The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

20.

“You will protect this attachment and let no one see it or examine it.”

sherry stared at Kris as she spoke, drinking in how passive Kris was in her trance. “When you hear the signal my voice has implanted in your thoughts, you will install the attachment in the power system as I have told you.”

Kris nodded as the commands settled onto her brain like a rider into the saddle. “I will obey,” she promised.

laney thought of her with the fuel can, ready to become a diversion for her late Mistress, and knew she was feeling something like that now, without the fear. she almost envied the other woman that fall into submission.

she watched sherry pass the device to Kris, and saw Kris examine it and nod as sherry instructed her on what she must do with it. Kris was a bright slave, and right now there were no distractions.

Presently she was at attention again, with the flat device in a coverall pocket. “I will await the signal and carry out my orders as programmed,” she said firmly, and left without looking at them.

“She obeys well,” laney said. she trembled at how deliciously bent that sounded.

sherry smiled. “Kris is a very promising slave. After all, though she was already conditioned to submit by all that Guard behavior modification, she’s only been hypnotized. She hasn’t given up her will to one of Them, as you and i were allowed to.” they smiled moistly at each other. “So she doesn’t even have the focus of One she worships to keep her needful and eager to please.

“She’ll perform as instructed, simply because she’s obedient.” sherry looked into laney’s eyes and watched her soften.

“No, laney. i won’t entrance you and we won’t fuck.” laney smiled because her arousal just grew, even hearing that. “we have something more important to do for Them.”

laney wondered if she were staining her crotch, this felt so good. she knew that Mistress was listening within her mind, and could turn her into an automaton at Her whim—but didn’t need to. laney was already obeying perfectly on her own.

she felt Mistress’ power pulse in her, but felt Her will elsewhere. Then she felt a desire to go to the medical annex, and let it take her to where trina sat on her bed. laney remembered seeing her Mistress accept control of the girl from Denise, and they regarded each other, together on Her leash.

“you need some exercise,” laney heard herself tell the girl. “Let’s use the gym. i’ll escort you.”

they found some shorts and a top for trina in the little pro shop next to the gym, and laney smiled to see her choose the tightest ones. Then they were out among the machines and weights. they drew some glances, and the way they avoided anything overly sexual seemed to attract even more attention. Neither of them responded. they were not there to fuck or seduce.

Mistress took direct hold of their minds at the same moment, and Her power had already so tamed both of them that they didn’t twitch, only sliding gracefully out of their sets. If anyone noticed them move, it was only to covet them.

At her locker, laney strapped her holster back on. It felt thrillingly kinky on her gym-undressed body, but it wasn’t completely unknown for Guard to do that. she and trina left without changing, as though heading back to quarters for a shower and some more private exertions.

Instead, laney let herself seek a new destination. The Augmented Monitoring Facility was in a less trafficked area than the main ops center. she’d never been there, but Mistress’ will guided her, and she realized Mistress had taken this knowledge from some other Guard whom She’d enslaved or just mindstripped and killed. It was running laney’s mind now like a navigation tape, and she thought of it disappearing when she got there.

“This is where,” she whispered to trina, “they back up all the alert systems, like the metabolic net. In case something goes wrong in main ops.”

she wasn’t explaining. trina smiled and nodded and forgot it, focused on waiting for the next command Mistress sent. laney just liked saying it, because she was starting to guess what that command would be. she hoped Mistress could keep her upright when she came hard after obeying it.

The sentries outside the AMF looked at them as they walked up gleaming. The man smiled and eye-fondled them as they half-posed. The woman just rolled her eyes.

Stretching her top imaginatively to display her badge, laney played to the man and said she wanted to show the girl she’d rescued how safe they were here. The female guard started to object and the man seemed disinclined to argue with her.

Then trina, saying she understood that, gazed ingenuously at the woman and started talking in a dazed civilian way about spirals and colors.

After a little of that, the woman was staring into space the way Kris had, and laney softly suggested, again, that it really was all right if she and her friend peeked inside and visited the watchers. The woman nodded and then seemed to perk up.

“OK, whatever,” she said, and her partner grinned and checked with the duty monitoring officer inside. After a moment his grin widened and he described how they were dressed.

The door opened from the inside.

It was Chris, the Hunter she and Meg had relieved on the first day.

“Hey,” he said, looking at the two of them as they pranced in after him. The air in the AMF was filtered and cold, and laney enjoyed how it felt on her skin, cooling the sweat. she saw trina’s nipples stiffen visibly through the lycra, and traded a faint grin with the other girl to see them mesmerize Chris.

He looked at laney. “So, no hard feelings? About the, ah, y’know?”

she let some of the chained lust she was feeling for trina into her smile, and then deliberately looked the other girl up and down before turning back to him. “Broadened my horizons,” she drawled.

“How could I have a problem with doubling my potential bedmates?” she nodded back and grinned as his eyes widened. she recalled seeing him for the first time, feeling a rush, wondering whether he’d have time for a new girl and whether he’d be nice.

That was before her first Mistress, and now she barely knew what she’d seen in him.

He was grinning at trina now, almost sniffing toward her, and laney realized they did have that post-gym tang—not unpleasantly, and just enough to be a pheremone, apparently. she didn’t mind the way he was almost visibly picturing trina on her back and spread. It would just make things easier.

“Heard you were on shift here tonight,” she purred, and Chris turned back to her. “Wanted to see if you had any hard feelings.” The other monitor was watching them, and laughed aloud at that one. But laney heard the hitch in the laughter, and without being told to, trina turned and went over to him.

laney stepped to Chris, pulling her top up. “There’s something,” she said, her breathing starting to break her words up, “I—need you to do. For me.”

she slid her arms out as Chris reached up to get the jogbra the rest of the way off.

“To do what?” He grinned, peekaboo, before lifting it over her face. she felt his right hand on her breast while she was still blinded.

she smiled invisibly as her own right hand swept up.

