The Sacrifice

  I’m still pacing around the room, practically pulling my hair out, when my cell phone rings. I pounce on it at once, hoping it’s Aiden or maybe my professor calling back to say he’s reconsidered. (Fat chance, I know, but a girl can hope.) It’s only Lexy, however, sounding bubbly as usual.

  “Hey cuz, can I come over?”

  “If you want to, I guess,” I grumble. “It’s not like I have anything else to do tonight—nothing I can get to, anyway.”

  “Geeze, don’t overwhelm me with your enthusiasm,” she says flatly. “Maybe I should leave you alone if you’re going to be in such a pissy mood.”

  “No, I’m sorry.” I sigh and run a hand through my hair. “It’s just that I’m supposed to go to my final exam in Advanced Herbology tonight. I was going to ask Aiden to take me, since he’s forbidden me to leave the house without him. But he’s been gone for the past two days doing who knows what with the kinky French woman who turned him into a vampire in the first place.”

  “Whoa, whoa, slow down,” Lexy says. “I must have heard you wrong—you’re not really going to miss the final exam just because his High-and-Mightiness is off doing family bonding stuff with his vamp mom, are you?”

  I start pacing again. “I don’t want to but I don’t know what else to do.”

  “Go take the exam, of course,” Lexy says practically. “Look, I know you don’t have a car there. I’ll come get you and drive you myself.”

  I bite my lip, filled with indecision. “I shouldn’t—Aiden will be so angry when he finds out and I’m sure Barnes will tell him.”

  “Emma, honey, have you ever heard the saying, ‘It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission’?” Lexy asks. “I think this is one of those cases. I mean, I know you—you’ve always been anal about your grades. You’ll never forgive yourself if you flunk a class just because the Grand-High-Poobah Vampire forbid you to leave the damn house.”

  “It would ruin my GPA and any future career I might have in botany or herbology,” I say, wanting to believe her.

  “Exactly,” Lexy says. “And why did he forbid you to go out in the first place?”

  I blow out a breath impatiently. “He says he’s worried about my safety. Apparently as the Sovereign he has lots of enemies that would love to get their hands on me.”

  “Oh yeah?” Lexy sounds extremely skeptical. “And have you ever seen any evidence that everybody and their brother is out to get you?”

  “Well…no,” I admit. Then I have a sudden thought. “Although I did get a weird note through the mail—that same day you first came to visit.”

  “Oh yeah?” She sounds interested. “What kind of note?”

  “It had some kind of quote on it—something to do with too long a submission making the heart a stone. I don’t know—it really didn’t make much sense. In fact I haven’t even thought about it again until just now.”

  “Probably some jealous fairy bitch trying to freak you out,” Lexy says complacently. “Didn’t I tell you you’re the envy of every single supe girl in the entire Tampa Bay Area? They all want to be in your place—is that what Aiden was talking about?”

  “I don’t think so,” I say. “I’m not sure.”

  “Well, I’m sure of one thing,” she says. “If you don’t go take this test tonight and you flunk your class because of it, you’re going to regret it for the rest of your natural life. What time does it start?”

  “Eight,” I say reluctantly. “But I’d probably need to be there by seven forty-five just to be sure.”

  “Great. I’ll pick you up at seven thirty,” she says promptly. “We’ll go to USF, get your test done, and drive straight home. No muss, no fuss. We won’t even stop at Sonic for a cherry limeade.” Which is one of our favorite things to do together even though I get mine diet and Lexy gets hers full strength with extra syrup.

  Just the thought of that—of getting out of the house for the first time in weeks (aside from my dinner with Aiden at Bern's, that is)—makes me itch with anticipation. I’m normally a homebody and I love hanging around the house when my master is here. But now that he’s gone, I’m starting to feel the worst case of cabin fever ever coming on. I want to get out and not just to take a final, to go riding with Lexy, singing along with the radio, a sweet treat in one hand and the wind in my hair. Still…

  “I shouldn’t,” I say.

  “Yes, you should,” my cousin insists. “And you’re going to. So take off that damn harness—if he’s still making you wear it—and get ready to go. I’m coming right over.”

