Dangerous Ties

by Devyn Quinn

  “Gretchen, the carpenter’s daughter?”

  He nodded, and the corners of his mouth turned up proudly. “The very one. And I promise, once we are married, she will be on time to class every morning.”

  I laughed gently, and a few minutes later I left the shop with the poker posed over my shoulder. It was cumbersome, but I managed to carry it and the basket back home. Inside, I stood the poker against the frame of the door, which I then locked. I placed the basket on my nightstand, then undressed and performed the ritual bath anew.

  Clean and still naked, I approached the cauldron over its steady flame, repeated the incantation, and performed the proper number of stirs. A deep bowl of water I set upon the hearth, and with tongs from the pantry shelf, I lowered the iron band into the bubbling gold ooze. Releasing it for several moments to swirl in the mixture, I closed my eyes and imagined the culmination of my desires. Then with the tongs I lifted the band out and submerged it into the water. The water hissed for a couple of minutes, and when I was satisfied, I again grasped the band with the tongs. This fashioned collar I laid over a clean linen on the desk.

  While it dried, I fetched a tiny wooden container from amongst the items brought from Irmhild’s abode. This I set beside the wisps of Carina’s hair on the nightstand by the bed. When the collar was dry and satisfactorily cooled, I took it to the bed and sat down cross-legged on the mattress. I turned it in my hands and admired for a time the gleam the gold retained despite the other ingredients that had gone into its mixture. The entire collar tingled against my flesh, like honey when held in one’s mouth. Laying it beside me on the mattress, I glanced at the poker beside the door once again. Then I lay down with my head upon the pillow. It wasn’t even close to evening as I closed my eyes. I thought of Carina, of course, but the time to indulge fantasies was over. Yet, I knew that the realization of them was not an egg I could wisely count yet. I smiled at my own growing superstitions. My focus and resolve were primed to an almost hypnotic sharpness and cleansed entirely of interfering mortal doubt or hesitation. I envisioned what was to come later that night, a thing unfamiliar, yet my mind had rehearsed it so well that my envisioned steps touched me as familiar. I recited to myself the incantations learned throughout the years that would make me invisible to the vampire’s eyes when I returned to the monastery. I repeated the words Irmhild had taught, words of power that would bless my wielding of the magical hammer. And I rehearsed the banishments she had shared, those that would break any spell Griselda had placed upon Carina to compel her to fight against salvation.

  But as I allowed myself to drift off into a half sleep, it was a rite from the Catullus writings that illuminated before my mind’s eye. A certain exorcism that had fascinated me the night before, one fashioned not of ceremony and detached determination, but of primordial emotion. A process as uncivilized as the demonic spirits that it was intended to eliminate. I was not certain of why my mind needed reiteration on this rite, but soon I lost all sense of everything but for the sound of my unspoken voice repeating it.

  A dozen times, fifty times, maybe a hundred I recited it. The words resonated through every visceral particle and spiritual vestige of my being. I was swept away into the invocation, so utterly was I aware of nothing afoot in the house until an iced blade touched my forehead.

  I gasped at once and opened my eyes to find what I had felt was not metal or ice, but the nails of fingers caressing me.

  It was Carina. She wore a coarse blue-dyed gown with heavy, bell sleeves. Only a peep of white cleavage could I see, but her skin was aglow with the radiance of health and life. She gifted me with that smile I had so missed as she bent down and imparted a kiss to my mouth. A freshly plucked rosebud, still cool from the morning frost, were her lips. They trembled with the promise of delights fulfilled.

  My drowsy mind was rapidly becoming inebriated. My loins inflamed and stiffened. She drew down the coverlet and sheet with one graceful hand, and shyly stroked my stomach and chest.

  “Schoolmaster,” she whispered, “I need you….”

  She sat down on the bedside and traced her fingertips down to my left thigh. With a rustle of a giggle she cupped my balls. My mouth watered under her caress and the very sight of her. So alive she was, or so my eyes told me. With a bashful tilt of her head, her fingers glided up and down my shaft. How warm, alive she felt, and the light sensation she impelled was maddening, defying all the logical warnings that shouted in my brain. She bent over me, and my skin was set aflame. My nipples hardened beneath the weight of her pressing breasts.