“To die on silver,” she hissed, “you piece of shit.”

The knife was in Chris’ heart while his arms were still rising, and he nearly got the bra over her head before he faded. she ducked the rest of the way out of it.

she stepped away as he fell, and looked over to see trina coming upright over the slumped figure of the other man. trina was smiling, and the joy in her at what she’d been made to do was painful. her eyes shone as though she were about to leap onto laney and fuck her on the spot.

The intercom from Operations beeped.

laney thought about standing there with the other slavegirl and holding off Guard until they died for Mistress in this place, and felt no fear as she pressed the switch.

“Yes?”

“Hi,” said a cheerful voice. “This is Cheryl in main ops. Isn’t Chris on tonight?”

“Well . . .”

“Oh, it’s OK. I’m on headphones.”

“OK,” laney said. “He was on. But he’s dead now. They both are. The AMF belongs to vampire slaves.”

“Yesss!” Suddenly laney knew she wasn’t talking to Cheryl but to cheryl, and her heart leaped. she pictured the other slave beaming and nodding to the other humans around her in Operations. “Good. we were told to expect that. we knew it.

“Now i need to know if the metabolic sensors are still online.”

laney felt the phantom memory of Mistress’ experienced victim fill her eyes again, and she looked at the panels with dizzying recognition. she reached over and let her hand dance over a sequence of controls.

“They’re out now, but the test line is hot. Are you still receiving a signal?”

“Yes, looking good,” cheryl chirped.

“Good.” laney’s head spun as part of her started waking up to what she was doing. “The backup is down too, and the false return should be coming through.

“Do you have any other instructions for me to obey, cheryl?”

“No,” the slave said. “Everything’s perfect. Just stay there until someone comes for you.”

“Yes,” laney said, and felt for her crotch. “Yes. we will obey.” she swallowed, realizing what was about to happen. “Obey,” she said again, and saw trina half-close her eyes and lean back.

“That’s right,” cheryl said, her voice eerily soft in the room with the two dead men. “we will. All of us.

“Thanks.” The intercom clicked off.

laney had time to look at trina, but not to move toward her, when Mistress turned her mind off too.

21.

she woke at attention.

The AMF was open and sherry and two other women were inside. laney felt Mistress in her head, present now, and let Her use her like a camera, looking so She could see Her plan working.

laney felt herself walk out after sherry.

Kris waited outside, completely nude but with a rucksack slung on either side of her like saddlebags. laney looked at her small, pert breasts and blank stare and thought she made a beautiful draymare.

The sentries were still in the corridor. The man lay on the floor and the woman stood, blinking as though trying hard to stay awake. She seemed barely aware of sherry and the others. laney looked at them, and something in her responded to the obedience that glowed from them. Other Guard who served Them now. they didn’t smile at her. they didn’t have to.

laney realized there was something strange about the lights. They were flickering, almost too quickly and faintly to tell. she felt it like a vibration behind her eyes and a need just to stand quietly and be receptive. If she weren’t already under Mistress’ domination she’d be as far gone as the female sentry.

she saw trina looking at the woman curiously, and realized the other slave hadn’t sat through one of the vampire-resistance sessions. Nothing had taught her mind to grow sleepy as the lights shivered.

sherry spoke, and it seemed to give the sentry purpose. She drew her weapon and blinked. sherry spoke again, and she thumbed the catch and slid the magazine out. sherry took it from her and slid it into one of the rucksacks on Kris, replacing it with another from the other sack. As the woman dreamily holstered it again, sherry reached around her and replaced one of her spare magazines from the same sack. The woman came to attention and stared ahead.

sherry held another new magazine out to laney, and laney switched it out without question.

Then sherry turned, and everyone but the sentry followed her. they reached one of the larger corridors, and laney watched incuriously as heads turned to see Kris, naked under her burden.

The lights were flickering there, too, and a lot of the Guard seemed as distracted as the sentry had been. They were all women, and they moved tentatively, as though unsure whether they were awakening or falling asleep. laney realized it must be like this all over Sector.

As she started to consider what that meant, the lights stopped flickering.

They started strobing.

The public address system crackled.

“. . . oh my god . . .” A woman laney didn’t remember hearing was on, inexperienced, breathing too close to the mike. It might have been fear or possibly deep arousal, but her voice moaned into the bones of everyone who hear her.

“. . . they’re here, they’re coming, we have to . . .”

laney saw women standing rigid, the lights blinking off expressionless faces and empty eyes. sherry led the slaves through it.

“What’s happened to them?” A man ran up, his hand flying away from his holster as he fought a panicked need to draw. “What the fuck is happening?”

sherry shot him. His face went from amazement to dead unconcern in three strobe-flashes.

“we must fight.” The speaker was completely calm now, almost like another person. “we are being overrun by vampires and we must shoot them on sight.”

sherry started running, and they followed her into an office. she slammed the door and they followed her down to the floor.

“we must kill them without thinking.” The voice went on, intimate and irresistible.

“we must destroy them all.

“They are all male.”

laney started, despite herself, as she heard the fusillade open up outside—isolated pops and then the constant bass crack of the reports.

Something slapped the wall but didn’t go through—high up, where their heads would be if they stood. laney’s obedient mind accepted the possibility, and part of her liked the idea of dying while under the spell. But the animal part of her quailed and wanted to slide into the floor.

No fear.

Mistress was back in her head, and she saw trina writhe, sharing that link. laney closed her eyes and opened herself to Her soothing.

you pleased Me, slaves. you will be safe. We are near, and this will not last long.

laney thought about what was happening outside, and it hit her even through her obedience and the calm Mistress had just stamped on her awareness. It wouldn’t last long, as mindless Guardswomen and horrified Guardsmen massacred each other. she wondered if any of the women would, themselves, be horrified enough to break the conditioning. Not that it would do anyone much good.

