The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

The Sheriff entered the house by the front door as Homer exited from the servants’ entrance in the rear, so he did not see Homer carrying Mara out. His cousin’s infernal, persistent meddling would get her in trouble beyond his ability to protect her, he worried. Lilith was within Her rights to protect Herself; the excuse rose in his mind without his thinking about it, precisely as it had been implanted to rise. He went into the study, and Lilith stood up to greet him. She laid her hand on his arm, and he looked down at her, the worry vanishing like mist as his eyes met hers.

“It is such a shame about poor Larry,” Lilith stated. “He was such a devoted servant. It is going to be hard to find someone as loyal as he was.” She felt his unease and saw Edward look away. She put her forefinger under his chin and drew his eyes back to hers. “I know that you and Larry had your differences, edward...” She frowned as if a suspicion had just formed in her mind. “Larry’s death was an accident, wasn’t it?”

“He got what he deserved!” Edward exclaimed, the strength of his reaction disturbing Lilith. “He went after Mara...said You told him...”

“Oh, edward!” Lilith sighed as she laid a finger over his lips to still his protest. “Did you truly believe I would move against your pretty cousin, knowing how strongly you felt about it?” She would have, she knew, but in this instance she could legitimately protest her innocence.

Edward shook his head, wanting to believe, needing her denial to be true.

“It would appear Larry acted on his own then,” Lilith sighed, thinking that Snopes’s independent action would have been another cause for alarm, if he had survived. “I think, my dear, you were in fact protecting me, and he was threatening your cousin.” She ran her hand along Edward’s arm. “You have something else to discuss with me?”

“I know I shouldn’t worry, Mistress...” He hesitated.

“...but...” she prompted.

“...with Mara stumbling across your path so easily, and now I believe she has called her brothers and Carl William’s father to come down here, you won’t be safe here much longer,” he continued, withholding nothing from her. “She had already raised an alarm by not remembering to check in with them.”

“Don’t worry, edward. Everything is back under our control,” Lilith replied, her hand stroking his arm and calming him. She put her finger under his chin and looked directly into his eyes, “You need have no further thought for your cousin. She is safe. She is well.”

“She is safe. She is well,” the Sheriff repeated in a monotone.

“That’s right, edward,” Lilith smiled and stroked his cheek. “We have other matters to deal with now. I have a little errand I need you to run. You’ll do this for me, won’t you?”

Edward nodded, completely entranced. “I’ll do anything for you, Mistress,” he replied docilely. “Anything at all.”

Lilith smiled, pleased that she had succeeded in bringing Edward to heel. A wide smile crossed the man’s face, and his eyes shone with anticipation and glee as she began to make her wishes known. “It is very apparent that it is time for me to relocate. You have been a loyal guardian for me, edward. I need you to make certain that there is nothing in your cousin’s files that can tie me to these disappearances. You will do this for me, will you not, edward.” He nodded again. “Then I leave you to see to this for me.” Lilith watched Julie show him to the door, a pleased look on her face.

“Tell Carl I need to see him in the study,” she instructed Julie as she turned back to that room. As Julie left the room to summon Carl, Lilith smiled, thinking about the results of the ‘errand’ she had just sent Edward on. She could always count on the Sheriff to go the extra mile for her. It was what had kept her safe in this area for more years than she had survived undiscovered elsewhere. When this was over, she promised herself, she would see to a proper reward for him.

Adam Corwin stood in front of the Sheriff’s desk, outraged at what he had just heard. He did not believe for a second that Edward Foster actually wanted him to believe that Mara had checked in with him her first day in town, and then had lit off on her own to check out every new resident of Mosby County for the past ten years. No, the Sheriff had declared, she hadn’t bothered to check in with him after that, but that was like Mara. She was always one to do things her own way. Adam looked at the man with a frown. In all the time he had known her, Mara had never acted so flighty. She was independent, and sometimes impulsive, but not stupid or careless. He started to make this argument, but observing the look on Edward’s face, remained silent. He had watched many kinds of liars in his days on the State Police, but the Sheriff’s attitude was a new one. Almost as if he wanted to believe the transparent fictions he was reciting. Edward relaxed when Adam did not press the issue again, and assured him, “If I hear from my cousin, I’ll make sure she gets in touch with you.”

