27. Lily

"The Quenching Parlor?" I asked blankly, not moving from my seat. "What's that?"

"Why, it's the place where you'll finally get to quench your new Thirst, dear Princess," Lady Elgiana purred. She folded her white linen napkin neatly and rose from the table as well. "You cannot attain your true powers and ascend to the Throne of the Midnight Court until you drink your fill."

"I'm not thirsty," I said, staying stubbornly in my seat even as everyone around me rose.

Apparently dinner was over when Mordren said it was—a fact that irked me to no end. If I ever did become Queen, he was going to get demoted from the High Table. I'd be damned if I had to see his smirking face at dinner every night for the rest of my life—especially if I lived for centuries, like most Dark Fae seemed to.

"Do get up, Princess dear," Lady Elgiana said coaxingly. "You must come with us now and quench the Thirst."

"I don't think so," I snapped. "I haven't finished my dinner yet and I'm not thirsty."

"Princess, we've all been sitting here watching you drink the water pitcher dry," Mordren said, giving me a knowing look. "As the Lord Regent, I'm afraid I must insist that you quench your Thirst—otherwise you will become a danger to those around you. And I can't have that—I have been charged with the safety and security of our people until you come of age and take the throne."

I wanted to protest again, but Krynn put a hand on my shoulder.

"I'm sorry, my Lady, but he's right," he murmured in my ear. "You must quench the Thirst. Please don't worry—Sel and I will be with you every step of the way."

I didn't want to go—I had a bad feeling about "The Quenching Parlor" and what might happen there. But my throat felt like sandpaper and my fangs were itching. I tried not to look as I left the table, but I caught a glimpse of myself in a mirrored wall and saw that they had grown some more.

My glowing purple eyes widened as I stared at my reflection. I honestly looked like a vampire. With my pale skin and my long, curving white fangs nobody would look at me and think "Fae Princess." They were more likely to decide I was something out of a nightmare than a fairytale at this point.

The Court murmured and stared as we left the vast Dining Hall. Krynn and Seldarin fell into step on either side of me like an honor guard, which made me feel a little better. Then I remembered that they were the ones I was supposed to bite and drink from, and I felt worried and upset all over again. What if I hurt them? What if I drained them? I didn't want to do that!

The three of us had become very close in a short amount of time—not just because they guarded and protected me but because with Krynn and Sel I felt seen in a way I never had before. They had held me when I cried, comforted and supported me. Just being near them made me feel safe and strong and confident in a way I had never felt around my ex-husband, even back in the beginning of our relationship.

It seemed unreal that I should feel so much for the two Dark Fae I hardly knew, but I couldn't seem to help myself. The two of them just seemed to belong to me somehow and I knew I would much rather hurt myself than hurt either of them.

We went down endless corridors, which I did my best to memorize as I was slowly learning the rest of the Palace. It surprised me that I was actually getting the layout of it quite well. Maybe because I truly belonged here, or maybe because I had dreamed of it so often when I was a child, but for whatever reason, I felt fairly confident that I could make my way around. But now we were headed into a new part of the Palace that I had never seen before—not even in my dreams.

We kept walking until at last we came to a large, circular space where the hallway opened out and ended abruptly in a dead end. I got the sense that we might be underground, though probably not as deep underground as the Cavern of Lolth. There were no windows in the circular space we found ourselves in—just elaborate tapestries hung on the walls, all of which seemed to depict a woman with white hair and glowing purple eyes. In the closest one, she was blowing on a large group of people who were kneeling before her.

No, not blowing—sucking, I realized. The long curly lines that I had imagined represented her breath, seemed to be coming from the assembled crowd and feeding directly into her mouth, which was open in apparent hunger.

But what was she sucking out of them? It wasn't blood—the lines weren't red and I didn't see any kind of cuts or bites on the peoples' necks. I wondered what was going on but my attention was soon drawn elsewhere.

Directly in front of me on the rounded wall I saw a doorway with a golden doorframe. Hovering over it in what appeared to be magical floating letters were the words, "The Quenching Parlor."

I started to head for it, but Lady Nolana, who had stayed near me when we left the High Table, put a hand on my arm and pulled me back.

"Wait my dear—they need to set everything up for you."

"And you need to put on a different dress," Lady Elgiana, who had also unfortunately come along, remarked. "Unless you want to ruin the one you're wearing by getting blood all over it."

