Crimson Debt: Book 1 in the Born to Darkness series (18 page)

She hissed at him like an angry cat, then
turned to Roderick. “Come, Inquisitor, you still have at least one
more night at
my
house. Let us go and enjoy ourselves.”

“I fully intend to,” Roderick said. “But
first I wish to clarify something.” He pointed at Corbin. “I do not
wait to see if a female wishes to come to me—
I
will pick
which of your girls I prefer. In fact, I have already made my
choice.”

“Oh?” There was a glint of danger in Corbin’s
eyes. “And who might the lucky girl be?”

“The one you took from Celeste—the one she
gave to me originally.” Roderick snapped his fingers. “What was her
name again?”

“Her name is Taylor,” I said, my voice hoarse
with anger. “And you are
never
going near her again or so
help me God—”

“Addison!” Corbin gave me a warning glare.
“Forgive her, Inquisitor. She cares very much for the one in
question. And speaking of Taylor, she was wounded by your last
encounter. I am afraid she is too weak to receive your, ah,
attentions
at this time.”

“Then give her some blood and heal her up,”
Roderick said impatiently. “And don’t worry, little human,” he
added with a nasty grin. “I won’t use her too roughly this time. I
simply want a female to fuck when the notion takes me—that’s
all.”

“That’s all?
That’s all?”
My voice
nearly broke on the last word.

“Addison…” Corbin put a hand on my arm. “Be
silent. We will speak of this later.”

“No!” I shrugged off his arm. “No, I won’t be
quiet. Not about this.” I turned to Roderick. “I don’t care how you
intend to ‘use’ Taylor, you’ve already raped and tortured her once.
Do you really think she’d want to go back to you after that?”

Slowly, deliberately, Roderick came down off
the dais to stand in front of me. Beside me, I felt Corbin tense
but I was too angry to care. I glared furiously at the vampire
Inquisitor.
Bring it, you slimy bastard!

“Listen to me, human,” Roderick said, pushing
his face into mine. “I don’t particularly care
what
your
little friend wants. She has a luscious body and I enjoy seeing the
broken look in her eyes when I fuck her.” He gave me a cold smile.
“She looks so deliciously
hopeless
when I fill her cunt. It
is most…moving.”

“You sick son of a bitch…” My voice trembled
and my hand was reaching into my purse for the solid grip of my
Glock before I knew it. I pulled it free and pointed it at
Roderick’s heart.

“Addison, no!” Corbin shouted.

“You listen to me,” I told Roderick, keeping
my voice level and cold. “If you touch her again, if you so much as
go
near
her, I’ll—”

“You’ll what, little human?” he taunted,
taking another step toward me. “You’ll shoot me? You wouldn’t
dare.”

“Watch me,” I said and pulled the
trigger.

Everyone has heard the old saying, “faster
than a speeding bullet” but Corbin actually
was
.

As Roderick stood there, taunting me, I heard
the gun go off with a deafening
bang.
At the same time, I
felt Corbin jerk my arm up, changing the trajectory of the bullet.
It went wild, ricocheting off one of the metal beams that held up
the industrial
chic
ceiling and burying itself in the floor
with a harmless wisp of smoke not two feet from Roderick’s left
foot.

For a moment we all just stood there, stunned
by the noise. Then Corbin took the gun from me and pushed me behind
him in one motion.

“You dare threaten me? You dare try to harm
the Inquisitor of the Empress of Darkness?” Roderick thundered.
Though I was standing behind Corbin, I could still see by looking
around his muscular shoulder. I stood there and stared at
Roderick—stared at him because I couldn’t look away.

The other vampire was…growing somehow.
Changing into something not human. Well, he hadn’t been human to
start with—not for the past six hundred years. But now he didn’t
even
look
human. His eyes had gone blood red for one thing
and he seemed to grow larger, or maybe it wasn’t his physical mass
expanding but his mental sphere somehow. A cloud of darkness
suddenly surrounded him and his face elongated frighteningly until
it looked like a horror mask you might see on Halloween.

“You dare!” he thundered and I felt a sense
of all-pervading dread. A terror that came from outside my mind,
rushing around me like a hurricane force wind. It clawed roughly at
my mental shield, trying to get into my brain.

