The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Author’s note:

This story follows “In My Mind, a Serpent” and “In My Mind, a River”.

The Ancients series explores a world much like ours, but for the few passionate and dangerous immortals who love and hate in the shadows of man’s civilization. The remnants of a primordial race, these Ancients have abilities of which mankind spins myths. People are acknowledged, illuminated, abused, and discarded in the tangle of monstrous intrigues amongst these Old Evils.

My tales will often contain mc, fd, ff, and edi (Extremely Disturbing Imagination). All stories copyrighted.

I do keep in mind those folks who may arrive to this fresh, but you will find a minimum of exposition about what has gone before. The library of my stories and Ancients series characters are referenced at: http://www.asstr.org/~EyeofSerpent/library.html

In My Mind, a Horror

Eye of Serpent

“If you believe that dreams can come true, be prepared for the occasional nightmare, too.”

- French Proverb

“Never interrupt your enemy while he’s making a mistake.”

- Napoleon Bonaparte

“You may be right, I may be crazy. But it just might be a lunatic you’re looking for”

- William Joel

Hong Kong, China, 2001 A.D.

Evelyn swallowed her horror. “What is it, Miyu? What’s been done to them?”

She stared at the two immobile hard-faced young men in black jackets and tees. The nearer one’s twisted Asian features leaned away in a waxy grimace. His right hand raised into a fist; his left thrust in his pants and wrapped around his solid erection. The nasty razor knife held low in the other’s tense right hand was at odds with his bulging eyes and silent eternal scream.

They barred the smoky darkness of the lobby.

Miyu, still in the high heels and flight attendant disguise, glided to within centimeters of the first man without touching him.

“He is dead—his flesh partially transmuted.” He brushed a fingertip along the corpse’s face and shuddered. The Ancient Crane slipped to the second man. “This one is the same. Most illuminating. I must conclude it is the Serpent’s doing. Impressive. I had heard tales, but this—.”

Evelyn clutched her shivering hands into fists. Corelle killing so wantonly? The idea shocked her. She put the men’s last expressions out of her mind. It must have been self-defense.

She stepped around the upright dead. The exterior lights failed to brighten the lobby. She glanced at the interior ceiling. No. Something exploded the lights in here. Evelyn registered a heavy beat of music throbbing from inside the ‘Mediterranean Blues’. “We better find Doris.”

“Agreed.” Miyu drifted at her side as she approached the inner double doors.

She felt her spine catch a phantom summer breeze. It came from the direction of the music. Tender memories of Corelle—the real one—and her goodbye kisses in Evelyn’s apartment so long ago danced on her lips.

Which Corelle is more real? The killer or the lover?

The doors shoved aside. The reek of salt and sex brushed by them along with the clearer music. The stage was a dim crimson. The only interior lights glowed red and blue, leaving some purple blends spilling over barely-there outlines of couples at tables. Everywhere she looked, Evelyn saw lust. Women’s legs raised up in shadows, torn or loose stockings dark with wet stains. Men’s sweat-glistened chests scratched and raked by recent excess.

Miyu gestured to the stage.

Evelyn nodded.

The music swirled and beat like a giant’s heart from the glowing crimson stage. Blank-eyed musicians played sexual tempo. Among the players, a woman danced with her back to the doors. Doris had knelt on the hardwood floor in front of the musicians with open arms, staring at the scarlet-lit dancer.

Worshipping?

Corelle. The Serpent.

And naked but for a ruby snake coiled up the left leg above her stiletto high heels. Cinched around her waist and up across one nipple, the form circled her throat and draped her shoulders. Sparkling pendant jewelry adorned her buzz-cut head and dashed light from her ears. As they walked nearer, Evelyn realized it was not a snake, but a silk scarf with a diamond pattern; it seemed to move because the curves and contours of Corelle’s naked body glistened and undulated.

Evelyn found her eyes caught on the slow pendulum of the Serpent’s ass.

The customers whispered to each other, some watching the stage dance even as they fucked. Any lips not engaged in arousal mouthed a chant that slithered into Evelyn’s awareness.

We are the many-headed Beast,
Summoned by the Whore of the River—
We dance in scarlet and white,
Ridden by the Whore of the River—
We sing to praise the end of all,
Bidden by the Whore of the Great River.

Evelyn hurried to touch Doris, terrified that her love would be a waxy corpse. No. Very warm, smiling up at the Serpent with opaque stare, drool glistening at mouth and chin. Her arms spread wide, entreating welcome, celebrating return, or perhaps offering everything that Doris might have to give.

Already given? Evelyn took another look at Doris’ wide-eyed gaze and slapped her lightly.

Doris orgasmed. Evelyn took a step backward as a heated rush of energy ran from her own palm down her arm to legs and pussy. Then Miyu was there with a quick grip of her hand. She gasped and realized she’d nearly hit Doris’ face again before thinking about it.

“No, Evelyn.” The Crane’s voice was gentle.

But Doris turned. She looked directly at Evelyn and smiled, her pupils huge. “Yes, Evelyn. Hit me again. Harder.”

Evelyn swallowed. A wet throb between her legs answered that look of devotion.

