“You bad girl. Teasing me can be a dangerous game.” He zips my shorts and spins me around so that I face him, then he stands, towering over me, making me take a step back on instinct. “Ah-ah,” he says. “Turn around and close your eyes.”
I hold his gaze a moment longer, but what else can I do than obey? Also, I’m curious, so I turn my back to him. I flinch slightly when he puts a soft, silky fabric over my eyes and tightens it, tying it on the back of my head. I touch it tentatively, letting my fingers slide along the edge of the blindfold.
“What are you—”
“Shh. You are curious. I will give you what you want.” I try to turn, but he grabs my shoulders and holds me in place. “From now on you will do exactly what I tell you, but there is always an out. Are you listening?”
I nod.
“What do you say?”
I lick my lips, my heart shooting to my throat. “Yes… Master?”
“Good girl. I will not hurt you. Do you understand? You are safe with me. There will be discomfort. Mental and physical. You are to live each emotion, let them sink into your very being. You will find out what feels good, what feels less good but is still enticing, and what doesn't feel good at all. You will tell me at all times if something passes your hard limit.”
“How will I know?”
“This is for us to explore. Are you with me?”
I nod. I tremble with fear and excitement. I have no idea what I’m letting him do to me, but I trust him. At least I think I do. Apart from kidnapping me, which undoubtedly is a really bad thing, he has never done anything to make me doubt his words.
“If something feels wrong, you will tell me yellow. If something passes your hard limit, you will tell me red. These are called safewords. Have you heard of them?”
“I have,” I whisper, my voice barely audible, but Lou hears.
“Good girl. How are you feeling?”
“Afraid.”
“I am going to put a collar around your neck. It’s a black leather collar with a ring attached to it. For today this is to show everyone that you are taken, that you belong to someone.”
“Do I?”
“Yes, Kat. You belong to me. Lift your hair.”
Heat floods my chest. We have no established relationship, but hearing him tell me that I belong to him hits me harder than any ‘I love yous’ I have ever heard throughout my life. The thought of letting him care for me, take care of me, makes my mind spin. I bunch my hair in my fist and lift my tresses. As he puts a stiff, cool collar around my neck and snaps a lock closed, a thrill runs through me. It sounds so definite. I wonder if he will let it stay on.
Lou plants a kiss on my forehead. “I want to thank you for your trust. Now, walk.” He holds his hands on my shoulders as we make our way out into the corridor. The smells change, the air gets hotter, there are scents of cologne and perfume, of sweat, and something I can’t define.
“You smell the blood,” he whispers, the unexpected movement of his lips on my earlobe making me flinch.
“How did you know what I was thinking?”
“You have no sight. All your other senses are heightened. I saw you sniff the air.”
“But I have smelled blood. This—”
“It’s the sweetness you sense, which impresses me. I didn’t think it would be detectable to a human.”
The moans increases. Slaps. Gasps and cries. Bass-heavy techno music pounds through the loudspeakers, but the noises of the carnage around us is somehow louder. It feels as if my skin is hit by the sound waves, as if every patch of skin is caressed, heated, clawed at.
“There is a pillow in front of you. Sit down. Kneel by my feet and take in the room. Tell me what you feel.”
I kneel and sit back on my heels, letting the atmosphere wash over me. Focusing my hearing to the left, toward the spanking area, toward the cross, I flinch with every harsh slap of leather hitting soft skin. I sit in silence, letting the raw tension permeate me. My nipples peak against the latex, my pussy pounds.
“What do you sense, Kat?”
“Sex.”
“Dig deeper.”
I listen, trying to sort out one wave of emotion from the other. “Hunger. Need.”
“Whose?”
“Everyone’s.”
“Good girl. Everyone needs something.”
“What do you need?”
Lou doesn't answer and it makes my heart clench. Either he doesn't know it, or he doesn't trust me. He is lonely. I know it. He longs for a connection just as much as I do.
“What mindfuckery is this?” says a light, slightly husky voice to my right that I recognize as Selene’s. I flinch and look up, even though I can’t see her.