Then something worse lit up in her mind.

No, child. Not all of them. My friend’s slave has ensured that Our temporary amazons are carrying the right sort of bullet. sherry and others must have been passing out wadcutters just before it started. The brainwashed women could kill other Guard—or each other—but even if they shot at Them they couldn’t harm the vampires, who need walk wary only of men as They infiltrated the place.

laney played with herself as she lay there, thinking of it.

she looked back at trina just as more shots hit the outer wall from the corridor. This time they punched through and the gunfire was louder now through the holes.

Slithering over to trina, she got between the girl and the wall and covered her, and felt trina curl against her. trina obeyed Mistress now but Mistress had accepted her from Denise’s hand, and laney felt good, protecting Her good faith by keeping the borrowed slavegirl alive.

It was several moments later that she remembered she was, after a fashion, still Life Guard, and trina was still a civilian. Protecting her was—the job.

she grinned then and kissed trina’s forehead. trina was forever beyond being protected from vampires. laney wondered what her mistress would do with her once this was over—let her “return” to normal life and take her again each night in her own bed or naked in the yard? Or would Denise turn her?

laney considered the trembling girl in her arms and tried to see her as nosferatu.

Presently she realized it was quieter. The shooting had faded and the public address system could be heard.

“we are sleepy now.” The woman speaking did sound as though she could barely stay awake. “we are too sleepy to resist the beautiful women who are coming now.

“we do not want to.

“They will help us sleep if we listen to Their wonderful voices and relax and obey.”

sherry rose and they followed her. Outside there were bodies of both genders and a burnt smell, and a few dazed female Guard looking vaguely upward toward the source of the voice that was echoing in their heads. Their eyes blinked and widened, as though yearning for the strobing to come back and empty them again. They were oblivious to the four vampire slaves who passed among them with so much more purpose than they had.

As they headed to the administration area, sherry handed a lighter weapon to laney. laney glanced at it. A pneumatic pistol with a clip of darts.

she smiled.

22.

It was in her mind now. As the others hung back, she trotted forward toward the door. she didn’t care if there were a man down the corridor who was ready now to shoot anything with breasts, even if the women had been made docile again. she only regretted that her blood would spill, and not pass Mistress’ lips, if she died that way.

she fell to her knees and rapped on the door. “Is there anyone in there?”

There was nothing for a moment, and then a strained voice she barely recognized. “Who’s out there?” she heard a small sound of movement, as the speaker shifted in case someone fired through the door at the sound. There was also a click as a hammer went back.

“me,” laney said. “Are you all right, Ma’am?”

“No,” Kepler’s voice came back, a little steadier. “But I can still think. Wait a minute.”

There were some scraping noises and then the door eased inward. laney waited for the beckoning hand before sliding in.

The office was dark except for the glare of the computer screens. Before she saw Kepler’s silhouette, laney saw the screens’ light gleaming off bits of glass, on the desk and the floor. Some still had bits of wet on them, where Kepler had cut herself in the dark.

After she’d fought the posthypnotic compulsion long enough to smash out her office lights before they put her under.

She crouched next to laney and even in the dark her eyes were uncertain. “What happened out there?”

laney sighed. “What it sounded like, Ma’am. The . . . everyone suddenly started acting like they were robots or something. The women, anyway. Then they—” she looked at Kepler and shook her head.

“The fucking CD.” Kepler looked aside. “Either someone at Regional was feeling especially stupid or else . . .” laney realized Kepler was too rattled to finish, even if she were smart enough to have sensed what was happening to her and strong-willed enough to resist it. Did Kepler know it had overcome nearly every other woman in Sector?

Even as she thought it, Kepler’s gaze settled on her. Kepler wasn’t that rattled—and she was wondering why laney was still awake.

“i’ve been enslaved by better,” laney said, and tried not to let Kepler see her holding her breath.

But Kepler’s gun stayed holstered. She grinned. “Never thought of it as a vaccine. Can you still function?”

laney nodded.

“Good enough. Regional must already know we’ve got problems—since main ops got cut off, anyway.”

laney nodded again, but doubted main ops had been cut off. she pictured cheerful cheryl there, telling Regional that Everything Was Just Fine. While the room swam in settling gunsmoke, and everyone but the other vampire slaves she’d let in lay as dead as the guard outside the AMF.

As dead as Chris and his pal, inside it.

“Someone’s probably heard the commotion and called the cops, but when they realize it’s vampires, they’ll back off.” She breathed, and laney could hear the fear. But it was more like excitement than panic. Kepler might be enjoying this, in some perverse way. “At least if they’ re smart cops.”

The Hunter-Second fell silent, perhaps wondering where in Sector she could scrape up some Guard to counterattack. laney wondered whether she had any conception of what Mistress and Her Kind had done to this place.

Kepler’s confidence was strange to laney. laney knew that since she’d been enslaved her view of free will had been—clarified—but it was still something to see Kepler kneeling and know there was nothing servile about it.

“So it’s down to when Regional sends the cavalry. Hope it’s a special squad, not a pickup troop from another Sector—that’d be hard to live down, for all that this is really Regional’s fault—but whatever’s quick is good.

“We just have to survive and engage in the meantime.” Kepler looked truly into it. Maybe she thought they’d battle-bond, she and laney, the angler and the vamp-bait. “Let’s get out there.”

As she checked her weapon, laney crawled to the door and peered out.

“Looks clear,” she said over her shoulder. “The good news is, there’s nothing for them to hide behind, so I know.”

“And the bad news is, there’s nothing for us to hide behind, either.” Kepler was beside her but couldn’t see out.

“Oh, hide behind me!” laney smiled at her. “H-5s are expendable.”

