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Staggering, I leaned back against the building as I took inventory of my life. A lip gloss, an eyeliner pencil, my driver’s license, my cell phone, my student I.D., my passport and my bank card. That was all I had to my name. I didn’t even have a toothbrush. My face suddenly grew intensely hot, and my eyes incredibly dry. I was going to cry. I fought it, I took slow breaths and fanned my eyes wildly as Aleksi came back down the stairs and stopped in front of me. He watched me for a moment before a look of determination crossed his face, and he scooped me up into his arms.

“You’re not safe in the open like this
,” he murmured as he headed up the stairs with me in a bridal carry.

“Does it matter? I… I have nothing
,” I sobbed out. “My life’s w-w-work…” I pressed my face against his neck. All of the notes on my dissertation, all of my work, gone with the charred flecks of plastic that were once my laptop.

“You have your life, Autumn. And you have me, I would like to think that counts for something
,” Aleksi murmured as we wound our way through the rooms.

“Do I have y-you?” I asked as I looked up into his face. He shook his head as he opened a set of doors.

“Autumn,
” He sighed my name. “No one has ever or will ever have as much of me as you do. I’ve been…so stupid lately. You make me lose my mind, every slight from you cuts like a fucking razor. And I hate that, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.” His lips twitched into a small smile. “When I heard that someone had set explosives off in your apartment, I realized that you would have been in there if not for Leslie dragging you out. I didn’t invite you to my party out of spite and I almost lost you for good.” He swallowed as he started up another flight of stairs. “The prospect of never seeing you again, never seeing your eyes light up when you see me. Never watching you subconsciously nervously groom yourself or chew on that bottom lip of yours. It just, I never wanted to let you go again… and at the same time I wish I could.” I furrowed my brows as he opened another set of double doors and set me down on the bed. “I want you safe, Autumn. I want you to live and be happy, even if that means…” He trailed off and shook his head as he took a seat beside me.

My eyes trailed around the room and took in the amazing design scheme. Unlike in Crimson Hill, this bedroom kept with the original design of the small palace. The walls were powder blue with white accents and the curtains were white linen with pale pink roses on them. Everything was so simple and elegant. Even the furniture was the same, that lovely late eighteenth century aesthetic with pale flowers printed on white. It was a lot lighter than the impressive golden gilding of Crimson Hill and Versailles. For a moment I forgot about what Aleksi had said, and I forgot that all of my stuff had been blown up and that I was now clairvoyant. This was a place to set everything heavy aside and be light. My eyes raised to Aleksi and I smiled at him, I rested my hand over his and squeezed.

“I’m sorry for what I said…but this is scary Aleksi…and.” I swallowed and shook my head. My mind wandered to the vision I had of that dark haired boy, with Aleksi’s eyes and my mouth. “My first vision…I saw a
four-year-old boy, with my mouth, and your eyes playing on top of my grave while you, Colette, and Elizabeta stood over him. I’m going to die…it didn’t bother me so much before because everyone dies but now… knowing that it could be imminent.” I rubbed my forehead and shook my head. “I’ve seen Gregory plotting against us. I saw his empty cell. I’ve seen…” I trailed off as I thought to my pleading over Vlad, and then the last vision I saw. “Something bad is going to happen, Aleksi. Gregory is behind it, but that’s all I know. Other than I won’t survive it.”

“You’re not stuttering.” He whispered with a little smirk. “I’d almost say a true crisis fits you. Either that or you’re in shock.” He teased pulling me close. We sat in silence for a while, and slowly it started to rain. The sound of the rain on the roof was amazingly calming. I have no clue how long we sat and listened to it bouncing on the roof, but after a while I took a deep breath and spoke my mind for a change.

“Evan thinks you’re going to fuck Colette tonight.” I somehow managed to keep the emotion from my voice. I felt him tense beside me and grumble.

“Well, he’s going to be extremely disappointed.”

“He says you two had a scare before and he woke up to the sounds of you two having sex. And that she came back to him covered in bites and sore… in the exact same way Colette told me you act when drunk.”

