Vampire Enslavement (Lords of Bondage) (2 page)

Shane ripped the sheet from around Cassia’s body and used it to tie her hands behind her back. He forced her to kneel beside her friend Claudius. She felt numb. She had been through this before and had thought then that she would die with the others. She hadn’t really thought she’d escape her fate. Claudius looked at her with haunted eyes. He mouthed that he was sorry. She closed her eyes, wishing the nightmare would end.

“Please, don’t hurt the lady. She’s done nothing to earn your wrath,” Claudius said.

Shane responded with an incredulous look. “This woman held me prisoner. She forced milkmaids to rub my cock in order to steal my seed.” His eyes narrowed and his hands clenched tightly around the hilt of his steel longsword. “She’s not innocent by any means.”

“The hell you say!” Claudius appeared confused as well as deeply offended.

Shane leaned on his sword and said, “I know what I’m talking about, Roman. That lady,” he said while pointing at Cassia, “was the overseer.”

Claudius shook his head. He was both bewildered and frightened. “You make no sense, man.”

“It’s about the Hydra. Comprehend me now?”

Claudius gave Cassia a questioning look, and she responded by staring at the floor since she didn’t want to see the comprehension dawn in his eyes once he learned she wasn’t the person he thought her to be. She knew she was guilty of the crimes mentioned. She had overseen her stepmother’s hybrid milking operations in that barn. Many of the hybrids, like Shane, had reason to want her dead.

“My lady is a virtuous woman,” Claudius said. “She would not have done something so horrible. I beg you not to kill her.”

“We won’t kill her, but her master will not be pleased that she ran from him. There will be punishment for that.”

She waited for what seemed like hours. She felt relieved that she would not be killed, but she feared what the punishment would entail. They could torture her, mutilate her. She started trembling while her brain ruminated on the possibilities, none of them good.

Eventually Cabrian arrived. He was dressed in his customary black linen trousers and black leather boots. Unlike the Romans, the hybrid warriors were devoid of armor, and in truth, they didn’t seem to need it. He wore no tunic and his bare chest gleamed with sweat. He had been fighting and he bled from small cuts, although she saw no noticeable wounds. She could tell he was furious by the look in his eyes. Perhaps she would die after all.

“You were trying to leave me?”

His masculine beauty struck her anew, but he was so very angry with her. “Cabrian, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

“It’s Lord Ross. You are my slave and you are not allowed to leave. Do you understand?”

He had withdrawn his permission for her to use his given name, which didn’t bode well for her. “I didn’t wish to leave you, Lord Ross. Claudius Brutus is a friend. He was only trying to help me.”

“By stealing you from me?” Cabrian gripped her by her waist and hauled her to her feet. He forced her to stand before Claudius and the rest of the Roman soldiers.

Cassia was painfully aware of her nudity and it filled her with shame. With her hands bound behind her back, she could not cover herself. “Please, Lord Ross.”

Cabrian stood behind her body. He ignored her pleas and ran his hands down the insides of her thighs. “Notice the blue rot. This woman can never again harbor a human’s cock, not without it harming the man. That is what blue rot does.”

Cassia was mortified as all eyes focused on the blue designs that covered her skin. The stains had been made by hybrid semen and it was proof of her fallen status.

“You raped her,” Claudius said with horror in his voice.

It hadn’t been rape. Cassia had allowed Cabrian to take her body, and what was worse, she had enjoyed it. She had lusted after Cabrian the entire time he had been her captive, so she hadn’t resisted his touch when she became his slave. “Please, Lord Ross.”

“The woman you tried to rescue is already dead to Romans. She’s a slave now.” Cabrian cupped her naked sex in his hand and said, “This lovely piece of fur is mine. This sweet channel will serve hybrid cock.” His other hand moved to her lower abdomen to rub it lightly. “Her womb will breed hybrids.” His hand lifted from her stomach to capture a naked breast. “These plump mounds will feed hybrid infants, not Romans.”

Cassia felt her face flame as Cabrian fondled her in front of the captured Roman soldiers. Suddenly, he kneeled between her legs and separated her thighs. With fangs extended, he swooped his head perilously close to her sex and latched onto the soft flesh of her inner thigh to feed from her there. She jerked as his fangs pierced her, but soon the pain faded and the sensation grew much more pleasant. She clutched his hair and trembled while he drank from her. The motions of sucking and swallowing caused his face to rub against her sex. Shamefully, she found it arousing.

