Jade, he seemed to have more in common, as far as politics was concerned, with those Dark Ones who sought to overthrow the vampire queen’s rule.
“What?” Ramses grunted, not misunderstanding Maximus’ look.
“Just because I’ve pledged my loyalty to Jade Cicada doesn’t mean I have to agree with all her leanings.”
Maximus looked at the Sage a moment longer before addressing the others.
“Let’s get to work.”
*** *** *** ***
Jade burrowed deeper into the elusive, tantalizing heat, and the heat, in turn, enveloped her tighter, warming her from the inside out.
Her core throbbed greedily around something deliciously hot and hard and long and wonderful.
She clutched it deeply within her, trying to make it stay.
She finally felt whole and full with it inside of her, filling a void she never realized she carried. But she didn’t feel satisfied for all that.
Not by a long shot.
She wanted more.
She was still submerged under the icy lake, barely able to draw breath or move. But the hot brand within her ignited her blood and breathed the flames of her desire into life.
Slowly, as it stroked her deeper, harder, longer, creating an erotic friction that made her cells combust with pleasure one by one like bubbles bursting, she began to feel herself thaw.
She desperately clawed at the source of the heat, her oxygen and lifeline beneath the freezing waters.
Closer, she needed him closer.
Thick, sweet and tangy liquid slid down her throat.
She swallowed greedily and opened her mouth for more.
Who needed oxygen when they could have this?
If she drowned in this ambrosia she’d die with a smile on her face.
More, she needed more.
A rough moan sounded beside her ear, and she realized that she’d sunk her claws into something hard and round.
She pulled it closer, feeling the muscles beneath her nails flex and undulate, pushing that heavenly brand higher within her body, rubbing her pleasure center deep inside.
Yessss, she chanted within her own frozen consciousness.
Harder. Deeper. Faster.
The fire was now spreading throughout her body, burning bright, melting the ice that imprisoned her.
But still, the dreams came relentlessly, suffocating her within their haunting web.
She didn’t want to remember, but she was helpless to fight it.
She could only hold on to her lifeline, the male whose blood and body held the key to her freedom…
190 AD, Henan Province, Han Dynasty, China. Palace of the Interior Minister Wang Yun.
“Oh Jade, my most beautiful angel on earth, your loveliness overshadows the moon, the sun, the very stars. What can I do to win your favor? I’d give anything, everything...”
Jade smiled her signature mysterious, noncommittal smile at the young swain who was making a cake of himself trying to express his undying devotion.
Just one bout of oral sex in the garden, a half-hearted effort on her part, and he was ready to throw his entire inheritance away to take her as his mistress.
She wasn’t good enough to be his wife, of course, even though she held a place far above a bride in men’s hearts, which she effortlessly acquired, and just as promptly broke.
She tuned out the rest of the reedy young man’s ramblings and popped a ripe rose grape into her mouth.
At least he brought fresh fruit with him; she’d been craving something sweet and juicy on this hot summer day.
She’d come a long way in ten years.
It took a lot of work and cunning, thoughtful manipulation.
Work on her back, on her knees, on her stomach, and just about every other position a whore might find herself in as she serviced her clients.
But Jade didn’t work for pennies, or because she’d given up the fight against amorous admirers and opportunistic brutes.
No, she worked to accumulate power.
She worked to hold that power over others. To make them pay a thousand times over for using her, abusing her, ignoring her as some weakling female who was just another pretty face and easy lay.
Jade had quickly made a name for herself as the Interior Minister’s brightest ornament.
His treasured dove.
She now dwelled in the most elaborate, expensive complex in the entire palace, even more ostentatious than the Master’s, and certainly his wives’.
For, anything less would displease her greatly, and then the Master wouldn’t get his nightly reward. Though these days, if he bedded her
one night a month he was a lucky man.
She’d outgrown him years ago.
At twenty-one, she’d amassed hundreds of admirers from far and wide, a fortune in gifts of gold and jewels, as well as a throng of servants all her own. Her chambers within the Minister’s palace had its own courtyard and gate, with a half dozen beefy guards keeping her safe from uninvited attentions.
