Master for Tonight (12 page)

Grabbing her robe, she shoved her arms
through as she ran down the stairs, jumping over the last few
steps, and tripped over her feet before reaching the front door.
She grabbed the door knob and pulled. It didn’t budge, as it was
locked, but she saw that the deadbolt was not engaged. Her inner
turmoil mounted further, and her breathing rapidly increased.

Shaking like a leaf in a windstorm, Kate
turned her head to look into the living room, her terrified mind
dreading what she might see, while her anticipating heart
jumped.

Nothing looked out of place, which only
caused Kate’s trepidation to rise more.

She staggered into the silent room, over to
the coffee table. The bottle of Cabernet was half empty, her
partially filled goblet sat there, and her Kindle was still in the
corner of the couch. The stereo was off, since it would
automatically shut down after four hours of inactivity. Everything
sat the same as her last memory, but she knew it was a false
depiction of the night. She knew it.

Kate’s eyes darted over the room as she
whimpered, started hyperventilating, and collapsed onto the couch.
The shrill sound of her cell phone sliced through the air,
shattering the silence.

The final trigger to her panicked mind sent
her over the edge, into oblivion.

Clutching her head in her hands, fingernails
digging into her scalp, Kate screamed in uncontrollable terror. Her
eyes cinched closed as her mind came apart in the lightless void
within, nightfall descending upon her on all sides.

“Helen, there’s someone on the line for
you.” One of the shelter workers held the phone away from her ear,
covering the mouthpiece with her hand, waving in the air to get
Helen’s attention as she passed. “Ooo! It’s that deep voice again.
What are you up to when you’re away from here, girl? Hmm?” She
wiggled her eyebrows up and down suggestively. “He sounds like sex
on a stick, girl.”

“Nothing quite as exciting as what you’re
thinking, Francis. Probably just another bill collector. Donors
never call nowadays. I’ll take it in my office.”

“I’d try to work out a payment plan with
this one,” Francis said as Helen walked away. “Uh-huh. Yes, I
would.”

Helen walked around her desk, cluttered with
sticky notes and miscellaneous paperwork. As she stood rifling
through the red-lined bills stacked in a pile on the corner, she
tried to think of another good excuse to use for not yet paying
one. Drawing a blank, she quit stalling and sat down in the
chair.

She shrieked and grabbed the arms, feet
flying up, as the chair broke under her. She tumbled onto the
floor, taking one of the wooden arms with her. Cursing under her
breath, she reached over the desk and grabbed the phone, pulling it
to the floor. She picked up the receiver.

“Helen Malloy speaking. How may I help you?”
she asked, dusting off her pants.

“
Pareo
.”

Her eyes closed and her body relaxed. “Yes,
Julian.” Her voice had a dreamy lilt to it. He had used his power
months ago to influence her into falling into an instant
entrancement when that word was spoken by him alone.

“Are you alone somewhere private, Helen?
Where you can speak freely?”

Julian inquired to make sure neither Helen’s
hypnotic trance would be noticed, nor her conversation
overheard.

“Yes, I’m in my office alone with the door
shut.”

“Thank you, Helen. Listen to me closely and
do exactly what I say. Go lock your office door and come back to
the phone. Say my name when you return.”

She did as he asked.

“When we hang up, you will want to phone
Kate to see how her vacation is going and to check on her to make
sure she is okay. You will want to call her as one friend calling
another, and you will in no way sound different to her. Do you
understand?”

“Yes, I understand, Julian. I want to call
Kate to see how she is. She’s my friend, and I want to see how her
time off is going.”

“That’s right. You will make the call from
your office. You will stay there until I call back. If I don’t call
back within two hours, you may leave, but until then, you stay and
continue to work there. You have things to do, right? Something
will always keep you at the shelter for at least one hour past
sunset, right?” At her agreement, he continued, “If someone asks
you who was on the phone just now, it was a bill collector.”

After hearing her acceptance of his orders,
Julian disconnected the call, marking the time on his wrist watch
with a glance. He picked up a book and leafed through it until he
found the last section he’d read.

