Margaret Carter - Virgin Blood (Ellora's Cave)

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2024-12-23 1 0 333.29KB 31 页 5.9玖币
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VIRGIN BLOOD
An Ellora’s Cave publication written by
MARGARET L. CARTER
MS Reader (LIT) ISBN # 1-84360-426-4
Mobipocket (PRC) ISBN # 1-84360-427-2
Other available formats (no ISBNs are assigned):
Adobe (PDF), Rocketbook (RB), & HTML
© Copyright Margaret L. Carter, 2003.
All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave.
Ellora's Cave Publishing, Inc. USA
Ellora's Cave Ltd, UK
This e-book may not be reproduced in whole or in part by email forwarding, copying, fax,
or any other mode of communication without author permission.
Edited by Jennifer Martin
Cover Art by Christine Clavel
Chapter 1
When the moon rose above the trees, she leaned out the open window to await the
call. After answering that summons at every full and new moon in the five years since
her monthly flow began, she fell into the pattern automatically.
As always, Mother Selene's voice floated up to the window. "Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
let down your hair."
Nude except for her loose gown of white silk, Rapunzel ran her fingers through her
waist-length, honey-blonde hair and let the tresses flow over the windowsill. Mother
Selene spoke one of the arcane words that instantly evaporated from Rapunzel's mind,
syllables only a mage's thoughts could grasp. Ripples of energy coursed through her
and pierced her scalp like fingernails probing her skull. The hair blossomed into a net of
shimmering gold that spread over the stone walls of the tower from the bedchamber
window all the way to the ground. Vibrations tingled along the strands. The witch
swarmed up the net like a spider ascending a web.
None of this magic alarmed Rapunzel or even interested her very much. She had
seen it too often. Having no gift for magecraft herself, or so Mother Selene assured her,
she accepted her role as handmaiden to her guardian. Once inside the chamber, Mother
Selene muttered a second word, which restored Rapunzel's hair to its ordinary state.
Silently, the witch led the way up the spiral staircase to the roof of the tower.
The circular platform at the top, surrounded by a wall of about waist height, had a
pentagram painted on the floor, with symbols inside the star that made Rapunzel's eyes
blur if she stared too steadily at them. Needing no direction, she took her place at one
point of the diagram, while Mother Selene stepped into position opposite her. The
witch, robed in crimson, wore her ceremonial silver athame in a cincture at her waist.
Her pale hair grew luxuriantly to her shoulders, with her unlined face giving no clue to
her age. Her eyes looked as cold as shards of blue ice. Her appearance had not changed
since Rapunzel's earliest memories.
A cool night wind swirled around Rapunzel's bare feet and rustled her gown.
Shivers ran up her arms and legs. Mother Selene drew the silver dagger and extended it
over the circle inscribed in the center of the pentagram. Rapunzel stretched out her right
arm, baring her wrist. The dagger's point nicked the skin. A few drops of blood fell on
the circle.
The witch chanted the words, whisked away from Rapunzel's thoughts the moment
they touched her ears. At once the familiar sparks danced over her body, encircling both
her and her guardian in a blue-green aura. The magic tugged at the roots of her veins
and nerves. Her skin prickled, and her hair fanned behind her as if swept by an
otherworldly wind. Her nipples hardened, rubbing against the fabric of her robe. She
resisted the impulse to clasp her hands to her breasts.
Behind the rhythm of the witch's voice, a clear chime like silver on crystal echoed
through the drone of the chanting. Rapunzel felt an icy needle pierce her chest. A
shudder racked her. She had never sensed any such interruption to the ritual before.
Mother Selene broke off as if she, too, had felt the intrusion. Shaking her head,
though, she immediately resumed the incantation.
The circle on the floor glowed blue. It melted from stone to the rippling surface of a
pool. Along with the witch, Rapunzel gazed into its depths. As usual, she saw nothing
but the reflection of starlight and moonlight. Mother Selene whispered questions in an
unknown language and paused as if waiting for answers. Whatever answers she saw in
the pool of light seemed to please her. At last a cascade of azure light fountained from
the pool to flow up her outstretched arms and over her body. The witch purred as if the
light caressed her. Rapunzel felt herself floating in dreamy languor. She seemed to drift
among the stars like a leaf blown from its twig. She had no idea how much time passed
before Mother Selene touched her shoulder to recall her to awareness.
