The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

In the month that followed, I got used to my new career path and my new family. I rarely saw anyone outside of the Twelve, since we were meant to be secret even within our own ranks. When I did encounter recruiters, they were always in full trance, not knowing who we were or what we were doing. It annoyed me at first, but I understood the rationale. We had to show our power over our subordinates at all times, so that the regular members only saw us in the line of duty- or during room service at night, and it’s not like they were thinking very much during that.

Line of duty? Oh, yes. Being one of the Twelve came with a list of responsibilities. Each of us had a section of the hive to control and monitor; for example, Keisha had the security wing, Rosa had the on-site manufacturing facility, Erica had her celebrity icons all over the world. Being the newest member of the Twelve, I got stuck handling the intake of new members- a time-consuming job, given that we had a lot of very good recruiters.

Each of us also had supervisory duties on the business side of things. We had to monitor the different floors and all the people on them, to see who was doing well, who could be moved up, who should be moved down, where we were strong, where we were weak, that kind of thing. I was good at that from my time at the Discount Den, but that didn’t make it any more interesting.

Both of those were pretty much 9-to-5 desk jobs, except for intake sometimes, and that left me and the rest of the Twelve plenty of spare time. We mostly used that to enjoy our assistants, whatever room service we felt like ordering up, or each other. That could be very interesting, given the various gimmicks some of the other members of the Twelve used, but at the same time, a little dangerous. Sometimes I wondered if they were trying to trick me into overextending myself. So most of the time I stuck to room service and Mandy.

One Saturday, while I was in my suite with Mandy, playing a little soccer star and star-struck fangirl, my phone rang. I hadn’t been summoned during a weekend ever since I joined the Twelve, but my response was as automatic as it had been when I was just a telemarketer. I answered immediately, without hesitation.

“Group meeting in fifteen minutes at the penthouse,” Sarah’s commanding voice said. That was the entirety of the message, but that was more than enough for me to hurry up and dress for the occasion.

My floormates were waiting at the elevator. Tamara, our technician, was a sweet girl maybe a year older than me, with smooth chocolate skin and a wicked sense of humor. Julie wore her bright blonde hair long and wild- she was the siren of the group, controlling via voice. Goth Daphne was the youngest of all of us, a chemist with a mischievous smile.

“So what’s all this about?” I asked.

“I think it means you’ve been put through your paces and we can get back to our real job. Least I hope so. I was feeling so cooped up I was about to resort to calling half the security department and staging a rap video to get some action!” Tamara said with a grin. She smoothed her lime-green short-shorts down, and I noticed that all three of my neighbors were dressed like they were going out on the town. Julie’s skintight orange pants were just that much tighter, Tamara had undone the top button of her dark orange blouse, and Daphne… well, the orange streaks in her jet black hair were brighter.

“Our real jobs?” I asked with an air of dread. After months in the Grove, I’d become attached to the place, and the thought of going back to a normal life out there made me cringe.

“Yeah, can’t you tell we’re trying to look good for McDonald’s?” Daphne teased. “Would you like fries with that?”

I was laughing so hard that Julie had to push me into the elevator, and the thought of Daphne fitting one of those little visors over her pigtails still had me snickering when we emerged at the penthouse. The others were waiting.

“I just received a call from transportation. They’re a few hours outside of Miami. Our flight will depart at five. I know this is our first run in far too long, but don’t get too out of control. And don’t forget this is young Cara’s first time, so those of you who know the ropes should keep an eye on her.”

“A run? A run for what?” I asked.

“My dear, did you think I would seek out the best, the brightest, and the most talented, then lock them away for the rest of their lives? That would be cruel, counterproductive, and terribly boring. We search the world for new prospects and prove our power to those who would try and take us down,” Sarah explained.

“Besides, SOUTH BEACH!” Erica squealed from the back.

“Please remember that if there are American Idol tryouts that Julie has all the backup singers she could ever need, and there are only so many screaming siren wannabes I can stand. Also, please avoid degrading your icons. You can only do that so many times before they lose their power.” Erica slunk back in shame, letting Sarah continue to the rest of us. “You have the day to prepare your assistants with your work for the week, and to pack for the trip. You’ll be departing at two. Remember the laws of the outside world!” Her glare turned to Daphne, and while I didn’t envy my neighbor, she seemed to be taking it well.

“Understood, Mistress,” she droned out sarcastically. “My goods went down with transport, so we don’t have to worry my gear getting us in trouble with the TSA again, even if I still say that that security guy just wanted an excuse to feel us up.”

“You know where the Owl Bar in Miami is. I’ll meet you there. Remember, ladies, be prepared for both work and play,” Sarah said with a smile. She put on a broad-brimmed orange hat, snapped her fingers imperiously at two of her male flunkies, and left via her private elevator, the two men trundling along behind her with the suitcases.

