Cassie walked over to the platform that had been placed in the room. She took slow measured steps as she kept trying to shake off the wrongness of what she was doing, but she couldn’t stop. The Rapture flowing in her pushed her forward and as the music began, she was lost. She stepped onto the platform and her body took over. She moved with the beat and though she did not understand the words that the elves sang, she knew that it was a song of love and loss. Her hips swayed. Her arms flowed around her as they rose above her and her head fell back. She didn’t know where she had learned to dance in such a way but she did. She danced until sweat pearled on her skin and trailed down her spine. She danced until the pain returned and she fell to the floor. She tried to remain calm. Lorsan had had her beaten the last time that she had lost control in the presence of others. She heard his voice over the pounding of her heart.

“Get her Rapture,” he snapped over the concerned voices of the others.

Flora was suddenly kneeling beside her. “Cassie,” she whispered. “Cassie here, take this.”

Something in Cassie cried out. She tried to push the cup away; she didn’t want anymore. She didn’t want to be drunk on it, to not feel, to not remember.

“Please Flora, no,” she groaned quietly. “Don’t make me.” The plea was thick on her tongue as she swallowed back a scream.

“You must,” Flora insisted. “You must or he will hurt you.”

“Then let him hurt me,” Cassie growled and she knew her eyes must be wild with the withdrawals from the Rapture.

“You don’t want that,” Flora told her. “Just drink this and it will be better.”

Cassie slapped the cup away and red liquid splashed all over Flora. “I DON’T WANT IT!” She yelled. She tried to get up but her arms and legs were too weak. So she crawled. She crawled to the edge of the platform and booted feet met her. Suddenly she was in strong arms and being carried out of the throne room.

“I will take her to her room. She just needs some rest my liege,” Cassie heard the deep voice rumble in the man’s chest as she lay her head against him. Pain wracked her body.

“Shh,” he crooned. “You will be fine little one.”

The words stirred something deep in her. Little one ? Hadn’t someone else called her that?

A door opened and then closed and then she was being laid softly on a bed.

“Open your eyes for me, beautiful,” the deep voice told her. But she couldn’t. He had called her beautiful and that too was familiar. Why?

“I need to know that when I leave this room that you are going to be alright. So please Cassie, open your eyes.”

Cassie? He had called her Cassie. She had only been Cassandra since she had been here. Where was here and when had she gotten here? She was so confused, her mind so jumbled. She opened her eyes and for some reason she expected to see silver eyes, but green ones stared back at her.

He smiled at her and she had to admit that he was breathtaking, but hedid not stir her heart.

“There you are,” he murmured.

She cringed in pain and felt her breathing increase. She needed the drink, the red liquid that made everything better.

“Please,” she whispered, “I need…”

“No,” he told her sternly. “I intend for you to be mine, and I will not have some mindless addict. You will be sober when you come to me.”

Her eyes narrowed as she stared into his handsome face.

“Yours?” she asked.

He nodded once. “You are to be my Bound, or I suppose you would better understand if I was to call you my bride, my wife. Lorsan has already agreed, though the others do not know.”

“Wife?” For some reason her ability to speak had suddenly been reduced to one word sentences.

His lips turned up in a slow smile. “You are something to behold and soon you will dance only for me.”

Cassie felt herself recoil at the thought. She didn’t want to dance, not for anyone. She didn’t want to do anything but crawl into a hole and die. She must have spoken out loud for he growled at her.

“You will not die. I will make you happy. You will be fine and I will love you and you will love me.”

Love? Didn’t she already love someone? Didn’t someone love her? No , she remembered the dream. He said he didn’t love me. Who needed love? Love simply expanded your heart so that when it was ripped from your chest there was more to crush.

She closed her eyes and tried to sink into the darkness, away from the pain, away from the elf who laid claim to her, away from everything.

~

“Where is Alok?” Lorsan asked Tarron as he stood in the lab. He had left the throne room in a fit of anger after Cassie had collapsed. She was growing tolerant of the level of Rapture and was requiring more and more in order to maintain the euphoric state.

“Is there no way to maintain the potency for longer?” He asked his lead chemist. “She is requiring the drink more and more often in order to keep from having withdrawals.”

Tarron continued to mixing and pouring and studying the color of the mixture in the beaker. He finally looked up at Lorsan. “It will affect each human differently. Some will not require more to keep the feeling, others will, it just depends.”

“So nothing can be done?”

Tarron shook his head. “You need to try it on more humans, not just the girl.”

Lorsan sighed in frustration. “Fine, get some sent to Sereg; it’s the largest of my casinos. Have our people there choose some lucky winners and give away a couple of free nights at the hotel. Make sure they have plenty of spending money so they hang around. Begin by giving the drug to these people first. Tell them that the hotel is trying out some new drink “specials.” Watch them closely as you give them the Rapture and let me know how it goes. I will let Dorien know that you are coming; he has been acting as the CEO of Sereg.”