The "pool" had reverted to a lifeless pattern on stone. Mother Selene murmured a
phrase that stopped the bleeding from Rapunzel's wrist. "Well done, my child. Come
along."
They descended the stairs to the bedchamber. Looking out the window, Rapunzel
saw two covered baskets, each attached to a coil of rope. The witch spoke her magical
summons, and each rope, in turn, floated up to the window to be reeled in. Rapunzel
didn't hurry to rummage through the baskets, since she knew they contained the usual
fresh fruits, bread, and other necessities to supply her for the coming fortnight.
"Is there anything else you'd like me to bring next time, dear?" Mother Selene asked
with her chilly smile. "New books or music?"
Rapunzel glanced at her harp in the corner. She still hadn't finished mastering the
last folio of sheet music. "No, thank you. I'm content." By now she knew it would be
useless to ask for her real wants. Teach me some of your magic. Or, I want to leave this tower
and explore the world.
Mother Selene didn't linger. It had been years since she had made any pretense that
she and her ward got pleasure from each other's company. Still, as Rapunzel fetched the
empty baskets from the previous visit, she almost wished she could think of a topic to
detain her guardian for a few minutes. Talking to the witch would be more interesting
than talking to herself or the sparrows she sometime lured to the window with crumbs.
After giving her a cool kiss on the cheek, Mother Selene spoke the words that
transformed Rapunzel's hair once again into a shimmering net of gold. She descended to
the ground, reversed the magic, and got into her waiting carriage, drawn by a single
horse. A word of command, with no need for a hand on the reins, spurred the animal
into motion. Rapunzel watched until the carriage disappeared into the woods.
Tired from her role in the ceremony, even though it drained only a few drops of her
blood, she hung her ritual gown in the wardrobe and lay down, naked, on the bed. The
breeze from the open window caressed her flesh, still warm from the magical energies.
Her palms grazed her nipples, then stroked down over her chest and stomach to her
thighs. Heat pooled between her legs. She let her eyes drift shut.
Abruptly a voice broke into her half-dreaming state. "Rapunzel, Rapunzel!"
Her eyes snapped open. "Mother Selene?" No, the witch would have no reason to
return. And the voice was a stranger's. A deep voice that reverberated through Rapunzel
like the peal of a huge bell.
"Who's there?" she whispered. No one else ever came near the tower.
The voice called her again. "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, answer me!"
She snatched her dressing gown from a chair by the bed and shrugged into it. She
rushed to the window and looked down.
A tall, cloaked figure stood there, taller even than the witch, who towered over
Rapunzel. It pushed back the hood of the cloak and stared up at her. Its eyes gleamed in
the moonlight.
A man!
He flashed a smile. "Lovely Rapunzel, let me come up to you."
"How do you know my name?" she called down.
"I overheard the witch speaking to you. May I come up?"
She wrapped her arms around herself. "You can't, unless you have magic like hers.
Do you?"
"Not exactly, but I can reach your window if you're willing. You have to invite me."
Mother Selene's warnings raced through her mind. The outside world was not safe
for young women. Rapunzel was cloistered here for her own protection. Men,
especially, were little more than wild beasts on two legs. On the other side of the
question, a flutter in the pit of Rapunzel's stomach argued in the man's favor. She told
herself the excitement came from meeting someone new after all this time. She would
risk any number of phantom hazards for a few hours of conversation with this stranger.
"Very well, I invite you. Come in."
The man spread his cloak. It swirled around him like a windblown cloud. A second
later, it shrank inward, and his body with it. Human limbs became wings. A huge,
ghost-white owl soared up and flew in circles just outside the window.
Rapunzel's breath caught in her throat. She backed away, one hand pressed to her
mouth, the other to her pounding heart. The bird swooped in through the open shutters.
It expanded to a column of dark mist, then shifted to man-shape.
She backed up farther and collapsed onto the bed, where she sat, gaping at him. He
unfastened his cloak and flung it aside. With an amused arch of his black eyebrows, he
said, "Have you never seen a man before?"
The faint mockery in his tone replaced some of her alarm with indignation. "Of
course I have, when I was a child. But they were servants and tradesmen. None of them
changed into birds."
Taking a seat in the bedside chair, he stretched his legs out and folded his arms.
"You haven't always lived in this tower, then?"
"No, Mother Selene brought me here when I was thirteen." When I became a woman.
