jessara40k_lj (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jessara40k_lj) wrote2005-03-17 08:37 am
jessara40k_lj) wrote2005-03-17 08:37 am
Children of Demons Part 4
Here's part 4, Incubus will go up later today.
I’d spent the last ten years considering whether or not to tell Micah who and what I was and in the end I’d decided that he deserved to know, as I intended to make him one of my consorts. Besides which he tended to ally himself with whoever was most powerful, and now that’s me, so if I revealed what I was he would never go against me – not that he’d have been able to once I claimed him.
“Where did you get your guards? I didn’t know you were looking for any.” My Nimir-Raj waited until we were in bed together before he asked, but I could hear the insecurity in his voice.
“There’s something you need to know, and it’s going to be hard to explain. I need your word that you won’t say anything about this to anyone else, and you have mine that it will not hurt any of our pard.”
“I won’t tell anyone then Anita. Unless keeping this a secret endangers our people.”
“I’m one of the creatures that created vampires and lycanthropes. We are called Demonkin and I could face the entire vampire council and win. I don’t want it to get out because I’d rather not have to deal with how they’d react to me.
“I only really came into my power when I took the fourth mark from Jean-Claude. That triggered an old spell and I was taken to a teacher, along with Jean-Claude, Asher and Damian. I spent three hundred years there learning about my powers, and that’s where I got my guards. I was also given a new vampire, called Caspian, and made another; I let Asher name him Donne. I claimed all of the vampires I brought back with me, and all five of my guards.
“The guards are just in my service, I used a form of the lesser claiming for them, and I used the lesser claiming for Caspian, who’s one of my lesser attendants. Jean-Claude is my primary consort and Damian is my personal attendant while Asher and Donne are my consorts, I used the intimate claiming for all of them. You should ask one of them what that means, because I want to make you into my consort as well. If you do agree I can make you immortal, like a vampire. I’m going to tell the same thing to Nathaniel, because I want him as another personal attendant, but it is your choice, both of you.”
“I need some time to think about this. But what does it mean practically?”
“We can say that I’m a pan-were because I can take on the form of any animal I choose. So I can join the pard for full moons now. We can always pretend it’s something I got from the fourth mark. And I’ve got full control of the ardeur now, but I still want Nathaniel in my bed. I’ve also got total control of all my powers.”
“Right, and what’s the difference between a primary consort, a consort, a personal attendant and a lesser attendant?”
“I don’t sleep with my lesser attendants, all of my attendants are more or less servants first, but the personal attendants are sometimes lovers as well. The consorts and my primary consort are my lovers, but the primary consort is the one most closely tied to me and must be a sourdre de sang. One good comparison is some ancient societies, where a king might have had lots of wives to seal treaties, but one was the most important and appeared with him for public occasions. It isn’t exact and Jean-Claude can probably explain the differences better than I can, he was studying the culture while I was studying my powers.”
“I’ll ask him – I can still sleep with you if I don’t become your consort right?”
“Yes, but if you do become my consort you can’t sleep with anyone but me, and any of my consorts, or perhaps personal attendants, I give you permission to sleep with.”
“I wouldn’t cheat on you anyway.” He began kissing me and we started to make love, afterwards I waited in the living room for Nathaniel to get back, sketching out designs for uniforms for my guards while I waited.
~~~~~*****~~~~~
“Anita, you didn’t need to wait up for me.” Nathaniel sounded slightly worried, as if he thought I was going to throw him out or something. I put the paper I’d been working on aside, having come to the conclusion that I’d have to make magical armour to cover the body and upper thighs to go under my guard’s normal clothes, nothing else would be practical, and they could wear a brooch with my insignia to show their allegiance to me. They’d have to find their own ways to hide their guns, the way I’d had to before I manifested my full powers.
“Actually I did. And it isn’t as if I need to sleep any more.” I explained what I’d become to Nathaniel, and told him that I wanted him to be one of my personal attendants, and this time I mentioned the not needing to sleep bit.
“You want to keep me with you, forever?” There was wonder in his voice, as if he never expected me to care for him truly.
“Yes. But as one of my personal attendants you’ll be allowed to take other lovers, as long as you clear them with me first. I only want alphas and masters as my consorts, but I’ll extend the same protection to all of my retinue. You don’t have to do this, and I expect you to speak to Damian about it before you make a decision.”
“Whatever you want my queen.” Then he smiled at me hopefully. “Do you want me now?”
“Not with Micah asleep in our bedroom. I’d rather you gave me time to make some arrangements – I want this to be special for you. And I was hoping not to have full sex until you’ve made your decision, so I can claim you then, if you want me to. I’ll indulge in foreplay, the sort of thing we already do, but I won’t accept your decision for at least a week.”
“You don’t think I know what I want?” God he sounded pathetic. Good job I had a legitimate reason for putting him off.
“You don’t know what you’d be getting into until you’ve talked to Damian, and more to the point it’ll take a week for me to set up the background spells for the intimate claiming.”
“Oh, as you wish my queen.” Nathaniel always accepts anything I say, and I like that a lot. But he’s too submissive to be healthy, and I half hoped that making him one of my personal attendants would give him more confidence in himself. Of course choosing more submissive vampires and shapeshifters as my personal attendants, and only masters and alphas as my consorts meant that my attendants were far less likely to take advantage of their power over my consorts, or abuse them.
“Come to bed with me now. You still need to sleep, even if I don’t, and I enjoy having my men in my arms, even sleeping.” I pulled him into my bedroom, with Eve watching me and smiling at the sight of me claiming my proper retinue. All of my staff had been surprised that I didn’t bother to choose any more bed-slaves, or add to my consorts and personal attendants – and I have to admit that my sex drive increased dramatically after my full powers manifested, and as my control over them grew.
Micah was sleeping alone on the bed and when I lay down on my back he snuggled up to my right side, without once waking. Nathaniel took the left, one leg going across and between mine and one hand resting on my stomach. It was remarkably soothing lying with my leopards sleeping against me, trusting me to protect them if they needed it.
~~~~~*****~~~~~
I spent the time while they slept considering exactly what I needed in my new home. First of course it would have to be large enough to accommodate my pard. And I also needed a basement apartment safe for vampires to sleep in – that should be specially constructed, and I could use it as one link to dimensionally shifted quarters, where my retinue could act as their roles in my service dictated. I’d also need to set up a similar link from my bedroom, and from wherever my guard slept. I would definitely need access to forests, so my leopards could hunt once they’d shifted which ruled out anywhere urban.
Once I’d decided on all the conditions I began arraying them into a spell to find the perfect piece of land to build on – and of course it would have to be for sale and possible to get planning permission to build there. It was only two hours until dawn when I had the spell set, making sure the information I needed would be recorded on a data crystal and released it. Then I turned my attention back to my leopards, petting them as they slept.
When I heard Damian making his way into the house I cursed beneath my breath and slid from between the leopards. I intercepted him on his way to the basement and pulled his head down for a kiss. It wasn’t the ardeur that I needed to satisfy, it was my own desires, this despite having lain with Micah so recently.
He carried me down to the basement, and we had sex up against the wall, hard and fast to satisfy my sudden craving, and then we talked.
“Damian, I’ve asked Nathaniel to be one of my personal attendants. He’s going to be asking you what it’s like and I thought you should have a warning.”
“Thank you for the courtesy Anita.” Damian had begun to smile a lot more often during the three hundred years I spent training in my abilities, and he’d gained a lot of confidence, I think his old master would be surprised to see him now.
“It’s nothing. But…how do you feel about pretending that I’m human?”
“If it pleases you then I am content. As your vampire servant I was more or less immune to the internal power dynamics of the city anyway. Since you claimed me I’ve only been expected to obey you and the people you wanted me to, it was an assumption on my part that you wished me to obey Micah and Jean-Claude but Meng-Die and Faust never expected me to obey them.”
“So it doesn’t really affect your status whether I’m a powerful necromancer or Demonkin?”
“No Anita. And Jean-Claude only really gives me orders when they involve my job, or it’s important to protect the entire city. I think he wants, wanted, to avoid upsetting you by interfering with what you consider yours. I am a little worried about him though. We became friends of sorts when Morvoren took me to court with her and I saw his insecurity there. I thought he had conquered it when he became Master of the City, but the past three hundred years has shown me that he hasn’t. He doesn’t really believe he can be loved, or considered more than a favourite pet, desired for his body, not his mind. That is one reason he accepted being your primary consort so easily, but I worry that he has become dependent while you were training in your abilities.”
“I know about his insecurity, but I think he can still control the city, and I will spend as much time with him as I can, to make sure he knows that he has my full support. If you can give him comfort then do provide it. I need to return to my leopards, I don’t want them to wake without me.”
“Goodbye then.” He bent down to kiss me once before I left to slip back between my leopards.
~~~~~*****~~~~~
Micah woke before Nathaniel and turned his head to me for a kiss. He tried to turn it into something more, but I quickly refused.
“No, I don’t want this today. I want Nathaniel, when he wakes up. Go and get dressed, we can play later – after you’ve spoken to Jean-Claude or Asher. I don’t expect an answer to my offer immediately; it will take a week before I can actually act on it anyway, but you should start to find out about what I’m offering now.”
“Immortality and your body for eternity. What else could I ask?” He smiled to show that he was teasing, then he left quickly, not to anger me. I returned to petting Nathaniel waiting for him to awaken.
I knew he was returning to consciousness when I felt him nuzzle sleepily at my breast and I began to slowly untangle myself from his body. He protested slightly, then subsided as he came fully awake.
“On your belly.” I created two plain silver wristbands, with loops at either side to which I could attach a short length of chain I also created and dangled them in front of Nathaniel’s face. “What do you think of these? You can touch them.” He did, reaching one hand forward from where he was using it to cushion his head. He drew in a quick breath as he touched the wristband, it was about the same silver content as my knives so it didn’t hurt as much as it could, just enough to give an extra thrill for a masochist in my opinion.
“I like them – are you going to bind my hands?”
“Yes. If I do something that you don’t want tell me. I’m not planning on doing much today, just a few bites and scratches, but if I go too far then say something. Is there a safeword that you’d prefer?”
“I don’t use them much.”
“Then we’ll use ‘Musette’, unless you have any objections. It’s easier to use the same word with all of my lovers.”
