Sold To The Master Read online

  Sidney wants to be fertile, to produce heirs.

  A life for a life.

  My eyes fly open. If he wants to bring children into this world, then someone has to die for it, and if he wants more than one child – which he’s effectively asking for by asking for his infertility to be reversed – then the price will be even higher. The price is not just anyone’s life, but the life of the person he loves most.

  I never know exactly how the information comes to me. It’s like a voice, but my own voice, my own thoughts, and though I know it comes from somewhere else, it never sounds like anyone, or anything, other than me.

  I climb into bed, but my exhaustion has gone.

  Who does Master Sidney love the most?

  I know so little about this man, and yet I find it hard to believe there is anyone he loves at all, let alone someone he loves the most.

  There are no children about to steal his affection, no nieces or nephews, so that rules that out. And that wouldn’t make sense anyway, why take a child’s life, just to bring more into the world?

  Could it be his mother? I’ve heard nothing at all about her, just bitter words about his father and brothers. It must be. I feel a stab of sorrow at the thought that a woman I’ve never met, who has probably had a terribly hard life anyway, will have to die just so a man can produce more children.

  I fall asleep, the thought weighing heavily on my mind. I’ll have to ask Sidney when he summons me next, I have to know who is going to lose their life over this.

  I shouldn’t feel guilt about something I have no control over, but I do. Every time someone else’s life is affected, I wish I could go back in time, and not sign away my powers. I wish I’d fought them, instead of letting fear take over and control me.

  The next day is long. Nancy’s place as head of the group is slipping, and she knows it, so my day is filled listening to her snide remarks about me being a witch and seducing Sidney, and using my powers to twist things in my favour.

  But even the women who have been her closest friends have stopped laughing along with her, and those who were never comfortable with laughing along in the first place come to sit with me at meal times, or insist on joining me when I talk a walk out through the gardens.

  And those who always seemed unsure have split into two groups.

  One of the younger women, she must be around twenty, follows me around all day.

  “I’m Stacey.” She speaks quietly, and I can barely hear her. “I’m sorry about all the terrible things Nancy has said. I never agreed with them, you know, I was just scared. But I should’ve spoken up, because I know a few of the other women were the same. We could’ve backed each other up.”

  I force my expression to remain neutral, though I really want to laugh.

  “You want to know what I did to please Master Sidney,” I say, cutting to the chase. She blushes, but nods.

  “I’ll tell you, because you’re the first person who’s actually apologised to me, and acknowledged what you should’ve done.” I pause, watching her as she nods. “I talked to him.”

  She frowns. “I don’t understand.”

  I stop, and look at her. “He’s troubled. He’s got all sorts of demands on him, and all sorts of worries, and sometimes he just needs to offload. So I ask him questions about how he’s feeling, and then I listen as he rants about his troubles.”

  “And, that’s it?” Stacey looks terribly confused. “What about the baby making?”

  Stacey is one who has been with Sidney three or four times, now, if my memory serves me correctly. He probably thought her youth would make her more fertile, and he’d be right, too. She’s one of the few who has never spoken about her time with him, and I wonder if it’s because it wasn’t the wonderful experience the other women claim. “I remind him that baby-making works better if the woman is relaxed and comfortable. If it’s enjoyable for both parties. I remind him to slow down, to take his time.”

  Her eyes widen. “You say that to him?”

  I shrug. “He wants babies, doesn’t he? And he wants them sooner rather than later. I mean, yes, filling women with his seed will do the job eventually, but it’s going to be a darn sight faster if he actually treats a woman properly.”

  “Is that why he rejected you on that first night, because you spoke to him like that?” There’s a sense of awe in her tone, and I wish I could laugh, and tell her I’m just like she is, just as scared and uncertain and trapped.

  Instead I shrug again. “I don’t know. Probably. It seems he’s not used to being spoken to in such a way.”

  “I don’t think I could do that.” Stacey shakes her head. “How did you ever find that sort of courage? What if I speak to him like that and he rejects me?”

  I hold her gaze. “He called me back, didn’t he? And gave me a room of my own? Doesn’t that tell you something?”

  Stacey is biting her lip, and I can tell she’s terrified at the thought of standing up to any master. She’s young enough that she was probably taken as a child, had obedience beaten into her from a young age. I doubt she even remembers what life was like, before the shifters came and took over.

  “You don’t have to speak to him like an equal,” I say gently. “Just remind him to slow down. Ask for a kiss. Don’t let him just pound away at you like you are some sort of rag doll.”

  She nods, blinking away tears, and I sense I’ve hit a nerve with that final comment. I see from the corner of my eye Nancy and two of her friends leaving the quarters.

  “Look,” I say. “You seem very nice, and you’re so much younger than the rest of us. I won’t tell anyone else my secret, so you have a chance to try it out too, next time Sidney picks you. If you want to share it, well,” I shrug. “I guess that’s up to you.”

  I stride past Nancy and her group, back into the house.

  It’s getting close to time to get dressed, and I really don’t want to get into another argument right now. Not when I have a master to get ready for.