“Well, what are we all standing here for? Go! We have a lot to prepare for, and not much time to do it in! Go! There’s money to be made and fun to be had!” Rosa exclaimed, the smile on her face making her look younger and prettier.

Of course, Mandy had been imprinted with more of the routine business than I would ever know. She’d be able to handle a lot of stuff without me even reminding her, but there were a few projects I had on tap that I wanted her to keep an eye on, and a few people on the lower floors whose progress I was watching closely. I had just finished, and was starting to go through my wardrobe when I heard a knock at the door. “It’s open!” I yelled, and Keisha entered, looking more regal and stunning than ever in an orange and silver evening gown that put anything I owned to shame.

“I see you’ve finished with your assistant. Efficient. I like that. I wanted to talk to you before we left, to prepare you for what we’re going to do. This is going to be a great thrill for you, I hope you understand.”

“Eh, it’s a business trip. Hard to get excited by those.”

“Our business always mixes with pleasure, and with as much of yourself as you put into everything, you could get too caught up very easily. Miami’s a vacation trip, so it’s not likely we’ll get into a fight, but I’d like to make sure that the Cara standing before me is the Cara who comes back from Miami in a week. This feeding frenzy might be the most fun you’ll ever have in your life, but there’s a lot of danger in that.”

“I’m just a little nervous. First time, you know?”

Keisha smiled. “Oh, I know. You never forget your first, after all. Relax and have fun- just remember what I said and keep a hold of yourself. That, and pack extra bikinis and lingerie- trust me, you’ll need them.” She turned and headed out the door, leaving me feeling a little confused and a lot underdressed. I changed out of the slacks and blouse I’d thought to travel in and instead picked out a light orange skirt with swirls of darker orange, a sequined tube top that matched the swirl, and a pair of topaz and gold earrings Rosa had given me when I moved in. Everything else that glittered went into three suitcases, and I was ready to join the rest of the Twelve precisely at two.”

“Nice outfit, but I’d ditch the earrings, at least until we’re past security. You’ll set off the metal detectors, and then we all have to stand around while some strange guy grabs your boobs. If you’re into that, fine, but some of us aren’t into watching,” Erica said with a wink. I tucked the earrings into my purse as we headed out.

The trip down was uneventful, since we gave airport security no excuses to delay us. But when we landed, I was shocked to see Evelyn standing there in her leathers, holding up a greeting card that just read “Orange”.

“Evelyn? What are you doing down here?”

She didn’t answer, but Julie did. “You do have a lot to learn, don’t you?” she said with a dismissive sniff. “Don’t call the butchers by name, it’s just embarrassing. They’re here to serve and collect, that’s all.”

“It depends on who they are, but they may not even be aware of where they are,” Tamara continued a little more gently. “They’re here to drive, and they can’t be distracted from that.”

Fortunately, the white limo with orange interior that the four of us from the twenty-first floor got into wasn’t the one Evelyn was driving. I could ignore the weirdness if I didn’t know the driver, and if I’d been inclined to freak out at that anyway, I would have been immediately distracted by the way Daphne dove straight for the minibar and started filling a few flasks with liquors from unmarked bottles.

“Aw, come on, Daphne, we just got here, don’t get wasted yet!” I cautioned her.

“Um, hello, genius? Did you forget how she works her mojo?” Julie asked with an edge of laughter in her rich voice. “That’s her private stock, the kind of booze that really wastes a brain. We’ve got work to do, remember? At least she’s ready.”

Ugh. Julie was right, but did she have to remind me of it that way? Her natural talent as a siren was phenomenal- she made “Who Let The Dogs Out” sound enticing- but that same talent made her insufferably cocky. She’d spent most of the trip down boasting to me about how she’d started as a street performer and used her power to get people to toss their entire wallets, and even ATM cards with PINs attached, into her bucket. I couldn’t help but think this was what Keisha had warned me about when she gave me the speech about compassion, and there was no way that I wanted to end up anything like Julie.

“Ready? Please. I’m ready any time I want to be. I don’t need a warmup act to use my powers,” I shot back.

“Oh, no, you didn’t!” Tamara whooped.

Julie looked like she was going to kill me, but Daphne- who’d been sipping something from yet another of her bottles the whole time-leaned over and kissed her. Julie’s eyes glazed over, and a goofy smile appeared on her face. Daphne leaned back with a smirk.