"Before that, we lived in her mansion in the city." She surveyed her visitor. He wore
black trousers with a lace-trimmed, white shirt, open at the neck. His dark hair curled in
waves to just below his ears. His face, in contrast, was as marble-pale as the witch's. His
eyes glowed in the darkness of the bedroom, with a glint of crimson at their centers. "Are
you a wizard?" she asked.
"As I said, not exactly."
"Then what brings you here?"
"You did, lovely Rapunzel. I was traveling through the forest, and your blood called
to me. Your sweet, virgin blood. Like silver chimes ringing in my head."
She felt a stiletto of ice pierce her heart, just as she had during the ritual. Was it too
late to eject this stranger from her refuge? Shivers danced over her body, and her nipples
peaked again. "What do you mean?" she whispered.
"I'm no magician, not in the way you understand, but I can't help sensing the power
of blood magic. And the fragrance of your blood ravished me."
"Blood magic." Rapunzel shook her head in bewilderment. "Yes, Mother Selene uses
my blood in her ceremonies. But I never knew it was so powerful."
"Doubtless you are very valuable to her. Is she really your mother?"
"No, my parents didn't want me. They sold me to her when I was a baby."
"Or so she told you."
The skepticism in his voice irritated her. "She gives me everything I could possibly
need. My real parents were poor. They could never have given me all this. Why should I
doubt her goodness?"
He spread his hands to indicate the chamber walls. "She keeps you locked in this
tower, doesn't she?"
"For my own protection." She frowned to hear the stranger echo the thoughts she had
tried so often to suppress. "The outside world isn't safe for maidens."
"What hazards does she claim to protect you from?" The man stepped to the bedside
and loomed over her. "Hazards like me?"
"Men." Rapunzel clutched her robe shut at the neckline. His voice made knots in her
stomach, and his eyes glowed hotter the closer he crept. "She's guarding me from men."
He laughed softly. "She's guarding your precious maidenhead. Without your
virginity, your blood would become useless for the rituals. But not for me." His cool
fingers brushed her hair back from her forehead. She flinched. "Don't be afraid, golden
Rapunzel. Haven't you wondered exactly what this danger from men consists of?"
Almost against her will, she nodded. When he smoothed her hair again, her insides
churned. "You're no ordinary man," she whispered.
"No." He smiled broader than he had before, showing teeth that gleamed with the
sharpness of a wolf's. "But I can demonstrate those dangers for you, and more besides."
"What do you want?" Her voice quavered.
He bent over her to flick her earlobe with his tongue. "To taste you. To sip your
nectar."
Though she had no idea what he meant, the words roused a flutter inside her that
held more delight than fear. "Will it hurt?"
"Oh, no. Does this hurt?" He pried her fingers loose from the robe and folded it
open, then trailed one finger down the hollow of her throat to the spot between her
breasts.
Her skin tingled, and her nipples tightened. "No," she breathed.
"This?" He ran his fingers through her hair, swept it up from her shoulders, and
kissed the nape of her neck. Chills cascaded down her spine. "Or this?" His lips nibbled
a path along her jawline to her mouth.
She gasped, and he captured her open mouth with his own. His tongue invaded her
to explore the inside of her lips. She extended her own tongue to sample the hot tip of
his. Skimming his teeth, she felt a momentary sting. "Oh!" She pulled back.
The crimson glow of his eyes impaled her. "Just as I expected. You taste intoxicating.
May I continue the demonstration?"
She trembled at the sight of those teeth that could probably rip her open in one
quick bite. The coil of heat in the center of her body, though, made her reckless. "I don't
even know your name." Even while she protested, she let the robe fall open and reclined
on the pillow.
"Call me Alaric." He swept his palms over her shoulders and down to her breasts,
which already ached. She moaned when his hands skipped lightly over her bosom to her
waist, then up again without lingering. Grabbing his wrists, she tried to pull his hands
from her shoulders back to her breasts. He chuckled. "In time, my love."
He leaned over her and sampled her lips again. Her tongue probed, inviting his to
thrust deeper into her mouth. Trapping her legs under one of his, Alaric cupped her left
breast and teased the nipple with his thumb. An almost unbearable tingling spread from
that spot to the opposite nipple, then over her whole body.
"Alaric, please!" she murmured against the burning of his lips.
"If you beg that way," he growled into the curve of her neck, "you'll make me too
thirsty to wait."
