Excerpt from the Light in the Darkness Series
Mad Lews - Since you asked so nicely. :-)
Readers of Blood and Betrayal: Taking an Amazon will remember that Danielle spoke of a shadow master in her past. This excerpt is from the series that tells her story and isn't ready for publication. Enjoy!
Danielle's Shadow Master
“Pet!”
Her master’s voice boomed across the small cottage. Danielle trembled with fear. She couldn’t hide from his anger. It reached out for her, surrounding her and she gasped for breath.
“Come to me!”
Danielle crawled out from behind the kitchen table. She was hungry and he had forgotten to feed her again. She’d almost made it to the kitchen, where her bowl of water and food were on the floor. Almost wasn’t close enough and he wasn’t asleep like she thought. She didn’t ask for permission and he would find that an excuse to punish her. Not that he needed an excuse.
Her stomach growled and he laughed in understanding. The laugh was ugly, hurtful. In the last few weeks, she had come to hate the laugh of her shadow master. Wearily, she crawled across the wooden floor. It was difficult, because her wrists were bound with a thick leather strip and she had little space between them. Walking was forbidden and another punishable offense.
“Faster, Pet. You will beg for your dinner.”
Danielle caught a quick glimpse of herself in the full length mirror and almost spoke aloud. That would not have been a good thing. She was frequently beaten for speaking, because her master didn’t like the sound of her voice. How she looked astonished her. The bruises and welts on her naked body weren’t much of a surprise, but the unhealed bite marks on her neck, back and shoulders made her shudder. He was drinking from her, yet he had stopped healing her as a further punishment and reminder that she would never be good enough for him.
By the time she made it to the bed, he was standing. His naked body was hard and thick with his lust. Her shadow master always wanted her and his cock could be as punishing as any other weapon. His body was strong, muscular, a warrior’s body shaped to perfection.
Perhaps in another time and place she would have found him attractive. Maybe she used to. He was certainly handsome, she remembered that, but Danielle wasn’t allowed to raise her eyes or look at him. Pets had to earn the privilege and she wasn’t a good pet. She could never please him.
She kissed his feet and put her face to the floor. She was prepared to beg, but even that required permission. His cool hands touched her back and she shivered. Not enough food combined with the constant blood loss caused her to have a difficult time maintaining any body heat. Danielle felt as if she had been cold forever. Maybe she was becoming as cold as his heart. Her master sighed.
“Should I beat you for that thought, Pet? Do you hate me so much?”
Quickly, she shook her head in denial. She hated the things he did to her, but not him.
“I think you want me to beat you.”
“No, please,” her thoughts begged. “Master, please forgive me. Please let me eat something.”
“You can eat after I hear you scream.”
He wrapped his hand in her long auburn hair and tugged. Danielle saw the carpet beater in his other hand and had two choices. She could try to fight him again or give in. The latter was more attractive, because after he punished her, he tended to be kind for an hour or three. It all depended on how well Danielle submitted to his punishments.
She followed his lead, hugged his thigh and prepared herself for the inevitable. The large carpet beater was a nasty spanker, but it was better than his riding crop. When he used the riding crop he often struck her with the braided middle instead of the tip, raising welts and drawing blood. She took a deep calming breath and then another.
“Ready, Pet?”
She nodded. Seconds later, the beater connected with her bottom and made a loud smacking noise. The flat surface covered most of her butt cheeks and she moaned into his leg.
“Not a sound from you until I reach thirty. Then you may scream. Understood?”
Yes, she understood. She’d never make it. Another blow and she couldn’t hold back the whimper. Her eyes were tearing from the force of the blow and her shadow master laughed.
“You’re not trying, Pet.”
He hit her again and she gripped his leg too hard. A ragged fingernail scratched him. He pulled her hair in anger. Hastily, Danielle licked the wound. Her shadow master moaned in pleasure and she nuzzled herself into his leg. Sometimes, if she could get him aroused enough, he skipped the punishments. Not this time.
The beater came down again and again. Her bottom felt swollen and bruised, too sensitive for even another blow, but he didn’t slow down. She lost count and began to squirm in his grasp. The hits were coming faster and harder. She was making too much noise, but she couldn’t stop herself. She hated the pain.
“Thirty, Pet.”
Her master sounded pleased with himself and his erection was pressing against her cheek. Boldly, she kissed it in apology and to appease him. At the moment, she would do almost anything for a bit of food and water.
“Not yet,” he yelled as he slapped her face.
The violent act was yet another reminder of the curse that was eating him alive. Before she had been forced to serve him, he’d always been overly gentle with her, treating her with the respect of her title and position in his family. But that seemed like an eternity ago and he certainly didn’t treat her that way any longer.