Right. Make sure I didn’t let Daphne kiss me unless she hadn’t been drinking. I made a note of that as we arrived at the Owl Bar. It looked just like the ones I’d seen back home, both inside and out, full of overly busty bimbos with no way to make a living except strutting around and trying to ignore the gropes from drunken truckers and horndogs- or not, if they were into that kind of thing. I figured it just had to be the bright orange hot pants that would draw someone as refined as Sarah to a dump like this. Yes, definitely the hot pants, I concluded as I kept my eye on the waitress who led us to the private room in the back. The long table was piled high with wings and burgers, and there were pitchers of both beer and soda at each end. Sarah was at the head of the table, looking like a queen in a pigsty.

“Welcome to Miami, everyone! I know it’s been far too long since we’ve been out here, and we’re all ready for a good time. We’ll be here a week, and it overlaps with spring break. Remember that, and make sure to watch your ages- but also remember that we can afford to throw back anyone who’s less than perfect. As always, we’ll work as a group, so keep close, have your cell phones on and handy at all times, and no picking fights- this is strictly a shopping trip. And, of course…” Sarah paused with a smile. I could hear the knowing chuckles from some of the older members, but I didn’t understand why until the waitress handed her a shopping bag and she started passing out bright orange purses. I looked inside mine and found several stacks of bills, a credit card in my name, and the key to my hotel room.

“Nice favor,” Anya said quietly.

“Well, consider how long we were away,” Erica purred. “Oh, they must have been very desperate.”

That left me scratching my head, but then Tamara demanded I pass her the wings or else I’d never be able to trust a camera again, and dinner was officially underway. The food was surprisingly good, if a little greasy, and if we ran out of anything for more than a second, that waitress immediately brought more. Eventually, all of us were stuffed, and I was ready to leave just as soon as the check came.

“I see they’re treating you well, Cindy,” Sarah said to the waitress. “It’s a good job we ended up giving you, wasn’t it, dear?” The waitress giggled in agreement, though that might have had more to do with the hand Sarah was running up her leg. I wasn’t really surprised that the waitress gave in as fast as she did, plastering a long wet kiss on Sarah while Sarah stuck a hundred-dollar bill down her cleavage.

“Man, that’s one way to treat the help right. I wouldn’t think knocking someone like that out would be Sarah’s style, though.”

A couple of the others giggled, and Julie exchanged a frustrated look with one of the older women. I ignored them and stuffed one of my hundreds down Cindy’s shirt, as did everyone else, leaving her with a rather nice $1300 tip as we went back out to our limos.

“Okay, who wants a warmup on the ride over to South Beach?” Tamara said with a mischievous grin on her face, swinging her camera around. I pretended to duck, and she laughed.

“I think Cara here needs it to get ready,” Daphne said. “Oooh, how about that one?”

We all looked over where Daphne was and saw a Latin beauty in tight jeans and a tighter t-shirt who was watching us with round brown eyes. Tamara approached her with a friendly smile and said, “Hey there, couldn’t help but notice you noticing us.”

“Oh, yeah, you guys are way hot. Are you, like, a crew of models or something?” the girl asked with a giggle.

“Sure are! You know, you’re not so bad looking yourself. Keep working at it and you could make it. Say, wanna take a picture with one of our models, see how you do in front of the camera?”

“Oh my God, that would be so awesome!” the girl squealed.

“Cara, darling, show her what you’ve got,” Tamara said in an exaggerated faux-European accent, motioning me over next to the excited girl. I struck a sexy pose, my hand somewhere that she should have objected to. My guard was up as high as it could go, but the barrage of colors and patterns in the flash of the camera still knocked me back slightly. Of course, that was nothing compared to the effect it had on its intended victim, whose eyes were wide and glassy and whose mouth was slack. It was nice to think the line of drool was my doing, but I knew it had more to do with the force Tamara had used.

“Oh, baby, you’re going to be a star. What’s your name, sweetie?”

“Maria,” the girl said, slurring the word just slightly.

“Well, Maria, wanna hit South Beach with us? I think it’d be a blast! Better than this dump, that’s for sure. We only go here to support the models that… didn’t make it, so to speak.” Tamara allowed a cruel little smile onto her face that I’d never seen before.

“Oh, wow, that is so cool! Let me let my friends know!” Maria squealed. Julie looked over where Maria was pointing and gave two thumbs down. I didn’t disagree. They were cute, but not breathtaking. Maybe if things had been desperate, but we were in Miami during Spring Break.

“Here, you can use my phone,” Tamara offered, brandishing a bright orange Sidekick that lit up like the Fourth of July the second Maria laid a hand on it. Maria stared at it, and I could almost see her memories evaporating.

“Watch,” Tamara whispered, discreetly showing me her personal phone calling out to the Sidekick. Somehow, seeing how the takedown worked was making me even hotter than the actual takedown, and I was dying to take Maria back to the limo.

