“Someone important.” He gives me a most unpleasant grin before pushing a small brown cardboard box into my hands. He tips his hat briefly, which exposes his stubby horns. “Have a good day, ma’am.” And then he’s gone.
I watch him leave with relief—I’ve never liked Sanchez or any satyr for that matter. They take mindless lust to a whole new level so unless you’re really into being raped, they aren’t the ideal Friday night date. Thankfully, I almost never have to see him or his kind outside supernatural gatherings. But when I do see him, he always finds a way to say something nasty or make a lewd gesture. Actually, this encounter was remarkably mild.
“Is madam ready to close the door?” Barnes asks, reminding me that I’m standing there with the large front door open, 'air conditioning the great outdoors' as my aunt would say.
“Uh, yes.” I clear my throat and step back, clutching the box to my chest.
“Thank you, Ms. Krist,” he says formally and closes the door with a snick before turning to me. “May I ask again if there will be two or three for lunch?”
I flush, remembering the state I was in last time he asked the question. “Just two, Barnes,” I say, speaking as formally as he did. “Thank you.”
“You’re most welcome, madam.” He nods at me, perhaps a touch less frostily. “Would it please you to have lunch by the pool?”
“Oh yes, that would be wonderful!” I’m getting excited now to show Lexy the house. It’s not like I own it but if you live in a mansion, you might as well make use of it. And having lunch by the pool sounds so perfectly la-ti-da. She’s going to love it.
A very small smile touches Barnes’ thin lips. “Very well. I’ll set everything out for you.”
“Thank you,” I say again, really meaning it.
He nods and leaves me alone. I look after him until I realize I’m still gripping the mysterious box. What’s in it? I lift it to my ear and shake but I don’t hear a thing and it’s very light—almost as though it was empty. Who would send me an empty box and why? There’s no tingling in my fingertips so no magic is involved. At least, nothing overt.
I take the box back in my room before I open it. Inside is a single slip of paper and on it, in elegant script are written these words:
Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart. O. When may it suffice?
And under that:
Soon.
I stare in confusion at the piece of paper. It seems to be some kind of a quote or warning. But by who and about what? Too long a sacrifice—is someone trying to say that a year is too long for the designated Sacrifice to serve the Sovereign? Well, what good is it going to do to tell me that? It’s not like I can change anything.
I’m still puzzling over the box and its confusing contents when I hear the front doorbell again. This time it’s Lexy with a laundry basket full of clothes and—oh joy!—my cell phone. She even remembered the charger.
I give her an enthusiastic hug and then she steps back to look around. “Wow, this place is swanky! But what the hell is the deal with all the glass walls?”
“Aiden likes sunlight,” I say, with a shrug. “He says he went without it for too long and now he wants to make up for lost time.”
“A vampire who loves sunlight.” She shakes her head. “What’ll they think of next? Well, come on—give me the grand tour.”
I take her to the bedroom first, so I can deposit the laundry basket full of clothes. But I have forgotten about the abandoned harness, lying discarded on the bed. I’m quick to put the laundry basket on top of it, but Lexy is even quicker.
“Oh my Goddess—what’s that thing? Do you wear that?”
“Not all the time.” I can feel my cheeks heating and I curse myself for leaving the damn harness in plain sight. After all the trouble I went to in order to take it off and then I go and let her see it anyway! It’s mortifying.
“So he’s into the kinky stuff, huh?” Lexy grins at me and wiggles her eyebrows. “I thought he might be after what I heard about him.”
“What? What did you hear?” I’ve been living here with Aiden for a month now and I scarcely know more about him than I did when I first came. He’s maddeningly evasive when I ask about his past and he has an annoying habit of answering my questions with other questions.
“Ah-ah-ah,” Lexy trills, shaking her finger at me. “I’ll tell you everything but first you have to tell me the dirty details of what it’s like to be the Sovereign’s personal sex slave.”
“Oh come on, Lexy,” I moan but she only laughs.
