Devil Hunter Lace
by: VeronikaLace and Soul in Shadow
huntress_enthralled@yahoo.com
soul.in.shadow@gmail.com
Chapter 3 — Evil Unmasked
At first Lace couldn’t be sure whether she was really awake; she blinked, felt her eyes open, but her vision still stayed murky and black. It was only after a long, unsettling moment that the cloudiness began to fade, and her eyes finally started registering the different contrasts provided by what dim illumination there was.
She swallowed, her mouth painfully dry.
Then, she remembered.
With a cry of alarm, she bolted upright, and was shocked when she felt something jerk her by the neck. She reached up reflexively and found something, it felt like a collar, fastened around her throat. A narrow chain hooked through a ring in the back, and connected her to the heavy wooden column beside her bedroll.
It was also then that she realized she was naked. Or very close to naked; a scrap of cloth had been tied around her waist, affording her just an ounce of modesty, despite terminating just after it reached her thighs.
Her heart pounded, and she looked about in near-panic. Where was she? What had happened?
Where was the demon?
The walls of the room were made of stone, veins of visible mortar spider-webbing over every surface. The floor was simple dirt, and exuded the deep and heady scent of ancient loam. Pillars shot up out of the ground, dispersed evenly about the chamber, to hold up the rafters and boards of the ceiling above. It was maybe a twenty-by-twenty foot space, all together. A lone, small lantern flickered bravely beside the heavy wooden door, granting the only illumination in the desolate chamber.
As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, Lace could make out a few other bedrolls scattered about, all of them empty. Just when she thought she might truly be alone, a soft voice came from close by.
“You’re awake!” it exclaimed. She knew that voice. Her pulse began racing again as she spun to find her suspicion was correct.
Akane, one of the beast’s thralls, knelt nearby. Anxious concern creased her young features.
“I’m so glad,” she said, tearing up, “You’ve been asleep for hours, I thought...I thought maybe you would never wake up.”
Lace tried to speak, but then fell into a coughing fit. She worked her mouth to generate some saliva, then,“A...Akane? Wh...what happened? I... I thought maybe I’d...”
She looked the girl over carefully for any sign of injury. For that matter she checked about her own person.
Hearing the labor in her voice, Akane rose to her feet, “Hold on, I’ll get you some water.”
She padded off, and only then did Lace notice the girl was in almost as much distress as she; Akane was likewise nearly naked, with a panel of silk fastened across her chest and falling to just above mid-thigh. It was cinched loosely about her hips and back, so that it tantalized more than it concealed; she was clearly bare beneath the flimsy material, and all-but totally naked from behind.
There was the clatter of clayware as she poured water from a small gray jar, and offered it to Lace.
Seeing the suspicion on the ninja’s features, Akane winced, “It’s just water, I promise.”
Her eyes turned downcast, and she fumbled her fingers. “I don’t blame you for being suspicious. You...you’ve been through a lot...” she swallowed audibly, “But the mistress was very explicit. She...she wants you alive.”
“I’ll bet she does,” Lace replied. “Though she’ll come to regret it.”
With a light sip and quick sniff the ninja confirmed the water was free of contaminant, though she continued to drill Akane with a suspicious expression as she took the water in. Push every lever as they say. “You helped them torture me.”
The girl seemed to crumple into herself even more. She was kneeling in front of Lace, her hands busying themselves with the hem of her scandalously short ‘dress’; more to simply stay busy than anything else, it seemed. She didn’t seem to be able to meet Lace’s stare.
“I know,” she said softly, voice thick. “I’ve thought about it over and over again since...since you did that...thing...to the Mast—to Lord Akehito.”
She shuddered, swiping hastily at eyes that looked swollen even in the dim lighting.
“I know you won’t believe me, but I...I just couldn’t help myself. I had been asleep; being with...with Him...I had passed out. I awoke with his voice in my head, filling it, making me feel...funny...”
She looked furtively up at Lace. “He...he promised me things; awful...awful things...if I did what he asked. I couldn’t deny him. He’s...he’s too strong.”
“Hmmph,” was the assassin’s only reply. She regarded her collar and chain, then glanced around the chamber with a bit more care. She could be free from the pillar in a matter of minutes. But then what? She needed more information.
“Perhaps you should have been stronger,” she said, regarding her with a critical eye. “Tell me exactly what happened after...”
She turned away, cheeks flushing with shame.
“After.”
