Rushing down the deserted hallway, she threw a desperate glance over her shoulder…and saw that he wasn’t even chasing her.
“What the hell?” Alli muttered, coming to a halt. Where was Kane? Was he far back behind her, giving her a head start so he could hunt her down? Was that his sick, sadistic little game?
“This is no game, Allisandra.”
The deep, gravelly voice came from behind her.
Gasping, Alli whirled around to see Kane standing there at the end of the corridor. He had gotten around her when she wasn’t looking—but how?
“This is my fortress. Don’t you think I know every possible way in and out of it?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “Allisandra, I am going to Sting you—taking my Sting is part of being my concubine. You must accept that.”
“What if I don’t want to?” she asked, backing away from him.
He frowned.
“Then I suppose I’ll have to do this the hard way.”
Alli started to run again but he was suddenly right in front of her, blocking her way. God, how could he move so fast?
“I can do a lot of things, baby,” Kane told her. Then he was swinging her up into his arms and throwing her over one broad shoulder.
“Hey! Let me go—let me go!” Alli exclaimed, beating on his muscular back with her fists.
She might as well have been hitting a brick wall. Kane didn’t even flinch from her blows. He simply carried her back to the black metal X and put her down with her knees on the padded bench.
Alli struggled to no avail—before she knew it, both her hands were above her head and manacled to the arms of the black metal X. This had the effect of thrusting her breasts up and out under the thin nightshirt she wore.
“And now for your legs,” Kane rumbled. Leaning down, he manacled her ankles as well, making certain her thighs were spread wide apart as she knelt on the padded bench.
“Please!” Alli tugged on the black leather manacles with their thick silver buckles. “I know you said you can read all my fantasies but I’ve never fantasized about being stuck with needles!”
“My Stinger is not a fucking needle,” Kane growled. “Now be still while I do what needs to be done. But first, this is in my way.”
Abruptly, he leaned down and grabbed the neck of her nightshirt. As easily as though he was tearing tissue paper, he ripped the silky material right down the middle, so that the tattered shreds of the night shirt hung on either side of Alli’s now-mostly naked body.
Alli gasped and tensed, automatically trying to cover herself. But of course she couldn’t, since her wrists and ankles were manacled to the Stinging Frame.
Kane stood back and nodded, as though in approval.
“Much better,” he rumbled. “Now you have nowhere to run, Allisandra—and no way to hide your luscious body from me.”
“Please!” She tugged on the manacles again. “I don’t want this!”
This declaration would have stopped a normal Kindred in his tracks. The race, as a whole, was biologically hardwired to protect and revere women and never to hurt or abuse them.
But Kane was no ordinary Kindred—he was a Kru’ell One. And so, he didn’t stop.
“Easy now, baby.” Leaning down, he stroked the side of Alli’s hot cheek.
She jerked away and tried to bite him but he quickly withdrew his hand.
Smiling, as though she’d passed some kind of test, he nodded.
“Ah, there it is—the fire in you. You didn’t show it much last night when I took you from your home and gave you my seed. But here it is today—I knew you’d show it eventually.”
Alli’s heart was pounding as she struggled uselessly against the thick leather straps that held her to the Stinging Frame. But his words still filled her with shame.
“I…I was disorientated last night! I didn’t know what I was doing.”
“Oh, you knew all right, baby,” Kane rumbled, frowning. “Don’t bother to lie to me or to yourself. More than any sexual fantasy you have—and you have plenty of them—you desire to have a child of your own. That was why you opened yourself so submissively to my cock last night and let me come in you again and again.”
“I don’t…don’t want a baby!” Alli protested. “I don’t want to be pregnant!”
But was that really true? She couldn’t help remembering the way her heart had sunk when Douglas had told her he had no wish to have children. Could it be that Kane was right about her?
But no—surely not! Surely—
“My Sting is like the bite of a Blood Kindred’s fangs,” he said, interrupting her frantic thoughts. “A split-second of pain followed by deep pleasure.”
“But I don’t want you to—” Alli began.
“Now let me see…where shall I Sting you first?”
There was a frown of concentration on his face and it was clear he wasn’t going to stop. Then he appeared to make up his mind. Leaning down, he cupped Alli’s right breast in one big, warm hand.