A brief warning--This gets a little gruesome at the end.  I know how some
people feel about blood and stuff, so I thought I'd make a warning.  Enjoy ;-)



  I stared at Emerald Vex in stunned silence.  'He's lying,' I thought
wildly.  'He has to be.  No one would behave the way he does and claim to
love someone!'
    But didn't I know mortals he behaved even more reprehensibly, all the
while claiming to love the person they inflicted horrors on?  Things could
be worse, I reminded myself, sparing a glance at a smug Red and Blackie,
even worse than those two.
    "I--I don't know what to say, my lord," I said softly.
    "You needn't say anything," he siad, smiling.  "I am fully aware of
your feelings towards me.  Winning you over will be the greatest challenge
I've ever enjoyed."
    I glanced at Zerith.  The dark elf mage sat in stunned silence.
Finally, he said, "Nyx...whatever he wants you to do, go along with it.  If
only for your own sake."  The look in his eyes said, 'And when he least
expects it, we'll rip his heart out and feed it to him!'
    Zerith had the same feelings towards Vex as I did, only they went far
deeper.  I smiled softly and said, "Don't worry, Zerith.  I will behave
just as Lord Vex expects me to."  I let the daedra count ponder that.
    He said, "Very good then.  And now that we have all finished our
dinner, we shall begin the ceremony."  
    Red and Blackie pulled the daedra count's chair out for him, who, in
turn, did the same for me.  Vex offered me one muscular arm.
    "I'd prefer to walk with Zerith."
    His green eyes narrowed dangerously, but at last he nodded.  "Very
well, sweetness.  You act as though I will never let you see him again."
    "One can never be certain, my lord."
    He caressed my chin, then my cheek.  "Fear not, Nyxalinth.  Things will
not change, as I have promised you."  He turned and with Red on his left
and Blackie on the right, moved down the corridor with feline grace.
    Zerith took my hand, his eyes full of misery and his love for me.  He'd
never once cast blame at me for what happened here.  He knew that mortal
flesh could only take so much...persuasion...before succumbing to passion.
I gave him a look that showed my love and gratitude and we followed Lord Vex.
    "Why do you tolerate the elf's presence, my count?"  Blackie asked him.
    Red nodded.  In the reddish torchlight of the hall, his hair looked
even more like freshly spilled blood.  "Yes, he is a bad influence on the
lady."
    Vex shook his head.  "I keep him alive because he amuses me, and
because he insures her cooperation.  Without the dark elf, Nyxalinth would
have no cause to obey any of us.  She has no regard for her own life, or
safety.  If I did away with Zerith, no doubt the lady in question would
walk calmly to her chambers, smash one of the delicate crystal wine goblets
there, and just as calmly slit her own wrists."
    "He speaks the truth," I told Zerith softly.  "Without you, I have no
reason to be alive here."
    Zerith nodded.  "I know, my love."
    Apparently Red overheard us.  He leered back over his shoulder at me
and purred, "No doubt Blackie and I could give you a reason to live,
lovey!"  He and his brother chuckled.
    "If only so I could rip out your rotten, stinking guts!" I snarled.
    "Enough!" growled Emerald Vex.  His tone would have brought a daedra
prince into line.
    We were silent the rest of the way.  Finally, we reached a large,
ornately decorated chamber.
    The walls were malachite and black granite.  Tapestries covered all of
the walls--some quite modest, others enough to make me blush. Ornate golden
sconces in abstract designs held oil lamps.  The polished black granite
floor was covered in thick rugs.  The only furniture in the room was a
large ebony table, polished to a high sheen.  Atop it rested a darkly
beautiful goblet worked in daedric alloy.  Next to it was a matching
dagger.  It looked wicked sharp.  The daedric runes along the blade seemed
to writhe in the lamplight.
    Emerald Vex picked up the dagger.  "I know you promised to cooperate
fully my sweet Nyxalinth," he said, examining the dagger closely.  "But
this blade is very, very dangerous, and I can't have you squirming about
Hold her tightly, my friends."
    Red and Blackie latched onto me quickly.  'They've had lots of
practice,' I thought wryly.  "What--what are you going to do?"
    "We need a bit of our blood for this, yours, and mine."  He turned to
Zerith.  "And no nonsense out of you, elf," he told my beloved sharply.
"Unless you want this blade to slip and take a bit too much of her life's
essence."  Vex grinned cruelly.  "I'm not so sure you'd enjoy having a
zombie in your bed, or, gods forbid, a vampire."
    Zerith shuddered visibly.  "No, my count," he said softly.  His heart
was in his eyes.  "Ahh, Nyx.  I should have wed with you when first you
asked me."
    "You could not have forseen this, love," I told him, and swallowed the
lump in my throat.
    Emerald Vex called for silence.  He began chanting, holding his hand
palm down over the chalice.  The words were strange, otherworldly, and
obviously not daedric.  His chant reached some kind of peak and as it did,
he sliced the blade right across his palm.
    Bluish black daedric blood flowed into the chalice.  Vex shuddered as
it did so, turning a trifle pale.  I realized that there was more than
blood in that chalice.  A portion of his life energy was in there, too.
    He spoke a single word, healing his hand.  He gestured to Red, who held
out my right hand to his master.  Vex wrapped his fingers around it,
chanting again.  Some of the words were different this time, and I heard my
own name spoken.  And then he slashed the knife across my palm, stopping a
hair short of my wrist.
    I gasped, not merely in pain, but at the sensation that some vital
portion of who I was was being drawn ou along with my blood.  I shuddered
as wave after wave of dizziness rolled over me.  Gray shadows dance in my
vision, memories flitted about like dark butterflies.  I shuddered again,
moaning, barely feeling the cut on my hand heal.
    The chalice was held to my mouth.  "Drink," Vex commanded, and I drank,
unable to fight it.  'My soul is in that chalice,' I thought, 'and his as
well.'
    I drank.
    Some of the feeling, of my life, flowed back into me.  Through slitted
eyes, I watched the daedra count quaff the rest of it.  "We are bound, you
and I," he told me, his voice gentle.  "Your friend Kriella is most
resourceful, but she cannot save you now.  If she slays me, you will die.
You are mine forever."  He moved to take my mouth in a kiss, but before I
felt the touch of his lips on my own, I mercifully fainted.