Chapter 5

"You know what you need to do."

"I can't," I said.

I stood next to Eleanor in front of the bed we'd just made love in, or at least had *started* to make love in, and watched my driver lying there. He was sobbing, rocking back and forth, and in a borderline catatonic state.

Sudden exposure to the supernatural can do that to a person. Hell, it can do worse.

"You have two options," Eleanor said, her voice aloof and unconcerned. "The other is death. But you cannot leave him like this. That would tear the Veil. It would also be cruel."

I groaned. "Am I being judged on cruelty by you of all people?"

She smiled. "I am not cruel, darling. I am efficient. Now stop stalling. The longer this goes..."

"Yes, fine, fine, fine," I grumbled. I got closer to the bed, took a seat, and placed my hand on Allan's head. His mess of brown hair was slick from rain and sweat. He smelled... well. His whole aura reeked of sadness and confusion and that was far worse than the stench of terror and body odor the young man was currently emitting.

I hated what I was about to do but Eleanor was right. It had to be done.

I gently moved my hand to his left eye. I whispered, "I'm sorry," and then forced the eye open. It didn't look at me but it didn't need to. I gathered up my magics, wishing I could do this properly with a coven, and locked both my eyes on his one, focusing on the brown iris, the pupil. My free hand rested on the silver skull of my cane which suddenly began to grow warm, then hot. The energies swirled around me like a whirlpool with me at its center. I focused my thoughts on Allan, closed my eyes, and then said the word:

"Colloquium."

Everything went silent: the patter of rain, Eleanor's shuffling robe, my own beating heart. When I opened my eyes I was standing in a black void. There was nothingness all around, only murky darkness of layers upon layers of black.

I began to move.

It didn't take long to find him in the ocean of void. His open eye glowed like a beacon. When I was close enough I stood there, waiting. As expected, he began walking toward me.

"Vivienne?" he said, his voice soft and childlike. "What... what's going on? What's happening?"

"Calm yourself," I said. "You have witnessed something terrifying tonight. Something you shouldn't have been exposed to and that... that's my fault."

"No, Vivienne, I--"

"Listen!" I barked, making sure he was focused on me in the gloom. "You have seen the other side of the world. The hidden side. What separates one from the other is called The Veil and you have pierced it for the very first time in your young life. Few mundanes ever do; most people who are exposed to it are able to explain away what they've seen, to rationalize it, and forget it. But sometimes when the Veil is truly pierced, a brain that knows too much can snap. When this happens there can be only one of three outcomes: insanity, recruitment, or death."

"I see," he said. It was cute that even here in the Nothing he tried to gravel up his voice, sound like a tough man for my benefit. Here, where he was without fear or embarrassment, he still chose to emulate the type of man he thought I wanted him to be.

I sighed.

"You are on the verge of the first possibility," I explained. "Right now you are in a bed curled up like a babe, rocking back and forth. Your mind is splintering. It cannot, at this moment, handle what it has seen across the Veil. There is some small chance you'll recover. But if you don't you'll likely spend the rest of your life in a medical facility. You'll be some form of extreme psychotic that no medicine can ever contain or cure. You'll have gone completely mad."

"Sounds like a bad time," he said. "But I'll recover. You know I'm stronger than you think, don't you?"

"Even if you do recover then the third option will follow," I said without emotion. "You would be a risk to the continuation of the Veil. No tolerance is offered to any threat to its existence. The Veil is too important, do you understand?"

"So... I'd be like, a liability?"

"Exactly," I said. "Which is why it'd be my duty to end your life."

He nodded. In the Nothing, painful truths weren't painful. He seemed to consider this for a long moment, then said, "I guess you'd only do that if you had to. I mean, you wouldn't want to do it, right? You'd do it, but you'd hate yourself for it? And you'd be sad if I was gone?"

Speaking with a person in the Nothing was always a trip. I had just told him I would have to kill him and he didn't so much as raise his voice or appear hurt. All he wanted to know was if I would mourn his loss.

"Of course I'd miss you," I said. "That's why we need the second option."

"Recruitment?"

I nodded.

"So you're going to bring me to the other side? Make me one of... you?"

I nodded again. "You will become my delicium. It is a recognized position within our world. Your life will change but you will still have a life. But Allan? You must understand that as my delicium you will be tied to me in ways you cannot possibly comprehend. You will serve me, but not like the way you have. In the mortal world you are my employee. You can quit at any time. You can refuse to obey me, you can work against me. Betray me. You have that freedom. As my delicium you will not."

"I would never do any of those things anyway," he said, and I knew he was being truthful. In the Nothing one cannot lie. "It would be my honor to be your delicium, Vivienne. Because I love you."

I took a deep breath. I was still wearing my trench coat but even in this place I was naked beneath it. I could have conjured up some clothing here, but what did it matter? Besides, it made what came next easier.

"Very well, then," I said. "On your knees."

He dropped to his knees without any hesitation.

"Now kiss my feet."

He looked up at me, confusion on his face. "Vivienne... may I ask why?"

"No you may not," I said harshly. "A delicium obeys. Now do it!"

He nodded, knelt low. And planted a kiss on my left foot. I kept it out for him and he seemed to understand. He kissed it again. And again. Then focused on each of my toes. I shuddered at the sensation of his pouty lips against my skin, and had to admit that his subservience was getting my juices flowing again. I gave him my right foot and sighed as he gently held it, kissed it, ran his lips across my toes, then under.

