The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Sandi put the gun case down near the bed, along with her purse. Alison drifted into the arm chair by the window, motioning to the other chair.

“Or, if you prefer, you can stretch out on the bed,” she said.

“I know I’m going to be saying this a lot, I’m very sorry. Please forgive me.”

“I forgive you but you’ll have to accept I’m not going to forget.”

The taller woman went to the chair at the other end of the hotel room’s window. Using her hand she brushed the seat a bit before settling into it.

“Skipping your attempt to re-arrange the appearance of my scalp, tell me what happened since you were bopping this little field mouse over the head.” Alison refrained from giving more than a friendly teasing gaze, not crossing her legs, not crossing her arms. She tried to maintain a forward neutral position to give Sandi the sense she wasn’t feeling defensive.

She did feel a bit defensive. As she had said, she forgave Sandi for the noggin busting thump she’d received. Forgetting how easily the other woman resorted to a violent act to pursue her aims was not happening.

“I went back to their club and set up on the roof to wait. I know what most of their members look like from? back when.”

“When one of them hauled Connie in so you had to escape for her?”

“Yes. He’d been determined he was going to show off his new slave, though what he said was actually ‘slut’ and ‘whore.’ That was the second one. The first one took Connie home. I was so angry when I woke up after he’d raped her.”

“Was he violent?”

“huh?”

“Was he violent with Connie? Did he hurt you.. I mean did he hurt Connie?”

“Yes and no. He started getting rough during sex. I could tell it left some bruises. He didn’t do any out and out beating on her. Biting, hard gripping, being hard and rough on her while raping her. But not actively violent.”

“What did you do about him?”

“While he was sleeping I slipped into the kitchen. I found one of his sharp cooking knives and cut his throat. It was a big bloody mess, but I cleaned myself up before I left. And anything I thought could tie me to the place.”

“That sounds pretty gruesome. Didn’t Connie find it disturbing?” Alison felt a touch disturbed at the ease of the little confession. Blood and gore she could deal with. The sense of casually killing anyone was not a good sensation to her.

“She would have if she’d known. I didn’t let her know. When she woke up again she was in her own bed, fresh, clean, pampered a bit.”

“Back to the club after? well, more recently.”

“Dad taught us to shoot. I got the rifle and was waiting from a good vantage point, looking for one of them to come out of the club. Or go in if I could recognize them.”

“Should I gather you did?”

“No. I had been prepped and quiet for a bit. When you go hunting you need to be patient. Sometimes the target moves away, but if you want to get a good shot you have to be patient for the target to come into place. It’s a matter of being quiet and not letting them know you’re there. Dad used to tell us all the time the better the hiding place, the better the shot could be.”

“You liked your father?”

“No. I didn’t. Connie adored him.”

“Ah. But you learned to shoot from him.”

“He got interested in us more when we got to be about ten, eleven, twelve. Mom didn’t like having to share him with us.”

“I see. So you didn’t get any targets today?”

“No. Before I saw anything there was shooting.”

“Was someone shooting at you?”

“I didn’t think so. It would be so unusual for these guys. They don’t use guns, or didn’t before. I’d never even heard them talk about guns. I wasn’t around them so long I’d know for sure, but I didn’t remember them having any.”

“So what did you do?”

“I got up and looked over the edge.”

“Wasn’t that a bit dangerous with people shooting?” Alison was curious.

“Oh, not really. It takes a lot of skill to hit a target at a distance even if it isn’t moving. I was moving and being on the roof of a three story building. It takes time to aim with a rifle. Hand guns lose accuracy over enough distance. I was also at an angle not likely to expose much for them to hit. There was another reason.”

“What’s that?”

“They were shooting at something before they could see me. If they were shooting at someone else on the street, they felt the other person was dangerous enough to worry about. Worrying about another person made it unlikely they’d look up.”

“Good point. So what was going on?”

“I saw a man I knew was one of them running to the club door. If I’d still been in place I could have nailed his ass. There was a woman and a guy on the ground by one of the cars. I don’t know which of them was hit. Another car behind them had stopped and a couple plainclothes cops got out with their guns. So I started putting the gun back in the case.”

“Why not wait for another chance?”

“With police there, and a shooting there were going to be a lot more police soon. I was on the roof. They have helicopters.”

“Okay. Then?”

“While I was packing up to leave, someone tried to open the roof door.”

“Did you shoot them?”

“I didn’t know who they were. Why would I shoot someone I didn’t know was one of them?”

“I don’t know. What did you do?”

“The person behind the door tried to hit me with one of those psychic blasts.”

“They missed obviously, so how did you know?”

“They didn’t miss, it made me dizzy and queasy. I finished packing.”