And the Serpent smiled over her bare shoulder at the three of them. “Yes. Evelyn. Do it—.”

Evelyn tried not to look into—.

—Light. Exciting hot flesh. A crimson Light whipping me. The essence of pussy. Hot. Like a stinging shower. Like a serpent’s tongue washing each secret inch of me. Submission. Her cruel loving caress. Her hard passion and exposure. Hot. I want the soft skin of her breasts in my mouth. On my hot skin. Horny. Graceful. Dancing. Licking her legs. Lesbian. Crimson lips. Lipstick. Sucking. Stretched and spread. Pussylicker. Passing blood back and forth in our kissing mouths. Tongues. Monsters. Fuckmouths. Wicked mouths. Yes. Nothing hotter than a cruel girl. Mistress Serpent. Sexy. Ancient blood. Monstrous passion. Wicked Ancient girl-slut. Hot smooth ass. Forcing my face into her pussy. Crazy bitch. Cruel monster. Lovely lady of my honor. Worship you. Service you like the hot bitch I am. My snatch dripping down my legs.

Hotter now. Something’s wrong. Burning. The crimson light pierces through me.

I thrust my hips on the light. I feel her. Corelle. Serpent. She joins with me. We are both Light.

I can do this. Tiny crescent in her eyebrow. Tiny bell in her hot wet nubbin. Frig myself. Dance my fingers. I give my love to her. She gives. A great crimson Light. A Great River. The Light hotter and hotter. Corelle opens her legs further and my tongue penetrates into the inner deep. She twines with me. She is strong. The Beast is stronger. I almost see the Evil cower from the Light that is her core. Something hungers for her. Something hating her. A Shadow. Corruption. The Beast must kill us to live. It promises power, but only needs death. The Light that is her core. Heather. The Phoenix. Miyu. Doris. Oh, my Doris. I want you so much. I’m not afraid—

I am not afraid. Evelyn blinked. Doris and she turned to look at each other with wide eyes. They joined in a hot wet sucking kiss. Doris bit her boss’s mouth. Evelyn’s hands roamed her friend’s chest. They moaned and writhed together. Doris possessively gripped her ass. Incoherent apologies and promises went back and forth between them as they tore at each other’s clothes. The tension of the last week dissolved in searing desire.

Roughly, hands and thighs thrust at each other.

Miyu staggered from the onslaught; eyes stretched with wonder. The Ancient fell to his knees and crawled to the Serpent.

The Serpent turned. She sat on her heels, opening her legs as the Crane closed. “Who are you, little Ancient?”

Miyu’s mouth worked once with no sound as he groped in his memory. The Serpent had incinerated centuries of dust from his libido. His eyes locked on her pussy, he raised his hands reaching and his voice rasped. “Please call me, Miyu-the-worshipping-mouth, oh Serpent.”

The Serpent pointed a lazy finger at his crotch. An expression of his lust tented the miniskirt. “Is that a serpent in your panties? Or are you just trying to impress me?”

His lipsticked mouth trembled. He palmed her knees, his head going between her legs. She stopped him with a flat hand on his forehead. “Male or she-male?” she asked.

He blinked. He had forgotten the disguise. “Male. Certainly.”

She squeezed one of his orange-filled bra cups. Her other hand rubbed the tip of his cock through the skirt. She smiled. “Ah. What are you made up for? Not that I mind. I have a particular fondness for horny flight attendants.”

Her palm twisted against his forehead. Her voice lowered. “Yes. You love to dress as a slutty stewardess.”

“I love to—.” He gasped. His thoughts dashed into a surging coil of heat branding his thoughts with the sensation of his feet arched in the heels, his nipples flattened by the hard fruit in his bra, his erection straining against the tight silky fabrics.

A chasm yawned before his perceptions. Something she had asked was important. He grappled with the thought. He took a deep shivering breath, his hands stroking her bare knees. “Disguise. We deceived the Dragon’s watchers.”

Her face transformed. A sharp pain dawned in her mortal eye. Her lips shaped ‘dragon’ as growing understanding pulled her eyebrows into a harsh regret. Her quicksilver glance registered around the room as her hand tightened on the Crane’s forehead.

Pleasure drained out of her face. Horror flooded in.

Some miles away, the Raven counted coup and defeated a Dragon, a Beast, and his own fear in a single act of courage. The ravaging fury of the denied Beast erupted into the Great River.

The Serpent and the Crane raised their voices in a single raw scream.

* * *

In the air over Hong Kong

Seven aircraft lost their computer and radio gear, and instantly began emergency procedures. At Hong Kong airport, the entire power-grid failed. The backup generators shorted and the entire facility plunged into darkness.

On Lantau Island, every circuit trunk severed.

In Hong Kong, random electrical outages struck across the city.

* * *

Over three miles beneath the Pacific Ocean

Rupture. Suffering. Death. The Leviathan convulsed in a howl of agony.

* * *

Liurong monitoring complex, Guangdong Province, China

Sirens screamed. Alert systems registered an electromagnetic pulse at Lantau Island just below the threshold of a micro-thermonuclear device. Pilots scrambled to interceptors. Fast-reaction troops loaded trucks.

