Deceptive Lord (Lords of Bondage) (19 page)

Ciaran turned concerned eyes toward Ninian.
“This will not work at all if she is frightened.
She’s not like our females.
You can look at her and see how fragile she is.
We shouldn’t be using humans; they are more trouble than they are worth.
We should take some more time and see if we can find an Asstrumnian to replace
Fiona.”

“She’s already here.
What else are we to do with her?” Ninian asked.

“I think she will work out just fine,” Taran said.
“We’ll take it slow and let her get used to us.
I can also entrance her.”

Ciaran surveyed Portia with critical eyes.
“I have a problem with this.”

“You must get over the fact that she is human and put your prejudices aside.
Taran has agreed to accept her.
He will work with her and all you have to do is read her.
The matter is settled and we will discuss i
t
no more,” Ninian said.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The next day, Drest added some security to the lodge to make it impossible for anyone to transport there directly
.
He didn’t trust Bran not to accost Eden while he was gone.
He gave her some clothing and other items that he felt she needed.
He had assigned some additional guards to watch the lodge and he left instructions for only Ninian and Belenos to be granted entrance.

Late that morning, he knocked on the door to the guest room.
When Eden failed to respond, he opened the door and walked inside.
She was lying on top of the bed and she looked as if she had been crying.
She stared at the
ceiling and refused to look at him.
“Lady, get up.
We must talk.”
The stubborn woman refused to respond.
He walked to the edge of the bed.
“I suggest you stop ignoring me.
Get up.”
When she remained silent and unmoving, he
grabbed her by the arms and pulled her upright.

“What do you want?”

“I want to talk to you, preferably someplace other than a bed.
”

“I’d rather stay here.”

He breathed a sigh of frustration and sat down on the bed beside her.
“Woman, you’re going to have to learn to be more cooperative.”

“I have a name.”

He couldn’t recall her name.
All he could remember was that she was an Avenal.
“Lady Avenal.”

She looked at him with a pained expression.
“Are you trying to tell me that you cannot even remember my given name?
You’ve obviously been with far too many women
.
It is disgusting.
You’re nothing more than a despicable man whore.”

He had been with her, and that was one woman too many.
“Tell me your name.”

“Eden.”

“I remember now.
Eden.
Sister to the
Countess
of Avenal.
I know of Nefertiti, your sister, the woman who rapes men and beats them with whips.
Tell me, do you ever join in the fun?
Engage in a few beatings?
Chain your males up?”

She looked at him with shock.
“You’re sick, you know that?
”

“You’re an Avenal.
The definition of sick.
I heard they call Nefertiti
Double D
, the
Deranged Dominatrix
.”

“I am not Nefertiti, you idiot.”

“You share the same blood and the same name.
You know what that woman did to me?
I’ll spare you the details, but suffice it to say, she violated me.
She’s not here, but you are.
Don’t expect me to pity you.
Your tears are wasted.
Your tantrums will get you nowhere.”

“I believe you
.
You can stop working so hard to convince me.
Did
you always hate me?
Were you just hiding it from me?
You weren’t such an asshole before.”

Despite what he had told her, he felt guilty.
He knew it wasn’t fair to blame her for Nefertiti’s actions.
However, she was the enemy.
She was an Avenal and a Flourdan.
“Tell me why you are really here.
Did Nefertiti send you?”

“No, she didn’t send me.
I sent myself out of stupidity.
I can assure you that it will not happen again.
Once I leave this place, I’m never coming back.”

She would regret her act of stupidity, because it had lifelong consequences.
“Sorry, it was a one way ticket.
We cannot have you going
back to your sister, giving away our secrets.”

“The only thing I’ve learned is that you’re all a bunch of assholes.
That was no secret.”

“Why did you come?”

She turned her head away from him.
“I thought
we were in a relationship.
Apparently, the feelings were one sided.
You should have told me you didn’t want to be with me, but you were too much of a coward.
You had to make Boadacea get rid of me.”

“The princess?
Are you a spy?”

“No, that is ridiculous.
What will you do with me?”

He wasn’t sure what to do with the female.
He couldn’t do what he would like to do with her, not without
complicating things.
At some point, someone else would take possession of her.
He actually wished he could send her back to Avenal.
It was
nerve-racking having her in his home.
It was also tempti
ng, knowing that she was near.
“You’ll stay here.
You’ll do what you’re told and answer our questions.
You will not give us any trouble.”

She looked at him and rolled her eyes.
“Yes, mighty dictator.”

For some reason, her attitude irked him.
“You’re being treated better than most prisoners
.”

“How so?”

“Most prisoners are killed immediately.
You have your life.”

She paled slightly.
“Will I be killed later?”

He hadn’t meant to frighten her again.
“No.
Alive, you have value.
Dead, you do not.”

“It is because I am female, right?”