Kepler blinked and it was a second or so before she smiled back.

laney slid out the door and ducked to the right. Kepler followed her—and then spun to the left when she saw sherry and the others, even as still as they were standing there.

She hesitated—laney had lied, but these were the shooting instructor and some intrepid survivors. Weren’t—?

She was already drawing as she saw Kris, naked and clearly hypnotized under her burdens.

laney’s dart gun was already up and she put two of them into Kepler’s slim but targetable ass. Kepler spun again but she was already off-balance and only fell to the floor. She kept the gun but her arm hung down.

Two darts had put laney down more slowly, back in the barn, when Kepler had wanted her under nosferatu control. But Kepler was at a disadvantage now. No one had chained her will and driven her to fight until she collapsed. She was free to relax as the drug took her.

But the same strong will that had let her resist the flickering lights and break them kept her eyelids above her pupils now, fighting the quiet pull of the drug. She tried hard to raise the gun. One of the women with sherry moved forward but sherry pulled her back and stood in front of her.

laney watched Kepler. It wasn’t just strength of will. Kepler was afraid now—dread was following the tranquilizer through her veins. Taken alive by vampires. Wondering if her daydreams that she’d been Their feared and hated scourge would come horribly true when They woke her.

laney doubted Kepler might also fear her own belated revenge, but it meant nothing now. laney herself meant nothing, as long as Mistress’ purposes were served.

Kepler breathed herself to sleep, still clinging to the weapon she could no longer fire. laney pulled it from her fingers, and sherry lifted Kepler and carried her.

laney stopped thinking about them, but shared a quick glance with trina. they kept walking but they wanted to run.

Mistress was in their minds again, and She was here.

23.

laney and trina knelt before Her, each one kissing a palm She graciously offered them.

their clothes lay tangled behind them, forgotten. laney knew nothing but Her, and no longer knew or cared where she was in this place—she and trina had run after all, and it had become a matter of homing in on Her dark warmth instead of consciously going to Her.

Then laney felt Her touch inside and rose. she recognized the medical annex, and saw a nurse writhing on the reception desk in the shreds of her scrubs as one of Her paladins fed. laney envied the nurse, and it doubled when another vampire came near and the first obligingly gave her room at the throat. laney looked past it at the patient area.

Meg was in there.

she stood very still. Mistress’ will was in her mind, but She didn’t just wipe away laney’s doubts and impel her. She left laney to respond.

laney loved being Her slave, even knowing that was part of what fooled her mind and kept her enslaved. The new part of laney that wanted to spend the rest of her life wearing nothing but fang-marks also wanted to share that with Meg, as much for Meg’s pleasure as to please Her.

But what she’d give, for Meg . . . what she’d already given . . .

she turned to Mistress and her eyes pleaded. she felt Mistress darken her mind. The liquid core of submission that was dissolving laney from the depth of her now heated and deepened a bit more.

When she turned back to the cubicles, she was taut and hot and ready. she paused, and then undid her gunbelt and let it slide from her bare hips. Even gelded as it was of any silver bullets, a weapon was more than a slavegirl should carry now, under her Owner’s hand.

she padded in toward the last cubicle.

she heard the gasp before she saw Meg. Before she saw the pistol Meg pointed at her head. It was a view of a gun she’d seldom seen, muzzle-on, and it took a moment to register.

“No.” Meg seemed startled by her own voice, but the gun didn’t waver.

No one had bothered to herd Meg to a training session. The lights hadn ‘t turned her into a drone, just frightened her. She’d found the gun somewhere nearby and holed up here. laney felt a rush of hurt for her, imagining what it must have been like.

It let her read the agony in Meg’s eyes as Meg saw her, nude and calm, walking in by a vampire’s leave.

“Laney?”

she looked back at her friend. If she’d been free, she’d have been beside Meg, and rookies or not they’d have blasted silver through a lot of nosferatu before they went down—on each other’s knives when the silver-fill was all spent, neither leaving the other to be taken.

But she wasn’t free, and Mistress did not let her regret that.

“Laney? My god. Do you even know who I am?”

“Of course, Sweet Cheeks.” laney smiled, and rode out the pain she saw flick through Meg to hear that. “i remember the day i met you during Twig Week when they were giving us shit and you told me it was because they were so full of it.”

Meg was crying but didn’t seem to notice. “I’m going to shoot you, laney. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry but I’m going to do it.

“I knew something was wrong—this fucking thing in me lets me sense someone they’ve tainted.”

laney relaxed and waited for Meg to fire. One less silver bullet in the world to endanger Mistress.

Meg hitched a sob. “Tell me what happened. Tell me you fought it. Tell me you can’t—”

“i went to them, Meg. i wanted to be turned so i could come back and drink Kepler down to a husk and kill the rest and so i could take care of you.” laney recited it. The memory was there but it was just . . . there. It had been true.

Meg’s eyes widened, though.

“i didn’t even think of it until i found you. Until i saw what you were feeling. Until i knew what they were doing. Letting you . . .”

“They didn’t turn you,” Meg said. She sounded almost angry, but it wasn’t clear at whom.

“No, They didn’t.” laney let a little shudder run through her, and took a breath when she saw it almost made Meg shoot her right there.

“The elder who mindstripped us at the barn was there. i’m under Her power now. She hypnotized me and told me i didn’t want to be a vampire but only a slave. Her willing slave.”

Meg shook her head. “They tricked you.”

“Yes,” laney said serenely. “But They made me happy They did.” she could see Meg trying not to feel contempt for her, and she wanted to reach down to her pussy and show Meg how happy she was. But she realized Mistress had not sent her in here to be shot.

“That’s not going to happen to me.” Meg’s conviction was there, and laney believed her. “Maybe you’re supposed to entrance me, or maybe I’m just supposed to give up and let them turn me into you because you look so fucking orgasmic just standing there obeying them.

