The Sacrifice (33 page)

“Think about it, darling,” he says in a soft voice. “There are
only three ways to fulfill a spell. Magic, blood, or…”

“Sex,” I whisper, finishing the thought for him. So this is what
he was preparing me for all this time. This was why he demanded my submission,
why he wanted me to give myself so completely, even while others were watching.
He knew this moment was coming, knew we would have to perform in front of the
Vampire Council and he wanted me to be ready. Ready to submit in order to heal
the spell.

“Sex magic,”
Lexy
whispers in my head. “
If you and Aiden could raise enough energy you could
slap a patch on the spell—kind of like melting the fibers of the spell together
instead of weaving them. It’s not as elegant but it should work.”

“It has to work,”
I send back to her desperately.
“I can’t lose him like this,
Lexy! I can’t let him die for me.”

“You’re in love with him, aren’t you? Be careful, Emma! It’s never
a good idea to get too deeply involved with a vamp.”

“I don’t know
how
I feel,”
I tell her.
“He never told me I
was related to Katherine. He never said he was preparing me for this
moment—never warned me what was going to happen. He’s kept me in the dark about
everything ever since I came to him. But… I have to save him if I can. I
have
to.”

“You can but you’ll have to be completely committed to the act.”
Lexy shivers.
“You can’t hold
any part of yourself back during sex magic or it doesn’t work. That’s why I
can’t do it. I can’t…can’t give myself to any guy that completely. Are you sure
you can, Emma?”

“I have to,” I send back grimly. “I’ll do whatever it takes.”

“Enough, Emma,” Aiden says, calling my attention back to him. “I
think you should go stand outside the circle now, darling. Let me finish this.”

“No.” I lift my chin and look him in the eye. “No, Master. We’ll
finish it together.”

Aiden frowns. “You’re not ready for this—not ready to submit so
completely, Emma. I can’t be gentle if we’re going to make this work. I’ll have
to use you hard—take you roughly.”

I swallow nervously but I won’t let him see the fear in my eyes.
“You mean…like a punishment fuck?”

“Exactly.” Aiden’s silver-gray eyes are half-lidded. “I was
working up to this scenario, trying to get you ready gradually. But you never
reached the point of ultimate submission. And I don’t think you’re ready to
reach it tonight.”

“Yes, I am,” I protest softly, vehemently. “I know I am—I know I
can do this.” To prove my point, I pull my shirt over my head and drop it to
the floor. Next go my jeans and shoes. Soon I’m left standing in the middle of
the circle wearing only my underwear. Aiden’s eyes widen as I reach back to
unsnap my bra.

“Wait.” He puts a hand on my arm to stop me and looks at me
intently. “Do you really want to try this, darling? Do you really think you can
do it?”

“Yes,” I say softly. “Please, Master, I’ll do anything to save
you. I…I want to submit.”

“My darling…” Aiden murmurs, looking genuinely touched. “I had no
idea your feelings for me ran so deep.”

To be honest, I hadn’t known either until this very minute. But the
idea of never seeing him again, of watching him bleed out and die on this cold
stone floor, is more than I can bear. I would do anything, dare anything,
submit to
anything
to keep him safe. To keep him here with me.

“Very well.” Aiden nods. He puts down the knife and takes my hand.

“What are you doing?” the snake vampire demands. “The spell is not
yet whole.”

“Have no fear, we will heal it,” Aiden says, glaring coolly at the
eyes gleaming in the darkness. “We’re simply going to try a different method.”
He looks around, frowning. “All mortals must leave the Council Room. I want no
eyes but those of the Council upon us as we renew the spell.”

Muttering with irritation, Sanchez and the other satyr push Lexy
out the black door which Aiden left hanging open.
“Good luck!”
Lexy
sends, her mental voice dwindling as she gets out of range. Soon all the
mortals besides myself are gone from the great stone chamber. All except Grant,
who just stands there.

“You too,” Aiden tells the warlock sternly. “You must go.”

Grant frowns. “But…what if you need magic?”