The rebuke clearly stung, but Akane had apparently steeled herself for a harsh response. She cleared her throat. “I don’t know what you did, but all of the sudden there was this blinding flash, and we—Kiyone, myself, and the m-monster—were hurled away. Kiyone and I came to hearing him...screaming...”
She shuddered.
“He raged around the room, ripping at the walls, at everything. We were terrified; whatever you’d done, for a while we were free of him, we saw him for what he really was, and we were afraid.”
She looked at Lace, awe in her wide eyes. “He tried to approach you. I thought he was going to kill you, but he...he couldn’t get close. He started to smoke, like he was on fire.
“That’s when the door burst open, and Lady Yoko stormed in with fifteen men. The shadows had been keeping them away, I think, but as soon as it fell away they were able to come inside. They took us, all three of us, down here while Lady Yoko attended to Lord Akehito.”
She paused, trying to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything. “We were down here for a long time before they came back. They...they took Kiyone. And the other girl, Aoba Megumi, she was taken too.”
“I don’t know why, but I am terrified for them.”
A smile crept onto Lace’s face. Even with her training she couldn’t help it. Chi energies. Never her strong suit, but she knew the basics, and that was the demon’s weakness. That, and simple light.
She cast her gaze about the chamber once again in the hopes her equipment might have been stashed here, but of course it was not.
Time was of the essence. He was weakened, considerably it would seem. And, the women taken could well be consumed utterly in his efforts to restore himself. For their sake and simply to press a tactical advantage Lace realized she must act.
But, she then took stock of herself, her energy reserves. She’d never felt so spent, even after the sleep. She needed to recharge, and quickly.
Suddenly she fixed Akane with a predatory stare.
Akane noticed the strange look in the ninja’s eye, and squirmed uncomfortably. “Um...is—is something wrong? There’s a little rice if you’re hungry...?”
The ninja’s smile only deepened.
“Yes, I’ll have some rice. I’m hungry. So very, very hungry. You know that sensation, Akane-san? When you want something so very, very desperately?” As she spoke, Lace crawled quickly and smoothly into the girls personal space, moving quite close and slightly above, watching her eyes. The positioned compelled Akane to lean backward from her kneeling position... effectively trapping her in place.
With her psychic gift, Lace conjured wanton images of the two of them together, then slithered them into Akane’s consciousness. Always the young girl was submissive... held or bound. Lace’s right hand found the tie for her tattered wrap at the shoulder.
“It can be such exquisite,” Lace let the word hang in the air for a moment as she fiddled with the knot, “torment, don’t you think?”
“I-I...I mean, um...sure...?” the wide-eyed girl stammered, glancing furtively at the way the blonde was toying with her makeshift cover. “J-just let me up, and I’ll...I...”
She found herself staring helplessly into the ninja’s deep, hooded eyes, and her heart began to race. Thoughts, scandalous, racy thoughts, were rising unbidden in her mind; she suddenly felt so...strange…
She felt herself blushing furiously at how close the blonde was, how...forward. Her lips were scant inches away, Akane could feel her slow, steady breathing, so different from her own suddenly heavy pant. She was so beautiful, exotic, and so confident...commanding…
She felt the blush on her cheeks only deepen, felt the flush of heat flowing down her body and making her nipples almost painfully erect beneath the flimsy silk cover. What...what was happening…
“I...I feel strange,” Akane whimpered, shutting her eyes to avoid Lace’s smoldering stare, “D-dizzy...”
“Oooh, then you should lie down then, shouldn’t you?” Lace said as she pushed and cradled Akane’s shoulders to the floor, at the same time, untying her flimsy gown. “There now, doesn’t that feel better?”
She allowed the girl to untuck her legs while she ran her fingers down her bared front, dragging her nails gently but firmly. She deliberately missed the nipples but made sure to trail very near them.
“Poor little Akane, you’ve been through so much. Particularly here...” Her fingertips settled on her prey’s pussy, slithering under the loosened garment.
The sudden contact of Lace’s fingers against her sex made Akane jump, a shocked gasp escaping her throat. She started to flail, but Lace’s arm around her shoulder, and the weird, almost drunken malaise that was settling over her, made her resistance utterly ineffectual.
She stared in utter bewilderment at the calmly smiling ninja, one hand trying to cover her naked breasts while the other grabbed reflexively at Lace’s wrist, desperately trying to pry her hand away.
“W-What are you doing?!” she whimpered, trying to free herself, “Let me—let me go, please. Stop...s-stop...”