  Carina’s tongue lapped playfully over my chin. “Will you not kiss me of your own accord, schoolmaster?”

  I could only look at her. I was a man sinking under clashing waves of desire and patient caution. She kissed me again, moaning softly into my mouth. Grasping the root of my cock, she began to stroke me. I was plunged deeper beneath the waves, and the contrasting currents were vying to blind me now to everything except the physical need to claim her.

  Her mouth released me, her hand too. She inclined over me carefully, and her weight was as inconsiderable as straw. Her eyes held mine; but though they glinted with passion, there was a mechanical steadiness to all her movements, even in the somber pout that came to her mouth. My desire slackened and rational thought buoyed me up to crest the waves.

  “I know your wishes now, Marcel.”

  I felt a power emanate through her, an intelligence alien and separate from the true sweetness of her character. It was not even similar to the passionate vampire who had ravished me before. This power sought to captivate me with ardor, confuse and bind me with my own affections. My cock was squeezed gently between her thighs. I released a deliberate moan. I felt the power try to scour through my mind, and it was faux desire alone that now shielded my reason.

  “Yes, you still desire the beauty you’ve always denied yourself….”

  I granted her a convincingly entranced nod.

  With an approving purr, she bunched the hem of the gown up to her thighs and straddled my waist. Sublime confidence sparkled in her eyes as she regarded me. She toyed with my nipples, pinching them slightly, and trailed a fingertip from my chest to my collarbone. Her hips undulated a moment, and I realized how very dry her nether mouth was, nothing like the lathering, ardent little portal I had known before. She gathered her hair atop her head and peered at me with the look of a triumphant Amazon. She expected me to be spellbound by her gaze, lost of will utterly, as if I had been born and destined to lose myself to the unholy pillage she planned. And so, I feigned just that.

  She pressed my wrists into the mattress over my head and leaned forward to kiss me roughly. Her lips skimmed over my ear, then down to the cleft of my throat. She released my arms and pinched my nipples, harshly enough I had to suppress a protest. But it brought a careless laugh to her, and as her lips buried into my throat, the fingertips of my right hand sought out the smooth metal of the collar on the coverlet beside me.

  Her mouthed roved over my jugular vein. Her tongue flicked over the area, pumping my circulation with the brisk movement. She arched her back and pressed me deeper into the mattress, and with a wanton sigh, her lips drew back. I felt the sharp tips of teeth press into my flesh.

  I snatched the collar firmly, clasped my arms about Carina’s shoulders, and took hold of both ends of the collar with my hands. The iron frame lengthened easily. Carina grunted, but unaware of the reason for my sudden movement, only pressed harder on my shoulders. I clamped the collar down hard against the back of her neck. She hissed uneasily, and at the moment her head raised, I noosed the thing about her throat.

  With a squeal, she leaped back on her heels. My force held staunchly as she thrashed and tore at my hands and the collar both. I sat up and she was trapped, straddled over my thighs as I held on to the collar. Her hair was snatched between the thing and her neck. The more she struggled, the more disheveled her hair became, and served as a barrier against her scraping nails and my hands while I sp
oke the last incantation of the rite.

  When the last Germanic word was uttered, Carina stopped struggling. But she began to growl angrily, and through her tousled auburn locks I saw her eyes had lost the sweet light of life. Black they looked, devoid of even the memory of humanity. The radiance seeped from her skin, the semblance of heat as well.

  “Pull your hair out,” I commanded.

  She shivered in fury, and when she did not comply, I said, “Do it now or receive punishment.”

  Carina howled with malicious laughter. The next moment, she gasped and shook her head violently. In utter frustration, she screamed and beat the crown of her head with her fists. At length she slumped and began to sob. I raised to my knees and allowed her to fall back on the bed.

  “Marcel?” She sounded honestly bewildered, and I felt Griselda’s possession slip away.

  “Oh, no,” she said faintly, shaking her head. “No, Marcel, let me go! What you have done is dangerous, foolish!”

