The Twilight Lord (9 page)

“Ahh, Lara my precious, I knew the Book of Rule was correct when it said you would be my mate and the mother of my son. You have a deep capacity for naughtiness inside you.” He turned her over so that she was facedown upon the couch arm and sought her woman’s passage. Finding it, he inserted the tip of his rod but a single inch. “Would you like to watch while they are strangled, my precious?” he asked her softly. “One by one by one?” he crooned into her ear.

“Yes!” she gasped. “Oh, please, my lord Kol, rod me. I die for it!”

“You must ask me more politely, my precious,” he purred.

“Please, my lord Kol! Please rod me for I long to have you inside of me,” Lara cried out. She was burning with her lust for him.

“Shall we kill them first, my precious?” he asked of her.

“No! No! I need your rod!” she half sobbed.

“Nay,” he said. “First we will kill my last six lovers, my precious. Then I shall rod you for the rest of the night. You are strong. You can wait.” He stood, then pulled her up and when he touched her shoulder she was once more wearing the gown she had worn earlier. “Come,” he said.

He led her by the hand from her apartments and across a narrow stone bridge that spanned a deep chasm. On the other side of the bridge was a stone house styled in the same style as the castle. Two giants standing guard at the gates stepped aside to allow them to pass. Once inside they were greeted by another giant. “Ymir, fetch the women I was with earlier and herd them one by one into the execution chamber. Strangle each one in her turn and dispose of the bodies afterwards.”

“Yes, my lord,” Ymir said and lumbered off.

“Come, we will watch from the secret room,” Kol told Lara. He brought her to a small square chamber. Inside was another roll-armed couch facing a stone wall. Kol raised his hand and snapped his fingers; the stone immediately became glass and they were able to view the execution chamber just below. “Now, my precious, we can watch it all,” he murmured softly in her ear as he bent her forward pushing the gown up to bare her legs and buttocks. Lifting his own robe he guided his rod between the twin halves of her bottom, finding her woman’s passage and pushing in just enough to open the way for his further voyage when he was ready. “Can you see clearly, my precious?” he asked her solicitously.

“Aye,” she whispered, unable to take her eyes from the room before her.

Ymir entered with a young woman who was obviously terrified. She cried out, begging the giant for mercy, but he throttled her with one hand and tossed her body into a corner.

The Twilight Lord pushed a short way into Lara’s body. “She always smelled of violets,” he remarked.

A second girl entered and was as quickly dispatched as the first.

Kol moved further still into Lara’s lust sheath. “She always screams when I give her pleasure,” he said. “Do you want me now, my precious?”

“Yes,”
Lara gasped as a third girl was strangled and Kol drove himself deep inside of her. By the time the sixth girl had been dispatched Lara was gasping with her lust and Kol was thrusting himself hard—again and again and again—until the woman beneath him was moaning. Suddenly they cried out simultaneously as their passions peaked.

Kol quickly withdrew from her as the Lustlings appeared to attend to them. “Do you see how much I adore you, my precious? From this moment on I vow I will have each woman I use strangled in your honor. You are my mate and you shall be the only one to boast of having pleasured me, Lara. Come now, let us return to your bed. My rod has only just whetted its appetite for you and there is still a good long night ahead of us.” Taking her hand again he led her from the Women’s House. As they crossed the narrow bridge over the chasm they saw Ymir ahead of them carelessly tossing the bodies of the murdered women over the edge into the darkness. He had finished by the time they reached him and stepped aside with a bow to allow them to pass.

Back in their bed he asked, “Did you find it exciting to watch Ymir kill the women, my precious?”

“I am not certain,” Lara answered him slowly.

“But did it not add to the piquancy of our passions?” he questioned.

“It was exciting,” she admitted, “to watch as the deed was being done and at the same time feel your mighty rod within me while knowing that earlier you had rodded them, as well. But I need not such distractions to enjoy pleasures with you, my lord.”