  She hangs up the phone with a final click before I can say anything else. Biting my lip, I go to find something to wear. Looks like I’m going to my final exam after all.

  We get to USF with no problem and I ace the final. Professor Canton checks over my answers when I hand it in and looks up at me approvingly. “I must say, Ms. Krist, you really have a good grasp of Herbology. It’s almost like you were born to it.”

  I try to smother a smile. “I guess you could say it runs in my family.”

  He raises an eyebrow at me. “The same family you’ve been having so many difficulties with this semester?”

  “Uh…yes.” I can feel my cheeks getting hot. I’ve given him so many excuses since I moved in with Aiden and stopped going to class I’ve kind of lost track of them all.

  “Well, never mind about that now.” Professor Canton stacks the papers in front of him into a neat file. “I’m just glad you made it here tonight. It would have pained me to give you a failing grade over transportation troubles.”

  “Thanks, Professor,” I mumble.

  He smiles. “I hope to have you in some of my other classes in the future. Provided you show up, of course.”

  “Of course. Thank you.” I nod a quick goodbye and finally make my escape. Whew. I’m so glad that’s over! It will doubtless earn me a pretty severe punishment from Aiden—a whipping with his belt or maybe even a spanking over his knee. Or maybe a punishment fuck, whispers a little voice in my brain.

  I bite my lip, my body in conflict with itself at the very thought. Would I want that? Could I open myself to him, submit even though I knew what he was going to do was going to hurt? Of course, I already do that to some extent when I submit to the spankings and whippings and other punishments he gives me. But opening myself for a punishment fuck would be different…frightening…strange… My heart skitters in my chest and my pussy heats up. Would Aiden really do that to me?

  “Hey, so how’d it go?” Lexy pops up from the bench where she was waiting for me, dropping the old Cosmo she found to keep her busy while I took the test.

  “Great.” I grin at her in relief, trying to put my disturbing thoughts aside. “I’m pretty sure I nailed it.”

  “Awesome!” She grabs me and hugs me hard, doing a little victory jig I have to shuffle to keep up with. “Okay,” she says at last, letting me go. “Now we have to get a cherry limeade to celebrate. What do you say?”

  I know I should decline and ask her to take me straight home, but I can’t help myself—it feels too good to be out. To be free. “All right,” I say reluctantly. “But we’ll just go through the drive-thru and go straight home, okay?”

  “Sure, whatever. As long as we go.” Lexy is just pleased to be out doing something again. It makes me realize that she’s missed me as much as I have been missing her. I’ll have to talk to Aiden when he gets back about the possibility of my cousin and I having more girl days together. Having her over for lunch once in a while just isn’t enough.

  “Let’s go.” I hook my arm through hers and we clatter down the stairs together happily.

  It’s only when we push past the thick metal outer door that I begin to feel uneasy. The sky was still light when I went in to take my final but now it’s full dark. To make things worse, the door we left by opens up onto a long, winding concrete pathway between some native Floridian tropical plants. They’re meant as an example of our hot, humid ecosystem but to me, the huge fanning leave
s just look like a great place for someone to hide.

  Stop being so stupid, I tell myself uneasily. There are campus security guards everywhere. Not to mention, you’re not alone. I’m sure nobody will mess with Lexy and me while we’re together—there’s safety in numbers. Right?

  Still with my arm hooked firmly through my cousin’s, I start off down the path. Lexy parked in the lot that’s just around the corner and I’m sure—

  “Excuse me. Can I interest you in the plight of tigers in China?”

  “Huh?” I’ve been concentrating on the path so fiercely that the soft, feminine voice takes me by surprise.

  “They’re being hunted to extinction.” A pretty co-ed holding a clipboard is standing right in our way, her eyes earnest. “They use these magnificent animals for all sorts of home brewed remedies—the meat, the paws, even the coat is used.” She thrusts a picture of a yellow and black striped tiger lying majestically on a rock into our faces.

