Retribution (Book 3 of The Dominion Series) (40 page)

Michel calms me and I don't cry although tears threaten at the corners of my eyes.

"Soren created me for you?"

"His scientists created three of you, one for me and one for Julien and one spare. You were the only one to survive."

"Why are you telling me this now? You should have told me before!"

"Would it have made a difference?" he says, stopping his motions. "Would you have felt differently?"

I don't know if I would. All I know is that my hatred for Soren is growing so great, I feel as if I might explode. Michel kisses my belly and releases more endorphins to calm me and my body relaxes but my mind won't shut down.

"So you and Julien were waiting for me to grow up to see which one I’d choose?"

"No," Michel says. "I lost you on purpose so neither of us would have you. So Soren wouldn't use you. Then, you had to get those files from the university. I had no idea where you were or that you'd try. I had no idea that Julien gave that manuscript to your mother. I did everything I could to stop this from happening. Fate had other plans for us, Eve."

I just lay there and let the knowledge wash over me. No wonder he and Julien are unwilling to give me up. They both wanted Danielle when they were human. Now, here I am, looking so much like her, with even with some of her DNA in me. Soren is
such
a bastard to manipulate them through me…

I close my eyes and try to shut my brain off. When Michel feels me give in, he starts kissing me again, his mouth moving lower, over my hips and thighs. I just lie there and try to not think for the thoughts are still too confusing and upsetting.

Then, he starts licking my now-naked pubic mound and he's right – without hair, it feels incredible. After a while, with him just licking the outer lips, I'm so ready for him I think I could almost come just like this. He finally spreads my thighs and starts to lick me all over, deeper and finally, slips two fingers inside of me and starts stroking me. I feel the sweetness start in my groin.

"My Lord, I think I…"

My orgasm starts, heat rising to my cheeks, my body tensing.

"I can tell, Eve." Then he continues licking and sucking and I come, my body clenching around his fingers, the pleasure so intense. He keeps licking the entire time and it becomes too much, but he holds me there at the peak for what seems like an eternity.

Before I can even think, he rolls off me, removing his robe and then moves up so that he sits up against the wooden headboard. He holds his erection in his hand.

"Now, fuck me."

I crawl over to him as he commands and mount him, my arms around his shoulders, and when I sink onto him, I'm still so swollen that I know I can come again soon. He grasps my hips and helps me for my legs are a little shaky. He draws a thin line down the side of his neck below his ear and I lean down and suck and after a while, the combination of his blood and his thumb on my clit, his hardness filling me, makes me come once more. It's even more shattering than my first orgasm because he fills me up so well.

This is
bliss
.

This is what I wrote about in my journal – how I wanted him. When my orgasm recedes, he rolls me over onto my back and pulls me to the edge of the bed and starts to fuck me, leaning over me, his face over mine, his arms cradling my head. When he comes, he has this expression on his face – a grimace of pleasure so intense that looks as if he's caught somewhere between heaven and hell. Our connection makes it all the more intense as I feel what he feels, and it's like fulfillment to him, this fuck with me the way I am – with his collar, his mark and his willing slave.

I'm what he's waited for since he saw me in the Linguistics Building – that day which feels as if it never happened and even before that, when Soren first proposed the deal that would have Michel and Julien as his slaves.

Once he's secure that I can obey him fully and without question, we'll kill Soren.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

"True strength lies in submission which permits one to dedicate his life, through devotion, to something beyond himself."

Henry Miller

He kisses me one last time before he blows out the candle.

"Good night, Eve," he says, his face nestled in the crook of my neck.

"Good night, Michel."

I feel his smile against my neck. I'm going to call him Michel when I'm off duty. I don't want to forget that I'm not a slave every hour of the day.

I'm me.

We're Master and slave for a reason – not just because it titillates me, or makes him ecstatic, but because we have a mission. I turn over and face him and he adjusts his head on the pillow. Despite the darkness, I can see his face with my hunter vision and because of the moonlight flooding in from the window.

"When we kill Soren," I say and tuck his hair behind his ear, "Will we go back to being an ordinary couple?"

"Whatever you wish, Eve."

"Have you seen it?" I ask. "Us being normal?"

He clucks his tongue. "You don’t believe I can see the future."

I say nothing for a moment. I
don't
believe it. But still…

"In your," I say and hesitate. "Visions, or whatever they are, are we together after we kill Soren?"

"Yes. After a fashion. Not like this in every possible future."

"Not as Master and slave in every one? In some, we're normal?"

He shakes his head. "We could never be normal, Eve."

"Does that upset you? That in some, we're not Master and slave?"

He smiles softly. "It's enough that you're alive and that I'm with you."

I just look at his face, at his eyes – those thick black lashes that belong on a woman, not a man. That square jaw that's all man.

"What about Julien?"

"What about him?" Michel says, his words clipped.

"You know what I mean. You said he was expecting to have me. It explains a lot."

"Forget about that. I don’t want to talk about Julien, Eve. I just want to be with you. And right now, I want to sleep," he says and closes his eyes.

