The Maestro's Apprentice (20 page)

178

“You want to be with Adam?” Claudio asked.

Autumn nodded.

“Why?”

“Because I love him.”

“But Adam cannot give you what you need,
cherie
. You need direction, guidance.

Discipline. He and I have spoken about this subject many times. He is not the one.”

Malcolm puffed out his chest.

Adam moved closer. “Now, wait a minute. That’s what the two of you say. You’re both trying to justify the way you do things by saying it’s what they want. Like happy little slaves just thrilled to take a beating for massa’s pleasure.”

“Adam,” Claudio began.

“No. You are going to have to convince me this is what’s good for her. And then we can talk about whether I’m the right vampire to take her.”

“Very well,” Claudio said. “Malcolm, it sounds like you had some success with her.

Why don’t you give Adam a little demonstration? Show us how she reacts to someone like you, yes?”

179

Autumn looked nervously up at Malcolm, wondering what he was going to do. He got her attention by approaching her deliberately and standing to her side, feet apart, staring. “Autumn,” he said firmly.

She straightened her posture and widened her eyes.

He waited.

She looked around the room, first at Adam, then over her shoulder at Claudio.

“Autumn,” Malcolm repeated. “I’m speaking to you.”

She snapped her head around to look at him, uncertain at first what was expected of her. It reminded her a little of the way things had felt last night, when she had first met him. She shivered. “Yes, sir?”

“Do you remember your spanking this morning?” he asked.

Autumn looked down, feeling her cheeks redden, and the spot between her legs grow warm at the mere mention it. “Yes, sir.”

“How did it make you feel?”

She shot a startled look at him. There was no way she could sit here and talk about her feelings about a strange man spanking her in front of so many people. She shook her head. “I…I can’t…”

“Yes, you can,” he said, taking a step toward her. “How did it make you feel?”

“Afraid,” she said.

“Is that all?”

She shook her head. “Ashamed, and…”

180

“And what? Either tell me or say there is nothing else, or you will get another one right here and right now.”

“Excited,” she said, nodding. “It made me excited.”

Adam uncrossed his arms. “This is bullshit. You know and I know this girl will say or do anything a man wants for approval. She knows he wants to hear this stuff.”

Claudio put up his hand.

Malcolm continued. “You remember what it was like to be spanked by me, don’t you? When I pulled you across my knee and started teaching you a little lesson?”

She nodded.

“Now I want you to do something for me, okay? I want you to pull down your jeans and your underwear and show Adam just how wet you are.”

Adam threw up his hands. “This is in—”

“He is right,” Claudio said. “This is a very good way to tell. Autumn.”

She looked at Claudio for a moment, wondering if there was any way out of this.

Seeing none, she kicked off her shoes, then stood and pulled off her pants, reasoning she looked less silly with them gone than with them down. She stood with her hands clasped in front of her and her head down, feeling her cheeks burn.

“Adam,” Claudio said.

Adam sighed and bulled across the room, controlling his movements only upon reaching Autumn. “Let me check you, baby girl, okay?” he said, rubbing her stomach with the backs of his fingers and looking into her eye.

She nodded.

181

He reached between her legs and slid a finger in easily. She was so wet, her juices trickled over the labia and onto his hand. “Damn, girl,” he said. “Is he telling the truth?

Do you really need someone to do that?”

She nodded. “I guess so,” she said softly.

Autumn wondered what her confession meant in terms of which man would wind up with her. Would it be Claudio, her master, the man she feared above all others, who would give her a severe whipping when he got her home? Would it be this new vampire, Malcolm, who didn’t seem quite as harsh as Claudio, but who would probably not hesitate to punish her? Or would it be Adam?

Autumn wondered if Adam was simply too gentle to give her what she needed, and if that fact sentenced her to a life with Claudio or with this stranger. The knowledge that it was out of her control sent a hot shiver up her spine. It surprised her to find how pleasant it felt.

“Autumn,” Claudio said. “If you wish to return with me, there is a place for you.

What is your decision?”

Her heart beat ferociously as she looked at him. Miraculously, she shook her head. “I don’t want to go back,” she said barely above a whisper.

