The Sacrifice (34 page)

I feel incredibly exposed. My ass is on display and my pussy is
open, showing the slippery pink of my inner folds. I can feel every eye in the
place trained on my nakedness but I tell myself I don’t care. The only eyes I
care about are my master’s. The only man I want to see is Aiden.

When I risk a glance in his direction, he is looking at me with
something like wonder in his eyes.
Now he’ll see,
I think, not letting
my gaze waver from his.
Now he’ll know how much I care. How I’ll do anything
to keep him alive.

“Emma,” he murmurs, walking over to stand by my side. “Darling…”

“I’m ready, Master,” I tell him in a shaking voice. “Ready for…for
my punishment.”

His gray eyes go suddenly hard. “That’s good to hear, Emma, because
I’m going to punish you hard tonight. I’m going to use your little pussy very
roughly and thoroughly and I don’t want to hear a word of protest. Do you
understand?”

His stern words start a fire between my legs. “Yes, Master,” I
whisper. “I…I understand.”

“Good.” He moves around behind me and I hear the low purring sound
of his zipper being lowered. “Because I’m going to fuck you now, Emma. Going to
fuck you
hard.”

I feel him fit the broad head of his cock, already slippery with
pre-cum, to the entrance of my pussy. I can’t help remembering the last time he
did this—the way he slid into me so slowly and was so careful not to thrust in
me too much. The way he tried to preserve my virginity by not touching bottom
inside me. I have a feeling I won’t be a virgin by anyone’s standards—not even
Aiden’s peculiar rules—by the time this is over.

Two strong hands grip my hips and I can feel my master’s breath,
hot against the back of my neck. “Get ready,” he advises me, his voice a deep,
menacing growl. “I’m not just going to fuck you tonight, Emma—I’m going to
breed
you.”

His words remind me suddenly that I’m not on birth control. And
since my period is over—has been over for a while—I’m fertile and completely
unprotected. I open my mouth to say this…and close it again.

“I know,” Aiden murmurs in my ear as his thick shaft slides slowly
into me, stretching me wide. “I know you have no protection, Emma. I know
you’re open and fertile. Completely vulnerable to my seed.”

“Master?” I whisper, making his name a question. “Are you…will
you…?” I can’t finish the sentence. He’s all the way inside me now, and this
time he’s making no effort to hold back. The broad head of his cock presses
hard against the mouth of my womb, making me shiver with fear and anticipation.

“I’m sorry, Emma,” he tells me. “But I won’t pull out of you
tonight. I’m going to claim your pussy and come in you whether you want me to
or not. The best thing you can do is simply submit—open your pussy for me and
let me fill you. You have no choice.”

My chest feels tight with fear at his words.
Submit. I have to
submit,
I remind myself. And then, slowly, I start to relax. If my master
wants to come in me while I’m fertile and unprotected, I have no choice but to
let him. The knowledge that I am his—completely and totally his to do with as
he chooses—fills me with a strange kind of peace.

“Yes, Master,” I murmur, turning my head and pressing my cheek to
the cool wood of the breeding bench. “Whatever you want. I…I submit.”

“Gods, Emma.” His deep voice is tight, filled with emotion.
“You’re so beautiful when you give yourself to me.”

“Thank you, Master.” I spread my thighs wider, trying to open
myself still more for him, to give myself completely. “Please, Master, do it,”
I urge him. “Take me. Punish me.”

“I’ll punish you when I’m ready and not before,” he growls with
soft menace. The hands gripping my hips tighten and I feel him tense inside me.
“Remember what I told you about topping from the bottom, Emma?”

“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I just…I want you so much. Whatever
you’re going to give me—pleasure or pain. I want it.”

“I’ll give it to you, all right,” he says, sounding almost angry
this time. “Don’t move, Emma—I’m going to fuck you now.”

I open my mouth to reply but then I feel him pull almost all the
way out of me…and thrust back in hard and fast. I cry out as I feel the thick
shaft skewer me, ramming into me, the head of his cock battering the mouth of
my womb with each brutal stroke.