But even as she said it, the most insidious thoughts were racing through her head, the worst of which was a senseless, almost reflexive desire to be taken...dominated…
Heedless of her protests, she could feel her pussy getting wet. Confused, struggling with the sexual fantasies Lace was steadily feeding into her mind, Akane could barely rally the will to keep the buxom ninja’s hands at bay.
“Stop, little one? Did you say I should stop? A tad ironic, don’t you think?” Lace whispered into her ear as she took both of her wrists in one hand and easily pinned them to the ground above her head.
The forefinger of her other hand found the girls swelling clit and after easily identifying her pulse, tapped it on one heartbeat, then circled it to the next, then nothing, then repeated. A technique guaranteed to drive any young woman out of her mind with need.
“Aahh!” Akane gasped, vainly trying to free her wrists from Lace’s grip. “P-please, I’m sorry, I couldn’t—I couldn’t stop myself, I...I...” The wash of her hot breath against her ear made her eyelids flutter as unwanted shivers ran down her body, and her skin burst into tingly goosebumps. She shook her head, trying to escape, terrified of how the whispered words seemed to jolt straight to her clit.
Oh god...her clit...!
Lace’s fingers were weaving a sinister, sensual spell over her; within moments, the practiced, seductive rhythm had coaxed her little button from beneath its protective hood, and the pleasure, the sweet, mind-numbing pleasure, began to climb. Akane’s legs flailed uselessly on the ground, unable to dislodge the slender hand deftly manipulating her sex.
Soon, the prone woman was panting.
“N-no...OHhh...oh, d-don’t...s-stop...” Akane whimpered, her half-lidded eyes staring dazedly at her captor. She couldn’t get away. She could barely think. She didn’t even realize that her futile struggles had started to slow, that her trembling thighs, rather than trying to squeeze Lace’s hand to stillness, had started to spread, to part, allowing the ninja’s fingers to caress her swollen clit with increasing abandon.
Her hips...her hips were moving on their own, rocking helplessly against Lace’s conquering hand.
“I—I can’t...stop...!” Akane moaned, arching her back, “P-please, no more—no...ohhh!”
Lace smiled, more from professional pride than true passion. She regretted the necessity of what she was doing.
“No more? Don’t be ridiculous. We’re all girls here. It’s obvious what you want and… need.”
As she felt the girl begin to press her hips against her hand, the ninja removed her finger and, releasing the wrists, she spun her body, placing her knees on either side of Akane’s head.
“But, It’s not that easy, little one. You must give pleasure to receive...”
She idly teased the folds of the young pussy scant inches from her face. Running her fingers up and down the sides...tugging them gently outwards, opening her, while raising and lower her hips, letting her own dampening pussy brush against the trapped woman’s lips and mouth.
“W-what...no...no, I can’t...I—MMmmph!” Akane begged pitifully as she watched Lace’s hips slowly descending towards her face. She shut her eyes, unable to turn her head to avoid the first brush of the ninja’s naked sex against her mouth.
She squirmed, shutting her lips reflexively as she was kissed.
She could feel Lace’s wetness against her face; as the kiss went on, as the ninja gently rocked her hips back and forth, the most wicked, helpless feelings began to well up inside the prone girl.
Shutting her mouth forced her to breath through her nose, and the hot, heady scent of Lace’s melting pussy was making her so...dizzy...confused..
And as Lace’s fingers played with her pussy, as she was made to blossom and tremble entirely against her will, feelings of utter subservience began to take her over. Her eyes fluttered, her back arching as the pleasure forced her lips to part in a hopeless moan.
Lace’s hips rose up just slightly, enough to give the panting girl some much needed air. Akane’s lips quivered and glistened with the sultry ninja’s wetness, the scent filling her head, making it swim.
God, she wanted...she wanted...to…
Before she knew what she was doing, her tongue slipped across her panting lips, and suddenly the sweet, rich taste of the ninja’s pussy flooded her mouth. She trembled, opening her glazed eyes to stare fearfully...longingly...at the hot, dripping slit mere inches away...
She swallowed, finding herself suddenly...salivating...
She parted her lips, and tentatively, almost shyly, slicked her tongue along the ninja’s open sex.
Lace managed to stifle a cry, but, particularly after the unwanted molesting she’d endured, to have simple pleasure again. She shivered and felt herself running slick and hot as Akane lapped at her. She decided to return the favor and pressed her own mouth down into the girls silky folks. Long strokes, then teasing bites on her clit. She darted a few fingers an inch or two inside her as she felt her own passions rise.