The Roman soldiers voiced their protests as Cabrian fed from her and this served to excite the hybrids. Cassia knew he wasn’t going to kill her by taking too much blood. But there was still the matter of punishment and that had her trembling.

Prince Diermont approached to address the captured Roman soldiers. “How many of you have daughters and wives at home?” The soldiers responded with cries of outrage and this made the prince smile with wicked glee before continuing his rant. “We will take your females and use them for our purposes. The only way to stop this from happening is to comply with my demands.” His gaze veered toward Cassia and Cabrian and he gestured with his hands. “It must be quite disturbing to watch one of our kind use one of your females. That one cannot be helped, but you can prevent your loved ones from sharing her fate.”

Cassia listened as Diermont made demands that would be impossible to meet. He wanted information about Lucine, among other things, but the soldiers didn’t know anything useful.

Diermont became angry when the soldiers proved to be less than helpful. “Witness the battle that was waged here,” he said while waving his hand in the air. “At this villa, we have prevailed against the Romans twice. We killed your warriors and the few women who were spared were given the blue rot treatment. We will annihilate you all.”

Cabrian lifted his head from Cassia’s thighs. Blood dripped from his fangs onto his jaw. He wasn’t normally a messy drinker and Cassia assumed the extra show of blood was a scare tactic. It worked on the Roman soldiers and their fear was written all over their faces. The hybrids sensed it, and most likely scented their fear, which made them grow frenzied in their excitement.

Cabrian stood and took Cassia in his arms. The blood loss had made her lightheaded and dizzy. She continued to feel pulses of pleasure throughout her body, similar to an orgasm in intensity, but she knew it was the effect of the feeding. His hand cupped her sex and he began to stroke her with a leisurely motion. Cassia sighed and relaxed against him while the Romans shouted at the hybrids.

“Those lands at the border are rightfully ours,” one of the Roman soldiers said. “We will take back what belongs to us.”

The Romans and Asstrumnians had been fighting over land for longer than she could remember. Cassia wished the Romans would stop trying to expand into hybrid territories. Romans were ill prepared to face hybrid retaliation and vengeance.

“If you persist in penetrating our borders we will penetrate your females,” Cabrian said while thrusting his finger inside Cassia’s slickened channel. “And we will ruin them.”

Cassia saw Shane smirk at her and she knew he enjoyed seeing her humiliated. Some of these hybrids had been her captives once, but now the tables were turned and she knew she would pay a steep price.

“Do you still wish to rescue this Roman female now that you see she has blue rot?” Diermont laughed. “I see the fear in your eyes at the mere mention of the rot. It poisons the human sheath, and in doing so, it makes it much easier for us to impregnate them with our seed. If you persist in fighting this war, you will lose and your people will suffer.”

Claudius’ face was red with rage. “You will be crushed under the might of Rome. We will wipe you all from the face of the Earth.”

“Not you. You’re a dead man.” Diermont stroked his jaw and said, “However, it may be wise to leave a couple of you alive to communicate our message to the Roman people. Continue to wage war against us and your people will become extinct in a few decades. I will see to it myself.”

Shane McDonald brought his blade down against one of the captives, slicing off an ear. Blood spurted from the wound as the human let out an agonized scream. “As long as Romans like Lucine conduct their experiments on my kind and exploit our…bodily resources, we will not leave Rome. Turn over Lucine or else we will destroy you and make slaves of you like we did Lucine’s daughters.”

“You will decide which two to spare,” Diermont said to Cabrian. “Separate them from the others and have them taken to the dungeon. I will release them when we depart the villa. There is much to do before we can leave, however.”

Cassia felt relieved when the other hybrids left the room. The look in Cabrian’s eyes chilled her to the bone. He would not forgive her for attempting to escape. He pushed her forward, forcing her to move away from the Romans in the queue. She remembered what Shane had said about punishment. Would Cabrian beat her? She shuddered, wondering whether he could treat her so cruelly when they had once touched each other with tenderness. “Please, Lord Ross, let me tell you how sorry I am.” If he beat her, she might not survive it. She wasn’t a strong female like her stepsister Lavinia. “I swear I’ll do everything you ask from now on. Anything, I swear. I’ll not disobey. Please don’t punish me.”