Punishment fuck…he’s giving me a punishment fuck,
I remind myself, trying to remember
to breathe as the hard fucking goes on and on. I want to try and twist, to get
away—but there’s no place for me to go. Aiden’s hands on my hips hold me in
place, not letting me move from my submissive position. His breath is hot and
furious against the back of my neck and his cock seems to throb within me,
stretching me to the limit with each deliberately rough stroke.

Strangely, his very roughness seems to push me closer and closer
to the edge. I’m experiencing as much pain as pleasure but the feeling is so
intense, so
deep.
I feel so opened, so taken by my master.
I am his,
I
think as he rams into me yet again.
Utterly and completely his. He’s finally
claiming me. Finally marking me as his own.

“You’re mine, Emma,” Aiden growls in my ear, echoing my thoughts
as he fucks me. “You belong to me now and I’ll never…let…you…
go
.” He
punctuates each word with a particularly deep thrust, making me cry out, making
me gasp my submission.

“Yes, Master,” I cry, feeling the magic of the wounded spell flow
over me as my pleasure and pain start to peak. “I’m yours…only and always
yours.”

“Come for me.” One of his large hands leaves my hip and travels
around to my pussy. His long fingers rub roughly against my clit. “Come for
your master, Emma. I want to feel your pussy holding me tight when I fill you
with my cum.”

“Master…” I moan and suddenly it’s too much. The pleasure of being
owned, the pain of his roughly inflicted punishment, the magic of the ancient
spell pouring over me, yearning to be healed… It all comes together like a
cyclone inside me and I feel myself exploding, my pussy contracting helplessly
around Aiden’s invading shaft as he shoves himself hard inside me and pumps me
full of his hot, creamy cum.

“Mine,” he growls again as he fills me with his seed. “Always
mine, Emma. Never forget that.”

“I won’t,” I try to say but the magic gets in the way. I can feel
it tingling all through me, rushing over me, invading me, calling my own, long
dormant power to the surface.

Suddenly my eyes feel strange and so does my hair—my pupils burn
while my scalp feels like someone poured a bucket of ice water over my head. Even
my bones ache. The bizarre sensations rush over me, drowning me, overwhelming
my senses until I can’t see, can’t hear, can’t
breathe
.

It’s too much to bear all at once. Dimly I’m aware of Aiden
calling my name. I try to answer but my mouth won’t work. I shiver and gasp as
the world goes gray around me. I open my mouth to scream…and everything fades
to black.

Chapter Twenty-three

“Emma? Emma, darling? Wake up!
Wake up.”
Aiden is shaking
me, a look of fear and desperation on his strong features.

“A-Aiden?” I blink up at his white face barely visible in the
darkness, trying to make my eyes focus. Why is everything blurry and then
suddenly sharp? And why does my scalp itch so badly? I put up a hand to touch
my hair but blue sparks fly from my fingertips. With a gasp, I pull my hand
back. I don’t want to set my own hair on fire! “What’s…what’s going on?” I ask
him in a trembling voice.

“Your magic—you finally came into your magic.” Lexy is suddenly
kneeling beside me, free of the tape that bound her earlier. Beside her Grant
is standing, his hands on his knees, peering at me curiously.

“It’s true,” he says. “It came in like an earthquake when you
fused the spell. I’ve never felt such a manifestation of power before.”

I recoil from him, thinking I’m still naked, but then I realize
I’m wrapped in Aiden’s charcoal jacket. “Is that true?” I look up at my master
for verification.

“I don’t know,” he says honestly, looking immensely relieved. “I’m
just glad you’re all right, darling. You fainted and I couldn’t wake you up.
Gods…” He puts a hand over his face for a moment in an uncharacteristic display
of emotion. “Emma,” he says in a muffled voice. “Don’t ever scare me like that
again. I thought…thought I’d lost you.”

“You still might.” Lexy puts a hand on her hip. “Why didn’t you
warn Emma this day was coming? Why didn’t you tell her she was related to Katherine?
And what else are you holding back?”

