Ursula squealed with delight and sat up suddenly, bouncing up and down for a moment before exclaiming, “I love presents!”
Giselle smiled. “Would you like to play tonight?”
Ursula’s eyes opened wide and an eager grin made her pale flesh almost glow. “We haven’t played in days! Oh! Do I get to do whatever I want to our playmate?”
“Anything your heart desires.”
“Anything? Seriously? Even…”
Giselle laughed. “Even that.”
Ursula moved to the side of the bed and lifted a bell off a marble end table. “Should I ring for Mr. Schreck?” She shook the bell by its black handle (though not hard enough to produce a tone) and grinned. “Have him fetch one of the fresher arrivals, perhaps?”
Giselle pulled Ursula close again and stroked the girl’s long, shimmering hair. Hair the color of sunshine. “You’ve wanted a playmate and you’ll have one. But I want to properly show my affection for you. No mere slave will do.”
Ursula gasped. “You can’t mean…no, you can’t, surely not. Do you mean…” She made a sound of exasperation. “Oh, I can’t make myself say it.”
Giselle clasped hands with Ursula. The younger girl’s chest was heaving as she struggled to control a burgeoning euphoria. It was a lovely, delicious thing to see. “Darling, is there any one person you hate more than anything else in the world?”
Ursula’s eyes blazed with a degree of intense excitement Giselle normally only glimpsed in the deepest throes of passion. “Gwendolyn.”
Giselle smiled. “I thought as much. Which is why I’ve taken the liberty of planning ahead.”
Ursula clapped her hands together and squealed.“Yes!”
Giselle got off the bed and strode quickly to a nearby wardrobe. She opened the wardrobe and withdrew a pink satin bathrobe, which she shrugged into and closed by loosely knotting the white sash at the waist. Then she crooked a finger at Ursula and said, “Follow me.”
Ursula hopped off the bed and hurried to catch up with Giselle, who had just come to a stop at a blank patch of wall. “Why are we staring at this wall?” Ursula crossed slim arms beneath her breasts and frowned. “I want Gwendolyn.”
“This is no ordinary wall, dear.”
Ursula’s frown deepened. “Stop teasing me and get on with it.”
The girl’s impatience made Giselle pause a moment longer. She wanted to spoil Ursula. Wanted to pamper her, give her everything she desired. But her behavior at the moment was a shade shy of outright insolence. She considered delaying gratification for Ursula a while longer, even briefly thought of withdrawing the gift altogether.
But Ursula must have sensed her anger because she suddenly smiled and said, “Please.”
Most of Giselle’s anger melted at the sight of that smile. She decided not to withhold the promised gift. She would discipline Ursula later.
“Very well.”
She looked at the wall and focused her will. A dim, door-shaped outline formed in an instant, then quickly became more defined. She directed energy at the door and it began to move inward, revealing a wedge of darkness so black it seemed like a living thing, an unfathomable predator waiting with infinite patience to draw the unsuspecting into its sticky embrace. Giselle had a reflexive shudder of fear at the sight of it, but the sensation passed quickly. That strange dark energy was hers to command at will now. Once the door was fully open, she grasped one of Ursula’s hands and was unsurprised to find it cold and trembling.
Ursula let out a shuddery breath. “I don’t know if I want to go in there.”
Giselle chuckled. “Nonsense.”
Then she tightened her grasp on Ursula’s hand and led her into that deep darkness. Despite the reassurances, the girl clutched at her as they moved further into the room, a helpless, barely audible whine issuing from the back of her throat. She shrieked when the heavy stone door behind them slammed shut with an echoing boom.
Giselle decided to show a measure of mercy and released a small energy pulse. An array of candles and torches sparked to life, columns of flame driving back the oppressive darkness in places.
Ursula cupped a hand over her eyes and blinked against the sudden glare. Then she glimpsed the small form huddled in a corner of the suspended cage and grinned. She let go of Giselle and moved to a spot almost directly beneath the slowly swinging cage. Her mouth opened wide as she stared in rapt awe at the sight of her imprisoned rival’s nude—and only slightly bruised—body.
“So…beautiful.” Her voice was low and reverent. “I can’t believe she’s really mine.”
Giselle smiled.“Believe it. Nothing’s too good for you.”
Ursula abruptly came away from the cage and pulled Giselle into a rough embrace. “Thank you so much.” She kissed her hard on the mouth, then beamed at her again. “I love you for this.”
“You deserve it, Ursula.” Giselle smiled. “I would do almost anything for you.”
Ursula touched her face. “I know. You spoil me.”
Then she stepped out of the embrace and moved back to her previous position under the cage. Giselle felt a small pang at her departure, craved the return of that special warmth. A troubled look crossed her face. She had become one of the most powerful creatures on earth. Nothing should trouble her. She should be able to do as she pleased with impunity, with absolutely no concern for consequences. But she did worry about her deepening feelings for Ursula. In the immediate aftermath of killing Eddie, she’d believed herself to be cleansed of the capacity to feel things like love for other creatures. And in the beginning, she’d been able to believe that all she felt for Ursula was a simple animal lust.
Then a week passed and Ursula was still sharing her bed. A week after that it was apparent a real bond of some sort was forming between them, something beyond the obvious balance-of-power connection between Mistress and slave. And now, a full month after their first night together, they had progressed to a stage that could only be construed as romance. Given the way her heart seemed to swell against her chest wall every time Ursula so much as looked at her with a certain glint in her eyes, no other label for what was transpiring could be appropriate.
Yes, there could be little doubt now.
I’m falling in love with her, Giselle thought. How stupid.
Stupid because the very act of falling in love with a person carried with it an implicit vulnerability. It meant the other person in the relationship possessed the ability to hurt you more than any other person possibly could. The potential was there—albeit slight—for someone else to influence the girl against her. She was relatively certain that, despite being firmly under her thumb, every person in her employ was satisfied with their position here. One of the first things she’d done after assuming power was to identify potential troublemakers and purge them from the ranks. But it was just possible that someone who sought to avenge Ms. Wickman’s death remained, and Giselle would be a fool to assume such a person would not at least entertain the notion of recruiting Ursula as an assassin. She doubted very much that the girl could be swayed to an enemy’s side, given her newly exalted position, but one could not afford to be complacent about such things.
Ursula had retrieved a torch from one of the wall sconces and was raising it toward the unconscious form in the cage. The leading edge of the billowing flame licked at Gwendolyn’s body, and Giselle cringed at the memory of the acetylene torch applied to her mutilated flesh in the back of a limo. Gwendolyn awoke with a shriek and jumped away from the searing heat, making the thick metal chain that held the cage suspended above the floor groan as the cage swayed wildly. Ursula laughed and shifted position beneath the cage, raising the flame again. There was a faint sizzle of burning meat as Gwendolyn danced away from the flame and began to plead for mercy. Giselle felt a tiny flicker of sympathy. Not so long ago she’d been in the same position. Desperate, her spirit broken, her dignity gone.