AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Check out other books by Candace Blevins at candaceblevins.com.
Keep reading for an excerpt from,Cat out of Hell, Becca and Kendric’s story
Cat out of Hell Excerpt
Becca was traded to the Hell realm when she finally messed up enough to receive a death sentence. At first, she’d preferred Hell to death most days, but once she was traded to a different Lord of Hell, even a painful death would’ve been preferable.
The Amakhosi couldn’t leave Becca in the situation she’d landed, but what to do with her if he could get her back? She’d earned her death sentence and couldn’t be trusted on her own, but what if her years in Hell had changed her?
Kendric was once known as Caligula. Now he’s a porn king, and the Master Vampire of Florida. His tastes have always run to the sadistic and macabre, but he’s known for being fair to his slaves and underlings. He also prefers feline shifters to all others. When the Amakhosi offers him one of his problem cats, neither man is sure who will be doing whom a favor. They agree to decide that part later, and Becca lands in Kendric’s coterie house as his newest slave.
After two thousand years of life, Kendric has never found another soul so much like him. Letting others see his preferences and penchants once set him up for assassination, and it got Becca sent to Hell. Could he teach her how to hide her true nature and play by the rules of society when in public? Most importantly, after the decades of abuse she’s survived, could she ever enjoy intimacy with a man? Was this his punishment for breaking so many people over the centuries, so when he finally found his soul mate, she’d been irreparably broken?
Chapter Three
Kendric sat outside the coterie house to await his new lioness. The Amakhosi had warned him she’d been broken to the extent of being non-verbal, though she could understand a few basic commands. He said she did okay with the bathroom, and she’d progressed to finger foods, but she was still a long way from using utensils to eat.
She’d been a sex slave to her first two masters in Hell, but had been reduced to being an animal by her third master, and Nathan wasn’t sure how permanent some of those changes would be. Kendric had spoken with Brooke at length, and the tiny vampire felt as if the motherfucker had done something in Becca’s brain to disconnect the language portion from the rest. She hadn’t delved into her head to look though, because she’d felt as if Becca would see it as a violation.
His Majesty said Becca had offered herself to him sexually more than once — not with words, but by positioning herself as most sex slaves are taught. His Majesty had picked her up and held her as one would a child, rather than make her feel unwanted. Kendric wasn’t certain that would be the right choice for him, though he wasn’t going to decide until he’d spent some time with her.
Who knows, she may not feel comfortable enough with him to make the offer.
Of course, the opposite was true as well. She may fear him so much, she’d make the offer in an attempt to placate him — to make herself too useful to damage.
The van pulled in and Kendric looked at the table once more. Milk in fancy glasses, warm cinnamon buns on a stainless platter buffed to look silver, and fresh strawberries, still on the stems so she’d have to pick them off. He’d talked to Jess, her old pride leader, and found out these were two of her favorite foods. Not at the same time, apparently, but that was okay. She’d pick whichever treat she wanted.
Usually, when he took over a territory, he had a house built to his custom specs, but the previous Master Vampire had good taste, and Kendric was pleased with the coterie house. One entire underground floor was set aside for his residence, along with a domed, glass office on the roof, so he could see all around him. Best of all, the old Master had a wonderful dungeon, complete with jail cells to house six people.
Kendric stood, walked to the van, and opened the sliding door on the side. He’d asked to be the one to release her from her bondage, and the Amakhosi had understood without any explanation — her first contact with the scary, powerful vampire she didn’t know would be positive. Kendric could hold his power in, but broken people sometimes sensed power even when said power was tightly leashed.
His first look at her nearly took his breath away. Her eyes reflected intelligence and brutality, and he sensed a kindred soul. The poor thing had spent a lifetime being leashed, forced to inhibit her true nature so she could better reflect other people’s opinions of who she should be. Likely her parents at first, then her various pride leaders, culminating in the Amakhosi himself. Of course she’d never been good enough for any of them — she was never meant to be good.
She was like Kendric, and she’d only thrive if she could be bad.
He’d planned to hold off on telepathing her, but she needed to hear what he had to tell her, and it was none of the Amakhosi’s business. Brooke would be able to hear it if she was in Becca’s head, but he didn’t sense her there at that moment.
Here’s a promise, from me to you, Becca: If you behave in my household, and find ways to prove your trustworthiness, then you’ll be the one putting others into restraints, rather than being the one who needs to be put into them. Just to make certain she understood, he imagined her sadistically tightening an armband on someone before she took him from a jail cell, and then snapping a leash onto the man’s genital piercing to walk him upstairs to a dungeon playroom.
Becca’s eyes met his, and he scented sexual arousal. Oh yes, he was going to have fun with this one.
She’d been in the back seat with steel wrist and ankle cuffs chained to the floor in front of her. She’d have been comfortable enough for the trip, but still, shackled like an animal. He understood why — it isn’t safe to transport unpredictable shapeshifters unless they’re restrained in some fashion. His Majesty handed him the key, and it took only a moment to release her and then help her from the van.
Aloud, he said, “His Majesty wants to sit with us a few moments, to be certain you feel safe with me before he leaves you in my tender care. Do you know what I am?”
She responded telepathically, with words.Vampire. Power.
Brooke’s sharp look up told him she’d heard, and he figured she was telepathing Nathan to let him know.
“That’s right, my beautiful Lioness. My name is Kendric. Walk with me to the table. I have a surprise for you.” He sent a telepathic image of them walking to the table, and her watching him lift the dome from the plate, but he didn’t show her what was under it in this image. He wanted it to be a surprise.
Her energy wasoffin a way that told him the demons had fucked with her head, but he’d wait until they were alone before he went in to see what they’d done. Originally, he’d planned to do it the first time she needed to be punished, since going so deeply into her brain would be painful, but now that he’d met her, he thought it might be better to explain what he needed to do, and to get her consent for him to do it.
But not tonight. Tomorrow, perhaps.
Waves of happiness rolled off her when he lifted the dome and she saw and scented the warm cinnamon rolls. He sent her an image to show her how to eat them — seated, lifting a roll to her mouth, and then taking a drink of milk to wash it down. She met his gaze, sat in the chair he’d imagined her in, and did exactly as he’d shown her.
The Amakhosi stood ten feet behind her, his arms at his side, watching. Observing.