“Emma has more magic in her smallest finger than you have in your
entire body.” Aiden gives him a withering look. “I will tap into that deep
well. You’ll be able to feel the spell mend from outside.”

Grant grumbles but at last he shrugs and goes out the door,
following the satyrs. He shuts it behind him and I, for one, am glad he’s gone.
Not because I didn’t want him watching Aiden and I do…whatever it is we’re
about to do. But because I hope he’ll protect Lexy from the satyrs.

“Never fear, darling. Your cousin will be safe,” Aiden murmurs in
my ear. Then he reaches into his pocket and pulls something out—something that
gleams red in the firelight.

I give a little gasp when I see it. “My collar!” I took it off
before I went to take my herbology final…which seems about a thousand years ago
at this point.

“Yes, your collar.” Aiden frowns at me fiercely. “Do you have any
idea, Emma, how frantic I was when I found this lying on the dresser and you
nowhere to be found?”

I bite my lip and nod. He must have remembered the night he found
Katherine missing. Must have felt that history was repeating itself…and
unfortunately, in a way, it is.

“You removed it,” Aiden’ voice is steady but his eyes are flashing
solid silver now. “You took off my mark of ownership and left the house without
permission, putting yourself in terrible danger.”

“Yes, Master,” I whisper in a small voice. My heart is drumming
against my ribs and my pussy is becoming wet as it always does when I know he’s
going to punish me. But this time the punishment is going to be so much worse
than ever before.

“Emma,” he says in that soft, deep, scary voice. “This kind of
deliberate disobedience calls for the strongest penalty I can inflict. Strip
and get on your hands and knees—it’s time for your punishment fuck.”

“Oh,” I whisper, unable to say anything else. Part of me can’t
believe we’re really going to do this but another part, a part buried so far
down I can barely even access it, feels a surge of anticipation. This is the
ultimate surrender—the moment we’ve been working up to from the very first
minute he claimed me as his sacrifice.

“Finish undressing,” Aiden say sternly. “And if you think I’ll go
easy on you because of your inexperience, you’re wrong. I’m going to fuck your
pussy hard and long, Emma. You deserve nothing less.”

“No, Master. I know I don’t,” I whisper. My knees feel weak as I
unsnap my bra. I can’t help thinking of all the eyes watching me—all those
cold, inhuman eyes watching to see me get taken and used. To see me get fucked
by my master.

“Keep going,” Aiden commands when I pause. “And look only at me,”
he adds, when my eyes wander again to the Council members around the circle.
“Just like you did at Bern's, darling,” he continues in a softer, most reassuring
voice. “Close your eyes if you must but you have to submit—both our lives
depend on it.”

After seeing the predatory way the vampires of the Council are
watching us, I don’t doubt him for an instant. If we don’t manage to repair or
at least patch the spell, they’ll be on us. And though I know without asking
that Aiden would die fighting to protect me, there’s no way he could take on
twelve ancient, powerful vampires alone and win. We’d both die—they’d bleed us
until the spell was mended.

That’s not going to happen,
I tell myself sternly.
I won’t let it happen!

Determined to make this work, I hook my thumbs into the elastic
sides of my panties and prepare to push them down. But this time Aiden stops
them.

“Wait,” he murmurs. Then he kneels in front of me, just as he did
that first night, and looks up into my eyes. “Let me,” he says. Holding my eyes
with his, he slips my panties down, revealing my bare pussy, making me utterly
vulnerable—claiming me as his. “Spread your legs, darling,” he says softly.

The word
why
trembles on my lips but I clamp down and don’t
ask. Whatever he wants, I’ll give him. I need to focus only on him, just as he
said. I need to forget the ring of hungry eyes surrounding us and concentrate
on submitting completely to my master.

“I need to make sure you’re wet enough,” Aiden murmurs, as I
spread my legs without protest. “Need to taste your sweet little pussy until
you’re hot enough to take me, Emma.”

A soft moan of submission comes from my lips as he spreads me with
his long fingers. I brace myself with one hand on his broad shoulder, trying to
be open enough for him, trying to give myself completely.