Lt. Corwin cooly thanked the Sheriff for his time and left. He got into his car and drove to the dinner where he had left Bryan Foster, George Williams and the stranger, Leonard Harker. He rejoined them, perplexed and troubled by the other lawman’s lack of cooperation.

“The Sheriff was not telling the truth,” he told them. “He knows much more about Mara’s current whereabouts than he is prepared to admit.” Adam stared out the window, trying to keep an eye on the Sheriff’s Office down the street. “You don’t think that woman you mentioned has her, do you? She wouldn’t...”

“...kill her?” Harker finished for the younger man. He shook his head. “Not immediately. From what we have learned from speaking with some of her former victims, this woman likes to play with her prisoners, first. That might be worse than death.” He saw Adam’s expression, and his own saddened. “I know, young man. The girl means something to you, I can tell despite the fact that we have know each other only a few minutes.”

“Do you think this woman will send someone after us?” asked George Williams. His tone almost implied that he hoped she would, that he would take a grim satisfaction in facing an enemy he could see and deal with.

“Not if we move circumspectly, but quickly,” Harker replied. “She may not know yet that we are here. My son reports that our agents have followed Miss Foster to a certain house in the hills. She has not re-emerged, and her car has been moved out of sight. We now have a location and a name: Lilith Preston. Ms. Preston must be close to a major change in her life if Miss Foster’s mere return made her feel threatened enough to take her prisoner. Now we must move quickly to prevent her from carrying out this change, or your son, Mr. Williams, will be in immanent danger of death, or worse.”

“What are you talking about,” Williams asked querulously, still finding the concept that his son had been kidnapped by a medieval legend difficult to accept.

“According to the authorities, succubi reproduce infrequently,” Harker explained, with a traditional English reticence about sex. “But when they do, it requires extraordinary amounts of the sexual energy on which they feed. This individual has already caused the deaths of fourteen individuals...”

“Probably,” interjected Bryan Foster, “we don’t know for sure that they all died.”

Harker acknowledged the point with a nod, and continued. “...and that is just from her normal feeding. If she is ready to breed... the amount of life force she would drain from her mate would leave him a lifeless husk, or at best, a mindless vegetable.”

Adam half rose to go. “I’ll secure the warrant...” he began.

“No, Lt. Corwin,” Harker sighed. “There isn’t time. And besides, on what grounds, for what crime? Kidnapping? But I assure you, each of her slaves would insist that they stay with her of their own free choice. Murder? Which of her victims have died? And of what? Of being drained of their life force, but how will you prove that? No, no, Lieutenant, I learned a long time ago that there is little the law can do in situations like this. That is why I do what I do. Now you must decide, as I had to long ago, do you work for the law, or for justice and humanity?”

Harker rose to his feet, his expression grave. “Now I must make my preparations. If you cannot, in good conscience, join me, at least stay out of my way. Gentlemen, who is with me?”

“I’ll come with you,” George Williams spoke up at once.

“I need to pick up Mason and his men,” Bryan Foster reminded him. “I’ll join you with them after I brief them on what to expect. Adam, why don’t you come with me, and we’ll talk about this?”

As Harker and Williams walked out, Adam said wryly, “There goes one stubborn bastard. I hope he doesn’t plan to do anything I’ll have to take official notice of. Bryan, as an attorney, you are an officer of the court. I hope you are not planning to do anything to jeopardize that.”

“I am supposed to meet Mason at my grandfather’s house, where Mara was staying,” Bryan reminded him. “Let’s go there and see if she left anything we can use to make this legal.” He left cash on the table to pay for their coffees. “And let’s stop at Fred’s store on the way to see what he can tell us.” The two exited the dinner and headed down the street to Fred’s grocery store.

Harker watched them go from the side of his limousine. “Those two young men should be recruited into our organization, Baxter,” he said to his son—who was the chauffeur—as he got in. “Intelligent, clever, creative, dedicated to seeing justice done. They are like many of the other young people who’ve joined our ranks over the years.”

“They have their own careers,” Baxter reminded his father as he pulled out of the parking lot and headed out of town. “But Mara Foster sounds as if she would fit right in.”

Harker nodded at his son’s opinion. “She might at that, if we can rescue her in time. We have much to do if we are to attack tonight as planned. Are our men ready?”

“They are already moving into position,” the younger Harker confirmed. “Father, are you certain that this creature is going to be that easy to take down? What if we’ve overlooked something?”