Nowadays, no one dared to so much as accidentally pluck a hair from her head, let alone physically abuse her.
Though “abuse” could be had for the right price if Jade was in the right mood.
She knew all the ways to enslave others with sexual pleasure, and she taught herself to embrace her craft, to find ways to derive satisfaction too. The trick was to throw away those pesky things called dignity and pride, modesty and reserve.
Once she let go of all her inhibitions, her body became her most lethal weapon and her greatest source of strength.
She’d practiced the powers of sex on her Master first, then his sons, followed by the male servants in the palace.
She also toyed with the affections of females, if some looked at her with particular interest.
Soon, the very acts that others forced upon her to enslave and belittle her once upon a time, turned into ammunition in her extensive arsenal to enslave and bend others to her will.
And Jade, the little orphan girl whose life could have been snuffed out like an ordinary candle, now ruled over the Minister’s household like an empress.
But Jade’s self-made haven began to crumble when the country turned to chaos with the death of Emperor Ling. Many warlords vied for supremacy, as Ling had produced no suitable heir.
The men she’d twisted so easily around her little finger were now more concerned with politics and war. And she, who used to be on the tallest of all pedestals, worshipped like a goddess, was now just one of the many spoils of war, passed around from warlord to warlord like a sack of gold.
One of the warlords, Dong Zhuo, eventually gained the upper hand through ruthlessness and brutality. He built a palace for himself to house eight hundred concubines of his choosing, and killed all of their menfolk so that they had no one left to defend them.
His soldiers had raided the Minister’s house as well, taking his daughters and gutting his sons. Though Jade had no love for the women and men who abused her as a child, she did not take kindly to being under the thumb of a new Master, thrown into a forgotten pile along with seven hundred ninety-nine other whores.
She’d determined long ago that she would answer to no master, certainly not an aging bully who treated people like bugs to squash beneath his hairy feet.
She’d show him who was boss.
With skillful maneuvering, she quickly gained the warlord’s attention. And attention evolved swiftly into obsession after Jade plied him with her irresistible wiles. She became his most favored concubine.
What’s more, she became his closest confidante.
That was how she learned that Dong Zhuo had only one fear, perceived only one threat to his rule—his god son and the greatest warrior in his army, Lὕ Bu.
Lὕ Bu had the loyalty of Dong Zhuo’s men, and many of Dong Zhuo’s enemies also courted him to try to win him to their side to help overthrow his liege.
Lὕ Bu was arrogant and vain, if the village rumors were to be believed, and the prospect of ruling over his own kingdom appealed greatly. Dong Zhuo knew this and feared for a mutiny every day.
He couldn’t even kill his god son because then he’d lose his mightiest general, who had won him countless battles, whose very presence in his army rallied the men and made their enemies quake with fear.
And then one day, Lὕ Bu met Jade.
Dong Zhuo always kept her hidden from public view because he coveted her beauty and body for himself, but during one of Lὕ Bu’s visits to his god father’s palace, Jade slipped out of her quarters and “accidentally” bumped into the tall, handsome warrior.
“Oh, pardon!” she cried as he caught her in his arms before she could tumble to the ground in a flurry of silk.
And then…
Timing was everything, Jade knew from years of practice.
The angle at which the light filtering through the willow trees in the garden caressed her face mattered too.
She took advantage of every seductive trick in her impressive repertoire and tilted her face up just so, raised her long lashes with a demure, nervous flutter and looked directly into the eyes of her prey.
But when his gaze held hers, she was the one who fell under a spell.
For the first time in her short, albeit brutally eventful life, she was mesmerized and shaken, her woman’s heart beating like the wings of a frantic hummingbird.
No, no, no. She couldn’t fall under his spell.
She was the one who intended use him, to solidify her power even further over Dong Zhuo, by holding the heart of his general in the palm of her hand.
Lὕ Bu effortlessly swept her up in his arms, and she was still too stunned to protest.
“The fault is mine,” he said in a rich, bone-melting tenor. “Allow me to deliver you to your destination, lovely fairy. You must be weary after your flight from the heavens down to earth.”
