The Sacrifice by Evangeline Anderson
Finally, after pouring me a steaming cup of what smells like Earl Grey tea, the old servant leaves. I breathe a sigh of relief and feel myself relaxing. It’s entirely possible that he’s watching us from the next room but as long as I can’t see him doing it, I feel better.
Across from me, Aiden is enjoying a hearty breakfast—which is, to put it mildly, impossible. Vampires subsist completely on blood. Anything else becomes completely indigestible to them when they lose their humanity.
“Vampires can’t eat,” I blurt, before I think about it.
“This one can,” Aiden says mildly, looking up from a bite of pancake. “And I enjoy it greatly.”
“But how?” I ask. “You’re not human anymore.”
“The same way I can tolerate sunlight.” He gives me a predatory smile. “I assure you, Emma, there are a great many human pleasures I enjoy.”
My stomach does a flip as I consider the implications of his words. Suddenly, I’m not hungry anymore. I put down my fork as butterflies continue to swoop in my stomach.
Aiden frowns at me. “What’s wrong? Why aren’t you eating?”
“I’m not hungry,” I say. “Besides, this is really fattening. I mean, it’s good, don’t get me wrong. But pancakes and bacon? Come on, I haven’t eaten this stuff in years.” Not since I got out of high school and made an effort to lose some weight, anyway.
“Haven’t I told you that I like your shape?” he asks sternly. “I want you to feel free to eat what you want, Emma.”
“What, so I can get horribly fat and unattractive?”
“You’ll never be unattractive to me. And I like a woman with something to hold on to.”
“I’m only here for a year,” I remind him. “If I spend that time pigging out, I’ll never get married and have kids. I mean, it’s bad enough that I’m a dud but…” I trail off as I see the burning light in his eyes. He's angry about something I’ve said—furious.
“You’ve only been with me for a night and you’re already thinking of finding a new master?” he says in a low, dangerous voice.
“What? No!” I protest hastily. “But you and I both know the term of Sacrifice only lasts a year. I mean, it’s not like you’re going to want to keep me around after time is up. Right?”
Aiden’s eyes narrow and then he looks away, the muscles in his jaw clenching. “Right,” he says tightly. Abruptly, he pushes back from the table. “Breakfast is over,” he announces.
Well, all right. So much for making me eat more. I push back from the table too. “What now?” I ask, though I’m almost afraid to find out.
“Back to the bedroom,” he says, rising and throwing his linen napkin over his half eaten plate. “I have one more thing for you to wear while I’m gone today.”
Before I can ask what it is, he is striding from the room so fast I have to trot to keep up.
Chapter Eight
The 'one more thing' turns out to be a kind of harness that straps around my thighs and presses up against my crotch like a pair of weird leather panties. There’s a hole in the crotch though, with another, smaller harness as though something is meant to fit through it. Before I can ask Aiden about it, he produces a slim, flesh colored dildo and holds it up.
“What’s that for?” I ask warily as he kneels before me to finish strapping the harness in place around my thighs.
“It’s to open you,” he replies, matter-of-factly. “Spread your legs, Emma.”
“What? You expect me to wear that all day while you’re gone?” I cross my legs quickly. It might be slim but it’s still considerably wider than his two fingers, which are the largest things I’ve ever had inside me.
“Of course I do.” He frowns at me. “How else can I get you ready to accommodate my cock when I take you?”
I can feel my cheeks getting hot at the casual way he talks about fucking me. “I don’t know,” I confess at last. “But you never said anything about me wearing a dildo all day long.”
“Emma,” he says. “I’m simply trying to break you in gently. Would you rather I threw you on the bed and took you here and now, ready or not?”
I bite my lip. “N-no,” I whisper. I might have found a strange, twisted enjoyment in his mastery of me but I have no wish to be raped.
“I didn’t think so,” Aiden murmurs. “This device will help you get used to being penetrated and filled.” He raises an eyebrow at me. “And I don’t recommend cheating and taking it out once I’ve left the house for the day. Every morning I’ll be fitting you with a larger phallus. If you skip a day, you’re going to have more pain the next day.”