He doesn’t want a future with Julien in it, at least, not one with Julien trying to get me back. I can't help but wonder how Julien is and I feel traitorous. How can I think of Julien when I'm here with Michel and am so happy? I feel so possessed. So wanted. So desired.

I sigh and turn over so that my back's toward Michel and close my eyes, trying to shut my mind off. Michel squeezes me, his naked skin against me. He must do something to me for I finally relax and stop thinking, just listen instead to the sound of his breathing.

When I wake, I catch a glimpse of Michel through the open door to the bathroom. He's dressed in his robe while servants pour buckets of hot water into the tub. I sit up and keep the blankets around me, watching as Michel pours some bath salts into the water. He turns back to the room and sees me sitting on the bed. He smiles and I can't help but smile back at him, a little shy because I know what this means. He said I could expect to be fucked morning and night and to expect multiple orgasms each time. Already my body warms to the thought.
 

Before he can come to get me, another servant enters the room and goes to his side. They speak briefly and then Michel shakes his head as if upset. He speaks to the other servants and then comes into the bedroom.

"Eve," he says. "I'm called out to see Soren. I have to go right away, but you go ahead and have a bath, then eat your breakfast. Wear something from the clothes I've provided for you. I've picked them out myself. I'll see what he wants and then be back."

"Yes, my Lord," I say because one of the servants is in the room, stoking the fire, and I don't want to show disrespect even though my eight hours of freedom are not yet officially up.

"Good," he says and reaches out to stroke my cheek. "Thank you for understanding," he says quietly, his voice almost a whisper.

I have a nice long soak in the tub and then dress in one of the dresses in the armoire. They're all pretty formal and more fitting to a night out than a day spent at home. I pick the most casual dress, a long black silk dress with a very low décolletage, a square neckline and fitted bodice. I feel like a lady from some medieval court and smile to myself, wondering if Michel will just take it off once he gets back. I probably should have stayed in my robe and nightgown.

I eat my breakfast of poached eggs, orange juice and coffee and wonder what Soren's up to, calling Michel away so early in the morning. It can't be good. I wonder what new form of torture he'll inflict on us all. I wonder what Julien is doing and if he's really unconcerned about my being with Michel. I kick myself mentally for even thinking of Julien when I've been with Michel.

I will
not
become Marguerite.

It's while Michel's away that I start to explore the mansion a bit, checking out the library where I find thousands of volumes, old and new. Then I find a dark wood-paneled room that seems like an office and go inside. In the corner is a huge wooden cabinet and I open it, curious to see what's inside.

Bingo
...

Boxes from my apartment – my own things,
and
my mother's files. Immediately, I know the one document I want to read more than any other – that report prepared by the Council on the prophecy Dylan mentioned. St. Therese of the Reeds.

I start to sort through the files, sitting on the floor by the closet. I find the file after about ten minutes of flipping through the file box contents. Inside is a typewritten report titled
"Revelation of St. Therese of the Reeds" – Analysis and Conjecture
.  Included is a photocopy of the original document written in the Third Century in some language I can't read, and a typewritten translation.

I lean against the closet and start to read:

This being the revelation of The LORD God, as shown to His humble servant Therese of Aquitaine, by an angel of The LORD to whom God sent to bring the prophecy and news to all who have ears to hear. Blessed are those who read the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take heed what is written in it. Let it be known that the time will come when the children of God shall weep and moan, for an ancient evil will rise. Only the Sword of Megiddo shall free those who suffer slavery to the Fallen Ones who pollute the earth with their pestilence.

I, Therese, your sister and daughter and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was among the people of Persia, where I sat by a river along the Euphrates, in the place that Adam and Eve once lived, called Paradise, or Eden, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a horn
,
 
which said: “Write what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.”

I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw a being with wings of grey dressed in a uniform with leather breastplate and helmet, a huge sword in its hand. Behold, an angel of The LORD, an Archangel, come to bring news of the end of days. His skin and hair was as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

I fell to my knees before him, my eyes burning from the brightness of his countenance. When he touched me, I saw a vision of the future and fear was in my heart for a rain of blood fell from a cloudless sky and all was cold and dark. One would come, the Angel told me, who would take over the holy Church, and fight those who would enslave the Children of God across the world.
He would wield one weapon that could save those who faced the blood tribulation – a double–edged sword of dark and light, but the one who wields the sword must be pure of heart for the blade is a harsh mistress and he who wields her should regret the day they raised it not in service of The LORD.

"Woe is to him who wields this weapon who is not pure in the ways of The LORD for it shall destroy them," the Angel of The LORD said unto me. “Write what you have seen, and what will come to be. Let those who have ears to hear and eyes to see take heed, and find the one who wields this weapon that The LORD has provided to fight this pestilence. Follow him and heed his word for it is he whom The LORD GOD sent to save the world from perdition.

Just a lot of mumbo jumbo from a young woman visiting Persia, probably suffering from some kind of tropical disease and having visions. But something nags at me. A rain of blood? That sounds too much like the red rain for my comfort. All would be dark and cold? Sounds like what's happening in the areas hit by the red rain. A being with grey wings and white hair and skin? With eyes that burn like fire… It sounds too much like Soren – or at least another vampire – for it to be a coincidence.