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  Syndra stepped forward and met Trik’s eyes. “We will always care for our Queen, but you must return, Trik. Do not let the words of a mad she-elf turn you from your fate. The Forest Lords have called to you and want to see you fulfill your purpose, don’t let the judgment of those who do not matter keep you from your path.”

  A slight smile appeared on Trik’s face, though it was brief. “Tamsin, I do believe your Chosen is wise.”

  Tamsin smiled and looked at Syndra . “She is more than wise, Triktapic, and you would do well to hear her words.”

  “I hear them. I will not fail my people a second time.” Trik turned back to where Alok’s body lay. The elf still breathed but he was unconscious.

  “Put him in a prison. I will not grant him the mercy of death just yet,” Trik told Tamsin. “I will meet you at your castle in a few days. I imagine that I will have to make my way through Lorsan’s land and he will not make it easy on me, though I have some old tricks up my sleeves that he will not expect.”

  “Before you go, I have some things that belong to you,” Tamsin told him. “Come back with me to the castle and then you can depart from there.”

  Trik’s head cocked to the side. “Things?”

  Tamsin smiled slyly. “The Forest Lords did not leave you unarmed and defenseless.”

  Ch apter 15

  Darkness is all around me. I’m at the bottom of a pit and no matter how hard I try to climb up the walls I cannot get to the top. My nails bleed from the clawing and my face and body are covered in dirt. I writhe in pain and misery and I cry out for more; more of the red liquid that brings me happiness, fleeting though it may be. My body hums in remembrance of the warm liquid sliding silkily down my throat. I dance and those around me sing and laugh. Some whistle and call out my name and I dance faster. Then the feeling is gone and I’m sinking into the pit again and I cry out for more; more pleasure, more warmth, more feeling, more anything but the emptiness I feel when the high is gone. ~ Cassandra Tate

  “Cassandra,” a female voice pushes through the haze that fills Cassie’s mind. She tries to sit up but her body won’t cooperate. Her breathing is labored and pain courses through her veins.

  “More,” her voice is hoarse from the hours of screaming.

  “I know you want more, but first we must get you ready,” the female voice tells her as she helps her stand. It’s painful. Her legs are weak and don’t want to support her body, but she is thinner now and so she is able to force them.

  “Ready?” She asks wearily.

  “You must dance tonight. Dance for a suitor. King Lorsan is growing tired of the endless requests for you and so he is going to give you to a male tonight.”

  Cassie frowned, or at least she thought it was a frown. Give her to a male. What did that mean? So she asked.

  “It means you are going to be Bound in Union,” the woman answered.

  “Bound?” Cassie whispered.

  “Yes, but you must try to stop saying his name at night. You call it out endlessly and I imagine your mate will not take kindly to his woman calling the name of another.”

  Cassie’s breath caught in her throat and she felt jolts of pain sear through her. She yelped in pain and fell to the floor. Whose name? Who did she cry out for in the darkness of night, in the dreams that swirled in her mind as she slept? She could see his face but his identity eluded her. She reached for him in her dreams and no matter how fast she ran she could not catch him. When she got close to him she would hear the words that repeatedly ripped out her heart.

  “I don’t want you,” his deep, smooth voice carried to her ears.

  “Please,” she would whisper as she fell to the ground. “I love you.”

  Always he would shake his head, his beautiful black hair so dark that it appeared to have a purple tint and pity would fill his silver eyes. “I don’t love you.” His red, full lips moved and yet the words that came out were words that she never wanted to hear.

  “Who is he?” she asked the woman. She could never remember her name, but she came every day and helped bathe her and dress her.

  “You don’t need to worry about that; it’s best if you simply forget him.” She held out a glass to her and Cassie’s eyes glazed over. She grabbed for the glass greedily and guzzled the liquid down. The warmth hit her mouth and trailed down her throat and she moaned. She knelt there as the full effects of Rapture coursed through her body and when she was numb and consumed in the glorious high she stood, her movements like a languid cat.

