SovereignsChoice (22 page)

I think of asking him about what Lexy
said—that the same Council forced him to serve as the Sovereign—but I don’t
want to interrupt his story. “Go on. Where were you when this happened?”

“I was making last-minute travel
arrangements—we were to have left the next day. We were
that
close to
getting away.” He closes his eyes briefly and then opens them to continue.
“When I got back to my old house and found Katherine gone, I knew something was
wrong. There were signs of a struggle and I could smell that other supernatural
creatures had invaded my territory. I followed their scent and Katherine’s but
by the time I reached her, it was too late.”

“But…you said…you told me her secrets
killed her,” I say softly.

“And so they did. Katherine always wanted
to plan for every contingency. Unbeknownst to me, she had been working on a
binding spell—one so vast and complicated its web would encompass every
supernatural race in the entire Tampa Bay Area.”

“What?” I frown at him. “But…I thought it
was the Vampire Council’s idea to bring all the supes together under one rule
and break down the barriers between us.”

“Yes, that’s because they want you and everyone
else the spell affects to think so,” Aiden says darkly. “But it isn’t so. My
Katherine was the witch who wove the spell. She did it so that we could always
be together one way or another. But she had already used so much of herself and
her magic to make me this.” He holds up the ring again. “She poured herself
into it—body, soul and magic. By the time she was brought before the Council,
she had almost nothing left to give to complete the great spell she had
started.” He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. “And so she gave her
blood.”

My heart seems to stop in my chest. The
sacrifice of blood—of life—is a last resort for any witch. When all of your
magic is used, the life force in your blood can compensate—but at a price. And usually
that price is your life.

I can’t help thinking that it’s the same
way my mother gave herself for me. She spent all her magic holding back the
fire and when there was nothing left, she gave herself in order to get me out
of the house and keep me safe.

“What are you thinking?” Aiden looks at me intently.

“Just…how sad it is.” I swallow hard. “My
mother…when I was eight, she died in a house fire. But what most people don’t know
is that she died saving
me
. The way Katherine gave herself to her spell
so that you two could be together—my mother gave herself to the fire to keep me
safe.”

“Yes, I know,” he says gently, surprising
me yet again. “I know all about that dreadful night.”

“You do? But how—”

“I know a great deal about you, my darling
Emma,” he says softly. “Do you really think I would choose just anyone for my
Sacrifice?” He sighs and shakes his head. “Katherine was the first Sacrifice,
you know. That is why the girl chosen to serve is called so—although now it’s
little more than an honorary title.”

I can’t help being glad about that. Being
bled out to complete a binding spell isn’t my idea of a good time. Of course,
it couldn’t have been for Katherine either. “What happened to her?” I can’t
help asking. “Katherine, I mean. Did she really think she could complete the
spell and still live to spend her life with you?”

“I like to think that was what she thought.”
Aiden sounds sad. “Sometimes I can make myself believe it. Other times…” He
shakes his head. “I don’t know. She never really got over what had been done to
her that nig
ht I found her. There was no such thing as
therapy, no medication for depression. She had periods of black despair when
even I could not reach her. There were times when she railed at me, told me
that I should have let her die or killed her the moment I found her.”

“How terrible,” I whisper. “How sad.”

“Yes.” Aiden looks at me somberly. “Her
fate has tormented me for over a hundred years. I always think if only I could
have gotten to her sooner, I might have saved her. But by the time I reached
her side, she was bled white and beyond even the healing power of my own
blood.”

“Oh, Aiden…” I put my plate of cold eggs
and toast to the side and put a hand on his knee. He covers it with his own and
squeezes lightly.

“Never mind.” He takes a breath and sits up
straighter. “Of course, once the spell took hold, the Council saw that
Katherine had been right all along—the supernatural community
is
much
stronger and safer united than it is divided into squabbling, segregated
groups. So they took the credit for Katherine’s spell and set up an overlord—a
Sovereign—to symbolically rule over the entire community.”

I think again of Lexy’s gossip. “And how do
they decide who’s going to be Sovereign?”

“It’s a title passed among the oldest and
most powerful of us every ten years or so.” Aiden frowns. “This year it
devolved upon me though I did not want the burden or responsibility.”

“But if you hadn’t taken it on, you never
would have met me,” I point out.

Aiden looks at me seriously. “I knew about
you long before this office was thrust upon me. Although I admit you were…off
my radar, so to speak, until I walked into your shop and saw you standing
there, looking so beautiful.”

