by Sophie Stern
She shook her head again.
“Have you been feeling tired?”
Yes.
“Stressed?”
Yes.
“Anxious?”
Yes.
“Dammit, Sage!” He growled. He actually, literally growled. “You have to eat every fucking day or you’re going to wither away.” He shook his head and pulled her into his lap. He scooted down on the bed, holding her, so her leg was comfortable and not stretched too far. “What’s the point in me giving you a gift if you’re too stupid to use it?” He shook his head at her.
The man lifted his wrist to his mouth and bit, tearing the skin. The scent of blood filled her nostrils and she tried to fight the growl that her stomach made.
“Drink,” he lifted his wrist to her mouth, but she shook her head and tried to refuse. She wouldn’t. Couldn’t. She wouldn’t drink from a live source. It was inhumane! She hadn’t asked to be a vampire, didn’t want to be one.
But the second the blood hit her lips, she was done for. She had never tasted anything so sweet, so perfect. It was like ice cream on a hot summer day. The man’s blood ran over her lips, and Sage latched onto his wrist and began to suck.
“That’s it,” he murmured, stroking her hair. He didn’t seem to mind how much she was taking, which surprised her. Shouldn’t he be worried she might drink too much? She didn’t worry for long, though. Sage had never drunk straight from the source and suddenly, with a twinge of anxiety, she realized that she’d been missing out.
She’d been buying pig’s blood from her local butcher. He didn’t ask her what it was for and she never offered an excuse. She had several prepared. “My mother needs it” or “It’s for a recipe I’m trying” were both on her list. She was glad the old man had never asked, though.
Now she wondered if he didn’t ask because he knew.
Maybe everyone knew.
“Drink up, little one,” the man murmured, and Sage kept drinking. The sweet liquid poured down her mouth and settled in her belly, filling her. Finally, she was sated, and the man pulled his wrist away.
Then he slapped her hard across her face.
“Never again, Sage. Do you understand me? You will never again starve yourself.”
Her eyes popped open and teared up as she rubbed her face. He was still holding her in his lap. She had nowhere to go, but she was filled with the urge to run and hide. She was embarrassed, humiliated. He was right and they both knew it. She hadn’t been taking care of herself. She’d been too hell bent on revenge.
“Answer me, Sage.”
“Yes, Master,” she said, and his eyes flashed gold when she said the word. She wasn’t sure why she said it. It just seemed like what he should be called.
“Good girl.” He gently lifted her from his lap and set her back on the bed, then stood in front of her. Once again, she was caught off guard by just how big he was.
To her surprise, he knelt down in front of her and pushed her legs apart. She gasped as he leaned forward and pushed up her nightgown.
Suddenly, she realized she was in a nightgown and not the clothes she’d been wearing when he captured her. That meant he’d seen her naked. He’d stripped her down while she was unconscious and he’d changed her clothes.
Sage didn’t have time to worry about that or to feel embarrassed because suddenly, the man’s mouth was on her bare pussy and he was licking her like she was the tastiest treat he’d ever had.
“Oh, oh, oh,” she moaned. She loved having her pussy eaten and licked and sucked and this vamp was so good at it. She was nearing orgasm within seconds, but he stopped touching her. Just when she opened her mouth to protest, he bit her thigh and began to suck her blood.
She cried out, but he flicked her clit with his fingers and she came, hard and fast. Her body arched back onto the bed, but he held her legs firmly in place as he continued to drink from her blood.
He said vamps could only drink from others if they were mated. As Sage’s head began to clear, as the man’s drinking began to slow, she realized what this meant.
The man kneeling before her was her mate.
And he had captured her.
*
The man left Sage alone for the afternoon, but returned that evening.
“I need to go home,” she said when he walked in.
“About that,” he said, but Sage didn’t like his tone. She had a feeling he was going to deny her something she desperately wanted: freedom.
“What about it?” She said anxiously.
“You aren’t going home, Sage. Never. Not tonight, not ever.” His voice was firm, as if there was no room for argument.
“But…” her voice trailed off as his eyes darkened, and she realized once again that she was at his mercy. Still, she couldn’t just give up on her commitments. She had to go back! She had a home, a job, a life. She had a unit she reported to. She had quotas to meet!
“You aren’t going home, Sage.”
“I have to.”
“If you try to leave, I’ll tell everyone what you are.”
Her mouth went dry and her eyes went wide. He wouldn’t…would he? He wouldn’t tell everyone that she was secretly a vampire, that she’d been bitten and hadn’t reported it, that she hadn’t turned herself in to the decontamination unit.
He wouldn’t tell them that she’d been faking her blood tests for the last few weeks so she didn’t get found out.
He wouldn’t.
“You can’t,” she whispered. That was her job, her family. If this man, this vampire, told people what she was, she’d be ruined.
“I can and I will,” he growled. “You are my mate now, Sage. You will stay here. I gave you three months to get your affairs in order and you chose to use those months to fuck around murdering vamps.”
“That’s my job!” She protested, but he hissed.