  Chapter 6

  There’s a flurry of movement long before the alarm rings this afternoon.

  Women are shaving and plucking, shaping eyebrows and styling hair, and finding dresses that give the illusion of a slimmer waist, and a larger bust, a more curvaceous body.

  I ignore it. I don’t bother shaving my legs anymore, it’s pretty clear Sidney doesn’t actually want to try and make babies with me, though I do give my underarms a go over before I slip into my dress.

  I don’t shape my eyebrows, and I put on even less makeup than I ever have in the past.

  Nancy sneers at me. “You’re too cocky,” she says. “You think he’ll pick you regardless of how you look? As if anyone would want you, looking like this.”

  I just raise an eyebrow, and turn away. No point wasting my energy on her.

  We line up, as usual, and Sidney arrives, and requests me to accompany him, and the women’s mouths drop open again as I follow him out of the room.

  No one else has ever been requested two nights in a row.

  He offers me a seat, and walks to the same table pouring himself another glass of whiskey.

  “What’s the price?” he asks, turning to me.

  “What? Not going to offer me a drink?” I’m teasing, trying to lighten the mood, but he just scowls and turns to pour me a glass.

  He hands it to me, taking a step back to stand with his arms crossed.

  “The price?”

  I take a sip, closing my eyes to savour the burn that travels down my throat, the slight numbing I feel inside. Better.

  I open my eyes, and hold his gaze.

  “The price is a life for a life.”

  He glares at me. “What does that even mean?”

  “You want to bring more children into this world. So if you want to create a life, you have to lose one.”

  His face pales. “I have to die? So I conceive a child, and then I die? What good is that?”

  “No. No.” I shake my head. “Not you. But it will be som
eone you love.”

  “Huh.” He snorts, taking a gulp of his drink. “That’ll be hard. I don’t love anyone.”

  That’s certainly the impression I get, though I keep that thought to myself. Besides, it can’t be true, else the universe would never have claimed that as the price.

  There’ll be someone he loves. Everyone has someone they love, even the most hard hearted person.

  I take another mouthful. “There’s more,” I say. “What you’re asking for is not just one life. You’re asking for the possibility to create an untold number of children. So it’s not just someone you love. It’s the person you love the most.”

  He sinks down on the bed, and lets out a deep sigh. I move across the room to sit next to him. When he doesn’t push my away I reach out to take his hand.

  “There must be someone you love? Even if there is only one person.”

  He shakes his head. His eyes still closed.

  “What about your mother? You never talk about her. You must love your mother.”

  “She died when I was a child. I might’ve loved her, if I remembered her. But that wouldn’t help much for this, would it?”

  I shake my head. “No.”

  I can’t help but feel the strangest sense of relief that this unknown woman is not going to be sacrificed just so her son can have children.

  “Who could it be then?”

  He looks at me. “I told you, I don’t love anyone. Do I need to name someone? Do we need to fetch them? Do I need to kill them myself?”

  I shake my head again. “The universe will deal with that. It knows who you love the most. If you kill the wrong person, the universe will still take the one who means the most to you.” I wonder if he loves one of the women in our quarters, one of the one’s he’s kept. He hasn’t summoned any of them since we new women arrived, but he must be keeping them for some reason.

  Perhaps it’s one of them.

  I suppress the shiver that threatens. I really don’t want to wake up to a dead woman in our rooms, and my feelings of guilt over the potential loss of Sidney’s mother are now directed to those three women. I’ve never bothered to try to actually speak to any of them, since that first failed attempt, and now I think about it, I don’t think any of the other women in my group ever have either. Those women probably know something we don’t, they could probably help us get through this in some way.

  Sidney interrupts my thoughts. “So the spell won’t work?”

  I give his hand a squeeze. “There will be someone you love, even if you don’t want to admit it to yourself. All you need to do is accept the price. Once the spell is cast, everything else will happen in accordance with that.”

  He opens his eyes, his gaze meeting mine.

  Once again I see the vulnerable person hiding behind the facade of power and strength.

  He takes a deep breath. “I accept the price,” he whispers.

  I nod, and move to kneel on the floor before him.

  He watches me, letting me take both of his hands in mine, and I press them together, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath as I feel the power spiralling around and through me.

  I picture him, two children by his side, looking happier, and younger, and infinitely more attractive than he does right now.

  A chill travels my spine,and I feel him shudder as it passes through him, too. That power I have access too, using me to build up, and pass from the world of energy into the world of the physical.

  It’s finished in a moment, and I open my eyes to find him watching me, his pupils dilated.

  “Was that it?” he asks, his voice husky.

  I nod. “It’s done.”

  “Right now, so fast? There doesn’t need to be time for it to work? I don’t need to wait a week?”

  I laugh. “No. It’s done.” I peer up at him. “Do you feel any different?”

  He stands, and strides to the door and back.

  “I do,” he says, tensing his muscles as though my spell made him physically stronger, instead of simply fertile. “I feel amazing. I feel powerful.”

  I pull myself to my feet.

  “I’m glad.”