“I’m not going to.” She closed her eyes for a moment but the tears flowed again. “But I love you, laney, and I know what you tried to do for me. I won’t leave you for them. To be some pussylicking slave until they suck you dry.”

laney started walking toward her. “i love you, too, Meg. If you kill me, i understand. i’m just obeying my Mistress and that’s the best way for a human to die, but i know how you feel. i won’t hurt you and i won’t even tempt you—”

“Stop, Laney. Don’t.”

“—with how i know you felt when our first Mistress made us Hers. i envied you Her bite.”

“Laney. Don’t.”

laney’s nipples were pointing back at Meg. she felt sweetly defenseless as she walked to the gun. she thought about taking it in her mouth and looking at Meg as she sucked it.

“Stop.”

“i wanted Her to drink from me. i only stopped because She willed me to. And i didn’t even know, then, how much more power They have over you when They’ve tasted you.”

Meg’s lips started to form Please but she stopped.

laney rested her forehead on the cool muzzle and stared at Meg.

she felt the shaking. Meg was looking at her, drinking her in. Maybe Meg was imagining laney’s face a second from now, falling away with the top half on its way to the far wall, the lower half still smiling blissfully.

The muzzle left her and she saw Meg shaking her head. “I’m sorry,” Meg mumbled. “I—can’t. I hate myself for letting you be that way but—I can’t. Not you.”

laney looked at her. “Thank you, Meg.

“Please.” she spoke softly, soothingly. “Just put it down and come out with me, Meg. It won’t hurt. They’ll take away the pain and you’ll be happy and fulfilled. Nothing will ever hurt you again.”

Meg moved her head as though resisting a nod, and the gun pointed down. laney saw her eyes and read the struggle behind them.

“i felt so, so good when She took me. So much pleasure. She likes Her slaves to be happy.”

Meg saw the promise, and she could hear the truth in laney’s words. She knew how good she’d feel, and how awful she’d never remember feeling again.

“I do love you,” she said, and raised the gun to own her head.

“No! Don’t!”

laney was barely aware of saying it, feeling it. She’d seen Kepler’s resistance but now she knew what Meg was making herself turn away from. It was beyond friendship or even love—she couldn’t stand knowing someone that strong would have to die for it.

Meg stopped. She could suppress her own fear but laney’s hit her heart.

The gun stayed up but pointed to the ceiling. laney held her eyes and gently stepped closer, laying her skin against Meg’s T-shirt and holding her. she rested her head on Meg’s shoulder. she heard the gun thump on the mattress and then felt the arms around her.

“God what am I doing,” Meg said.

“Loving,” laney told her. “Surrendering,” she breathed across Meg’s skin. she saw the wounds on Meg’s neck but did not touch them.

“Come. Come to Mistress now.”

Meg stayed put. “I just want to wait, a little. Just a little.”

laney leaned back and then up to kiss her. “Don’t be afraid. Come. we must obey Her.” she saw Meg’s pupils flare at obey and then she felt Meg relax.

Meg tried to say some last thing to her and seemed heartsick that she could find no words. But laney thought of her a few moments hence, nude before Mistress, with only happy obedient thoughts as She put the rest of meg to sleep to empty her mind later.

She would no longer worry that there’d been no farewell.

When laney turned away, Meg followed, holding her hand.

24.

Denise was outside when they emerged, stroking trina’s hair as trina knelt against her hip, and laney felt a new compulsion to lead Meg to her. Meg didn’t resist, and gave her hand to the vampire, looking abstractedly into her eyes. Denise touched her forehead and Meg was deep in trance, and laney turned away to attend her Mistress.

Mistress stood over Kepler, who slumped over on the floor. sherry or someone else had stripped her, and laney enjoyed her lean body as it sprawled loose and helpless at Her feet. laney wanted to see what They would do with Kepler. It had nothing to do with a grudge—that had been a former Laney, full of free will and anger, not Mistress’ tame now-and-forever laney—and now Meg stood behind her, safe now from anything the Guard could do.

laney just wanted to see the woman used by vampires, and dream of being her as they did. Right now, as little as she could feel discontent under Mistress’ spell, laney longed to be a vampire’s meal.

“Awaken.” Mistress spoke and willed at once, and laney felt Her power seize her mind and push it to greater alertness. she felt Meg stiffen beside her.

It reached Kepler through her drugged sleep and conquered her. The nude captive slowly rose to her knees, then her feet, to stand slackly before the vampire elder.

With an effort she raised her head and looked Mistress in the face. A groan of pure despair got out of her before she could keep it in, and her head dropped.

“Your body is still asleep,” Mistress said, putting a finger to Kepler’ s chin to raise it. “I may put you to sleep again too. But I wanted to talk to you.”

“I’m . . . not . . .” Kepler’s breathing sawed the air. “You . . .”

“You can’t even force Us to kill you, little pigeon. You’re not a threat—no silver, nothing. Your body’s full of sleepjuice and your will—it’s strong, but it’s still human.”

“Couldn’t . . . hyp . . . notize me,” Kepler managed.

“No, little pigeon. I know. I watched through My slave’s mind.” laney stood straighter. she saw Kepler try to turn her head and fail. “But what you resisted was your own perverse brainwash turned back against you. Not Our power. When I touch you with that you’ll be nothing. Less than nothing, a cuntslut.

“You’ll crawl after Us pleading to be bitten. You’ll cut yourself, if We let you, trying to tempt Us with fresh flow. You’ll be too dazed and needful to realize We prefer it right from the vessel.

“You’ll dream of becoming a bloodcow. You’ll crawl among them, trying to earn their favor by licking their slits. You’ll thank Me for it with your lips and your heart.

“That’s not hypnosis, little pigeon. You won’t resist that.”

Kepler was shaking, but laney could see the ex-Hunter’s cleft, and it gleamed. Part of Kepler’s dissolving mind was betraying her, already on its knees.