The province commander called the capital. China went to defense-two status.

* * *

Flight 1233, Orient Charter Airways, Pacific Ocean

Nicki Barclay toweled her face. She checked her haggard eyes in the tiny bathroom’s mirror.

Piss, damn. I look worse than Tapestry. I should have slept last night. I’m in lousy shape to face the Dragon.

Stab. Nightmare. Death. Nicki shrieked as the first pain slammed through her ribs like an explosion. Her head smacked the mirror and broke the glass. The second pain smashed through her shoulder. She thrashed about the small coffin-like chamber. Blood flew from her nose. Another spear of pain cut through her neck.

Her body tumbled helplessly, bruising and lacerating itself against the room’s equipment.

* * *

Seventy miles off the docks of Los Angeles

The Quick Knife twirled in the deep-sea chair and admired the legs of the hired-boat’s redheaded captain.

He grinned, imagining her concealed tan lines. He hoped it would take a few days to find the Leviathan’s current whereabouts. His glance swung across the western horizon. He sensed a sudden change in the River.

What the—?

Shatter. Anguish. Death. An invisible mountain slammed into his chest. The Quick Knife cried out and collapsed to the deck.

* * *

Kuala Lumpur jungles, Thailand

Ruin. Torment. Death. The Ancient Falcon clutched her chest and wept blood. She hurried her charges into the caves—for what protection might be offered from the coming storm.

* * *

Four Seasons Hospice Home, Iowa

Marjorie DeChallis still form twitched in the wheelchair. A tortured sigh whispered.

“Annette?”

It was her first and final word since the spring of nineteen forty-one. A killing stroke cut through her brain as the River twisted. Her forever afternoon and her suffering ended.

* * *

New York City

Devastate. Torture. Death.

The Ancient Aphrodite blacked out from the pain. Kendra Forge’s heart stopped for a second. She staggered and collapsed crying out for help.

In a nearby city hospital corridor, Hellington Magnificat felt her legs turn to rubber under her. The entire weight of the River’s agony drove her into the tiled floor. She bit her tongue and held onto consciousness. A few dead words snapped old protections around her mind.

In the same hospital, the readouts on the comatose Yashmak Kepp flat-lined. Code alarms squealed through the nurses’ station, driving a response team into the room to restart her heart.

* * *

JFK International Airport, New York

Waving to Shelley as the cab departed for the hotel, Darke moved off to make a phone call. The landscaped area around the public phones was empty at this hour.

Ravage. Murder. Death.

Slick blackness surged within the inner labyrinth of the healer ShadowDarke. His powers lashed about him, killing the plant-life within three meters of his sudden fall. His mind struggled with its cohesion.

* * *

Avignon, France

The trusted aides watched their liege every hour of the day. His catalepsy showed no signs of improvement.

Despoil. Massacre. Death.

The Salamander jerked in the bed. He opened his frantic eyes and began to laugh in a mindless fugue.

* * *

Paris, France

She shut down the motorcycle and dropped the stand. A gloved hand slid the goggles up on her forehead. She scanned the near empty street.

Mutilate. Butchery. Death.

The Rat twisted, somersaulted backward and landed in a crouch with a knife in each hand. Her guts churned. Something huge struggled to burn into her mind. It slid away from the Cat-sealed vault of her heart.

She licked her lips and with a certainty, knew that Isis was in danger.

* * *

Closed Club, Cairo, Egypt

Defile. Slaughter. Death.

The Temple That Walks shuddered in all her radiance. Blood dripped from her nose. She laughed and commanded her slaves to lash her perfect back and legs until they dropped.

Cleopatra wept, but Isis’ mental grip twisted tight. The eternal daughter sobbed and snatched a pony-girl bit from a cushion. Dragging her feet, she stalked behind her goddess and pulled the bit into that divinely luscious mouth; then tighter until Isis groaned and orgasmed.

The pain danced on.

* * *

The Dragon thrashed her limbs and screamed at the nightmare of her slavery. She blinked and her head cleared of the mental storm from the Beast’s orgasm. Her thoughts limped as if drugged. The Beast lay below her—his body so hot to her touch only moments before cooled unnaturally. Her back to the cold flaking flesh, she realized where she was, remembered the Beast molesting her mind. She gagged on the bitter taint of the twisted Thing’s essence and the suffering flood of her senses.

She smelled the corruption now lingering in her own flesh.

With a sliver of shock, she at last understood that she was mad. The Dragon considered that there was no darker point in her existence than this moment. She remembered with dim fondness the golden needles, her Kinspawn student, and the glorious nightmares of Heather Jesby that pushed her to the edge.

The Serpent.

She sat up.

The crooked yang thrust into her throbbing swollen yin was cold and three times the size of a mundane cock. She brooded on the wretchedness of resting impaled on the monster—and the Thing of her creation stirred beneath her.

“Aaarrrh. To have flesh, to be desired, and to be quenched in heated misery.” Its hands loomed towards her and then brutally pawed her slight breasts.

Her mouth trembled. Her upper lip snarled with revulsion. “Cease.”

“I did not dream how sweet it might be. In my deepest anticipation, I did not imagine forcing myself upon you who gave me life.”

