She picked up one of the glowing fruits and touched her tongue to the pale purple crystals that encrusted its outer skin. The flavor reminded her of candied violets—which happened to be a taste she liked very much.
“Mmm!” Alli murmured to herself. “Finally—something good!”
She popped the whole fruit in her mouth and bit down, expecting the juicy sweet gush of a ripe grape covered in crunchy sugar crystals.
She got the sugar crystals all right, and the juicy gush as well—but it wasn’t sweet.
“Ugh!” Alli moaned as she chewed. “This tastes like…like turkey gravy.” She spit it into a napkin and balled it up. “Who ever heard of grapes that taste like gravy?” she muttered to herself. “Gross.”
Looking at the menu again, she said, “Give me a glass of golden wine.”
It was the plainest name under the Drinks section and she was hoping for something to get the gravy-grape-candied-violets taste out of her mouth.
She was expecting a white wine—maybe a champagne. Instead, the crystal goblet was suddenly filled with a liquid that looked exactly like melted gold. So much so, in fact, that Alli touched her fingers to the side of the crystal carefully to make sure it wasn’t boiling hot.
The liquid gold appeared to be chilled, however, so she lifted the goblet and took a tiny sip.
The golden wine tasted a lot like melted cinnamon sticks, Alli decided, rolling the rather thick liquid around on her tongue. It wasn’t too sweet and it didn’t really taste like wine at all, but the beverage was silky on her tongue and didn’t taste too strange or spicy or weird to enjoy. She drank half the glass and was about to look at the menu again when a deep voice said,
“I trust you’re enjoying yourself, Allisandra.”
Fourteen
Alli gasped and dropped the goblet of golden wine from a suddenly nerveless hand.
Moving too fast for her to see, Kane caught it in midair before it could spill a single drop. He returned it nonchalantly to the table as though his incredibly fast reflexes were of no account. Then he fixed his mirrored gaze on Alli and frowned.
“I hope you’ve had your fill,” he said. “Because it’s time for your first Stinging.”
“My…my first what?” Alli’s heart was pounding. “What are you talking about?”
“You’ll see. Come.” He held out a hand to her.
Though every instinct she had told Alli to run, she found she was taking his offered hand instead and letting the big Kru’ell One lead her from the rooms he had designated as hers.
They walked down the long, dimly lit corridor again until they reached the room she remembered from her dreams—the Hall of Shadows.
Alli looked around fearfully, her heart beating in her throat as he led her to a new piece of equipment. It was a large black metal structure shaped like an X and there were manacles at all four corners. There was also a kind of padded bench below it, which was obviously meant to be knelt on.
“That’s right,” Kane said, clearly answering her thought. “And that’s where I want you to kneel right now—on the bench with your legs spread and with your back to the frame.”
“What…what if I don’t want to?” Alli asked through numb lips.
“I could make you, of course.” His mirrored eyes flashed. “But it would be better if you would recognize and admit your own desires and allow me to strap you to the Stinging Frame willingly.”
“The…the Stinging Frame?” Alli asked.
Kane nodded.
“This is where you will begin every day—until you learn to hold still without being restrained for your daily Stinging.”
“But what do you mean when you say ‘Stinging?’” she asked. Then, suddenly, the most frightening part of her dreams rushed back to her. The part where Kane opened his mouth and his tongue grew long and sharp like a needle or…
“A Stinger,” he finished her thought out loud for her. “Yes, it is a trait of my kind of Kindred to want to inject our concubines with lust-honey—the same way a Blood Kindred injects his mate with his essence.”
“But…but what if I don’t want to be injected?” Alli exclaimed. She had never liked needles.
“You may not like it at first,” Kane replied. “But in time, you will come to crave it.” He looked at her, his mirrored eyes half-lidded with lust as his voice dropped to a seductive growl. “You’ll crawl into my lap and offer me your breasts, begging for my Stinging kisses, baby.”
“You’re going to sting me there?” Alli looked down at her silky nightshirt. Her nipples were hard with fear and the tight little points were clearly visible under the thin material.
Kane raised an eyebrow.
“Among other places. Come on now, Allisandra—kneel for me.”
“And let you cuff me up and stab me all over with your needle tongue? I don’t think so!”
She broke and ran, dodging around the crazy bondage equipment, trying to get away—to get anywhere—but here.