Already she could feel her energies renewing. The warm, full passion healing her psyche.
Whatever resistance Akane had left in her melted away at the first touch of Lace’s tongue against her dripping folds. She moaned openly, her fingers clawing against the blonde’s smooth thighs as first her clit, then her hungry channel itself, were coaxed and teased by the ninja’s skillful hands and mouth.
All at once, something broke inside her. The helplessness, the utter eroticism of being held down, of having her desires stoked and inflamed utterly against her will, finally claimed her. Something inside her thrilled at being so overcome, so sexually dominated, that she was incapable of resisting any more.
Her eyes sank shut, and when Lace’s hips lowered again, her mouth was open, and waiting. She shuddered as she felt her pussy claim her lips again, groaning as she gave in to her need and licking hungrily at the woman’s drooling slit.
“MMmmmmnnhh! Mmm...mmaaahhh...oh...oh, god....” the young girl moaned between panting, breathless licks, “M-more...oh please, more...”
This time Lace couldn’t contain herself and cried out in triumphant pleasure, mostly from the sheer, raw physical sensations of Akane’s mouth and fingers on her increasingly hungry pussy, but also by the torrent of fevered fantasies she could sense pulsing from the girl’s mind.
Lewd, depraved vignettes, all with her bound tight, Lace standing over her, or molesting her, or striking her with a riding crop.
Feeling a quiveringly hot orgasm surging closer, she ground her hips down and sunk two fingers to the knuckle into the pussy below her, while her teeth tugged and angled it’s engorged clit, her tongue lashing!
Akane screamed, but found her voice instantly smothered as Lace’s pussy fell once more onto her open mouth, hotly demanding the service of her tongue once again. The overwhelmed nymphette could not deny her, and moaned hungrily as she mindlessly obeyed. She licked, sucked, and swallowed eagerly as she tried to coax more and more of the blonde’s sweet nectar from her pulsing sex.
Then, as she was losing herself in total submission, the sudden intrusion of long, slender fingers deep into her hungry cunt, and the wild assault on her throbbing clitoris sent her right over the edge.
She cried out, thrashing beneath her seductress as pleasure exploded through her abused body. She bucked and thrashed, held down by the weight of the woman above her, unable to stop the pumping fingers or the circling tongue that were sending her spiraling into subjugating ecstasy.
Her mind melted into mush; all she knew was that there was a hot, dripping pussy on her mouth, and a desperate need to reciprocate dominating her consciousness. She opened her mouth, sucking Lace’s clit with abandon, wanting, needing, to feel her conqueror explode just as hard as she had.
That did it. Lace arched her back as high as she could, feeling strands of the girls wetness stretching from her lips and hoarsely screamed into the stone walls as she came furiously... bouncing her hips in little micro vibrations.
She then collapsed, thinking to shift her hips off the poor girl and just soaked it in... smiling... almost glowing.
Akane panted breathlessly, absently licking at the wetness still covering her lips, her face. Her whole body tingled, and the coolness of the air felt like a balm against her hot, sweaty skin.
God, she couldn’t move. She could barely think. Reluctantly she managed to open her heavy eyes to look over at the smiling ninja, propped up on her side.
“T-that...that was...” she started to say, but then she trailed off, as little aftershocks quivered within her tensing belly. “Ohhh...god...I can’t...move...”
She looked at Lace, but found she could not meet the other girl’s steady, victorious stare. She glanced away, blushing shyly. “W-was it...was I...as good for you...?” she asked, feeling stupidly inarticulate, but somehow wanting desperately to know.
Lace smiled down to her as she propped herself up on her hands and knees, then managed to stand. She could feel her energy, her chi, utterly renewed. There was fatigue, of course, after something like that. But fatigue can be willed away. Maybe the powerful orgasm might even help her defend against the next round with the beast…
“Hmmm? Oh, fine, fine,” she said, absentmindedly as she studied the metal piece that anchored her neck chain to the wall.
She ran her fingertips over every element of the metal surface. Testing... gauging. Inevitably she found an impression in the stone next to the bolted metal plate. She then turned and glanced about the floor. Various pebbles were strewn about. She chose one within the reach her chain allowed that had a slight wedge shape and pressed it firmly into that spot until it stuck fast.