“It was three years
ago before I knew you were possible.” It was his turn to sigh and pick at his jeans. We fell into silence again, the whisper of the rain bouncing off of the windows made everything seem so very calming. I needed calming.

“What am I going to do?” I reached back and pulled out my hair tie and let my thick dark tresses cascade over my shoulder. He leaned forward and kissed the back of my shoulder blade. Teasing my flesh by dragging those oh so sharp fangs over the skin, up to my neck where he placed the softest kiss over that healing bite. I broke out in gooseflesh as a chill ran down my spine.

“First you need to unwind,
” he purred to my flesh as he nipped at that half healed bite. Pain shot through my neck and my body tensed, I didn’t scream—I wanted to but I didn’t. He released the flesh and moved back from me. My hand shot up and covered the assaulted area. His front teeth—top and bottom—had left precise and pristine little indentations. “Unfortunately, I don’t have anything here. But I’m very creative.” He crawled over the bed and ripped up a pillow case into thin strips of linen. I watched curiously as he doubled them up and tested their strength. After adding another layer, he seemed pleased enough to stand and wrap the strips around a divot in the bed post. He certainly was creative.

After creating a loop with the linen, he grabbed it and jumped off of the mattress. With his hands holding onto the strips, his feet didn’t touch the floor and the post held. He pulled himself up with it and I could hear the linen tightening around the wood as he pulled his feet up in front of him. It was amazing watching the control he had over his body, he wasn’t even shaking it was like he could stay up there all day. He didn’t however, he uncurled his fingers and his feet hit the floor with a thud.

I swallowed at the possibilities as my mind blanked from all that had happened and suddenly became only focused on the fact that Aleksi was going to tie me to the bedpost. I then noticed for the first time a black bag that seemed very out of place as Aleksi walked towards it and fished out those bright red pointe shoes.

“You’re going to want to stretch
,” he called over his shoulder as he produced a black satin blindfold.
You should get to it, nothing is less sexy than a leg cramp.
I slipped off my jacket and set it on the bed.
You’re going to want to say something about the lack of a condom before. Unless of course you want a vampire baby.

“C-condoms
,” I stammered out as I slipped out of my socks and shoes. Aleksi snickered and tossed a box on the bed from that black bag.

“We were very drunk last time… speaking of that, are you still sore?”

“A little.” I swallowed.

“Oh.” I could practically hear the pout in his voice as he walked back over to the bed. “That was an order, Autumn.” I slipped
off my jeans with a pout, part of me wanted him to undress me again, I liked that. Miss Manners was actually pouting over the fact that I was undressing myself.

I stretched on the floor for a good ten minutes, I had been so focused on counting that I didn’t notice Aleksi standing over me. He literally dropped the shoes into my lap. I inspected them for a moment, they were the same ones I left in the flat in Oxford. I noticed the little piece of screwed up ribbon where I fucked up sewing it in. I pulled them on and tied them up. After a moment, I stood and stretched my feet. The conversation Colette and I had in the dance room in Oxford came back in technicolor. She said I should get used to being en pointe for him, and that he tied her like that for an hour. Rolling my feet on to pointe I couldn’t help but to stare at the ominous shreds of linen in Aleksi’s hands, and the fact that he was now shirtless.

“Down for now, you’ll have enough of that later.” He smirked as he approached me. I lowered and he stopped inches from me. “Give me your hands.” I held my hands out to him. He
kissed my wrists and the center of my palms before he wrapped that linen around them.

“I don’t know how long I’ll be able to…” I trailed off as he grabbed another few strips of linen and wrapped them
between my wrists.

“
Shhh, trust me, Autumn,” He purred before kissing my cheek, a small noise of frustration broke my lips startling me. He slid his hands up my sides, over my breasts and to my shoulders where he slowly pushed against me. I started walking backward, my wordless compliance made him groan softly as he pressed his hips against me. I could feel that trapped straining monstrosity stressing the tight fabric of his jeans. The post of the bed hit my back and I looked up to that hanging loop of linen. He grabbed my wrists and raised them over my head as he stood on the bed. He stared down at me for a moment. “En Pointe.” He ordered and a ripple of an anticipatory spine tingle started between my shoulder blades and traveled down to my hips.