“So wait a minute,” Dr. Moore was puzzled. Then she remembered even Robert thought that Sandi was normal until trying to scan her they found the surface of Connie in her mind. “Okay, so the person hit Connie then, is that it?”

Sandi shrugged. “I’ve gotten used to the idea they see her but never me. I just kept going.”

“I see. So if you couldn’t go down the stairs, what did you do?”

“They were banging away madly on the door. I propped a two by four in place to keep it closed. Whoever it was tried to break it down. I didn’t wait for them. I’d stuffed my purse in the case and carried the pistol.”

“Yes. And you didn’t jump down, so did you have a rope or something?”

“No no. There was an access ladder and fire escape at the back of the building. I climbed down.”

“So you got away because they were pounding at the door on the roof as you left.”

“Yes and no. The woman doing it was smart enough to think of the fire escape. I don’t know if she thought she could climb up to surprise me, or if she was going to just wait to see if I came down. Either way I got there first.”

“That’s good. Or is it? Is that good?”

“I started to run. I didn’t know it was a woman. I didn’t know if the person would have friends with them. I took off.”

“Good thing you got those running shoes then, isn’t it?”

Sandi looked down at her feet and smiled. “Yes. It is. Connie looks so good in heels though. I like how superior it makes her feel around the men out there.”

“Yeah, I remember such feelings. It’s been a while.”

“Doctor Moore,” Sandi said, “you don’t give yourself enough credit. You’re still pretty hot looking for someone in her late thirties early forties.”

“Sandi, I’m not that young. You’re off by a couple decades. But we were talking about you running from the person with the psychic powers.”

“She was behind me, I could hear her running.”

“She didn’t catch you.”

“She walloped me again with another psychic blast. I staggered. Enough so I stopped running and turned around.”

“What happened?” Alison felt a chill run through her anticipating the outcome.

“She cussed at me, I was mad at her for trying to kill me. She’d blasted so hard I’m pretty sure my teeth rattled. So I shot her.”

“I see.” Alison didn’t feel sick from this but hearing it actually seemed to make it worse to her. “I guess we won’t be seeing much of her anymore. You seem to have gotten away from the site though.”

“I went downtown, got some eats. When I got to what I thought to be a safe place, I tried to wake up Connie.”

“Does Connie always wake up when you do that?”

“If she doesn’t, I usually can tell she’s dreaming. If she’s dreaming, I go do something else for a while. This time, I couldn’t get any response. She isn’t there. I couldn’t find her. I thought maybe she’s mad at me.”

“Why would she be mad at you?”

“For thumping you?”

“Really?”

“She likes you a lot. For some reason you make her feel like she has a mom again.”

“Your mother is no longer alive?”

“Mom is alive. If Connie mentions me, mom clams up and goes away.”

“Must not like you for some reason.”

“Nope. Not since Dad was killed.”

“So what do you want me to do about Connie?”

Sandi sat there quietly. She nervously tapped her finger against her thigh, not answering right away.

“That thing you guys do. Find her.“

“That ’thing’ we do? We? Me and Bart, and Edward?” Alison asked.

“Yes. Where you put your fingers into the head and? dig around.”

“You are asking me to use telepathy to snoop in your head.”

“Yes. I want my sister back. If she’s mad at me and just hiding, I can survive. I am sorry I hit you Doctor. I am. She may not believe me. But I need her back or at least to know she survived the attempt to kill me.”

“You know you’ll probably be okay even if I don’t find her.”

“Try. I need you to try. Please try.”

“Okay. Okay.”

Alison did the thing she and other telepaths would do to typically feel out the other person’s mind. She started to try to touch the surface of the person across from her. What she found was different from the usual mind. It felt like there was a spidery structure across a murky mass of what should have been the person she was looking at. The structure as she tried to get in closely with her probe was pretty much Sandi holding herself together.

Underneath was a lot of what felt empty. It might be empty. It might be everything underneath had been struck by the attack the unknown female telepath had made. It might be something else. She couldn’t get the bits to steady or maybe she just couldn’t quite touch them. There were indications parts of Connie were there. She just couldn’t get a grip on any of them at all.

After a time she tried to work her way in deeper and kept feeling herself slip away as though on a slick ice surface. She tried several times, from several directions. She tried pushing in using the stable parts as leverage to push against. She kept slipping away again.

Alison looked sorrowfully at Sandi.

“Something is there. I’m not good enough to be able to work my way in. It might be nothing is left of Connie inside. I only get hints she was there but I can’t get in.”

“You have to find her or I’m doomed.”