Two short strides away and she studied that spot carefully. A moment’s gathering of energy and focus.
She stepped lightly into the air, spinning with blurred, impossible speed. As the torque of her spin brought her fully round she lashed out with her right leg, angling her hips up and into the strike. Her heel cracked against the rounded edge of the pebble with incredible force.
It hurt, obviously, but years to conditioning alleviated the damage and pain. More importantly, the job was done. The plate was now broken half-away from the pillar. Two more knife-hand strikes and it cracked away completely.
She was free. There was a chain attached to a metal collar at her throat. But she was free.
“Now, to see about that door,” she grinned.
“That’s as far as you’ll go, shinobi.“
The voice sliced through the solitude of the cell, startling both women. Lace spun, falling instinctively into a combat stance as she turned to confront the source. A few rough stone blocks made a makeshift stairway against the far wall, and atop the three steps the heavy wooden door had been opened, and standing in the doorway, dressed in a regal blue kimono, was a scowling Lady Yoko. Two heavy guards slipped round from behind her to flank the passage, short-swords drawn. In her hand Yoko held a long, folded fan, and tapped it impatiently against her open palm.
“L-lady Yoko...!” Akane stammered, kneeling instantly, “Please, have mercy, please—”
“Still your tongue,” Yoko snapped, “I think you’ve given it enough exercise for one night, don’t you think?”
Akane blanched, and murmured an apology. Yoko turned to regard Lace, her glare icy.
“I can’t say I find your deception to be all that surprising, in hindsight,” she sighed, “I don’t know what I expected from a filthy gaijin, but you have done a wicked thing tonight, and for that, you will be punished.
She gestured at her guards. “Seize them both.”
Lace nearly laughed out loud.
The guards had training, of course. Years of it... but as heavy infantry. They were strongly armored and brandishing short but heavy blades that, yes, could penetrate armor, but at the expense of speed. They were of little concern. Lady Yoko was the unknown.
After a moment’s frown, Lace blasted into motion like ball from a cannon. Racing forward, low and quick she first hurled her throat chain, complete with tortured iron plate directly at Yoko’s face.
It might hurt her, but the main effort was to distract.
She then angled left to put one guard between her and the other guard to her right. She feigned a leap, allowing her body to rise off the ground, intending him to swing high. But from the moment of the leap, her torso was angling backwards so she would land on the ground almost lying down... and sword swing should pass entirely above her so she could sweep and perhaps crack the guards knee... armor or no...
The yojimbo reacted just as she expected he would. With practiced finesse he lashed out with the wakizashi, slicing dangerously close but still missing entirely.
As his swing went high, she landed on the floor, spinning her legs into a coiled V before scissoring them shut—right onto the samurai’s exposed right knee.
She heard and felt the snap as the bone cracked..
The man seized, collapsing to his knees as his leg gave out from under him, burdened by the weight of his layered splint-mail armor.
To his credit, he made absolutely no sound, merely a kind of surprised, choking gasp, as unimaginable pain must have paralyzed his entire lower body. Lace almost felt pity for him, but that still didn’t stop her from allowing the momentum of her attack to complete her revolution into a low crouch before she delivered a spinning roundhouse to the side of his head.
His helmet twisted at a hideous angle, and he crumpled to the ground, twitching.
In the scant seconds it had taken her to disable the first soldier, the chain she’d flung at Lady Yoko had reached its mark. While her shocked reactions were quick enough to avoid the ragged mounting plate, they were instinctive, and clumsy; to Lace’s trained eye, it was clear the woman had little to no combat training. Her companion, however, was another story entirely.
He lunged for the length of chain that lay strewn atop the rough stone steps, and in two swift twists wrapped a length of it around his armored forearm. He gave a savage tug, yanking against the collar still affixed to Lace’s throat. She winced, bracing her feet, and pulled back.
The chain pulled taut between them, and Lace could see the man’s intent; he had correctly identified her speed and agility as her primary advantage, and by grasping the chain he meant to restrict her movement, to cancel out her mobility. In his other hand his wakizashi gleamed dangerously, poised like the tail of a scorpion, as he began to approach, rolling his arm to reel in the chain with every cautious step.
Her smile was that of a hungry tiger. He was pulling her toward him a hand hold at a time, which affording her too far much opportunity. As she moved over the the fallen soldier, and with deliberate languid flair she reached down and collected his discarded sword.
“Yes, do pull me in, soldier,” she sneered.
