Open for Negotiation

Chapter Eleven

An hour passed and, for every lash, she gave them a different title. Dom drew back his whip again then paused as something caught his eye. He turned his head slightly.

"Queen, you said something about the ones before me failing. What is it that they did?"

"They were supposed to separate her soul from her body and send it to the underworld. Why?"

Dom approached the hanging witch and ran his fingers over the slave band.

"Clever," he said softly. "I found out why they didn't succeed. They may have if..." he met the woman's pain filled eyes. "If you hadn't trusted him. This is a voluntary slave band. You love him, don't you, Astra?" He sighed and turned. "May I make a suggestion?"

"By all means. After you tell me why they failed."

"Because he put a slave band on her. And she let him."

"So she can't betray her master then?"

"He isn't her master yet. There are only five bands around her arm and it takes seven." Something dawned on him and he turned back. "That's why you are holding out. You are waiting on the binding magic to dissolve so you'll fade into the underworld. It seems you don't have the amount of time you thought, queen."

"She's not anymore, you know." Astra's pain roughened voice had him turning. "Queen. She was stripped."

"Interesting. It doesn't change what I have to do, but it is good information for later. May I suggest skipping the names and having her call him?"

"And then what? Ask him politely to cooperate?"

Dom shook his head. "If one like this loved me, there is nothing I wouldn't do to keep her safe. And mine. He hasn't had her yet. I can smell the innocence in her blood."

"So?"

"So think for a moment. Call him and tell him that unless he cooperates, you give her to me. I'm incubus so there wouldn't be a doubt I could seduce her."

"Wanna bet?" Astra murmured from behind him. He smiled but didn't turn.

"To keep me from having her, he'll do whatever you ask him to."

*****

Lethe found Marcus sitting on the side of the bed, running his handfasting cord through his fingers.

"It is about time. She's on the fifth band..." Lethe began impatiently then stopped when Marcus looked up at him with apologetic eyes. "She can't find anything, can she?" he said, his stomach clenching in a now familiar sickness.

"No. And she tried."

"Apparently not hard enough." Lethe tossed out bitterly. Marcus came to his feet with a snarl.

"The woman drove herself into the ground every day and night. That is her niece but it might as well be her daughter. It is killing her to admit she failed the girl."

Lethe ran a hand through his hair. "I know. The alternative just doesn't bear thinking about. Dammit, Marcus, she wasn't born to be a slave!"

"And I've done all I can to ensure she'll never be treated like one. No one has to know about the band." Marcus sat back down.

"I'll know." Lethe bit out. "Every time I hold her, every time I kiss her. I'll know."

"So you have a choice to make then. Does she cross over or does she live as a slave?"

"Honestly, I couldn't live with her blood on my hands. She trusts me." he sank down on the bed next to Marcus. "She loves me. Risked her life to heal me," he said softly. "I reward her for that with slavery."