The Vampire's Crimson Kiss (Editing)

Chapter 41/the Duke captures his runaway slave

I had run to his nerve garden, the punishment area in his quarters. I felt this was the last place anyone would look for a coven girl. Naturally, I didn't want to 'escape' but hide long enough to get back to my quarters. I hid quietly for a while and heard no one walking down the corridor outside. 

I got curious and wondered if anyone had escaped, so I opened a window in the wall. Hood on I  looked down. At the base of the tower, I saw a well-lit skiff waiting with the ferryman standing ready on board. So escape was true, but it seemed like a natural point for an ambush. I wondered at what point I started thinking like them 

Then I noticed a few bodies moving over the glass walls on the outside of the tower, they were on all fours horizontally. Moving easily over the glass.  I moved in, hoping no one had seen me. I sat in the quiet, waiting, looking at all the instruments of control and punishment. Then there was a noise, and the door quietly opened. I sat as still as can be. The steps came closer and closer, moving erratically, clearly searching and sniffing like a dog. They came close and then started to move away back to the door.

"Hello," said a voice above me.

Flushed with fear, I jumped and was pulled back by the hand holding my collar. I struggled with my gag under the hood. The voice moved around into my limited field of view; it was the Duke. I stopped.

I wanted to say, "Oh, it's you," but I wasn't sure he knew it was me.

The Duke turned his head. "The game is over. I am the hunter, and you are the hunted. You belong to Princess Victoria, don't you?"

He hadn't guessed, had he? Perhaps he had. I decided to play along. I nodded, and he continued tugging the mask. "The masks we hide behind. You know? When I first saw you in the chamber, I thought you were your Mistress, Princess Victoria. You moved like her, you were her size, you smelled like her. For a second, I thought, would the Princess have disobeyed my orders? You were there with Mary, weren't you?"

I nodded.

"You see if you were the Princess and with Mary, then Mary would have been guilty as you. If Mary brought the Princess to the Temple of Eternal Night against my rules and knowing she knows it is sacrilege to the Blood God, no household punishment would correct it. Had the Princess entered the Blood Temple, even watched the resurrection of Salem, she would have, most of all, broken our laws we hold most sacred. The bridge of trust would have splintered and broken. I would have to crush Mary with stones for letting the Princess out. What would tax me most would be some punishment for the Princess, something painful and unpleasant. Send her to the Sisterhood of Lost Souls for a couple of months. But you're not the Princess, are you?"

I shook my head.

"While I have caught you and before I bleed you as is the reward for the hunter, I have some use for you," he said.

I bowed.

"I have something I need to say to your mistress, and I am uncertain of its performance," he said as he walked around me. "I need to rehearse what needs to be said, and being the same size and smell, I wish to practice on you. This should not be repeated to her, you understand, or next time we meet I will do more than bleed you to my pleasure."

I nodded again.

"Princess. My coven was excruciatingly depleted in the last war; both sides lost many men. I lost many friends in the battle, but I consider them gladly lost twice over if I were to meet you again," he paused, "No. Not that. That's not working."

He started again, looking at me. "Princess. We are much alike - we are both pigs of denial. I have walked over this earth for many ages of men. I have seen strong steel rot to dust. I have seen so many of your kind that they seem disposable to me. Yet when I saw you at your father's side, I felt there was a ghost behind my eyes. I was snow-blinded by your irresistible presence. Given our differences, I had hoped some flaw would appear that I could cling to. Yet every time we meet, I find myself more desperately in love with who you are. Every other emotion—ambition, lust, greed, hate—has become obsolete since I have seen you. You have undone me. I needed to bring you here against your will, but while you've been here, I have been like a cyclops. You've shown me I don't have to be left undone. You've shown me that I don't have to be shriveled for eternity. I know I have been reticent, and this is not my way. I do know that I am made complete by you, and I believe you are completed by me. I want to be wedded to you, but only if that is what your heart desires, for I would never be able to find a way to hurt you, even if it meant an eternity in the vacuum of despair for me. There are a great many impediments to our union, but for once in my life, I have a fool's view of the problems, and I am pleased by that view. For that view is that we are together, and that view pleases me. As the Duke of the Meridian, as coven lord, I am expected to see the road ahead and navigate it for the clan by my command. I don't know how this new road ends; I know it seems to have great gorges to cross, but I feel it is the only road I want to tread upon. So, Princess, tell me if you will tread this uncertain path with me?"

He stopped. My eyes were burning behind the lenses he could not see through.

"What do you think?" he asked. "Irresistible presence was a bit much, but beauty isn't right. I meant wit, intelligence, all of the sum of her talents. I'll work on it more. What do you think as a woman?"

I held my hands far apart.

"Too long? Hmm, I could cut some of the detail. Tell me, you know your mistress. If you were she, would you say Yay or Nay? Bow for yay."

I paused for a moment and then bowed.

"That's good news. I won't ask her yet. The rumor of it would make her father have a cacodemon's orgasm. The high priestess of the coven would slaughter her if she suspected the truth. My love puts her in grave danger until she is of the blood-god like you. I should keep my counsel from her until I am sure I cannot disappoint. To lift her up and then break it away would be the work of cold hands. Anyway, thank you. Remember not a word."

I bowed with my coven girl bow.

He went through the punishment area and through the rooms to his 'pleasure bed'.

"Do you know the biggest curse in this world?" he asked as I got to the door.

"The greatest curse the blood god has on this world is to make sure we cannot choose who we love."

I stood, glad that from the outside he could not see the tears filling my hood. He went to the bed and lay down the way I had seen him do so many times before.

I bowed and went to the servant's door, where I would wait to be called.

"Not so fast, I'm not finished. There are a number of acts I wish to perform with the Princess which I am not permitted by bond to perform. You've been well trained for the coven, haven't you?"

I nodded.

"Then I can do them to you. She needs to scream in ecstasy at my touch.  There is something about the Princess which gives me a strong, deep thirst," he said.

I nodded.

"Good, then given you smell like the Princess and move like her, you can give me the pleasure that I want from her but cannot have," he said while holding me firmly. "If you tell her, I'll kill you, naturally."

I nodded.

I turned, but he moved faster than a lightning bolt from the bed to the doorway. He grabbed me, and even with everything I had, I could not even shift his little finger.

"Get up, I have one service I need from you," said the Duke.

Unable to bow, I nodded again in acceptance.