“Careful now, Cara. Don’t dive in all at once. Just a little nip to take the edge off,” Daphne whispered with a smile, running a finger along my shoulder. I shivered. That flash must have dazzled me more than I thought.

In the meantime, Maria had finished sending the text that would reassure her friends everything was all right, and we were able to head off to the limo. The driver flashed an automatic smile at the new passenger as we settled in.

“Now, Maria, if you’re going to make it in the modeling world, you’re going to have to be willing to do some daring things you might not have thought about before,” Tamara said pointedly.

“Like get out of those clothes and into something sexy!” I shouted. I was embarrassed for a moment, but not for long. Maria tore her t-shirt off, and to my pleased surprise, she wasn’t wearing a bra, even though she probably needed one. She shook those gorgeous breasts at us, and this time I was the one wide-eyed and drooling. Tamara snapped another picture, and the flash lowered Maria’s inhibitions even further so that her next pose was a split-leg shot with her hand in the crotch of her jeans and her tongue waving wildly. We whooped and applauded to encourage her, although all it took was the flash of Tamara’s camera. She was ours for the taking.

No. She was mine for the taking. I wanted her; I needed her; she was mine. “You know, sometimes you have to do a little girl-on-girl in this business. Think you’re ready for that?” I asked her with a seductive smile. She crawled over to me and locked her lips to mine as I grabbed her hips. Tamara took one last photo, and the bright lights of the flash faded everything around me except for Maria’s beautiful body. I could feel her hands toying with me, undoing the snaps of my tank top, and I did much the same for her. I could have learned some interesting Spanish words if I’d been paying attention, but I’m sure you understand why I wasn’t.

The sea of bright lights and brilliant colors threatened to pull me in, but Tamara’s voice in my ear helped me shake off the effects. “Just get her nice, naked, and melted. Night’s young- think of all that’s out there. Do you really want to waste it all in one shot? Draw it out long enough for me to get my bag out of the back.” I nodded, not wanting to admit how close I’d come to being dragged down. It was nice to take back control as I turned Maria around and played with her breasts until her knowledge of any language was replaced by lots of moaning. I laid her down and undressed her bottom half, and was already to finish off that girl-on-girl action when Tamara gently pushed me aside.

“Huh? What?” I asked, and I could hear the huskiness in my voice.

“You’ll get your turn later,” Julie explained, rolling her eyes. “We all help each other here, remember? ‘We work as twelve’?”

“If the pressure gets too bad, you can watch to burn it off. That’s what I always do,” Daphne added. Come to think of it, her short plaid skirt was a little out of line, and one of her orange-and-black striped stockings had rolled down.

“I see that,” I drawled. Daphne followed my gaze and fixed her outfit without even the slightest blush.

“Less noise, ladies, the headphones aren’t in yet,” Tamara interrupted. I looked over to her and saw that she had rigged up some kind of contraption with a vibrator, a pair of goggles, and a giant pair of headphones. Maria moaned as Tamara inserted the vibrator, but that was nothing compared to the noises she started making when Tamara pushed a button to activate her little device. The vibrator started vibrating and the goggles flashed all sorts of colors. Carefully, Tamara plugged the vibrator’s other end, a USB cable, into her laptop, then popped a porno movie into the DVD drive. The screen went black, and I expected her to start swearing, but she smiled instead. “All right, the movie’s on the goggles, the vibe’s in the snatch, and one of Martha’s CDs is in her ears. If that doesn’t do it, I need a new job.” She raised her voice to a sharp, commanding tone. “Take care of her after you leave us off at the Palmetto.”

The Palmetto turned out to be a chic club, but one that didn’t bat an eyelash at Daphne’s Goth-gone-orange look- or my unkempt hair and rumpled tank top. We strolled through, laughing and high-fiving, and the rest of the Twelve were waiting for us at a cushy booth.

“So did we just torch the velvet rope by being smoking hot or by being mind controllers?” I asked with a giggle.

Keisha and Rosa exchanged a look. “You might want to lay off on the in-house lingo in the outside world,” Keisha warned me.

“Heh, this club? Neither. Sarah’s got us a VIP booth,” Erica announced, smirking. “But in other places, it’s the tit factor.”

Martha dug through her purse and handed me a hairbrush. “You seem to have gotten a head start on the rest of us. Sarah wasn’t kidding when she said you were precocious. Tamara and her camera, right? Did you at least get to start licking to the center of the Tootsie Roll Pop before she got hooked up to the Pornociser 5000?” she said with a smile.

“I am never letting you name anything we work on together again,” Tamara declared, but she was smiling almost as broadly as Martha.

I checked myself in the mirror- yeech, my hair was worse than I thought. “All the it in the world can’t stop bad hair days, I guess,” I said, trying to sound more embarrassed than I really was.