“You know how it is—you have to give some to get some. Besides, I’m dying to know. You’re the envy of every single girl in the supernatural community, you know. The last Sovereign was so old and stodgy and boring. And Aiden James is so sexy and hot and mysterious and—”
“Lunch is served, madam.” Barnes is suddenly standing there at the doorway, giving Lexy a very disapproving look from his blind eyes.
“Oh, thank you, Barnes,” I say, feeling embarrassed all over again. “Uh, out by the pool, right?”
“As you requested, Ms. Krist.” He makes me a formal, sweeping bow and then stands back, indicating that we should precede him from the room.
Out by the pool, Lexy can’t stop gushing about how fabulous everything is and honestly, I have to agree with her. Lunch is a much more elaborate affair than the simple fruit and cheese courses that Barnes usually prepares for me. There’s an elegant chilled cucumber soup to start and then tiny finger sandwiches filled with smoked salmon and cream cheese. Next a mushroom and spinach quiche followed by blackberry sage sorbet for dessert. Barnes even opens a bottle of champagne—something expensive with tiny bubbles that tickle my nose and go straight to my head. That’s not really saying much though—I’ve never been much of a drinker.
“So tell me,” Lexy continues as we nipple and sip. “What exactly is going on here in this weird glass house?”
“About what you’d expect,” I say, and take another sip of champagne. Honestly, I’m beginning to feel a little tipsy. I really should stop but it tastes so good. “I mean, you know, regular sex slave stuff.”
“What?” she squeals. “What kind of sex slave stuff. Tell me, Emma!”
It seems to me I didn’t want to tell her before, but now that I’ve had several glasses of the lovely champagne, it doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.
“You know,” I say again. “I wake up in the morning and have breakfast with Aiden. Then he takes me in the bedroom and makes me wear the harness.”
“What—that weird purple dildo thing I saw in your room?”
“Yup,” I say and hiccup before taking another sip. “I’m not supposed to take it off but I did anyway. I thought it would be too weird to wear it with you here.”
“You got that right.” She snickers. “So then what?”
“He goes off to work and leaves me here. Oh, but usually I spend the whole day naked except for this.” I point to the collar I’m still wearing. “And the harness.”
“It’s gorgeous,” Lexy says, looking more closely at the collar with its dangling pendant. “Is that a real ruby? And did you just say you spend the whole day naked?”
“I have no idea if it’s real but knowing Aiden, it probably is,” I say. “And yes, I don’t wear clothes. He, uh, says he likes to see me. Also, he wants me to like myself better too or something like that.” I hiccup again.
“Weird,” Lexy murmurs. “But also kind of hot.”
“That pretty much sums up the whole situation,” I agree.
“So what happens when he gets home?” she prompts but I shake my head.
“Uh-uh, cuz. No more about my kinky daily routine until you spill what you know.”
“Oh, all right,” she sighs. “But you should know I had to sleep with a lot of vampires to get this dirt.”
“Yeah, like that was such a hardship for you,” I say dryly.
Lexy giggles. “Actually, it’s been a lot of fun. Even if I am starting to feel l
ike a pin cushion.” She looks at me curiously. “By the way, where are your bite marks? Aiden must be feeding from you, right? I mean, you should see my inner thighs.”
“Uh…” I feel slightly uncomfortable, despite my semi-drunken state. “He hasn’t actually bitten me again since that first night. He, uh, says that he doesn’t need much blood.”
“Okay, well even without the biting the sex must be amazing, right?” she prompts.
“Actually…” I clear my throat. “We haven’t, uh, done that either.”
“What?” she shrieks. “He’s had you a whole month and he still hasn’t claimed you?”
“Keep it down,” I say, feeling annoyed. “I told you, I’m not telling you anything else until you give me the information you got whoring around the vampire community.”
Lexy grumbles some at that but she finally starts to talk. “Okay, get this—apparently Aiden James has a tragedy in his past. A mysterious tragedy,” she continues, nodding when I lean forward to look at her. “It was like a hundred years ago or something but apparently when he was first made a vampire, he fell in love with a witch. Only back then, that wasn’t done.”