A soot-powdered tongue smeared at her neck like a worm. She twisted away from it. “No.”

“I hungered for Raven’s essence. Yet you let him escape into death.” The jagged voice growled at the memory. Pain conducted through the Dragon from her sex.

Death. She glanced at the body of the shrewd Raven. If she—.

“No.” The hands clamped upon her truncated arms. Heat erupted from the cock inside her.

She cried out. “No. I am the bringer of Chaos.”

“You are. You are the Cunt of Chaos.”

“No,” she clenched her legs tightly around the heat stabbed within her. She shook as a coil of power wrapped her mind.

“Yes,” rumbled the vibration under her ass. Energy moved through her sex. “So let us taste this again. I find that you have a lovely screaming voice, Mother.”

She felt the awesome heat crush into her mind again.

* * *

Patrons at the ‘Mediterranean Blues’ were insensate. They sprawled across the room like toys that had run down.

Doris worked her sore jaw and blotted a linen napkin at the deep scratches on Evelyn’s back while everyone listened to the blonde’s tale of their quick journey here from the States.

“And so we came despite Tapestry’s warning that the River was a poison to any who used it. You needed that warning more than we did.” Evelyn finished the summary of events.

“There is no question what we felt here passed around the world.” Miyu offered gently in the darkness of the club. “I have never felt such misery and fear. Even its memory sickens me. The Beast tested his power. He will do so again.”

Corelle wore the eye patch from Evelyn’s jacket pocket. She drew on a cigarette; then spoke through harsh smoke. “Got our attention, though. Nice hot slap in the eye. As the current withdrew, it avoided Evelyn and Doris humping.”

Doris looked up from tending the wounds she had put on Evelyn. “Oh? I didn’t notice.”

“You two were busy,” the Serpent wryly noted.

Miyu smiled. “Yes. I felt that as well. They kissed and suspended themselves above fear.” He simmered with arousal. His disguise hardened his erection and that added power sharpened his insight. Not thinking about his exciting garments was difficult.

“Mmm.” The Serpent bent her head and kissed Saika’s hand massaging her shoulder. “Crane, I must ask. You are the same Ancient that defeated the Ogre in Tunguska, the Crane that confined the Dragon clan to the Orient for six thousand years, the Mystic who pulled a star from the sky to slay the spawn of Ceto?”

“I am that unfortunate, though I have traveled many places since these things you name.”

“Then you can defeat the Beast.”

“No. I must not fight. It will not be a warrior that turns aside the threat. There is no greater power walking the world than the Beast. Not even the Leviathan could do this. I offer myself as friend and guide.”

“One of the oldest and strongest of us—and you won’t fight? Then let’s get the hell out of here.” The Serpent hissed.

Doris added. “Now we’re talking.”

“To where?” Miyu whispered. “The Beast will come for us all. Tell me that you cannot feel his hunger, Serpent. Tell me you do not know what it is like to be Hunted. You are in the Dragon’s path. You are the protector. You can survive the Bloody River. You are our Palden Lhamo.”

The Serpent gazed at him.

Saika murmured. “We’ll go with you. Together we’ll have a better chance.”

The Serpent slid out from under the comforting hands of Saika, Candy and Peacock. Electric power in the club was gone. She stood outlined against the emergency lights. Naked and smelling of salt and cum, a tiny gleam from her jeweled coif making a third eye, and a silver crescent dangling from her eyebrow. “I need to think. Wait here.”

She stalked off into the club’s darkness, stepping around the insensible mortal patrons.

Saika ground her teeth. “Why should she do what you won’t do, Mr. Ancient?”

Miyu nodded. “There is not any reason I can think of—but then, I am a former warrior. I must follow the Way. I am nothing.”

The answer, much like the question, did not make anyone very happy.

* * *

“She’s gone.” Doris helped Evelyn sit up. They both started pulling on torn clothes.

Saika broke off a conversation with Peacock. “Who? The Dragon?”

“No!” Doris’ voice barked. “Corelle. Fiona. The Serpent, she’s gone. I can feel it.”

A quick search of the dark club confirmed the departure of the Serpent. Doris quizzed the other women. Where had they been staying? Peacock Manor. What sorts of survival supplies were there? A great assortment. How quickly could they get there? Fifteen minutes. Peacock made two phone calls. Saika described the places that Fiona already frequented about the city.

Evelyn stopped beside the Crane. Her expression was tight. “So.”

Miyu nodded. “So.”

“You little bastard. I’m not letting her get away with this. I don’t understand why she must do it this way. None of us want to be safe when she’s fighting for us as much as for you.”

“And?”

“Balls! Don’t play inscrutable with me. I’ve been paying close attention. You’ve not actually said anything can defeat the Beast, only that it must be opposed. She’s going to go face that threat alone. I’m going after her. You’re going with me, or I’m going to kick your balls up into your bra.”

Miyu smiled into the dark. His cock throbbed at her words. He orgasmed, pumping sweet pleasure into his pantyhose. “As you wish, False Serpent. I am but a traveler on the Way.”

“You are but a pain in the ass. Go get us a taxi for Lantau Island.”