“How?” I ask, wondering if he’s been
checking into my background. He must have been to know about what happened to
my mother when I was eight. “How do you know about me?”

But Aiden only shakes his head. “That’s a
tale for another time.” He lifts my hand and kisses the inside of my palm, his
warm breath tickling my flesh in a way that makes me hot and cold all over.

Impulsively I throw my arms around his neck
and hug him tightly, my towel falling down to pool around my hips. “Thank you,”
I whisper. “I know it wasn’t easy for you to share Katherine’s story with me. But,
well, I feel like I know you so much better now.”

“Oh, Emma…” He strokes my hair gently and
holds me close so that my nipples rub against his bare chest, sending little
sparks of pleasure through my body. “There is still so much you
don’t
know,”
he murmurs. “I wonder if you’d be so affectionate if you knew everything I have
to tell.”

“I’m sure I would. I think you’re too hard
on yourself,” I say, stubbornly. “But you’ve always been a kind and patient
Master to me…even when I disobey.” I frown. “Speaking of which, you’ve told me
several times that my submission is important to you, not just because you want
it, but because you need it for some other reason. Why is that?”

Aiden pulls back from me, a little frown on
his face. “I’m afraid I’m not ready to talk to you about that yet. You’ll simply
have to trust me, my darling. It’s very,
very
important that you give
yourself to me completely and submit to me in all things.”

I bite my lip. “Even when you want to…to do
things to me in public?”

“Especially then.” Aiden’s voice is soft
and stern—his Master voice. It makes me shiver with a strange combination of
fear and desire. “I was very disappointed in you the other night at Bern’s, you
know.”

“I know,” I whisper. “And…I don’t like
disappointing you. I just…I was so embarrassed.”

“You should never be embarrassed to show
yourself when I want you to.” Aiden cups one of my breasts and thumbs the
nipple gently, making me gasp. “You’re beautiful, Emma. You may not know it but
there’s a light all around you. Sometimes I need to share that light.”

I don’t understand his need to share me but
all my other questions seem to have melted away in the heat of his gaze. “Yes
Master,” I whisper, nestling against him so that my head fits under his chin.

“I still owe you a punishment, you know,”
he murmurs, his deep voice rumbling through me as I press against his chest.
“For taking off your harness. And for giving yourself a sexual release when I
had forbidden you to come.”

My heart jumps into my throat. But for the
first time, my initial reaction to the word
punishment
isn’t fear—it’s
anticipation. Still, I try to argue with him.

“Okay, I know I shouldn’t have taken off
the harness and I swear I won’t do it again,” I said. “But you have to believe
me when I tell you I came by accident.”

“So we’re back to that again, are we?” He
pulls me away from him and eyes me skeptically. “Explain to me, Emma. How exactly
does one have an orgasm ‘by accident’?”

“It was because of the damn harness being
so snug,” I say and go on to explain exactly how it happened—how the harness was
stuck, Barnes was knocking on the door, the vibrator somehow got turned on and
lodged right against my clit… “I was all tangled up in my clothes and I fell on
the floor,” I explain to Aiden. “And you hadn’t let me come for three days
before that so I was already on the edge. When the damn vibrator hit my sweet
spot, I just couldn’t help it—I went off like a freaking rocket.”

“Is that right?” Aiden murmurs, his eyes
dancing.

“Yes, that’s right,” I say with as much
dignity as I can muster. “And if it’s any consolation, I didn’t enjoy it at
all. I mean, I was basically writhing all over the floor trying to tell Barnes
how many people were coming to lunch while my body went crazy. It’s really hard
to concentrate on pleasuring yourself when you have a proper English butler
banging on the door and demanding a head count for high tea.”

Aiden throws back his head and laughs loud
and long. It’s a deep, rumbling chuckle that seems to come from the bottom of
his chest and fills the whole room. It occurs to me this is the first time I’ve
ever heard him really laugh and even though his amusement comes at my expense,
I can’t help liking the warm, intimate sound immensely.

“Poor Barnes,” he says at last, wiping his
eyes where pinkish tears have begun to emerge. “He must have thought you were
going mad.”

“I don’t know what he thought and I don’t
want to know,” I say primly. “But I thought
you
should know it was an
accident. I know I disobeyed you by taking off the harness but I didn’t lie to
you.”

“Very well, I won’t doubt you again,” Aiden
says, suddenly sober. “And I won’t punish you for your orgasm.”

“You won’t?” I’m surprised to hear a note of
disappointment in my own voice.