“She was curious,” says Lou.
“Oh, I know.” I sense her presence coming closer. “How are you holding up, Kat,” she says, her voice level with my face.
“I’m good,” I say.
“You smell amazing,” she says. “This affects you.”
“Yes,” I whisper.
Her breath on my ear. “He will take good care of you. He may be a vampire, but he is an honorable man.”
I nod, swallowing hard.
“You are welcome to the podium, Lou. Lucius will come in a little while. I’m sure he will appreciate the sight.” Her voice comes from above again and I feel infinitely small all of a sudden.
Lou seems to sense my discomfort. He lays a hand on my head, as if I’m a pet. “Stand.”
My legs shake as I obey. Goosebumps race along my back as he leans in and whispers in my ear: “You do smell absolutely delectable.”
“Why?”
“Your blood sizzles with pheromones, endorphins, adrenaline. Are you turned on?”
“Yes,” I whimper.
“Do you want me to tie you up? Restrain you?”
I can barely breathe. The shockwave of heat that rushes through me almost knocks me over.
“Kat?”
“Yes,” I say as colors flash before my eyes. Yellow and red. I’m crazy. What am I doing? What have I gotten myself into? “I’m yours, Lou,” I say.
His growl makes the room quiet down for a moment and I sense attention on us.
“Yes, you are.”
Chapter 11
Lou
I never planned to give her much of a choice. If she hadn’t been so curious, so ready, I would have coaxed the submission out of her until she begged me to tie her up and spank every last piece of resistance out of her, but she oozes of need, her every pore exuding a desperate want for me to master her.
I guide her to the podium. She’s got every vampire’s attention, standing on display in the near-center of the room, but she’s totally unaware of how her raw sensuality fills the room, saturates the air. They want her right now. Only her. Forgetting about their own humans for a moment. But she is mine.
“Stay right here,” I whisper in her ear and take a few quick steps to the wall with equipment. I look at the neatly knotted loops of ropes, but I’m not well versed in the beautiful art of Shibari, and instead I choose padded leather cuffs for wrists and ankles. They will go well with her collar. “Kneel, Kat,” I say as I’m back by her side. “Bend forward, hands on your back.”
She falls to her knees and almost puts her forehead to the floor as she juts her ass up and presents me her wrists. The glossy latex strains over her perfectly rounded ass cheeks, and her thighs shake as she fights to stay in place. I drag the cuffs along her back, inch by inch, letting her know what’s coming. She tenses and goosebumps erupt wherever I touch her. I’m rough when I grab her wrists and snap the cuffs into place, making her yelp. I pull her to her feet and snatch her with me, holding her tight as I push her to a set of rings that sit attached to the wall behind the benches. I shackle her into place, her arms over her head, making sure nothing will chafe her delicate skin, then I kick her legs apart and put the cuffs around her ankles, hooking them to chains that sit attached to the wall.
When I’m done, I look h
er over. She stands, blindfolded, spread eagle, a thin sheen of sweat on her pale skin, trembling, afraid and aroused.
“Do you remember your words?”
She turns her head toward the sound of my voice and nods. I grin and fetch a simple riding crop with a flat end, flicking it experimentally in the air a couple of times. She flinches with each sharp snap. I let the tip of the crop rest against the inside of her ankle, then I pull it up along the inside of her thigh, all the way up to where her pussy pulsates hot beneath the latex shorts. Her musky scent changes, sweetens, as her senses heighten. She’s waiting for the blow. I don’t intend to disappoint my little captive human. Aiming for the naked skin where her butt cheek meets thigh, I flick my wrist and plant my first mark on her skin. My first, but not my last.
Kat gasps and clenches her fists, but she doesn't object, instead she pushes out her ass, as if wanting more. I’m happy to oblige and hit the opposite cheek. I keep flicking my wrist, creating a symmetrical pattern of red horizontal lines as I scorch her skin. She writhes and whimpers, but I haven’t gagged her and I hear no safewords.
