Bloodsong (3 page)

“Have you done this before? Bondage? Pain play?”

She nodded. “Yes. It’s something I’ve been interested in for several years. I’ve only ever played with other humans, of course. But I’ve experienced it from both sides, top and bottom. I’m a performer, and my specialty is fetish performance. So the leather and the exhibitionism, the ropes and the whips, are nothing new to me. Only this is new. Being here. With someone like you.”

“Do you understand what this sort of play means with a vampire?”

“I’ve heard about the intensity of it. About the bloodlust that often comes with it.”

“The bloodlust is dangerous,” he warned her, watching her carefully. She still wasn’t afraid. “It’s the one thing that can wrench control from one of my kind. You understand that you could be risking death?”

She nodded once more. “All of that was in the papers I signed before coming. I have no family left. I have nothing to lose but a life which has become too ordinary for someone like me.”

“I don’t know what you might mean by that—someone like you. But you can tell me later. I find I am eager for play.”

He realized then he’d been holding onto her hand the entire time, his grip probably crushing her fingers a bit, yet she had never even winced.

Oh yes, a worthy opponent. A worthy partner. And so damn lovely he couldn’t wait to get started. To get his hands on her. To contain the power of who she was. To elicit a response from this cool, cool human female.

Enticing. Irresistible.

“I’m ready for the dungeons,” she told him. “I’m ready for anything.”

He smiled at her, and the tips of his sharp eyeteeth caught the light, glinted. Meeraj shivered, trying not to let it show.

To be with one of them. To give herself over to a being of such strength and power…she may even, for the first time, be able to let go completely. In a way she had never allowed herself before. Maybe this would allow her to
feel
, deeply, truly, in a way she hadn’t since she’d lost the last of her family.

Jai. Her mother. And Dev, finally. But she couldn’t think of them now. Not here.

She steeled herself, shook off the moment of sentimentality.

Aleron tipped her chin with his fingertips, gazed into her eyes. His were a startling blue, icy, flawless. She was surprised to see pain buried there, deep in the wide, black pupils. Was even more surprised at the answering twinge in her chest.

Stop it. Calm down.

“Meeraj.” He said her name as though he were experimenting with the way it rolled off his tongue, lyrically, with his French accent. “Tonight will be different from anything you have experienced before. No matter how many times you have played at the dungeons with other mortals. With me, you will only ever be the bottom.”

“Of course.”

Yes, that was exactly what she wanted. Impossible to see it any other way with him, with a being of his power. The ultimate in domination.

“And once you hand yourself over to me, you are entirely under my command, my control. There are no safe words. We play by pure instinct. By agreeing to come with me now, you are agreeing to The Seeking Kiss, to my drinking your blood. And at my whim, offering your body, your blood, to others.”

“I understand, Aleron. I understand, and I am here for exactly this.”

The excitement was building within her at his words. The desire flowing like molten heat through her body. Her mind was beginning to spin.

I am really here. This is truly about to happen.

Perhaps she was in a slight state of shock. She wasn’t sure what was happening to her. She’d thought nothing could shock her. Not after the lean, hard life she’d led, living in one of the toughest neighborhoods in London, working her way up as an exotic dancer. She’d started in the lowest of clubs, those that had chain-link fences protecting the girls from their audience. The better clubs had bulletproof glass. The best clubs, where she worked now, had no barriers of any sort.

That’s where she’d seen the vampires. They came on occasion, slumming it, she supposed, in the human quarter. They could certainly afford the fees. She had never been touched by one. But the moment she’d seen her first vampire up close, she had craved that stone-cold touch. Had wanted to brush up against that power.

And now, here she was.

“Come to me then, Meeraj.”

It wasn’t a question.

Aleron looped an arm around her waist as she stood. Though his hand had been cool to the touch, his body was surprisingly warm. Hard as the marble-paneled walls, still, but almost warmer than any human’s, as though he burned with fever.

“You are mine for tonight. We will be very good together, you and I,” he whispered to her.

His breath was like a cooling breeze in her hair, making her shudder with heat and need and the tiniest edge of fear. But she wasn’t about to stop. This was it, her darkest fantasy come to life. On shaking legs, she let him lead her to the large wooden cross. It seemed enormous to her now, towering over her, even over him.