“No.” Aiden shakes his head. “I
will
,
however, take you to task for removing the harness in the first place.” He
gives me a severe look. “I’m going to clear breakfast out of the way and then
you’re going to assume the position, Emma.”

My breath catches in my throat and heat
blooms between my thighs. “What-what are you going to do to me, Master?” I
whisper, hardly able to get the words out.

“Five strokes with the belt across your ass
ought to teach you a lesson,” Aiden says sternly. “And two more to your pussy,
to teach you proper submission.”

“My-my pussy?” My hand creeps down to cover
my tender, bare pussy lips reflexively as I remember the sharp sting of the
belt’s kiss in this most sensitive spot.

“Don’t worry, darling,” Aiden murmurs. “You
know I’ll kiss you better afterward. But for now, I need you to submit.”

“Yes Master,” I whisper again. And without
any further protest, I do.

“Absolutely not,” Professor Canton, who
teaches my Advanced Herbology class, says flatly. “You’ve missed enough class
as it is, Ms. Krist. There is no way I will consider letting you take the final
exam anywhere but right here in the classroom.”

“I understand,” I say humbly. “It’s just… I
don’t have a ride to class tonight.” Also, I have been forbidden to leave the
house by my strict vampire Master, who is concerned about my safety. But that
isn’t something I can really share with my prof.

“Look, Ms. Krist, I’ve been extremely
patient with you,” he says. “I cut you a lot of slack because I think you’re
the most promising student I’ve had in years. But enough is enough. You can
find yourself a ride tonight and take the exam with all the rest of the
students or fail the class.”

“Fail it?” I say, horrified. “But-but the
damage that would do to my GPA would be irrevocable!”

“Then you’d better find a way to get here,
hadn’t you? Eight o’clock tonight and don’t be late.” There’s a click and the
phone goes dead…along with my future.

Thoroughly upset, I throw my cell on the
bed and start pacing. This can’t be. I can’t let this happen. It’s way too late
to drop the class and there’s no way Professor Canton will let me take the test
online. Not that I blame him—it’s not really even fair for me to ask him. But I
didn’t know what else to do.

I wish for the millionth time that Aiden
were here. I’d been planning to talk to him about this, to get him to agree to
let me go. Surely if he knew my whole academic career and future hung in the
balance he’d be more reasonable. Hell, he could even drive me to and from the
test himself if he wanted to. Thinking about it, I’m sure he would go for that
idea—too bad I didn’t mention it to him before he left.

For the past two days, since Aiden had to
leave suddenly, I’ve been on my own, knocking around the big glass mansion with
nobody but Barnes to talk to. And since his conversation seems to be limited to
what he ought to fix me for lunch or dinner, he’s really not very good company.

I hate to admit it but I miss my Master. I’m
worried about him too. I wish he had left me a forwarding address or phone
number but he left in such a hurry. He simply woke me up in the middle of the
night and told me there was trouble. His gray eyes were worried, and when I
asked him what was going on, he said that she-who-made-him needed him. He
promised to be back as soon as possible and made me promise to stay in the
house. I was so sleepy and disoriented, I agreed to everything at once. Now,
however, I’m having second thoughts—lots of them.

Aside from my own current problems with
school, I can’t help wondering about Aiden’s maker. All I really know about her
is that she’s French and into kinky sex. Do vampire parents have the same
relationship that humans do with their children? Or is their affection for
those they awaken to the vampire life more…incestuous?

I try to push the thought out of my head
but it won’t go. Or rather, it won’t go until something even worse and more
pressing takes its place—like the idea of failing my test, ruining my GPA and
being forced to work in the family herb shop for the rest of my natural life.

I’m still pacing around the room, practically
pulling my hair out, when my cell phone rings. I pounce on it at once, hoping
it’s Aiden or maybe my professor calling back to say he’s reconsidered. Fat
chance, I know, but a girl can hope. It’s only Lexy, however, sounding bubbly
as usual.

“Hey cuz, can I come over?”

“If you want to, I guess,” I grumble. “It’s
not like I have anything else to do tonight—nothing I can get to, anyway.”

“Geez, don’t overwhelm me with your
enthusiasm,” she says flatly. “Maybe I should leave you alone if you’re going
to be in such a pissy mood.”