“You’re not doomed. There may be adjustments to be made. Losing a personality in a multiple is just putting one in charge for good. It is rare. From what I’ve read the easiest way to treat it is just to think of it as losing an imaginary friend when the schizophrenia winds down to only one person.”

“You don’t understand, Alison.”

“What don’t I understand?”

“Before ? well? Dad.” She looked down sadly.

There was a deep quiet for a moment. Sandi gazed out the window furtively a second or two. Alison could see the way her eyes were welling up. One hand started to rise yet dropped back to her lap again. Sandi tried to stay at ease when she spoke again. Connie wasn’t there for her to bring out it seemed. She was suppressing sobs, so they kept dying in her throat.

“Connie is real.”

On the drive to the hospital Prudence rode shotgun. Lexi wanted to sit with her friend a while longer, glad she was safe. Elaine chose to be in the back so if Jill had more questions about her own experience she could talk to her. All said, the women were fine.

It was Edward who was on edge.

For a change, he was operating on all cylinders as he drove the car. He was thinking about Polly being shot while he was conducting his raid to rescue Jill. He was also scanning just about everyone in range with a quick look to find other psis.

What was new to him was how clearly some people had encountered telepaths before. He could sense the touch to their minds. Either most telepaths were fumbly about it, or he was unique. It seemed he kept stumbling over folk whose mind had at least been read, leaving a kind of fingerprint from the telepath behind.

Prudence reached to hold his hand while he was driving. Confused only a second by the additional activity he smiled when realization came. He gave her hand a squeeze. She was trying to comfort him about his aunt. She seemed to think his distraction was due to what happened to Aunt Polly, not his preventative action of scanning for threats.

“Uncle Samuel is with her,” he said. “He would let me know if she was too far gone. Then he’d probably go into a form of shock himself.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“When my father passed away in his accident, she slipped away until she just gave up living completely. Polly and Samuel have the same mental bond between them.”

“Oh, right. You mentioned something about the psi link between them before.”

“Two telepaths bonded so intensely, they pretty much are the same life. I don’t yet know if the way I’m connected to Ellie will have the same effect, though it’s unlikely. She’s not a psi. If it did though, it would affect you too, if I give in and do as you asked.”

“Why would it affect us? Ellie didn’t have a death wish after Dean died.”

“He never shared a connection of raw emotions with her? He was all about making her suffer inside. Keep in mind the entire time he was tormenting the conscious part of her by forcing her to behave as programmed. It is not the kind of connection I’ve created with Ellie. Nor how I would bind to you. Or Lexi. Ever.”

He took a breath as he drove. “Mom and Dad were bound so closely. So are Polly and Samuel. Very few telepath to telepath marriages last the death of one of them.”

“I’m sorry about your Mom and Dad.”

“It’s a while ago now,” he replied. “I try not to think about it too much. I still keep a few memories close to hand for when I miss them. Several actually.”

“Can you share them with us? You can get in our heads with memories and imagery I believe.”

“I never thought of sharing those memories. Interesting idea. It would be a good tribute to them, I like the thought. But not right now. I need to focus on driving.”

“Good plan. We don’t want to end up in the ER ourselves.”

When he pulled into the hospital lot and got out he could feel a large number of people here had been touched by other telepaths. Far more than he’d encountered while driving. He paused with the door to the car open, standing there.

The others pulled up short and looked back at him. He didn’t move yet and they started wandering back to him. He drew a deep breath and expanded his scanning area like a bank of fog rolling away from him. Though the number of people touched by telepaths was high here, he only sensed two familiar minds with the psionic abilities, his uncle and aunt.

“It’s okay. Let’s go in,” he told them.

They all went in. He inquired at the desk for his aunt. He had a rough idea where she was in the building already, but getting room numbers or such mattered. The woman at the information desk tried to tell him they could only give info to family members. It didn’t take long to correct the misconception. He was directed to a recovery room on the third floor.

They all packed in the elevator. To his amusement he found he was flanked on either side by Lexi and Prudence while Elaine stood in front of him. He mused over the shapeliness of her tush. Jill just looked at them all shaking her head.

“I think he can protect himself, you know.” She grinned.

“We’re not protecting him,” said Lexi.

“That’s right, we’re claiming him,” added Prudence. “He’s ours.”

“Gotta keep predatory nurses away from our man,” added in Ellie with a slightly mischievous tone. She seemed at ease being a little snarky, despite the deeply embedded controls in her head tuning her to Edward. He’d found a way to make it work without undermining who she really was. He was glad of how well it was working.

“You can’t go in there,” said one of the floor nurses. “She’s in recovery from surgery.”

He had already opened the door and looked in. Both she and Samuel appeared to be asleep. He stepped back.

“I’m her nephew. How soon will it be before I can see her?” he asked.