“Back when the supernatural community didn’t mix,” I murmur.
Lexy nods again. “Exactly. Anyway, apparently he was crazy for her but she died.”
“How?” I want to know. “How did she die?”
Lexy shrugs. “None of the vampires I, uh, talked with seemed to know. Some people say he killed her—maybe by accident. You know, taking too much blood?”
I shiver and nod. It’s not unknown for a newly made vampire to get a little too enthusiastic about feeding. Deaths happen from time to time, which is why you’re actually safer with an older, more powerful vamp than a brand new one, fresh out of the coffin. I’m not wild about the idea that the man I’m with may have killed a previous lover but Aiden always seems so controlled around me. That could never happen now…right?
“Go on,” I tell Lexy, trying to push away my feelings of unease.
“Not everybody thinks it was Aiden’s fault she died,” my cousin says. “Some say she killed herself—maybe she couldn’t deal with the whole vamp/witch interracial thing. Anyway, whatever the reason, when she took a dirt nap, he went a little bit crazy. He went to ground for years and years and just refused to have anything to do with anyone. Then, about fourteen years ago he finally came back to the land of the living—well, in a manner of speaking, anyway.”
“Fourteen years? Are you sure?” I ask, frowning.
“Yeah, why?”
“No reason,” I murmur. It wouldn’t be a significant number except it’s been almost exactly that amount of time since my mother died in the fire that left me an orphan. In fact, the anniversary of her death is coming up in less than a month.
“So anyway,” Lexy continues, “He had gone to ground for so long I don’t think anyone really believed he would come back.”
“Right,” I say, getting back on track. The vampires’ ability to hide themselves away from the rest of the world in a dark box and basically starve themselves to death without actually dying is unique in the supernatural community. It’s kind of like a bear hibernating through the winter, only vamps can go for years, even decades or centuries in their dormant condition until something happens to wake them from their long rest. “So what brought him back?” I ask Lexy.
She shrugs. “Again, no one knows. But when he did come back, he abjured his own kind.”
“What?” This makes no sense at all. Why would Aiden swear off other vampires? The fanged set is usually very close knit—why put himself outside of the group and its protection?
“It’s true,” Lexy avers. “They say he lived like a human. Apparently he made all these investments before he went to ground and when he came back into the light, he was a multi-gazillionaire. So he started his own company, built this massive, weird glass house, and pretty much did his own thing. Until the Council stepped in, that is.”
“The Vampire Council?” I ask, raising my eyebrows at her.
Slowly, she nods. This dark, mysterious ruling body has been the subject of much speculation among the rest of the supernatural community. It’s said to be made up of some of the oldest and most powerful vampires in history. It’s also said that no one individual, vampire or otherwise, is strong enough to stand against it. The Council chooses the Sovereign, who acts as a visible figurehead—probably so they can retain their anonymity.
“So what does the Vamp Council have to do with Aiden—aside from choosing him to be Sovereign, I mean,” I say.
“That’s the thing—they didn’t just choose him. They forced him to be Sovereign.” Lexy’s eyes widen. “Several of the vamps I talked to said they heard he didn’t want to be. But they made him—something to do with his bloodline or something. And they didn’t give him much time either—apparently he didn’t even know he was going to be Sovereign until two days before the Sacrifice Ceremony.”
I purse my lips in concentration. Hmm. That would certainly explain how rushed and irritated he was the first time he came in the shop. They gave him next to no time to prepare and he knew he had to choose a Sacrifice so he resorted to that old spell in Farrow’s. But why was he so concerned about finding just the right woman? A man in his position had the wealth and power to have anyone he wanted. Why didn’t he just pick the prettiest or most powerful witch out of the crowd and not worry about it?
I remember him telling me that he wanted me the first minute he saw me and my cheeks get hot. Was I just a choice of convenience? Did he make a snap decision to have me the minute he met me because he liked the way I looked? Or maybe the power he claims I have bottled up inside me drew him to me.