“No, I’m sorry.” I sigh and run a hand
through my hair. “It’s just that I’m supposed to go to my final exam in
Advanced Herbology tonight. I was going to ask Aiden to take me, since he’s
forbidden me to leave the house without him. But he’s been gone for the past
two days doing who knows what with the kinky French woman who turned him into a
vampire in the first place.”

“Whoa, whoa, slow down,” Lexy says. “I must
have heard you wrong. You’re not really going to miss the final exam just
because his High and Mightiness is off doing family bonding stuff with his vamp
mom, are you?”

I start pacing again. “I don’t want to but
I don’t know what else to do.”

“Go take the exam, of course,” Lexy says practically.
“Look, I know you don’t have a car there. I’ll come get you and drive you
myself.”

I bite my lip, filled with indecision. “I
shouldn’t. Aiden will be so angry when he finds out and I’m sure Barnes will
tell him.”

“Emma, honey, have you ever heard the
saying, ‘It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission’?” Lexy asks. “I think
this is one of those cases. I mean, I
know
you—you’ve always been anal
about your grades. You’ll never forgive yourself if you flunk a class just
because the Grand High Poobah Vampire forbid you to leave the damn house.”

“It wouldruin my GPA and any future
career I might have in botany or herbology,” I say, wanting to believe her.

“Exactly,” Lexy says. “And why did he forbid
you to go out in the first place?”

I blow out a breath impatiently. “He says
he’s worried about my safety. Apparently as the Sovereign he has lots of
enemies who would love to get their hands on me.”

“Oh yeah?” Lexy sounds extremely skeptical.
“And have you ever seen any evidence that everybody and their brother is out to
get you?”

“Well…no,” I admit. Then I have a sudden thought.
“Although I didget a weird note through the mail—that same day you
first came to visit.”

“Really?” She sounds interested. “What kind
of note?”

“It had some kind of quote on it. Something
to do with too long a submission making the heart a stone. I don’t know. It really
didn’t make much sense. In fact, I haven’t even thought about it again until just
now.”

“Probably some jealous fairy bitch trying
to freak you out,” Lexy says complacently. “Didn’t I tell you you’re the envy
of every single supe girl in the entire Tampa Bay Area? They allwant to
be in your place—is that what Aiden was talking about?”

“I don’t think so,” I say. “I’m not sure.”

“Well I’m sure of
one
thing,” she
says. “If you don’t go take this test tonight and you flunk your class because
of it, you’re going to regret it for the rest of your natural life. What time
does it start?”

“Eight,” I say reluctantly. “But I’d probably
need to be there by seven forty-five just to be sure.”

“Great. I’ll pick you up at seven thirty,”
she says promptly. “We’ll go to USF, get your test done and drive straight
home. No muss, no fuss. We won’t even stop at Sonic for a cherry limeade.”
Which is one of our favorite things to do together even though I get mine diet
and Lexy gets hers full strength with extra syrup.

Just the thought of getting out of the
house for the first time in weeks—aside from my dinner with Aiden at Bern’s,
that is—makes me itch with anticipation. I’m normally a homebody and I love
hanging around the house when my Master is here. But now that he’s gone, I’m
starting to feel the worst case of cabin fever ever coming on. I want to get
out
and not just to take a final, to go riding with Lexy, singing along with
the radio, a sweet treat in one hand and the wind in my hair. Still…

“I shouldn’t,” I say.

“Yes, you
should
,” my cousin
insists. “And you’re going to. So take off that damn harness—if he’s still
making you wear it—and get ready to go. I’m coming right over.”

She hangs up the phone with a final click
before I can say anything else. Biting my lip, I go to find something to wear.
Looks like I’m going to my final exam after all.

* * * * *

We get to USF with no problem and I ace the
final. Professor Canton checks over my answers when I hand it in and looks up
at me approvingly. “I must say, Ms. Krist, you really have a good grasp of
herbology. It’s almost like you were born to it.”

I try to smother a smile. “I guess you
could say it runs in my family.”

He raises an eyebrow at me. “The same
family you’ve been having so many difficulties with this semester?”

“Uh…yes.” I can feel my cheeks getting hot.
I’ve given him so many excuses since I moved in with Aiden and stopped going to
class I’ve kind of lost track of them all.

“Well, never mind about that now.”
Professor Canton stacks the papers in front of him into a neat file. “I’m just
glad you made it here tonight. It would have pained me to give you a failing
grade over transportation troubles.”

“Thanks, Professor,” I mumble.

He smiles. “I hope to have you in some of
my other classes in the future. Provided you show up, of course.”