“She should be waking up in about two hours. You can wait over there in the lounge for family,” she indicated a room with standard fare for hospital waiting areas. He nodded to the girls letting them know he would join them shortly if they went in there.

Meanwhile though, he reached out with his thoughts and tried to touch Samuel. If he was just snoozing, this wouldn’t disturb Polly’s recovery. That didn’t go well. It was as though someone had put a thick iron wall between him and the other man. The connection seemed to be the same to Polly. It took a moment but he was able to determine the husband and wife were connected via their channel of psionic energy.

He tried to do a gentle tap to see if he’d be recognized by them. There seemed to be some indication they knew he was there but were busy. He stopped.

Samuel felt the nudge at the wall but he wanted to keep feeding his wife the best possible emotions he could. He had taken her through a long trip so far, visiting memories of the two of them having fun at waterfalls, fancy dinners, not so fancy dinners, plays, movies, with other family members, just dancing, making food in the kitchen together, little things they enjoyed together in their lifetime. He was feeding her his emotions towards her.

She wasn’t in danger anymore, he knew that. Until Edward came knocking part of the effort was to shield them from unwanted telepaths. Doing this seemed to help her with healing though, he could feel some of the energy going towards knitting damaged tissue. He never heard of any of the psi families having someone who was an empath, a healer. He’d take any little advantage his abilities gave him though. He was not going to lose Polly.

“What’s the sitch?” asked Prudence.

“The sitch? Oh, the situation.”

Prudence laughed. “You never watched Kim Possible, obviously.”

“Who the hell is that?”

“TV cartoon character. Her side? oh never mind.”

“I’m not generally a television watching type guy. I like doing it with any or all of you, but a book does me just fine. If you want me to, I’ll watch it with you.”

“Cool. But how is she really?” Elaine interrupted before he lost the thread of the original question.

He smiled. “She is far better than I feared. She seems to have no serious damage. She lost some blood. There was no need for any though, they had her stabilized quickly. The doctor seems to think she’ll be doing well enough to leave in three or four days.”

“That’s a relief,” said Pru. Lexi smiled, obviously gladdened.

“I’m going to make a call to Bart and let him know. He sounded worried too. When a tone of voice goes pale, you can see someone has an investment involved. He should know he doesn’t need to look like he never saw the sun.”

Lexi got on her tip toes to kiss him. He smiled after the kiss. The way she behaved like a little girl around him was a pleasure. He’d still be in the bookstore without the little girl exuberant nature of hers. Then walked down the hall to make the call.

Two of the city’s finest stood on a rooftop a hundred yards from the building they were watching. They had their guns ready but not the way their captain would want. They relocated over to this building when they were ordered back with the other two members of the SWAT team. They were close to the trap door enclosure to the inside of the building.

The structure was a square covering at a slight tilt over a lip rising near the edge of the roof. None of them even considered how the roof there had been tarred for water proofing, how the large air conditioner machine had been put in place, or where the flues and other structures originated inside the building.

They’d been prepared to lift the hatch to reconnoiter when the order came to stand down, pull back a reasonable distance.

When Jacob sent the small team to go keep an eye on the exit to the roof, it hadn’t occurred to him it wasn’t like a stairwell with a door out. The building was supposed to end up with a stairway up once but it just wasn’t in the budget for others, or him. Oddly the blueprints indicated it was stairs.

It was simply a ladder up to this hatch, hidden below in a hall suitable for small dance performances. The ladder had to be pulled down from above to check the roof. As a feature of the building the access was a throwback to much less sophisticated times.

When they’d gotten to it, the three telepaths in question argued over who would climb it to look at the roof. None of them wanted to get their hands dirty on the old ladder. They ended up with a decision they’d each go up over the next couple hours, but first Terry would go. He was pretty burly so if the hatch was stuck he’d be most likely the one able to crack it open.

As he rose towards the top he sensed the officers on the other side. He wanted to show off so he started making personal puppets of them. Terry thought, these guys would make great armed zombies. Because, that’s how he saw those he wasn’t converting to fuck. He finished the first and had pretty much finished turning a second into a guard rather than threat when their signal for recall came. He managed to leave instructions to activate against the other cops when they tried to breach the building.

Then he climbed down to the others and acted like his idea all along was to be first up there so he could convert the cops to their side. Terry pointed out the guards he’d gotten had automatic weapons. He had no idea what kind, but they were armed to kill. He was a little curious if they had those cool little targeting laser lights.

In the loading bay office, the telepaths there tried to monitor what was going on out back. The thugs they’d leveraged into place on the loading dock itself sat on empty kegs, looking down the street. Through their eyes, the telepaths saw police had cordoned off the street. All too far away for these guys.

