Blood Ties
Damage Control
Summary: Two vampires relearn a very old lesson.
Implements: Hand and Hairbrush
Warnings: A fairly harsh punishment, mention of murder, public humiliation (sort of )
Notes: Childe/Childer: What a vampire Master calles other vampires he has Sired.
Halfling/Fledgeling: A human who has drank a vampires blood but has not been embraced yet and has some of the vampire abilities, but not the thirst for blood. Also, sometimes a newly made vampire.
All vampires made by the same Master are referred to as 'siblings' and often call each other brother or sister when applicable, but this has nothing to do with incest.
I appologize now for the crappy formating, LoL.
Paulos looked down at the newspapers headline with a slowly smoldering anger. ‘Dance of Murder,’ it read in bold black letters on the front page. Not that a murder was big news in the heart of Atlanta, GA., but a girl dropping dead in the middle of the dance floor of a popular club brought its fair share of attention. The fact that she had four puncture marks, two on each side of her neck, brought even more. The reported appeared to think that it was some sadistic new kind of serial killer trying to bring to life peoples old fears of vampires. How interesting a concept, thought the old vampire master dryly.
He looked at his four childer lined up before him, plus his youngest who was but a fledgling and hadn’t yet been turned. Armand’s kind was generally referred to as ‘halflings,’ since they had some of the vampires’ gifts, but not the thirst for blood that a full vampire had. He knew that the boy couldn’t have done the deed, but he very well may know who had. The very fact that none of his childer had immediately admitted to the deed when it had happened had him very worried. Such incidents had brought down the destruction of entire Families before. He couldn’t allow anything to happen to his boys. He loved each of them as if they were of his own flesh and they were of his blood, so to speak.
“I want to know who did this…and I want to know now.” Though their Sire almost never raised his voice, the very intensity with which he said that last word told them just how angry he was. When no answer was immediately forthcoming he continued, “I could almost think that there was a rogue vampire in the city, but I did some investigating last night, as you well know, and for as big as this place is, if there was another vampire visiting without permission, I would still have sensed him or her. Which leads me to the regretful conclusion that one, possibly two, of my childes have put us all at risk for a little snack. Now, I want to know who it was that put all of us in this danger, and if I don’t know in the next five minutes, I am going to take off my belt and beat every one of you, yes, Armand as well, until I get an answer. Do I make myself entirely clear?” His steely voice rang off the walls of the room of the old manor in which they lived, far from the general populous.
“Yes, Sire,” came the half whispered, half strangled voices of the five.
“I will be in my quarters. When the culprit decides to ‘fess up,’ they can come find me.” With those words he exited through the door to the left and up the stairs to the master suite. A whispered argument broke out in his wake.
“I don’t care which one, or ones, of you idiots did this,” began Armand, “ but they had better tell the truth!”
“Watch your tone towards your elders, halfling,” said Erik, “Or you’ll have more to worry about than Sire.
Armand knew this to be true. While they would never truly hurt him, and rarely ever lifted a hand in discipline, (because their Sire was so very good at that himself) he knew that they could and would make his life miserable in other ways. “I’m sorry, Erik. It’s just that… well, Sire hasn’t had to use his belt on me in a long time,” he barely whispered. “I’d rather he not have a reason just now.” All his siblings understood exactly what he meant.
“Well,” said Erik again, “We were all at the club that night except Armand because he’s too young. I know for fact I didn’t do it, because I came home and drank two bags from the fridge.”
“And I know I didn’t do it either,” exclaimed Arlis. He added under his breath, “I’m not that stupid.” The others glared at him but he only shrugged unrepentently.
The first three looked to the remaining two who looked at each other. Markeen let out a heavy sigh followed by Dimitri’s statement of, “We’re fucked, aren’t we?”
“Yup, I’d say so,” replied Markeen. The other three looked at them with wide eyes. “Oh, shut up,” he added, even though they hadn’t said anything. Their eyes said it all.
“Come on,” muttered Dimitri who headed slowly up the stairs, followed by Markeen. The others watched them go with equal parts sympathy and relief that it wasn’t them going to face their angry Sire.
Paulos sat in one of his favorite chairs facing the empty hearth in his room, but placed so he could see the door from the corner of his eye. After about three and a half minutes he heard two pairs of footsteps on the great spiral staircase to the second floor. Before they reached the halfway point, he knew which two it was by their scent alone. He knew the particular scent of all his blood offspring and could track them by it after days had passed if necessary. Of course, if they were within a hundred miles he could find them simply by reaching into that part of his mind that held his link with each of them to know in which direction to travel.
