The Priestess and the Thief Kindred Tales 30 - Evangeline Anderson Page 0,9
Never seeing anyone else?” Just one week of silent meditation had nearly driven her mad. She couldn’t imagine two years of it!
“Oh, you’ll see other people, my dear—never fear,” The Ascending Priestess sneered. “The last hour of your day, you will spend in chastisement. The priests who run the Priory will mortify your flesh in order to heal your soul.”
“In my understanding, they alternate using a leather strap and a hard wooden cane,” the Ascending Priestess snapped. “In all probability, you will bear the marks of your mortification all your life. Which is a good thing—it will be a reminder to you that a priestess must never break her vows of chastity!”
“But…but I was given drugged punch!” Elli protested. “I didn’t do anything on purpose.”
“Don’t lie to me.” The Ascending Priestess narrowed her eyes at Elli. “I know why you were sent into the priestess-hood in the first place. I know what your stepmother caught you doing! Don’t try to deny it.”
“I…I…” Elli shook her head, not sure what she could say to defend herself.
There was no defense, in fact. For how could she justify abusing her own body for pleasure and then begging the mysterious male at the party to abuse her as well? No matter that she’d been given the drugged punch, it was still wrong of her to have such feelings and to break her vows of chastity.
Still, she couldn’t bear the thought of being locked up in a meditation cell and only brought out to take beatings once a day. It was too awful!
“Please,” she begged, clasping her hands under her chin. “Oh please, Priestess Superior, I know I have wrong thoughts and desires—I admit it! But can’t I simply go through the Ceremony of Shriving and drink of the Mortem Amore so I won’t have them anymore?” She looked longingly at the carved wooden cabinet hanging on the wall beside the desk.
“Most certainly not!” the Ascending Priestess snapped. “You must pay for your sins before you can be forgiven and shriven of them. After a year or two, you can come back and drink of the cup of Mortem Amore—only then will you become a proper priestess.”
Elli wanted to cry out that she didn’t want to be a proper priestess! That all she’d ever wanted was to be a zorel trainer back on her home world. But the words stuck in her throat and she could only shake her head in horror.
“Now go and pack your things,” the Ascending Priestess said coldly. “You will be leaving within the hour. Dismissed.”
And with that, there was nothing else Elli could do but leave her office to go and pack.
Five
“Please, help me! Roke, I need you! Please!”
Roke woke with a start and a curse. The dream was so vivid he half expected to see the little priestess standing in front of him pleading for his help. Instead there was nothing but the empty air. That didn’t matter though—he could still see her in his mind’s eye. Her long blonde hair with delicate streaks of pale jade green…her big green eyes staring up at him with such a pleading expression as she begged him to come save her…
“This is fucking ridiculous,” Roke growled to himself. Swinging his legs over the edge of his bed, he planted his elbows on his knees and rubbed his temples hard. “It’s a dream,” he told himself over and over again. “Just a dream.”
The same dream he’d been having for the past two weeks, ever since he’d done the job on the Mother Ship.
“Should never have taken that job,” he muttered, still rubbing his temples.
But it had seemed like an easy mark. Usually when someone approached him with a job, he was trying to take something valuable away with him. In this case, all he’d had to do was smuggle in the tiny bottle of passion drug and put a few drops in the punch. And because he was half Kindred, nobody batted an eye when he came aboard the Mother Ship.
He wished now he hadn’t done it. Every night since, he’d dreamed of her—the sweet little priestess that he had corrupted. Gods, her lips had been so soft and she had pressed her breasts into his hands so eagerly…
Because she was drugged, Roke reminded himself. She never would have acted that way otherwise. Anyway, it’s time you forget about her and get on with your life. It’s time—