“Then we will deal with it as we go along...as we usually do,” Harker replied. “Just promise me that you will remember to put in your earplugs, son. And you, too, Mr. Williams, and the others. We don’t want anyone hearing her siren call and going over to the other side during the battle.” He cocked his head for a moment and then looked back up. “Whatever happens, you are to bring out the young woman and the chosen sire. If we can’t destroy her, at least we can slow her down by removing the man from her sphere of influence.”

Bryan and Adam entered the grocery store, and Fred hurried over with a huge smile on his face. He pounded Bryan on the back, and shook Adam’s hand warmly as he was introduced. He led them into the back and poured them each a cup of coffee. “Mara?” he repeated when Bryan asked if he had seen her lately, “She was in here just about a couple of hours ago. She tried to call you from my phone. We had lunch. She said something about checking up on her list of names and drove up into the mountains. She is sure one hardheaded young woman. I asked her why she wouldn’t wait for Edward to help her out, and she said she’d get more done if she asked the Aynesville Specter.”

“The what?” Adam asked.

“The Aynesville Specter,” Bryan smiled, remembering the old ghost stories they used to tell each other around summer campfires as children. “An old ghost story. Hmmm. She might mean that she feels Edward is deliberately stalling her for some reason. In the story, the sheriff of Aynesville tries to hide the specter’s crimes. I can believe that. Adam here just spent an hour in his office and learned absolutely nothing.”

“You don’t say,” said Fred thoughtfully. “Mara’s been in and out of Ed’s office every day since she got here. If she told me anything, she would have told him. He’s been acting real funny the past couple of years,” Fred rubbed his chin with one hand. “Spending a lot of time up at that fancy woman’s home in the high valley.”

“What fancy woman, Fred?” Bryan asked, his eyes growing large with excitement. He glanced at Adam, who had come to attention also. “This could be important.”

“Mara seemed to think so, too,” Fred admitted, shaking his head. “Me, I don’t know. Her name’s Lilith Preston. She moved into the old Stump house about...oh...nine years ago? Fixed it up some, too. She never comes to town. Her ...servants...come in to buy supplies for her.” He watched as Adam and Bryan exchanged looks of alarm, and started to get to their feet. “You believe that this woman has something to do with what Mara was looking into, too, don’t you?”

“We’ve heard that name... elsewhere, Fred,” Bryan replied. “It can’t hurt to check it out.” He turned to leave.

Fred put his hand on his cousin’s arm. “If you’re going up there, be very careful. That woman makes my skin crawl.”

Bryan nodded, then he and Adam left the store. “Now what?” Adam asked as they went back to Adam’s car.

“Let’s meet Mason,” Bryan suggested. “He will be at my grandfather’s house.”

They drove to the house where Mara had been staying. There were a couple of cars parked where they could not be seen from the road. Unobtrusive vehicles, nondescript and older, but good sized. The kind big men could get into and out of quickly. The makes and models which allowed the largest and most powerful engines as an option. “Ah,” said Bryan. “He’s here.”

Adam and Bryan entered the house through the kitchen door. A stocky man with steel gray eyes waited for them, seated at the kitchen table. Several other men could be seen in the living room, lounging about with the relaxed and easy grace of the professional athlete, ready to go from repose into explosive action without any perceptible preparation. Phil Mason rose from the table and shook Bryan’s hand. He sat back down, and raised a quizzical eyebrow. “I must admit the facts you sent me are strange, to say the least,” he commented. “I’ve run across Harker before, Bryan. If he’s involved in the case, we are going to have to proceed very carefully. He is not known for staying inside the law.” He eyed Adam significantly.

“Harker says we don’t have time for observing the niceties of the law,” Adam said. “I can’t say I agree with his outlook, but some of the things he has told us make me think he might be right in this case.”

“It’s never right to rush in blindly and come out with half your men injured or worse,” Mason replied enigmatically, still looking at Adam appraisingly. He turned to Bryan. “Your sister left a message for us on her computer, but someone tried to remove it. Luckily for us, whoever it was didn’t know computers as well as R.C. does. Here.” He handed Bryan a printout. It was a list of names and addresses. Lilith Preston’s was highlighted.

Bryan read the name, with a concerned look in his eyes, then passed it to Adam. “That’s it then. All the clues point to the same person. Mara went up there a couple of hours ago. Her car has been hidden; she hasn’t come out. We can’t even be sure she is still alive. If she has been harmed....” His voice broke.

