Chapter 179 - Zenzele, My Captor part 6

In a slave culture, it is not unusual for a bondman to be used for his or her master's sexual gratification, and so I cautioned myself not to see more in her actions than she actually intended. She was desirous, and she had used me for her satisfaction. And yet she had brushed her lips to mine, and she'd confessed that she had dreamed of me, and that had a profound significance to me. I could not stop thinking of it. I also could not bring myself to feel offended by her use of me, though intellectually I knew I should.

We changed quietly into outside clothes.

She had produced new garments for me to wear, borrowing them from one of the other men. The new clothes lay folded near the stone hearth. I dressed, and then she bid me to assist her with some of the straps of her breast and shoulder plating.

As I fumbled with the ties, I inclined my nose to her nape and breathed in her scent.

"Stop that!" she snapped, elbowing me in the stomach. I chuckled, falling back a step, and she turned suddenly and began to whip me with her leather strap. Two, three times, she brought it down across my shoulder and chest, her lips peeled back in fury. "Don't you understand?" she hissed at me.

I retreated from her, stunned, raising my hands to ward off her blows.

She stared at me in disbelief for a moment, and then she snarled, "You are a fool!"

She turned abruptly and stalked away, ducking through the flap of the tent.

Her flurry of blows had not harmed me, of course, but I was duly chastised nonetheless. She was right. There was much about the culture of these vampires I was ignorant of. I had taken a very tiny liberty of her to my way of thinking, drawing close to her, smelling her hair. But I had laughed when she commanded me to stop. Perhaps my lack of respect was the reason for her violent reaction. Perhaps sexual relationships were frowned upon among the blood drinkers of the east. She might even be bound to another, and our coupling an illicit affair! There was too much I did not know, too many lives dependent on my actions.

You are behaving like a fool! I thought, rubbing my stinging chest, and with that I followed her outside, and into the glittering white world that awaited.