The two guilty vampires paused at the door before almost slinking into the room to stand silently near the chair that contained their Sire and master. It didn’t escape his notice that they were carefully out of easy reach, not that he couldn’t change that very quickly. “Dimitri and Markeen, my two eldest childer,” Paulos began. “Two who should damn well KNOW better than to pull a stunt like that!” The two winced as their Sires voice slightly increased in volume. “Do you realize the danger you placed your brothers in, as well as yourselves?”
“Yes, Sire,” they said simultaneously. And he knew they did.
Many years ago there had been another sibling. Royce had lost his life after being indiscrete when choosing his place of feeding back in the late 1800’s. They had both known him as their newest sibling and both had cried while holding the ashes that were all that remained of their brother when the mob was done. Yes, they knew exactly what the consequences could be.
Which was precisely why Paulos didn’t understand why they would do such a thing. The danger may be much lessened now that the general populous basically didn’t believe in vampires anymore. But there was still danger there.
“We just got carried away,” whispered Dimitri.
“We were hungry. And she smelled so good,” added Markeen.
“We weren’t going to bite her, much less kill her, but once it was done, there was nothing we could do,” finished Dimitri with a sigh.
Well, that was true enough, thought Paulos. Short of turning her into a vampire as well, which they both knew was absolutely forbidden. Doing so would declare that they no longer wished to be a part of his family. Many vampires would leave their sire ate some point, but all of Paulos’s childer had a special connection with their maker. He had rescued all of them from various fates, and had loved all of them like they were his children, and then more than that. No matter how old they got, they would never see him as anything other than a guardian, often a lover, and would probably never leave him and the security and love he offered.
“You know I have to punish you for this,” he stated as he rose from his chair to stand before them. It wasn’t a question.
“Yes, Sire,” they replied, silently dropping to their knees and bowing their heads in submission.
“It has been a good while since either of you earned a punishment. At least 25 years, so I suppose your due.” The two probably would have chuckled if they hadn’t been so afraid of what punishment they would receive. “Against my better judgment, I won’t be using my belt on you, though you both desperately deserve it. As I said, it has been a good 25 years and I suppose that means something.” He barely heard a sigh of relief from one of them. “You will each be spanked for 20 strokes with my hand followed by another 20 with the hairbrush.” The two were silent. “Full force,” he added grimly.
He heard identical intakes of breath. Vampires were supernaturally strong and Paulos was forced to pull his blows. To do it ‘full force’ didn’t mean he would use all of his strength. Doing so would crush their bones and could almost break them in half. ‘Full force’ would mean that he would use the maximum amount of strength he felt could be used without crippling them. It wasn’t something he did very often or without VERY good reason.
He added one final indignity to their punishment to come. “Boys,” he called in a voice to carry down the stairs, “come up here please.” Both of the seemingly young men tensed again. To call the others upstairs could only mean that the punishment would be given before an audience. Neither said anything however, and Paulos gave a nod of approval that they felt more than saw.
Within moments the other three residents of the house were ranged inside the doorway, standing behind the kneeling guilty party. All were quite nervous. Except the master of course; he had done similar things many times before. Silently he walked to his drawing desk by the window to move the straight backed chair to the center of the room, near the two ‘boys’ before taking a seat.
“You will witness their punishment, so you’ll know that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated,” he informed the three standing to watch. They each muttered their acceptance and Paulos again nodded approval.
“Dimitri, you will be first. Bring me the hairbrush.” Dimitri rose and went to the dressing table on which sat his Sires large, wooden, flat backed hairbrush. He walked to the chair containing his master and again dropped to a knee offering the brush. “I have done what I knew to be wrong, and I submit myself to your punishment, Sire,” he whispered. This was a routine he had followed all too many times in the last 600 years. He felt the brush removed from his hand and placed on the floor next to the chair, within easy reach.
“Stand and bare yourself,” was the only reply.
Dimitri came to his feet and shakily unfastened the tight jeans he wore before sliding them down and completely off his legs. Silently he draped himself over his Sires legs allowing his long platinum blonde hair to brush the floor. When Paulos maneuvered his middle over his left thigh and trapped Dimitri’s legs between his own to restrain them, he knew this was going to be real bad. When his right arm was tapped in silent demand for his hand to be anchored to the small of his back, he knew this was going to be really, really bad. He was right.
