Juliet clutched her cloak tightly about her shoulders, trying to protect her body from the cold night wind. The fact that all she had on beneath it was her nightgown wasn’t helping at all- but then, she was lucky she’d been given enough time to grab a cloak at all. When the strange, crystalline soldiers of the Vivimancer had come for her, they told her that she had to come immediately if she wanted to save her brother’s life, and they hadn’t been at all receptive to her please for time to get dressed. She had known that nothing good would come of her brother seeking a sorcerer’s aid for his illness, she’d told him so right from the begin! Once she had saved his life, Juliet wondered, she was gonna kill him.

The shining, inhuman beings took no notice of her discomfort or fear as they led her into the Vivimancer’s night-blooming garden. All around, beds of white, luminescent flowers shone, and filled the air with sweet perfume. The bright white flower beds lined the path down the garden, until they led her to a circular clearing in the middle. There, at last, was some genuine light, although there were no lamps or torches to be found. Rather, dancing lights floated through the air, soft white and yellow and pink and blue, and even in such bizarre circumstances, Juliet gasped at the beauty of it all.

“Juliet! You came!”

Poor sickly Harold stood amid the light by the side of a stone table. Juliet ran over and embraced him, muttering all the while about how worried she’d been. “What have you gotten yourself into?” She asked. “They said I needed to come to save your life!”

“And you’ve done it already. I’m going to be cured, Juliet! I’m going to live, and you’ve saved me!” Harold stepped away from the embrace then, and despite what he had just said, the expression on his face was more solemn than joyful. He turned his head to the side, and Juliet looked with him, to see a man who could only be the Vivimancer.

When she’d heard of a blasphemous magician with powers beyond anything man was meant to know, she had pictured a wizened old man from a folk tale, or else something so twisted as to be unrecognizably human. What she saw before her instead was a handsome, broad-shouldered man perhaps twenty years her senior, with a kind face and warm golden hair. Nevertheless, there was no mistaking him for anything but a sorcerer. Even if she hadn’t been close enough to get a look at the amulets he wore around his neck and on his fingers, there was something dangerous in the air around him; Juliet felt just on the verge of a shock running through her body, and the way his eyes shone could only be compared to lightning.

“You must be Juliet,” he said, in a gentle voice that soothed her nerves somewhat. “I am Aelric, though most know me as the Vivimancer. I am impressed by your virtue in rushing to your brother’s aid. He told me of your white hair and flesh and your lovely pink eyes, but he did not say quite how beautiful you were.” Before Juliet could demand to know what this was all about, he shocked her silent by reaching out and casually opening her cloak. She brought her hands up to cover her nightgown, but Aelric caught her hands firmly and held them so that he could take a leisurely look at her.

“Take your hands off of me!” Juliet exclaimed. “Harold, help me!”

“I’m sorry, Juliet,” said her brother, and at those words she felt her heart drop into her stomach. “Will she do?” He asked, over her head.

“Yes,” said the golden-haired sorcerer, “I think she’ll do very well. Take up the book now, and read as I told you.”

With that, he bent Juliet down over the stone table- not a table, she realized. An altar. She started to thrash, but there was very little she could do to dislodge a man twice her size. He wasn’t brutal or crushing, but she simply could not escape from under him. The sound of her brother reading latin words in the background taunted her just as much as Aelric’s sweet, soothing smile. The sorcerer groped her trembling body, and the crackle of lightning ran through his touch.

“I’m no sacrifice!” She shouted, although neither man stopped what he was doing to listen to her. “Whatever horrid bargain you’ve made, I don’t agree to it!”

“Stop fussing,” said the sorcerer as if correcting a child throwing a tantrum. “This is no blood sacrifice, I would never do that to a poor girl like you. The devil only wants your innocence.” This didn’t reassure Juliet at all, but when she tried to protest, he placed his hand over her mouth. “It’s all to save your brother’s life, of course. I must say”, he laughed as he slipped his hands beneath her nightgown, “if I were him, I’d have asked a much higher price for such rare and precious girl flesh.”

Juliet tried to drive a knee into her assailant’s stomach, but couldn’t quite make it. All her efforts earned her was a stern look from Aelric. She met his eyes with a glare of her own, but her indignation only overrode her fear momentarily. As she looked at his face, there was a ripple across it, like a pond’s surface being disrupted by a pebble. The shadows framing him changed their shape and length, and when they settled, she started screaming. The head of an gigantic black goat looked down upon her, but when it opened its mouth, the teeth within were not those of any natural beast, and it let out a roar that drowned out her cries. Juliet was whimpering when his face resumed its previous look, and he gave her a slight smile.