“No biggie. Hey, I’m gonna make a request to the DJ. You wanna help me pick out my dance contest winner?” Martha asked, whipping out a CD like a lethal weapon.

“Not really into trance music- seems kind of redundant, doesn’t it?”

“Since when are the Pussycat Dolls trance music? Well, except when I bootleg the CD, of course,” Martha countered with a chortle.

Someone jostled my drink, and I was about ready to give them a piece of my mind when I realized that security was shoving everyone out of the way to clear a path. “Someone really big must be coming in,” Tamara said.

“Bigger than us? Hmmph! We had to shove our own way through this crowd. If they keep this up, I’ll have to come back here and do a couple of gigs to make them give us the proper respect,” Julie said with a contemptuous sniff.

“None of mine are scheduled- oh, hell no. Oh, hell, no, they didn’t! Oh, they got brass ones like church bells!” Erica went from curious to furious in less than a second, and I saw Sarah bolt over to our booth from the bar. The space soon filled up with close to forty young men and women. All the men were in jerseys and tight jeans, and all the women were in shorts or athletic skirts. All of them wore red and blue, nothing else, and all of them had a snarling bulldog somewhere on their gear, along with “Northern State”.

“I guess they figured they might as well come to Miami for Spring Break if their women were in Tampa for the Final Four,” Keisha said. Her voice was calm and steady, but her eyes never left the group.

“Oh, fuck those jocks. Bunch of oversexed, brain-dead puppets- if we challenged them to a fight, they’d pull out basketballs,” Julie declared.

“Oh, yeah. Look at them, waltzing in here like they can bamboozle anyone with their fake smile and good press- uh-uh, kiddies, that’s not how it works. Bet we could make any one of their soccer bitches into softball candy in less than half an hour. Hey, why not? Let’s start some fun with those muscleheads- those boys would probably rather fall on their swords than lay hands on a woman,” Erica said tauntingly.

“SILENCE!” Sarah roared. “We’re not here for a fight, and from the looks of Northern State, neither are they- they seem to be here to toast another national title and act like normal college students for once. If we’re going to fight them, I want their head coach on the sidelines. I will, however, inform them that this club is our hangout. If they don’t listen, then you can do whatever you think appropriate to get them to leave peacefully. I don’t want a fight, not here, not now, and it would be more trouble than it’s worth to take one of them. But if they don’t take my hint, feel free to induce some bad behavior for SportsCenter.”

I was starting to feel like I was in over my head when Keisha tapped me on the shoulder. “That’s the kind of cult your mother warned you about. If their master were here tonight, Sarah wouldn’t be taking this so lightly. Those people are completely broken. When their careers are over they’ll have nothing. They depend so much on each other, and the control over them is so strong that most of them can’t even make it into the pro ranks. It’s nothing but an iconista scam meant to earn ticket dollars and college titles. Find the most truly gifted athletes and make them into a caricature of themselves, chew them up, spit them out, turn around and repeat the process,” she explained, her voice colder than I’d ever heard it before, her words clipped like she wanted to say more but was afraid she’d lose control.

“And when they do get a true IT person there, they end up honed into some of the cruelest controllers out there. Want an example? See those two cheerleaders that came with the boys?” Tamara asked, pointing.

I squinted. “You mean the twin blondes?”

“Yeah, well, five’ll get you ten they didn’t start out as twins.”

“What?“I gasped.

“Some things are better left unsaid in public,” Keisha snapped, her blood near to boiling, and I was surprised to see Tamara’s hand on her arm, like she was calming her.

We watched as Sarah walked over to an older woman in a red and blue skirtsuit who looked terrified to see her. Sarah said a few brief words to the woman, and by the time Sarah had returned to the table, the Northern State teams had long since headed for the exits.

“Aww, so soon? They didn’t even stick around for my special mind-muddling mojitos,” Daphne pouted.

“Um, I don’t want to sound nosy, but what did you tell them?” I asked nervously.

“That they should really consider scheduling Syracuse in a few sports, as their teams are more than worthy opponents who could upset them if they were’t careful,” Sarah said with a coy smile. I had to admire the elegantly delivered threat.

“I guess even a dumb jock knows when to let up,” Tamara said pointedly.

“I guess so,” I said, watching the last of them leave in lockstep, faces suddenly blank. The kind of cult your mother warned you about... did I really want to find out more about that? No, not really. Not when Miami and its incredibly hot population were waiting for me. I leaned over towards Daphne and Tamara, the two I trusted most not to point and laugh at me for asking stupid questions, and asked, “So what am I looking for?”

“Sexy and stupid, pretty much. If you see a strong mind with some potential, go for it, but we’re here to rotate our stock. Guess you didn’t get it with Maria, but hey, you were busy, and you weren’t exactly in the mood to stop and let us explain,” Tamara said with a smile.