“Yes Nimir-Ra.” I quickly fastened Nathaniel’s hands together at the small of his back and began running my hands over his shoulders. I pulled his hair out of the way, it was still in its braid, but some strands were coming loose and I coiled it on the pillow beside him. I was tempted to use the braid as a tether, to hold him in place, as I had once done with Jean-Claude, but the memory of my raven’s panic and terror at that action held me back. I would discuss the possibility with Nathaniel later, and find out how he felt about it.
I bent down to him and licked at the nape of his neck, moving to straddle his hips. As I sat up I raked my nails down his back, leaving open scratches behind their motion. After I pulled my hands back I returned to soothing him, petting him gently. When I leant down again I bit him on the shoulder, hard enough to draw blood and repeated the marking on the other shoulder. I worked my way down his back, only bothering with the untouched skin, not that there was much of it until I reached his buttocks. I backed off and slapped him on the ass.
“Turn over.” He struggled to obey, and I could see he was aroused. I sat astride him again, so his erection lay in the cleft of my ass and began to move, until we both achieved our climaxes, shredding the skin of his chest as I did so.
I turned him to release his hands from where they’d been trapped beneath his body, then sat back and watched him. I could taste his satisfaction; he had enjoyed what we’d done as much as I had. I knew I’d have to speak first, and I had to make sure he wasn’t too badly hurt.
“Are you alright Nathaniel?”
“Oh yes Anita. You make a wonderful top.” I smiled slightly at his compliment, I prefer my lovers to enjoy themselves as well, rather than to just take my own pleasure, I’d even done a few things with Jean-Claude that I found…not unpleasant exactly, more…routine, because they pleased him so much.
“I considered using your hair to tether you to the bed, how do you feel about that?”
“It’s scary, but exciting.”
“Perhaps later then.” I stood and went through to the bathroom to clean myself up then I had to go to the office for an appointment.
~~~~~*****~~~~~
I’d picked up the data crystal as I left my house and once I’d finished wading through the clients Bert had sent in for me, including one man who wanted me to counsel him about becoming a vampire, I reviewed the results. It was nearly one in the afternoon, time enough for me to make arrangements to see the top two choices. I had to pay for a night viewing so Damian and possibly my consorts could come along, but after all Damian at least would be living there.
Bert had started to make a fuss about my bodyguard following me to work, until I pointed out that it might be possible to use it for publicity if he was good enough to think of a way – and I promised they’d wait outside the office with sensitive clients. Truthfully I was glad of an excuse to dismiss them, for a while at least. When I’d made the arrangements to view the sites, giving up half of one of my few nights off, I decided to visit Jean-Claude, he’d certainly be awake by now, and perhaps Asher would as well.
I left my bodyguards at the entrance to the Circus, after all it was as much home territory as my house. I’d brought them back for the pard, and I could put up with a bit of fussing for their sakes, at least I’d had the sense not to assign them to my consorts.
Jean-Claude and Asher were curled together on his bed, Jean-Claude leaning up against Asher, head on his shoulder. Asher was stroking Jean-Claude’s hair while my raven was playing with his collar. They both looked up smiling at my entry. I could taste a degree of relief from both of them and I moved to sit beside Jean-Claude. He turned to lean against me and offered his collar to me.
“Do you want me to put this on you?” I lifted it from his hands and began petting him myself.
“At least while we are in here.” I should have expected that, I hadn’t taken the collars off any of my consorts or attendants since I first put them on, and they couldn’t remove the collars or put them on themselves. But Asher wasn’t asking me to collar him again. I added a new spell as I fastened the collar around Jean-Claude’s neck and explained it quickly.
“I’ve made sure that you won’t be able to leave this room wearing the collar, so remember to get me to take it off before I leave. I wanted to ask you a couple of favours actually.”
“Ask then, I can refuse you nothing, this you know.”
“Jean-Claude, I’m sure Anita doesn’t want you to do anything you do not wish to.” Asher sounded exasperated, but he glanced at me for confirmation.
“No, actually the first favour I need to ask both of you. I want to make Micah one of my consorts, and I told him to ask one of you about it, the first favour is just for you to answer his questions. I also want to make Nathaniel a personal attendant, and I wanted to use your bedroom for the claiming.”
“Neither favour seems to require undue effort on my part. Would you object if I stayed while you claimed Nathaniel?”
“You want to watch?”
“I thought perhaps we could play afterwards ma petite. If it offends you…”
“No my raven, it doesn’t. But I’ll have to see if Nathaniel minds, assuming he agrees to be one of my personal attendants.” Jean-Claude smiled and nuzzled at my shoulder for a second.
“Why would anyone refuse?” He truly sounded confused. Asher laughed gently.
“If they didn’t want to be compelled to obey Anita for the rest of their lives perhaps, not that you need have any fear of that with Nathaniel. By the way, who do you intend to give him permission to fuck?” I could feel Jean-Claude stiffen slightly against me at those words.
“I hadn’t considered it, are you asking for the chance to top him?”
“It might be interesting, I must admit.”
“He has to approach you, but other than that I see no problems with the idea. Jean-Claude, do you want my houseleopard?”
“Non, I only want to be with you and with Asher, I am content if you, either of you, take other lovers to bed with us, but I have no interest in other lovers for their own sakes, only if it pleases you.”
I smiled at him and ran my fingers through his hair. “And you thought it might please me to have you and Nathaniel in my bed together? My thanks, beloved. Now, would you two care to show me what pleasure you can offer?”
They took up my suggestion swiftly enough and we had a very good time. Before I left I explained about my plans for a new home, and invited them to join me when I checked out the sites. They both refused, but agreed that when I’d created my dimensionally shifted quarters I could open a link to them from Jean-Claude’s bedchamber.
~~~~~*****~~~~~
Micah and Nathaniel were waiting for me when I got back from my scheduled raisings, looking equally panicked.
“Anita, Jean-Claude told me what being a consort means. Are you seriously telling me you’d expect me to defer to Nathaniel?” Micah was the first to speak, he almost shouted at me in his shock at what had been revealed. Nathaniel was quieter, but equally horrified by the prospect.
“Damian explained that all of your consorts defer to your personal attendants and turn to them for comfort and reassurance, how can I do that, Anita?”
“I thought you’d both balk at that particular aspect. Micah, it isn’t as much a matter of what I’d expect as instincts that come with your bond to me that would lead to you deferring to my personal attendants. I can override them with a command, and I will. I’ve already done that for my vampires. They all know that so long as we are on this planet, outside of designated areas they are to act as if I were human, and so their bonds to me did not exist. Well except for the fact that they have to observe the sexual restrictions that is. Nathaniel, at the moment my consorts have the habit of going to Damian for reassurance and comfort when they need it, you can learn. I don’t expect either of you to fit into those patterns immediately, but you will eventually and it will seem natural to you.
“I won’t lie to you, this authority that personal attendants have over consorts has been abused in the past, by the retinues of other Demonkin. That is one reason I’ve chosen alphas and masters – or in Donne’s case one with the potential to be a master – for consorts and lesser powers as personal attendants. I feel that Nathaniel and Damian are unlikely to abuse my consorts.”
“Nathaniel would never hurt us, I know that is true, but I don’t like the idea of deferring to him or Damian…” Micah trailed off, and I looked at Nathaniel for his reaction.
“If you think I can do this then I will try my queen. But can I have time to get used to it, and start slow?”
“Of course you can, Nathaniel. Micah, if you don’t want to be required to defer to my personal attendants you can simply stay out of the areas where you don’t have to pretend I’m human. At the moment that’s just Jean-Claude’s bedroom, but you will have to go there when I claim you, if you want me to. You can both remain my lovers without this, but you’ll partake of less of my power if I don’t claim you.”
“I don’t care about the power; I just want to be yours forever.” Nathaniel sounded determined. “And if all I need to do for comfort and reassurance is to hold and pet your consorts I can manage that too.”
“If that’s your choice, Nathaniel. Once I’ve claimed you then you can take Asher or Donne to bed if you want and they are willing. Micah, I don’t expect you to make a decision immediately. The option will be available for at least a month, and I’ll tell you at least a week before it stops being an option.”
“Right. Can you explain something to me? Jean-Claude could only tell me that he’d submit to me if I became your consort because he’s your primary consort, but I don’t understand why, and neither did he.”
“The primary consort is always bound most strongly to whoever the Demonkin is. In the case of Demonkin who choose their first consorts here it’s always a sourdre de sang. Normally that would make him dominant to all other consorts, but in the simplest of terms, the more powerful someone is when I claim them the more strongly I suppress their will. The very first vampires were all sourdre de sangs, with the ability to found their own bloodline, and the instinct to obey the Demonkin without question was built into them. There’s an echo of it in all vampires, but the closer a vampire is to the original, the more powerful he is the more strongly he feels that instinct. Sourdre de sangs are almost complete reversions to the originals, and so they tend to submit totally to the Demonkin. But if I chose alphas for both my consorts and my personal attendants I wouldn’t bind the attendants to me as strongly as the consorts, because I wouldn’t be as intimate with them, and so they could be abusive. Does that answer your question?”
“Pretty much. And who would you give me permission to sleep with if I became your consort?”
“Asher and Donne. And I’d give Nathaniel permission to sleep with you, if you’re both willing. Talking of sex, come to bed with me?”
They both joined me in the bedroom and we had quite a good time together. Afterwards I mentioned my plans for a new home for us and they both agreed to come with me.
~~~~~*****~~~~~
There was only one problem with the first site we visited, the distance from the centre of the city. Most of the pard would be facing a one hour commute, at the very least, but the second site was equally remote, and the forests weren’t as good, there was farming far too near for my tastes. We gathered together at my house to make the decision.
“They’re both too far away. We’ll never be able to hold down jobs with that commute. If it was temporary, then I’d say yes, but you’re planning on decades aren’t you?” Micah was the first to speak, and to find fault with the two options we had, or rather that I’d shown them.
“Your Nimir-Raj does have a point about the commute Anita.” Damian spoke in support of Micah, then Toni countered that.
“I’m sure Anita can find a way around that. And it’s much better from a security standpoint to have our home so isolated. This way it will be a lot easier to maintain a proper perimeter, and people will find it harder to sneak up. I assume we will be having a security system built into the house?”