She lowered her face to the floor. It left her bottom up, exposed and vulnerable. Snarling like a wild animal, he sat down on the large bed. His feet were near her head and Danielle was afraid that he would kick her, but she didn’t move to protect herself. She forced herself to think of sunny days and rainbows, of laying in the cool grass looking up at white clouds in the sky. Her vampiric master often lost his anger when he read those thoughts, her memories calming the demon within.
“Crawl up,” he ordered. His voice was softer now, soothing. Perhaps, his need to hurt her was over for awhile. Hearing her thoughts, he laughed. Danielle cringed at the sound.
“Come, girl. I want you to lay across my lap and then I will finish your spanking.”
He wasn’t done! She hadn’t satisfied him. Crying, she tried to back away from him. It was no use. He picked her up as if she was a small child and forced her into the position he wanted. It was humiliating to be across his thighs, to feel his erection poking into her belly and his hand on her reddened bottom.
“You disappoint me, Pet. I would have used my hand for your next thirty, but you must learn to do as your told. I want to hear you this time. Scream for me.”
He swatted her again with the carpet beater. Danielle did scream. She screamed for his pleasure, for her sanity and for her life.
(C) 2005 Ruby Bloodstone and Spice and Sugar Publications. All rights reserved.
Enough of the romantic crap, it's time to get a little Nasty
Best served chilled
Alex woke abruptly in the wee hours of the morning. She pulled her robe on over her pajamas and stepped over to the bedroom window. The moon was full and had just breasted the horizon giving the illusion that it filled half the sky. Clouds scudded across it's face at a hurried pace. ( nope not a dark stormy night Chuck)
Then she heard the howling that had wakened her. Damn that stupid mutt, he'd slipped off his collar three days ago but he came back here to howl each night. The neighbors were beginning to complain. With a sigh Alex pulled on her shoes and headed out to the back yard. Lews was sitting there howling at the moon and wagging his tail.
" Come on you mangy mutt! Get your butt in the house right now! I don't have time for this shit."
She could barely see the tan colored Mastiff sitting at the edge of the property, tail thumping the ground as he watched her. Maybe a little gentler approach might work better..
" Such a good dog Lewsy, come on boy, it's alright, come to Alex."
She was about a dozen paces away when he hopped up and loped off into the night. Alex was infuriated by his defiance and sprinted after the useless beast. Moonlight peeked through the clouds and she spotted him again sitting about fifty feet ahead. Alex broke into a jog. Just as her hand was closing on the scruff of his neck he popped up and trotted off again.
Alex was enraged, but even so this made no sense. She wasn't a coward, but Alex wasn't a fool either. Why was she chasing this worthless dog around in the middle of the night? The frustrating game seemed to go on endlessly. They were in the woods now; woods that Alex couldn't quite place as anywhere near her neighborhood. It was time to give up this wild goose chase and head back to bed. It was then that she saw the flicker of movement off to her right, and there again another on her left.
She turned to head back toward her home only to be confronted with a pair of English sheep dogs that had been trailing twenty feet behind her. When she turned toward them one of the pair darted straight at her turning at the last moment to slam his body into her with enough force to knock Alex to the ground.
Stunned Alex rose to her feet. The two sheep dogs were sitting between her and the pathway home. When she took a step in their direction they both rose, baring teeth and growling. Shaken Alex turned in the direction she had been heading and noticed the two other dogs a black furred Newfy to her left and A wiry haired gray Irish wolfhound to her right. The four of them were definitely herding her. She could make out Lews in the distance waiting for the others to catch up. She was forced to run with the pack that followed Lews, when she slowed the sheepdogs nipped at her heels hurrying her along.
They came to an open field. Lews stopped, facing 6 new dogs that sat in a semi-circle the largest appeared to be a Great Dane. The four dogs that had been herding her drove Alex right past Lews and then formed a half circle behind him as Alex was left trembling between the two groups. She watched in horror as eleven dogs closed to complete the circle around her.
" You sit in my place Bruno." Lews said
" You were gone through a complete moon, the pack must be led." The Great Dane replied. His head tilted toward you inquisitively. " You have given her sight Lews. Is that wise?"
The Mastiff growled in response, Alex realized the entire conversation was taking place in growls,pants yips and though the position of the tail, the twitch of the ears, the tilt of the head, and yes the scent all these combined to form a language as expressive as the Queens English; but there was no way she should be able to understand any of it.
"She has offended me and held me from my pack. I would have her answer to the…" No word covered it exactly something like hunter, protector, male circle, perhaps fathers was a close approximation but it had nothing to do with paternity."…Council. And I felt it best she understand what is spoken of her."
For the first time she noticed the eleven dogs are all male.
" You are generous Lews or maybe the bitch has made you grow soft."
The Great Dane and the Mastiff were circling now each growling with head low to the ground crouching as if ready to spring forward in attack. Finally the Dane sat down with an audible huff.