He pushed her back among the many pillows upon the bed, his mouth finding hers and kissing her deeply. His tongue slid within her mouth and she noticed with surprise that his tongue was forked. Still, it entwined itself about her tongue sensuously, caressing, taunting, leaving her breathless with her need for him. Had she ever desired a man like she desired Kol? Her fractured memory would not cooperate and give her the answer. Then she decided that she didn’t care. She wanted him. She needed him. And he was hers and the great rod impaling her was all that was necessary to her existence.

The long night lay ahead of them and they used it well. If there was day in the Dark Kingdom, Lara hardly recognized it. Her world was now nothing more than satisfying her various appetites. If it had ever been anything else she could not remember, nor did she care. Her surroundings were beautiful and comfortable. She was well served by Macia and Anka. She had a wardrobe filled with exquisite and rich robes. Each time she arose she bathed and chose carefully from among them with an eye to pleasing Kol. On those few days when she could not take pleasures with him he visited the Women’s House, and afterwards those he had enjoyed were killed and thrown into the chasm. Lara watched from her colonnaded porch as Ymir deposited them over the balustrade of the bridge and then she welcomed Kol home with a smile.

The Twilight Lord was almost dizzy with his delight in her. Lara the Good, the gracious and generous faerie woman he had stolen, was fast becoming Lara the Wicked. In freeing her from her history and leaving her with just the barest of memories sufficient to survive, by filling her beautiful golden head with his own thoughts he was slowly, slowly, drawing her into his web of darkness.

When he had first stolen her he had let her sleep beneath his spell for two months. It had been difficult but it was important that she believe the tale he had concocted regarding her past. The Munin lord had advised him rightly that the longer she lay unconscious without her memories the easier it would be to convince her of whatever he told her.

For the past two months he had built up her trust in him as he led her further and further away from all she had ever known. Her appetite for lust was incredible. He had never known any female with such desires and such stamina. He could not get enough of her body, her kisses, her hot tight pleasure sheath that enclosed his eager rod over and over again. She was his. All his.

But now the idyll he had woven was coming to an end. He had to impregnate her for the mating lust was ready to peak and at the very moment that it did he must get a son on her, or he would be forced to wait another five years. All his seed would produce in the meantime would be daughters. And once he had made a son, the mating lust would never again come to him. Alfrigg, however, was chiding him daily for his tardiness.

“You must get your son on her, my lord, or we cannot proceed,” he said.

“But once she is with child I cannot touch her until after the child is born,” the Twilight Lord complained.

“Have you no other women to ease your lusty rod, my lord?” the chancellor asked dryly. “You have more important things to do.”

The Twilight Lord laughed. “Rodding Lara is indescribable, Alfrigg. But then if I were mated to your Eitri I should seek other pursuits.”

“In her youth Eitri was considered most handsome for a woman,” Alfrigg defended his mate. “But when you are over five hundred years old, the first blush of beauty fades, I fear.”

“I know you have my best interests and those of my kingdom at heart, Alfrigg,” the Twilight Lord said. “I will impregnate Lara soon, I promise you.”

“The darkness she carries within her is impressive, my lord. I have watched as you have drawn it forth from her,” Alfrigg replied admiringly.

Kol nodded. “Aye, she will teach my son well,” he said. And then he felt the mating lust within him, burning him, demanding of him that he do his duty. Alfrigg was right. As much as he regretted it,
it had to be tonight.
And it would be a night Lara would remember for the rest of her life. There would be pain in this particular mating, but she was more than ready to accept that pain. Kol smiled and licked his lips in anticipation. “Good night, Alfrigg,” he said to his chancellor.

The dwarf raised a questioning eyebrow to his master and Kol nodded. Alfrigg smiled. “Good night, my lord. I will pray to Krell for your success tonight.” And then the chancellor withdrew, bowing as he went.

The Twilight Lord sat for several minutes watching as a great storm began to roll in from the surrounding mountains, over his castle. This was another sign that his son and heir would be conceived tonight. The lightning crackled and the thunder boomed, but there was no rain. None at all. Kol walked between the columns onto the portico. He leaned against the cold marble balustrade and looked out over his kingdom. Within the mountains there lived a race of fierce giants and another of wily dwarfs; the forests covering the mountains were inhabited by the Wolfyn, a race of creatures who could shift their shape from human to wolf. They all owed him their allegiance. And now he had the Munin secure within the Penumbras. Everything was proceeding as the Book of Rule foretold.