Inside, Jacob was taking counsel with Vanessa and Melody. He asked Pat to join them, though he was not familiar with the young telepath.

“Pat brought Sean down because it seems Peter has skipped out the back door.” Jacob said. “It seems I was right about the shooter having a friend on the inside.”

“Can we be sure Peter was the only one?” asked Melody.

Pat was a bit on edge around Melody. She was known to be able to cut down other telepaths for pissing her off. The few who she couldn’t crush, she was able to stay toe to toe with until Jacob intervened usually. She was eyeing Pat and it did not sit well with him.

“We could have a few more in here thinking they’re taking over,” she continued.

“Even if we do,” Jacob responded, “The number of cops outside are going to end up causing us to be the center of a blood bath. We have to try to fix this here. If we get away and a huge massacre happens, the news will be all about us. As telepaths, they’ll be looking to track us down and kill us where ever we go. With news coverage? sigh.”

“Who cares,” asked Vanessa, “They really can’t get close to us. If we just protect ourselves with our talent, they’ll be bending a knee to me in no time.”

“How far away can you control someone?” asked Pat. “I’m betting we are the ones who will be in coffins pretty fast that way.”

Vanessa turned on Pat with an angry look.

“Vanessa, he’s right. Don’t act out just because you’re inconvenienced at the moment.” Jacob was not putting up with dissent in the ranks from her, least of all. She might be pretty strong with the talent, but he could easily force her to become a hetero slut the rest of her short life if she kept it up. She knew it too. “We need options.”

“I heard a rumor there are tunnels beneath this place, is that true?” asked Pat. Jacob just did the best he could to give him a ’you gotta be kidding’ look. This Pat guy was brighter than a number of their members.

“I was thinking if we could turn some scapegoats out, arrange not to be found, we might do better than trying to run away,” Melody said. “I wonder if the cops and press know anything more than there’s a gunman in the building.”

Jacob felt that like a cold slap. “I don’t know. But that’s a very good idea. How would we go about setting up a fall guy for the cops?”

“Well,” smiled Melody with a glint in her eye, “we do have some large goons around here who have proven to be useless.”

“Bart,” he spoke into the little rectangle, “Polly is doing well. She’s still unconscious but she’s going to be okay.”

“That’s a relief. There was no need or reason for her to even be here when she was shot. Not that I know of.”

“They were looking for Sandi.”

“Why, what happened with Sandi?”

“She thumped your friend Dr. Moore over the head.” Edward waited during a brief silence.

“Aw shit. I thought I talked her out of running around. She must have decided to come back here. Although. I’ve seen no sign of her being here. Maybe she knows where some of them live who aren’t here.”

“How are we going to find her since Samuel and Polly are unavailable?” Edward asked.

“We’re not,” replied Bart. “We have a huge event going on here outside the naughty pigeon’s palace and we need to clean out some more of the waste. Otherwise there may indeed be a huge catastrophe with dead cops and innocents being slaughtered simply because they can’t tell good from bad in there.”

“Wait. You want to go in there to roust them?”

“I have no choice. You do, so you don’t have to. Unless you know another telepath. It appears I will be going in alone. I’m not entirely convinced Alison is strong enough to take on our enemy in this situation.”

“Aren’t you the one who said he was a member in good standing of the revered faith of Cowardice?”

“Don’t knock my religion, lad.” Bart shook his head.

“Couldn’t you get the council to spring some more help?”

“Not before there’s a bloodbath.”

“Look, hold on forty-five minutes. I’ll be there,” Edward said. “Front? Or back of the building?”

“Might as well be the back. Though, I’ll try to determine if we can find another way in.”

“I need to let the women know where I’m going. I wish I’d left them safe in the bunker. Well, safer.”

“I get it. Just get here in one piece.”

Edward walked back into the lounge and sat on the couch in the middle. Soon he had both arms pinned by Ellie and Lexi. Pru slipped around behind him and started scritching his scalp affectionately. It was a pretty sure thing he could get used to this but he was going to be so busy keeping them happy and satisfied with him. What did Ellie say? An embarrassment of riches? No doubt about it.

“You look as happy as a mosquito in a nudist colony,” said Jill.

“I?,” he looked at her, “as a mosquito? I gotta remember that.”

The women surrounding him giggled.

“I’d let him nibble on me,” said Lexi.

“Me too,” came Ellie.

“Hey, hey now. I’m not a cannibal.” Edward sighed. “Sadly, much as I want to remain in the tender arms of these angels,” there was a brief cough from Ellie, “Bart needs my help. I suppose I will regret it but I may be doing something stupid again.”