"Strip her Lews we can't judge her if she hides her scent."
Lews spoke from behind Alex.
" Strip girl, you must be as naked and kneeling while you are being judged."
Alex had no intention of striping for these animals; but even as these defiant thoughts formed pictures sprung up in her mind Slashing jaws, shredded clothing, and oozing wounds. Animals piling onto her squirming body. It was enough. Alex pulled the PJ tops off over her head then wiggled out of the pants.
" And the paws."
Alex kicked off the shoes and shuddered as she dropped to her hands and knees.
" This one held me, kept me from the pack" Lews began, pictures formed of a cave/den with the entrance blocked the animals growled in fear and anger feeling trapped. " Then she shunned me, did not speak to me, left me alone for over half a moon." This brought even angrier growls. The pack was a social organization and isolation was a worse fate than imprisonment.
Alex trembled naked on her hands and knees while the beasts circled listening, feeling, seeing, Lews tale of torment. She began to feel the reactions, pushed onto her back, jaws clutching blood blossoming from a mauled throat. Alex cried out for pity.
"Enough Lews, she is no threat to the pack now." It was the Great Dane, Bruno "We should not poison the field with bitter blood, we will find another way."
Lews growled, " I am back Bruno, do you challenge me?" there is a moment of tense silence. Bruno bows his head, Lews continued.
"If one of us." nodding to the four beasts behind him," bites her she will become a shifter like us. If you give her the curse of Cain's mark she will become an outcast among man and beast. That I find fitting. Who will challenge me?"
The question passes and none challenge but the Great Dane, sniffed the air then pads toward Alex sniffing at her.
" She's in heat Lews!" The others shift uncomfortably and Alex can see their growing excitement.
" Human bitches are always in heat. She is just trying to delay her punishment." Lews claims but Bruno is insistent. " She needs us, even you can smell that." Lews is impatient and angered but she sees he's growing large along with the others.
" She's my Bitch!" he growls as the two circle once again on the verge of conflict. Bruno is taller and heavier but the Mastiff has powerful jaws, a solid build and he towers over the cowering Alex who has instinctively rolled onto her back in a submissive canine posture. Bruno considers the stakes, the prize, the peace within the pack and decides to back down and preserve the packs unity.
Alex can see Lews is excited as he stands over her letting out a victorious howl. She is resigned to his using her and she rolls over underneath him. Fur presses against her back and he growls with need. Then her mind sees the thoughts of the others. They will all have her, Lews demand was only to be that he be first. She began to scream as his jaws closed on her shoulder shaking her like a rag doll.
The shaking continued, a distant voice, a human voice.
"Alex! Wake up, you're dreaming again." :D
Thanx Alex,
Mad Lews
A modern interpitation of a Scottish Ballad
Well it's not what I set out to write but you all know how that goes. I may fluff it up a bit and submit it as a story or perhaps just leave well enough alone. It would be a modern somewhat darker retelling of the legend of Tam Lin with some of my own twisted thoughts thrown in.
A Bit of a Sacrifice
O I forbid you, maidens a',
That wear gowd on your hair,
To come or gae by Carterhaugh,
For young Tam Lin is there.
The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, 1882-1898 by
Francis James Child
I've lived all my years in the village of Chauterfield, in the lovely gray thistle glen some thirty miles into the Scottish Highlands. Chauterfield lies a few miles due south of a stark bluff that the locals call "The Mound". A spring issues forth mid way down the western slope of the bluff. It skips and splashes its way near the forested path down to the floor of the glen. This would be what's always been called the "Burn of Bliss". From the eastern face of the bluff a waterfall drops straight down some eighty feet onto the rocks below then follows it's time worn path down into the valley. It has always been called the "Burn of Sorrow". A half-mile below the bluff the two burns meld into a stream that is dammed at the northern edge of the village to form our millpond above the village green.
The name "The Mound" isn't for the bluff itself but rather for the strangely symmetrical raised circle atop the bluff from the center of which protrudes a vaguely phallic rock nearly six feet in height.
The Mound is not mentioned in any local tour guide and yet it attracts a steady stream of tourist who take the meandering five-mile trek up the bluff for the fine view of the valley.
Memories run deep in old backwater places like this and the mound always played a pivotal role in the lands about our village. It has never been a cheerful place and the locals avoid it at all times but most especially during those weeks before summer solstice.
We're known as a close knit group and will rarely speak of local history to strangers unless pressed (or fresh from the "Hound and Pheasant Pub" where we might become a bit too talkative as the evening progresses.)