Aleron.

Had she ever imagined the vampires would be this utterly beautiful up close? Had she ever imagined the way her blood ran hot, nearly steaming through her veins, along with an exquisite anticipation she could hardly bear?

He pulled her in close to his side, and she melted into him, her mind emptying out already. He smelled like stone, clean and hard and solid. Pure, somehow.

“I am going to strip you. And then I will chain you to this cross, just as I did the handsome Calam. And you will love it, won’t you, my beauty?”

He caressed her cheek, his cool touch making her shiver.

“Yes,” she whispered.

Oh, she would enjoy it. Lose herself in it.

She was lost already. And at this moment, she didn’t care if she never found her way back.

Aleron stepped away from her, turned his head and nodded his chin. Out of the shadows came the two young women who had been attending to Calam earlier. They came up, one on either side of her, and undressed her so quickly she didn’t have time to think about it. Their quick little hands were like tiny caresses on her skin, lighting her up with need, making her feel oddly cherished. They took off her dress, her bra, her panties, which were soaking wet already. They took her silk stockings, her high black boots. She was left in nothing but her earrings, a pair of delicate silver hoops that had been her mother’s, and her long black hair falling around her shoulders.

Aleron stood, watching her closely, and a slow smile spread over his face. She was shivering, but not with cold. No, it was a need so fierce she could barely contain it. She wanted to sink to her knees before him. To kiss his hands. To be allowed to touch him.

God.

God had nothing to do with this.

Aleron reached out, laid his hand on her cheek, swept it down until he cupped her chin, raising it a few inches.

“You are so elegant,” he told her, his voice low. “So very beautiful. But the women here are all beautiful. You are…something special.”

A small shiver at his words.

She had never in her life wanted to please anyone the way she did him. She had never been that truly submissive with anyone, male or female.

His hand slipped down, over her collarbone, and she thought she might die happily right then, simply from his touch. Except that she needed to really feel him too badly.

He leaned in, his lips only inches from hers. His breath a sweet whisper against her mouth.

“I can feel your excitement, Meeraj. I can hear the gasping edge to your breath. I can sense the racing of your heart, the heat in your body. In your lovely pussy.”

He stroked her breasts, and she surged into him.

“Ah, your nipples are hard for me. Perfect.”

He bent his head, and she felt the hot lash of his tongue on one distended nipple.

“Oh…”

He drew it into his mouth, his tongue sweeping across it. She was flooded with heat—her breasts, her pussy. Her legs were weak.

Aleron pulled away. “You are shaking, my darling. We can’t have that. Best to steady you now.”

He took her wrists and held them over her head, backing her into the cross until she felt the smooth wood pressed against her spine. As he fastened the leather cuffs about her wrists, she felt strangely safe, cared for.

The sound of the chains sliding across wood as Aleron adjusted them was like some primal music in her ears. She loved the idea of chains, the heaviness of them. The medieval feel to them. They seemed so
tough
, for want of a better word. So hard. As hard as the vampire’s skin.

Yes…

Her arms were spread wide on the enormous X. Aleron bent and gently spread her thighs. He bent lower, clasping each of her ankles in thick leather restraints attached to longer lengths of chain bolted into the floor. She loved being bound like this. Feeling open to him, completely at his mercy.

She didn’t know if he possessed any. She didn’t care.

He rose to his feet and ran his hands over her body—her sides, her thighs, then back to her breasts. She tried to arch into him, but the chains were pulled too tightly for her to move more than a few centimeters. Her nipples ached. Her pussy ached. Her very skin ached for his touch.

“I am going to whip you now. You’ll like that, won’t you?”

A hot shaft of desire went through her like fire in her veins. “Yes, Aleron. Please.”

He pulled away, and she could see his wicked smile.

He turned his back a moment to take some implements from a rack on the wall beside her. When he turned to her once more he had an evil-looking cat-o-nine-tails in one hand and a fur glove on the other.

Her breath caught in her throat. And in her mind was one word, running through again and again, an endless loop of begging—
please, please, please
.