“Lou!” she pleads.
I replace the whip with my hand, giving her a harsh slap over the latex covered ass cheek. “What am I?” I growl in her ear.
“M—Master!”
I drag a finger along the edge of her shorts, pushing them a little to the side, finding heat and her soaked slit. He legs shake as she rises on her toes.
“I can’t take any more,” she gasps.
I kneel between her legs and put my tongue where my fingers were, lapping at her sweet drops of arousal. Kat mewls as I grab her ass cheeks and spread them. I want to rip this flimsy piece of plastic off her and bury my cock in her deliciously quivering pussy, but I won’t do it here. When I take her the first time, when I make her mine, body, blood, and soul, it will be an act between only us and with no spectators.
Biting the soft inside of her thigh, no fangs, no breaking skin, I groan with need, then I stand and cover her body with mine as I put my mouth to her ear.
“Yes, you can.” I grab the riding crop again and pull down the zipper on the back of her shorts, baring her ass.
“What are y—”
“Don’t speak again unless you want to safeword.”
A shudder runs through her, a shudder that transfers to me as the scent of her endorphin-laced blood reaches new heights. She responds to me like no one ever has before, so attuned to my voice, my touch, my need. I raise the crop and let it descend, hitting much harder than before, wringing a throaty groan out of her. Scorching her ass, making it blossom, I see her shifting state, when she falls into the rhythm, when her scent finally blooms fully, sweetened, her submission complete.
I drop the crop, pull off the blindfold and unshackle her, letting her fall into my arms. She squints hard even though the light in the room is soft. Her eyes are open, but still somehow unseeing. Focusing on me, she then closes her eyes and a small smile spreads on her lips as she buries her head against my chest. I grab under her back and knees, and carry her over to a vacant spot on the couch, pulling my jacket over her as I cradle her to me. Around us business continues as usual. The spot we occupied by the wall is soon taken over by another couple.
From afar I sense eyes on us and look up, meeting the gaze of the human I fed from my first night here, the angel-like blond boy, Sean. There’s hunger on his face, jealousy, desperation. He looks at the bundle on my lap, clenches his fists and then looks away.
In our cocoon there is only us. Kat’s chest rises and falls with her rapid breaths. My cock is hard as a rock, and it would take so little effort to free her of her shorts, pull down my zipper and impale her, but I want to let her have this moment, her first journey into subspace. The night is still young and when she comes to, when she is ready, then we will play.
Lucius saunters down the stairs behind us, throwing me a curious gaze, his eyes darting between me and Kat, then he raises an eyebrow, moves over to Selene and gives her a kiss that soon turns into something most people would want to continue in private. Their bond, their love for each other goes deeper than anything I’ve seen. Few are as lucky. Most of us love and lose, try to love again, get hurt, and give up. I gave up a long time ago, many centuries ago, but holding this warm, trusting human in my arms, I ache to dare to give it another try. I will lose again, such are the laws of nature, but I want to hold on for as long as life gives us.
Kat stirs and I put my lips to her forehead, giving her a kiss. “How are you holding up?”
“I feel like I’m on fire.”
“Your ass?”
“Oh no, everything. I vibrate.”
“You’re high.”
“I’m so drowsy. I’m tired, and at the same time I feel so good, like nothing can touch me.”
“I will touch you,” I say and slide a palm along her thigh, up to her ass, past her hip, and up to cup a breast. “I will touch you wherever—” I pinch her nipple, making her arch and gasp, “and whenever I want. But no one else will ever lay their hands on you. You’re mine. Now and forever. Do you hear me?”
“Forever,” she mouths, her cheeks flushed. “Oh my God, Lou.”
Beneath the cover of my suit jacket that I have draped over her, I draw light patterns along every naked piece of warm skin that I can reach.
“No God,” I say and smirk. “Just a very old vampire who suddenly doesn't feel old at all.”
She looks up at me, her eyes huge and trusting, a frown on her forehead. “Why was your turning so painful?”
