"And you also allow no flexibility by the judge?"
"Human judges do not like handing otherwise nice people to vampires," she explained. She paused. "If you were someone else, the judge could have given you an easier sentence."
"What?" I screeched. "He said this was the most mercy he could offer."
"You have lived a life of relative privilege. Your name is known in some circles. If he had offered more mercy, everyone would have believed it was because you somehow bought influence or were given influence others wouldn't have. Too many people wouldn't have believed it was because you were not at fault in the accident. Too many people wouldn't have believed the mercy was because you were on your errand. If a woman hadn't been killed, maybe it all could have been swept under the rug."
"The accident wasn't my fault."
"Your involvement in the accident was avoidable, and according to the accident analysis, the truck would have not have proceeded as far into the intersection as you were pushed. There would still have been an accident, but it would have been minor."
"You're saying that woman died because I had a glass of wine?"
"No. I would have avoided the accident. I would have gotten out of the truck's path. There were choices. However, only the most attentive human could have done so. You need carry no guilt for the woman's death."
I stared at her, then lowered my eyes.
"I am a victim of politics?"
"Yes. An unfair victim of politics. That will not change your situation. You are and will remain my blood slave."
"How can you do this to me?" I looked up and was about to anger her.
"Don't say it, Melissa. I know you what you are thinking. I am not answering that tonight. I will tell you this. I did not attempt to profane your art with your tattoo. It was meant with joy, and I hoped you could carry your own art more proudly than something else. It was meant in kindness. A tattoo is required." She paused. "My judgment may be flawed for my own emotional reasons. I can't begin to tell you what it does to me to own you."
"Own me."
"Yes. That is the fact. And it is a vampiric weakness that it gives me the pleasure it does. For that I apologize."
"And this?" I asked, holding the leash, draped in my lap and still attached to my lip.
"More of the same."
"I do not deserve this."
"No, you do not."
"You could stop treating me this way."
"I am not sure I could," she replied. "Vampires are very, very possessive. Furthermore, I paid a great deal of money for you. You should thank me, however."
"Why?" I asked coldly.
"Because I probably saved your life."
Settling In
I stared at her.
"The people I was bidding against have a reputation of treating their blood slaves exactly the way you expect me to."
"What makes you different?"
"Vampires were once people. The types of people we once were carries through. Oftentimes it becomes more extreme." She paused. "Due to, well, events during my human years, I am at least as possessive as any vampire and more so than most."
"I see."
"Our civilized conversation is drawing to a close. You are growing upset, and my control is growing weak. I am going to tell you this. If you seek to please me, your time here will not be horrible. You may find it demeaning. You will lose at least one, perhaps three years of earnings and prestige. On the other hand, your lawyer and your friend are managing your possessions, and you will not find your assets depleted. Indeed, your art has increased dramatically in price."
"I thought it would."
"If you retain your creative talents, you will find yourself in more demand than you can ever satisfy. Few living artists see the success you could have."
"I find that path unlikely, even if you let me live."
She shrugged.
"However, if you defy me again, or if you are petulant, or if you do not seek to please me, then my spoiled side will appear. I will become angry or bitter or only petulant, and I will seek to recoup my investment in you."
"How?"
"I might sell you to someone, perhaps at a minor loss. Or I might do what some of the others would do?"
"What is that?"
"Rent you for ten thousand dollars a night."
I stared at her. "Why would anyone pay that?"
"The right to take a lovely, innocent creature like you and do practically any depravity mankind has ever considered, with the only stipulation you not die or be permanently deformed? Ten thousand may not be enough."
"You would do that to me? That is the kind of person you are?"
"It is not the kind of person I am, but it is within me, and you are very capable of bringing out the worst in me. I am begging you not to push me in that direction. I would feel horrible for it, but I would respond badly. I know I would. It doesn't have to be that way."
I tugged on the chain, pulling on my own lip. "It has to be like this?"
"Yes," she said, and it was almost breathless. She closed her eyes. "Say nothing, Melissa. Make no noise."
I sat as still as I could.
"My control is ending," she said. "If you so much as move, I will be on you. If you speak, I will be on you."
I stared at her, trying not to grow frightened.
"I won't hurt you, no more than last night, but I have one more thing I want to show you, and one more thing I wish to say first."
I closed my own eyes, waiting.
"If you embrace your position, if you seek to please me, I will promise to make your stay here as pleasant as it can be for someone in your position as blood slave to someone of my tastes. And I promise you will live to see freedom."
We sat quietly for several moments, and then she ordered, "Open your eyes and look into mine."
I considered defying her. And I thought of what she had said. And I made the decision to at least try it her way. I didn't defy her. I opened and gazed boldly directly into her eyes.
She caught me with her gaze, almost instantly. I became lost. Her eyes glowed, and they were beautiful. How could I not have called her beautiful, with eyes like that?