“Of course. Thank you.” I nod a quick
goodbye and finally make my escape.
Whew.
I’m so glad that’s over! It
will doubtless earn me a pretty severe punishment from Aiden—a whipping with
his belt or maybe even a spanking over his knee.
Or maybe a punishment fuck,
whispers a little voice in my brain.

I bite my lip, my body in conflict with
itself at the thought. Would I want that? Could I open myself to him, submit
even though I knew what he was going to do was going to hurt? Of course, I
already do that to some extent when I submit to the spankings and whippings and
other punishments he gives me. But opening myself for a punishment fuck would
be different…frightening…strange… My heart skitters in my chest and my pussy
heats up. Would Aiden really do that to me?

“Hey, so how’d it go?” Lexy pops up from
the bench where she was waiting for me, dropping the old
Cosmo
she found
to keep her busy while I took the test.

“Great.” I grin at her in relief, trying to
put my disturbing thoughts aside. “I nailed it.”

“Awesome!” She grabs me and hugs me hard,
doing a little victory jig I have to shuffle to keep up with. “Okay,” she says
at last, letting me go. “Now we haveto get a cherry limeade to celebrate.
What do you say?”

I know I should decline and ask her to take
me straight home but I can’t help myself—it feels too good to be out. To be
free. “All right,” I say reluctantly. “But we’ll just go through the drive-thru
and go straight home, okay?”

“Sure, whatever. As long as we go.” Lexy is
just pleased to be out doing something again. It makes me realize that she’s
missed me as much as I have been missing her. I’ll have to talk to Aiden when
he gets back about the possibility of my cousin and I having more girl days
together. Having her over for lunch once in a while just isn’t enough.

“Let’s go.” I hook my arm through hers and
we clatter down the stairs together happily.

It’s only when we push past the thick metal
outer door that I begin to feel uneasy. The sky was still light when I went in
to take my final but now it’s full dark. To make things worse, the door we left
by opens up onto a long, winding concrete pathway between some native Floridian
tropical plants. They’re meant as an example of our hot, humid ecosystem but to
me, the huge fanning leaves just look like a great place for someone to hide.

Stop being so stupid,
I tell myself uneasily.
There are campus security guards
everywhere. Not to mention, you’re not alone.
I’m sure nobody will mess
with Lexy and me while we’re together—there’s safety in numbers. Right?

Still with my arm hooked firmly through my
cousin’s, I start off down the path. Lexy parked in the lot that’s just around
the corner and I’m sure—

“Excuse me. Can I interest you in the
plight of tigers in China?”

“Huh?” I’ve been concentrating on the path
so fiercely that the soft, feminine voice takes me by surprise.

“They’re being hunted to extinction.” A
pretty co-ed holding a clipboard is standing right in our way, her eyes
earnest. “They use these magnificent animals for all sorts of home-brewed
remedies—the meat, the paws, even the coat is used.” She thrusts a picture into
our faces of an orange-and-black striped tiger lying majestically on a rock.

Lexy takes the picture and studies it.
“Huh. Well, it sounds like none of it’s going to waste,” she says at last,
giving it back. “I mean, they’re using the whole thing down to the last
whisker, right? So what’s the problem?”

I can tell my cousin is being sarcastic but
by the way the co-ed is gaping at her, it’s clear she has no idea. “You don’t
understand,” she begins again. “These people are killing tigers.”

“I’d kill one too, if it came too close,”
Lexy says with a straight face. “I mean, if it’s you or the tiger, who are you
gonna choose? I’m not living
The Life of Pi
over here.”

“It’s wrongto kill tigers.” The co-ed
is speaking very slowly, as though Lexy were a learning disabled
kindergartener. “They’re endangered. That’s why I’m going to give you a chance
to sponsor one—”

“Sponsor it to do what?” Lexy demands, obviously
really enjoying herself now. “Go to tiger summer camp or something?”

“Well, no.” The co-ed looks taken aback. “I
mean—”

“What do tigers do all day anyway?” Lexy
asks. “Just lie around and eat, right? I wish somebody would sponsor
me
to
do that. I’m an endangered species—there’s only
one
of me and I bet
there are a lot more tigers than that.”

“Their numbers are dwindling every day.”
The co-ed sounds as if she’s reciting from a brochure somebody at the save-the-tigers
place made her memorize. “Look.” She thrusts another picture in Lexy’s face.
“This one’s name is Sheba. She’s a beautiful female and she’s pregnant. We think
she’ll be having her cubs any day now.”