The Sacrifice (30 page)

“Very well, I won’t doubt you again,” Aiden says, suddenly sober.
“And I won’t punish you for your orgasm.”

“You won’t?” I’m surprised to hear a note of disappointment in my
own voice.

“No.” Aiden shakes his head. “I
will,
however, take you to
task for removing the harness in the first place.” He gives me a severe look.
“I’m going to clear breakfast out of the way and then you’re going to assume
the position, Emma.”

My breath catches in my throat and heat blooms between my thighs.
“What…what are you going to do to me, Master?” I whisper, hardly able to get
the words out.

“Five strokes with the belt across your ass ought to teach you a
lesson,” Aiden says sternly. “And two more to your pussy, to teach you proper
submission.”

“My…my pussy?” My hand creeps down to cover my tender, bare pussy
lips reflexively as I remember the sharp sting of the belt’s kiss in this most
sensitive spot.

“Don’t worry, darling,” Aiden murmurs, his eyes half-lidded now.
“You know I’ll kiss you better afterward. But for now, I need you to submit.”

“Yes, Master,” I whisper again. And without any further protest, I
do.

Chapter Twenty

“Absolutely not,” Professor Canton, who teaches my Advanced Herbology
lecture, says flatly. “You’ve missed enough class as it is, Ms. Krist. There is
no way I will consider letting you take the final exam anywhere but right here
in the classroom.”

“I understand,” I say humbly. “It’s just…I don’t have a ride to
class tonight.” Also, I have been forbidden to leave the house by my strict vampire
master, who is concerned about my safety. But that isn’t something I can really
share with my prof.

“Look, Ms. Krist, I’ve been extremely patient with you,” he says.
“I cut you a lot of slack because I think you’re the most promising student
I’ve had in years. But enough is enough. You can find yourself a ride to class
tonight and take the exam with all the rest of the students, or fail the
class.”

“Fail it?” I say, horrified. “But…but the damage that would do to
my GPA would be irrevocable!”

“Then you’d better find a way to get here, hadn’t you? Eight
o’clock tonight and don’t be late.” There’s a click and the phone goes dead…along
with my future.

Thoroughly upset, I throw my cell on the bed and start pacing.
This can’t be—I can’t let this happen. It’s way too late to drop the class and
there’s no way Professor Canton will let me take the test online. Not that I
blame him—it’s not really even fair for me to ask him. But I didn’t know what
else to do.

I wish for the millionth time that Aiden was here. I’d been
planning to talk to him about this, to get him to agree to let me go. Surely if
he knew my whole academic career and future hung in the balance he’d be more
reasonable. Hell, he could even drive me to and from the test himself if he
wanted to. Thinking about it, I’m sure he would go for that idea—too bad I
didn’t mention it to him before he left.

For the past two days, since Aiden had to leave suddenly, I’ve
been on my own, knocking around the big glass mansion with nobody but Barnes to
talk to. And since his conversation seems to be limited to what he ought to fix
me for lunch or dinner, he’s really not very good company.

I hate to admit it, but I miss my master sadly. I’m worried about
him, too. I wish he had left me a forwarding address or phone number, but he
left in such a hurry. He simply woke me up in the middle of the night and told
me there was trouble. His gray eyes were worried and when I asked him what was
going on, he said that she-who-made-him needed him. He promised to be back as
soon as possible and made me promise to stay in the house. I was so sleepy and
disoriented, I agreed to everything at once. Now, however, I’m having second
thoughts—lots of them.

Aside from my own current problems with school, I can’t help
wondering about Aiden’s maker. All I really know about her is that she’s French
and into kinky sex. Do vampire parents have the same relationship that humans
do with their children? Or is their affection for those they awaken to the
vampire life more…incestuous?

I try to push the thought out of my head but it won’t go. Or
rather, it won’t go until something even worse and more pressing takes its
place—like the idea of failing my test, ruining my GPA, and being forced to
work in the family herb shop for the rest of my natural life.

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 leaves just look like a great place for someone to hide.

Stop being so stupid,
I tell myself uneasily.
There are campus security guards
everywhere. Not to mention, you’re not alone.
I’m sure nobody will mess
with Lexy and me while we’re together—there’s safety in numbers. Right?

Still with my arm hooked firmly through my cousin’s, I start off
down the path. Lexy parked in the lot that’s just around the corner and I’m
sure—

“Excuse me. Can I interest you in the plight of tigers in China?”