* * *

The cabby followed the Crane’s vague directions. The disturbed River was its own compass to the Ancient. Doris added comments on shortcuts and less-traveled routes that proved true each time. When the cab pulled up to the gates of the Po Lin monastery, Doris climbed out stanching her nose on a bloody rag.

Evelyn glared at her, but did not forbid her use of the River again.

The Crane stepped from the cab and gazed around the quiet hills surrounding the temple. He nodded. “The Dragon is here. We have bettered the Serpent’s arrival.”

Evelyn ended a debate that promised to become an argument with Saika and glanced up. “What?”

Miyu looked at her. “Somehow we have arrived first. Unless we are quite wrong in what the Serpent intends.”

* * *

The Serpent released her hand from the back of the cabby’s neck. “Thank you. Now go.”

She slipped from the vehicle and had her first look at the Po Lin temple. In the distance, a bell rang beyond the mist surrounding the grounds.

The cab driver took another look at the naked woman wrapped in a single scarf, her flesh gleaming in the headlights reflected from the mist. He rubbed the back of his neck, still feeling the tingle there. He grabbed beneath his seat. He used English. “Hey. Hottie. You need this. Take it.”

She stopped one step away and turned. He held a revolver out the cab window, butt first. She covered her surprise. She stepped back to the car and took it gently from his hand. “Thank you.”

She bent and kissed him. She spoke Chinese. “Now. Get the fuck out of here.”

He smoked the tires in reverse.

* * *

“I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

The Serpent jumped, pointing the gun at the voice. “Damn you, Doris!” she hissed.

Several other figures moved forward through the fog.

“Give me that, I’m a better shot than you’ll ever be.” Doris took the pistol in her own steady grip.

The Serpent glared at the group. “How did you get here? Never mind, it took me forever to wake the owner of the metal shop.” She stood taller. “You can all leave.”

Evelyn gestured. “Lots of men with guns around this place.” She patted the borrowed automatic rifle she wore. “They all seem to be in a daze. Just standing in the dark. Someone got here first and shot the place up. Going to be a lot of questions come morning.”

The Serpent looked squarely at the Crane. “Take them out of here. It makes no sense for them to be here.”

“I ask your pardon, Serpent. I pledged to Evelyn. She insisted we come.” He shrugged.

“Oh, for blood’s sake.”

Doris said, “Look, we’re here, we’re not leaving. So let’s just do what we came here to do.”

Heads nodded. The Serpent’s expression was cold anger. She said nothing, turned and walked to the temple.

* * *

Even the nuns within the temple were brainless on their feet. Dazed and smiling at some paradise that only they could see.

Out in the night, the Muyushan bell chimed faintly.

They climbed over wood-carved partitions into the roof structure to gain entrance to the central room.

The room was long and shadowed. Lit tapers provided a thousand islands of light, and painted warmth upon the cool white nudity of the Dragon—reclined on a bronze throne. The throne itself was littered with silk pillows in every shade of blood. To the left, a massive bronze screen flanked the throne. Another had collapsed in front of the path to the dais. A dark figure lay beneath it.

The floor between the heavy bronze doors behind them and the throne of the Dragon was strewn with dead bodies. Shaven nuns. Brightly clothed tourists. Men. Women. Youths. There might be a hundred.

The stale musky smell of corruption permeated the room.

Saika and Candy gasped and covered their mouths with the backs of their hands. Peacock pointed her automatic rifle at the throne.

The Dragon waved them forward with a severed arm. She sat with both legs wide and her green painted toes on the arms of the chair. Her thighs were pale as ice. Her long white hair was tangled. Her amber eyes burned in the candlelight. “Welcome, Serpent. I see you bring your Court with you this time.”

The Serpent’s jaw worked with things unsaid. She moved towards the throne.

Miyu scrutinized the room, a frown on his face.

The others followed tense and cautious—holding weapons gained from the dream-bound sentries.

“I have no weapons, Serpent.” The Dragon raised her truncated limbs. She smothered a demented laugh. “I am disarmed.”

The Serpent stopped a meter from the heavy ornamental grille. “I challenge you to Dance.”

The white candle flames sputtered.

The Dragon tensed her legs and squirmed her sex on the bronze throne. “Yes. We are enemies.” She held up her ruined arms. “I do not know how, but you did this to me.”

The Serpent nodded. “Yes. I did it.”

“Without declaring the Dance.”

“Did you, when you took me from my home?”

“You are not worthy of the Dance. You are a little worm-childe. I was Dancing with the Salamander. You were just a tool.”

“A sharp tool. You got cut. Careless of you.”

The amber eyes iced over. “Yes. It was—careless of me.” She looked at the Crane. “Leave, Riddler. And take those humans with you.”

The Crane smiled. “I cannot. I am enslaved to a human.”

“The name is Evelyn,” the blonde in the torn clothes spat. “Balls. Don’t you dare talk about me as if I’m a piece of furniture.”

Miyu smiled and bowed. “My mistake. I ask your pardon, Evelyn.”

The Dragon enviously glared at Evelyn, hungry for the Crane’s devotion.

The Serpent motioned the others back. “Now, Dragon. Your way, the old way—I’m here to Dance.”