“You’re awfully quiet over there,” Lexy says. “Whatcha thinking of—whips and chains?”
“No.” I look down at my champagne glass, feeling suddenly sober. “I was just wondering why Aiden chose me.”
“Because you’re a sexy goddess. And don’t give me that look.” Lexy reaches around the table to give me a one armed hug. “You’re gorgeous, Emma—you just don’t give yourself any credit. Did it ever occur to you that he might really have the hots for you? There is such a thing as love at first sight, you know.”
“Not with vampires,” I say. “They’re so cold and stand-offish.” Although that description doesn’t match Aiden at all. Well, unless he’s angry or disappointed with me, as he is now.
“He’s probably just cold because he needs to learn how to love again.” Lexy gets a dreamy look in her eyes. “He lost the only woman he ever cared about when Katherine died and now you’ve reawakened feelings in him he thought had died with her.”
“Will you please try to sound less like a trashy romance novel?” I ask in exasperation. “Katherine—was that the name of the witch he loved? And possibly…”
“Killed. Yup.” Lexy nods, her red hair bouncing. “I couldn’t get her last name out of anyone—lost in the mists of time, I suppose.”
“I wonder if she’s the one that copy of Farrow’s belonged to,” I mutter to myself.
“What?” Lexy asks. “Why would you have a copy of a beginner spell book here?”
I tell her all about the mysterious book, the tingling in my fingertips when I touched it, as well as the way I actually lit two candles by magic—although I’m not sure how I did it or if I can ever do it again.
When I’m finished, Lexy looks at me with wide eyes. “Emma, that’s wonderful. Amazing!” she breathes. “You finally did magic!” She leans over to give me a tight, ecstatic hug and then frowns. “Why in the Goddess’s name didn’t you tell me before?”
“I felt weird discussing it over Aiden’s private phone line,” I confess, pulling away. “And besides, I kept hoping I’d be able to do it again so I could report that I’m finally not a dud anymore. But I’ve tried and tried and so far…” I shrug. “Nothing.”
“If you did it once, you can do it again,” Lexy says with utter certainty. “What exa
ctly were you doing differently when you managed the first time?”
“Uh, well…” I’ve already told her so much, I guess it can’t hurt to tell a little more. “Aiden was touching me. Actually, we were touching each other. And, well…” I can feel my cheeks getting hot. “When we were finished, the candles were lit.”
“Sex Magic,” Lexy breathes. “That’s amazing, Emma. Who knew a vampire would be the one to finally break down the barriers and let your magic out?”
I frown because her words are similar to what Aiden said. “What makes you think I have barriers holding it back? With most duds, they just have no magic at all.”
Lexy shakes her head. “But you’re not a dud—this proves it. Besides, when we were kids, I remember hearing your mom talking to my mom one night. Your mom said you were going to be the most powerful witch of your generation—she said she was already seeing signs of your power leaking out around the edges.”
“But that’s impossible,” I say blankly. “My mother died when I was only eight—way before I hit puberty. And I don’t remember ever having any powers back then. I couldn’t have.”
“I dunno.” Lexy shrugs. “I’m just telling you what I heard. I never said anything about it before because, well, I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”
“Thanks,” I say dryly but I know she means well. And truthfully, knowing I was a massive disappointment to my mother’s expectations would have been pretty hard to bear growing up.
“You’re welcome.” She gives me a smile. “And just wait and see, you’re going to have magic yet. All you need to do is practice while you and Aiden are getting your kink on.”
“Right,” I murmur. “It should be totally possible to concentrate on working a complicated spell while I’m tied down, being sexually tortured.”
This, of course, brings on a whole new barrage of questions that I would rather not answer since the champagne seems to have worn off. But Lexy—being Lexy—is like a bloodhound on the scent. She won’t give up until she gets every last kinky detail. We spend the rest of her visit talking about the ins and outs of being a vampire’s submissive sex slave and the time just flies.