Vampire Enslavement (Lords of Bondage) (7 page)

“How would you know?” Modez raised his eyebrow. “Have you fucked her?”

“Well, no.” Seamus licked his lips and growled. “I would have petitioned for that honor had I known what she hid beneath her gowns. But others have been with her. We would have heard if she was…different.”

Modez felt the anger burn once more. He had heard such rumors. There was something unique about Kiera, something odd. He would bet her sheath was more human than hybrid. And Diermont had given her to males during mating tests, knowing she would ruin them for other females. “The prince likes to watch her being taken. The males grow frantic, from what I’ve heard. The biting is vicious. And afterwards, the males pine for her.” He clenched his fists and tried to contain his anger. “Does that not sound like human sheath addiction?”

“I always thought the accounts were grossly exaggerated. If what you’re saying is true, then Diermont has to suspect the truth. Why does he arrange mating tests for her? Should she not be banned along with the human females?”

“Diermont’s been monitoring the males’ responses to her very closely. Those males sniff at her like a dog in heat, but none have lost control and stalked her like an obsessed maniac. I think he’s testing the waters and soon he will act on his desire to dip into her pool.” Modez scowled at Seamus yet again. “He plans to enter the forbidden lake while none of us can even dip our feet into the water.”

“You’re assuming she’s formed like a human. There’s no way to determine which side predominates.”

“Well, there is one way to make that determination.” Modez was nearly tempted to do it. Diermont may secretly covet the lady, but he wouldn’t deny him should he request to bed Kiera. He would consider doing it if the lady wasn’t such a leech. He had a feeling the woman could make a man regret using her should he make that mistake. “Perhaps Diermont already knows the truth of it.” Modez could picture the prince losing himself between her thighs, mindlessly plowing her mysterious sheath and enjoying her as a hybrid enjoyed a human female, all the while forcing the rest of them to forgo such pleasures due to the “dangerousness” of the act. “If Diermont thinks to break his own rule, I see no reason why I must continue to follow it.”

“You don’t know that he’s done that! The girl is hybrid, after all. There is little risk of her being equipped any differently from other hybrids. If Diermont makes her his mistress and finds her to be…more humanlike than expected, he still couldn’t be accused of violating the ban on human sex. She is not human.”

“If she
feels
like a human, then she may as well be one. In that case, the rule would have been violated since he would risk developing the same condition that one risks when doing a human.”

“Still not the same. A physical attachment to a hybrid is certainly allowed.”

“I disagree. It would be a violation of the ban, and if he gets to violate it, then the rest of us should be granted the same opportunity.”

“You’re mad to even suggest such a thing. Diermont would have your head for sure if you invaded a human’s body.”

He had already experienced the act, but Seamus did not know of it. Diermont would certainly never hear of it. “It’s nothing to get worked up over. We’re not likely to see many humans here.” Modez turned his gaze to the woman lying on the floor. She was still unconscious. “What should we do with her?”

Seamus picked her up and cradled her in his arms. “The lady is difficult to revive. Perhaps it would be best to put her to bed. I do believe I know the location of the room given to her.”

Modez narrowed his eyes at Seamus, not trusting his motives. He followed him through the portal that Seamus opened.

“I don’t need your assistance,” Seamus muttered as they arrived in the girl’s room.

“I am in a mood to be generous,” Modez said as Seamus unceremoniously dumped the woman on the bed. The girl’s torn clothing separated further, baring her breasts fully. Modez drank in the sight greedily, appreciating the twin mounds that were a tad too rounded for a hybrid. Seamus met his eyes and gave him a meaningful look, which alarmed Modez. “Don’t,” he warned.

Seamus groaned. “She’s beautiful. Like those Roman slaves Diermont made us kill.” He leaned over the woman and grabbed her throat, baring it just moments before he assaulted it with his fangs.

Modez hissed, shocked by his friend’s inability to restrain himself. “Seamus! Have you lost your friggin mind?”

Seamus ignored him as he pushed her head aside to gain a different angle. He bit and sucked at her throat like a starving man. The woman whimpered and tried to push him away with her hands.