The tiny Ancient slipped her legs together from their licentious sprawl. She slid to her feet in front of the large throne. “This time it will be only the two of us. There will be no interruption to save you.

And nothing can save your mortal Court,” the Dragon murmured as the madness lashed her from the shadows of the room.

Never losing eye contact, they bowed a few centimeters to each other.

The two female monsters spun into the Dance.

Their faces starkly contrasted with their wrath. Calm. Like masks of ivory. Their limbs moved and spun with the force of an ecstatic eruption. Palms slapped arm blocks like hammers on branches. Feet hit shins like axes blunted on stone.

Doris and Evelyn knew the most about martial arts; knew to what this might be compared. They gaped as the fury and violence of the bodies stormed below the tranquil faces. On and on, more and more speed, until the Dragon was weeping copious blood from her eyes, the Serpent gushing blood from her nose and ears.

No telling blow had landed anywhere to justify these grave wounds.

Around and around the throne area they danced, hurtling, feinting, absorbing terrific punishment and doubling the response. The sounds of the blows grew louder; then loud enough to mimic timbers falling to ground.

Then came the whispered protest of metal.

The one ton bronze screen on the throne’s left side lifted up impossibly into the air. Saika shrieked a warning. The ornamental metal began to hoist towards the duel. Doris leveled her pistol in a two-handed grip by reflex and fired repeatedly at the bulky apparition moving the grille. Bullets ricocheted from bronze and shadows.

“Miyu.” Evelyn saw him quiver at his name. She pointed at the threat. “Defend!”

The moment stretched and froze.

Evelyn grabbed at her automatic weapon. Her eyes fastened on Miyu watching her. She heard his voice in the office at PolyCorp. Our assistance to the Serpent will represent the multiple arms of the female dharma.

He’d sworn not to battle. Would he defend by her command?

The moment slowly thawed. The Muyushan bell chimed beyond the walls.

Miyu’s eyes, tight with dread, shifted to the black gloom wielding the metal screen. The Ancient Crane shrugged back his sleeves and brought his palms together in a blurred slap. Evelyn saw sparks jump from between his fingers. Then he ran at the massive bronze weapon, furiously rubbing his hands together. Sparks trailed behind him on the floor, as if he held a welding torch between his palms.

The thunder knocked her off her feet.

She had a brief glimpse of the Crane slapping his palms upward into several thousand pounds of metal rushing for his head. Then she was rolling hard up against a wall. Her head buzzed. All the human women bounced up against the room’s walls like dolls.

Doris recovered her wits first. She squinted into the face of concussive blasts coming from the other side of the long space. Her head throbbed. Blood dribbled from her nose.

The bronze screen was a twisted mangle of metal buried in the far wall. The Crane now battled against the three-meter high black figure. Doris bit her lip. The giant did not lumber or lunge, but moved as an equal with the diminutive Crane. The two spun and stabbed at each other with unnatural grace and intensity.

The Crane’s blows generated the thunder.

Doris moaned. The dark Thing radiated awe and dread. She moved her left hand over her breast, plucking the nipple.

The Dragon and the Serpent still labored at each other with crushing blows and terrific vigor. The exhaustive pace they set in their combat seemed to have no meaning to them.

But the volcanic battle between the dark giant and the Crane was terrifying. A black fist crushed stone flooring as it missed the Crane’s shoulder by a few centimeters. The Crane’s return slap of a sparking palm boomed through the room like an explosion against the flinty black figure.

Doris realized that Evelyn shouted something. The blows rocked the room and deafened her.

“What?” she shrieked.

Evelyn crawled to her. “I said, ‘get down’, ass.” Evelyn yanked fistfuls of skirt and Doris tumbled to the floor. Doris pointed the revolver at the ebon giant. It fired once then clicked on empty chambers.

The bullet careened off the Thing’s obsidian hide.

Doris began to weep. Blood from her nose ran into her mouth. “He can’t stop that!”

Evelyn crawled onto her. “It’s the Beast. It’s feeding your fears.”

She pulled at Doris’ blouse, bringing her face closer. She leaned into her hard. She kissed her. Doris felt the fear lose its grip on her innards. The warm caressing lips and tongue thawed the ice clutching at her neck and brain.

Doris dropped the empty gun and ran her hands over Evelyn.

“I love you,” mouthed Evelyn as detonations rebounded in the room.

“Fine time to say that,” Doris shouted.

* * *

The fury between the Beast and the Crane escalated faster than the Dance of the Dragon and Serpent. The five women covered and held each other, and the blasts grew more severe. Dust swirled in the air like mist. Blood spattered on the floor around the fighting female Ancients seemed to become ink as candle after candle extinguished in the heavy air.

A crack of bone heralded the change in the fortunes of all—a near miss that wasn’t. The Crane went spinning up against a wall.

The dark Beast was on him in a blur. Barely balanced, the Crane slid aside from a lethal fist to his neck. Another blow to the thigh caught him again. The shadowed fist crushed the flesh and bone with a jarring impact, driving the Crane’s leg bones into the wall behind.

Silent agony closed Miyu’s eyes hard.