“Come to bed. It’s still light,” Evangeline
called out of the bedroom, into the warehouse.

“It’s twilight. I’m busy. Entertain yourself
for a while.”

He heard the bed creak and the sound of
footsteps fall, and he winced as his poorly chosen words brought
his naked nightmare to where he stood, at the opposite side of the
warehouse.

“Entertain myself? Are you telling me to
play with myself when you’re right here, able to satisfy me?”

She ran her fingers over his bare chest, up
to his shoulders and down his arms. Lifting his hand, she stepped
closer to him and placed it on her breast, and he felt her erect
nipple against the inside of his palm.

Pulling away, he took a step back from her,
holding up his book and looking away.

“I’m not in the mood. I’m asking you nicely
to please leave me in peace tonight.”

He tried desperately to mask his disgust at
the thought of touching her dead flesh. Evangeline was a beautiful
woman, but malice lay just beneath her skin.

She grabbed his crotch and fire burned in
her eyes as she looked at him in a mix of annoyance and anger at
his attitude towards her.

“I suggest you take your
niceness
and
your tight ass to my bed right now. You’re going to fuck me, and
fuck me good, lover. It’s been too long since you’ve been inside
me.”

It was obvious to Julian she wasn’t going to
leave him alone, and only a few minutes had passed. He needed more
time, and to get rid of his Maker for a while. Helen wouldn’t leave
the shelter for a few hours yet. That, he knew with certainty, and
he was anxious to hear about Kate.

Resigned, he nodded. Heading to the bedroom,
he pulled his belt out from the loops with a snap and tossed it
into the air behind him.

“What are you waiting for, woman?” Julian
unclasped his pants and dropped them to the floor, stepping out of
them without breaking stride. “Come get fucked.”

How the hell am I going to get it up for
this bitch? Oh, God, Kate. I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to
do this!

His thoughts were directed to his love as if
he were speaking to her, expressing his agony at what was about to
transpire.

Picking up the belt from the floor,
Evangeline flew at Julian in a rage, wielding it like a whip,
raining blows on his back, legs and ass. The buckle marked his skin
briefly before fading.

Julian did nothing to stop her attack,
knowing his flippancy caused it, and any resistance would push her
wrath further. He stood in place and took the lashing as she
screamed in fury. She stopped only after the buckle broke free and
flew across the room, the belt frayed at the end. Droplets of his
dried blood were stuck to her face.

“You are mine to do with as I please! I am
your Maker.”

“Yes, I am and you are.”

She dropped the belt, walked to him, and
wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling his head to hers in a
kiss. Her tongue glided against his lips, seeking entry which he
allowed with no hesitation, even as he felt bile rise in his
throat. She was kissing him with urgency, trying to get the
reaction from him she wanted. As much as he tried, he couldn’t fake
his enjoyment.

She broke the kiss before wrapping one hand
around his throat, lifting him up into the air and tossing him into
the bedroom. Julian lay on the floor as Evangeline lowered herself
onto his face. Her pussy pressed against his lips and she rubbed
herself against him. The coarse hairs were faintly wet.

“Lick it. Do it the way I like, lover.”

He began to lick her pussy as she ground
herself against his face, moving her hips in circles.

“Yes, more!” Her moans of pleasure mounted
as her juices slid into his mouth. “It’s so good!”

Bending at the waist, she took his flaccid
cock into her hands and began stroking him up and down. Chagrined,
yet thankful his dick had a brain of its own, Julian felt himself
hardening as he continued to lick Evangeline.

“You’re so hard for me,” Evangeline purred
as she worked his shaft faster, licking her lips before sucking his
cock into her mouth.

Julian jolted in pain when she pricked the
head with her teeth, but said nothing to stop her from doing to him
as she pleased. As vampires, it was natural for them to enjoy blood
exchanges during sex, but he never had and never would enjoy
anything with the woman jerking and sucking him off.