  “That’s more like it,” the woman crooned. “Now off to the bath with you.” She ushered Cassie through a door that led into a lavish bathroom. A tub was filled with steaming hot water and Cassie could smell the perfume that had been poured into the bath. She stripped off her night gown and climbed slowly into the tub and let out a soft sigh as the hot water surrounded her. Her skin tingled everywhere that it touched and she giggled at the sensation.

  The woman clucked her tongue at her. “You really are much too young to be married off.” She hurried around the bathroom, setting out clothes and a towel. She placed a brush on the counte r and various lotions and oils, all of which were designed to make Cassie’s skin softer and shiny and her hair silky. She had to admit that she enjoyed being pampered. She didn’t think that it had always been this way. She couldn’t help but think that in another life she had not had all the luxury that she had now. But as Rapture continued to haze her brain with pleasure, she pushed the thoughts away and focused on the sensations and the here and now.

  The woman had been talking but Cassie hadn’t been listening to a word she was saying. She looked over at her and saw that she was very young , though her demeanor seemed so much older, more like a mother hen than the young chick she appeared to be.

  “What is your name?” Cassie asked.

  “Tsk, tsk,” the woman frowned. “You ask me that every day and I tell you every day. Why don’t you just make one up and try to remember it?”

  Cassie smiled. She liked this woman with her spunky attitude and sparkling eyes.

  “Okay then, I will call you Flora,” she told her with a decisive nod.

  “Why Flora?”

  “Because she’s a fairy godmother, and you remind me of one, always flitting about and taking care of me.”

  Flora smiled. “Well that’s nice. It’s better than calling me a mother hen so I will go with it.”

  Cassie smiled and it was a dreamy look. Flora looked at her and Cassie saw the sympathy that filled them. Why did Flora feel that way towards her? It’s not like her life was hard. She just slept, ate, drank her wonderful red drink and danced. What was so bad about that? But there at the back of her mind, something lay just out of her reach, something important discarded and forgotten.

  “Why do you look at me that way?” Cassie finally asked.

  Flora quickly pushed her features back into a motherly smile. “You just seem tired and I wish that Lorsan would give you more time to rest.”

  Cassie didn’t feel tired, well at least not then. She knew that eventually the red liquid would wear off and she would crash. She didn’t like the crash and she pushed the memory of it away as quickly as it had come.

  “I’m fine, Flora,” Cassie assured her. “Really, I like to dance.”

  Flora shook her head. “You shouldn’t be dancing for those elves with their greedy stares and goofy grins.”

  Cassie stood up in the tub and the water cascaded off her body. She glistened from the oils that had been added to the water. She smiled as she spoke. “They can’t help it; they are enamored with my beauty.”

  Flora smiled as she helped Cassie from the tub, but Cassie could see the hesitation in the smile.

  She dressed in silence and Flora hummed as she fixed her hair. When she was finally ready she stood in front of the full length mirror and, as she did every time that she looked at herself, she wondered who the girl in the mirror was. She didn’t think that she had always looked this way. Her clothes were more
revealing than she thought she would ever choose for herself. Her makeup was heavy and accentuated her eyes and lips. Her hair was done in elaborate twists with tendrils hanging down to frame her face. There was no doubt that she was beautiful, but her eyes were empty and so she avoided looking at them. She turned to follow Flora out of the room and she staggered against the door frame. She squeezed her eyes shut against the first onslaught of the crash. She heard Flora muttering under her breath about needing more and more and something not lasting. She couldn’t understand what the woman was saying because of the sound of her own blood pumping in her ears. Her heartbeat was fast and hard in her chest and her palms grew sweaty. She drew in a ragged breath as she moaned. “More Flora, I need more.”

  “I know child, I’m moving as quickly as I can.”