“Good girl,” Aiden says softly, sending a shiver of pleasure through
me with his praise. His breath is hot against my inner thighs. “Such a good
girl to let me spread open your pussy and taste you, Emma.”

I want him so much I can barely breathe. I grip his shoulder
harder and moan as his long tongue slips between my pussy lips to tease my
clit. Honestly, I’m already wet and hot for him—just the idea of giving in so
completely, of offering him my pain as well as my pleasure—has me more turned
on than I can ever remember being in my life. But it’s not like I’m going to
turn down a tongue bath by my oh-so-orally talented master.

It seems to go on forever, the soft, slow licking, the feel of his
tongue inside me, probing my depths. I get closer and closer to the edge,
feeling at any minute I might tilt over and shatter into a thousand pieces. But
somehow he keeps me just on the edge, never quite pressing the magic button for
long enough to get me off. Finally I’m panting in frustration, my hand on his
shoulder gripped into a fist, my entire body tense with need.

“Master,” I gasp as he laps me gently, sucking my swollen clit
into his mouth and teasing it unmercifully with the tip of his tongue. “Oh
Goddess, Master…please, I’m so close!”

To my disappointment, Aiden pulls back. “I know, Emma,” he says in
a soft, stern voice. “But I don’t want you to come—not yet.”

I want to ask
when
I’ll be allowed to come, but again I
bite down hard, stifling the question.
This is all about submission
, I
remind myself. I must give myself completely—not question my master’s every
move.

“I think you’re ready now.” Aiden rises, towering over me, a look
of stern disapproval on his face. “It’s time, Emma. Get on your hands and knees
and spread your thighs for me.”

Trembling, I do as he says. The flagstones are hard and cold
against my hands and knees but I put my head down and try to ignore my
discomfort. I can feel Aiden hovering over me, the heat of his skin like a
flame against my spine.

“Wait,” one of the vampires says, forcing me to remember that
we’re being watched by the entire Vampire Council.

Aiden looks up, irritated. “What is it?”

“She’s too hidden.” The eyes gleam in the darkness. “Too hard to
see. If you’re going to do this, Aiden, you must do it properly. Bring out the
breeding bench.”

I have no idea what a breeding bench is, but the words turn my
blood to ice water anyway. Still, before I can protest, one of the other
vampires is bringing a strange contraption into the circle which looks like a
medieval torture device.

The breeding bench is kind of an inclined plane, slanted upward. Clearly
my body will lie along the wooden bench. There are holes in the wood for my
breasts to fit through as well as straps for my wrists at the top and stirrups
coming out from the sides.
Adjustable
stirrups
, I realize,
feeling ill as I look at them. They’re made so that once my feet are strapped
into them, they can be winched higher or lower, effectively lifting my ass and
spreading my legs, giving Aiden much better access to my naked, unprotected
pussy.

I look at this thing in disbelief. It’s one thing to kneel on my
hands and knees, to open myself to my master and let him hurt me or pleasure me
as he sees fit. It’s something else entirely to allow myself to be strapped
into this monstrosity—held in position whether I want to be or not. Goddess,
who invented this thing anyway—some kind of sadist?

I open my mouth to protest…and catch sight of Aiden’s face. He
knows what I’m thinking, how vulnerable and frightened I’m feeling, I’m
certain. And I’m also certain that the Vampire Council expects me to refuse to
be strapped into this strange, sexual device. The minute I defy my master and
refuse to submit completely, this little foray into sex magic will be over and
we will have failed.

I can’t let that happen.

Taking a deep breath, I approach the breeding bench. I press my
chest and abdomen to the cool, varnished wood of the supporting plane, fitting
my bare breasts through the holes provided, noting as I do that the vampires of
the Council now have an excellent view of my tight nipples. I put my hands into
the straps and fit my feet in the stirrups. I lean forward, getting into position—almost
the same position I would be in if I was riding a horse and leaning over its
mane. Then I wait.