  Lexy takes the picture and studies it. “Huh. Well, it sounds like none of it’s going to waste,” she says at last, giving the picture back. “I mean, they’re using the whole thing, right down to the last whisker, right? So what’s the problem?”

  I can tell my cousin is being sarcastic but by the way the co-ed is gaping at her, it’s clear she has no idea. “You don’t understand,” she begins again. “These people are killing tigers.”

  “I’d kill one too, if it came too close,” Lexy says with a straight face. “I mean, if it’s you or the tiger, who are you gonna choose? I’m not living The Life of Pi over here.”

  “It’s wrong to kill tigers.” The co-ed is speaking very slowly, as though Lexy was a learning disabled kindergartener. “They’re endangered. That’s why I’m going to give you a chance to sponsor one—”

  “Sponsor it to do what?” Lexy demands, obviously really enjoying herself now. “Go to tiger summer camp or something?”

  “Well, no…” The co-ed looks taken aback. “I mean—”

  “What do tigers do all day anyway?” Lexy asks. “Just lie around and eat, right? I wish somebody would sponsor me to do that. I’m and endangered species—there’s only one of me and I bet there are a lot more tigers than that.”

  “Their numbers are dwindling every day.” The co-ed sounds like she’s reciting from a brochure somebody at the save-the-tigers place made her memorize. “Look.” She thrusts another picture in Lexy’s face. “This one’s name is Sheba. She’s a beautiful female and she’s pregnant. We think she’ll be having her cubs any day now.”

  “So she’s a pregnant unwed mother who needs my support.” Lexy looks sympathetic. “Now I get it. Poor thing.”

  “It’s very sad.” The co-ed looks like she might actually start crying. “I’m glad you understand.”

  “Of course I understand—I’m not a republican.” Lexy pats her arm. “Unfortunately, my democratic ass is completely broke. So I’m afraid you’ll have to find someone else to support Sheba. Unless, of course, her baby-daddy shows up. Maybe he could get a job and bring home the bacon for a while.” She looks at the co-ed seriously. “Do tigers eat bacon?”

  “No, but—”

  “Excuse me, Ms. Krist. I’ve got a whole different animal I think you might be interested in. Right in my fucking pants.”

  A musky, animalistic odor assaults my nose just as the deep voice snarls in my ear. I jump in surprise and start to turn but I’m already being held fast in two hard hands. The speaker turns me to face him and I see the slotted yellow eyes of a goat.

  “Hello, Emma,” Emilio Sanchez grates, grinning at me. “Long time no see.”

  Chapter Twenty-one

  I open my mouth to scream but Sanchez has a meaty palm slapped over my lips before I can make so much as a whimper. I want to gag at the gamey smell of his hand but I try to bite him anyway. Before I taste blood, he yanks his hand away and backhands me. My head rocks back and I see stars exploding in my field of vision as pain blooms across my cheek. I stagger backward but the satyr catches me by the elbow and yanks me back up. He pulls out a roll of duct tape and slaps a thick piece over my mouth while I’m still stunned.

  “Figure that oughta shut you up for a little while, girlie,” he mutters in my ear and proceeds to tape my wrists together too. "Don't know why you're so surprised. I brought you the warning this day was coming, straight from the Council itself. Didn't you get the message?"

  The message…he must mean the cryptic quote in the cardboard box he delivered to me. My head is aching and the world around me is reeling but from the corner of my eye, I see that Lexy has been similarly bound and gagged by another satyr. The save-the-tigers co-ed is long gone. I have a faint hope that she might have run to fetch the campus police…but then I see her body, face down on the ground.

  “She’ll wake up eventually,” Sanchez grunts, nudging her with the steel toe of his work boot. “The Council said no witnesses—wipe her, Grant.”

  I look on in amazement as a man who is clearly a warlock bends down and presses the tips of two fingers to the unconscious co-ed’s temple. He murmurs a forgetfulness spell and I know when she wakes up she’ll have nothing but a headache and no memory of what happened.