Not releasing me from her gaze, she reached forward and removed my leash from my hands.
"You asked why Penny would ask me to feed. My control is ragged, but I will now show you. Come to me."
My limbs were not my own. She tugged on the chain, reeling me in, and I crawled across the coffee table right into her lap.
"You belong to me, Melissa," she said, and I realized she was speaking directly into my mind, her lips not moving.
And I knew I did.
Then she did, something, it was nothing physical, and I gasped in pleasure.
She began to smile, the fangs extending from her upper jaw.
"That was the blood bond," she said. "It has been a very long time since I have shared my blood. I am clumsy with it."
She did it again, and I gasped.
And then she shifted my position in her arms, laying me across her lap, and I moved willingly, unable to resist. She reached with a hand and tilted my head back, and then slowly she lowered her mouth to my throat.
That broke the trance, and I struggled, but she held me tightly.
"Melissa," she said quietly, her mouth inches from my throat, "you will like this. I promise."
"It hurt."
"It won't. But do not struggle anymore. My control is gone. Relax, Melissa. This is going to happen one way or the other, but if you relax, I can hold my control a few more moments."
I grew still, and she lowered her mouth to my throat. I whimpered, but she caressed my cheek with her hand, and then, slowly, her fangs began to enter my neck.
The first touch hurt, but then she flicked at me with her tongue, her fangs barely piercing me, and I remembered the touch of her tongue last night.
"Ohh," I said.
She tightened, then bathed me with her tongue, and then again, and then she punctured th
e vein. There was a moment of pain, quickly disappearing. I felt myself immediately grow lethargic, and she began to draw on my life's essence. I clutched at her as she sucked, and she flicked her tongue against me again and again, suck, flick, suck, flick. She never withdrew her fangs, and thus the wound didn't seal, but her saliva entered with the pulsing of my heart.
"Ohh," I said again. I clutched her head, holding her mouth against me.
And then the fangs withdrew, and she stopped bathing me with her tongue, but she drew on me, several long draws before she began licking me, over and over. I clutched firmly at her, moaning with the pleasure.
I don't know how long she licked me, but I felt like a cat on catnip, high with pleasure at first, then becoming dull-witted, nearly brainless.
Finally she stopped licking.
"Open your eyes," she ordered me, and I opened immediately.
"Do you understand now?"
"Yes. Do it again. Oh do it again."
"Not tonight. I am taking too much from you, but last night was my need, and tonight was yours." She paused then smiled. Then she flashed her mouth at her wrist, tearing it open, and pressing it to my mouth.
She didn't even need to order me to drink. I clutched at her wrist, moaning again, and I couldn't suck fast enough.
"Drink, my blood slave," she said.
And I drank.
But, like it had last night, her wound healed, and I whimpered in disappointment. I looked up at her.
"You promise you won't kill me?"
"If you strive to please me."
"Did I please you tonight?"
"Yes."
I closed my eyes and nestled against her chest, then pushed away. "This shirt smells horribly."
"I'm sorry. I won't come to you soiled in this fashion again, if I can at all avoid it."
I lay cradled in her arms for several more minutes. She smiled down at me, caressing my cheek from time to time.
"Better than sex."
"You haven't had sex with a vampire," she retorted.
"Are you just yanking my chain?"
She gathered the leash in her hand and tugged lightly on it. "No." She smiled broadly. "If my tongue feels that good on your neck, imagine how it might feel other places."
I closed my eyes, not wanting to think about that.
"I need to tell you a few more things. I will treat you like a possession, Melissa. I will parade you in public. I will make you kneel to me, and I will do so in front of other vampires. I know none of these will please you, and I know I shouldn't do them, but will be unable to stop myself. You must strive to please me, even when I do these things to you."
"And will you make use of the hoops attached to the walls of my room."
She smiled. "If you misbehave, they will be used one way when I punish you. If you ask, they might be used in another, somewhat similar, but remarkably different way."
"And when I sleep, do you watch me on the cameras?"
"For hours."
"I fascinate you so?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I won't tell you."
"Never?"
"The day after I release you, perhaps. Perhaps not. Now, my control is crumbling again. My taste for you is not slackened." She used two hands, releasing the chain from my lip. "You must climb slowly from my lap. Do not let me see your face. You must proceed slowly to your room. Close the door behind you. I will be along to lock it."
"Have I earned any privileges?"
"The pad and pencils?"
"And books?"
"You will sleep moments after you climb into bed. I will consider your request and have an answer for you when next you wake."
"Thank you, m'lady," I said, and she smiled.
I turned away from her and climbing slowly from her lap. But then I turned and knelt to her.
"What are you doing?"
"Apologizing for earlier behavior." And then, awkwardly, I bent over and slowly kissed the arch of each foot.
"Get out of here," she said. "Now."
When I glanced at her, her fangs had extended again. I climbed to my feet and turned my back then slowly walked from the room.