“Um, right.” I was still confused when “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” started blasting over the speakers.

“And there’s our cue,” Julie announced with a smirk. “So passé.”

“We were the first to catch someone, so we have to present our prize to Mistress,” Daphne said.

“Supposedly it’s a tradition that dates back to the first Twelve-it shows our loyalty to her, that we’re doing this for her, not for ourselves,” Tamara explained further.

Sarah clapped her hands sharply. “I noticed that our youngest four were working on someone as they left the Owl Bar. Tell me more, ladies,” she ordered. The others watched us intently.

“A lovely Latina to add some spice to the collection,” Tamara said. “She’s hooked into my computer, and by now, with some help from Martha’s software—” she inclined her head towards Martha to show appreciation- “she’s doing nothing but orgasming and going deeper into trance. If the driver did her job right, she’s waiting for you in your room.”

“Of course,” Sarah murmured. “And was this solely your takedown, Tamara?”

“Oh, no. Cara did most of the grunt work,” Julie said sweetly. For a moment, I wondered just how good she’d sound if I reached through her throat and tore out her vocal cords, but that was just a momentary thought.

Sarah ignored the cheap shot and said, “I’m glad our newest member is getting into the swing of things. Now, remember, if Northern State has brought their bulldogs, they may also be recruiting here. Don’t crash their turf, and they won’t crash yours. Go out and have fun, but remember that we have 30 to catch and only a week to do it in. Rest assured that I’ll be counting and inspecting. Now go out and make me proud!”

With that, Sarah walked out, timing her exit perfectly to the end of the song, and from the way everyone started sweeping the room with their eyes, that was our cue to start searching for prey in earnest, but something was bothering me a lot. “Wait, we’re replacing all the Candies? Already?” I asked.

“What’s the matter, don’t know the value of good, fresh pussy? I’d never have guessed that from your little ride with Maria,” Julie sniped as she walked by.

“Candy does get stale, you know,” Erica added. “We need fresh talent every so often.”

She had a point, but I didn’t like the idea of turning so many people into sex-obsessed bimbos at once, and something was nagging at the back of my mind about how this wasn’t how I’d been told we went after Candies. Someone came up behind me- Daphne, judging from the heavy perfume. “Don’t worry about her, Cara,” she reassured me with a kiss on the cheek. “You’ll get the swing of it. You aren’t the can’t-miss kid because you’re supposed to miss, after all. Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s time for me to take care of some business.”

“Huh?” I asked as intelligently as I could. My head was spinning for some reason, and I was having a little trouble thinking.

“I can sell off some of my less potent stuff here for big bucks. Mistress doesn’t like the business, but she loves the return,” Daphne said. She winked at a couple of the beefy bodyguyard types around one of the tables and handed a small bag to the sleazy-looking man they were protecting. The bag that the bodyguard passed over to her was a lot bigger, and it rustled like something I’d heard not long before.

“Shady, but damn, that’s a lot of cash. Ever get busted?” I asked.

“With my bust? Never! Besides, that’s just the cheap stuff for a quick high. I don’t sell my real goodies.” She laughed loudly. “You keep forgetting, Cara, we’re it and they aren’t. We can and will get away with anything- it’s our world, baby!”

Oh, boy was it ever. Miami was gorgeous, even the least attractive people were pretty, and not only was I there with the best friends I’d ever known, I was in control. Just the idea of it was enough to make me a little damp. Or maybe that was just from Martha’s bootlegged CD, which had finally come up in the rotation. Within a minute, everyone else in the club was glassy-eyed and dancing either on the floor or on the tables, their moves getting more and more sensual with every second. Only the twelve of us, standing off to the side and watching, were immune, and even a couple of us were grinding against the wall periodically.

“Nice little dance contest you have here,” Rosa said to Martha, who ducked her head and blushed.

“Yeah, man, you are good!” I agreed, and she turned an even brighter shade of red.

“First to lose clothes is Pussy Doll!” Anya announced with a bright smile.

“Fifty on the redhead in the blue glitter!” Daphne barked out.

“I’ll take the blonde in the white catsuit!” Tamara countered.

We all placed our bets and watched as the dancing got more and more obviously sexual so that nearly everyone was either dry humping on the floor or rubbing themselves intently. No one seemed to care that they were in public anymore- all they wanted was to release the sexual energy that thrummed through their bodies. Finally, one young woman started stripping one-handedly, fondling herself with the other. Martha swooped in and took her into the ladies’ room before the bouncers could notice.

“Brunette in the green baby doll, who would have guessed?” Tamara said with a shrug.