The first swat came almost without warning and he gasped. The second brought tears to his eyes. By the fifth strike he cried allowed. By the tenth he was sobbing quietly. At the first sound of hand on flesh the other vampires in the room knew this was a ‘full force’ punishment. They had all experienced one at some point. Young Armand had only been with them for eight years, and while he had been over his master’s knee more than a few times, with both hand and brush, he had never heard or seen, much less experienced, anything like this. He silently hoped he never would.
Dimitri’s punishment continued. By the15th stroke he began to beg. “Please, Sire….. Please,” SPANK!!! “Ahhhh, Please, No more.” His cries and sobs grew louder until the 20th, harder one, at which he gave out a small yell. “AAAHHHHHH!!!!”
His Sire rubbed his back for a moment, allowing him a very brief respite. When he reached down for the hairbrush, Dimitri finally began to struggle to get away from his master. Paulos only tightened his hold around the vampire’s waist. The first slap of the hairbrush brought the first real scream. Everyone but the master flinched. In desperation the young vampire began to struggle and beg.
“Please, Sire! AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!! No! Please….” “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Paulos relentlessly continued concentrating on the crease where legs met buttocks and the upper thighs. Very quickly the proud and noble vampire was reduced to a limp, sodden, sobbing mess with a very, very red rear. After what seemed an eternity Paulos’s hand raised back for the last and hardest strike. SLAAAAAP!!!!! Dimitri let out the loudest scream yet and kept on screaming and keening in anguish at the pain in his backside. Somewhere in the part of his mind that was still functioning he knew that what was really hurting him so much was the fact that he had failed his master, his Sire, as well as his siblings. That was the greatest pain of all.
Paulos unclasped his legs after casually tossing the hairbrush towards his second, still kneeling childe and gently rubbed the limp back of the crying vampire before him, calming him with his touch. Gently he lifted Dimitri and set him on his lap, ignoring the hiss of pain when the fiery bottom was set upon his knee. He cuddled his childe too him and comforted him for a good ten minutes before he was collected enough to stand on his own, still sniffling. “Go stand in the corner now Dimitri.” His only response was a nod followed by compliance.
He rarely made them stand in the corner like small children, but he thought that the time there would be good for him as a place to further collect himself and to reflect on his actions. The beautiful straight platinum hair of his eldest childe brushed the top of his buttocks as he walked and Dimitri absently reached back to rub away the sting. Paulos cleared his throat in clear warning. Each hand jerked back to wrap around its opposite elbow as their owner reached the corner. There were rules to corner time after all.
Paulos gathered himself for the next go. “Markeen, come forward.”
Markeen reached a shaking hand out to pick up the hairbrush that had fallen in front of him. He took it up and walked the few feet to kneel again before his master and Sire, offering it to him with a badly shaking arm. “I-I have done w-what I knew to be wr-wrong, and I s-sub-submit to y-your p-pun-punishment,” he whispered very brokenly.
Taking the offered brush and again placing it next to the chair, he said, “Stand and bare yourself.”
Markeen stood and tried to adjust his clothes to suit his master but found his arms and now his whole body shaking so hard with fear that he couldn’t control them. He had heard and seen the results of Dimitri’s punishment and didn’t want the same to happen to him, even if he did deserve it. His master’s hand gripped his wrist and he flinched violently at the touch. Paulos made shushing noises and drew him to sit on his lap while turning the delicate chin to match loving emerald eyes to fearful hazel ones. A single tear escaped to roll down his cheek and was quickly followed by another. “I’m s-sorry master. I’m soooo sorry.” It was a heartfelt whisper that almost broke his Sire’s heart. But Paulos firmed up his resolution to do right by his childe.
“Do you deserve this?”
“Yes”
“Will you submit to this?”
“Yes”
“Alright then. Shall we continue?” It wasn’t really a question.
He drew the vampire again by the wrist until he was in position beside him. He happened to glance over towards Dimitri’s corner just in time to see a slender hand rubbing where it shouldn’t be. He paused long enough to clear his throat yet again. The hand was pulled back in front. “That was your last warning Dimitri.”
