The Sacrifice Read online

  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.”