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I’d been more hopeful than truthful when I acted as if I wasn’t worried about my meeting with Bran.

I ate a big breakfast with Will and Davy before sending them off the next morning, and then I spent a few hours waxing my entire body from the neck down and giving myself enemas, since I didn’t know what would be expected of me. Technically, he couldn’t do anything to me that would show when I left, but he could literally strip the skin from my body and then order me to go to bear and back, and all evidence of the torture would be gone.

I breathed through my fear on the drive up the mountain, and then across it. My pulse raced when the gates closed behind my car because there was a chance I might be here years and years before I could leave again. Not a huge chance, but I’d told more than I was allowed, and I was seriously rethinking that decision now.

I left my watch and phone in my car. My purse, too. I walked in with my car keys and nothing else.

Bran’s butler answered the door, and I was reminded how much I dislike stick-up-his-ass Ferguson, who doesn’t seem to own any emotions. He closed the door behind me and calmly said, “Master Bran’s instructions are to disrobe before leaving the foyer.”

Fuck. Not totally unexpected, but it didn’t bode well. I’d dressed in a charcoal pantsuit with a cream-colored blouse, and I removed everything and hung it in the armoire with my car keys in a jacket pocket. My shoes went into the bottom, and I made the walk to Bran’s huge living room with miles of picture windows that usually look down on the river and the city, but were currently shuttered since it was a sunny day. Rumor had it that Ghost and Hailey had once escaped by jumping out of those windows and racing down the mountain before security could catch them, but I wasn’t sure I believed it.

Never in a million years would I make the attempt, though it bothered me the option wasn’t available to me at the moment.

I saw the look on Bran’s face, clearly unhappy with me, and I went to my knees about fifteen feet away and crawled to him while looking at his feet until he told me to stop. I automatically sat my butt on my heels with my knees spread wide, and I grasped my elbows behind my back. After a quick glance around the room, I kept my gaze on his dick. Or rather, on his trousers, but in the location of his dick.

Bran doesn’t have the ability to read my mind, but he can ask questions to find out the truth, which is what I’d expected, but I recognized Venom sitting off to the side, so I remained silent. Venom is a Strigorii vampire, and I was guessing Bran had negotiated with him to read my mind and flash it into Bran’s mind.

I sat still for nearly fifteen minutes before Bran spoke. “Venom’s price for letting me see exactly what was said is three hours alone with you. You’ll likely need to go to bear when he finishes with you, so this will suffice as punishment since, as you said, no major secrets were provided. You and I will speak again when Venom is done with you and you’re back to human with an appetite.” He sighed. “It’s possible you’ll owe Venom or another Strigorii a price for removing the memories of that conversationfrom your two lovers. I’ll make that decision while Venom has you occupied.”

“Follow me,” Venom said, and he stood and walked out, so I stood and followed. He’d been given one of the nicer guest bedrooms, complete with a bondage bed, a Saint Andrews Cross, and a sofa I knew from experience was the right height for someone to lean over the back to be fucked, or over the arm to be belted or caned on the ass.

“Do you know why I’m called Venom?”

He hadn’t told me to kneel, so I remained standing and looked at his dick under his jeans because I wasn’t brave enough to meet his gaze. “I do not, Sir.”

“I’m your Master for the next three hours.”

I dropped to my knees, looked at his feet, and answered the question again. “This slave does not know the answer to your question, Master.”

“You’ll find out soon enough. Use personal pronouns if you wish. Verbally, all I demand is to be called Master, and that you don’t argue with me or question my orders, just do as you’re told without hesitating. You can beg me to stop doing something so long as it doesn’t come out as an order. I’m not likely to stop, but I don’t mind hearing a slave beg for relief. On the bed, knees and chest. If your ass isn’t lubed you’ll want to remedy that before you climb on the bed. You’ll find lube and wipes in the bedside table.”

I opened the top drawer, squirted some of the oil into my hand, and was relieved to scent olive oil. I quickly lubed my asshole, put the bottle away, cleaned my hands with a wipe, tossed it in the nearby garbage receptacle, and climbed on the bed.

“Excellent,” he said once I was in position.

Venom climbed on the bed to my left and touched my shoulder. “Roll to your left side, slave.”

The second my weight rested on my side, the bastard bit me without warning, and he did that vampire-mind-trick thing that immobilizes me, or I’d have fought him with everything I had because it felt as if he injected acid into the artery in my neck, and I felt it flow through every artery, vein, and capillary in my body until I was on fireeverywhere. I screamed in my head, locked into my own silent hell. If he hadn’t paralyzed me, every muscle in my body would’ve been writhing and twisting in pain, but I was trapped in my head and in my body with acid eating me from the inside out.

Andthenhe injected the sex cocktail, and my focus went to my clit and my nipples, swollen and throbbing and on fucking fire. Everything still hurt, but all I could focus on was my sexual bits.

Finally, he pulled his fangs from the side of my neck and chuckled. “The fire from my venom will fade over time, but the need to climax is only going to get worse.” He put his mouth next to my ear and whispered, “But you won’t be able to until I bite you again, and you’re going to need to come so badly, you’ll beg me to bite you and set everything on fire again.”

He pressed into my asshole first, invading and conquering my already assaulted body, still on fire from the inside out. He fucked me hard and fast while I begged for relief that never came. Eventually, he fucked my pussy, which only made my clit throb and burn even more. I needed to come so bad it hurt, and he wasn’t wrong about me begging to be bitten again.

When he finally relented, he bit my groin, and the fire and agony were worse than the first time. I thought I’d die — the pain of his venom, a raging inferno in every cell of my body. Excruciating pain while I orgasmed from the cocktail he put into my bloodstream.

* * * *

Micca

I came to in the bathtub, leaning against the cool vampire, warm water up to the bottom of my ribcage and still flowing into the tub.

“There you are. Welcome back.”

I stared at the water coming out of the swan’s beak, attached to a graceful swan's neck. Well, the head was between. That would’ve been weird, a beak on a neck.

I blinked my eyes to try to clear my head because I wasn’t sure it was a good idea to shake my head to try to wake up.