His grip on her arm tightened. “You were not to leave the room, Cassia. You knew that.” A muscle ticked in his jaw and his eyes were troubled. “You tried to leave me.”

Guilt assailed her. “I am sorry.”

“Sorry doesn’t cut it. You tried to escape, and I can only assume you meant to warn the Romans of our presence at the villa.”

“I would not have betrayed you.” It hurt to see the doubt in his eyes, to know she had lost his trust. But how could they ever share trust between them when they were enemies?

With his unrelenting grasp, he guided her away from the Roman captives, to the other side of the room. “I can only assume the Romans don’t know of our presence here. Otherwise, they would have sent their armies here.”

“You cannot allow me to escape, I know.” She never thought she’d make it out of the villa. “I didn’t know what to do when Claudius appeared. He wanted me to go with him. I wanted to stay with you, but Diermont terrifies the piss out of me. Can you blame me for running?”

“You didn’t trust me to keep you safe.” Cabrian’s eyes looked both wounded and angry. “You had no intention of staying with me. You were just using me.”

“No, that’s not it at all.” Cassia wanted to make him understand, but she feared she was making it worse. “You say you’ll make me your mate, but you’re treating me as your slave. What am I supposed to think?”

“You’re my slave, Cassia, because that is all you can be for now. Had you been patient, you would have been offered more.” He glanced away from her, as if he couldn’t stand the sight of her any longer. “I thought we were…friends of a sort.”

“I do care for you.” Her feelings for Cabrian were intense, ranging from lust to something deeper. They had bonded when they had been thrown together in his barn stall.

His eyes flashed with anger. “It’s hard to believe that when you were fleeing with your good friend Claudius.”

“Please try to understand. This villa is a place of death. I close my eyes and I can hear their screams. I can smell the blood and hear it dripping on the floor. I open my eyes and I see your companions killing more people I know. Again. I just had to get out.”

“This is war. Death is unavoidable.”

She wasn’t sure she could deal with it. Life had been so much simpler when she worked for Lucine. Now she was enslaved by vampires. Any sane woman would not be coping well with the situation. “Give me time to adjust to it all.”

“I’ll make this easy for you. You’re my slave. Attempt to escape again and you will be punished severely.” His lips thinned into a straight line. “You must learn to obey me.”

Obedience. Slavery.
Those weren’t the words of a lover. She guessed the romance was over. “I promise to be a good slave.” Her eyes passed over the discarded weapons on the floor as well as various implements that hung on the walls. Any of those items could be used to hurt her.

“You must obey.” Emotion flickered in his eyes. Was it guilt? Cassia wondered if this situation was hard for him as well. He leaned into her body to speak softly into her ear. “If you defy me, the prince will order me to punish you. If I refuse, he will think I harbor special feelings toward you and he’ll see you as a threat.”

So he did care about her feelings. At least a little. She scanned the room and breathed a sigh of relief when she confirmed the absence of the despicable vampire leader. “He terrifies me.”

“I said I would protect you, but don’t make it hard on me.” His arm slid around her waist, drawing her close so they could share private words. “Diermont orders deaths like others order a mug of ale.”

“I understand. I promise to obey you.” She wasn’t a fool. Cabrian’s involvement was the only reason she was alive and not dead like the others. “I’ll not give the prince reason to kill me. I swear.”

He appeared relieved by her capitulation. “You will obey me now?”

“Yes,” she said in a low whisper.

His eyes lit with interest as they surveyed her unclothed body. “And you will be a good slave?”

“Yes, I will do whatever you wish.” Cassia intended to try, anyway.

“Prove it. Demonstrate your willingness to be my slave.” Cabrian led her to the back of the room. “Perform for me, slave,” he said as he bit down on her shoulder.

Cassia’s hands were still bound behind her back with the sheet. She wanted to touch him and run her hands all over his body. His nip of fang into skin shot a jolt of pleasure into her system. He affected her much like a drug and she wanted more of him. He was her addiction. “What will you have me do?”