“I was planning on a mix of technology and spells, mostly spells. As for the commute I’m building links to dimensionally shifted quarters into the house, one exit will be in Jean-Claude’s bedroom, and I can put another in an apartment in the centre of St. Louis somewhere convenient. The only problem there will be the difficulty of finding parking in the city, unless I buy a garage big enough for all of our cars to go with it.”
“Wouldn’t that be suspicious, that our cars were never at home, always in a big garage in town?” Nathaniel was the one who brought up the flaw in my plan, a bit of a surprise as he’d never passed for human, but I was glad of it.
“In that case I’ll just get one garage, and create a portal to the garage built at our home. I’m not sure whether to make it mostly underground or not, I’ve already committed to an underground apartment for Damian.”
“It would look better underground, or mostly underground, and you can probably put my apartment beneath the garage, especially if you’re willing to make it with your powers.”
“Yes, that would be quicker, and safer too, I can reinforce the rock with magic, rather than rely on cement. Now, which of the two sites would be better?”
“The first one. It had better grounds.”
“It was more secure.”
“The farms were too near the second site.”
“The rock was deeper at the first site.”
“So, we’re all agreed on the first site?” I was greeted with a series of nods and yeses. I rang the agent and made arrangements to buy the land as quickly as possible. I decided to leave organising the builders to someone else. I’d clear out an area fifty metres by seventy metres, and remove the rock there down fifteen metres deep. I planned to have my house built as much as possible using that rock, with only the unavoidable parts made of brick, and with an estate so large we could have other buildings later as we needed them. Jean-Claude had given me the name of a good architect for the design and I’d already gone over most of the specifications with him, all I needed to add was the underground garage, and tell him to forget about the apartment in the basement, I’d changed my mind. It is possible for vampires to live above the surface, they have to be careful, but it is possible.
~~~~~*****~~~~~
I decided to claim Nathaniel after all my scheduled raisings that Friday night. I’d been lucky and only ended up with four, so they were over quickly enough, and even better they were all less than a century old – although now I could raise a dinosaur from the fossil, and control it, even if it would wipe me out. Not that I intended to admit as much to Bert, knowing him he’d find someone who actually wanted a dinosaur raised from the dead.
I told Nathaniel to join me in the Circus at one in the morning and led him through to Jean- Claude’s bedroom. I wasn’t really surprised to see my raven there waiting for me, but Nathaniel was, at least he seemed to be surprised to see the Master of the City lounging on his bed wearing heavy brocaded silk pyjamas. I walked over to him, leaving Nathaniel by the door and lifted his collar from his hands.
“Do you mind if I use your bedroom to claim Nathaniel?”
“Of course not, ma petite. Do you, either of you, mind if I stay?” Jean-Claude glanced from me to Nathaniel, then dropped his eyes in a display of submission.
“Nathaniel?”
“If it does not bother you Anita I have no objections.” As soon as Nathaniel agreed I fastened my raven’s collar around his neck and pulled him off the bed and to me for a kiss. Then I pushed him down onto the rug by his bed, tossing pillows and bedcovers down to join him.
“Just wait there.” I ignored the look of shock on Nathaniel’s face in favour of enjoying the pleasure on Jean-Claude’s, and turned towards him to give him more orders. “Come here Nathaniel.” His hair was braided and I quickly tied him to the headboard using it, eliciting an indrawn breath from Jean-Claude. “You do what the safe word is?”
“Yes Anita, it is ‘Musette’.”
“And you will use it if I go too far?”
“Yes.”
“I want to make one other alteration to you. I intend to make you immune to silver, as that’s what your collar’s made of. If you want me to I’ll replace it with an allergy to rhodium?”
“Please do my queen.”
I used manacles to bind his hands together behind his back – after I’d twisted his arms up so his hands were between his shoulder blades and his elbows near his waist, binding them together with simple ribbon. The manacles had just enough silver in them to hurt, and an equal amount of rhodium, as did the bar I used to spread his legs. “The binding at your elbows is an extra measure, if you break it I’ll assume you don’t want to continue.” When I glanced down at Jean-Claude I could see his surprise, I don’t think he’d ever played these games with a dominant who made sure that he felt safe except for me, and the farthest we went into dominance games was when I pinned him down, and that one time I tried tying him with his hair.
First I used a spell to clean Nathaniel inside and out, and then I stripped in front of him. I turned him onto his stomach and lay down on top of him, biting at the nape of his neck, then drew my nails down his flanks, drawing blood. I used my magic to scour his skin, until there was no trace of scent on him but his own, then I rolled him onto his back pushing him into the mattress. I straddled his face and had him lick me until he’d brought me, then I rubbed my juices into his skin, using magic to bind my scent to him, so he’d always wear it. Then I turned my attention to his groin, avoiding the obvious signs of his arousal, in favour of licking at his testicles, taking them into my mouth and biting just hard enough to hurt, without causing any true damage. He was near orgasm and I used another spell to make sure his arousal could build and build but never peak.
“Not until I say so.” And those five words excited him so very much. I turned my attention to the inside of his thighs, biting them, careful not to tear any flesh from his body, but making sure it hurt. The sheets were stained with his blood, and my face painted red when I relented and impaling myself upon him released him to come. He collapsed unconscious, and I used the time to fasten his collar and cuffs on him, changing him so he was allergic to rhodium, not silver.
I turned to Jean-Claude. “Unbind him, and clean him up. I’ll deal with the bed sheets.” Jean-Claude obeyed, carrying him through to the bathroom and bringing him back once I’d changed the sheets to dark blue sheets and cleaned up the white ones I’d soaked in blood. He laid Nathaniel in the centre of the bed and looked to me. I pulled him down to join us, touching him I could feel that he’d been aroused, perhaps by my pleasure leaking along our link, perhaps by what he saw, although probably not. I only took the time to free his erection, then I pulled him against me, Nathaniel had left me unfulfilled and Jean-Claude was more than pleased to satisfy me in his stead.
Nathaniel had woken up by the time Jean-Claude permitted himself to climax, and Jean-Claude lay back, passive, looking to us for instructions. It would be up to me I supposed.
“Nathaniel, undress Jean-Claude, then I want you to tell him what you want him to do.”
“But…” Nathaniel began to protest as he moved to obey, only to be silenced by a kiss from Jean-Claude.
“Think of it as a way to please our master. What do you wish of me?”
“Ummm…prepare me.” Then as Jean-Claude moved to get some lotion he continued. “No, not with your fingers, with your tongue.” He seemed to be seeing how far he could go with this.
Jean-Claude obeyed immediately, and I positioned myself in front of Nathaniel. He took the hint and began using his own talented tongue on me. He didn’t stop until he’d brought me either, then he glanced up at me. “I’d like to be inside you Anita. With Jean-Claude inside me.”
“Then do it.” He entered me first, then gave Jean-Claude his orders. I could smell blood, and I knew it was from when my raven took Nathaniel, but that seemed to be what was wanted and in the end we all curled together to rest.
~~~~~*****~~~~~
Nathaniel had dropped off to sleep but it was two hours until dawn and Jean-Claude obviously wanted to speak to me. I used a quick spell to prevent my leopard hearing us and leaned over to kiss my raven.
“Are you all right my raven?”
“Yes ma petite. I was simply surprised that he could tell me what he wanted, and command me. He is your personal attendant so I must obey him unless you command me otherwise, and his commands were not unpleasant.”
“It was a bit of a test, to see if he could tell you what to do in bed. Your words helped I think, he decided to treat it as if he was putting on a show for me.”
“Oui. I thought back to the times you wished to see me lie with Asher, and for me to be dominant. Do you think he will have difficulties with Donne and Asher, considering their positions, and his sexual tastes?”
“Did you only take the dominant role with Asher when I commanded it?” That hadn’t been very often, and only when Asher had pleased me especially and he asked for that as his treat.
“Sometimes when he commanded it, but he discussed what he wanted beforehand, although he usually gave me options of what to do. But you did not answer my question ma petite.”
“I shouldn’t think so. He’ll have to ask them to dominate him, but I’m sure Asher will be capable of that, especially outside this room, and I think Donne has that capacity within him, even if we haven’t seen it. After all he will be a master one day; I designed him to become a master eventually.”
“Then will he be able to comfort and command us if it is necessary? He is so very submissive.”
“Eventually he will be. It won’t happen at once. I thought that if I had to I could take all of you back to visit Morion for a few years, and he’d learn to command my consorts while we’re there, as Micah would learn to submit to him and to Damian. Although, come to think of it, I’d have to modify my quarters to make room for my new consort and attendant when we got there. And for my personal guard when I think about it.”
“What were you planning? We don’t really need bedrooms as big as the ones you made for us, so you could just return them to the original plan.”
“No, I’m not going to do that. I can move sections of my quarters about easily enough, and I’ll do that to make room. But you will have to get anything important out before I start changing your quarters.”
“There isn’t anything you can’t replace easily enough if you wish to.”
“I’ll give you anything you need, and most things that you want if you ask for them.”
“But you won’t let me wear this” his hand went to the collar at his throat, by now his neck seemed bare to me without it and from what I could tell it felt bare as well, “outside of my bedroom.”
“No. I just don’t want it to become common knowledge what I am. Does it hurt you that I feel that way?”
“I will do whatever pleases you, but why don’t you want it known that I am yours? Do you think I reflect ill on you?” My raven was so insecure, no one had wanted him for longer than a few short years, every master he had ever had tired of him after a while, even Asher had rejected him – and I had once told him that I thought I would tire of him, that he would bore me eventually.
“No! I could never be embarrassed to be with you. But you worked so hard for your freedom and independence, and now I’ve taken it all away. I want to at least give you the semblance of freedom and independence, to make sure you do not have to suffer the contempt of vampires who do not understand what I am.”
“If the council finds out what you are they will make sure everyone knows it, but I do appreciate the freedom you offer. It is near dawn. Will you be here when I awake?”
“I will try to be. If not I will remove that from your neck, and if I am you may feed from me – somewhere it will show.”
“Thank you, ma petite.” He died as he whispered the endearment and I settled in to watch over him as he slept.
~~~~~*****~~~~~
He woke up at eleven, I was still there to watch over him and from the fear in his eyes I knew he was wondering if I’d regretted my impulsive offer earlier. My raven has woefully low self-esteem, you’d think that someone so beautiful would know his worth, that someone who projects such confidence would actually feel some of it, but he doesn’t. And I know that it’s my fault, mine and Asher’s at least in part. We were both supposed to love him, but we treated him like whore all too often.