I go still. Her words stab deeper than she probably means them to and it pulls me right out of the warmth and intimacy. It’s my one great weakness, the one thing I never talk about. Something broke me during my turning. Having witnessed more turnings than I can count, I know my sire must have been new, and brutal. It’s very likely he didn’t know what he was doing. I clawed myself out of a grave, panic seizing my mind, thinking I needed to breathe. I didn’t know what I was. I didn’t know my name and I had no idea why my throat burned. Dawn came and nearly incinerated me. I fled back to the grave and lived there, terrified, dirty, alone. I had no heartbeat and I heard things, like the worms moving in the earth. I thought I had gone crazy.
No one taught me and I had to find my way into this un-life all on my own. I have never talked about this with anyone, and I have never wished my destiny upon another being.
Vampires are cruel, selfish beasts, and stealing Kat away, I have proven myself to be no exception.
Again.
Kat
His gaze turns distant and my heart aches for him. Suddenly this powerful being looks so lost. I want to hug him, caress him, tell him everything will be all right. But how can I? I’m nothing but a child to him. Why would what I say matter to this ancient creature of the shadows?
The silence stretches between us. My whole being reaches for him, the need to comfort, to care, so ingrained in me. My insides still hum from the experience of being tied to the wall and whipped, but I’m coming up to the surface and I have never felt closer to anyone in my life before.
“I’m here if you need me.”
He looks down at me. For a moment his eyes soften, then they turn into hard opals. “The only thing I need is you by my feet.”
My heart plummets. We had a moment, but that’s all there was. He wants me as his submissive slave, and I agreed to it, my curiosity getting the better of me. I’m at his mercy, his to command, to obey anything he demands of me. If he wants to pull pain, making me whimper in agony, he will. If he wants to draw unspeakable pleasure from my body, making me soar, he will. I can never know which mood he is in.
As he loosens his hold, I fall to my knees, and then sit back on my heels. “I’m yours,” I say and bow my head.
He reaches for me and takes a light hold of my chin, tilting my head. “Because you want to be?”
I hesitate. Yes and no. I want to be with Lou, there’s no denying that, but I can’t just give up my real
life, I can’t accept that it would be taken away from me indefinitely.
His eyes flash as if he can hear my thoughts. “One day you will want to stay. One day you will know that you can’t go back. One day the humiliation you experience will morph into true need, a need for a Master, for me.”
“I’m here, I want to stay. I already need you more than I need air.”
He pets my head, his long fingers stroking through my locks, making a shiver run down my spine. “I know you do. But you hesitate. Your body still resists me. A part of you still finds this unnatural.”
I exhale on a shudder. I think of my job, my home. His hand slides to my neck, grabs it. Not rough, but firm, commanding. “Yes,” I whisper. “I do.”
“Give yourself to me, Kat. All of you. I need you to be mine.”
Need.
I glance up at him, meeting his gaze that has turned back from cold to hot, the feral lust radiating off him. “Will you ever be mine?”
He holds my gaze, then shakes his head. “You are a mortal. I will give you my everything for a few short years, then I will let you go. I cannot allow myself to get attached. I have lost everyone I have ever cared about, over and over. A human’s lifespan is so short. It’s not worth the pain.”
“I don’t need to be mortal,” I whisper. I hold my breath. I don’t know what I’m saying. It just came out of me. Do I want to be a vampire? That’s… insane.
Lou shakes his head, a brief look of regret in his eyes. “I have never turned a human, and I never will. Those that I have cared for, I have never wished this life upon them. Those that I have not cared for, I would never have wanted to see them over and over again for all eternity.”
“What’s so bad about being a vampire?”
His grip around my neck turns painful and his face morphs into a frightening display of the supernatural entity that he is as his fangs descend. “You forget your place. Go back to the room.”
“But—”
“Now!” he growls.
I choke down the sadness as I rise. I’ve lost him.
Her Vampire Hero (Midnight Doms Book 4) Page 9