  We’re standing so close that I can feel the warmth radiating from his body, smell the sweet musky scent of him, and I realise with a start that there’s a warmth pooling in my groin, that I actually feel attracted to this man.

  The man I saw in my vision was certainly attractive enough, and I suppose I can now see him, like some sort of ghostly underlay, every time I look at Sidney.

  I hold his gaze, and lick my lips. He leans forward ever so slightly, and I’m sure he’s going to kiss me, and I realise I actually want him to. But then he hesitates. Instead of kissing me, he holds my head between his hands, and presses his lips against my forehead.

  “Thank you, Lauren,” he says. “If this works, you have just saved my life.”

  He pulls away, and I push away the ridiculous sense of disappointment I feel.

  I don’t want to carry this man’s children, I remind myself. I don’t want to carry any man’s children. I just want to find my contract, tear it up, and set myself free.

  “You are free to go,” he says. “You can keep the room. If this spell works, you can keep the room permanently.” He sounds excited, and I force a smile.

  “Thank you,” I say.

  “Send up someone else, will you?”

  I nod. “Anyone in particular?”

  “Whoever you think is the most likely to give me an heir.”

  I nod again, but when I reach the door, I hesitate.

  “Can I remind you, Sir, to take things slowly, to find what it is that pleases her, to make sure she orgasms, several times, preferably.”

  He grins, and I sense the change in him already. “If you think that will help, I will make it my top priority.”

  I close the door behind me, and close my eyes. I feel like I’m about to burst into tears, and I can’t possibly return to the quarters like that. I take several long slow breaths, calming my racing heart, pushing away my disappointment.

  I have some semblance of freedom. A room of my own. It’s what any slave dreams of, isn’t it? I should be happy with that. It’s far more than I ever received from any other Master I performed magic for.

  Once I’ve regained control of my emotions I take long purposeful strides back to the room full of waiting women.

  Tonight everyone is already undressed, faces washed free of makeup. They obviously did not expect me back so soon, and when I appear, everyone’s face looks up in surprise.

  “Rejected again,” Nancy sniggers. “Guess you can’t repeat whatever magical performance you managed last night.”

  I ignore her, and speak instead to Darla.

  “The Master said he wishes to try two women a night, instead of just one. He hopes it will increase his chances,” I say, loud enough for the room to hear.

  “So I’m to pick another woman?” Darla asks, already glancing at the other women in the room.

  “No.” I shake my head. “He’s asked specifically for Stacey.”

  The room goes quiet again, and Stacey’s face burns bright red. I can feel their shock. He’s asked for another woman by name?

  Of course he hasn’t, but I don’t want them to know that, I want them to think he’s requested her specifically.

  I hope it means the other women treat her better, though of course I can’t be certain that will happen.

  Darla gestures for her to make a move.

  “I’m not ready,” Stacey says, her voice small as she approaches the door.

  “He knows this is unexpected,” I say, reaching out to squeeze her shoulder. “He knows you will changed by now.”

  She nods, and I see a tiny sparkle of hope in her gaze as she hurries out the door, towards his rooms.

  What I said was not entirely true, and I hope he doesn’t send her back for it.

  All around me the room falls into quiet chatter, and I head to the kitchen I get myself food.


  “Master Sidney nevers asks for anyone by name.” Darla says, following behind me. “He didn’t ask for her by name either, did he?”

  I shake my head, but avoid looking at her.

  “Are you looking after her?”

  “I hope so,” I say. “I don’t know for sure what’s going to happen next, but I hope it’s good.”

  Whatever else happens, Sidney doesn’t send Stacey back that night. In fact so far as I can tell, she spends the night with him.

  That bodes well. If he treated her well, and they made love several times, and then fell asleep together, that’s surely got to mean something.

  When Stacey finally returns, after we’ve all eaten breakfast, her face is glowing, and I can tell Sidney treated her very well indeed. Even better, I can see the changes in her energy, the new tiny spiralling just below her belly button.

  The spell worked. Stacey is pregnant.

  I can’t tell her without giving myself away, but the thought warms me. If anyone deserves this chance at freedom, it’s her.

  The other women look at her as she enters. Nancy and her closest companions deliberately turn away, but the other women look on in awe.

  No one has ever come back from a night with the Master looking so fulfilled.

  I pull her aside later. “How was it?” I ask.

  She gazes at me with such awe and respect. “It was amazing. I’ve never experienced anything like it before. I asked him for a kiss, and he kissed me. And I asked him to go slow, and he did, and he was so tender, and gentle.”

  Her eyes close as she relives the memory, and a smile spreads across her face, as her cheeks turn a rosy red.

  “He did things I never imagined a man could do to a woman. Or would want to do to a woman, or would even be enjoyable to have done to me.”

  She opens her eyes. “Thank you, Lauren. Thank you for everything.”

  I give her a hug. “We’re all in this together,” I say. “We need to work together, to make this life the best it can be, under the circumstances. Not tear each other down.”

  She nods, and I feel so happy that I’ve made things better, for at least one other person.