“Not anymore.”
He stared down at her and she watched him, wishing things were different. He really wasn’t an unattractive man. In fact, in any other situation, any other life, she could see this being the type of guy she’d want to date.
But now?
Now he had captured her, mated her, and blackmailed her.
Now he had given her no choice at all.
Now he was the type of man who kept her against her will in a place she didn’t want to be, shackled to a bed she hated, trapped her in a room by herself, and didn’t seem to care at all.
“Please,” she said, whispering the word, hating how it sounded when she begged.
The man appeared to be unmoved. He watched her cry for a few moments, then he left. When Sage was all alone, she got out of bed and walked around, trying to see how far she could go with the manacle around her ankle. There was a little toilet in the corner and she could easily reach that, as well as the sink. Not that the sink provided her with any sort of weapon or escape, but at least she didn’t have to be dirty. Good hygiene just made good sense, after all.
Finally, she got back in bed and closed her eyes. She was going to be here for awhile, so she might as well get used to things.
Still the way he had touched her earlier hadn’t been all bad. If anything, it had been eye-opening. She never knew that feeding could be so erotic. She’d seen vamps feed before, but only from the neck or wrist. She hadn’t even thought about offering her thigh to someone.
Not like that.
Not the way he had.
The vamp hadn’t asked her permission. He had just done what he wanted and Sage had taken it like a good girl.
Like a bad girl.
Her leg was still shackled to the bed, but her hands weren’t, and she looked around the room for any hidden cameras before she lowered her hand between her legs. She didn’t want an audience for what she was about to do.
Oh, it felt so good to touch herself. She was still wet from earlier. It had been hours, but the excitement he had given her still lingered. She thought about the way he had pushed her legs apart, how he had licked her mos
t private area, how he had plunged his tongue between her slick folds.
Her pussy clenched as she remembered the way she felt when he bit into her, breaking her skin, sucking her blood as she came.
Sage rubbed her fingers faster and faster against her clit until it was too much to handle and she bucked, arching her back, crying out, whispering his name, the only name she knew for him.
Master.
*
When the vampire returned a few hours later, he stood in the doorway watching her for a moment.
“You touched yourself,” he said.
Not a question.
She nodded slightly, wondering if he was going to make a power play. Was he going to tell her she wasn’t allowed to anymore? Was he going to say she couldn’t touch her pussy or play with her body anymore?
That was hers. Her body was hers.
No matter what he might plan to do with her, no matter how he wanted to toy with her or bite her, her body was hers.
“Oh, no, my love. That’s where you’re wrong.” The thought filled her head so loudly she thought he had spoken aloud, but he hadn’t. Her eyes popped wide as she looked at the vampire, and he grinned.
“One of the many benefits of the mating bond,” he murmured. “I can read your mind and you can read mine, once you learn how.”
Really?
That could be useful.
“Yes, it can be. You have to learn to master your skills, though, darling, and that can take years.”
“That’s a long time,” she managed to whisper out loud. It was a long time to be stuck with him, to be stuck here in this…place. Wherever she was. She still didn’t know. She didn’t know anything about where they were or even who he was.
“What’s your name?” She asked, wondering if he would tell her.
“I like ‘Master’ just fine.”
She blushed. Why had she called him that? It had been in the heat of the moment, but it had seemed perfect. It had seemed appropriate. Now she wondered if he had a real name, something other people called him, something that distinguished himself from the other vamps.
More importantly, she wondered when she’d have the chance to find out what that name was.
Sage wasn’t stupid. She knew he wasn’t going to let her go. Since he could read her mind and send her messages telepathically, she knew trying to escape would be fruitless and pointless. She could exert a bunch of effort in trying to get away, or she could simply accept that Master had a place for her here now.
And maybe, she thought, thinking back to how she’d had blood, maybe things wouldn’t be so bad here.
Oh, Sage had liked being a vampire hunter just fine, but it was a stressful, exhausting, thankless job. She patrolled with other vampire slayers or on her own, but when she wasn’t working, she basically didn’t exist. She could die at any time, so she didn’t bother trying to cultivate friendships. What would the point be? She worked weird hours, so she rarely made friends with normal people. All of her buddies were other slayers, and they died so frequently that she tried not to get too attached.
What kind of life was that?
“Come with me,” Master said. He unlocked her ankle and helped her from the bed. Sage looked around suspiciously, but nothing happened. She could try to run, but she thought better of it. She was fast as a human and even faster as a vampire, but something told her not to push her luck.
Master took her arm and led her from the room. She breathed a sigh of relief when they were in the hallway.
“Happy to be out of the room?” He asked, looking at her curiously.
“I don’t like small spaces,” she told him honestly. Ever since she was a kid, she had hated enclosed spaces. Once she’d gone into the doghouse with her brother to play and she’d been stuck inside when the doggie door broke. It had been half an hour before her mother found her, but felt like much longer. Ever since then, Sage preferred wide, open spaces to locked areas.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Master said.