  She heard the splash of liquid into a cup and groped blindly for it. The cup was pushed into her hands and she guzzled the liquid as a thirsty man parched from the desert would guzzle water. No, she thought. Not a thirsty man for water, a desperate one for his next fix, a user for the next high that he lives for. That’s what she had become and as the warmth brought on by Rapture flooded her system she pushed the thought far from her mind because she didn’t care. She felt good again, she felt invisible and it was time for her to dance, and dance she would.

  ~

  Lorsan sat at the long table in the throne room. The room was loud with talking and laughing. Warriors had come from all over his land wishing to see the human girl, the woman that was enthralled with Rapture and danced so uninhibitedly. Lorsan reasoned that he wasn’t totally depraved as he never requested that she remove her clothes. She stayed fully covered and yet her dancing enthralled all who saw her. Many of the male elves had come to him seeking to have her and he was growing tired of it. He thought to kill her, but now he had decided that an even more painful fate for Trik was for him to see his Chosen in the arms, in the bed, of another man. Lorsan knew what it would do to him if he were to ever see Ilyrana in the arms of another, the thought alone put him in a murdering rage, and because of that he knew that Trik would quite possibly go mad when he saw Cassandra held by another. He had to plan it just right so that when Trik came for her, as he knew he would, he would find her in the throes of passion with another. Okay, he thought. Maybe I am more depraved than I thought.

  The room was plunged into silence as the doors to the throne room opened and Cassandra walked through them. She was dressed in a deep blue gown with split sleeves that left her shoulders bare. When she walked, the slits on either side of her legs gave teasing glimpses of her calves. The back of the dress was see-through lace encrusted with blue sapphires that shimmered as they caught the light. The silk of the fabric moved with her as she walked further into the room and she held her audience captive.

  She walked to the end of the table and bowed her head.

  “Warriors,” Lorsan stood and the other elves followed his lead. He held up his hand gesturing to Cassie. “I present Cassandra. She will be dancing for us and one of you will be chosen to take over her care.” A rumble rippled through the room as the males voiced their approval.

  Cassie walked over to the platform that had been placed in the room. She took slow measured steps as she kept trying to shake off the wrongness of what she was doing, but she couldn’t stop. The Rapture flowing in her pushed her forward and as the music began, she was lost. She stepped onto the platform and her body took over. She moved with the beat and though she did not understand the words that the elves sang, she knew that it was a song of love and loss. Her hips swayed. Her arms flowed around her as they rose above her and her head fell back. She didn’t know where she had learned to dance in such a way but she did. She danced until sweat pearled on her skin and trailed down her spine. She danced until the pain returned and she fell to the floor. She tried to remain calm. Lorsan had had her beaten the last time that she had lost control in the presence of others. She heard his voice over the pounding of her heart.

  “Get her Rapture,” he snapped over the concerned voices of the others.

  Flora was suddenly kneeling beside her. “Cassie,” she whispered. “Cassie here, take this.”

  Something in Cassie cried out. She tried to push the cup away; she didn’t want anymore. She didn’t want to be drunk on it, to not feel, to not remember.

  “Please Flora, no,” she groaned quietly. “Don’t make me.” The plea was thick on her tongue as she swallowed back a scream.

  “You must,” Flora insisted. “You must or he will hurt you.”

  “Then let him hurt me,” Cassie growled and she knew her eyes must be wild with the withdrawals from the Rapture.

  “You don’t want that,” Flora told her. “Just drink this and it will be better.”

  Cassie slapped the cup away and red liquid splashed all over Flora. “I DON’T WANT IT!” She yelled. She tried to get up but her arms and legs were too weak. So she crawled. She crawled to the edge of the platform and booted feet met her. Suddenly she was in strong arms and being carried out of the throne room.

  “I will take her to her room. She just needs some rest my liege,” Cassie heard the deep voice rumble in the man’s chest as she lay her head against him. Pain wracked her body.

  “Shh,” he crooned. “You will be fine little one.”

  The words stirred something deep in her. Little one ? Hadn’t someone else called her that?