Female flesh was a commodity, especially now when it was so rare.
Young fertile females were valued assets, even when they were the less valued human females.
The
King
probably wouldn’t attempt to breed her with anyone, since he had an issue with humans.
Other hybrids were not so particular.
Even if she wasn’t kept for breeding, she would surely be kept for pleasure.
Hybrids were a lusty lot.
“Yes.
It’s not so different from what
your noblewomen do with your males.
Except this time, you will find out what it is like being part of a harem.
We don’t actually have harems here, but women are kept in much the same fashion.”

“And how many women do you keep?”

He had never kept a female.
Personally, he didn’t approve of keeping slaves or captives.
He also didn’t feel comfortable with keeping a woman under entrancement.
“None.”

“You kept me once.”

He didn’t know why she persisted in making that claim.
She didn’t seem to care that he could easily refute her story.
If she wished to fabricate a story, it would be more
effective if
the people supposedly involved
we
re not presently in the room.
“Let me guess, you were forced to pleasure me night and day
.
I’m the asshole slave master
.”

“It wasn’t like that at all.”

At least she wasn’t trying to compare him to people like Brett and Brendan.
“What was it like, then?”

“I don’t know what it was like for you.
I didn’t feel used.
You pretended to have feelings.
I didn’t know any better; I didn’t know that hybrids don’t feel.
I forgot that you weren’t human.
I thought you cared for me, at least a little bit.
You deceived me.”

“Stop with the sad story.
I told you that pity would get you nowhere.
I’m not going to release you because I feel sorry for you.
I’d like an honest answer and nothing more.
I’ll tell you what I think.
You made up this fictitious relationship to get yourself situated here.
You were willing to sleep with me to get here.
Nefertiti probably sent you to find out what I had been
doing in Avenal.
That was stupid on her part, as you’ll never get back to Avenal
to make your report
.
The only thing you’ll get from your part in this is that you will not have to serve the
countess
any longer.
You’ll be serving the hybrids.”

“You are wrong.
This has nothing to do with Nefertiti.”

He didn’t believe her.
No other explanation made sense.
Eventually,
she would have to admit the truth.
The falsehoods irritated him, but he didn’t expect her to reveal all of her secrets right away.
When she was finally ready to give an honest confession, then h
e
might
actually feel sorry for her.

***

The days passed slowly and a routine developed.
Eden barely saw Drest.
She was generally interviewed in the mornings by Ninian.
Belenos usually arrived around lunchtime and he kept her company for several hours.
Drest usually conducted a brief interview with her after supper.
Sometimes, they were joined by Ninian, and other times, Drest left and did not return until after she had gone to bed.
He
never told her where he went or what he was doing; he remained a mystery to her.
He hardly talked to her at all, apart from the interview questions.
It hurt when she remembered how they used to spend time together in the lodge, talking for hours.
She felt lonely, so lonesome that she started to look forward to seeing Belenos every day.
He was the only friend she seemed to have in this strange land and it appeared that he enjoyed spending time with her.
She had come to accept the fact that she would not be sharing any kind of life with Drest.
She didn’t know why he had no memory of her and she was tired of trying to make sense of it all.

This time, Belenos had brought her a book.
She looked at it curiously.
It was a thick volume with a sturdy cover.
When she opened the book, she was shocked to see that it contained pictures of people engaging in sensual activities.
“What is this?”

“It is an ancient text found in an excavation site in Irelandia.
I thought you would like it.”

She studied the first page, which had depictions of a winged hybrid male being serviced by a dozen naked females.
“I never imagined that wings could be used in such a way.”

“I believe the male in that painting is a king.
He had human concubines.”

She perused it some more, wondering at the inscriptions on the painting.
“What language is that?”

“Ancient Irelandian
.”

She turned the page and stared at the next image.
It was a painting of a winged hybrid male sitting on the Flourdan throne.
Chained to the throne was a nude human female who wore the crown of the Flourdan queen.
She was shown lying on the floor in a position of subjugation.
The next image showed hybrids without wings.
They were shown in various stages of copulation with chained Flourdan females.
Beside each image, there were inscriptions of a foreign language.
Some contained symbols.
She recognized one of the symbols as Ancient Irelandia
for “baby hybrid.”
There were numbers tallied beside the symbols.
“These are not just paintings in a book.
This is a historical record.”

“How do you know?”

“It is in our own history books, or at least, it used to be before the material was deleted.
The information was removed from the more recent texts because it was felt to portray the Flourdans
in a negative light
, but I’ve seen some of the older texts that still included it.
Our texts did not contain pictures, certainly none so detailed as this.
Long ago, there was a Flourdan queen who was conquered by foreign enemies.
The text described them as being dragons, although others described them as being winged hybrids.
The general opinion was that the marauders were human and that the earlier descriptions of them having wings were gross exaggerations and fantasy.”
She turned the pages and
studied the images.
“It looks like the humans were systematically bred with the hybrids.
They recorded the results.
”
She pointed to some specific pictures.
“This same female was bred with five different hybrids.
The numbers to the right indicate the issue.
It looks like hybrid number three had the most success.
The
issue appear
to be ranked by some sort of criteria and rating system.”