Nathaniel had woken earlier; I’d removed his collar sent him to hunt up something to eat, for himself and something he thought Jean-Claude might like for when he rose. He’d returned with blackberry pie and cream, something I knew my raven liked, even if I didn’t and it was set to one side waiting for us. After Nathaniel had eaten I sent him on his way home, he’d driven in himself so I didn’t have to worry about how he’d get there.
“Ma petite, you were able to stay with me?” I could hear the surprise and pleasure in his voice and wished that I had never hurt him so much that he doubted his ability to keep my attention. The only thing that would have made me leave his side as he slept would have been other obligations, and I had put the time to use by practising some of my other skills, the ones I had not become perfectly proficient in.
“Yes my raven, you woke up early enough for me to remain. Bert isn’t expecting me in until half past one. I had Nathaniel bring something you could taste through me, would you prefer to do that first, or drink from me first?”
“What did you have him bring?” He was glancing around, pleasure and anticipation shining in his eyes.
“This.” I lifted the plate to within his sight. “Blackberry pie with cream.”
“But you don’t like blackberries ma petite.”
“You do though. And I do not mind eating them for you. I don’t have to worry about my figure any more now do I?” I smiled at him, letting him know I was teasing and he smiled back.
“You have always been beautiful. I never did understand the modern obsession with weight.” Then he dropped his eyes, embarrassed, and scared that he might have angered me.
“Well, it doesn’t matter now.” I dismissed his words. “Now, what would you do first?”
“Offer you pleasure ma petite.” And with those words he buried his head in my groin, quickly settling into a rhythm to bring me pleasure. It wasn’t too long before I was clutching at his shoulders and raking my nails over his back.
“What about you my raven?”
“I am content to have pleased you, I swear it.” I found that hard to believe, but he seemed to be sincere, and in truth I was in no mood for anything more, I would not even have initiated what we had done and so I put it down to Jean-Claude’s need to feed the ardeur and dismissed the matter.
“Do you wish me to eat before you feed on me, or the other way around?”
“Let me taste the pie through you please ma petite.” He’d made his decision, probably while pleasuring me and I ate the pie slowly, watching as he virtually swooned on the bed in front of me. By the time I was finished he looked totally satiated as he stretched out naked across the bed in a picture of wanton sexuality. I reached to toy idly with one nipple, waiting for him to react, and, receiving only a smile and a sultry gaze from beneath lowered lids, lay down beside him. I reached and pulled him up against me, pressing his mouth high on my neck, where the mark would be all too obvious. I would not hide the mark of my consort’s teeth, I was in a mood to shock and offend any who would harm what belonged to me.
“Drink my raven, for I must depart soon.”
I felt him whisper against my neck, “Your will master.” and he bit into me feeding hungrily, then withdrawing to leave neat fang marks. I removed his collar, offering a caress and a kiss before I left to go to the office for more interviews with people who wanted the dead raising.
~~~~~*****~~~~~
Micah was waiting for me when I got home, holding a pile of energy crystals in his hand. I rarely bothered to hide them when I’d been with Morion, and since I returned I’d just left them in a box by my bed, a large box as I had near seventy thousand of the things, although I’d stopped creating them when I returned to Earth.
“What are these Anita? They feel strange, as if they call me to shift, or to call flesh or something.”
“They’re called energy stones, or energy crystals. My kind often has a lot more power than we can use or need. And sometimes it is easier, and safer not to personally feed power into a delicate spell construct, such as certain types of armour, or to deal with a constant drain on our energy, such as the spell I’ll be using to guard out new home. Energy crystals are a way to store energy that might be in excess for us, and unused. We use crystals because they have a lattice structure that is best suited to storing energy, and I normally use quartz because it is readily available, and easy to create as a perfect crystal.”
“I think I see, but why do you have so many of them?”
“They’re also used as one form of currency among my kind – vampires actually make up another form. You know that I went somewhere else for three hundred years while I learned to use my powers, then returned to almost the exact moment I left.” As I explained I cast a spell to prevent Micah revealing these facts to anyone else, he’d given his consent for it a while back, but I hadn’t gotten around to it. I’d already cast a privacy spell as soon as he asked about the energy stones, the pard knew that I’d gained powers, but I wasn’t sure how much they knew – and I’d cast spells to ensure secrecy as soon as I told them. “I had to pay for my lessons by doing two things. First I had to create energy stones with whatever excess energy I was willing to spare and give half of them to my teacher, which is why I’ve got so many of them now, and second I had to create at least two vampires as a graduation exercise and give one to my teacher. Donne’s the vampire I kept, Caspian was a gift from my teacher when I started lessons with him, intended to teach my vampires appropriate behaviour.”
“Appropriate behaviour?”
“They were expected to submit to me without question, and the power dynamics among them changed a lot. You’d see it if you ever saw how they behave when I’m not pretending to be human. Caspian’s of the Sweet Dark’s line, so he can give us information about her, and that will help us. And oh yes, he’ll be joining the pard, I just wanted to give him a chance to fit in with the vampire community first.”
“Anita, you should have told me this earlier. How do you expect to bring him into the pard now?”
“I was rather hoping you’d have an idea. Do we really need to tell anyone who he is, would it be possible for us to just bring him to join us in leopard form at full moon?”
“No! We can’t do that.” Micah was suddenly furious. “Did you never bother to understand our culture at all? How did you manage to act as Nimir-Ra without understanding us?”
“When I inherited them the leopards didn’t really have an independent culture, they were mostly an extension of the wolves, so I worked with what I know of the wolves. You didn’t show much interest in teaching me the culture, and I didn’t have any other possible teachers. I was hoping that because natural leopards are solitary creatures we’d be able to have Caspian just join us at full moon.”
My calm words silenced him, and he sat in thought for a while. “I suppose we could get away with introducing him at full moon. If you can think of a believable reason the vampires would have prevented him from meeting us earlier.”
“Just the fact that he’s of the Mother of All Darkness’ line would be reason enough. They’d want to keep it quiet that we have one of her line in our service.”
“We might be able to pull it off then. We can try.” Micah stood and walked back into our bedroom. “But I do wish you’d told me earlier.” I knew he wouldn’t be willing to have sex under the circumstances, but when I checked my links to my consorts I found that Asher was alone at the Circus, and he readily agreed to bathe with me – and a little bit more. Afterwards he didn’t even want me to stay with him during his daylight slumber, we had used his room not Jean-Claude’s and he was a lot more assertive without the collar around his neck, so I returned to my house.
~~~~~*****~~~~~
Micah made up his mind about whether or not he would become my consort three days before the full moon. I wasn’t sure what had decided him in favour of it, but I didn’t particularly care. He told me just before I was leaving for my first animating appointment of the night.
“Anita, you remember how you offered to make me one of your consorts?” He paused, but it sounded like he was about to continue so I stayed silent, and simply nodded. “I’ve decided that I do want to be your consort, if you’ll still have me.”
“Yes, I’ll still have you. Why would you think I wouldn’t?”
“Because I shouted at you about Caspian. I thought that you expected your consorts to be submissive to you.”
“Not so much that you won’t tell me if I’ve done something wrong.” I quickly contacted Jean-Claude and learned that he didn’t mind if I claimed Micah in his bed tonight, provided I sent Micah away afterwards and called my primary consort to me then. “I should be finished my appointments around two, I want you waiting in Jean-Claude’s bedroom at the Circus then. We need to fuck and you have to be submissive to me. I also need to make sure you don’t have anyone’s scent on you before we start and that’s a little painful.”
“I can handle that.” He sounded confident and I decided to take him at his word.
“Then I’ll see you there.” I left for my appointments, and truthfully it was a good job I didn’t really need to concentrate on them, because I was trying to work out exactly what sort of claiming ritual would be appropriate, I couldn’t use the same one I’d used for Nathaniel for obvious reasons. But I could use something similar.
By the time I got to the Circus I’d decided what to do and I found Jean-Claude waiting for me in the living room. He was going over some books curled in the couch, obviously waiting for me. I walked over to him and pulled him into my arms.
“Are you sure you’re alright with this my raven?”
“I do not have any right to object ma petite.” He shrugged eloquently. “But please, I beg you send him for me after you have claimed him. You did promise to take me to your bed tonight.” He ended on a plaintive note and I felt as if I was taking advantage of him for a moment.
“I promise. I just feel it would be best for continuity if the ruling pair of my pard are both immortal. And he needs to be bound to me, so I know he won’t betray me again, as he almost did with Chimera.”
“Oh! You didn’t ask him to be your consort because you love him then?” Jean-Claude’s insecurity was all too clear in that question.
“I don’t think I ever loved him, but his beast matched that aspect of my power perfectly at the time, and subconsciously when I manifested my full powers I tailored that power so he can amplify it to some extent, not much, but enough to be useful.”
“Then you should go to him ma petite.” I smiled at Jean-Claude and went to find Micah.
He was still fully dressed, sitting on the bed, examining Jean-Claude’s collar that he’d left on the dresser, and I couldn’t help being a bit annoyed about that.
“Micah, get undressed now, and put that back.” He looked slightly shocked but he obeyed and I stripped as well. I cast the first spell, to clean him inside and out as soon as he was naked, then I told him to lie down on his back.
“Anita, what…” He tried to ask me about the ritual but I cut him off.
“Be silent.” I cast the spell to scour any other scent from his skin as I spoke. “I told you that you’d be submissive.” I quickly moved to sit on top of his face once the spell was cast. “Now pleasure me.” He obeyed, fairly well and I repeated what I’d done with Nathaniel at this point, rubbing my juices into his skin and using magic to bind my scent to him, so he’d always wear it.
He wasn’t hard, and I couldn’t control my disappointment, any of my other consorts would have been simply from pleasing me. I aroused him with my mouth and moved to guide him into me as I rode him. Once I’d given him his pleasure I fastened his collar around his throat and put his amber bracers around his wrists. I pushed him to his knees in front of me and pulled his head to my groin, angrily.