“Are all the songs going to be like that- or hey, Julie, are you taking the stage next?” I asked with a grin. Julie tossed her head and ignored me. The music slowed and the energy died down to what you’d expect of a South Beach club during Spring Break- in other words, yeah, there were a few more incidents, but nothing we couldn’t let the bouncers handle.

“Oh, this place is just a starting point after the Owl Bar-somewhere we can get our plan straight, get our juices flowing, have some quality drinks, let Martha run her little dance contest, things like that. We have better and much more interesting places to go,” someone said from behind me. I turned around and knew that she was definitely one of us- she wore an orange halter-top with orange-sequined blue jeans. Her strawberry blonde hair was tied back with an orange ribbon, and she sported orange eye shadow and reddish orange lipstick. She must have recognized the blank look on my face, because she smiled and said, “Nancy, the Four. Sorry for the belated introduction, but you weren’t in any condition to remember my name the few times we’ve met. Don’t let the lower floors drag you down- if you’re as good as I think you are, you’ll be living on my floor when we come back from this trip.”

“Sorry I didn’t recognize you sooner,“I said apologetically.

She waved me off. “Like I said, I’m not surprised. I’ve been wanting to talk to you woman to woman for a while now, away from the mad scientists and the old ladies. See, I used to be where you are-young, smart, all the talent in the world, but everyone leading me in a different direction. The rest of them don’t understand. You, me, and Julie, we were born, not made. Not that there’s anything wrong with the artificial approach- Tamara was an award-winning engineer with an MIT pedigree when we found her, Martha made a bundle off IPOs, Rosa and Keisha have been at it forever. But you take them away from their gadgets, and what do they have? Nothing? We have items we were born with that’ll never leave us.” Her mouth twisted into a smirk. “Unlike Anya’s body. There’s only so much plastic surgery can do. But Julie’s voice won’t desert her, no matter how old she gets. And your mental presence, your strength of mind- you’re the strongest mind I’ve seen since I came here.”

“So what do you have?” I asked suspiciously.

“You have to promise not to laugh,” she said. She put her hand over her eyes and blinked rapidly, then looked back at me. Her eyes had paled from violet to an ice blue that seemed to reflect the light in patterns that had me trying to fight her off before she pulled out a pair of orange-rimmed sunglasses and slapped them on. “Ice blue eyes are real, and rarer than rare. The ultimate focus object, right inside my head, so powerful that I have to wear shades or contacts if I don’t want to use them.”

“Funky! Mental presence- I always thought of it more as persuasion, that I could get anyone I talked to to do whatever I say, like I know what’s in their head and could override it. I always had it- I just learned how to make it stronger here,” I said as we approached another nightclub.

“Get in line with...” But the bouncer’s voice tailed off as Nancy lowered her sunglasses and fixed him with a stare.

“We’re with the band,” she informed him haughtily, sweeping past everyone so that I had to hurry to keep up. She sat down at the first table she saw, absently sweeping a half-finished drink to the floor. “Look, Cara, I’ll be as nice about this as I can, but you have got to grow yourself a spine- do that, and you might even be stronger than Sarah.”

“What? I’ve—”

“You’re still all ‘aw, shucks, I got all these powers, so let me use them for good, blah blah blah’. Get on the floor and don’t get off it until you’ve got the hottest chick in the club on your arm and under your control!” she said with a challenging note in her voice, like she didn’t believe I could. Something snapped in me, and I knew I had to prove myself. Luck was on my side- the first girl I saw was dazzling enough to pass for a supermodel, a short-haired brunette in a short pink skirt with an angel’s face and a perfectly proportioned body.

Even with the snag I’d made back at the Owl Bar, I’d never felt this way before, ready to make the kill- not just ready, almost physically aching to make the kill, wanting this woman and wanting her badly. “Hey there, gorgeous, what’s your name?” I asked her.

“Gina,” she said with a little start.

“Nice to meet you, Gina. I’m Cara. Why don’t we move a little out of the way?”

“Um, no thanks.”

“Are you sure, Gina? You look like you’re getting blinded by all these lights.”

“Well, maybe a little.” Her voice was taking on that distant quality I’d come to know almost too well much faster than I expected.

“But I’ll bet you like it that way, Gina. All those lights blinding you, going right to your head, making you feel more wanted, and hotter, and sexier,” I continued, and her eyes widened.

“Yeah… can’t see anything anymore… just the lights… can’t see,” Gina complained, her mind emptying out.

“Then why don’t we go back to my hotel room? It’s a lot less blinding. Well, except for my glow,” I said with a laugh. She was as good as gone as she followed me out of the building. The limo was waiting outside- Nancy must have made the call while I was taking Gina down. I caught a glimpse of Nancy’s ear-to-ear grin as we left; it looked like she was ready to hit the floor herself.