I tightened my defenses, trying to hold back
the panic that wanted to rise in me at the attempted invasion. I
sensed that if I let the fear in, it would drive me insane.
Roderick could break the delicate inner workings of my mind and
leave me a drooling vegetable as easily as I could crush an ant and
he would
enjoy
doing it.

Corbin obviously sensed what was happening
because he grew larger as well, shielding me in more ways than one.
I could feel him reaching out to protect me, trying to form a wall
between me and the hateful fear that was trying to invade.

I was still standing behind him and I was
glad—I didn’t want to see if his face had turned into a horror mask
with glowing red eyes like Roderick’s. Didn’t want to know if he
had also lost every last scrap of his humanity and become a
monster.

“No,” he shouted at Roderick. “Stop it!
Addison is too fragile to endure such treatment.”

“She must be punished!” Roderick’s voice had
deepened and thickened somehow. He sounded like an animal talking,
an ancient crocodile, maybe, that had somehow learned to speak.

“She will be!” Corbin growled, taking a step
toward the howling horror monster Roderick had become. “But not by
you—she is
my
consort! If you break her, no matter what the
provocation, you will have
me
to deal with.”

This seemed to calm Roderick down somewhat.
Or at least, the cloud of darkness around him receded and his face
became marginally less scary. The wind of agony and terror I felt
whipping around my mental shield seemed to die down somewhat as
well.

“She must be punished well,” he snarled,
still sounding more animal than human. “I want to see her
bleed.”

“No.” Corbin’s voice was cold. “I told you,
she is too fragile for such treatment.”

Celeste frowned. “She shouldn’t be if you’ve
bonded her to you. You could at least break a few of her bones—she
richly
deserves it.”

“Shut your mouth, Celeste, and let your
betters talk,” Roderick snapped.

Celeste frowned but moved back a step,
clearly not willing to risk a run-in with the much more powerful
vamp.

“Addison has only recently become my
consort,” Corbin said, talking only to Roderick and ignoring
Celeste who was pouting to one side. “I didn’t want to bond her to
me until I was certain I intended to keep her. Therefore she is not
bonded and cannot endure rough treatment. She
will
however
be punished.”

Roderick frowned. “If you do not intend to
make her bleed or break her bones, what will you do?”

It was a good question—what
was
he
going to do? I felt my whole body tensing with dread. God, this
whole night had gone so much worse than I had even imagined it
could. And yet, I couldn’t regret my words or actions. Roderick had
to know he couldn’t just take my friend against her will. I had
promised Taylor that no one would ever hurt her like that again
and, damn it, that was one promise I intended to keep!

Corbin took a deep breath. “If you knew
Addison as I do, you would know that what she fears most isn’t pain
but humiliation. The punishment I give her will make her sorry she
engaged in such rash actions tonight, I assure you.”

“Fine. Humiliation is a good, if rather
subtle
tool.” Roderick nodded. “Proceed.”

“What, right now?” I gasped as Corbin turned
and took me by the arm. I had hoped he would “punish” me after
everyone had gone home. And what kind of humiliation did he have in
mind, exactly?

“Yes,
now
.” His voice was tight with
anger as he dragged me up onto the dais. There was a throne-like
chair with a high back where he usually sat during club hours,
allowing the regulars to admire the rare and powerful four-star
vamp. Corbin sat in it now and pulled me to him. Then, before I
could protest, he yanked me down onto his lap and flipped me
over.

“Hey, stop it!” I struggled but of course it
did no good. Corbin’s arms were like steel bars, holding me
down.

“This is for disobeying me,” he
announced.

He flipped up the gauzy red dress and yanked
down my panties at the same time. Before my mind had time to
register exactly what he was going to do, I felt his large, hard
palm connect with my bare ass.
Smack!

“Ouch!” I gasped, unable to help the note of
surprised pain in my voice. Earlier Corbin had said he didn’t think
corporal punishment would do me any good—so why was he doing it
now?

I didn’t have much time to wonder because he
did it again.

“This is for threatening one I ordered you to
be respectful to.”
Smack!
Again his palm connected with my
backside, followed by a rush of humiliating pain.