“Oh no you don’t.” Ellie draped herself over his lap and clung tight. Lexi grabbed an arm and tried to wrap herself around it. Prudence just chuckled behind his head.

“You don’t get to go anywhere,” said Prudence, “not just yet.”

“It looks like you’re outnumbered Samson. If Lexi asks, I’ll help pin you down while they rape you.” Jill was grinning wickedly, “I think they should.”

Lexi let out a little giggle again. She sounded like she was still a child in so many ways. Her innocent sweetness and devotion to those important to her made her lovable and adorable. It profoundly helped his state of mind too.

“My wonderful love, and other wonderful love? and other wonderful love,” Edward started in a sappy tone, “I would sooner? oh hell. I don’t want to but the man who shot Polly is in that place.”

The girls all got very serious. Even Jill.

“But.” Lexi started. She pouted at him with puppy dog eyes, “I don’t want you shot. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

Prudence just held him tighter while Ellie ran her delicate fingers through his hair.

“Lexi. You changed my entire world. Prudence, you amaze me. And Ellie, well. I never want you to have to face people like them ever again. There’s going to be a lot of innocent people killed if the police storm the place.”

“We don’t like the idea of you being one of those people killed.” Prudence just nuzzled in closer and pulled his shirt out of his pants.

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing,” came his surprised reaction.

She made noises on his belly with her mouth. “ERK!” he said.

All the others in the room laughed.

“Okay. We’ll let you. But you have to make us a promise.” Pru said.

“Oh?”

“That you’ll run away if it looks like someone could hurt you. We want the goods you have,” she put her head against his crotch, “in here.”

Jill laughed outright.

“Really, sir, we need you back. Don’t get hurt,” added Ellie

“I promise to try bringing back those parts in particular. I will.”

He was thinking he shouldn’t make promises he couldn’t be certain of keeping.

“Bart, I’m telling you, I can’t leave Sandi alone,” Alison looked over at the woman. Sandi had lain down on the bed and dropped off to sleep. There was no telling how long her nap would last.

“I get that, but maybe you can put her into a deeper sleep until you get back?”

“I would, believe me I would,” she replied. “But her mind is not working the way you might think and I just can’t get in. I cannot get past the way it’s so tumultuous. Every time I’ve tried so far it just pushes me back out again.”

“Did she give any indication what all the thump over the head was about?”

“She went back to that club. Apparently someone there was shot.”

“Polly. Polly and her husband are at the hospital,” he said.

“Oh, Edward’s aunt? He must be pretty upset. It wasn’t Sandi though, she decided to flee because she saw cops and there was someone there who chased her.”

“I know. I know. The shooter is one of the club members.”

“That’s going to be difficult to keep a lid on. I gather the cops have raided the club by now?”

“No, I stopped them. Too many hostages who could be turned against the cops. I was hoping to get you to help clear memories from them when we clean out the rogues.”

“That’s not happening unless you want a schizophrenic killer on the loose again.”

“Not a good option, no,” he said. “At least she didn’t kill anyone here.”

“No? That’s odd. She told me she shot the woman who followed her. You sure you don’t have another body there?”

“I haven’t heard any mention of one. Where was this? Because it sure wasn’t on the street. It wasn’t in the building we used to watch from across the street. From what you’ve said, she wasn’t in the club building.”

“Some street or alleyway leading away from the empty building. Could be no one stumbled over the body yet?”

“I’ll go have a look myself. But then I have to get in place to meet Edward. Talk to you later.”

“Good luck.”

Jacob had Sean in the dining hall. Sean was sitting at the table tearing down the pistol Jake had given him. The gun was going to be cleaned thoroughly by the large thug. Because Sean was someone who had experience with guns, that’s why Jacob chose him.

While he was doing that, Jacob washed his hands and arms. He didn’t know if doing so removed gunshot residue but he wanted to reduce the chance they’d get easy evidence should they arrest him.

It really didn’t matter, he reasoned. He could let them arrest him and alter the minds of the officers, the judge, the jury, and anyone else he had to when he chose to escape. There was very little chance it would get far enough for a trial anyway. He’d meet the prosecutor and they’d toss everything in the trash at his whim.

He figured one thing he couldn’t do was rid them of the shooter. If he was being held by the police somewhere, there was a chance the killer would get to him before he walked away. Chances he didn’t have to take, he wasn’t going to take.

The panic causing him to shoot outside was a big mistake. He still hadn’t come to terms with why he’d panicked. There was so little reason to draw the gun and just shoot. Normally he would be looking at the woman with thoughts of how she’d look dangling in the dungeon from her wrists. Instead he simply acted. If he hadn’t bought the gun he wouldn’t have done it he supposed. But then if she was the shooter, at least he hit her.