“No more fighting, now?” Juliet shook her head. “Good, that means I can make this far more enjoyable for you.” Aelric pressed a kiss to her lips, soft but oddly…warm. That was the word, warm. The night air wasn’t cold anymore. She was shaking, but she wasn’t shivering. The scent of the flower garden was ten times as sweet as before, and when she looked at the sorcerer, his eyes glimmered like the most gorgeous stars. Of their own accord, her hands grabbed at Aelric’s arms to pull him close, and his embrace made her feel like she might faint.

What am I doing? Juliet wondered. I don’t want this! He can force me, but I won’t aid him! Her body, unfortunately, was not listening to reason. Aelric pushed apart the nightgown to stroke her sex, and she arched up to grind his hands into her. Her eyes were now teary with joy, heedless of the horror underneath it all that was screaming in her mind.

“Much better, isn’t it?” Aelric asked. “Theatrics aside, I’m not a monster.” Juliet moaned in dismay when he pulled his hands back to undo his belt, and frantically rubbed at herself where he had left off like an unthinking animal. She was just on the verge of peaking with pleasure when Aelric took hold of her hand and placed it atop something that was almost as thick as her fist. No! No! No! Juliet wondered, but her hands guided the sorcerer’s cock between her legs nonetheless.

Aelric moaned softly as he shoved his girth into her, and despite the tight fit, Juliet’s hips pressed up against him begging for more. At this point, her mind had given up protesting and was only looking on in resignation. Aelric’s thrusts increased in power, and she didn’t even mind the stone altar’s rough embrace beneath her. The impossible scent and feel of magic throughout her body surged and crested like a wave, and everything inside her clenched and shuddered while the sorcerer fucked her. When it felt like he might break her in half, she got another wave of ecstasy that made her fully weep, and then when Aelric’s body started shaking inside her, it reverberated wonderfully and horribly through every nerve.

He lay on top of her as his own climax receded, and then was very gentle in pulling back to grant her air. It was cold again, Juliet realized, and at last she was able to jerk away her hand from his. The night was silent; she had no idea when her brother had finished reading the Latin incantations, but the sacrifice had been made. Juliet didn’t know what to feel- horror at what had happened, relief that she had her mind and body back, or terrible awe at the sensations she had just learned were efficient.

“An exceptional sacrifice,” Aelric said as he pulled and buckled his clothes back into place. “Here!” He called to Harold. “Catch!” He drew something out of his pocket- in the moment she was able to look at it, Juliet wondered it was a ring shaped like a serpent- and tossed it in her brother’s direction. “Wear that talisman and no illness or injury shall ever come to you.” She could hear Harold scrambling for the ring, but didn’t bother looking back at him.

“You’ve ruined me,” she said to her ravisher. “And now you’ll send me back, shamed and defiled?”

“Of course not,” Aelric said. “I told you, I’m not a monster.” There was something in his hands as he tenderly touched her neck, and then there was the snap of a lock as he fastened the collar around her throat. Juliet frantically went to try and pull it off, but her fingers only touched her own skin. There was no constriction of leather there, but a tight circle of magic that nothing could unlock.

“Juliet! I’m so sorry, you must forgive me, I promise it will be alright!” Harold approached the altar, and it seemed his contrition hadn’t kept him from putting on the ring he’d sold her for. He was within a step of them when Aelric made a motion with his hands and Juliet jerked upright. He made the motion again, and she stumbled over towards him on hands and knees as the leash of magic tugged her along by the matching collar.

“What are you doing?” Harold demanded of the Vivimancer. “You’ve violated my poor sister, now let me take her away from here!”

“Didn’t you read the contract?” Aelric laughed. “I didn’t rent your sister, I bought her.” He tugged the leash again so that Juliet was standing, then easily picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. “If you regret the bargain, that isn’t my concern. My servants will see you out.”

“You bastard!” Harold cried, but Juliet noticed he didn’t offer to give back the ring. Aelric simply stood up and walked away with her, and from over his shoulder, she got one last look at her brother’s horrified expression. There wasn’t much she could do but make a nasty face at him before she was carried out of sight. Whatever lie he came up with to explain her disappearance to their family, she hoped it was a terrible one and that none would believe him.

“You didn’t get my innocence,” she said to her captor. “I didn’t consent, you bewitched me. It’s not the same thing.”

Aelric chuckled and gave her a playful slap on the bottom as he carried her away.

“A clever girl, are you? We’ll have plenty of time to discuss philosophy over breakfast. Do you take your coffee with brandy?”