They walked down a hallway. It was lined with doors like the one to Sage’s room: stainless steel and without handles. There were panels on the side of each door with a place for a hand. Sage saw another vampire entering a room. He placed his hand on the panel and the door opened.
Apparently, you had to have the magic fingerprints to get in.
“Where are we going?” She asked.
“Hush, little one,” he murmured. He led Sage down a series of halls. She was constantly surprised at how attractive all of the vampires were. Maybe it was because feeding was such a sexual experience, but maybe something about death made people more beautiful. She didn’t know.
After climbing several staircases and going through a few more doorways, they arrived at another door.
“These are my chambers,” Master murmured, and placed his hand on the panel to open the door. They walked inside and he released Sage for a moment. She walked ahead of him into the room while he locked the door behind them.
It was beautiful.
A huge, four-poster bed sat in the center of the room. The bedding was black satin, and Sage immediately wondered how soft it would feel against her skin. She wasn’t sure why or how she knew she’d be sleeping in his bed.
Maybe the mate thing he kept talking about.
If she was his mate, which she hadn’t quite accepted just yet, then she would definitely want to sleep in that giant bed with him. Master had a great body, from what she could tell, and though they hadn’t done very much physically together, she could get on board with the idea of him touching her.
The rest of the room was just as exquisite as the bed. One corner held several floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that were stocked full of books. There were old novels and new ones, books she’d never heard of, and books she’d read a million times. Several leather chairs surrounded a fireplace and there was even a bearskin rug in front of the hearth.
“It’s lovely,” she murmured, suddenly feeling out of place. She had never been anywhere nearly as nice as this. Sage had grown up poor and she’d stayed poor as an adult. Instead of pursuing a viable career, she’d become a slayer. It was stupid, she knew, and risky, but it had seemed like the best option at the time.
“What’s mine is yours,” he murmured, and placed his hand on her lower back. Master led her further into the room and over to the bed.
“Can I have a drink?” She asked, and he nodded. Instead of producing a few bottles of wine, like she imagined, he sat down on the bed next to her and bared his neck.
Sage wasn’t sure what to do.
“I’ve never…” she began, but he just nodded.
“It’s okay,” he whispered. Somehow, that made her feel better about the whole thing. She was a vampire, after all. She was a vampire and his captive. She could never leave, but he would take care of her and it would all be all right.
It would all be okay.
She leaned forward and began to suck on his neck. She ran her tongue along his skin and nibbled softly, which made him chuckle.
“Just go for it, baby,” he said. She closed her eyes and let instinct take over. She sucked again for a moment, latching her lips to his skin, then Sage felt her new, lengthened canines descend. They pierced Master’s skin and he hissed, bit she began sucking quickly and as soon as the first drop of blood hit her tongue, he moaned.
He actually fucking moaned.
His blood tasted so good and in this position, she was straddling him, sucking on him. It was intimate and personal. While she’d been close to him when she drank from his wrist, this was even more intense.
This was more intimate.
This was sexier.
She drank for a few minutes, enjoying the way he moaned and growled as she sucked, but then Sage felt Master’s own teeth against her flesh right before they pierced her neck.
She cried out, but soon the sensations overwhelmed her as he began to drink from her. An orgasm began to bubble deep in her core and she tried to resist. It was s
tupid. Who got turned on by having a vampire drink their blood? Seriously?
Who got excited by the idea of someone licking and sucking their neck while they drank?
But the realization that it was weird did nothing to change Sage’s feelings. Soon she was grinding against Master and she noticed that his dick was hard in his pants. Her hand reached down and she stroked him, enjoying the way his length felt in her hand. It would feel even better thrusting up inside of her.
Before Sage knew what was happening, she was on her back with her skirt hiked up around her waist. Master had taken off his pants and his cock was nudging her entrance.
She was still sucking his neck, still drinking.
How had he moved them so fast?
She didn’t have time to care because before she could resist, he was thrusting into her. Sage cried out with pleasure, with a little bit of pain, with excitement, as he plunged his cock into her. He was bigger than she expected, and harder. She’d never fucked a vamp before, but she knew feeding and sex often went hand-in-hand for them.
Since changing into a vampire, since she’d been sired, she hadn’t had sex with anyone. The urge to fuck had almost overwhelmed her several times, especially when she’d been tired, but Sage had managed with a few sleeping pills. She’d simply put herself to sleep, rather than have to fuck someone.
Now she wondered what she’d been missing out on.
Master pulled his mouth back from her neck and ran his tongue over the puncture marks, sealing them with his saliva. She paid attention to what he did and repeated the motion on his own neck.
“Good girl,” he said, thrusting into her again. Sage gripped his back with her hands, running her nails down his spine. Fuck, he felt good.
“Master,” she murmured, but she couldn’t find the words. What could she say to him in that moment that would make it even more powerful? She couldn’t tell him he was better than the humans she’d been with. That would just be weird. Sage settled with murmuring sweet nothings about how big his cock was and how good it felt pounding into her.