Dark Possession - Aja James Page 0,41

my darling prince.”

“I am ready now, Ashlu.”

She fought back a wince.

He never called her by her honorifics, only her name. He treated her like an equal, when he was merely her slave. And an untried babe at that.

He just didn’t know it.

Because he loved her, he voluntarily gave her his vein. He didn’t understand that the first time she took from him, she’d carried out the ritual of the Blood Binding, branding his veins as her possession, mastering his blood.

“Are you indeed?”

She looked at his boyishly lean, tall form, so unappealing at this stage. It would be some years before he grew into a body that tempted her.

At least there was that. At least her enslavement of him would have its perks. Eventually.

He boldly took her hand in his and brought it to his groin.

Ah. He might still be a boy elsewhere, but he was already fully-grown where it counted most.

“Hmm,” she smiled with genuine interest this time. “It appears that you are.”

She kneaded his erection with a practiced hand, making his young body quiver with anticipation and arousal.

She thought she would bring him to climax just like this. Perhaps a hand job would satisfy his hunger for sex. He’d had his first erection at nine summers, the Consul had reported. Surely he knew how to put his fists to good use by now.

But had he done more?

“Such a magnificent rod you have, my precious prince,” she sighed with sincere desire, continuing to massage him through his breeches. “Have you practiced wielding it yet?”

“No. You know I only want you. I love you, Ashlu.”

She laughed seductively, unable to hide the triumphant gleam in her eyes.

“You will gift me with your innocence, then?”

He didn’t hesitate.

“I will give you everything, if only you’d let me.”

And so, that very night, she took everything he offered and made him her Blood Slave in truth. Both blood and body.

That same night, when his man-child’s body came into hers and released his essence for the first time, into the female he loved, who didn’t, not for a single moment, love him back, the Earth Elemental plummeted from the highest pleasure into the deepest pain.

At eleven summers, he lost his innocence.

And began a torturous, ravaging Decline.

“Elementals and Beasts, they are the Purest of all Immortals. They have the spark of the Goddesses themselves, untainted, unspoiled, part of the original Creation, a mixture of Mother Darkness and Father Light. Until they are taught otherwise. And then, they Fall the hardest… ”

—From the lost oral histories of the Zodiac Scrolls

Chapter Eight

Eveline was unutterably depressed.

Firstly, the Challenge to the death issued to the Dark King was drawing ever closer—the next night, in fact.

She wasn’t privy to the detailed logistics; she wasn’t even sure she’d be allowed to be present (strangely enough, she wanted to be, needed to be!). But the more she thought about it, as much confidence as she had in Ramses’ abilities, she worried.

What if the challenger cheated? What if they knew something Ramses didn’t know? Was the challenger Queen Anya or someone else? Eveline assumed it was the queen, but she hadn’t seen the scroll, so she couldn’t be absolutely sure. And even if it was the queen, there had been instances in the past that a Champion could be selected to represent the challenger. In those cases, the party being challenged could also respond with their own Champion.

But Eveline had the sinking feeling that regardless of who the actual fighter would be, Ramses would answer his own Challenge.

Therein lay the danger.

As far as she could perceive, no one in their right mind would outright challenge a male like Ramses. He must be very ancient and powerful with the immense presence he had. Anyone within a ten-yard radius could feel it.

She didn’t know what additional Gifts he might or might not have, but the fact that he was recruited to be one of the Chosen warriors before he became king meant that he was extremely adept in battle. Knowing all this, why would anyone attempt to Challenge him? And why wait until now? Why not when he was taking the throne in the first place? No one had stepped forth then.

Round and round these thoughts circled in Eveline’s head. She just couldn’t make sense of it. Something duplicitous was afoot.

So, she worried.

Secondly…

And really, if she had ten reasons for being uncharacteristically depressed, this one would be reasons two through ten: Ramses had been ignoring her for five whole days.

Count them.

Five. Whole. Days!

She hadn’t seen him at all.

True,