But I had my own work to finish. As soon as the limo arrived, I went for the kill. “All those lights are gone now, Gina, but you’re still getting hotter and still feeling sexier with every second, and there’s nothing you can do about it, because the more you try to think about anything else, the harder it is to think at all. And it feels so good to just close your eyes, because the colors are still there, still keeping you nice and hot and sexy. They’ll always be there now, because you’ll always be hot and sexy. That’s all you’ll ever know, all you’ll ever want to know, all you’ll ever want, all you’ll ever care about...”

She tore off her shirt and lunged at me, grinding her hips into mine as she seized my mouth in a kiss so passionate I thought I’d never have my mouth back again. This time, there was no one around to keep me from finishing her off, fingering her until she came again and again, each orgasm more mind-numbing than the last. When I was sure she was far enough down, I had her lick my hand clean and then lick the rest of me clean, because the takedown had been making me hotter than she was. Every moment took her deeper, convincing her that her only role was to give pleasure.

By the time we got back to the hotel, she was nothing but a pile of human-shaped goo ready to be poured into a Candy mold. I put my clothes back on, left her at Sarah’s room, showered in my hotel room, changed into an orange catsuit, and gave Daphne a call. “Hey, where are you?”

She gave me directions, and I was soon at the club where she was hanging out. “You came just in time,” she said. “I’m already on my second.”

“So’m I,” I told her, and I was just about to let her share in the vicarious thrill when a troupe of models strutted in and headed up towards the VIP room.

“Damn! Those girls must have some rap mogul in there or something. Oh, if they were down here, at least one of them would be getting a shot of something special from my stock,” Daphne lamented.

But I was undaunted. A plan was starting to come together in my head. “How many shots do you have in your flask, and how good a waitress are you?”

“Oh, no. No way. Cara, you’re out of your mind! Those guys carry guns! Don’t believe what you see in the movies about willing bullets out of the air- you’re not that good, and even if you are, I’m not!”

“Trust me, Daphne. I can get us those six models, but I need your help. We can split the credit 50/50, and Mistress will love you for it,” I reassured her as strongly as I could. She looked thoughtful-and from the dreamy look on her face, her fantasies were going down the road I wanted them to.

“As long as we’re not going directly up against those guys, I guess it’s worth a shot,” she decided, her voice getting a little spacey.

We watched the flow of traffic for a little while until we could figure out which waitress was serving the private lounge. She came by us muttering something about Cristal, and that was when I could put my plan into action.

“Excuse me, miss, who’s up in that room?” I asked.

“N-Are, like, the greatest rapper in the world!”

“Oh my God, no way!” I shrieked and bounced up and down until the waitress had completely given herself over to fangirl hysteria. “Oh my God, you have to tell everyone!” I screamed, and she joined the crowd to spread the frenzy. While security went to handle the near riot I’d started on the dance floor, I went to the bartender to pick up the champagne and met Daphne near the stairs. “Give them your strongest stuff, but leave his drink plain. I have a use for him.”

Daphne smiled and pulled out a black flask with an old-fashioned skull and crossbones on it… well, not so old-fashioned, when I looked closer and realized where exactly that bone was. She measured out the potion into each glass, leaving the one in the middle untouched. We piled them onto two trays, headed upstairs, served, and waited. The women had barely finished when their eyes went completely wide and glassy, their faces growing emptier by the second.

“Ladies, let’s show N-Are a good time now.” They all descended on him at once, caressing his chest and slowly undressing him. If he was surprised, he stopped caring when one of the girls unzipped his pants and started running her manicured fingers along his cock.

“Eat up his sugar and let it turn you into candy,” I instructed, and each woman gave N-Are a full, mind-numbing blowjob. When that wasn’t enough to satisfy them, I suggested that they help each other out. Soon they were all undressed and having at each other until they were fully out and thinking of nothing but sex.

“Nice job,” Daphne whispered in my ear.

“Same to you. I think your brain acid did the trick more than anything I could ever say.” I giggled. “Who needs hypnosis, mind control, or gadgets when you get a good old-fashioned blowjob? Or six of them?”

When they were all finished, and while N-Are was putting himself back together, Daphne and I had the girls put their dresses on and head out to the waiting limo. It was a tight squeeze, but somehow I didn’t object to having gorgeous women in my personal space. Or maybe it was just the Cristal- Daphne and I had figured that there was no point in wasting the rest of the bottle, so we took it with us.

And maybe it was the Cristal, or maybe I’d impressed Daphne with my audacity, but she couldn’t keep her eyes off me. Or her hands. And she smelled good and tasted better. We walked, or at least stumbled, back to my room, and I let her show me how Goths do it for the rest of the night.