Claudio pursed his lips. “Very well,” he said. “I would have chosen, then, for you to remain with Adam. But I think you will not obey a vampire who is afraid to discipline you. Therefore—”

“Wait a minute,” Adam said, quickly. “I can learn. If that’s what she really needs, I can learn to do it.”

Claudio regarded him with an amused smile. “You can learn to punish her?”

182

Adam nodded. “Yeah. If she needs it. I can do that.” He looked around. “Look, she needs to be with someone she knows. No offense, man,” she said to Malcolm, “but I just don’t think going into somebody else’s situation is going to do her much good.”

Claudio nodded slowly. “I know this man. He has a firm hand, but he is fair. With a slave like this one, it is very important to have someone who understands these things.

However, if you can convince me, Adam, that you are able to control her in the way she needs to be controlled, you may have her.”

Autumn saw Adam bristle at the word “slave,” but she thought something about it rang true. She
was
a slave—to this lifestyle, to any man who knew how to use the tingle of fear to make her behave. She had thought her desire to leave Claudio’s estate meant she had outgrown it, but now she knew that wasn’t true. She needed the security of being told what to do.

“Do you think you can do that, Adam?”

Adam sighed, rubbed the top of his head, and looked around at the other men. “If that’s what she needs, then I can do it.”

“It is always what they need, Adam. There is a reason they want to belong to us.”

Adam nodded. “Right. Sure. I can do it.”

“Good,” Claudio said, then motioned with his hand toward Autumn.

Adam pulled his head back and widened his eyes. “What? You mean now?”

“Now is the perfect time. She has been disobedient. Did you give her permission to encourage Francois?”

“No, but…”

“Then make sure she understands it is not acceptable.”

183

Hearing the words “not acceptable” in Claudio’s mouth reminded Autumn of hearing them back at the estate, when she or someone else was getting dangerously close to being punished. She had never seen Adam punish anyone, and wasn’t accustomed to thinking of him that way.

Again, Adam looked around at everyone. Then he moved one of the straight-backed chairs to the space at the foot of the bed and sat in it. He put his hands on his thighs and pressed his lips together, then swallowed. Autumn thought he looked very uncomfortable.

With one final glance at Claudio, Adam took a deep breath and turned his eyes on her.

She watched him with a slack jaw, uncertain what was really going to happen next. There was no way he was going to do this, she thought. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t be Adam anymore.

“Get over here,” he said. His voice wasn’t exactly harsh, but it contained the strain of determination.

It was Autumn’s turn to swallow and look around at everyone. Lastly, she looked over her shoulder at Maria, who gave her a sad smile and nodded. It was good to know her best friend didn’t hate her for not being able to be her lover anymore.

Autumn stepped forward. Adam watched.

When she stood near him, Claudio said, “Take her into position, Adam. You must do this. Sometimes, they will even resist. You are the one who must make it happen.”

Adam nodded and sighed, then took Autumn’s arm and pulled her awkwardly over his lap. She couldn’t help but resist at least a little, leaning back against his grip at the last moment. She remembered the spanking Malcolm had given her. It had been short, but painful. She wasn’t sure whether she wanted to think of Adam this way.

184

“Wait!” she cried out, struggling to push herself up. “I have to get up for a second.”

She felt Adam hesitate. Then his body tensed and he said, “No. You should have thought of that before.”

She stiffened when he brought his hand down the first time. He did it only hard enough to sting just a little, but being spanked by Adam was strange.

“Harder,” Claudio said. “This is punishment. It is not supposed to be pleasant.”

Again, Adam hesitated. Again, he took a deep breath. Autumn waited. Then he began delivering a series of painful blows to her backside that made her squirm. “Adam!” she called desperately, but he didn’t stop. Instead, he used his free arm to hold her down while he made her bottom warm with his other hand.

Finally, she stopped struggling against his grip or fighting her tears. She grew still and let them come. It had been a long time since she’d had the luxury of crying and now tears seemed to tumble out effortlessly.