  Male witches are rare and I thought I knew most of them in the community but this warlock is new. Why is he working with a satyr against his own kind? And what do they want from me? I stare at Sanchez uncertainly, looking for clues, trying to figure this out. As always whenever I’m near him I smell burning, hear crying. This time I don’t try to shut it out. I reach for the memory, wondering why it seems so familiar…trying to figure it out. The eyes…the slotted yellow eyes outside my bedroom that night… But what night? Why—?

  “You better wipe the other one too,” Sanchez says, nodding at Lexy.

  Lexy shakes her head, her auburn hair whipping wildly around her face as the warlock called Grant approaches her.

  “Hold her,” Sanchez tells the other satyr. He’s a big, burly guy with hands like meat hooks, which he digs into Lexy’s upper arms, making her moan in pain.

  Grant manages to catch my cousin’s chin and press his fingertips to her temple. He mutters under his breath for a moment while she stares at him, wide-eyed. At last he draws back, an unhappy look on his face.

  “Well?” Sanchez demands.

  Grant frowns. “I couldn’t do much. She’s a powerful witch and she has a strong family behind her. They’ll be able to tell she was tampered with.”

  “That’s too fucking bad.” Sanchez spits to one side, a gob of greenish goo staining the concrete walkway. “Finish the job or kill her yourself—I don’t care which. But the Council says no witnesses so there better not be any. Understand?”

  “No one ever said I’d have to work against my own kind when I took this job,” Grant protests.

  “Your kind doesn’t mean shit.” Sanchez’s inhuman eyes narrow and he pokes a finger at the warlock. “And your only job is to do whatever the Council tells you. Now come on—we’re supposed to be there soon.”

  The two satyrs tow Lexy and I off the path—despite our kicking and struggling. Grant walks to one side, his lips moving silently in a don’t-notice-me spell. I can feel his magic tingling against my skin, enveloping us all in a silent, invisible net. We walk right past a pair of campus security guards and neither of them notices a thing.

  It doesn’t take long to get to a black, windowless van—the exact kind of vehicle I imagine a serial killer driving. I nearly lose it here—kicking and clawing—as well as I can with my hands taped in front of me, that is. Finally Sanchez belts me in the face again, stunning me. I fall to the ground as Lexy makes indignant noises through her gag. I know she wants to come running to my rescue but her own satyr guard has a firm grip on her.

  “Listen up, girlie,” Sanchez says, bending down to look at me. “Settle down if you don’t want more of the same. I’d tell you that I don’t like hitting women, but that would be a lie. I really fucking enjoy it—makes me hard, you know?” He g
rabs his crotch and shakes it at me, laughing. “In fact, when this is all over I might even fuck you.”

  The casual way he says it and the gleam in his slotted yellow eyes makes me cold all over. I feel frozen as they load Lexy and me into the back of the van and clang the doors shut, leaving us in darkness.

  “Where are they taking us?” I hear Lexy whisper in my head. I want to answer her but the mind voice, also referred to as the “witch-whisper” is yet another piece of magic I was never able to manage. It used to drive me crazy because I could hear everything my cousins said without being able to reply. So I know it’s useless, but I can’t help trying to talk back.

  “I don’t know,” I send in Lexy’s direction.

  In the dimness of the van, I see her eyes widen. “Emma—you did it! You talked to me! I heard you!” She nudges me with her foot. “Try again.”

  “What do you want me to say?”

  “Oh my Goddess!” Despite the desperate situation we are in, she is suddenly ecstatic for me. “You can do it—you can mind talk! I always knew it—I knew you weren’t a dud! First lighting the candles and now this—your magic is finally coming in, Emma. I just know it!”

  “It’s awesome,” I admit. I don’t know where the magic came from but I can feel it filling me slowly, like an empty cup being filled one drop at a time. “But it doesn’t get us any closer to getting out of here.”

  “What does Sanchez want with us, anyway?” She shivers. “Ugh—I always hated him.”

  “I don’t think it’s us they want—it’s me,” I send grimly. “Maybe….maybe Aiden was right about him having a lot of enemies that want to get to me.” Just thinking it makes me feel sick. What are they going to do with me? Will they kill me just to make Aiden mad? And who are “they” anyway?