He had captured the faerie woman ordained to be his mate. He had her memories, save those few she needed, safe in the great alabaster jar in his receiving chamber. After two months asleep and another two in his arms, she was his alone. She trusted him and tonight he would cajole her into admitting love for him. Then he would mate her, planting his seed deep in her womb. Lara would give him his son. And when she had he would restore her knowledge of the magic she possessed. She would rule by his side and use her magic to help him take first Hetar and then Terah. All the worlds would be his with her help. Kol smiled.
How good it felt when everything was going well,
he thought.

He turned back into the chamber and called to a servant, who immediately hurried into the room and bowed slavishly.

“How may I serve you, my lord?”

“Go and tell my bath master that I shall come shortly. Then go to the lady Lara’s apartments and tell her servants that I shall join my mate tonight. I wish her prepared to receive me when I come.”

The servant bowed again and then he said, “My lord, may I be so bold as to ask a question? I have not the right but we are so anxious for your happiness, my lord.”

Kol nodded. His mood was good.

“My lord…is tonight…” he hesitated, looking nervous.

Kol smiled broadly. He knew what the man was asking. “Aye, it is,” he said. “Now go and do as I have bid you.”

The servant scuttled out, then hurried to the bath master. “The lord is coming shortly for his ablutions. He has said that it will be tonight!”

The bath master nodded and began shouting orders to the other slaves in his charge. “You are certain?” he demanded of the serving man.

“He said it!” came the reply. Then the servant ran from the baths and hurried to Lara’s apartments. He knocked and was admitted by Macia. “Prepare your mistress,” the servant said. “The master will come. He has said tonight is the night your mistress will be seeded.”

“Indeed,” Macia replied. “And how came you by this intimate knowledge?”

“His mood was good, so I dared to ask,” the serving man replied. “He said aye.”

“About time,” Macia said. “Well, go along now. You have delivered your message. The rest is up to them.” She shut the door on the serving man and called to Anka. When her companion came Macia told her what the servant had said.

“She is just waking,” Anka replied.

“Then let us feed her and then she must go to the baths before she is ready for him,” Macia said. She went into Lara’s beautiful bedchamber and bowed. “The lord has sent word that tonight is to be a special night for you, my lady,” she told Lara. “You must be fed and then bathed. He will come soon.”

They brought her raw oysters and juicy capon, asparagus, and berries in sweet cream. Lara’s appetite was a good one; she ate it all. Then they led her to her bath where the bath mistress, already alerted as to the importance of this particular night, was relentless in seeing that her mistress was brought to her full beauty. Lara’s long golden hair was washed, perfumed and dried, then some of it was braided with bits of glittering silver thread. Finally a gossamer silk gown in deepest midnight-black was dropped over her head. The contrast of the dark silk against her golden hair and pale skin was meant to entice Kol all the more. Then they led her back to her chamber to await him.

And when he came to her, a length of black silk wrapped around his loins, his pale skin glistening with a light coat of oil, her heart began to hammer with excitement. His eyes were a silver-gray tonight. His short ebony hair smelled faintly of sandalwood. Lara reached up and took his handsome face between her two small hands, smiling into his eyes. Then standing on her toes she kissed his mouth sweetly.

“Do you love me?” he asked her low.

“I love you,” she replied. “How could I not when you are so good to me?”

“Will you give me my son, Lara?” he questioned. “Will you willingly accept our mating tonight? It cannot be done unless you wish it, my precious,” he told her.

“Oh yes, my lord Kol,” she breathed with a sigh. “I will gladly bear you your son. I want to give you a son! I adore you, my dear lord! There is none other but you for me.”

“There is pain in creation, my precious,” he warned her. “Pain in the seeding, and pain in the birth. But from that pain will come the next Twilight Lord. If you love me enough you will accept the suffering. Do you, my precious?” His gray eyes scanned her small heart-shaped face.
“Do you love me enough, Lara?”