He ran the long leather tails of the whip over her skin, and she breathed in the tangy scent of it. She was shivering all over, need pouring through her like a hot tide. When he laid the other hand between her breasts, the fur soft against her skin, his hard palm beneath the fur holding her down against the wooden cross, something inside her went loose, absolutely limp. It was as if the last shred of resistance melted beneath his touch.

He began with the whip, letting it cascade over the skin of her thighs, her stomach. It was lovely at first, a gentle caress. Then harder, but still doing nothing more than bringing the blood to the surface of the skin. Harder still, and she could feel the sting of the leather, like some sharply sensual kiss. And in stark contrast, the soft pleasure of the fur between her breasts.

He worked in an even rhythm, gradually building in speed and intensity. She watched him, his face concentrated as he watched the motion of his own hand. Beneath the silk of his white shirt, she could see the movement of his long, lean muscles. Saw the tendons flexing in the back of his large hand. And all the while he kept the fur-covered glove on her body, the sensation a lovely foil to the stinging kiss of the whip.

The pain was building. Along with it, desire rose in her body, filled her, until her breasts, her pussy, were swollen, needing release. The release of his touch. The release of real pain.

“I know what you need, Meeraj,” he said to her.

The whip came down harder on her in a flash, truly hurting now.

Her head buzzed with the release of endorphins, making her dizzy. Dizzier still when he stroked her with the fur glove, that soft gliding over the undersides of her breasts, her ribs, her stomach. Her clitoris was aching, hurting, even though he hadn’t touched her there, or maybe because of it.

“Aleron, please…”

“Please what? What do you need that I’m not anticipating?”

“I need… I need you to touch me.”

He laughed then, his tone low and wicked. “I am touching you, little beauty. I will touch you more. You want my hand on your hot little slit, is that it? Ah, yes, I know it is. You’d like my mouth there, as well. My cock. You should know that my intention is to make you wait. Even though it hurts me nearly as much.”

He stepped in then, thrust his strong thigh between hers, pressed close, closer, until the leather of his pants brushed her pussy lips. He shifted, and she could feel the hard ridge of his cock through the leather.

“Ah God, Aleron… You torture me.”

He laughed again. “Yes.”

He stepped back, shaking off the glove, tweaked one of her nipples sharply, and she thought she could almost come just from that. If he would only do it again…

He did, tucking the cat-o-nine under one arm and using both hands on her.

She was writhing, moaning, immediately. The heat rose between her thighs, her clit pulsing. Pain. Pleasure. Unbearable.

“Not yet,” Aleron ordered.

She bit her lip, holding back the first waves of the climax that threatened to come crashing down on her.

“Not even now,” he said, thrusting one hand between her thighs and right into her burning pussy.

“Oh!”

He pumped into her.

“Do not come, Meeraj. You will take it.”

She moaned, pleasure burrowing deep.

“Tell me, Meeraj.”

“Yes,” she whispered. “I will hold it back. I will take what you offer me, Aleron.”

“Then take this, the Seeking Kiss, my beauty.”

With his other hand he grasped her long hair, buried his fingers in it, pulling her head back. Then he bent over her throat. That single moment before his lips touched her seemed to last an eternity, anticipation burning through her, engulfing her like a flame.

“Aleron…”

His teeth sank in.

It was like a pair of hot needles at first. Then it was pure pleasure.

It began as a low hum. Then it grew, until it was piercing, shimmering like light in her veins, the edges sharp, like that first edge of orgasm, yet different, somehow. Like a sound she couldn’t quite hear. And images pouring into her head at a thousand miles an hour. Faces, male and female. The scents of leather, smoke, skin, sweat, perfume, blood, sex.

Sex.

Ah, yes…

Then sensations, hers and not hers. The fluttering touch of a hand on her skin, the plunging thrust of a cock insider her, in her pussy, her ass. Luscious red lips, kissing her mouth, her breasts, her thighs. The taut pull of rope on her wrists, the crack of a whip on the flesh of her buttocks. Pain and pleasure, sensation and sensation. And behind it all that deep sorrow she’d glimpsed in him earlier.