* * * *
I slept through my door opening in the morning. Suddenly a finger brushed my cheek lightly, and I woke to stare into the face of a girl of about eighteen. She had short, brown hair in a pixie cut, green eyes, and a hesitant smile. She was dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt, and there was something tucked under her arm, but I couldn't see what it was.
"It's time to wake up," she said.
"Who are you?"
"Ashlyn."
"Who are you?"
"Maria is my mother."
"Who is Maria?"
"The cook."
"Do you also work here?"
"Part time. We live in a small house on the grounds."
"I haven't seen it," I said.
"You must get up."
"Lady's orders?"
"Yes."
"Will you turn around? I am wearing no clothing."
She moved away and turned around, and I sat up, setting my feet on the floor.
"I'm up. Is that all?"
"No," she said. She glanced over her shoulder at me then turned away again. "There is a note from Lady Dunn, and I am to give you a present and explain its use." She paused. "You are a blood slave."
"Yes."
"Mama said the lady has never had a blood slave, as long as Mama has been her cook."
"The lady told me the same thing."
"The lady told me I must not stare at you or make fun of you."
"Okay," I said slowly.
"I will need to sit on the bed next to you when I show you the present," she said. "If you do not wish me to see you, you could use the blanket."
"The lady has forbid it," I replied. "My lack of clothing is a portion of my punishment, and it pleases the lady to know I am bare to all. I presume that extends even to the eighteen-year-old daughter of the cook."
"I am seventeen," she said. "What did you do?"
"It is a long story."
"Then I must wait to hear it, as I have school, and only a little time."
"I am sorry. You said there was a note?"
She took the object from under her arm, and I saw there was an envelope with it. She handed me the envelope. I glanced at it. In a careful hand was just my first name, and it was sealed with wax.
"Very formal," I commented.
"Lady Dunn's notes are nearly always like this," she said.
"Do I tear the envelope?"
"The seal can be broken." She took it from me, slipped a finger under the flap, and separated the seal, then handed it back to me.
"Thank you." I withdrew the note, which was written in an equally careful hand as the envelope.
"My blood slave, Melissa, you have earned a privilege. I knew that last night, but I wasn't sure how best to deliver it. Ashlyn has this privilege for you and will explain its use. I may not have to say this, but what I can give you, I can take away. I hope to never do so."
I glanced at Ashlyn but still wasn't sure what she carried.
"You are required to care for your body. You will eat the meals delivered to you. In time, you may earn the privilege of making requests. You have not done so, and you will not pass such requests to the cook. She is ordered to tell me if you do, and she will not defy me. You will also exercise as much as necessary and however you deem necessary. You will lose privileges if your body grows slack. Ashlyn will explain further. Your mistress, Lady Dunn."
"Very formal," I said. "I understand you are to give me this privilege, explain it's use, and then take me where I may exercise."
She frowned at me. "That is not what Lady Dunn directed me."
I turned to the note and read it again. "She orders me to exercise and indicates you will show me how to do so."
"Oh," the girl said, her expression clearing. "I will explain, not take you."
"Oh. I'm sorry. My con
fusion."
"May I sit down next to you?"
She was polite, and I nodded. Then she handed me the object she was holding. I realized it was a tablet computer with a cover. She helped me open it, then turned it to face me. She showed me how to turn it on. Then she showed me the available library of books. It was extensive.
"It is my duty to program it," she said. "Lady Dunn told me to give you access to the library and to the messaging system. I'm sorry, but she specifically said no games and no outside access. You are on a segregated network I control, and I am better at this than you are."
I smiled at her. "You probably are."
"If you attempt to bypass the security controls, I will know, and the lady will order me to take this away from you."
"I will only use the features you show me," I said.
She showed me how to search for the books I might like. Then she said, "There is a messaging system. You are only authorized to send specific messages, but you may receive others." She showed me the available choices. I could call for help. "That is for emergencies. I once used that feature because there was a spider in my room, and Lady Dunn bled me for it." She paused. "I suppose that doesn't seem like much punishment to you."
"It would have until last week," I admitted, "and it would depend upon how she bled you."
"I know she feeds from everyone here except the children. Mama said she will begin to feed from me when I turn eighteen, but she only feeds from me now when I am being punished. Mama said it doesn't hurt when Lady Dunn feeds from her, but it hurts quite a bit when she feeds from me."
"Lady Dunn can make it very pleasant, but if she only bleeds you for punishment, then she wouldn't want to make it pleasant and encourage you to misbehave."
"Oh. Mama didn't explain that."
Ashlyn pointed back to the screen. I could call for help and indicate a desire for exercise. And there was a third option, which said, "Test."
"Press it," she said.
I did, and a little box appeared asking if I was sure I wanted to send a test message.
"Press no."
I did and the box disappeared.
Blood Slave Page 10
