The Sacrifice (29 page)

“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.”