“I see.” And I do. I’m going to be walking around all day with this thing inside me and I don’t dare take it out, even when Aiden is gone.
“Good,” he says, looking into my eyes. “Now I want you to spread your legs for me and let me fill you, Emma.” The words are spoken in a low, quiet voice of command. A tone I’m already beginning to think of as his 'master voice'. To my great shame, I feel a surge of lust between my legs when he speaks to me like that.
“All right,” I whisper reluctantly.
“All right, what?” he prompts sternly.
“All right, Master.”
“Excellent, Emma.” He strokes my thigh soothingly. “Now turn around and grip the bedpost.”
I do as he says, gripping one of the thick bedposts with both hands.
“Very good,” Aiden says. He is still kneeling on the ground behind me and he raises the tail of the crimson shirt I am wearing, baring my ass. “Now spread your legs and push out your ass,” he directs. "I want your pussy tilted toward me so I can line this up correctly.”
I do as he says but just as I’m in the correct position, I happen to look to my side and see that this whole interaction is visible in the oval mirror of the dresser. My breath catches in my throat and I stare at the mostly naked girl gripping the bedpost and spreading her legs for her master.
Aiden, for his part, doesn’t seem to notice I’m watching us in the mirror. He simply holds the flesh-colored shaft by its base and slides it carefully and precisely into the hole in the leather harness.
I gasp when I feel the cool latex touch my skin.
“Once it’s seated fully inside you, it will warm to your body temperature,” Aiden says, as though reading my mind.
I think about saying it’s the 'fully inside' part which worries me much more than the thing’s temperature but before I can, the head is sliding between my outer cunt lips, finding the entrance to my pussy.
I clench in fear—I can’t help it. This seems so unnatural, so foreign. My whole body feels tight at the very idea of letting this happen.
Again, Aiden seems to sense my mood. “It’s all right,” he murmurs, stroking my thighs and ass soothingly. “You can do this, Emma. It’s my wish that you open yourself for me and it’s for your own good. I know you can submit.”
“I…I…” I want to say something biting and sarcastic. Something about how would he like to submit to my foot up his ass? But I can’t quite get the words out. I know he’d punish me for such insolence and besides, a part of me wants to trust him. Wants to put myself in his hands and please my master. “I’ll try,” is what finally comes out of my mouth.
“Good, very good.” I feel something warm and wet and hot at the top of my right buttock—did he just kiss me there? I look in the mirror just in time to see him do it again, this time at the top of my left buttock.
I let out a little sigh. The unexpectedly tender gesture seems to loosen me up somehow. I’m sure Aiden knows that because I feel the flesh-colored phallus resume its journey. The slick head breaches my entrance and slides gently but relentlessly up and into my tight pussy channel.
“That’s good, Emma. You’re doing very well,” Aiden murmurs in a low, encouraging voice. “Open up for me. Open up and take it all.”
I bite my lip as I watch the slim wand piercing me in the mirror. I watch the careful way Aiden inserts it, slowly but steadily, f
“There,” Aiden says softly. “You can relax, darling—it’s all inside you now. Pressing right against the mouth of your womb—exactly where I want to be.” He gives the end of the phallus a nudge and I gasp as it presses even deeper into me, sending a bolt of pleasure inward. Aiden snaps the bottom part of the harness in place, preventing the dildo from falling out. Then he stands up and steps back to admire his handiwork. “Walk about,” he says to me. “Let me see how you move with it inside you.”
Grimacing, I do as he says. I expect it to be a strange, invasive feeling to walk around with the artificial shaft filling my pussy and it is. But it’s arousing too. As much as I hate to admit it, the feeling of having something inside me, filling me up, makes me so wet I can feel my juices soaking the leather harness. Suddenly the extra surge of horniness makes me angry—damn it, am I ever going to be in control of my own body again? No matter what he does to me I can’t seem to help reacting, can’t stop myself from wanting more.