“Lexy, please…” I hold out a hand to stop her. “I don’t want to
fight right now. I’m too tired and I feel too
weird
.”

“No, your cousin is right.” Aiden sits back, his grip on me
loosening. I don’t like that—I want to be held in his arms again but somehow I
can’t say so.

“What…what do you mean?” I ask softly.

“There are things I haven’t told you.” He looks down at the flagstones,
the curving circle still half filled with his blood. “Things I haven’t shared.
But only because I wanted to spare you pain.”

“What things?” I don’t want to know but my mouth forms the words
anyway. “What…what are you talking about? Please, Aiden, I need to know.”

Aiden sighs heavily and releases his hold on me completely. I feel
so cold without him near me but I’m afraid to get close, afraid of what he
might say.

“I never told you that you were related to Katherine because I
didn’t want to tell you about the night I first saw you,” he says.

“You mean…the first time you came into my shop?” I asked,
confused.

He shakes his head. “No, darling, I met you long before that. You
just didn’t remember me. And I had almost managed to forget about you as
well—until I walked into your shop. But the first time I laid eyes on you was
fourteen years ago on the night your house burned to the ground.”

“What?” I look at him in disbelief. “But how…why…?”

“I’ll tell you everything.” He looks defeated and tired, as though
he’s suddenly feeling every year of his immense age. “Though you will not like
it and you may hate me when I’m through.”

A sudden thought occurs to me. “Aiden, you told me that Katherine
was a virgin before you found her being…attacked. But somehow I’m her direct
descendant so she must have had a baby.” I feel sick. “Please tell me you’re
not my great, great, great grandfather or something creepy like that.”

“No.” Aiden looks startled. “No, of course not. The baby girl she
had was as a result of the rape. I wanted to keep her and raise her but
Katherine refused. The baby was a constant reminder—she wanted nothing to do
with her.” His expression turns sad. “We placed her with a childless couple who
desperately wanted her. I didn’t think about the blood tie I had to her—to all
of Katherine’s descendants—until that terrible night I first saw you.”

“Blood tie?” I ask, frowning.

“When a vampire takes enough of your blood, it forms a kind of
bond,” Lexy lectures. “Depending on the type and quantity of blood they take,
the bond can be very strong—even lasting across centuries and generations.”

“True.” Aiden nods. “I was bound to Katherine by her blood,” he
says, a faraway look in his eyes. “I loved her so much I wanted to die when she
did, so I went to ground, hoping to sleep away the pain.”

“I know about that,” I say.

He nods. “When I went to ground, I still had Katherine’s blood in
me—the way I had your blood in me tonight. It formed a bond to her next of
kin—the little girl she gave away. She must have lived a quiet life and her
daughter after her and her daughter as well, because none of them ever disturbed
my slumber.

“Then, one night over a hundred years after my beloved Katherine
died, I felt a calling—a tugging inside me. It was almost as though someone had
tied a cord around my heart and was pulling as hard as she could.”

“The blood tie,” I whisper and Aiden nods.

“Your mother knew, darling,” he says. “I don’t know how—maybe she
researched your family tree. But she
knew
I was bound to Katherine and
her descendants and she called me up from the grave to save her and her little
girl.”

He puts a hand to his face and I sense that what he has to say
next is hard for him. “I came as soon as I was roused but I couldn’t save your
mother—I’m so sorry. I don’t blame you if you hate me for that. But I
did
manage to bring you to safety. I put you in your aunt’s arms before I left.”

“That night,” I whisper. “I always dream about that night…”
Suddenly The Dream comes back to me. Its details are vivid and for the first
time, I can remember it all. The man with the deep, kind voice and white hands,
the one who shielded me from the flames and saved me from the man with the
slotted yellow eyes…it was Aiden. He was there for me from the first!

“But…” I shake my head in confusion. “If you were there, you must
know how the fire started. And who was the man you saved me from? Was it…?”