  I retained my hold on the collar with my right hand, and with the other, brushed the hair from her face. Her tears were running down her cheeks so that her face looked like that of a rain-misted alabaster statue. Slowly, carefully, I pulled her long hair free of the collar and pressed the ends to my lips. The corners of her pallid lips turned up sadly; her tears spilled heavier.

  “I am dead to all the world, poor Marcel! I have wronged you and insult your household to be here. I am a failure to my very people.”

  “No,” I murmured, “that is not true, none of it.”

  “Yes, it is. Allow me only the mercy to die now!”

  My heart sank to hear her anguished words. But the time to finish the rite completely had come. I straddled her chest now, keeping the collar cinched steadfastly. She winced shamefully and turned her eyes, weeping desolately. With my thumb I caressed her bottom lip.

  “Look at me, Carina.”

  When she closed her eyes tightly and shook her head, I spoke with unwavering firmness, “You will look at me, Carina, as I say.”

  At her hesitant compliance, I grasped my cock. I admired her beautiful face, those eyes that haunted me always. I remembered her sitting astride my lap, and the taut, virginal orifice that had swallowed my manhood. All the fantasies I had avoided while she was living surged with unbridled zeal into my conscious mind. My cock swelled, and I outlined her lips with the head. How sorely I wished to see her feed upon me this way.

  Later, sweet later, I told myself.

  She stared as I stroked off. When I felt my climax approach, I raised a little on my haunches and released over her chest. The orgasm was painfully, thoroughly rapturous for the delay of the ritual. And when my mind was sober, I stretched over and snatched the wooden container from the nightstand. This I showed to Carina.

  “Open this.”

  Her hands trembled as she removed the lid. I dipped my fingers into the red resin within and gathered a gob. I clenched the ends of the collar firmly again and carefully smeared the resin on the touching ends. Then, reaching to her chest, I dipped my forefinger into my jism, and this I dabbed over the resin. Carina made a startled whimper, but I did not meet her eyes then; rather, I watched as a soft, faint yellow glow burnished the magical glue. The glow spread about the entire length of the collar, then intensified to a sunlit radiance a moment or two before fading away.

  When it had dissipated, I looked at Carina. She was sobbing still, quietly now, unaware in her shock of what I beheld: the pallidness fading quickly from her skin, replaced by the bloom and suppleness of real life. The blue-green of her eyes shone forth brilliantly once more. So joyous I was to feel the genuine warmth in her body again that tears sprang to my own eyes.

  “You are no longer theirs, Carina. You are free to live under the sun’s gaze once more, to see your own reflection and know you are warded securely from the touch or compulsion of Griselda and her brood.”

  Her eyes widened, blinked, and as she nursed her bottom lip, it was apparent she felt it too.

  “Oh, Marcel,” she whispered. “It is true, it is true!”

  I got off of her at last and sat down on the mattress. The container of resin I pitched to the pillows, then draped over and kissed her. The touch of her mouth sent a wave of relief and possessiveness through me.

  “I will never let you go again, Carina,” I declared. “The collar cannot be removed except by magic as ritualized and resolute as that which created it. And that is a secret I will share with no one, not even you. While a single vampire roams this earth, you are vulnerable without it. And even were I to discover they had all suddenly vanished from the world, I would still keep it there, as reminder of what you mean to me.”

  I touched the enchanted band about her throat. “Here it is, and here forever it remains.”

  I felt her heartbeat pitch as she searched my eyes. “Truly, Marcel?”

  “Yes, Carina. Why else would I have gone through all this?”

  She was silent, frowning hesitantly, as if still she could not quite believe. I kissed the salted tears from her face, and laid down beside her and pulled her close. Taking her hands, I started to kiss her palms when I noticed how dirty her hands were. A nameless suspicion roused the hair on the nape of my neck.

  “Sit up and remove that gown,” I said.