A castle stood on the bluff in the mid-eighteenth century. It was the last stronghold of the Jacobite's, and stood defiant for over a year after the Bonnie Prince had fled to hide behind Papal skirts. On the eve of the summer solstice in 1747 the castle fell to an overwhelming English force. There were 63 men defending the castle but none survived its capture. Bloody King George ordered the castle torn down stone by stone and the rocks scattered about the glen. It took a company of Royal Engineers three months to accomplish the task but not a one of the lot dared to touch the mound. The defenders were buried together in an unmarked grave but ten years later a secret monument was erected in the local cemetery which lists each of the 63 men's names and their clan as well as a mysterious 64th entry for an "Abigail of the Mc'Doland Clan".
If the local archeologist is to be believed (and why not? He is local.) this was also the site of a Roman fort nearly two millennia ago. It would have been the northernmost settlement built by the Romans nearly 40 miles beyond the location of Hadrian's Wall. It's construction must have predated that structure by at least fifty years. The few artifacts that have been found include Stone blocks with chisled Latin inscriptions marking the completion of a northern gate signed by a centurion Flavius Victrix commanding the 2nd century of the sixth Legion. Almost all other bits of pottery, glass and metal from the Roman era show evidence of destruction from intense heat so it is likely The Jacobite's were not the first to be massacred on this spot.
More recently there was a poorly explained suicide pact which left five lads, up from the university on holiday, dead at the base of the falls and a lone unknown young lady wandering the wood's, quite mad. That caused quite a stir back in 1936. Since that time we haven't tried to clear the woodland during the summer solstice and almost every year a tourist or local disappears for a spell.
Present day legend has it that the mound now only seeks a virgin lass. That tale may well be the invention of the local lads trying their best to protect their sweethearts from a virgin's fate.
It was two elderly women; birder's out in the early morning mist, who found the girls body. She lay on the hollow of land where the two burns mingled. She was naked, bruised and alive, but completely unresponsive. It was almost as if her mind had fled her body to some better place.
We knew how to deal with these situations but the two birders who found her called in the county authorities. That was unfortunate for they in turn called in more outsiders and a " Major Crimes Unit" came up from Edinburgh to investigate.
She was a blonde tourist from New Zealand, a schoolteacher I believe. As luck would have it she was one of five young ladies who had happened to win an all expenses paid mid summer trip offered by our local tourist board.
She was no real help to the investigators. She had obviously been assaulted, but other than some bruises and abrasions she was in fair shape. She occasionally whispered what one Inspector swore he thought sounded like " Tram Line" but in any event she seemed completely disconnected from reality. They found no semen so the investigators concluded the assailment must have used "protection" to hinder their investigation. The local constable rolled his eyes at that one but said nothing and let the professionals have their way.
She had nearly torn off two fingernails in the struggle. The scrapings yielded a lot of detritus but no trace of human flesh. The investigators were also at a loss to explain her lack of clothing until one of the local lads took pity and lead them up to the top of the bluff and then to the mound. They found some bits of her pink cotton nightgown and a white terry cloth robe but it only added to the investigator's puzzlement.
What little was found was in such tiny fragments it was impossible to tell what had happened. It was almost as if her clothing had suddenly turned as brittle as fine porcelain and then shattered into a million bits. More peculiarly some of those strands of cloth were found imbedded in both trees and rocks at distances up to forty paces from the mound.
The special team mucked about for a few weeks complaining of the lack of local assistance. The woman's cuts and bruises were treated and then she was sent away to a psychiatric ward with a diagnosis of " hysterical amnesia". There was a whiff of scandal some 28 days later when an orderly of 23 years standing was let go. When the unnamed occurrence reoccurred at the next rising of a new moon the man was reinstated with back pay and a proper apology. On the third month when the near comatose patient was fully restrained and the incident happened yet again our village council stepped forward and offered to take the poor woman into a suitable local nursing home.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and life returned to normal. The woman remains nearly catatonic but for those evenings when a new moon rises. It is then that you can find her naked on her hands and knees panting grunting and thrusting back against an ethereal lover only she can see. The following morning will find her as unresponsive as ever with fresh bruises and abrasions though we all know they are purely psychosomatic. Throughout the month her belly swells with the growth of the moon in an accelerated parody of gestation. This too can be explained away by the psychiatric professionals that oversee her. When the new moon is born her womb empties and then her lover returns.
It has been going on for almost nine months now. If all goes as it always has she will awaken after the thirteenth lunar cycle. She will have lost a year, and whatever maidenly virtue she had arrived with. We should all be grateful. There's been no deaths for nearly seventy years now. The old gods have become much less demanding. I guess all things Scottish mellow with age. The Villagers often take up a collection for the befuddled lass when she wakens and before they send her on her way.
But enough of this sad tale. Lets raise a pint of bitter now for It's time to look to the future. The council has sent out five new prize vacation packages in the afternoon post. The women are all young, and single, every one of them with golden hair. Hopefully at least one of them will tickle Tam Lin's fancy.
Copyright © Mad Lews 2005