"Wait for what?" Hot liquid pooled between her thighs. She felt an urge to arch her
hips, but his leg held her prisoner.
"You'll see. Soon." His tongue flickered like a flame across her throat, down the
center of her chest, and over to one taut peak. When the wet tip swirled around the
nipple, she cried out and writhed under him. While he licked that breast, he fondled the
other, letting his palm graze its nipple just enough to drive her into delirium.
"More, please!" She hardly knew what she wanted, except that the tender place
between her legs throbbed more urgently than it ever had after the moon magic.
Alaric rose up, evoking a cry of protest from her when the night air wafted over her
bare flesh. He tore off his shirt and lay across her. "I need to feel your heat on my skin,"
he said before his mouth seized hers once more. Her breasts ached and tingled even
more intensely, squeezed against his hard, cool chest.
His hand crept down the front of her body. When it reached the curls at the apex of
her legs, fresh heat welled up there. She spread her thighs, moaning desperate pleas into
his mouth. He dipped into her wetness. She gasped at the sensation of his fingers
stroking back and forth between the pulsing folds. Not even in the restless dreams that
often followed the rituals had she felt such a thrill.
His mouth traveled from hers to her throat. She felt a sting there, but it didn't feel
like pain. Instead, it shot from her neck through her breasts all the way down, making
her quiver with more intense need. The tiny nubbin between her thighs twitched.
Somehow Alaric seemed to sense its ache. His thumb skimmed over it, making
Rapunzel arch her hips in wordless pleading. Whimpers escaped from her lips as he
rubbed the swelling bud. It thickened, tingled, and vibrated. Her senses gathered to a
single, fiery point at that spot. She convulsed, almost shaking Alaric off her, but still
dimly aware of his mouth fastened to her throat. Her whole being seemed to flow into
him at the moment of ecstasy.
Drained, shaking, she clung to him until he raised his head to gaze down at her. In
the moonlight she glimpsed dark moisture around his mouth. He licked it away with a
catlike swirl of his tongue.
"My blood," she whispered. "You drank my blood."
"I told you it called me. And it is sweeter than I even imagined." He stroked her hair.
"And it didn't hurt, did it?"
"Oh, no," she sighed. "Is that the whole danger my guardian warned me about?"
He laughed. "That is only the beginning. May I visit tomorrow night for another
demonstration?" He stood up to shrug into his shirt and draped the cloak around his
shoulders.
Rapunzel braced herself on one elbow, hardly able to gather the energy to move that
far. "Not until tomorrow?"
"You need rest, my sweet." He kissed her on the forehead. "Until tomorrow night."
He wrapped the cloak around himself, contracted to a swirl of black fog, transformed
into bird shape, and flew out the window.
Rapunzel lay back with a shuddering sigh and drifted into sleep.
Chapter 2
The next day she wondered whether the whole visit had been a dream. The tangled
sheets hinted otherwise, though, and when she looked into the mirror, she saw a tiny
scratch on her neck. She rubbed the wound. It felt faintly sore but didn't really hurt. In
fact, touching it stirred a tickle between her legs. Blushing at the memories that flooded
her with that sensation, she hurried downstairs, past her parlor and dining nook, to the
lowest level of the tower.
There, a garden of shrubs and flowers, designed to bloom through most of the year,
grew in the sunlight that shone through the lattice-covered windows. A well supplied
all the water Rapunzel needed. As on every other morning, she used the bucket to scoop
water into a tub beside the well. Magic infused in the construction of the tub caused it to
warm the water to the precise temperature comfortable for her bath. Sometime after
she'd finished (she never saw the process) the used water vanished. The same kind of
magic kept dishes, floors, and clothes clean, emptied her chamber pot, and, in winter,
disposed of ashes from the fireplaces.
Sometimes she wished the magic didn't make all dirt vanish without a human touch.
摘要：

VIRGINBLOODAnEllora’sCavepublicationwrittenbyMARGARETL.CARTERMSReader(LIT)ISBN#1-84360-426-4Mobipocket(PRC)ISBN#1-84360-427-2Otheravailableformats(noISBNsareassigned):Adobe(PDF),Rocketbook(RB),&HTML©CopyrightMargaretL.Carter,2003.AllRightsReserved,Ellora'sCave.Ellora'sCavePublishing,Inc.USAEllora'sC...

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