His thought turned to other issues. Peter took off with the redhead. Despite the way it looked, he found it hard to believe Peter was the inside man helping kill off the members. Peter was the epitome of useless. Telepathic, yes. But not a thinker. Someone in the club helping kill members would have to be a lot smarter than Peter. Of course, there were three other members missing too, one having been Paul. Paul, who he had set to keep watch out back.

Maybe it was one of the others that were gone.

“It’s ready sir,” said Sean.

“About time.”

“No worries. I won’t let them take me alive!” Jacob smiled when Sean said this. Programming the man to be a desperate sort was simple. Keeping him on the leash until it was time to send him out the door wasn’t too hard either.

“Where ya gonna hide?” asked Melody.

“That’s a last minute thing. That way no one will know to be able to tell them when they come in to toss the place.”

“What, you don’t trust us?” her smile rather impish.

“You ask that seriously?”

“Nevermind. Are you ready?”

“Not yet.” He looked around at those in the room. The only other people with him was Melody and Vanessa. Neither of them were happy with him at the moment. “Sean, go wait at the front door.”

The large man picked up the gun and extra clips. He pocketed the clips and left the room.

“That’s for Plan A, a nice idea but I’m unconvinced it will work. Do either of you two have a plan B idea?”

“Nathan?” the voice came from his cell phone.

“Yes Detective?”

“I’m over here walking the paths around behind our field ops center. I’ve found no body.”

“I don’t know whether to be relieved or concerned. I’m wondering if the tip I got has any merit now.”

“It has merit. I’ve found a trail of blood. It led me to a guy who was asleep behind a dumpster.”

“So some guy was shot back there?” asked Nathan.

“No, he’s fine. His complaint is someone took his trench coat and he has no idea who it was.”

“The blood trail ends at him?”

“No, not exactly. But it becomes less evident after where he was. I have a medic looking at him while I looked a bit further. I’m not sure how far it goes so I’m detailing two of my uniform guys to track it.”

“Thank you for the information.”

“Aw crap, we wouldn’t have been looking too closely for a while if you hadn’t gotten a tip. Any help from your source?” asked the detective.

“That source as you put it is trying to track down a different victim at the moment. They’re not available, which believe me, sucks.”

“Well thanks. I’ll be back over shortly.” The detective rang off.

“Sorry Bart but I think the one who got shot back there is still among the living. Unless you guys turn into undead creatures after being shot.”

“No worries. She’ll turn up eventually. If she’s losing blood there’s a limit to how far she can go.”

“True. Who is to say where she was hit. It could just be a light wound with no long term impact to her.”

“She’ll end up somewhere we can find her. I just don’t know where or when. Where is Edward? He should be here by now.”

He looked around and not seeing Edward or his car, he started to walk a bit away from the road up behind the buildings.

After a moment he looked at his cell phone for the time, and then up at the sky, which was cloudy and darkening a bit. Probably because it was the time of day for darkening to start. He rubbed his belly. He hadn’t eaten at all today. Or he felt like he hadn’t.

He wondered if there were any fast food joints nearby. Even a stop and rob would do right now for some kind of snack. It wasn’t really necessary but he was getting noises from his abdomen. He suppressed the internal nerves telling him he was hungry, for now.

Edward’s old beater pulled up outside the police barricade at the edge of his sight. It was amusing to see the young man was impatient. He could tell because the officers didn’t even talk to him but moved the barricade so he could drive through, then put it back.

With no official documents, the kid had to have used the power to do that. He bet the officers would have no memory of Edward either. The young man was damn clever, smarter than most people Bart encountered in the last couple decades.

After parking close by, Edward walked up to him, carrying what looked like coffee and a bag.

“I brought you something. It seemed to me if you’ve been here since I left you probably haven’t eaten.” Edward said.

“One might think you were psychic or something,” said Bart, looking at the brown bag in Edward’s hand.

Jonathan was trying to focus but it simply wasn’t working out the way he’d planned. He stepped away from the white room for a while.

“Barbara?” he called out.

It took a few minutes, but he found his favorite slave girl. Barbara was the first woman he enslaved, because he lusted after her so deeply. He still took her with her anywhere he had moved to, and still liked using her. He’d discarded used toys a lot, but never her. She was arrayed across the arm chair in his bedroom. She had fallen asleep with the bags she’d packed for them. In a brief display of affection he stroked her cheek.

“Barbara,” he said to wake her.

“Master!” She was startled, “I’m sorry I fell asleep. Are we going now?”

“No, I have to go see my lawyer. You get a little bit more rest.”

“Yes Sir,” she got up, walking to the bed and collapsing again.