With a little jump, I brought myself to pointe and he clapped with a little snicker.

“Very advanced
,” h
e purred tying the linen of my bindings tight to the loop he made. “Now lower slowly.” As I
complied, I realized I couldn’t completely lower from pointe. I could get a quarter of the way down before I felt stress on my shoulders. “Resting against the post should give you some reprieve.” He murmured as he slid to the edge of the bed.

      
He took off his sneakers, socks and jeans. He wasn’t naked for long, though, he reached behind him and grabbed a pair of worn black tights from the bag. They were the kind he was so fond of wearing, they stopped just under his knee and left his fatless calf bare. For my benefit,
he rolled the waistband a handful of times until I could see those immaculate hips of his. I twisted in my bonds, my legs were starting to ache just a little. “Do you trust me?” He whispered as he slid off of the bed with something in his hands. I nodded rapidly as he stepped in front of me. His hands ghosted over my shoulders, and then those long pale fingers wrapped around my neck. “Say it.” He breathed into my mouth before he thrust his tongue between my lips. The kiss was almost desperate, there was something frantic, and animalistic about the way his lips met mine. Once he broke the kiss he placed lazy kisses on my neck, his lips brushing my pulse and those aching teeth-marks from before.

“I trust you
,” I panted, as he teased the flesh with his fangs again. But with the admission of trust he stepped away from me and slipped the eye mask over my head obscuring my vision.

“How many fingers am I holding up?”

“I…I don’t know, I can’t see,
” I confessed and was instantly met with an unexpected bite on my thigh. I squealed with the unanticipated pain and stressed against the linen binding my wrists.

“I can’t see… what?” He growled softly, his voice had all of the nuances of a large cat in the wild.

“Master
,” I breathed. “I’m so sorry, I forgot…” I shifted again and he started to lick over the teeth marks, every pass of his tongue sent me shivering.

“Shhh…now things are going to get very intense. I hate safe words, but for learning purposes we’re going to use one. If you feel faint, or if you genuinely feel you cannot take any more use it. The word is… Pineapple. I want to hear you say it.”

“Pineapple,
” I repeated as his tongue continued to slither over the indented flesh.

“Now, remember what I said I was going to do to you? How I was going to bring you again and again until you couldn’t breathe?” I nodded rapidly again. “
Well, we’re going to do something like that. I am going to edge you, do you know what that is?” I shook my head no. “Most would say it’s when someone brings their partner to orgasm and stops just before they cum. I, however, am far, far more sinister than that. You still have to let me know when you’re going to cum of course. But instead of moving away from you and allowing you to twist and beg, I’m going to bite whatever spot of your delicious flesh seems the most appealing at that given moment.” He snickered darkly and I felt him rip away my panties. I couldn’t have stopped the giggle if I tried, he joined me with a chuckle. “I know, I’m predictable. But I love ripping your clothes off, there’s a novelty to it that rubs me in all of the right places.” He groaned out as he slid a finger down my stomach.

The digit’s painfully slow descent made me twist and pant. I knew where he was going, or rather I could guess. Even as that ache in my legs turned into a burn, I still had that instinctive drift to attempt to raise my hips to meet that slowly skittering flange. That blindfold killed me, being unable to see him was a torture in
itself. I craved knowing that I had his attention, that my twisting and straining body brought him pleasure. His finger halted in its tracks as he reached the top of my slit. That finger hovered there tracing over the outer folds as I started panting with the anticipation.

Every erogenous zone on my body lit up like an arcade game. His finger finally dipped into the folds of my sex and found that needy little button of flesh that seemed to throb with a demanding pulse all of its own. One hundred and, however-many years of experience made him an expert at manipulating the female form. He found that spot that I touched almost every night in seconds as he traced it with tiny little expertly teasing circles. Not being able to see heightened the sensation and I felt myself inching so close in moments. My breathing started to come in gasping pants as his lips and breathe teased against my neck.