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Prologue

It came back to her often in dreams…

“Are you a virgin, little priestess?” he asks, his dark, unreadable eyes searching hers They are in the sether Outside the clatter of the human celebration—a holiday called “Christmas”—is loud and happy

But in the closet with him, the sounds arein her ears The drugged punch he has forced her to drink is fizzing through her veins and she can feel the hot desire flowing through her body

Her desire has always been a source of shame to her She runs hot—as hot as the males in her family, she thinks At least, all her brothers Joined with their ot Joined—a great scandal on Torl Prime, her home planet

But with e to fornicate could be excused Males have needs, after all, and as long as her brothers Joined with their brides before the brides’ bellies started to shohat harm was really done?

Of course, it’s different for a female—at last on Torl Prime Elli knows she shouldn’t have desires at all—shouldn’t long to be touched and certainly shouldn’t touch herself at night, after lights out when everyone is supposed to be asleep But she can’t help it—she’s always been drawn to self-pleasure…to desires of the flesh

Like her knack with zorels, it’s not considered ladylike or proper in a female It’s the reason she was sent to the Mother Ship to be a priestess in the first place Or maybe her stepmother just wanted to be rid of her

Either way, Elli has barely been here aout after curfew to attend the huht to be back at the Sacred Grove,quietly instead

Being around rounds for punishment For she hasn’t completed her Novicehood yet And she has yet to partake in the Cere and drink the Mortem Amore which will kill, once and for all, any desires of the flesh still lurking in her soul…

“Are you a virgin, little priestess?” he says again and this time Elli answers him

“Yes,” she whispers, looking up into those unreadable eyes She wished she knehat kind of Kindred he is He looks like a Beast Kindred, with his braided beard and shaggy olden as he looks down at her

“I will not take your chastity,” he ive me—I must test the effectiveness of the potion”