I wanted to protest that I wasn't going to bite anyone and drink their blood, but my throat was so dry I could barely speak.

"I…I'm not…" I began, but then my throat locked up out of pure dryness.

"It's all right, my Lady," Krynn murmured to me. "Go with Lady Nolana—you can trust her. Sel and I will be ready for you in the Parlor when you are dressed."

I didn't like being separated from my guys but they were headed into the Quenching Parlor along with several Fae guards. Mordren was right behind them and I didn't like the look of self-satisfied glee I saw on his perfect features one bit.

"Come," Lady Nolana said to me again and led me to a door further down the curving wall. There were no floating letters above this one but when she opened it and we walked inside, I saw it was a kind of dressing room. The walls were a pale purple and the carpet was made of soft fur that had been dyed the deep, rich Royal Purple. It felt like being inside an opulent Faberge egg.

"What's this?" I managed to croak, nodding at the racks of gowns, all of them shimmering white, which filled the room.

"Why, this is the changing area my dear—where you can put on more suitable attire for your Quenching," Lady Nolana said. "Now, let me see…"

She went down the row of garments and finally pulled one out. It looked like an extremely fancy robe made of white satin. It had long, swooping sleeves, a V-neckline, and a high slit that went all the way up the middle in the front. It was also covered all over in tiny, sparkling crystals which didn't seem to go with the casual cut of the robe.

I thought the odd garment looked like something a movie star might wear in an old black and white movie about the Glamour Days of Hollywood. All it needed to make the outfit complete was a pair of kitten heels with plumy ostrich feathers across their tops and a highball glass with a dirty martini. Oh, and maybe one of those three-foot-long cigarette holders to gesture with while smoking elegantly.

"Here—put this on." Lady Nolana held it out to me.

I wanted to ask, "Do I have to?" But I swallowed the words.

"Okay, but…where do I change?" I asked instead, looking around.

"I do believe we have a privacy screen in the corner," she said. "Come along."

She led me to the corner of the room and unfolded a carved screen, much like the one I used when I took a bath in the Cavern. Then she helped me out of my elaborate dinner dress and had me strip off my underthings as well.

Of course, I wasn't wearing a bra—I no longer really needed one, since my boobs had gotten so high and firm during my transformation. But I wasn't really happy about parting with my panties—a white silk pair that Krynn had gotten made specially for me.

I slipped into the robe, which was silky soft and extremely heavy at the same time, and did my best to fasten it closed around me.

"There now—don't you look lovely?" Lady Nolana said, smiling as she clasped her hands under her chin.

"Um…I guess so," I said doubtfully. There was no mirror to see myself with, but I didn't need one to tell that I was very exposed. The silky material of the robe clung to my breasts and the low, V-cut neckline showed all of my cleavage—and I do mean all of it. The points of my nipples could be seen poking against the thin white fabric despite the thousands of tiny crystals which covered the entire robe.

Down below, the slit in the robe was even higher than I'd thought. In fact, it went nearly to my navel and showed the bare, smooth mound of my pussy. No matter how I tried to close it, the fabric kept pulling open again, probably because the crystals made the material so heavy it hung straight down. There was a single button in the center but that and the sash which wrapped around my waist still couldn't keep the robe together down below.

"It's perfect—just perfect!" Lady Nolana exclaimed, smiling. "Oh, I remember helping your mother, the old Queen get changed for her Quenching sessions—it seems so long ago now. She always looked beautiful in the Quenching gowns too."

"Er, thank you." I cleared my extremely dry throat. "I'm glad you think I look nice in the, um, ‘Quenching gown,' but what goes under it?"

"Why nothing my dear." She looked surprised that I would ask such a thing.

"Nothing?" I frowned and shook my head. "Look, don't you have underwear to go with it at least? I mean, this slit is really high—it shows everything."

"It's supposed to be high!" Lady Elgiana, who had been wandering idly around the room perusing the various garments and gowns, poked her head around the side of the privacy screen and gave me a withering look. "How else can you seek your pleasure while you drink from your victim?"

"What? Seek my pleasure?" I shook my head. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't you know anything?" she demanded impatiently. "Your pussy has to be bare while you drink so you can ride the cock of the male you're drinking from!"