He seemed to know when she’d had enough, when her body just wouldn’t have been able to take anymore, and he stopped.

For a moment, she didn’t move. Autumn had been spanked before—by Claudio, by the musician she’d met at Jean Lafitte’s, and by Malcolm—but this one had affected her more than any of the others, and she couldn’t quite move.

Claudio spoke softly. “You have to bring them back. Sometimes they forget to move.”

Autumn felt dimly aware he was talking about her, but was still startled when she felt Adam’s hand rubbing her back. “Time to get up,” he said gently.

185

She tried to scramble off his lap, but he had to help her. She swayed unsteadily on her feet. Something moved behind her, but it was only Malcolm handing her the jeans and panties he had bought for her. She took them gratefully and put them on.

No sooner had she zipped and buttoned them, than she became aware that Claudio was moving slowly toward her. His presence still made her tremble. “Such a delicate thing,” he said, reaching to move the hair out of the way and caress the sensitive flesh of her neck. “Have you learned your lesson?”

Autumn nodded. The question made her break down. She covered her face with her hands as the sobs made her shoulders convulse. Adam was up in a shot, and put his arms around her, holding her tightly to his chest. Autumn peeked at Claudio for a moment, to find him watching with interest.

“It’s all right,” Adam whispered. “It’s okay. But you can’t run off and do things like that anymore.”

She shut her eyes tight and nodded. Her bottom stung, but Adam’s arms were warm around her. For the first time in a very long time, she realized, she felt safe.

“Very interesting,” Claudio said. “Perhaps there is a chance for you, yes?”

186

Over the next week, both Claudio and Malcolm—and occasionally Freddie and Mick—coached Adam on the training and discipline of feeders. Autumn enjoyed the attention, and couldn’t move quickly enough when one of the men wanted her to pour a cocktail. She desperately wanted to be bitten, but they all thought it best that she take a few days off, after having been drained by Francois.

She worried about Maria. Claudio had decided to take her back to the estate with him, and Autumn knew that meant a whipping that would be none too gentle, and possibly in front of Claudio’s other feeders. Maria, who had always had a handy quip or snicker, sat quietly watching as the men worked with Autumn. Her eyes seemed to light up only when Autumn looked at her, and that made Autumn’s heart ache.

She almost wished she wasn’t taking to the attention so readily. In fact, it hardly seemed Autumn needed training at all. It was Adam’s name that Claudio said most often, instructing him to ask for things, and to constantly remind Autumn of his position over her.

“Why do I have to do that?” Adam asked after a couple of days. “She’s a smart girl.

She knows.”

Malcolm was the one to answer. “They like to be reminded, that’s why,” he said. “It’s like foreplay for them. Every time you speak to her a certain way, it’s like you’re stroking her with your voice. I’ll bet you could keep this one wet for you all the time by doing that.”

Adam hung his head and smiled. “That could be a good thing.”

187

Autumn happened to be looking at him when he turned to her. She hung her head and blushed.
Yeah,
she thought,
safe,
but…

But now, there was new possibility in that safety. When he told her to come to him, there was an edge to his voice sometimes. Autumn soon found she liked to test it, just to see if he really was getting what Claudio and Malcolm were telling him.

She
was certainly getting it. Now that she knew Claudio would no longer be taking her or punishing her, he didn’t seem quite as scary, and the sound of his voice sent pleasant shivers up her spine like it had when they had first met.

She felt a little bad that Malcolm had wanted her and she had wanted to return to Adam, but thinking about being without Adam made her very sad and slightly panicky.

At the end of the week, Malcolm left them to return to his home and his feeders, and Claudio took Adam and Autumn to Austin, Texas, where he knew of a vampire co-op that would help them get on their feet. Within a day, Adam had a job as a bartender at a local bar and weekly music gigs there.

The next day, the four of them stood on the front porch, saying their goodbyes. Maria waited slightly behind Claudio while Autumn hugged Adam’s arm.

“You will not live as well here,” Claudio said, shaking his head.

“But I’ll be living free,” Adam answered.

“We will keep in touch,” Claudio said. “I will not abandon my family.”