“Clean me up, and make sure I come this time.” He obeyed, and managed to clean all his seed, even from inside me, then I removed his collar and handed it to him. “No one else can put this on you or remove it, except me. You can’t, and you won’t be able to leave the areas I designate as safe for you to act as my consort rather than my Nimir-Raj with it on. Now go and get Jean-Claude, send him to me and leave.”
He obeyed and made his way to the living room, but he took the time to dress first.
~~~~~*****~~~~~
I’d spent the last ten years considering whether or not to tell Micah who and what I was and in the end I’d decided that he deserved to know, as I intended to make him one of my consorts. Besides which he tended to ally himself with whoever was most powerful, and now that’s me, so if I revealed what I was he would never go against me – not that he’d have been able to once I claimed him.
“Where did you get your guards? I didn’t know you were looking for any.” My Nimir-Raj waited until we were in bed together before he asked, but I could hear the insecurity in his voice.
“There’s something you need to know, and it’s going to be hard to explain. I need your word that you won’t say anything about this to anyone else, and you have mine that it will not hurt any of our pard.”
“I won’t tell anyone then Anita. Unless keeping this a secret endangers our people.”
“I’m one of the creatures that created vampires and lycanthropes. We are called Demonkin and I could face the entire vampire council and win. I don’t want it to get out because I’d rather not have to deal with how they’d react to me.
“I only really came into my power when I took the fourth mark from Jean-Claude. That triggered an old spell and I was taken to a teacher, along with Jean-Claude, Asher and Damian. I spent three hundred years there learning about my powers, and that’s where I got my guards. I was also given a new vampire, called Caspian, and made another; I let Asher name him Donne. I claimed all of the vampires I brought back with me, and all five of my guards.
“The guards are just in my service, I used a form of the lesser claiming for them, and I used the lesser claiming for Caspian, who’s one of my lesser attendants. Jean-Claude is my primary consort and Damian is my personal attendant while Asher and Donne are my consorts, I used the intimate claiming for all of them. You should ask one of them what that means, because I want to make you into my consort as well. If you do agree I can make you immortal, like a vampire. I’m going to tell the same thing to Nathaniel, because I want him as another personal attendant, but it is your choice, both of you.”
“I need some time to think about this. But what does it mean practically?”
“We can say that I’m a pan-were because I can take on the form of any animal I choose. So I can join the pard for full moons now. We can always pretend it’s something I got from the fourth mark. And I’ve got full control of the ardeur now, but I still want Nathaniel in my bed. I’ve also got total control of all my powers.”
“Right, and what’s the difference between a primary consort, a consort, a personal attendant and a lesser attendant?”
“I don’t sleep with my lesser attendants, all of my attendants are more or less servants first, but the personal attendants are sometimes lovers as well. The consorts and my primary consort are my lovers, but the primary consort is the one most closely tied to me and must be a sourdre de sang. One good comparison is some ancient societies, where a king might have had lots of wives to seal treaties, but one was the most important and appeared with him for public occasions. It isn’t exact and Jean-Claude can probably explain the differences better than I can, he was studying the culture while I was studying my powers.”
“I’ll ask him – I can still sleep with you if I don’t become your consort right?”
“Yes, but if you do become my consort you can’t sleep with anyone but me, and any of my consorts, or perhaps personal attendants, I give you permission to sleep with.”
“I wouldn’t cheat on you anyway.” He began kissing me and we started to make love, afterwards I waited in the living room for Nathaniel to get back, sketching out designs for uniforms for my guards while I waited.
“Anita, you didn’t need to wait up for me.” Nathaniel sounded slightly worried, as if he thought I was going to throw him out or something. I put the paper I’d been working on aside, having come to the conclusion that I’d have to make magical armour to cover the body and upper thighs to go under my guard’s normal clothes, nothing else would be practical, and they could wear a brooch with my insignia to show their allegiance to me. They’d have to find their own ways to hide their guns, the way I’d had to before I manifested my full powers.
“Actually I did. And it isn’t as if I need to sleep any more.” I explained what I’d become to Nathaniel, and told him that I wanted him to be one of my personal attendants, and this time I mentioned the not needing to sleep bit.
“You want to keep me with you, forever?” There was wonder in his voice, as if he never expected me to care for him truly.
“Yes. But as one of my personal attendants you’ll be allowed to take other lovers, as long as you clear them with me first. I only want alphas and masters as my consorts, but I’ll extend the same protection to all of my retinue. You don’t have to do this, and I expect you to speak to Damian about it before you make a decision.”
“Whatever you want my queen.” Then he smiled at me hopefully. “Do you want me now?”
“Not with Micah asleep in our bedroom. I’d rather you gave me time to make some arrangements – I want this to be special for you. And I was hoping not to have full sex until you’ve made your decision, so I can claim you then, if you want me to. I’ll indulge in foreplay, the sort of thing we already do, but I won’t accept your decision for at least a week.”
“You don’t think I know what I want?” God he sounded pathetic. Good job I had a legitimate reason for putting him off.
“You don’t know what you’d be getting into until you’ve talked to Damian, and more to the point it’ll take a week for me to set up the background spells for the intimate claiming.”
“Oh, as you wish my queen.” Nathaniel always accepts anything I say, and I like that a lot. But he’s too submissive to be healthy, and I half hoped that making him one of my personal attendants would give him more confidence in himself. Of course choosing more submissive vampires and shapeshifters as my personal attendants, and only masters and alphas as my consorts meant that my attendants were far less likely to take advantage of their power over my consorts, or abuse them.
“Come to bed with me now. You still need to sleep, even if I don’t, and I enjoy having my men in my arms, even sleeping.” I pulled him into my bedroom, with Eve watching me and smiling at the sight of me claiming my proper retinue. All of my staff had been surprised that I didn’t bother to choose any more bed-slaves, or add to my consorts and personal attendants – and I have to admit that my sex drive increased dramatically after my full powers manifested, and as my control over them grew.
Micah was sleeping alone on the bed and when I lay down on my back he snuggled up to my right side, without once waking. Nathaniel took the left, one leg going across and between mine and one hand resting on my stomach. It was remarkably soothing lying with my leopards sleeping against me, trusting me to protect them if they needed it.
I spent the time while they slept considering exactly what I needed in my new home. First of course it would have to be large enough to accommodate my pard. And I also needed a basement apartment safe for vampires to sleep in – that should be specially constructed, and I could use it as one link to dimensionally shifted quarters, where my retinue could act as their roles in my service dictated. I’d also need to set up a similar link from my bedroom, and from wherever my guard slept. I would definitely need access to forests, so my leopards could hunt once they’d shifted which ruled out anywhere urban.
Once I’d decided on all the conditions I began arraying them into a spell to find the perfect piece of land to build on – and of course it would have to be for sale and possible to get planning permission to build there. It was only two hours until dawn when I had the spell set, making sure the information I needed would be recorded on a data crystal and released it. Then I turned my attention back to my leopards, petting them as they slept.
When I heard Damian making his way into the house I cursed beneath my breath and slid from between the leopards. I intercepted him on his way to the basement and pulled his head down for a kiss. It wasn’t the ardeur that I needed to satisfy, it was my own desires, this despite having lain with Micah so recently.
He carried me down to the basement, and we had sex up against the wall, hard and fast to satisfy my sudden craving, and then we talked.
“Damian, I’ve asked Nathaniel to be one of my personal attendants. He’s going to be asking you what it’s like and I thought you should have a warning.”
“Thank you for the courtesy Anita.” Damian had begun to smile a lot more often during the three hundred years I spent training in my abilities, and he’d gained a lot of confidence, I think his old master would be surprised to see him now.
“It’s nothing. But…how do you feel about pretending that I’m human?”
“If it pleases you then I am content. As your vampire servant I was more or less immune to the internal power dynamics of the city anyway. Since you claimed me I’ve only been expected to obey you and the people you wanted me to, it was an assumption on my part that you wished me to obey Micah and Jean-Claude but Meng-Die and Faust never expected me to obey them.”
“So it doesn’t really affect your status whether I’m a powerful necromancer or Demonkin?”
“No Anita. And Jean-Claude only really gives me orders when they involve my job, or it’s important to protect the entire city. I think he wants, wanted, to avoid upsetting you by interfering with what you consider yours. I am a little worried about him though. We became friends of sorts when Morvoren took me to court with her and I saw his insecurity there. I thought he had conquered it when he became Master of the City, but the past three hundred years has shown me that he hasn’t. He doesn’t really believe he can be loved, or considered more than a favourite pet, desired for his body, not his mind. That is one reason he accepted being your primary consort so easily, but I worry that he has become dependent while you were training in your abilities.”
“I know about his insecurity, but I think he can still control the city, and I will spend as much time with him as I can, to make sure he knows that he has my full support. If you can give him comfort then do provide it. I need to return to my leopards, I don’t want them to wake without me.”
“Goodbye then.” He bent down to kiss me once before I left to slip back between my leopards.
Micah woke before Nathaniel and turned his head to me for a kiss. He tried to turn it into something more, but I quickly refused.
“No, I don’t want this today. I want Nathaniel, when he wakes up. Go and get dressed, we can play later – after you’ve spoken to Jean-Claude or Asher. I don’t expect an answer to my offer immediately; it will take a week before I can actually act on it anyway, but you should start to find out about what I’m offering now.”
“Immortality and your body for eternity. What else could I ask?” He smiled to show that he was teasing, then he left quickly, not to anger me. I returned to petting Nathaniel waiting for him to awaken.
I knew he was returning to consciousness when I felt him nuzzle sleepily at my breast and I began to slowly untangle myself from his body. He protested slightly, then subsided as he came fully awake.
“On your belly.” I created two plain silver wristbands, with loops at either side to which I could attach a short length of chain I also created and dangled them in front of Nathaniel’s face. “What do you think of these? You can touch them.” He did, reaching one hand forward from where he was using it to cushion his head. He drew in a quick breath as he touched the wristband, it was about the same silver content as my knives so it didn’t hurt as much as it could, just enough to give an extra thrill for a masochist in my opinion.
“I like them – are you going to bind my hands?”
“Yes. If I do something that you don’t want tell me. I’m not planning on doing much today, just a few bites and scratches, but if I go too far then say something. Is there a safeword that you’d prefer?”
“I don’t use them much.”
“Then we’ll use ‘Musette’, unless you have any objections. It’s easier to use the same word with all of my lovers.”
