The Sacrifice Read online

  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