“You’re going to hurt her. What are you trying to do, anyway? You actually think to make her the Lady of Red Isles? That woman?”

Seamus released her with a moan. “Damnation! It’s not working.”

“You should feel eternally grateful it is not, or you would be stuck with the woman for life. What are you thinking, man? She’s related to Snotti and shares her bloodline, and she’s physically weak thanks to her human heritage. She’s not the kind of woman you take for a mate.”

“You will not speak of this,” Seamus said as he backed away from the bed. “Just forget what you saw.”

“I’m not sure I
can
forget what I saw, my friend. That creature is kin to Snotti, which should be enough to dissuade any male’s interest. But do not worry. I’ll not say a word about this.”

“Don’t give me such a hard time about it, either. You cannot convince me you wouldn’t bite her in order to possess her.” His eyes caressed the round, lush breasts that remained on full display. “Especially now that we have seen so much of her.”

Modez stared just as intensely as his friend. He wanted to memorize the shape of her so she could appear in his fantasies, although he would admit none of that to Seamus. “Control yourself, Seamus. Females like that one are for fucking, not mating. You know better.”

“Diermont’s not about to let one of us have her, not when he’s saving her for himself. But he would have to accept the mating bond if one was formed. Don’t tell me you didn’t think to do the same thing.”

“I didn’t even think of biting her,” Modez said as he shook his head. He saw no need to describe those things he had thought of doing to her, such as tasting her pretty pink nipples. “You clearly are in need of a good bed servant. I told Diermont that we would have trouble here without them.”

“Rumor has it that Diermont agreed to give us some of Snotti’s ladies,” Seamus said as his eyes drifted over Kiera’s half-nude form.

Modez let out a laugh. “Surely you did not think he meant Kiera, did you?” Her preferential treatment suggested Diermont had a personal interest in the girl. If sex became part of her duties, it would involve the prince in one way or another. “You may have noticed she was given a private room. She is the only woman of her class to be given such luxurious quarters.”

“Once he looks past that beautiful face, so similar to Snotti, and notices her body, which is
most
unlike
Snotti’s, his regard for her will change. Diermont hates all things that remind him of humans. For her sake, I hope she is mated by then.”

“Diermont protests too loudly when he denies interest in human females. I suspect he secretly lusts for them. And he is not the only one.” Modez often fantasized about capturing a human and keeping her as his sex slave. He woke hard as stone many nights after dreaming of his fantasy woman. “Diermont will take Kiera to his dungeon and use her like he does his other women.” Modez felt himself harden as he pictured Kiera there. Diermont only rarely took a woman for sex. He preferred to watch others play. But when he did choose a new courtesan, he avoided green, untried girls. Modez was the one who usually readied the initiates for service. He wondered if Diermont planned to pursue that path with Kiera. If that was the case, he would have her first. The thought excited him in a way he hadn’t felt with any of the previous candidates. But the thought of eventually turning her over to the prince turned him cold.

“Despite her poor birth, Kiera is still a lady. It wouldn’t be right to do that to a woman gently reared.”

“She accepted those risks when she agreed to live at the palace with Snotti, and she’d hardly be the first social climbing leech to suddenly lose her position.” Modez knew that nearly all females who came to live in the palace ended up mated or ruined, but ruination claimed the vast majority. Those ruined females became whores and most served the Halloran fine. Modez had seen it happen time and time again and it had made him cynical. “She’ll end up earning her keep on her back, as most do in those circumstances.” In his opinion, virtuous females avoided the palace because they knew full well its reputation. True ladies of good breeding found mates at some of the mating balls given during the Season. Females of a different class chose a vocation if they had any skills or brains. As far as he could tell, Kiera had no special skills, only her beauty. Beautiful, useless females had only one role at the palace—that of whore. “The little usurper deserves what she gets.”

“Some woman did a number on you,” Seamus said. “And I bet she goes by the name Gwyneth.”

“She affects me not at all,” Modez said as he pushed the image of the beautiful brunette out of his mind. “We should leave before the lady wakes and discovers we have been leering at her naked lovelies.”

“Right. I don’t need that kind of trouble,” Seamus said as he vanished from the room.