“I sent Allen and another man to this address to check it out, Mr. Foster,” Mason replied. “Don’t worry...”

“Chief,” one of the men from the living room interrupted him. “Allen’s on the radio.” He paused, then relayed the message. “Someone else drove her car back down from that house in the hills. Allen picked them up and followed. They were headed south on the county road towards 7. Oh, and there were other men watching that house, moving into position all around it. Wait a minute, he is going to stop whoever’s driving the T-bird.”

“Harker!” Mason exclaimed. He leaned back in his chair and frowned. “I don’t like the idea of having anything to do with Harker’s men. I would prefer it if we could just walk in, find our people, and walk out again with no shots fired, or ... other trouble. But if he is involved, it won’t be as simple as that.”

“If Harker is involved,” Bryan reminded him, “for the reasons he gets involved, it wouldn’t be that simple. If he is right, we will need him and his men.”

The radio-operator thrust his head back in through the door. “Chief, Allen says that the man we apprehended in Mara’s vehicle told him that the woman suspect has already begun to make plans to leave the area in the next day or two.”

Mason’s frown deepened. “Unfortunately, it seems Mr Harker is right about one thing. We don’t have much time. We have to go now.” He turned to stare at Adam Corwin. “Are you with us?”

Adam’s expression was grim. He reluctantly took his badge case out of his pocket and dropped on the table. Then he removed his pistol, hesitated, checked the cylinder and replaced it. “Let’s go,” he said.

The dying rays of the late Autumn sunset fell on Homer as he sat at his desk in front of the window in the front room, when he heard Mara stir. He went into the kitchen, set a tray with a cup of tea and a bowl of stew, and brought it into the bedroom. He nodded at the tray. “I thought you might be hungry, Mara. Do you want to eat here, or come out into the other room?”

Mara remained where she was without speaking. Homer set the tray down on the night table, and left her alone. She watched him leave, then turned to the food. When she had eaten the stew he had given her, she carried the tray out into the other room. Homer took it from her, and returned to the kitchen with it. While he was gone, Mara noticed the papers on his desk. She was reading them when he returned.

“No!” Homer cried out, when he saw the sheet in her hand. “You’re not meant to see that!” He grabbed the paper out of her hand, and roughly yanked her over to the couch.

“Homer, you’re hurting me!” Mara cried, as his grip bruised her wrist.

The big man released her, a stricken look on his face. “I’m sorry, Mara. I didn’t mean to hurt you!” He went back to the desk and sank down in the chair, his head in his hands.

Mara looked over at him, sympathy welling up in her heart at the sight of his obvious misery. She went over to stand behind him, laying her hand on his shoulder. “It’s all right, Homer,” she said gently. At the tone in her voice, he looked up hopefully. “You have a right to your privacy,” she continued, “and I apologize for reading your papers without asking.” Homer nodded, a happy smile restored to his face. Mara walked over to the bookcase which took up almost a whole wall of the room. She scanned the titles, noting a slim volume by one H. Vargas. On impulse she took it down; it was a book of poetry, she found. She carried it back to the couch and settled down with every intention of reading it, when she saw Homer’s smile deepen as he saw her choice.

There was a knock on the door, and Homer went down the stairs and opened the door. Mara heard his pleased voice and then the sound of footsteps, lighter than his, coming up the stairs. She looked up as the door opened to see Lilith standing in the doorway. Mara rose to her feet, fighting the urge fall all over herself to please and show willing adoration to this woman. Lilith smiled at the obstinate expression on Mara’s face. “Very strong-willed. I like that. It makes the subjugation so much more challenging.”

“People know where I am,” Mara warned her, hoping that this was true. “I can’t just disappear without it causing some attention.”

“By the time anyone realizes you are missing, my dear,” Lilith replied, her voice tinged with amusement, “we will be far away from here. Your ability to track me down only proves that I have been in this area too long.” She snapped her fingers, and Carl Williams walked into the room to join her. Lilith put her hand on Carl’s arm and smiled up at him. “I believe this is the young man you were searching for?”

Mara looked Carl over. This was the man she had noticed on the front steps when she had driven up—earlier this afternoon? Yesterday afternoon? The hypnotic trance she had been in had disrupted her sense of time alarmingly. The man smiled at her briefly, standing with unnatural stillness next to Lilith as she petted him, and then his face relaxed into a blank, empty look. Behind that expression, however, Mara sensed...something...being held in check. She turned to glare at Lilith. “What have you done to him? He’s ... ill!”