  A door opened and then closed and then she was being laid softly on a bed.

  “Open your eyes for me, beautiful,” the deep voice told her. But she couldn’t. He had called her beautiful and that too was familiar. Why?

  “I need to know that when I leave this room that you are going to be alright. So please Cassie, open your eyes.”

  Cassie? He had called her Cassie. She had only been Cassandra since she had been here. Where was here and when had she gotten here? She was so confused, her mind so jumbled. She opened her eyes and for some reason she expected to see silver eyes, but green ones stared back at her.

  He smiled at her and she had to admit that he was breathtaking, but he did not stir her heart.

  “There you are,” he murmured.

  She cringed in pain and felt her breathing increase. She needed the drink, the red liquid that made everything better.

  “Please,” she whispered, “I need…”

  “No,” he told her sternly. “I intend for you to be mine, and I will not have some mindless addict. You will be sober when you come to me.”

  Her eyes narrowed as she stared into his handsome face.

  “Yours?” she asked.

  He nodded once. “You are to be my Bound, or I suppose you would better understand if I was to call you my bride, my wife. Lorsan has already agreed, though the others do not know.”

  “Wife?” For some reason her ability to speak had suddenly been reduced to one word sentences.

  His lips turned up in a slow smile. “You are something to behold and soon you will dance only for me.”

  Cassie felt herself recoil at the thought. She didn’t want to dance, not for anyone. She didn’t want to do anything but crawl into a hole and die. She must have spoken out loud for he growled at her.

  “You will not die. I will make you happy. You will be fine and I will love you and you will love me.”

  Love? Didn’t she already love someone? Didn’t someone love her? No , she remembered the dream. He said he didn’t love me. Who needed love? Love simply expanded your heart so that when it was ripped from your chest there was more to crush.

  She closed her eyes and tried to sink into the darkness, away from the pain, away from the elf who laid claim to her, away from everything.

  ~

  “Where is Alok?” Lorsan asked Tarron as he stood in the lab. He had left the throne room in a fit of anger after Cassie had collapsed. She was growing tolerant of the level of Rapture and was requiring more and more in order to maintain the euphoric state.

  “Is there no way to maintain the potency
for longer?” He asked his lead chemist. “She is requiring the drink more and more often in order to keep from having withdrawals.”

  Tarron continued to mixing and pouring and studying the color of the mixture in the beaker. He finally looked up at Lorsan. “It will affect each human differently. Some will not require more to keep the feeling, others will, it just depends.”

  “So nothing can be done?”

  Tarron shook his head. “You need to try it on more humans, not just the girl.”

  Lorsan sighed in frustration. “Fine, get some sent to Sereg; it’s the largest of my casinos. Have our people there choose some lucky winners and give away a couple of free nights at the hotel. Make sure they have plenty of spending money so they hang around. Begin by giving the drug to these people first. Tell them that the hotel is trying out some new drink “specials.” Watch them closely as you give them the Rapture and let me know how it goes. I will let Dorien know that you are coming; he has been acting as the CEO of Sereg.”

  Tarron continued to watch the red liquid, staring at it as a parent stares at a child.

  “It’s beautiful, and powerful,” he told Lorsan. “It will bring the humans to their knees.”

  Lorsan watched as his lead chemist’s face morphed into one of greed and malice.”

  “What did the humans do to you to make you hate them so?” Lorsan asked.

  Tarron’s face went blank as he began to pack up some of his things.

  “They mean nothing to me,” he grumbled. “I am simply doing what you asked. You want the humans to spend more money so that you may have your luxuries and power in their realm and I am delivering that to you. They are mere puppets, a means to an end.”

  Lorsan heard his words, but believed none of them. Tarron hated humans, hated them with a fierceness that he didn’t understand and he didn’t know what had brought the dark elf to feel that way. He would need to keep his eye on Tarron to make sure that his own personal desires did not interfere with his plans.