She then began to flood his thoughts with expectations of how she would attack with the sword. That was his training, she was simply playing to her audience. Always, in his mind, he saw her slashing in with the sword at a flat angle. Sometimes a forehand strike, sometime reversed, but always a sideways stroke.
She slowly drew her back and to her right. Then, she stepped a foot forward to offer some slack in the chain, swung her right foot high then chopped it down on the chain with incredible force.
The sudden shift in balance pulled him forward, and he stumbled, caught off guard. He recovered surprisingly fast though, despite his armor, and caught himself before he totally hit the ground. With a furious snarl he yanked back with all his force, forcefully snapping the chain at Lace’s neck.
“HUnrRRK!!”
After the initial pull Lace used the energy and dove forward, feinting a thrust to his abdomen, then twisting the forward thrust into a tight circular slash at his arm. It was time see how sharp samurai swords really were...
The move caught him totally by surprise. He lurched back, bringing his sword arm up to deflect the blow, but Lace, without armor to weigh her down, was faster. She cleaved through his arm at the elbow, sending the severed appendage looping through the air in a spray of blood.
Akane screamed.
The samurai staggered back, grabbing for an arm that simply was no longer there, while the wound gushed streams of crimson across the floor. The blood loss was too much for him, and he soon crumpled to the ground, totally still.
Like the other, this man made absolutely no sound as he died. Despite her training, Lace found the silence to be seriously unnerving. To be sure, she made two quick steps to each corpse, driving her stolen blade into the juncture between their torso and helmet armor, severing their spines.
With a practiced flick of her arm she pulled the chain free and whipped the metal plate at its end off the ground to land neatly and her left hand. A fine spray of blood misted past her hand to redden a nearby pillar.
Turning only her head to the side, she focused on lady Yoko as she adjusted her ragged tunic, eyes leveled against hers as she spoke to her fellow captive. “Akane, one of these soldiers has the key to my collar on his person. Find it.”
The ninja stepped forward and leveled the point of her sword precisely at the lady’s jugular and said, “These two deaths, and all the other death and corruptions wrought against this land... none of this is the fault of your husband. It’s not even the demon. One does not judge the wolf for its kill. No, my dear lady Yoko, The blame for all of this rests entirely with you.”
Lace traced the sword forward leaving a thin line of blood along the side of her neck.
“You have one opportunity to avoid death.”
Lady Yoko’s pale features pulled into a smooth, self-assured smile.
“Indeed, and I took that opportunity, ninja—many, many years ago.”
Suddenly from behind her, Lace heard Akane cry out in alarm. Lace glanced quickly over her shoulder, and felt the blood freeze in her veins.
Akane had stumbled back, quickly backpedaling away from the first soldier’s heaped remains—which twitched and shuddered in a weird cacophony of animation.
Before Lace could react, something slick and hot lashed itself to her sword arm, coiling painfully around her wrist and twisting the blade away from Lady Yoko’s throat. She spun to see the second samurai lurching to his feet. His ruined arm was outstretched towards Lace, and from where the stump should have been, a nest of writhing red tentacles coiled madly in the air, one of them already gripping her arm in a vice hold. His hollow eyes stared sightlessly at her from beneath his heavy helmet, and without warning the whole mass of the tentacles sprang towards her at once.
With the first tendril holding fast to her arm, she could not evade the surging horror as it lashed itself to her legs, her waist, coiling around her shoulders and pinning her arms at her sides. She shouted a curse, but the inhuman thing just shambled closer. She flexed as hard as she could against the fleshy appendages, but they held her with infernal strength.
Behind her there was a sick ripping noise, followed by Akane’s horrified screams, as the first samurai erupted into a stumbling mass with dozens of oozing tendrils. Akane’s cry was abruptly choked off as one tendril coiled around her throat, while countless others fasted to the rest of her naked body.
“You are as impressive as the Master said you would be,” Yoko purred, “But the time for play is over, Lace-san.”
Lace screamed in fury and frustration. Brushing against the tentacles with all her strengths, but to no avail. She felt defeated, useless and moreover stupid for letting her guard flag!
But... advantage could be leveraged from any circumstance, even capture.
She let her body language betray and exaggerate her feelings. She hung limp against the demon tentacles and slouched in terrible resignation, her head forward, hair covering her eyes. She began a whimpered, whispering chant. Spoken too softly for others to discern, but clearly the same words repeated again and again.
