"As milady so desires," Vlad said with a sneer toward Sebastian, who looked positively white with shell shock. "And, as it appears in the record, her installation and coronation was dismal."
"Shockingly so," Nuit said, sitting forward and making a tent with his fingers before his mouth. "Twenty minutes or thereabouts, I'm told."
"Twenty minutes?" Vlad snarled and walked over to where Elizabeth stood immobile.
"Tragic, but true," she said, delicately placing her hand within his.
"Not fit for a countess of pain."
"No," she murmured as his hands found her alabaster shoulders. "I yearned for you until even my tears bled."
She closed her eyes as his fingers found the edge of her black lace gown, toying with the fabric. He bent and kissed the crimson satin ribbon that was tied around her throat and then led her by the elbow to stand before Lilith's throne.
"Allow me to properly install my wife at my own coronation, milady."
Lilith crossed her long, shapely legs and nodded with a droll smile. "I would have been disappointed had you not requested to do so."
Vlad smiled and turned Elizabeth toward him, so that her back faced the council thrones. Lucrezia's quiet gasp seemed to add to his pleasure as he slowly removed Elizabeth's gown and allowed the yards of black fabric to pool at her feet on the floor.
The council's eyes studied the intricate back piercing that left a row of six golden rings on each side of her spinal column, with a tiny ring at the nape of her neck. A scarlet ribbon was crisscrossed through the loop work, designed almost like a pulley, and the ends of it hung free like kite tails that flanked her sides. Red, angry marks surrounded each ring where tender skin had been freshly pierced. Elizabeth's narrow h*ps swayed in anticipation as Vlad slowly removed his armor, and her smooth, flawless bu**ocks trembled ever so slightly as she waited for him to near her.
"If you so much as blink during the coronation," Vlad warned Sebastian, "I will take my chances with Madame Councilwoman's edict."
Vlad closed the gap between him and Elizabeth and took up the edges of the ribbon, slowly winding it around his fists. The moment she leaned in to take his mouth, which was just a hairsbreadth from his, he yanked hard on the ribbon, causing her to shut her eyes tightly with a wince and her back to bleed.
"Tell me you need an assistant," Lucrezia murmured and then smiled triumphantly as Nuit eased back in his throne, his expression suddenly unreadable. "You see, my husband has been very busy making new master vampires while I've been convalescing . . . therefore, I've been bored. Now, since there can be no objection-given that fair exchange is no robbery here, I should like to help properly welcome you and the countess to court." She offered Vlad a charming bow from where she sat. "Your prowess is legendary . . . and our hospitality has been lacking of late." She glared at her husband and then gave Lilith a knowing glance, arching her eyebrow.
"My, my, my," Lilith crooned in a seductive tone, "just when I thought Liz was the only bitch in here but me." She raised her goblet to Lucrezia. "I like your style. Timing of the revenge is just as important as the elements it contains."
"I so agree, Madame Councilwoman," Lucrezia said, and then lifted her goblet toward Lilith before taking a sip.
Vlad stared at Lucrezia, his eyes filled with lust as she ran a ruby-red, manicured nail down the front of her crimson satin gown, opening it to expose her perfect, petite br**sts. A red glow began to overtake her cat-green irises and she seductively shrugged her mane of scarlet hair over her creamy shoulder. He glanced at Elizabeth, who swallowed hard and subtly nodded, the yearning standing between them as though it were another entity.
"I could use an assistant to help bind her," Vlad murmured, and then smiled at Nuit evilly."Unless your husband objects?"
For a moment, Nuit didn't answer, but thinking better of a challenge, he lifted his chin. "Non. . . . I do not object."
"Good," Vlad said. "You have an empire that can deliver messages of our conquest quickly-that can inspire fear . . . I have an army that is worthy of worldwide terror . . . we should be allies." Not waiting for Nuit's response, he turned his focus to Lucrezia and offered her the ribbons.
Elizabeth's head dropped back as soon as Lucrezia stood before her, their taut ni**les grazing each other's, each woman's soft skin becoming goose-pebbled with anticipation. Vlad rounded Elizabeth and kissed her bleeding piercing sites one by one, causing her to groan. But rather than strike her, he took both nude women's hands and led them to his throne.
Securing Elizabeth's wrists at the top skeleton posts on either side of it with shackles, he gently opened her legs to make her stand spread-eagle while he caressed her damp inner thighs and bound her ankles to the base of the throne. Then he bade Lucrezia to stand before Elizabeth and motioned for Lucrezia to return the ribbons to his palms.
"Welcome her to Council properly," he said in a thick murmur, his dark gaze holding Lucrezia for ransom. "Please, Baroness."
"I shall do my very best," Lucrezia promised him in a breathy murmur and then turned her attention to Elizabeth.
Lucrezia touched Elizabeth's mouth with trembling fingers, slowly bringing the pad of her thumb across her bottom lip,then she kissed her gently, tangling tongues. Pulling back, she watched as Elizabeth's eyes began to glow and she allowed her hands to trace her shoulders, then her collarbone, and to flow over Elizabeth's br**sts. Elizabeth briefly closed her eyes, but a sharp tug at the ribbons by Vlad made her open them wide again.
He stood behind Lucrezia, staring over her shoulder at Elizabeth as Lucrezia lowered her mouth to Elizabeth's delicate skin, her tongue painting a path of pleasure between Elizabeth's br**sts, suckling under the petite lobes until she moaned. Drawing a tight pink nipple into her mouth, Lucrezia sent a saliva-slicked finger to caress the tip of the other one, and then swayed her br**sts against Elizabeth's, coaxing a gasp from them both.
But a hard yank kept Elizabeth's hungry mouth from seeking solace against Lucrezia's. In frustration, Lucrezia licked at Elizabeth's tightening ni**les while massaging her own until Elizabeth began to writhe. Vlad wound the ribbon tighter around his fist and pulled hard with a wicked smile, making Elizabeth cry out, but grow deadly still again.
Lucrezia smiled against her br**sts and slowly kissed down Elizabeth's torso, her tiny pink tongue causing the bound woman to tremble. Finally Elizabeth's uncontrollable shudders gave way to openmouthed pants as Lucrezia neared her mound, looked up for a moment, and began to slowly consume her.
Although she remained stock-still, Elizabeth's husky moans reverberated off the council walls, creating an echo chamber that aroused transporter bats and sent Harpies into mating frenzies. But Vlad wouldn't allow her to move. He stood behind Lucrezia, naked, breathing hard with need, watching her limber spine dip and sway as her tongue tunneled into his wife's canal. Lucrezia's graceful hands cupped his wife's thighs, her thumbs holding her lips open as she suckled Elizabeth to tears.
Wet sounds of tongue lapping against swollen, hot skin made Nuit swallow hard as quietly as possible while Lilith uncrossed her legs and opened them wide, allowing several of her Harpies to slip beneath her gown hem.Sebastian didn't move, his distress shown only by his slightly flared nostrils on each inhalation and exhalation.