“You will find out for yourself soon enough,” Lilith replied, smiling back at Mara. The raw hunger in the woman’s gaze made Mara back away involuntarily. “It is not very often that I find people who can withstand my skills for long, Mara. I admire such strength of will. It can be useful to me, when it is in my service. I have decided that you and Homer shall breed for me. Your offspring will have your strength of character, and will be raised to serve me with their father’s devotion. And they will be strong enough to feed me when the need arises, eliminating the necessity for my preying on strangers.” She arched an eyebrow at Mara’s expression. “You do not approve of my plan, child? I should have thought ending my taking of random victims would have pleased you. It really does not matter whether you approve or not. I have decided.” She turned to Carl, and ran her hand up his arm. He looked down at her with a facial expression of absolute devotion...but cold, blank eyes. “Come along, darling. We have to prepare for our joining.”

Mara sank down on the couch and watched as Lilith led her favorite slave away. She began to realize that this woman was even more dangerous than she had first appeared. Something not quite human. Mara knew she had to escape, and if she could, to free Carl Williams a soon as possible, whether he wished it or not. She looked around the room for some weapon she could use, though the thought of harming Homer pained her; he was too obviously one of Lilith’s victims, as well.

Homer returned at that moment. His face was wreathed in an expression of joy, like a child who has just been given the keys to the candy shop. “Mistress Lilith says you are mine now, Mara. That means I can love you...and you can love me. We’re going to have lots of children!” He was clearly delighted. He nodded towards the bedroom. “She says we can get started right away!”

Mara did not move. He came towards her and moved to pick her up. “Stop, Homer,” she cried. He reached for her, and she caught his hand in a wrist lock. His ecstatic expression vanished in a flash of pain, but he easily twisted out of her grip.

He stood there, looking down at her in confusion. “But I just wanted to show you how much I love you,” he said plaintively. “When I first saw you, Mara, I knew that we were meant to be together.” His expression grew dreamy. “An angel sent from Heaven to show this mere mortal the way to Paradise.”

Mara jumped up from the couch and backed away from him. “No, Homer!” she cried. “I am not going to be forced!”

Homer saw the mix of anger and fear in her eyes, and suddenly realized something about Mara. “You’ve been hurt by someone before, haven’t you?” he asked, his voice softening with concern. He reached out gently and lifted he head with his hand, searching her eyes. “Mara, I would never force you to do anything you truly didn’t want to do. I... I care too much about you. But Mistress Lilith...” He stopped in confusion.

Mara could tell that he meant what he said. She could also sense the struggle in the man’s mind over what Lilith had led him to believe, and what he truly wanted. She nodded that she understood, and relief showed in Homer’s eyes. He pulled his hand away, and Mara was surprised at the regret she felt at the withdrawal of his touch. She felt a sudden need to distance herself from the emotions that being near Homer was awakening in her. Or were the emotions genuine, and not planted suggestions by Lilith? She moved to the front window, and looked out over the forested grounds around the carriage house.

As she stood there, trying to sort out her suddenly haphazard feelings, Mara thought she heard the sounds of voices outside. Homer, in his confusion and distress, did not seem to notice. She could barely make out two men standing in the shadows of the trees in the gathering dusk. They saw her standing in the lighted window, and nodded, then moved out of sight. Mara felt her heart lighten as she realized help was on its way.

She jumped as Homer came up behind her and laid his hands on her shoulders, bending his head to nuzzle her neck. Had he seen? But he seemed oblivious to the world outside the window, as he held her with gentleness and genuine affection. In spite of her situation, Mara felt herself warming to Homer’s clear and sincere feelings. He took her by the hand and led her back to the couch

“Tell me about it, Mara,” Homer said as they sat down. “This man, did you know him?”

“I met him my first year of college, " Mara replied after a brief hesitation. “He came on strong from the very beginning, sending me notes, calling me on the ‘phone, following me around campus. I told him I didn’t want to go out with him, but he kept hounding me. When he graduated, I thought it was over.” She looked away, but not before Homer saw the pain these memories caused her. He remained silent, however, allowing Mara to continue at her own pace. “It was halfway through my second year that he came over to my great aunt’s apartment while I was alone there. He wouldn’t leave when I asked him to. I tried to fight him off, but he still managed to force me into the bedroom.” She looked up at Homer then, all her rage and horror and pain evident in her expression. “Despite everything I tried to get him to stop, he raped me! Can you understand now why I won’t let anyone ever force me to do anything against my will again? Not as long as I can do anything to prevent it!”