“Yes, Sire,” said the still stinging vampire. He knew the sting would fade naturally much faster than it would if he was a mortal. His Vampiric healing powers would see to that, though it would still hurt to sit for the next several hours. He could hurry it along by concentrating more power there for a short time, but that also wasn’t allowed. If you were caught doing that, then you had to repeat the entire experience that made you hurt that way, and then some. You also did without any healing at all, as any Master vampire can control the magic in his childer to some extent. He sighed and tried to endure.
Paulos returned his full attention to Markeen. Instead of asking the still shaking, though not as badly, vampire to bare himself, the master simply reached over and looped two fingers in the waistband of his sweatpants and drew them and his boxers to the floor. Markeen stepped out of the hampering objects and went across his Sire’s lap. His already spiky, short, red locks going even straighter due to gravity. He was quickly in the same position Dimitri had been in only moments before with legs and right hand pinned. Then it began.
It progressed much like Dimitri’s had, but Markeen cried out with the first spank of the hand. He was very quickly to the begging stage and was struggling before Paulos even reached for the hairbrush. He hated pain though he was a master himself when it came to giving it. He was well know for being extremely rough in bed and only Erik, who seemed to enjoy pain the majority of the time, spent much time there. Paulos knew that Markeen had a collection of paddles, belts, and whips to rival his own. When it came to receiving pain, however, the younger vampire was not up to the task He was usually very careful to not give his master a reason to put him over his knee or anything else. By the time the series of smacks and then slaps had come to an end Markeen could do nothing but lay there and scream, tears pouring down his cheeks.
As with Dimitri before him, Paulos lifted his childe into his lap to offer comfort. It took a bit longer than it had with his brother but after about fifteen minutes he finally stood him up and sent him to a corner. And turned just in time to glimpse Dimitri’s hands yanked back in front of him.
“Dimitri,” said the somewhat exasperated vampire, “Come here.” Even though the master hadn’t raised his voice, it still managed to crack like a whip. The reluctant vampire came to stand near his Sire, knowing what was likely coming, but stayed beyond arms reach. Paulos pointed to the floor directly in front of him and Dimitri slowly came to stand there, whimpering quietly. His Sire reached down to the floor and picked up the hairbrush again. Dimitri tried to back away but found his wrist in a vice that wasn’t letting go.
“Unless you want to go back over my knee for another 20 strokes Dimitri,” said the master, “I suggest you stand still.” With a sob Dimitri did so. Paulos turned him sideways to have better access to the still cherry rear. He reared back his arm and quickly placed 8 more swats on the buttocks before him, their owner giving a small scream at each one. After the last one he said, “Kneel.” When the childe did as ordered he drew up his chin to make their eyes meet and touched the invisible link between them.
Somewhere deep inside, Dimitri felt something change. Suddenly the fire in his bottom wasn’t receding as fast as it had been. He realized what his master had done and gasped. He lay his head on his masters thigh with a groan. “Please don’t do this Sire. I promise I won’t touch again. I’ll do extra chores, or – or whatever else you want, but please don’t make this last any longer,” he begged with yet another sob. What his Sire had done was cut off the flow of vampire magic that would bring swift healing. Without it we would wince every time he sat well into the next night. It wasn’t something he wanted to endure; though he knew begging would probably be futile. He was right.
“You shouldn’t have been touching in the first place,” Paulos said while stroking the silky hair in his lap. “I warned you, and you disregarded that warning. Next time, I hope you listen to me.” Again he lifted the narrow chin to look at him, but this time he drew his own face down and pressed his lips gently to that of his childe. “I do love you, you know,” he whispered.
“I know,” was the reply, as tender lips pressed to his again, this time with passion.
Paulos glanced up to see the others still standing there. “You may go,” he said. As the three left the room he stood, drawing Dimitri up with him. He pushed the younger vampire towards the bed before closing the door and going to Markeen, still standing in the corner. He ran a hand sensuously down a pale arm before turning the immortal boy towards him. They locked mouths, tongues dueling. Paulos broke the contact and began drawing the other towards the bed where Dimitri was waiting.
“You two shall remain with me tonight,” said the master. “I haven’t spent much time with either of you lately. I need to remedy that.” They all knew, however, that this was also a continuation of their punishment. Their Sire would be gentle, but they would feel the pain of their earlier punishment with every stroke their master took. The two sore vampires thought that it would be worth it though. Their master’s touch could work wonders on a wounded soul, even if it did nothing for their bodies. And oh, how they loved their master’s touch.