“Yes Nimir-Ra.” I quickly fastened Nathaniel’s hands together at the small of his back and began running my hands over his shoulders. I pulled his hair out of the way, it was still in its braid, but some strands were coming loose and I coiled it on the pillow beside him. I was tempted to use the braid as a tether, to hold him in place, as I had once done with Jean-Claude, but the memory of my raven’s panic and terror at that action held me back. I would discuss the possibility with Nathaniel later, and find out how he felt about it.
I bent down to him and licked at the nape of his neck, moving to straddle his hips. As I sat up I raked my nails down his back, leaving open scratches behind their motion. After I pulled my hands back I returned to soothing him, petting him gently. When I leant down again I bit him on the shoulder, hard enough to draw blood and repeated the marking on the other shoulder. I worked my way down his back, only bothering with the untouched skin, not that there was much of it until I reached his buttocks. I backed off and slapped him on the ass.
“Turn over.” He struggled to obey, and I could see he was aroused. I sat astride him again, so his erection lay in the cleft of my ass and began to move, until we both achieved our climaxes, shredding the skin of his chest as I did so.
I turned him to release his hands from where they’d been trapped beneath his body, then sat back and watched him. I could taste his satisfaction; he had enjoyed what we’d done as much as I had. I knew I’d have to speak first, and I had to make sure he wasn’t too badly hurt.
“Are you alright Nathaniel?”
“Oh yes Anita. You make a wonderful top.” I smiled slightly at his compliment, I prefer my lovers to enjoy themselves as well, rather than to just take my own pleasure, I’d even done a few things with Jean-Claude that I found…not unpleasant exactly, more…routine, because they pleased him so much.
“I considered using your hair to tether you to the bed, how do you feel about that?”
“It’s scary, but exciting.”
“Perhaps later then.” I stood and went through to the bathroom to clean myself up then I had to go to the office for an appointment.
I’d picked up the data crystal as I left my house and once I’d finished wading through the clients Bert had sent in for me, including one man who wanted me to counsel him about becoming a vampire, I reviewed the results. It was nearly one in the afternoon, time enough for me to make arrangements to see the top two choices. I had to pay for a night viewing so Damian and possibly my consorts could come along, but after all Damian at least would be living there.
Bert had started to make a fuss about my bodyguard following me to work, until I pointed out that it might be possible to use it for publicity if he was good enough to think of a way – and I promised they’d wait outside the office with sensitive clients. Truthfully I was glad of an excuse to dismiss them, for a while at least. When I’d made the arrangements to view the sites, giving up half of one of my few nights off, I decided to visit Jean-Claude, he’d certainly be awake by now, and perhaps Asher would as well.
I left my bodyguards at the entrance to the Circus, after all it was as much home territory as my house. I’d brought them back for the pard, and I could put up with a bit of fussing for their sakes, at least I’d had the sense not to assign them to my consorts.
Jean-Claude and Asher were curled together on his bed, Jean-Claude leaning up against Asher, head on his shoulder. Asher was stroking Jean-Claude’s hair while my raven was playing with his collar. They both looked up smiling at my entry. I could taste a degree of relief from both of them and I moved to sit beside Jean-Claude. He turned to lean against me and offered his collar to me.
“Do you want me to put this on you?” I lifted it from his hands and began petting him myself.
“At least while we are in here.” I should have expected that, I hadn’t taken the collars off any of my consorts or attendants since I first put them on, and they couldn’t remove the collars or put them on themselves. But Asher wasn’t asking me to collar him again. I added a new spell as I fastened the collar around Jean-Claude’s neck and explained it quickly.
“I’ve made sure that you won’t be able to leave this room wearing the collar, so remember to get me to take it off before I leave. I wanted to ask you a couple of favours actually.”
“Ask then, I can refuse you nothing, this you know.”
“Jean-Claude, I’m sure Anita doesn’t want you to do anything you do not wish to.” Asher sounded exasperated, but he glanced at me for confirmation.
“No, actually the first favour I need to ask both of you. I want to make Micah one of my consorts, and I told him to ask one of you about it, the first favour is just for you to answer his questions. I also want to make Nathaniel a personal attendant, and I wanted to use your bedroom for the claiming.”
“Neither favour seems to require undue effort on my part. Would you object if I stayed while you claimed Nathaniel?”
“You want to watch?”
“I thought perhaps we could play afterwards ma petite. If it offends you…”
“No my raven, it doesn’t. But I’ll have to see if Nathaniel minds, assuming he agrees to be one of my personal attendants.” Jean-Claude smiled and nuzzled at my shoulder for a second.
“Why would anyone refuse?” He truly sounded confused. Asher laughed gently.
“If they didn’t want to be compelled to obey Anita for the rest of their lives perhaps, not that you need have any fear of that with Nathaniel. By the way, who do you intend to give him permission to fuck?” I could feel Jean-Claude stiffen slightly against me at those words.
“I hadn’t considered it, are you asking for the chance to top him?”
“It might be interesting, I must admit.”
“He has to approach you, but other than that I see no problems with the idea. Jean-Claude, do you want my houseleopard?”
“Non, I only want to be with you and with Asher, I am content if you, either of you, take other lovers to bed with us, but I have no interest in other lovers for their own sakes, only if it pleases you.”
I smiled at him and ran my fingers through his hair. “And you thought it might please me to have you and Nathaniel in my bed together? My thanks, beloved. Now, would you two care to show me what pleasure you can offer?”
They took up my suggestion swiftly enough and we had a very good time. Before I left I explained about my plans for a new home, and invited them to join me when I checked out the sites. They both refused, but agreed that when I’d created my dimensionally shifted quarters I could open a link to them from Jean-Claude’s bedchamber.
Micah and Nathaniel were waiting for me when I got back from my scheduled raisings, looking equally panicked.
“Anita, Jean-Claude told me what being a consort means. Are you seriously telling me you’d expect me to defer to Nathaniel?” Micah was the first to speak, he almost shouted at me in his shock at what had been revealed. Nathaniel was quieter, but equally horrified by the prospect.
“Damian explained that all of your consorts defer to your personal attendants and turn to them for comfort and reassurance, how can I do that, Anita?”
“I thought you’d both balk at that particular aspect. Micah, it isn’t as much a matter of what I’d expect as instincts that come with your bond to me that would lead to you deferring to my personal attendants. I can override them with a command, and I will. I’ve already done that for my vampires. They all know that so long as we are on this planet, outside of designated areas they are to act as if I were human, and so their bonds to me did not exist. Well except for the fact that they have to observe the sexual restrictions that is. Nathaniel, at the moment my consorts have the habit of going to Damian for reassurance and comfort when they need it, you can learn. I don’t expect either of you to fit into those patterns immediately, but you will eventually and it will seem natural to you.
“I won’t lie to you, this authority that personal attendants have over consorts has been abused in the past, by the retinues of other Demonkin. That is one reason I’ve chosen alphas and masters – or in Donne’s case one with the potential to be a master – for consorts and lesser powers as personal attendants. I feel that Nathaniel and Damian are unlikely to abuse my consorts.”
“Nathaniel would never hurt us, I know that is true, but I don’t like the idea of deferring to him or Damian…” Micah trailed off, and I looked at Nathaniel for his reaction.
“If you think I can do this then I will try my queen. But can I have time to get used to it, and start slow?”
“Of course you can, Nathaniel. Micah, if you don’t want to be required to defer to my personal attendants you can simply stay out of the areas where you don’t have to pretend I’m human. At the moment that’s just Jean-Claude’s bedroom, but you will have to go there when I claim you, if you want me to. You can both remain my lovers without this, but you’ll partake of less of my power if I don’t claim you.”
“I don’t care about the power; I just want to be yours forever.” Nathaniel sounded determined. “And if all I need to do for comfort and reassurance is to hold and pet your consorts I can manage that too.”
“If that’s your choice, Nathaniel. Once I’ve claimed you then you can take Asher or Donne to bed if you want and they are willing. Micah, I don’t expect you to make a decision immediately. The option will be available for at least a month, and I’ll tell you at least a week before it stops being an option.”
“Right. Can you explain something to me? Jean-Claude could only tell me that he’d submit to me if I became your consort because he’s your primary consort, but I don’t understand why, and neither did he.”
“The primary consort is always bound most strongly to whoever the Demonkin is. In the case of Demonkin who choose their first consorts here it’s always a sourdre de sang. Normally that would make him dominant to all other consorts, but in the simplest of terms, the more powerful someone is when I claim them the more strongly I suppress their will. The very first vampires were all sourdre de sangs, with the ability to found their own bloodline, and the instinct to obey the Demonkin without question was built into them. There’s an echo of it in all vampires, but the closer a vampire is to the original, the more powerful he is the more strongly he feels that instinct. Sourdre de sangs are almost complete reversions to the originals, and so they tend to submit totally to the Demonkin. But if I chose alphas for both my consorts and my personal attendants I wouldn’t bind the attendants to me as strongly as the consorts, because I wouldn’t be as intimate with them, and so they could be abusive. Does that answer your question?”
“Pretty much. And who would you give me permission to sleep with if I became your consort?”
“Asher and Donne. And I’d give Nathaniel permission to sleep with you, if you’re both willing. Talking of sex, come to bed with me?”
They both joined me in the bedroom and we had quite a good time together. Afterwards I mentioned my plans for a new home for us and they both agreed to come with me.
There was only one problem with the first site we visited, the distance from the centre of the city. Most of the pard would be facing a one hour commute, at the very least, but the second site was equally remote, and the forests weren’t as good, there was farming far too near for my tastes. We gathered together at my house to make the decision.
“They’re both too far away. We’ll never be able to hold down jobs with that commute. If it was temporary, then I’d say yes, but you’re planning on decades aren’t you?” Micah was the first to speak, and to find fault with the two options we had, or rather that I’d shown them.
“Your Nimir-Raj does have a point about the commute Anita.” Damian spoke in support of Micah, then Toni countered that.
“I’m sure Anita can find a way around that. And it’s much better from a security standpoint to have our home so isolated. This way it will be a lot easier to maintain a proper perimeter, and people will find it harder to sneak up. I assume we will be having a security system built into the house?”