The Crane clapped both hands together with the Beast’s torso between. The concussion combined with a roar of feral anguish from the massive giant.

The Serpent voiced an enraged shriek. She ripped off her eye patch and smashed the Dragon aside with a flying-kick.

The Beast crushed two fatal blows into the Crane’s pinned body, leaving huge pulverized areas of rib and hip.

Evelyn and Doris reacted; their combined will pushed them from the floor and in the direction of the Crane.

There was a mind-numbing flash of crimson. The Beast, struck from behind by the Glance That Kills, staggered and fell hard to the floor and did not move. The Dragon cracked a swift heel into the Serpent’s spine from behind. The Serpent pitched and tumbled.

Doris and Evelyn reached the Crane. Blood painted the wall and floor under him.

“—farewell, enigmatic Evelyn—.” Miyu died bound to the wall by his own bones. Strange energies whipped about. Sparks crashed about Doris and Evelyn, who dragged them both back a step until it subsided.

Staring at the Crane’s kind face, Evelyn felt a piece of her heart break off and fall into darkness.

* * *

The Dragon gaped at the fallen Beast for only a second, but the Serpent used that to awkwardly rise again.

They faced each other gory and poised. The Blood of the World, the Great River that they forced to their will, had its own demands at these extreme uses. They both knew that to continue, the River now consumed their flesh as fuel.

The Dragon seemed much narrower, gaunt. More frail.

The Serpent could hear her spine grind as she moved. A bell sounded without.

* * *

Half as many candles now lit the long room.

“Fool.” The Dragon lowered her severed arms and stood tall.

The Serpent glared at her.

“Fool. You have not won. You are not worthy. Yes, you’ve swallowed the Beast’s power. All you have done is defeat yourself. Can you not feel it eating you alive?”

The Serpent’s hands trembled. Claws raked within her invisibly. A force tainted her will. Suffering and torment seized her. The Beast was within her. She smelled her own blood and it was good. The blood of her sisters. She had taken the Beast in one bite of her eye. She was filled with it.

The Dragon smiled. “Yes. Now you will be the Beast.”

The torment blended and caressed her. The Beast’s strength was cold-blooded paradise. The Serpent laughed a jagged cruel sound. “Slave. Cunt. Snail. Get down on your knees before me. Beg to lick my feet.”

The white-haired Ancient blanched. Even with the Serpent’s eye closed, the Dragon felt the lash of the River. Shock broke her mind. Knees trembling, she fell to the floor. Misery wound about her mind as she crawled toward the Serpent. “Yesss. I am your Whorrre.”

Evelyn held her breath staring, a tender hand on Miyu’s cheek.

With a crackle of blackened flesh, the Beast rose to its feet. Doris pulled at Evelyn, who refused to leave the Crane’s body. The empty eye pits of the Beast passed over them and turned to the Serpent.

“Yes. Ravage her. Make of her the Ghula,” the Thing rumbled.

The Serpent stared at the risen Beast. The Dragon giggled and lovingly licked the Serpent’s feet. “Make of this cunt the Ghula.”

The Serpent shook her head ‘no’. Doris clamped a hand over Evelyn’s face and turned away. The Serpent opened her immortal eye. The air shrieked. The sound blended with the visual intensity. The bloody lance of light struck the Beast, sending it to the floor again with a long crash.

The Dragon laughed, rubbed her face on the Serpent’s foot. “Yes. Swallow it as many times as you like. It cannot die. You become the Beast and this cunt lusts for you.”

The Serpent’s mind roared with violence doubled. Torment framed her thoughts. She reached behind into the folds of the silk scarf and tugged free the small weapons hidden there. Her hands strained up over her head with two yellow-white picks that she had compelled from the metal crafter. Honed from the arm bones of the Dragon, they poised as dense and deadly slivers of purpose. She stared at the crown of the Dragon’s head.

The abased Ancient licked up the Serpent’s shin, which trembled with lust.

The points gleamed like twin razors. Evelyn yelled, “No. Not now! Don’t murder her.”

A shiver went through both Ancients.

The Serpent dropped the picks from her raised hands; they bit the stone floor and fell aside. She nodded at Evelyn and Doris. A scrunch of carbonized tissue and the Beast started up from the floor again. Doris yelled and snatched the auto rifle from Evelyn. She loosed a dozen rounds into its back; then stopped, as the hail of deadly ricochets flew from the dark Thing.

The Dragon raised a severed arm and plunged it up into the Serpent’s swollen sex.

The Serpent’s head arched back as she orgasmed.

Heated waves of tormented arousal passed through the Serpent. White knuckled hands held down the Dragon’s head as the Serpent yelled defiance. The eye opened. Crimson lightning smote the Beast again. A mesmerizing force of River energy leapt across the room blasting for several seconds. The dark Thing fell before ever reaching its feet.

The Serpent screamed as her mind swallowed another mountain of misery and anguish.

The Dragon whispered at her feet. “Slayer. Beast. I worship your strength. Fuck me. Fuck all of me.” The deranged Ancient ravaged her blunted limb deeper into the Serpent’s sex.

The Serpent kicked; shoved her aside.