“Beautiful,” Aiden murmurs, watching me with half-lidded eyes. “How does it feel, darling?”
I take another step. The phallus pulls out slightly and then, with my next step, it sinks back inside me, pressing hard against the end of my channel. It’s a rhythmic motion, the press and pull of this thing inside me, and I have no doubt what it’s meant to mimic. Aiden doesn’t just want to open my pussy, he wants me to get used to being fucked. So by the time he finally slips his cock inside me, my body will be ready for it—hungry for it—whether I’m mentally prepared or not.
“Well?” he says and I realize he’s still waiting for an answer.
I glare at him defiantly. “It feels like…like someone is fucking me with every step I take,” I say.
Aiden smiles and shakes his head. “Not quite. I assure you, Emma, when I decide to fuck you, you’ll know it.”
I feel my cheeks get hot and look away. Goddess, I can’t believe I’m walking around half naked with a freaking dildo up inside me. And I’m going to be stuck like this all day! “Don’t you have to go to work?” I mutter, taking another stilted, awkward step.
In the mirror, I see Aiden’s gray eyes darken. “As a matter of fact I do,” he snaps. “I’ll see you tonight. You may have the run of the house and the pool but do not leave the grounds. And Emma?”
“What?” I say, not looking at him. I know I sound like a sullen little kid but I can’t help it. I feel so out of control. So weird.
Aiden, however, is not having my attitude. Gripping my chin firmly, he forces me to meet his eyes. “Emma,” he says, in a cold, quiet voice that makes me shiver. “You may remove the nipple clamps for the day although I expect to see you wearing them when I come home. But you must keep the harness on and whatever you do, don’t touch yourself or make yourself come. Do you understand?”
“You think I’m so turned on by all this I won’t be able to keep my hands out of my panties?” I demand sarcastically. Well, if I was wearing panties, anyway.
One corner of his cruel but sensuous mouth turns up in a half-smile. “Don’t kid yourself, darling, I know exactly how my touch affects you. But I expect my orders to be obeyed.”
“Fine.” I want to glare back at him but his gaze is so intense I have to drop my eyes.
“Fine, what?”
“Fine…Master.” I use the title like a curse but Aiden chooses not to acknowledge my tone.
“I’ll be back at five tonight. Have a good day, Emma,” he says. And then, before I can say anything, he is gone.
Chapter Nine
The minute he leaves I take off the clamps. They leave my nipples tender and tingling and so sensitive I can’t even bear to touch them at once. Goddess—and he expects me to put them back on the minute I hear him walking through the door? Ugh.
I have the run of the house but it takes me a good long time to get up the courage to leave my room again. For one thing, I’m afraid I might run into the creepy old servant—what was his name? Something with a B but I can’t remember at the moment. Who is he, anyway, and how is he tied to Aiden? Also, I'd glanced in the kitchen while I was looking for the dining room and I don’t remember seeing him in there. Either there is another kitchen in this huge house and I happened to look into the wrong one, or the creepy old servant can move like lightning. I certainly hope my second kitchen theory is the right one because the idea of that old guy zipping around the house at supernatural speed makes me shiver. Ugh!
The other thing that keeps me in the room is how awkward it feels to walk around with something up inside of me. And I don’t care what Aiden says, to me it feels like I’m being fucked with every step I take. It slides in and out of my pussy in a way that feels almost deliberate—as though Aiden’s hand were guiding it somehow. Which is crazy, I know—he’s probably across town somewhere in his office not even thinking of me. But still, that’s what it feels like.
Finally I decide that I can’t stay in the room all day. I consider taking off the harness before leaving, but dismiss the idea at once. Even if Aiden didn’t find out, he’s right in saying I would have more pain when he moved up a size. I wonder briefly how many of these I’m going to have to wear. How big is his cock, anyway? How open do I have to be to let him in?