“I was planning on a mix of technology and spells, mostly spells. As for the commute I’m building links to dimensionally shifted quarters into the house, one exit will be in Jean-Claude’s bedroom, and I can put another in an apartment in the centre of St. Louis somewhere convenient. The only problem there will be the difficulty of finding parking in the city, unless I buy a garage big enough for all of our cars to go with it.”
“Wouldn’t that be suspicious, that our cars were never at home, always in a big garage in town?” Nathaniel was the one who brought up the flaw in my plan, a bit of a surprise as he’d never passed for human, but I was glad of it.
“In that case I’ll just get one garage, and create a portal to the garage built at our home. I’m not sure whether to make it mostly underground or not, I’ve already committed to an underground apartment for Damian.”
“It would look better underground, or mostly underground, and you can probably put my apartment beneath the garage, especially if you’re willing to make it with your powers.”
“Yes, that would be quicker, and safer too, I can reinforce the rock with magic, rather than rely on cement. Now, which of the two sites would be better?”
“The first one. It had better grounds.”
“It was more secure.”
“The farms were too near the second site.”
“The rock was deeper at the first site.”
“So, we’re all agreed on the first site?” I was greeted with a series of nods and yeses. I rang the agent and made arrangements to buy the land as quickly as possible. I decided to leave organising the builders to someone else. I’d clear out an area fifty metres by seventy metres, and remove the rock there down fifteen metres deep. I planned to have my house built as much as possible using that rock, with only the unavoidable parts made of brick, and with an estate so large we could have other buildings later as we needed them. Jean-Claude had given me the name of a good architect for the design and I’d already gone over most of the specifications with him, all I needed to add was the underground garage, and tell him to forget about the apartment in the basement, I’d changed my mind. It is possible for vampires to live above the surface, they have to be careful, but it is possible.
I decided to claim Nathaniel after all my scheduled raisings that Friday night. I’d been lucky and only ended up with four, so they were over quickly enough, and even better they were all less than a century old – although now I could raise a dinosaur from the fossil, and control it, even if it would wipe me out. Not that I intended to admit as much to Bert, knowing him he’d find someone who actually wanted a dinosaur raised from the dead.
I told Nathaniel to join me in the Circus at one in the morning and led him through to Jean- Claude’s bedroom. I wasn’t really surprised to see my raven there waiting for me, but Nathaniel was, at least he seemed to be surprised to see the Master of the City lounging on his bed wearing heavy brocaded silk pyjamas. I walked over to him, leaving Nathaniel by the door and lifted his collar from his hands.
“Do you mind if I use your bedroom to claim Nathaniel?”
“Of course not, ma petite. Do you, either of you, mind if I stay?” Jean-Claude glanced from me to Nathaniel, then dropped his eyes in a display of submission.
“Nathaniel?”
“If it does not bother you Anita I have no objections.” As soon as Nathaniel agreed I fastened my raven’s collar around his neck and pulled him off the bed and to me for a kiss. Then I pushed him down onto the rug by his bed, tossing pillows and bedcovers down to join him.
“Just wait there.” I ignored the look of shock on Nathaniel’s face in favour of enjoying the pleasure on Jean-Claude’s, and turned towards him to give him more orders. “Come here Nathaniel.” His hair was braided and I quickly tied him to the headboard using it, eliciting an indrawn breath from Jean-Claude. “You do what the safe word is?”
“Yes Anita, it is ‘Musette’.”
“And you will use it if I go too far?”
“Yes.”
“I want to make one other alteration to you. I intend to make you immune to silver, as that’s what your collar’s made of. If you want me to I’ll replace it with an allergy to rhodium?”
“Please do my queen.”
I used manacles to bind his hands together behind his back – after I’d twisted his arms up so his hands were between his shoulder blades and his elbows near his waist, binding them together with simple ribbon. The manacles had just enough silver in them to hurt, and an equal amount of rhodium, as did the bar I used to spread his legs. “The binding at your elbows is an extra measure, if you break it I’ll assume you don’t want to continue.” When I glanced down at Jean-Claude I could see his surprise, I don’t think he’d ever played these games with a dominant who made sure that he felt safe except for me, and the farthest we went into dominance games was when I pinned him down, and that one time I tried tying him with his hair.
First I used a spell to clean Nathaniel inside and out, and then I stripped in front of him. I turned him onto his stomach and lay down on top of him, biting at the nape of his neck, then drew my nails down his flanks, drawing blood. I used my magic to scour his skin, until there was no trace of scent on him but his own, then I rolled him onto his back pushing him into the mattress. I straddled his face and had him lick me until he’d brought me, then I rubbed my juices into his skin, using magic to bind my scent to him, so he’d always wear it. Then I turned my attention to his groin, avoiding the obvious signs of his arousal, in favour of licking at his testicles, taking them into my mouth and biting just hard enough to hurt, without causing any true damage. He was near orgasm and I used another spell to make sure his arousal could build and build but never peak.
“Not until I say so.” And those five words excited him so very much. I turned my attention to the inside of his thighs, biting them, careful not to tear any flesh from his body, but making sure it hurt. The sheets were stained with his blood, and my face painted red when I relented and impaling myself upon him released him to come. He collapsed unconscious, and I used the time to fasten his collar and cuffs on him, changing him so he was allergic to rhodium, not silver.
I turned to Jean-Claude. “Unbind him, and clean him up. I’ll deal with the bed sheets.” Jean-Claude obeyed, carrying him through to the bathroom and bringing him back once I’d changed the sheets to dark blue sheets and cleaned up the white ones I’d soaked in blood. He laid Nathaniel in the centre of the bed and looked to me. I pulled him down to join us, touching him I could feel that he’d been aroused, perhaps by my pleasure leaking along our link, perhaps by what he saw, although probably not. I only took the time to free his erection, then I pulled him against me, Nathaniel had left me unfulfilled and Jean-Claude was more than pleased to satisfy me in his stead.
Nathaniel had woken up by the time Jean-Claude permitted himself to climax, and Jean-Claude lay back, passive, looking to us for instructions. It would be up to me I supposed.
“Nathaniel, undress Jean-Claude, then I want you to tell him what you want him to do.”
“But…” Nathaniel began to protest as he moved to obey, only to be silenced by a kiss from Jean-Claude.
“Think of it as a way to please our master. What do you wish of me?”
“Ummm…prepare me.” Then as Jean-Claude moved to get some lotion he continued. “No, not with your fingers, with your tongue.” He seemed to be seeing how far he could go with this.
Jean-Claude obeyed immediately, and I positioned myself in front of Nathaniel. He took the hint and began using his own talented tongue on me. He didn’t stop until he’d brought me either, then he glanced up at me. “I’d like to be inside you Anita. With Jean-Claude inside me.”
“Then do it.” He entered me first, then gave Jean-Claude his orders. I could smell blood, and I knew it was from when my raven took Nathaniel, but that seemed to be what was wanted and in the end we all curled together to rest.
Nathaniel had dropped off to sleep but it was two hours until dawn and Jean-Claude obviously wanted to speak to me. I used a quick spell to prevent my leopard hearing us and leaned over to kiss my raven.
“Are you all right my raven?”
“Yes ma petite. I was simply surprised that he could tell me what he wanted, and command me. He is your personal attendant so I must obey him unless you command me otherwise, and his commands were not unpleasant.”
“It was a bit of a test, to see if he could tell you what to do in bed. Your words helped I think, he decided to treat it as if he was putting on a show for me.”
“Oui. I thought back to the times you wished to see me lie with Asher, and for me to be dominant. Do you think he will have difficulties with Donne and Asher, considering their positions, and his sexual tastes?”
“Did you only take the dominant role with Asher when I commanded it?” That hadn’t been very often, and only when Asher had pleased me especially and he asked for that as his treat.
“Sometimes when he commanded it, but he discussed what he wanted beforehand, although he usually gave me options of what to do. But you did not answer my question ma petite.”
“I shouldn’t think so. He’ll have to ask them to dominate him, but I’m sure Asher will be capable of that, especially outside this room, and I think Donne has that capacity within him, even if we haven’t seen it. After all he will be a master one day; I designed him to become a master eventually.”
“Then will he be able to comfort and command us if it is necessary? He is so very submissive.”
“Eventually he will be. It won’t happen at once. I thought that if I had to I could take all of you back to visit Morion for a few years, and he’d learn to command my consorts while we’re there, as Micah would learn to submit to him and to Damian. Although, come to think of it, I’d have to modify my quarters to make room for my new consort and attendant when we got there. And for my personal guard when I think about it.”
“What were you planning? We don’t really need bedrooms as big as the ones you made for us, so you could just return them to the original plan.”
“No, I’m not going to do that. I can move sections of my quarters about easily enough, and I’ll do that to make room. But you will have to get anything important out before I start changing your quarters.”
“There isn’t anything you can’t replace easily enough if you wish to.”
“I’ll give you anything you need, and most things that you want if you ask for them.”
“But you won’t let me wear this” his hand went to the collar at his throat, by now his neck seemed bare to me without it and from what I could tell it felt bare as well, “outside of my bedroom.”
“No. I just don’t want it to become common knowledge what I am. Does it hurt you that I feel that way?”
“I will do whatever pleases you, but why don’t you want it known that I am yours? Do you think I reflect ill on you?” My raven was so insecure, no one had wanted him for longer than a few short years, every master he had ever had tired of him after a while, even Asher had rejected him – and I had once told him that I thought I would tire of him, that he would bore me eventually.
“No! I could never be embarrassed to be with you. But you worked so hard for your freedom and independence, and now I’ve taken it all away. I want to at least give you the semblance of freedom and independence, to make sure you do not have to suffer the contempt of vampires who do not understand what I am.”
“If the council finds out what you are they will make sure everyone knows it, but I do appreciate the freedom you offer. It is near dawn. Will you be here when I awake?”
“I will try to be. If not I will remove that from your neck, and if I am you may feed from me – somewhere it will show.”
“Thank you, ma petite.” He died as he whispered the endearment and I settled in to watch over him as he slept.
He woke up at eleven, I was still there to watch over him and from the fear in his eyes I knew he was wondering if I’d regretted my impulsive offer earlier. My raven has woefully low self-esteem, you’d think that someone so beautiful would know his worth, that someone who projects such confidence would actually feel some of it, but he doesn’t. And I know that it’s my fault, mine and Asher’s at least in part. We were both supposed to love him, but we treated him like whore all too often.