Such a silver tongue, Jade absently noticed, she should be on her utmost guard with this one.
But then he smiled down at her as he held her in his arms as if she weighed no more than a feather. And everything she’d taught herself about the fickleness and untrustworthiness of men flew out of her mind.
“What if my destination is over yon mountain,” Jade recalled herself enough to tease, a rosy blush tinting her cheeks without her even trying.
“Then I shall carry you day and night until I scale that mountain and bring you safely to your home,” he replied readily, still gazing down at her as if she were his entire world.
“What if my home is where you are?” she whispered without artifice, frightened by the feelings he evoked in her wayward, starving heart.
“Then I am the luckiest and happiest man on earth,” he returned, sealing his mouth to hers in a possessive, passionate kiss.
Shortly thereafter, over months of furtive, fervent courtship, Jade began to make new plans.
Instead of using Lὕ Bu to control Dong Zhuo, she allowed herself to be used to help Lὕ Bu usurp the throne from his god father. Once Dong Zhuo was overthrown, Lὕ Bu promised to love her and protect her for the rest of her life.
For the first time ever, Jade ventured to trust another human being.
He became her entire world, and she placed her heart, her body, her very life in his trust. She dared to believe that someone like her could deserve the love of someone like him.
She dared to believe in him.
Lὕ Bu did indeed keep her after Dong Zhuo’s death, but he became a different man with no heavy hand to restrain him.
His arrogance and conceit knew no bounds, and his lack of political savvy made him many enemies.
One warlord after another he offended with his loud boasts and thoughtless brawls. His reputation as the disloyal vassal who killed his own lord made him into a pariah amongst true warriors. The chests of gold he stole from Dong Zhuo emptied like water through a sieve as he drank and gambled the money away.
Jade tried to calm him, soothe him, bring back the man she used to know, but after the second time he beat her within an inch of her life, she realized that she never really knew him at all.
The worst came when he ran out of funds completely.
“Get up.”
Jade rubbed her eyes sleepily.
It was in the middle of the night. Lὕ Bu was standing over her bed looking down at her with cold, hard eyes.
“What is it?” she asked, gathering the bedclothes around her to shield herself from the chilly night air, as well as Lὕ Bu’s avaricious stare.
They hadn’t slept together for many months, though he sometimes took his fury and frustration out on her body. She told herself that he
loved her still, and she loved him too, so these rough, painful encounters were only a phase.
She’d promised to trust him, believe in him.
She’d prove her loyalty and see him through this…this sickness he suffered. He was always sorry afterward. He always clung to her and cried into her bosom how much he loved and needed her.
“I need money,” he stated emotionlessly now, his eyes glittering with an unholy light.
“But I have no money to give you,” Jade replied patiently.
She’d sold all of her jewels already to put a roof over their heads and replenish their food stock. Soon, she’d have to search for work because they were down to their last copper coin.
But she was able bodied and quick to learn. She was sure she could find work if she tried. Even if she had to be a scullery maid and go back to cleaning potty urns, she’d do it in a heartbeat to keep them housed and fed.
She’d promised to stand by him, and she would keep her promise. She’d do anything for him.
“Yes you do,” he retorted, and grabbed a handful of her hair.
She fought to dislodge his grip but he was too strong, too big, too powerful.
“Let go! You’re hurting me! I have no more money to give you. Please!”
“Your body is a treasure trove,” he muttered as he dragged her from the bed by her hair, “isn’t that what all the soldiers say? You were Dong Zhuo’s favorite whore. It’s time you lived up to your reputation.”
She’d do anything for him, anything but that!
With one hand, he held her immobile, yanking her up to an awkward stance. With the other, he ripped the light nightgown from her body, until she was completely naked and trembling with fear.
“I sold you for a good night’s use to a band of traveling soldiers,” he told her as he dragged her kicking and clawing behind him.
“No!” she screeched, but he’d already opened the front door and thrown her bodily into the throng of awaiting soldiers on the other side of the threshold, their metal armors gouging into her soft, naked flesh.
“Don’t come back here until you’ve given them their money’s worth,” he yelled back, and slammed the door closed, sealing her fate.