If this went on much longer my arousal would snap the spell, so I said, "Enough. Now stand up."

He obeyed.

"Take off your clothes."

He hesitated for the briefest of moments, then obeyed. Without any embarrassment or fear, as such emotions don't exist in the Nothing, he stripped off his shirt, his flannel, his torn jeans, his combat boots.

When he was entirely naked my eyebrows went up. Between his legs... because yes, that's where my eyes went as soon as he stood from dropping his boxers, was one of the largest penises I'd ever seen. "Holy moses Arthur Lucifer and goddess," I breathed. "That's... quite a tool you have there, Allan."

It was thick, heavy, and hung with a surprising, formidable weight that made my mouth instantly go dry. Even completely flaccid, it was a magnificent, devastating piece of machinery, nestled in a dense patch of dark hair. My treacherous, slutty mind immediately started doing the math, imagining the sheer stretch and fullness of taking that inside me. A sudden, violent jolt of heat spiked right between my thighs, pooling warm and demanding against the open air beneath my trench coat. My nipples hardened instantly into tight nubs, rubbing agonizingly against the heavy lining of the coat. I had to clench my jaw, fighting back a desperate gasp as the void around us rippled dangerously.

If I let myself think about what that monster would look like hard, the spell would shatter into a million pieces.

I forced my eyes back up to his face, my voice trembling slightly as I tried to regain my authority. "Look at me, Allan. Repeat these words, and bind yourself to my will."

He fixed his calm, trusting brown eyes on mine.

"I, Allan Richard Stalin, surrender my spirit, my body, and my breath," I dictated, my heart hammering against my ribs.

"I, Allan Richard Stalin, surrender my spirit, my body, and my breath," he repeated flawlessly, his voice echoing in the darkness.

"I bind my life to the witch, Vivienne Vance. I have no master but her. I have no desire but her pleasure. I will obey her unto death."

Allan didn't hesitate. His expression remained utterly serene as he spoke the binding contract. "I bind my life to the witch, Vivienne Vance. I have no master but her. I have no desire but her pleasure. I will obey her unto death."

The words resonated through the black void like a tolling bell, and a faint, ethereal strand of silvery light snapped into existence, wrapping once around his neck before sinking directly into his skin.

"Last chance to back down, Allan," I whispered, stepping closer to him. The heat radiating off his bare chest was intoxicating. "Once I seal this, your soul belongs to me."

"I am yours, Vivienne," he said simply.

I reached out, wrapped my hand around the back of his neck, and pulled him down into a deep, bruising kiss. His lips were soft, yielding completely to mine without a single shred of resistance.

The moment our lips parted, the Nothing vanished.

*BAM.*

The world rushed back in a violent, sensory overload. The rhythmic, heavy patter of the Detroit rain slammed against the windowpanes. The sharp, metallic scent of blood and wet earth from the estate grounds mixed with the heavy perfume of Eleanor's bedroom. The amber light of the bedside lamps flared against my retinas.

Only a minute had passed in the real world.

We were still standing by Eleanor's bed. Beneath my hand, Allan suddenly blinked, his eyes clear and focused as the catatonic madness instantly drained from his face. He scrambled backward on the bed, looking down at his clothes as though surprised he was wearing them. He blinked again and I could tell now that he was entirely himself again. He looked at me, then at Eleanor, shaking his head in confusion. He clearly didn't remember a single second of what had just happened in the Nothing.

Nor would he.

"Vivienne?" Allan muttered, rubbing his temple. "What... what happened? The wolf creature... was that a werewolf? I was using the horn... I think I passed out. I'm sorry, I totally lost it."

"It's fine, Allan," I said, my voice sounding raspy even to my own ears as I pulled my trench coat tightly around my naked body. "You're okay now. Just stay here and rest for a minute."

He nodded, looking relieved, completely unaware that the invisible tether of the delicium was already silently twisting around his subconscious.

I stepped back, turning toward Eleanor. She nodded, and I followed her out of the grand master bedroom. In the hallway she rested one hand on the banister, her silk robe slipping slightly off one pale shoulder. A cruel, intensely amused smirk was plastered across her flawless lips. She glanced at the bedroom door, which I was closing, then right down to the frantic way I was holding my coat closed again.

"Well executed, darling," Eleanor murmured smoothly, her voice a low, icy purr. "Though you look like you're about to combust."

"Shut up, Eleanor," I muttered, leaning heavily on my silver-skulled cane. "It's done. He's safe from the Coven and the Veil is intact."

Eleanor's smirk only widened, her dark eyes flashing with an ancient, wicked delight as she took a slow step toward me.

"Oh, it's started, Vivienne. But it isn't done," she whispered, her breath cool against my flushed cheek as she leaned in close. "You know the laws of the old ways as well as I do. The contract is written, the powers are summoned, but the act hasn't been sealed."

I slumped my shoulders.

Relentlessly she concluded: "He won't become your true delicium until he's inside you. Until you fuck him. And the clock is ticking."

I closed my eyes, a heavy, desperate sigh tearing from my throat as the unbearable heat between my thighs throbbed in agreement.

"I know..." I whispered. "Gods dammit..."

End of Chapter 5