As Evangeline’s cries became high-pitched,
Julian drove a finger into her ass, knowing it would send her into
orgasm. He pumped his finger in and out of her, and she screamed
out, gripping his cock painfully tight.

“Lie on the floor. Take my cock.”

“Yes, Julian! You’re going to give it to me!
Give me what’s mine!”

After steeling himself to perform, Julian
pushed his cock into her.

Kate. Kate. Kate.
He chanted her name
over in his mind in time with his motions to get through it.

“Oh yes! Make love to me!” Her words were
like a knife to the stomach, and he shook with a cry as he held
back a shiver of revulsion.

He pictured Kate and imagined her beneath
him, begging him to make love to her. As he continued to envision
her lush body and melodic cries of passion, Evangeline’s sounds
became muted and Julian was again with his love, at least in
thought, until he came and quickly pulled out of her.

“Go lie on the bed. We’re not done.”

He did as she ordered and watched as she
opened the armoire, pulling out a drawer. The clinking sound of
chains came closer to the bed, and he knew what she intended. He
had heard the sounds many years before.

“Arms above your head.”

When he didn’t instantly comply, she grabbed
his wrists in her hands, forcing them above his head, overpowering
his fight against her strength. He pulled and struggled with her to
free his hands to no avail. She shackled him with silver cuffs, and
the scent of his burning flesh drifted into his nostrils.

“Why? Why are doing this to me?” He tried to
reason with her as she said nothing and made sure he was securely
fastened to the concrete wall behind the bed. She checked the
cuffs, chains, and wall hooks.

She sat on the bed beside him and raised his
chin. “I have come to a realization. I’ve been far too lax with you
over the years. I should have disciplined you more when you
displeased me. A few days in these silvered cuffs should help make
you remember who’s in control.”

“But the silver will burn my hands through
in a few hours, much less days! Stop this insanity!”

“So dramatic.” She ran her fingers over his
face and through his hair as she looked into his eyes with feigned
empathy. “Yes, you’ll be in some pain, my lover. This is what
happens when I’m not happy. You will learn.”

Rising from the bed, she sneered down at
him.

“You should be thanking me. I agreed not to
kill the bitch you fucked last night. All I demanded was you wipe
her memory.” She popped her fangs out, running her tongue over
them. “I’m within my rights to drain her.”

Evangeline walked into the closet and began
dressing for the night, continuing to speak of her benevolence on
his behalf. He kept his tongue silent and burned both inside and
out.

Once dressed, she planted a quick kiss on
his lips and walked to the bedroom door. Shrugging her jacket onto
her shoulders, she paused, not looking back at him.

“I’m going out to feed. You will feed from
me when I return, lover. Things will be as they should have been
all along.”

He listened to the receding sound of her
heels clicking on the concrete, and at the slam of the steel door,
Julian bellowed his fear, pain and anger. Frightened Evangeline
would go back on her word and kill Kate that very night, he
struggled, pulling violently against the chains which held him
secure. As his skin split against the burning cuffs, his blood
dripped into the crimson sheets.

He hit his head against the mattress as he
vowed again to find a way to destroy his insane Maker and prayed to
whatever God listening, to keep his love safe.

Kate.

*

Sitting at her kitchen table, Kate picked up
her cell phone and brought up her last text session with her best
friend to message her.

Kate: Mazzie, can you come over?

Mazzie: Can’t. Still out of town. What’s
up?

Kate: Not sure.

Mazzie: Did you meet someone?

Kate: Something happened.

Mazzie: What happened?

Kate: I don’t know.

After a few seconds, the phone rang, as she
knew it would, lit with Mazzie’s name and picture displayed on the
phone’s face. She pushed the ‘ignore’ button, and texted Mazzie
again.

Kate: Don’t want to talk live. Sorry.

Mazzie: You’re scaring me! Are you okay?

Kate: Yes, I’m okay.

Mazzie: I will be back in town Friday
morning and can be there Friday afternoon.

Kate: Could you stay with me a while? Like
maybe longer than the