"What?"Now I was really getting upset. I turned to Lady Nolana. "Please tell me she's joking! I'm not going to do that! Especially not in front of everyone," I added, thinking of the guards and Mordren. I'd rather sit across from him at dinner every night for the rest of my life than let the slimy Lord Regent watch me doing something so intimate.

"I'm afraid this is the way it's always been done, my Lady," Lady Nolana said apologetically. "The Thirst is always tied to sexual need and both must be sated—usually at the same time. I know it must seem strange to you since you were raised among the humans, but these are the ways of our people."

"But does everyone have to watch?" I demanded, clutching the heavy robe to my breasts.

"From a discrete distance," Lady Nolana assured me. "But the officers of the Court must be certain that you're truly quenching the Thirst. If you let it go unchecked, you'll become quite dangerous, I'm afraid. That's what happened to one of your ancestresses—Queen Olandra."

"Queen Olandra? What happened to her?" I asked, frowning.

"Oh nothing—she just let her Thirst get out of control and then she slaughtered everyone at the High Table during the evening banquet one night," Lady Elgiana said casually. "I was there you know—though not at the High Table, thank Lolth! Blood everywhere—not a single High Fae at the table survived," she added, smirking at me again. "Because she drained every single one dry."

"But that's impossible!" I protested. "I mean, the average human body only holds…" I frowned, trying to remember. This had been a question on one of Chris Junior's senior biology exams and it had stuck with me for some reason. "One and a half gallons—give or take," I finished, dredging the fact up at last. "So there's no way someone could drink enough to drain everyone at the table dry. No one's stomach could hold that much!"

"Silly Princess,"Lady Elgiana sing-songed in a tone that suggested I was about five years old and exceptionally stupid. "The blood doesn't just go in your stomach."

"You absorb it everywhere—it goes all through your body, replenishing your own blood as well as refilling your magic," Lady Nolana told me. "One reason the Spider Queen is so powerful is that she is able to take in the magic of others as she drinks their blood."

"But I don't want…" I paused again for a coughing fit—my throat felt like I had been gargling sand. "Don't want to drink anyone's blood—especially not if I have to, er, ride them while I do it!" I managed to get out.

"If you don't want to ride a cock and be penetrated, maybe you'd rather strap on a phallus and do the penetrating yourself while you drink?" Lady Elgiana asked.

"Oh yes—we do have some lovely phalluses—just over here."

Before I could stop her, Lady Nolana had stepped out from behind the privacy screen and was leading me across the room to a cupboard which was embedded in the wall. Throwing it open, she revealed a wide array of leather harnesses and dildos that fit in them. Most of them seemed to be carved of smooth wood and all had been painted or stained Royal Purple.

"There you are, Princess," Lady Elgiana said, giving me a nasty grin. "Just strap one on and have at the male of your choice mewling at your feet!"

"What?"

I was completely aghast now. Not that I didn't understand what she meant—I did. I read spicy romance—or I did before my divorce, anyway—so I knew a pegging harness when I saw one. I even kind of thought the idea of pegging a willing man was hot…but again not in front of everyone and not while I was drinking his blood.

"No thank you!" I shook my head emphatically. "I'm not doing that. In fact, I'm not doing any of this. I'm out of here."

I started for the door of the dressing room, only to see it suddenly fly open. Standing in the doorway was Lord Mordren flanked by two of the Palace guards.

"Hey!" I exclaimed, doing my best to cover myself with my arms. "Don't you knock?"

"Well, well—I see you're all ready for your first Quenching, Princess." Mordren's eyes raked over me and he got a lustful look on his face that made my skin crawl. "Aren't you a lovely little thing when you're dressed right?"

"Stop it!" I snapped. "You can just leave so I can get changed because I am not doing this—any of it."

I started to turn away from him but Mordren stepped in front of me.

"I'm sorry, Princess," he said, sounding anything but. "However, you have no choice. You must quench the Thirst inside you. Besides, if you don't come, your two little playthings will be so upset. They're already strapped to the Quenching chairs and waiting for you."

"Wait—Quenching chairs?" I shook my head. "What the hell are those?"

"Why don't you come along with me to the Quenching Parlor and find out?" Mordren said mockingly. He nodded at the two muscular guards who nodded back.

And then, before I knew it, the two guards had me by the arms and were dragging me out the door and across the way to the Quenching Parlor where Seldarin and Krynn were waiting for me.