Nathaniel had woken earlier; I’d removed his collar sent him to hunt up something to eat, for himself and something he thought Jean-Claude might like for when he rose. He’d returned with blackberry pie and cream, something I knew my raven liked, even if I didn’t and it was set to one side waiting for us. After Nathaniel had eaten I sent him on his way home, he’d driven in himself so I didn’t have to worry about how he’d get there.
“Ma petite, you were able to stay with me?” I could hear the surprise and pleasure in his voice and wished that I had never hurt him so much that he doubted his ability to keep my attention. The only thing that would have made me leave his side as he slept would have been other obligations, and I had put the time to use by practising some of my other skills, the ones I had not become perfectly proficient in.
“Yes my raven, you woke up early enough for me to remain. Bert isn’t expecting me in until half past one. I had Nathaniel bring something you could taste through me, would you prefer to do that first, or drink from me first?”
“What did you have him bring?” He was glancing around, pleasure and anticipation shining in his eyes.
“This.” I lifted the plate to within his sight. “Blackberry pie with cream.”
“But you don’t like blackberries ma petite.”
“You do though. And I do not mind eating them for you. I don’t have to worry about my figure any more now do I?” I smiled at him, letting him know I was teasing and he smiled back.
“You have always been beautiful. I never did understand the modern obsession with weight.” Then he dropped his eyes, embarrassed, and scared that he might have angered me.
“Well, it doesn’t matter now.” I dismissed his words. “Now, what would you do first?”
“Offer you pleasure ma petite.” And with those words he buried his head in my groin, quickly settling into a rhythm to bring me pleasure. It wasn’t too long before I was clutching at his shoulders and raking my nails over his back.
“What about you my raven?”
“I am content to have pleased you, I swear it.” I found that hard to believe, but he seemed to be sincere, and in truth I was in no mood for anything more, I would not even have initiated what we had done and so I put it down to Jean-Claude’s need to feed the ardeur and dismissed the matter.
“Do you wish me to eat before you feed on me, or the other way around?”
“Let me taste the pie through you please ma petite.” He’d made his decision, probably while pleasuring me and I ate the pie slowly, watching as he virtually swooned on the bed in front of me. By the time I was finished he looked totally satiated as he stretched out naked across the bed in a picture of wanton sexuality. I reached to toy idly with one nipple, waiting for him to react, and, receiving only a smile and a sultry gaze from beneath lowered lids, lay down beside him. I reached and pulled him up against me, pressing his mouth high on my neck, where the mark would be all too obvious. I would not hide the mark of my consort’s teeth, I was in a mood to shock and offend any who would harm what belonged to me.
“Drink my raven, for I must depart soon.”
I felt him whisper against my neck, “Your will master.” and he bit into me feeding hungrily, then withdrawing to leave neat fang marks. I removed his collar, offering a caress and a kiss before I left to go to the office for more interviews with people who wanted the dead raising.
Micah was waiting for me when I got home, holding a pile of energy crystals in his hand. I rarely bothered to hide them when I’d been with Morion, and since I returned I’d just left them in a box by my bed, a large box as I had near seventy thousand of the things, although I’d stopped creating them when I returned to Earth.
“What are these Anita? They feel strange, as if they call me to shift, or to call flesh or something.”
“They’re called energy stones, or energy crystals. My kind often has a lot more power than we can use or need. And sometimes it is easier, and safer not to personally feed power into a delicate spell construct, such as certain types of armour, or to deal with a constant drain on our energy, such as the spell I’ll be using to guard out new home. Energy crystals are a way to store energy that might be in excess for us, and unused. We use crystals because they have a lattice structure that is best suited to storing energy, and I normally use quartz because it is readily available, and easy to create as a perfect crystal.”
“I think I see, but why do you have so many of them?”
“They’re also used as one form of currency among my kind – vampires actually make up another form. You know that I went somewhere else for three hundred years while I learned to use my powers, then returned to almost the exact moment I left.” As I explained I cast a spell to prevent Micah revealing these facts to anyone else, he’d given his consent for it a while back, but I hadn’t gotten around to it. I’d already cast a privacy spell as soon as he asked about the energy stones, the pard knew that I’d gained powers, but I wasn’t sure how much they knew – and I’d cast spells to ensure secrecy as soon as I told them. “I had to pay for my lessons by doing two things. First I had to create energy stones with whatever excess energy I was willing to spare and give half of them to my teacher, which is why I’ve got so many of them now, and second I had to create at least two vampires as a graduation exercise and give one to my teacher. Donne’s the vampire I kept, Caspian was a gift from my teacher when I started lessons with him, intended to teach my vampires appropriate behaviour.”
“Appropriate behaviour?”
“They were expected to submit to me without question, and the power dynamics among them changed a lot. You’d see it if you ever saw how they behave when I’m not pretending to be human. Caspian’s of the Sweet Dark’s line, so he can give us information about her, and that will help us. And oh yes, he’ll be joining the pard, I just wanted to give him a chance to fit in with the vampire community first.”
“Anita, you should have told me this earlier. How do you expect to bring him into the pard now?”
“I was rather hoping you’d have an idea. Do we really need to tell anyone who he is, would it be possible for us to just bring him to join us in leopard form at full moon?”
“No! We can’t do that.” Micah was suddenly furious. “Did you never bother to understand our culture at all? How did you manage to act as Nimir-Ra without understanding us?”
“When I inherited them the leopards didn’t really have an independent culture, they were mostly an extension of the wolves, so I worked with what I know of the wolves. You didn’t show much interest in teaching me the culture, and I didn’t have any other possible teachers. I was hoping that because natural leopards are solitary creatures we’d be able to have Caspian just join us at full moon.”
My calm words silenced him, and he sat in thought for a while. “I suppose we could get away with introducing him at full moon. If you can think of a believable reason the vampires would have prevented him from meeting us earlier.”
“Just the fact that he’s of the Mother of All Darkness’ line would be reason enough. They’d want to keep it quiet that we have one of her line in our service.”
“We might be able to pull it off then. We can try.” Micah stood and walked back into our bedroom. “But I do wish you’d told me earlier.” I knew he wouldn’t be willing to have sex under the circumstances, but when I checked my links to my consorts I found that Asher was alone at the Circus, and he readily agreed to bathe with me – and a little bit more. Afterwards he didn’t even want me to stay with him during his daylight slumber, we had used his room not Jean-Claude’s and he was a lot more assertive without the collar around his neck, so I returned to my house.
Micah made up his mind about whether or not he would become my consort three days before the full moon. I wasn’t sure what had decided him in favour of it, but I didn’t particularly care. He told me just before I was leaving for my first animating appointment of the night.
“Anita, you remember how you offered to make me one of your consorts?” He paused, but it sounded like he was about to continue so I stayed silent, and simply nodded. “I’ve decided that I do want to be your consort, if you’ll still have me.”
“Yes, I’ll still have you. Why would you think I wouldn’t?”
“Because I shouted at you about Caspian. I thought that you expected your consorts to be submissive to you.”
“Not so much that you won’t tell me if I’ve done something wrong.” I quickly contacted Jean-Claude and learned that he didn’t mind if I claimed Micah in his bed tonight, provided I sent Micah away afterwards and called my primary consort to me then. “I should be finished my appointments around two, I want you waiting in Jean-Claude’s bedroom at the Circus then. We need to fuck and you have to be submissive to me. I also need to make sure you don’t have anyone’s scent on you before we start and that’s a little painful.”
“I can handle that.” He sounded confident and I decided to take him at his word.
“Then I’ll see you there.” I left for my appointments, and truthfully it was a good job I didn’t really need to concentrate on them, because I was trying to work out exactly what sort of claiming ritual would be appropriate, I couldn’t use the same one I’d used for Nathaniel for obvious reasons. But I could use something similar.
By the time I got to the Circus I’d decided what to do and I found Jean-Claude waiting for me in the living room. He was going over some books curled in the couch, obviously waiting for me. I walked over to him and pulled him into my arms.
“Are you sure you’re alright with this my raven?”
“I do not have any right to object ma petite.” He shrugged eloquently. “But please, I beg you send him for me after you have claimed him. You did promise to take me to your bed tonight.” He ended on a plaintive note and I felt as if I was taking advantage of him for a moment.
“I promise. I just feel it would be best for continuity if the ruling pair of my pard are both immortal. And he needs to be bound to me, so I know he won’t betray me again, as he almost did with Chimera.”
“Oh! You didn’t ask him to be your consort because you love him then?” Jean-Claude’s insecurity was all too clear in that question.
“I don’t think I ever loved him, but his beast matched that aspect of my power perfectly at the time, and subconsciously when I manifested my full powers I tailored that power so he can amplify it to some extent, not much, but enough to be useful.”
“Then you should go to him ma petite.” I smiled at Jean-Claude and went to find Micah.
He was still fully dressed, sitting on the bed, examining Jean-Claude’s collar that he’d left on the dresser, and I couldn’t help being a bit annoyed about that.
“Micah, get undressed now, and put that back.” He looked slightly shocked but he obeyed and I stripped as well. I cast the first spell, to clean him inside and out as soon as he was naked, then I told him to lie down on his back.
“Anita, what…” He tried to ask me about the ritual but I cut him off.
“Be silent.” I cast the spell to scour any other scent from his skin as I spoke. “I told you that you’d be submissive.” I quickly moved to sit on top of his face once the spell was cast. “Now pleasure me.” He obeyed, fairly well and I repeated what I’d done with Nathaniel at this point, rubbing my juices into his skin and using magic to bind my scent to him, so he’d always wear it.
He wasn’t hard, and I couldn’t control my disappointment, any of my other consorts would have been simply from pleasing me. I aroused him with my mouth and moved to guide him into me as I rode him. Once I’d given him his pleasure I fastened his collar around his throat and put his amber bracers around his wrists. I pushed him to his knees in front of me and pulled his head to my groin, angrily.
“Clean me up, and make sure I come this time.” He obeyed, and managed to clean all his seed, even from inside me, then I removed his collar and handed it to him. “No one else can put this on you or remove it, except me. You can’t, and you won’t be able to leave the areas I designate as safe for you to act as my consort rather than my Nimir-Raj with it on. Now go and get Jean-Claude, send him to me and leave.”
He obeyed and made his way to the living room, but he took the time to dress first.