The violence prompted an orgasm—fulsome, sweet, and tasting of all things brutal. The Bloody River spun through her head tearing ragged edges in her lust. The Serpent laughed at her own pathetic concepts of hope and caring. She cackled remembering the beheaded bodies of her mother and sisters. She recalled the sweet sick ecstasy she felt when her eye swallowed PerZeus, last of the Hunter Clan.

She used her nails to rake her own torso. Cumming again.

She wept blood. The Beast River gouged her memories and savored every injury cataloged there in three thousand years. She twisted and screamed. Another orgasm. And that added to her torment.

A bell chimed in the night.

The ebon Beast rose from death a third time. Its blank scarred face creased with delight. “Together my Serpent, we shall devour the world.”

The crumpled Dragon crooned. “We sing to praise the end of all—Bidden by the Whore of the Great River.”

Lost in a cruel suffering, the Serpent’s will jabbed at the Beast River inside, and a small mortal voice sang from the core of her crimson light, shattering the misery of the Bloody Beast. I love you, Corelle. Heather. Phoenix. Light. Glory. Wonder.

Her quaking hands stilled.

The Serpent stepped towards the Beast. She cracked open the eye-soul of her Clan and all the passion of every Serpent that ever existed sang through her. No simple vibration, no ephemeral touch to be steered by the will, the Serpent’s essence was too magnificent to forget, too complex to remember. Her eye spit thunder and glory.

The Beast rocked and did not fall. It laughed with a roar of surprise and sadistic delight. “Now it does not even trouble me, Serpent.”

She plunged a hand into her sex, caressing her wetness. The blood light roared brighter. She slowly crossed the distance between them in steps. “This is not the Glance That Kills. I understand—You can never die. This is the Legacy of Heather Jesby. This is beauty.”

“No!” The Dragon screamed at Heather’s name. She pounded her arms on the floor.

The Beast moved towards the Serpent. “I am the River.”

“No. You are a wound in it.”

“You cannot steal my strength, nor constrain it.”

“I give to it—and offer all my glory.”

The power lashed and rebounded between the two.

“No.” The Dragon growled in her crouch. “The glory must be mine.”

Doris quit Evelyn’s side and ran around the tightening vortex of scarlet thunder between the Beast and Serpent. A flying kick knocked the Dragon down as she groped to her feet behind Corelle. Doris rolled, coming up with the bone daggers in her hands.

The liquid passion twisted between Beast and Serpent.

With a howl, the Dragon rebounded up. She clashed with Doris. The flurry of blows quickly crippled Doris; she staggered away with twisted leg and right arm. Her mouth gaped in agony.

She left one spike embedded through the Dragon’s left eye.

The Dragon forlornly gasped. “Mine—.”

The Ancient fell dead. Doris toppled to the floor, cradling her failed leg.

* * *

Evelyn witnessed, unable to look away, with no time to wonder that she could stand it.

Scarlet forces twined and swept within a maelstrom growing smaller and more furious. The two primordial Ancients closed. The Serpent was everything of bloody lightning and lust. She fondled her breasts and clitoris. The two antagonists came together in a storm of blood and fire. The Beast, with a greater reach, lifted his arm to place a huge palm against the eye of the glorious fount rushing at him.

Evelyn throbbed with despair, as she feared him closing his massive hand and crushing Corelle’s skull.

The Serpent embraced him—snaking her arms around his, pulling him into her body. “Take me.”

“It is magnificent,” the Thing gasped.

Sudden light broke from the giant’s body at a thousand points at once. The dark Beast was incinerated in a few moments. Black dust blew around the floor in heated eddies.

* * *

The sudden silence was awkward relief.

* * *

The few candle flames danced and kept silent witness to a reverent ceremony. The Serpent flashed her immortal eye on the bodies of Crane, Raven, and the Dragon one after the other. The dead bodies showed no supernatural resistance. They burned. She spoke a few words each time, the same phrase, which no one else understood.

When Evelyn started crying, they all did.

The Serpent had no tears. Her face was filthy and plain; her expression severe. She had thrown away the head jewels and scarf. Without the finery, Doris thought she looked even more beautiful. Doris insisted; she kissed Corelle. Then the others did as well.

Then Evelyn saw the tenderness in Corelle’s mortal eye—and the strength that held back any smile.

There was nothing remaining of the Ancients but the ruin of their passage.

* * *

Saika and Peacock carried Doris. Candy still suffered from flash-blindness and clung to Evelyn. They made their way down the long winding road from the temple. The cabby waited at the bottom of the road—the blessing of Miyu’s last flirtation.

“Everything is changed. You belong with us again.” Evelyn locked gazes with the Ancient.

Corelle nodded. Her reply was serene. “Yes. Many things are changed. No. I belong nowhere—or somewhere far from all of you, whom I love.” She looked at the soft light in the east. She spoke slowly. “I’d like to visit. Not soon, but someday. I’d like to see you all. See how you’re doing. I’d like that a lot—with your consent.”

Evelyn looked vulnerably at the others. A ragged chorus of replies agreed.

Corelle smiled and kissed her. “Then this is not goodbye.”

The Serpent left them there.

END