“Of course I can, Mara,” Homer nodded. He pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to her, longing to wipe away the tears that were flowing down her cheeks with his own hand. “I promise that I won’t rush you, my darling. It’s just having you so close, feeling what I feel about you, I ...”

“What about you, Homer?” Mara changed the subject, uncomfortable with his continued protestation of affection. “How did you come to be here?”

“I ... don’t quite remember,” Homer replied honestly, confusion in his eyes. “It’s like I’ve never been anywhere but here with Mistress Lilith, but that’s not possible, is it?”

“Do you have any memories at all of places and people other than those you know here, Homer?” Mara prodded gently, wanting to know the truth about this man to whom she was strangely attracted. “Of doing anything other than what this woman has told you to do?”

“Sometimes images float through my mind,” Homer admitted, nodding, trying to focus on the fleeting memories. “Of being in a room with young people, of talking to strangers about old stories. But they fade as soon as I try to focus on them.” He looked at her, and Mara felt herself blush in response to the open affection in his eyes. “My one clear thought lately is of you, Mara.” He went over to the bookshelf, and drew out a slim journal bound in red leather. He gave this to her, and smiled. “This will tell you more than I could possibly say.”

Mara picked up the journal, while Homer turned and went into the kitchen. As he busied himself with the dishs, she began to read the poems set there with mounting wonder. They were beautiful creations, expressive, intelligent, full of passion and insight. And, as Homer had said, most of the later ones were about being in love. She had known he was attracted to her. She had sensed that the first time they had met, but the words captured here in this book were of feelings far deeper than mere attraction or regard. Lilith had been correct when she had told Mara that she would learn more about Homer through his writing than through his speech. A thought struck her, and she picked up the book of verse she had started to read when Lilith came in, and compared it to the journal. Mara suddenly realized who Homer had to be.

“Homer,” Mara called as she set the journal down and joined him in the kitchen, “this room where you are with young people. Are you standing at the front, reading or talking to them as they listen?”

Homer frowned and thought about it. “Why, yes!” he nodded as he realized she was right. “Like a ...I was a teacher!” His eyes shown with excitement as he recovered a fragment of his past. “Mara, you’re a wonder! How did you know?”

“One of the persons on the list of the missing was a university professor,” Mara told him simply. “His name was Homer Vargas, and you have one of his books in your library. When I compared the poems in your journal to the ones in his book, it was evident that you had to be the same man.”

“Was that all you gleaned from reading my poems, Mara?” Homer asked her, his expression shifting from the joy of rediscovery to an almost adolescent eagerness.

“Well, no.” Mara looked at the man and knew that she had to be honest with him, and with herself. “I saw into your heart, Homer, and it was terrifying to see the depth of feeling you have towards me. We’ve known each other only a few days...”

“It doesn’t take long for the right two people,” Homer broke in, stepping towards her. He stopped when she backed away. “I’m sorry. I just hope that you’ll see that soon, Mara.” He looked at the clock. “The Mistress has a big night planned. We should get some rest.”

He led her to the bedroom and had her lie down. When he sank down to lie next to her, she pulled away. “It’s all right my angel,” Homer said as he gently but firmly took her in his arms. “Sleep now. I won’t let anyone hurt you.” His free hand moved to stroke her hair. Mara stiffened, but when his touch did not move from her hair, she felt herself relaxing, almost in spite of herself. The thought welled up in her mind of its own volition that with Homer she was safe and protected. She did not know, she reflected, whether that was her own thought, or planted there by Lilith, but even if the later, she had a feeling that it was more true than Lilith realized.

The two vampire hunters slipped back through the trees and rejoined the leaders in the clearing out of sight of the house. Harker, Lt Corwin, Bryan Foster and Mason looked up from the map of the house and grounds they had been poring over. George Williams, further away from the center, stopped cleaning the old Military and Police revolver which had been in the oiled silk bundle he had brought with his kit bag, rose and joined the others.

“Mara Foster is in the Carriage House, apparently guarded by that Homer fellow,” the senior of them reported.