That particular question brings a vivid mental picture to mind—me lying on my back with my arms bound over my head and my legs spread wide, my ankles tied to the bedposts. I can almost see Aiden, naked and muscular bending over me, fitting the head of his cock to the entrance of my pussy only he’s so much thicker and longer than the slim phallus currently resting deep inside me. I can almost feel him sliding himself in, stretching me to the limit…
Snap out of it! I tell myself sternly. I have to get out of this room. I can’t sit here and fantasize about my new master all day long, no matter how infuriatingly hot he is. I need to go explore. Maybe I can find some clue about him—something that will tell me how to get along in the year I’m stuck in this mirror maze of a house.
Wrapping the crimson shirt tightly around me, I venture out into the hallway for the second time that morning. To my relief, the house seems to be deserted. I make my way with slightly more confidence this time and find the study easily.
Shelves full of leather-bound books that look well-worn and often read catch my eye. I wander over, browsing their titles but many of them are in different languages and the ones that are in English have dry, esoteric titles like Paths to the Future and Stars: Their True Faces and Meanings. I’m about to give up—clearly Aiden and I don’t have the same taste in reading material because there’s not a mystery or an erotic romance in sight—when I catch sight of a book I actually know: Farrow’s Handbook of Spells and Summonings.
I take the thick, leather-bound book from the shelf, feeling a tingle of magic race through my fingertips as I touch it. Just because I don’t have any magic of my own doesn’t mean I’m immune to the magic of others. This particular copy of Farrow’s is thick with it—as though it once belonged to a very powerful witch or warlock. Hmm…
Intrigued, I study the book more closely. There’s a broad crimson ribbon, which looks a little like a hair tie, sticking out of it. I feel its frayed, satin end with my fingers and get another tingle of magic. Fascinated, I open the book to the page it’s marking.
Divination Love Potion, reads the title of the spell. For finding meaningful and lasting love. Wow. As I read down the list of ingredients I see that they are exactly the herbs Aiden came into my shop asking about. Well, all except for the rue, of course. He must have transposed that from another spell somehow.
Why was Aiden looking for meaningful and lasting love? Maybe he just wanted to be sure he was compatible with whoever he chose as his sacrifice? Or maybe he wanted some poor girl to fall in love with him so he could control her better, whispers a little voice in my head. He was going to give her this potion the mo
But he didn’t—he put all the ingredients back. Or rather, had me put them back. What changed his mind? I remember the jolt I felt when he first touched me and also the way he’d admitted he wanted me from the moment he laid eyes on me. Did he simply see me in the store and decide I was the one? Was it some kind of love at first sight?
Don’t be stupid, I tell myself uneasily. Aiden’s not in love with you. He wants to control you—to force you to submit to him. That’s all there is to it. As the mutinous thoughts race through my mind, a sudden, painful shock jumps from the leather covers of the book to my fingertips. I gasp and almost drop it. What the hell? It was almost as though the damn thing could read my mind and was disagreeing with my assessment of my new master. Which is, of course, even stupider than the idea that Aiden loves me. There’s no way a book, even one imbued with magic from its previous owner, could hear my thoughts.
“Stop being paranoid,” I mutter to myself. Quickly, I reshelf the leather-bound copy of Farrow’s and take a step back. Some things are better left alone.
I turn from the shelves and survey the rest of the room. There’s a fireplace at one end and a massive mahogany desk at the other. Sitting dead center in the middle of the desk is a laptop, which I’m instantly itching to get my hands on. But on the corner of the desk is something I find even more intriguing—an old fashioned telephone. A princess model that appears to be made out of real mother of pearl and gold with an actual curly phone cord attached to it. Wow—who has a landline anymore? Apparently Aiden does. Or maybe the old fashioned phone is just a prop? Maybe it doesn’t even work—after all, it doesn’t even have buttons. It has a rotary dial which I’ve only seen in old movies. Well, only one way to find out if it’s real.
I cross to the desk and sit down in the plush, black leather chair behind it, which is much too large for me. The cushion is cold against the backs of my thighs but I don’t care. I reach for the phone and bring the heavy, old fashioned handset to my ear. It feels ludicrously large and bulky but when I listen, I hear a dial tone. Go figure, it actually works!