Modez let his gaze linger once more over Kiera’s partially unclothed body. It was unlikely he’d have the opportunity to view it again. He’d certainly never admit to her that he relished the sight of her naked, exposed flesh. She had the look of a human, especially without the clothing to hide her more curvaceous form. The similarities were slight, but present all the same. Yet she wasn’t human. Her dark hair and violet eyes marked her as a hybrid, as did her fangs. He wished he could see all of her, but her gown still covered her lower half. He wondered if she was lightly furred like human females or if her mound was mostly hairless like the hybrids. He didn’t need to know the answer to that question. He didn’t need further temptation.

Modez sighed as his gaze lingered where it shouldn’t. The girl hated him, and for good reason. He had not treated her with kindness. He had made his rejection of her more than clear, and he had every intention of rejecting her still. He closed his eyes, willing the image of Kiera strapped to his bed to disappear from his mind. He would never express an interest in her, never let her possess the knowledge of his interest. If she suspected he desired her, she would be able to easily manipulate him by bargaining with her body until he gave in to whatever she wanted. He had vowed to never again fall prey to another seductress uttering false words of love.

Modez pulled the covers up to her neck, shielding her from his eyes. Her nakedness was impairing his judgment, making him think he desired her when he did not. He didn’t want her. He just needed a woman and the lack of one was making him appear indiscriminate in his tastes. Once he was finally given the use of a bed servant, the indecent thoughts of Kiera would stop. He made one last look at the sleeping woman before he made his exit.

Chapter 5

Cabrian pulled Cassia down the hallway, glaring at all the males who stared at her naked body. He had wanted to cover her, but Diermont had given an order. She was to be kept naked as punishment for being human. And so Diermont could look at her without admitting that he found humans attractive. He had seen the spark of lust in Diermont’s eyes when he had caressed Cassia’s breast. The prince wanted her. It wouldn’t do for a prince bent on genocide to lust after the very race he meant to destroy. Diermont was a crazy bastard. They all knew it, but they tolerated him because he was a royal.

Cabrian glared at the hybrids until they looked away from his slave. He could hear them grumbling and he knew he needed to control his possessiveness and his jealousy. Cassia was his property, his slave. Most slave owners displayed their property proudly. They didn’t treat them like mates. He took a deep breath to calm himself. The others would look at her, but they couldn’t touch her. Hell, even he couldn’t touch her like he wanted. Damn Diermont’s stupid rules. It wasn’t right that a male couldn’t fuck his own slave.

Cabrian blinked when the Lord of Red Isles appeared in his path. Seamus McLeod’s face was flushed and he appeared agitated. “What’s up with you?”

Seamus growled and his eyes devoured Cassia’s naked form. “I like your new pet. Human, I see.”

Cabrian stepped in front of Cassia in an attempt to shield her with his body. “What of it?”

“I’m surprised Diermont let you keep her.”

“I plan to breed her. He cannot condemn a breeder to death without just cause.”

“You have taken her already. I saw both blue and brown stains between her thighs. How was she?”

Relax and play it cool, he told himself. Cassia was a curiosity to Seamus and nothing more. “Spectacular, actually. Just as the rumors say. There is nothing better than a human sheath.”

Seamus groaned. “Diermont is flaunting the human females in front of our faces, yet we are forbidden to take their bodies. It is torture. Agony.”

“The prince gave me permission to stroke her with my hands, but I am not to touch her with my cock.” He was frustrated with the prince and he didn’t bother to hide it. Seamus gave him a sympathetic look. “She is my slave and it is my right to do as I wish with her.”

“Yes, a male should be able to have his way with his slave. The prince is wrong to place limitations on you.” Seamus stepped around Cabrian so he could peruse the human. Cabrian relented, despite his reluctance, and allowed the lord to glimpse the prize. Seamus’ eyes vacillated from Cassia’s chest to the apex of her thighs. “Did she fight you when you gave her the blue rot?”

“She was willing.” Cabrian was surprised that Seamus was expressing interest in his human slave. The lord was a stickler for the rules and did not usually go against Diermont’s dictates. “Cassia is mine, Seamus, but many human females are receptive to our kind. Perhaps you should find your own slave.”