“Show me,” said Bryan, tersely. The scout pointed to the location of the outbuilding on the diagram of the grounds.

“And my son?” inquired Williams.

“He followed the woman out to the Carriage House,” the younger hunter replied. “But she took him back to the Main House.”

Mason gave a snort of satisfaction. “We can move in on the Carriage House from here,” he pointed to an approach concealed by the terrain from observation from the Main House. “If we move quickly and quietly, we can get Miss Foster out of there without anyone being the wiser.”

“There is too much danger that her guard would raise the alarm,” objected Harker. “We must take this Lilith woman completely by surprise. If we give her even a minute to prepare, we risk losing her, and losing the chance to rescue, rather than fight, her servants.”

“Miss Foster’s being held in the second floor apartment,” Harker’s scout informed them. “Above the garage. There appears to be only one way up, through a door at ground level, and up a flight of stairs. There may be another door at the top of the stairs, too.”

“That seems to reduce the possibility that we could get Mara out first without raising an alarm,” Bryan admitted reluctantly.

“My men could get in through one of the windows,” Mason noted. “But not with out waiting to get some equipment,” he conceded.

“Have them go and get it,” Adam suggested. “By the time they get back, we will have worked out a plan using all our personnel. As much as I want to get Mara out, our original goal was to rescue Carl Williams, and we don’t want to get any more people hurt than we absolutely have to.”

“Thank you,” said George Williams, dryly.

As Mason sent some of his men to bring up their surreptitious entry equipment, Harker reminded the others, “Your goal is to rescue your kin. Mine is to take out this dangerous creature, and liberate all her victims.”

Adam paired one of Mason’s men with one of Harker’s scouts, and sent them back to keep an eye on the Carriage House. Other teams were already watching the estate from all sides. He, Mason and Harker turned back to planning the operation, positioning teams to invade at all possible points of entry, and to cover all possible routes of escape. Harker and Mason both proved suspiciously well prepared for forcible entry: folding ladders, kevlar mats, battering rams, as well as lock picks and skeleton keys. The vampire hunter and the private investigator regarded each other with new professional respect, which increased when Harker revealed, “Of course I have my own medics with me,” he pointed out, with a twinkle in his eye. “I can hardly call the local Rescue Squad to treat werewolf bites gotten while breaking into a family crypt, or splinters from smashing open a coffin.”

After 11, as they were putting the final touches on their preparations, the radio man interrupted them, “Chief, Trent says that some one just came out from the Main House to the Carriage House. He says Johnny says to tell Mr. Harker that it was Julia.”

“Julia,” Harker exclaimed softly, while around the command post, his operatives stopped what they were doing and stiffened into postures of attentiveness, their faces expressing alarm and anger...and fear. “One of my agents, gentlemen,” he explained to Bryan, Adam and Mason. “She has been missing for a few weeks.”

“Julia Jameson,” nodded Adam Corwin. “You reported her missing in this area.”

“Now we know what happened to her,” Harker said grimly. “I trust this serves to remind everyone of the dangers we face going up against this woman. She has powers of Mind Control greater than any I have ever encountered.” He turned his gaze on Mason’s men and George Williams. “And also that the people we are opposing tonight, save Lilith Preston herself, are not our enemies to be harmed, but victims to be rescued.”

Williams met his look with a steady glare of his own, as if to say, just so long as they don’t try to stop me from getting my son back.

The radio operator spoke up again. “Now they are all leaving the Carriage House and going back up to the Main House. Mara and Julia are wearing some kind of robes, Trent says.”

“That tears it!” Adam exclaimed. “It won’t be possible to rescue her separately, now. And obviously, something is about to happen. We have got to go now!”

“Now, we have to be more careful than ever,” Mason objected. “If Ms. Jameson is and has been their captive all this time, we should expect them to anticipate our actions. We need more information!”

“How sensitive are those little radios?” Bryan asked. “Could I carry one in my pocket, set to transmit only, and you would hear what I was saying and what I could hear?”

“They’re not as good as a proper ‘wire’,” Mason replied, “but they should work.”

“Then I propose that Adam and I go directly to the front door and knock,” Bryan said. The others looked at him as if he were crazy. “What could be more natural. My sister is missing, after going off to look for a kidnapper. I am canvassing the neighborhood where she was known to be headed, with the assistance of our mutual friend, Lt. Corwin of the State Police, to find out if anyone has seen her. We have the radios in our pockets sending you all everything we hear. We provide a distraction, and we may even get inside where we can move quickly to Mara’s—or Carl’s—aid should the opportunity arise.”