“Ow! Stop it!” I wiggled furiously but he
only held me tighter. From the corner of my eye I could see that
bitch Celeste smirking and Roderick nodding, a little smile on his
lips. God, that they should see me like this—that they should
witness my pain and embarrassment as I was turned over Corbin’s
knee and spanked like a naughty little girl was almost more than I
could
bear.

And still Corbin wasn’t done.

“This is for speaking out of turn when you
should have been silent,” he growled, spanking me again.
Smack!

My ass was burning by now and there was
nothing erotic about it. It wasn’t like one of those scenes in the
spicy romance books where the stern master whips his naughty little
slave while she secretly gets off on the pain and submission. I had
no wish to submit to Corbin—not like this. And I certainly had no
wish to do it in front of Celeste and Roderick. Last but not least,
the spanking really
hurt.
Though I was determined not to
cry, I could feel hot tears stinging my eyes. God, if he kept on
like this I wouldn’t be able to sit down for a month!

“This is for your stubborn insistence on
willfully endangering us both.”
Smack!
Corbin continued
talking and spanking but after a while I lost track of what he was
saying. I was stretched out on his lap, my hands clenched into
fists as he blistered my bottom, struggling not to cry. It was so
demeaning, so
humiliating…
especially when I heard Celeste
laughing at me.

And though I didn’t want to admit it, it hurt
so much.
I hadn’t been spanked since I was a child and I had
forgotten the stinging pain a really harsh whipping can bring. My
stepfather had gotten it down to a science but that had been years
ago—I had never expected to have to endure such abject humiliation
and agony as an adult.

But worse than the pain was the sense of
betrayal. I had let Corbin into my mind…and maybe just a little
into my heart. He had treated me, up until now, as an equal—someone
to respect, someone to be reckoned with. And now I was nothing but
a naughty child in his lap, one who had to be disciplined for her
own good. That hurt—hurt
a lot.

The tears of rage and pain standing in my
eyes abruptly overflowed and streamed down my cheeks. I bit my lip
hard enough to draw blood but despite my desperate effort to hold
it back, a hoarse sob escaped me. And then another and another.

Immediately Corbin flipped me back over and
pulled me into his arms.

“All right, Addison,” he murmured, rubbing
one hand over my back. “It’s all right. Everything will be all
right.”

I wanted to push away from him but I was too
weak. Instead, I crumpled against his chest and sobbed, feeling
like he had broken me. Here I was, a strong, respected vampire
Auditor, able to look any vamp in the eye and push the kill button
as casually as flipping on a light switch and Corbin had reduced me
to a sobbing bundle of emotion.

“I hate you,” I whispered against his chest,
knowing he could hear me. “God, I
hate
you.”

“Nicely done,” I heard Celeste say with a
laugh in her voice. “Exactly what she deserved—the little human
upstart.”

“A good show, I’ll admit,” Roderick replied.
“But this isn’t over, Corbin. Expect to reopen the issue when I
come to inspect your territory tomorrow night. Come, Celeste.”

I didn’t hear them go but suddenly the room
felt empty—empty of the vampires, anyway. Then there was a soft
shuffle of feet, which must be the two human “snacks” they had
brought with them leaving as well.

Finally the door to the club closed then it
was just Corbin and me, alone.

I yanked at my panties and dress, pulling one
up and the other down, covering myself and my wounded dignity as
well as I could. Then I tried to get off Corbin’s lap but I was too
weak and besides, he wouldn’t let me go.

“Addison…” His voice was low and soothing as
he held me by the arms, his grip gentle but completely
unbreakable.

“Let me go, you son of a bitch.” My voice was
still thick with tears and I couldn’t look him in the eyes. “Let me
go, you’ve done enough for one night.”

“What I did was save your life.” He sounded
both angry and regretful.

I swiped angrily at my eyes. “Right, of
course—by
humiliating
me in front of those bastards.”

“Isn’t a little humiliation better than
letting Roderick mind-rape you?” he demanded. “He is strong,
Addison—I couldn’t have kept him from breaking through your shields
much longer. I did the only thing I could—the only thing that would
satisfy him.”