“You used—tricks.” Another part of Kepler’s mind was still angry, which amused Mistress. “You . . . had to use our . . . tech . . . tech . . .”

“Yes. We used your weapons to enslave you.” Mistress nodded as though Kepler had just scored a debating point. “As you told My slave, that’s also the bad news.

“Think, little pigeon—I’m letting you remember how, for now. Warm, living humanity was a small-toothed, clawless furball too slow to run and too weak to fight. It had a brain, which at first just told it more clearly when it would be eaten.

“Then it used tools, and killed or harnessed everything in sight.

“Nosferatu are intelligent superpredators with lethal powers. And great sharp teeth.” Mistress smiled, showing Hers. “And now We’re a tool-using predator species.

“The combination’s irresistible. Eventually, as you told laney, We’ll make this world into a pasture for human cattle.”

“Still take—years,” hissed Kepler. “We’ll fight you.”

Mistress stroked Kepler’s cheek and then her breast, and the Guard officer writhed in unwilling enjoyment. “Wellll . . . ‘what’s this “we” shit, paleface?’ There will be those who do resist, but you won’t be among them. Your mouth and hands will be busy elsewhere.

“And We are, after all, the undead. We like things that take years. Years of nights of hunting.”

“What . . . will . . .” Kepler just panted.

“It’s all right, little pigeon. I can see it in your mind. We lost a lot of very ripe girlflesh in the firefight, but there are still plenty of fit, submissive specimens for Us to enjoy.

“We’ll leave quite a few—what We did here will scare more humans, more effectively, if there are survivors to tell about it. And in their zeal to analyze this, they’ll just keep asking about it. The story will repeat and the erotic submission will worm its way into the more susceptible minds and condition more new prey for Us. In time, their minds will call out to Us, begging to be taken.

“Naturally, the ones We leave will first spend a little time asleep as We speak to their minds, and later on they will obey Us. Perhaps come to Us.

“Besides—it’s fun to let some of you go. That way We can capture you all over again.”

Mistress smiled, and then laughed. “No, don’t feel ashamed, little pigeon. Not for hoping you’ll be spared that way. You’re in dire straits, and anyone would wish her way out of them.

“It’s only human.”

Kepler looked up at her. “No.” It wasn’t defiance. laney heard desperation. “I’d rather die.”

Mistress held her face. laney knew she could behead Kepler with a flick of Her wrist, and so did Kepler, who held still.

“Do you beg Me for death?”

“No,” said Kepler. Then, “Yes.”

She sank to her knees and looked up. “Please. Let me die. Don’t make me into—her.” She stared at laney and laney looked back. She didn’t taste her crotch this time, either, but she could smell how excited she was. So could Kepler.

slave. take the gun and relax.

laney obeyed smoothly, stooping to find a discarded pistol without taking her eyes from Kepler, then stepping forward to her.

“I’m giving her back part of her mind, little pigeon. Beg death from my slave. If she grants it, it’s yours.”

As Kepler stared up at her fearfully, laney felt awareness flow back just as Mistress had said. she was still a slave and still thrilled to be, but the memories of who she’d been before seemed to mean more to her.

Kepler settled back on her heels.

laney looked at her, holding the gun by her side. “This is odd.”

Kepler nodded, and laney could see calculation in her eye. Not a desperate last-minute plan—it was just what Kepler’s brain did, planning and manipulating. It would until something—a bullet, Mistress ’ will—entered her brain and stopped it. And after facing Mistress Herself, Kepler might feel disorientingly strong facing Her slave, someone Kepler had held in thrall herself.

“i wanted to destroy you,” laney said. “None of that matters now. i love being a slave and i never would have been if you hadn’t given me to Them.” she smiled. “Not that i feel i owe you.”

Kepler actually managed a lopsided smirk. “I was hoping,” she said hoarsely, “that you might hate me enough to shoot me.”

laney turned back to where Meg stood blankly with Denise, awaiting the elder’s attention. “i don’t need to hurt you.” she watched curiously as Kepler’s face fell. “No. Still on track. i mean i don’t need you to suffer. i’m willing to end it for you.”

Kepler looked at her with wonder. The Guard officer suspected a trick but sensed laney meant it. She didn’t seem to know how to deal with generosity.

“Do you really feel that way toward her, My slave?” Mistress’ voice closed laney’s eyes for a moment, but she recovered.

“Yes, my Mistress. i do. If You have given her to me, i’m willing to kill her.” she waited for permission.

she heard a laugh. “you no longer think that, slave.” Kepler’s jaw dropped but laney was on the edge of orgasm as she felt her thoughts being shifted. “you do not remember feeling that way.”

“i no longer think that,” she hissed, staring out at nothing. “i do not remember feeling that way.”

she looked down at Kepler, coming out of the daze, and wondered why the captive was weeping.

The tears seemed to make Mistress laugh more, so laney enjoyed them too.

Then Mistress’ will pulsed out and they all turned to Her.

“The captives are in harness and the sleepers have been taught to dream,” She said. “As my own mentrix was wont to say on departing. The rescue party is on its way, and I wish them joy of what they’ll find.”

She smiled at Denise. “Existence is risky, especially for an undead who does what I do.”

The younger vampire smiled back but said nothing.

“But I do look forward to that day this prey-girl, my little pigeon, spoke of.”

“The ranchworld?” Denise looked at the slaves and the entranced captives around them. “Humans on the hoof?”

“Yes.” Mistress looked at them, and then at the bullet-pocked walls. “Still, I’ll miss not having to hunt them this way.”

Denise smiled. “Maybe there can be a game preserve. A city or two, stocked with them. We’d need to mindtwist them back into thinking they’ re free. Putting cattle on the savannah doesn’t make them impalas. Or lions.”

Mistress smiled. “That might be a project for when I tire of this sort of thing.”