  At her shocked tremble, I repeated the order. She obeyed slowly, and I saw with bitterness that numerous angry scrapes and raised, dark bruises were appearing over her arms and legs. The injuries, I knew, were doubtless from her struggle to escape the sarcophagus, and probably from initially unearthing herself from the grave as well. My wild and wanton woman-child had been so sorely misused! I threw the ugly gown to the floor and lay her down. I looked upon, with human clarity, the breadth of all she had suffered. Her breath was fatigued, yet her gaze had lost none of the adoring ardor since that day we had spoken in the valley. I embraced her fiercely. I rued for the secret of turning time back, to stifle those proper, cowardly words with which I had spurned her. At least fate had been merciful to have directed the vampires to let her free, instead of forcing her to remain in the sarcophagus until I could free her!

  “Marcel, I could not stop myself. I was torn between following her orders and protecting you as best I could, or at least in the only way I could fathom.”

  “I know,” I said, “and you will not reproach yourself on this, not ever again. But I hope you can forgive me.”

  “What is there to forgive?”

  I smiled sadly. “For that shameful propriety that I allowed to hinder me from claiming that which you offered so earnestly. I was a fool, Carina.”

  “Oh, Marcel,” she sighed. “It is only that I love you.”

  “Yes, and never again will you reproach yourself regarding this that befell you? If you do, you shall regret it…most sorely.”

  Her eyes shone with unshed tears. Her whispered answer was ripe with passion, “As you wish, Marcel.”

  “As I command,” I corrected, and her cheeks flooded scarlet.

  I could not help but smile and kiss her palms fervently. I reflected again on the delicious chastisements I should have given to her before, and vowed they would be administered soon enough.

  I stroked her hair and patted her raised hip. I was just about to rise and get her something to eat when I heard an ungodly sound from outside the house. It brought an immediate image of a nest of angry snakes to my mind. Gooseflesh sheeted over me, and I realized my task was not yet complete, nor would it be as long as Griselda’s brats existed to carry out her desires.

  Carina raised her own head and whimpered. “They have followed me.”

  For several moments, we listened as the hissing of the vampires grew angrier, louder. The sound seemed to blanket the entire frame of the house. The windows clattered against their sills, the interior walls jarred. From the kitchen we heard the cups and plates fall off the shelves and break over the floor. After a time, the sound began to recede, and the house stood again quiet.

  “They da
re not enter or make trouble,” I assured her. “The rites are complete, and you wear the collar. Without you, they must return to the monastery. They cannot venture out without your power to guide them past the wards.”

  She did not seem any less troubled by my words. Although I wished more than anything to stay with her all night, I sat up.

  “Listen to me,” I instructed. “You are safe. You will not leave this house until I can return to explain your presence to your father and the others.”

  I stood up from the bed to find my clothing. Carina got to her knees and grabbed my hand desperately.

  Anxiety broke her voice, “Marcel, what is this? I know I am safe now; I feel it. There is no need for you to go…out there!”

  I took a clearing breath and closed my eyes against the provocative vision she was on both knees upon my own bed.

  “Obey me, my kitten,” I said. “Your collar may not bind you to my will, but bound you are nevertheless. Another word, and I will demonstrate here and now how well I have divorced my hesitations regarding you.”

  She let go my hands, but as I dressed I saw she had not moved, and her face was crumpled with conflicting dread and the desire to obey. When my boots were laced, I came back, kissed the crown of her head, and gestured for her to lie down.

  “I expect to find you in this bed when I return.”

  She did lay down but started crying again. “You will not return! And I will live a lifetime in the sun, yes, but without you!”

  For a moment, I thought to toss her over, punish her at last, soundly, thoroughly. It would silence her and would consummate all that heaven had brought between us.

  It was not cowardice this time that stayed my hand, but the niggling apprehension that she could be right. As well as she needed my stern discipline, and as potently as I wished to deliver it, at that moment I needed more to kiss her mouth.

  And so I did, relishing the taste as a condemned man carries the smells of his last meal to the gallows. I went and got the poker, and though I knew she was perfectly safe, I deemed the steel of which it was made might give her some comfort and laid it beside her on the bed. Then, taking the hammer, I left the house. Her sobbing grew forlorn as I closed the door behind me. But neither of us could afford my regard for it now.