“As I was saying, the anticipation of the pain, the fear of it, makes the pleasure sweeter. As pleasure can become pain, pain can become pleasure. Fear can be an aphrodisiac.” He points to the glass overhead. “Look up.”

The window transforms into a mirror. I see myself displayed lewdly, see the cocks between my legs. Two more vines unfurl beneath me and rise to curl around my breasts, wrapping and wrapping until they’re tight and flushing. Blood runs in thin streaks from every thorn embedded in my skin.

The image changes, showing me my own body from an angle I could never possibly view on my own; my cunt spread wide around the impossibly huge phallus, the terrible length barely inside my ass. The vampire cock hasn’t stopped moving, but the werewolf vine has, and despite the agony of its intrusion, the nodules tickling the inside of my cunt send spikes of pleasure above the pain.

“Anticipation intensifies every sensation,” Luthian goes on. “You know what this feels like—”

The cock in my ass gives a little wiggle, and I gasp.

“So, imagine how it will feel when, upon my command, it buries itself entirely, in one swift, brutal thrust.”

My skin goes cold all over. I can’t stop my limbs from trembling.

“You’re going to watch, of course,” He says. “If you close your eyes, if you look away, I’ll make sure you can see. You don’t want my pets to mark up your pretty face, do you?”

The thought of the deadly thorns anywhere near my eyes is enough to make me widen them and stare dutifully up at the image above me.

“Beg me,” he instructs again. “Let yourself believe you can convince me to stop, only if you plead desperately enough. Become frantic in your terror and helplessness.”

The werewolf cock is long. The bulb at the base as round as a man’s fist. I swallow and whimper, “Please, Guardian—”

“I’ll count down, shall I?” He comes to stand close to my head, leans down to whisper in my ear. “Three...”

“Please!” I focus on my fear, let it drive my need higher. This is going to happen. I’m going to feel myself split apart, cruel inch by cruel inch, watch it with no way to stop it.

“Two.”

I can imagine it now, the pain I already feel, amplified, and refreshed. I try one last, pathetic time, my throat raw with desperation that I hope pleases him. “I beg you, Guardian, don’t do this—"

His tongue traces the shell of my ear.

“One.”

Chapter Eleven

A haze of red washes over my vision as the vine thrusts the cock swiftly forward, spearing deep into my passage. I can’t breathe, can’t move, can’t think about anything but the pain, but I cannot look away from the horrible sight of the length vanishing into my body. The bulbous knot at the base bumps me and I pray that it’s simply too much, that it can’t penetrate me, but the pressure increases for only a breath before the impossible strength of the vine forces it forward, splitting me while I scream my agony and keep my eyes open wide.

“There,” Luthian croons, stroking back my sweat-damp hair and caressing my jaw with his elegant fingers. He wipes tears from my face that are instantly refreshed. Still, I stare up at the sight of my body opened by the monstrous vines. “The worst of it is finished.”

I trust him not to inflict permanent harm on me. I don’t trust him not to inflict more pain. I clench my jaw, grind my teeth against the tearing and aching and throbbing that have coalesced into one and lie, “Thank you, Guardian.”

The image above me changes, and I once again see myself bound and splayed. The vine at my cunt has almost completely withdrawn, the ridge at the tip of the phallus just visible between my folds. It pushes back in with the same terrible slowness.

“As I said, the worst of it,” Luthian goes on, as I knew he would.

There is always a catch.

“It’s still going to be terrible, of course.”

My breasts are numb, swollen and purplish in the reflection. Luthian pinches one of my protruding nipples, but I barely feel it. Then, he pets the vines that hold my breasts bound, and the fall away, revealing a multitude of pinpricks that weep droplets of blood as my pulse rushes back into my denied flesh. A new ache, a new horrid throbbing, but his hand moves lower, to my clit, red and swollen and slick and straining. I watch warily as his fingers gently find me and work my hood back and forth over the delicate nerve, the smooth metal ring stimulating me with barely any pressure.

“Would you like to come, Cenere?” he asks, rubbing in slow, steady circles as the vampire cock pushes deeper.

Unbelievably, I do. After the horror and pain I’ve experienced, somehow, my body rouses at his attentions. “Oh, please, Guardian.”

He kisses my cheek. “My pet is very good at fucking, Cenere. But I think it’s sad.”

I squeeze on the organ filling my cunt, my muscles tightening with impending release. The pace of Luthian’s finger is maddening. If only he would speed up a bit...