“I’ll be back soon.”

Once he got the car on the street he turned on the radio. As he’d feared, there was an ‘event’ going on in the area of the club. When he tuned to the local news station they were reporting helicopters and police were in the area of an active shooter.

He knew it unlikely the police could get in without being turned by the members. He doubted the cops had tried to go in yet, or this would have been reported as over and done. Why hadn’t the cops gone in yet?

The only reason he could come up with is they believed there were more than one gunman holding hostages. It didn’t make sense they had not gone in yet. He knew how strong the front door barricade was and how much trouble it would be to go in the back through the loading dock. But SWAT teams could always get in a building from above or by blowing holes in the wall.

What if they had some other telepaths working with them? He never considered it. The possibility there were telepaths working with police would account for a few things recently. No. That didn’t work either because the telepaths would have simply kept the police from getting too close.

This was a problem of Jacob’s making. If he hadn’t gotten so quick to use the gun he’d bought, they’d have been talking to the couple in the car and not worrying about the FBI turning up on their tail. He and Jacob had talked about the FBI sending a team to investigate the recent string of murders. They had been trying to come up with a means to keep the law enforcement folk from looking at the club.

The killer they were worried about could be among the police outside, disguised or even one of them. Who knew? Mia had been after him. Maybe he was in there while Jake was doing his error in judgment moment.

His lawyer was about eight blocks from the club. Driving there meant he still had to pass along the same roads, roughly. He could see a helicopter, possibly two over in the direction of the club. He didn’t see a lot of people on the streets. All the activity may have drawn people to gawk at the police barricades or scared folk inside. But he did see someone in a coat of some kind ahead of him.

The coat did not match the legs at the bottom, nor the loose hair at the top. It didn’t look like something a woman would choose to wear. The sky was threatening with clouds and had been all day. But there was no reason with the present weather to wear an oversize trench coat.

Tilting his head he pulled over to see better. Recognizing the face he pulled up to her and opened the car door.

“Get in. Where were you going?” he asked.

“Was looking for something.” The eyes displayed a possible case of shock. She opened the trench coat to show him her right shoulder. He sensed she couldn’t be in total shock even as disheveled as she was. His light scan showed her barriers were still solid, probably maintained by her subconscious because she felt threatened.

“Mia, we’re going to the hospital.”

“Can you do to those two what you did to the guy who was out there earlier?” asked Nathan.

Edward and Bart took a moment, both of them checking the two large men out on the loading dock.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea. Those are men without any psi ability posted on watch to spot people coming,” said Bart. “Sort of the kind of thing to do when expecting an attack, putting pickets on watch.”

“So?” asked Nathan. “Doesn’t that make it easier to take them over?”

“No. It’s harder because the person controlling them will notice they lost control. As far as we know, they’re well out of sight so will be difficult to pick off as well.”

“There’s another reason,” added Edward, “As far as we know, to date they have not figured out the people after them out here are telepaths.”

“Wouldn’t they know from your little rescue earlier?” Nathan wasn’t entirely convinced.

“They might. They might not. I left some people behind who were set up for another casual telepath to read them. They remember the person manipulating them as one of the neutered guys I sent on their way.”

“How does that work?”

“I modified the patterns to match his, planted the memory of seeing him with them while he was leaving them behind. If someone is very good in there, they may figure out what I did. I’m hoping they accept the evidence they find as good enough. I suppose I could have planted a second fingerprint of one of the others making it look like? too much complexity for the time I had though.”

“I get it just fine,” said Bart. “He set up a patsy so they’d think they were betrayed from within. We can’t be sure it worked, but we should try not to tip our hand in case it actually did.”

“I get it.” Nathan understood Edward’s reasoning. He might do something like it but not with mental powers. Since he had none, he could only speculate about ways it got used. Trying to think of it in the way a spook would might make it easier. Since he was supposed to be a spook in alphabet soup, he was a bit concerned he was getting sloppy.

“If we can’t go in the front door, can’t go in the back, we only have one option,” said Bart.

“We go home and wait for them to surrender?” asked Edward with a crooked grin.

“Don’t goof with me just now. I don’t want to do this either,” Bart replied.

“Okay. So, how do we get to the roof then?” Edward was resigned to the next logical step.

“We get to visit the neighboring roof,” answered Bart. “How did you think?”

“I was hoping maybe you could do telekinesis and zoom us up there,” Edward was grinning crookedly again.

Bart had a sour expression. He shook his head. “You know as well as I do that’s a myth from science fiction and new age nuts.”

“Yes. Your reaction was precious though, old man.”

“Come with me, kid, let me show you the heights. Not scared of heights are you?”