At the same time, she subtly layered suggestions on lady Yoko’s consciousness, curiosity and even concern for what words she might be repeating. Some spell, perhaps?
Yoko’s brow furrowed, and she narrowed her eyes at the ninja. She was whimpering like a frightened child. A nagging uncertainty prompted her to take a cautious step forward.
“What is this? Tears? I took you for stronger, but perhaps you are simply human after all...”
She prodded Lace with the folded fan, forcing her head up to meet Yoko’s inquisition. “Speak, ninja. You’re wasting my time.”
Lace sobbed loudly when Yoko elevated her chin. The sob masked the sound of her cracking a ceramic pocket affixed to the back of her left rear molar.
She then spat a spray of the deadliest scorpion venom known directly into Yoko’s face; a venom to which, through extensive training, Lace had made herself immune.
Yoko screamed, stumbling backwards as the cloud of venom struck her in the face. She choked and gagged, eyes bulging even as her skin began to sear in agony. She dropped the fan to the ground where it landed with a clatter, burying her face in her hands in an irrational attempt to ward off the poison that was already soaking into her skin.
“YOU BITCH!” she screamed, “YOU WRETCHED—”
“I might be done for,” Lace spat, “But not before I get to watch you go first.”
Lady Yoko teetered on her feet, her long, dark hair falling about her in insane curtains. She twitched and convulsed on her feet, as the deadly toxin sent her nervous system into a coiling spiral. First her lungs would go, Lace reminded herself, almost clinically. Then her muscles would seize, and she’d snap a rib, or two, or three. Her back would crack, maybe her neck. Then, and only then, would her heart finally explode.
But as the kunoichi watched, Yoko’s spasms began to fade, and her mad gyrations began to calm. Lace’s brows knit in confusion. What the hell was—
“AAHhh!” Yoko exhaled, throwing her hair back, and glaring at Lace. The ninja gasped in horror. Lady Yoko’s face was seared, her perfect features marred by patches of mottled flesh. Her eyes had turned a hellish yellow, cat-like slits narrowing as they stared balefully at her adversary. Fangs protruded savagely as her crimson lips curled into a snarl.
“You will pay for that, ninja,” the priestess hissed, “I’ve had enough of your trickery! Hold her!”
Lace struggled to resist, but the creature holding her gave her no leverage at all as he lifted her bodily off the ground. A tendril snaked its way around her head, yanking it to the side to expose her pale, slender neck.
Lady Yoko chuckled at the distress in Lace’s eyes, a long tongue slipping past her lips to lick threateningly across the ninja’s vulnerable throat.
“Oh yes, little ninja. You’re not the only one who can use poisons.”
Lace grimaced, and pulled furiously. Her mind and heart both raced. She thought for anything... any idea, any tactic! But she was simply out of tricks.
Then, the inhuman witch opened her mouth, and sank her fangs into Lace’s neck.
All discipline abandoned her as Lace felt the fangs sink enter her throat! She screamed in primal desperation.
There was a moment of pain, a sharp, twin prick as Yoko’s mouth sank home, but a moment later thick, heady warmth was flowing through her body. She gasped, blinking in confusion, but then the whole room started to shift...spin…
“Nnnghh...what—what did you...do...” she muttered hoarsely, the words slurring badly in her mouth. Yoko released her neck, withdrawing her fangs even as pale drops of venom dripped across Lace’s collar and the upper swell of her breasts.
The demoness chuckled, “Just a little love-bite, my dear. Yaksha venom is quite potent. We use it to make our prey more...agreeable...”
She grabbed Lace’s chin, turning her head so that the ninja was forced to stare into Yoko’s brilliant, yellow eyes. They seemed to widen and yawn before Lace’s dazed, swimming vision, but unlike the rest of the room that kept hopelessly spinning, Yoko’s eyes were fixed, bright...and irresistibly inviting.
“NNno...” Lace whimpered, even as her eyes began to glaze, “N-n...no...”
“Poor little ninja,” Yoko cooed, petting her cheek with her long fingers. “Getting a little sleepy, are we? A little more...cooperative...? My venom does such wonderful things to a hot-blooded woman like you. You can feel it already, can’t you, that sweet, aching need? With every breath, your passions will only climb higher and higher, until you’re nothing but a quivering, desperate, mewling slut.”
She licked her lips, “The perfect frame of mind for your evening with my Master.”
She released the swooning ninja and gestured to the two hulking abominations. “Come. We’ve wasted enough time.”