The Sacrifice

  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.

  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 m
y 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.