Denise glanced at trina and the slave fell into her gaze, then stepped over to take hold of the leash they’d put on Kepler’s neck. Denise nodded and they joined the other nosferatu and slaves making their way out of Sector.

She shook her head. “I won’t ever tire of this sort of thing.”

25.

“This is what I meant,” Mistress told Denise, as laney knelt and Meg stood nude before them.

laney no longer had any idea where they were. she was with Mistress, and thought nothing more.

“This girl is nearly broken. She has tasted obedience and been addicted, and she was taken from that but not cured. She doubts herself and her power, which makes the doubts real.”

Denise looked at Meg, and ran a hand over her belly and loins as Meg stayed still and docile, just as she’d been told to. “So she’s slave material, whether mortal or nosferatu?”

Mistress nodded. “I think so. I’m not sure. When you and I were turned, we were submissive to our mentrices, but that evolved into apprenticeship.”

“Yes. I couldn’t be her slave. She couldn’t live with a lover.” Denise peered at Meg, seeing no such power in her. “My hunger and my—predation—were too strong. Are.”

“That place in this one is empty,” Mistress said. “She will imprint on the one who makes her. She will submit and not question. She will be powerful and completely obedient.”

“She will be yours,” Denise said, smiling.

“I claim her,” Mistress said.

“I’m not going to argue about it.”

“But you do want to watch.”

Denise smiled open-mouthed.

Meg blinked and seemed to recall herself, and her gaze swung back to Mistress, just as when Mistress had commanded her into trance. Denise faded back discreetly.

“Come to Me now.” Meg seemed awake but distant, vaguely sad but confused about why. She didn’t look at laney.

laney just watched her tall body, and thought of Mistress’ pleasure at possessing it, and the soul that warmed it.

Mistress said no more. When Meg stood before Her, She reached up to embrace her, then gently held her as she sagged. Meg went boneless in Her arms and turned, like a dancer against a pole but slowly, until her back was to Mistress. laney could see the wetness at her crotch. Meg leaned her head back and gave Mistress her throat.

Mistress extended Her fangs and paused, looking at Meg’s offering, taking in not just the pulse but the long, athletic body Meg was surrendering. She nodded, accepting it, though Meg was too lost to see. She kissed, tasted. Licked.

Bit.

Meg gave a cry that stabbed through laney’s trance with its longing. laney vibrated helplessly and envied her. Meg bucked and thrashed everywhere Mistress’ strength didn’t hold her as the orgasm took her. As Mistress drank deeply of her, Meg settled into an undulating dance, her face twisting and her hands flopping loosely while her hips ground and her loins thrust and moved.

As laney watched and dampened, Meg grew still, the erotic dance becoming dream-trembles. The smell of her musk flowed over laney and her conical nipples were erect and perfect.

It took a moment to realize that Meg was about to die.

Mistress paused, delicately kissing at the wounds. Holding Meg with one arm, She brought the other to her mouth and bit the wrist, and put the wound to Meg’s mouth.

Meg stiffened and sucked at it blindly until Mistress took it away. Meg hung there, and Mistress looked at her for a moment. Then Meg’s head turned again as though on strings, and Mistress drank her again.

This time Meg stayed still when She was done, and She held Meg to her.

Then Meg’s eyes opened. laney trembled to see them now, but they did not turn and transfix her. They swung like searchlights as she twisted with sinister grace in Mistress’ arms, where just now she’d been vulnerably limp. They sought Mistress’ gaze and when they found it, Meg sank to her knees and bowed. Only to look up again.

laney heard nothing of the undead fealty being exchanged. Meg kissed Mistress’ palm, and Mistress kissed Meg’s forehead.

Meg stood and then they kissed hard and deeply, like lovers. laney saw the intensity of the embrace, and realized either of them could kill her if they held her that tightly.

she knelt and watched. she felt like a rabbit with one more cat in the room, and she wanted it.

Then Meg stood straight before the vampire that had turned her, and bowed her head.

“I command you aloud,” Mistress said, “because you are to Me as the mortals are to you. You will hunt and kill and enslave and bespell for Me. You will do My bidding.

“You are My weapon and vassal. I will choose your victims and they who flee you will fear Me while they who bend to you will be Mine.”

“I am Yours,” Meg said, and her voice rang in laney’s head.

Mistress smiled. “Yes. And now you must feed.”

They looked together at laney, and she spasmed once to feel it.

“Your first prey is from My hand.”

“Yes, my Lady,” Meg said, her stare reaching into laney’s quivering mind. “All prey is from your hand.”

She started to walk toward laney, and even nude she was so powerful, so . . .

Mistress’ will touched laney, and she knew she was about to be reoriented, her obedience transferred between owners. she would have given her throat to anyone she was told to, but that was not up to her.

But Mistress paused. “You will drink first blood. Drink from her mind this time as well. No sweeter taste has any vein.” Her will surged against laney again, and laney went to sleep with her eyes open.

Laney woke up. She saw the vampire elder and it was as it had been when she spoke to Kepler—

oh god

She’d—she’d—

It passed. The elder had released her for now from her slavery, and had blunted the memory of what she’d been doing in obedience.

It barely mattered.

Meg was a vampire and she was about to take Laney as her first victim. The elder wanted Meg to enslave her, too.

Meg was—

Meg was beautiful. Laney felt the tendrils of Meg’s control sliding into her mind, and watched the alien eyes scan her from the face she loved.

Meg smiled, and her fangs were—endearing. Laney could already imagine them on her skin, tracing lines of not-quite-pain until Meg tired of playing and pierced her.

Laney tried to keep her mind together. It was a losing battle. She felt Meg in her head with confidence that grew with each breath she took. She realized she and Meg were breathing in the same rhythm now, even before Meg touched her, as Meg slaved Laney’s body to her own.

Laney shook with the fresh memory of their first lovemaking, before the Academy. Meg had come into her bedroom and overpowered her and Laney had begged to be fucked over and over. They’d been a D/s couple and Laney didn’t spend a night unbound or unfucked until they went to the Academy and . . .

Meg had changed her memory. She left the edges frayed so Laney would know.

She looked up at Meg. “I wish we had,” she rasped.

Meg looked at her, reached into her mind, and—pulled back.

“Drink me dry, Meg. Thoughts or blood.

“I’m—” It was the habit of only a day, since she’d surrendered to the elder, but it had become her life. Still—her mind was her own. She could think it, say it, to someone else.

She threw herself into Meg’s gaze, and spoke before she forgot how.

“Meg—I’m yours.”

26.

Meg looked at her. Then she was on top of Laney, not even a blur, her body firm and cool and powerful. That face, with its inhuman gaze and the fanged smile, was nearly touching hers, exploring her, and Laney was both turned on and scared.

“she is yours,” Mistress told them. “If you feel the urge to kill her, you may.”

Laney looked up. Meg’s eyes drank hers, and Laney felt herself drifting. It didn’t feel like the other times vampires had hypnotized her, but it might just be Meg’s own feel, or something . . . newborns . . .

That’s it. Not trying to think.

Laney was in vampire trance again.

So quiet now in that mind. So empty. There was nothing in her head after that but obedience. That made her jump a little as she came, but Meg held her motionless otherwise. It passed.

There was only obedience.

She was aware again. She looked up into Meg’s eyes, and the idea came back. “Drain me,” she begged.

This was still Meg. It might be that something else behind those eyes had just brainwashed her into thinking that, but that was nothing she could help. But this was a new Meg, and what would have made her cry before would please her now. Laney’s life offered on Laney’s lips might please her.

And Laney wanted to please her. So much.

Vampiric Meg smiled, and her voice was still compelling.

“No. I don’t think I will.”

She reached down and tapped Laney gently on the forehead.

Laney’s eyes blurred, and she relaxed. She felt the cool mouth on her throat, and the fangtips rested over her vein. She waited, weeping at her eyes and pussy.

Then she felt Meg’s lips against her own, and tasted her tongue. They kissed and for a moment Laney knew only a lover.

When Meg turned again to feed, Laney curled against her and let herself melt.

The pain was delicate and divine. Laney felt her life rushing out of her and her selfhood with it. She understood what it had done to Meg to be sipped by their first Mistress.

She no longer understood why anyone wanted to fight this.

She realized she was coming, but the rape of her throat was too intense for her to pay attention. It was just her body’s quieter cry that gushe d from her now.

Meg drank, and Laney came . . .

Then she was kneeling, calm and submissive, facing the elder, next to Meg.

“So much for submissive thrall-vampires,” Denise commented.

The elder was smiling at Meg. “I’m glad, in a way. She seems interesting, and likely to be more interesting if she’s her own mistress.”

“Likely to be more available to play with the rest of us too,” Denise said. “If it’s up to her and she’s not out doing your dirty work.”

The elder laughed, and it tugged at Laney even as she felt Meg’s hold on her remain strong.

As it should, since she now knew that Meg was the center of the universe.

“I’m also thinking that a weak-willed vampire, kept as my thrall, might be easier for an enemy to subvert. Something for later.

“But it’s not the first time I’ve seen this. Her power wasn’t empty. I didn’t see it because she didn’t either—not until she had the girl’s life under her teeth. Then thralldom was just a collar she took off.

“Meg?”

“Yes?” Laney felt happier not to hear Meg defer and say “my Lady.”

“Now that Laney is yours, do you want to turn her? I wouldn’t recommend doing it right away—not until you know what you’re doing as a vampire, yourself—but we can help both of you prepare.”

Laney turned her head to meet Meg’s gaze. It held her but didn’t devour her. Sometime in the blankness after she’d first fed Meg, Meg had altered her mind and trained it. A lot of it kept the power more balanced, like a lifeline that kept Laney from falling too deeply. Laney appreciated not having to work at it.

Meg smiled.

“Laney? Would you like me to make you one of Us? Someday?”

Laney gazed back up at her.

“Not unless you will it, Meg. I think I enjoy being your slave and bloodcow too much. I couldn’t obey you this way if I were nosferatu, would I?”

Meg smiled but the rest of it was between the vampires, mind to mind, and Laney just knelt quietly. She felt confident Meg wouldn’t press her about turning.

Then she felt herself following Meg to a broad couch, and was sliding against its fabric before she realized it was there for mistresses to feed on their slaves. She rolled over and let Meg look at her. Meg rested a hand on her thigh and Laney felt her breathing change.

Meg smiled, and then Denise appeared over her shoulder. Laney looked at them, the long-haired jock blonde and the short-haired genteel biker brunette, lethally pretty and hypnotic, both savoring her from above.

“Join me?” Meg spoke to Denise but kept looking at Laney.

“Love to.” Denise settled on the other side. “I’ve been wanting to taste her ever since she abducted me.”

“Sorry about that,” Laney whispered as they loomed over her.

“It’s all right,” Denise purred, her eyes luminous in the shadows falling over Laney’s mind. “It was exciting, and you were so adorably fierce. Humans who are brave and smart and gorgeous are rare enough.”

Laney shuddered as she felt both mouths take her throat and both wills press on hers, though Meg’s still ruled. She felt Denise stroke her belly, but it was Meg’s hand on her bare pussy. A finger found her clit and touched it in a rhythm with her tongue against the wounds that spun Laney into trance.

As she drifted, her weakness surging up into the predators to make them stronger, she felt Meg in her depths.

Thank you, Laney. It was gentle and strong.

I really am yours, Meg. Laney felt it burning in her, beyond the words, and she abandoned words to let Meg see it burn.

They found other words together.

Then the vampires drank their fill, and Laney slept.