“It’s dangerous,” opined Adam. “This Preston woman might capture us. But I’ll do it.”

Mason regarded them with the mixed respect and astonishment reserved for volunteers for suicide missions. “Okay. Let’s get to it.”

Homer and Julie led Mara to the main house soon after 11 pm, wearing the simple brown, robe-like dress that Julie had brought out. They brought her into the living room, where the other servants were congregating. Even her cousin Edward stood in the back near the door which connected the living room to the dining room. Homer led her to the front of the group where Lilith stood with Carl at her side. She wondered again what the woman could have done to him in a month to make him so tired and aged. Homer forced her to her knees in front of Lilith, who smiled at her handy-man with intense delight. Carl looked at Mara, a puzzled frown on his face. “You’re the girl I saw in the guest house,” he said as he remembered. “Are you among Her followers now?”

“Not if I can help it,” Mara snapped back, her anger taking Carl by surprise. He felt an answering echo of her emotion in his own mind, and clung to it as a parent would to its lost child. Mara leaned towards him. “You have to fight her, Carl, until our friends can get us out of here!” Mara could sense the man trying to break free of the hold that Lilith had over him. She was pulled back by Homer.

Lilith stepped forward and spread her arms wide, as if embracing everyone in the room. She smiled radiantly. If Mara had not felt the woman’s evil from the very beginning, she knew even she would have been caught by that majesty, that dark beauty. Even though she was not enthralled like the others, she was having a hard time not falling face down and worshiping her.

Lilith looked down at Mara, and cupped her chin in her hand, forcing her to look up into her eyes. She noted the rebellion in the younger women’s eyes. “Still not quite broken, are you, girl?” She looked over at Homer. “Though I am certain that Homer is enjoying having you as his mate.” She did not see the dismay cross his face at her crudity as she looked back to Mara. “You have gone to a lot of trouble to find my beloved, Miss Foster. It is only right that you be a witness to his total surrender, as he joins with me completely and for ever!”

“Tonight is the night we create the next generation of Mistress and of servant,” Lilith announced to her followers in her sultry voice. Her need to reproduce, and the hunger that this drive aroused was like a fire in her blood. She looked over at Carl. She could feel his anger, held in check by her will alone. She nodded to a woman standing nearby, and the woman brought a goblet forward and presented it to Carl. He struggled to refuse, but Lilith fixed her eyes on him, and he took it and lifted it to his lips. At that moment, the doorbell rang. The spell was broken. Mara lurched up and forward, and knocked the goblet from Carl’s hands. Lilith grabbed her by the arm, and placed her fingers over her lips. Suddenly, Mara could neither move nor speak.

Lilith released Mara, and spoke to Homer, “Take her into the dining room and keep her silent. Julie, clean up this mess. The rest of you, into the dining room.” Homer drew Mara through a connecting door into the next room, and made her sit down at the dining room table. He sat down next to her, his expression serious as he faced her. “Don’t do anything to displease Mistress Lilith, Mara. She would have to punish you and that would pain me.” He stroked her hair, and looked hurt as Mara tried to pull away. He covered her mouth with his hand, as the voices of Adam and Bryan came filtering in from the other rooms “Quiet now, my angel.”

“Welcome to my home, gentlemen,” they heard Lilith say in her warmest, sultriest voice. “How can I help you?”

“My name is Bryan Foster, Ms. Preston.” Mara’s heart leapt with hope on hearing her brother’s voice. “This is Lt. Adam Corwin of the Virginia State Police. We are looking for my sister, Mara. We understand from the Sheriff that she was meaning to visit with you in connection with a case she was working on.”

“She was here,” Lilith replied, seeing no reason to lie about that. “But I am afraid I was not much help to her. She left here late this afternoon. Nothing has happened to her, I hope. She seemed such a capable woman.”

“Did she say where she was headed next?” Adam asked, impatient with the need for subterfuge. He wanted to get his friend Mara and Carl Williams and get them out of here. His every nerve ending, sensitized by years of police work, was screaming ‘danger’. “It’s imperative that we speak to her soon.”

“I do not think so,” Lilith replied, a trifle annoyed at the Lieutenant’s persistence. She picked up a bell and rang it. Julie appeared in the doorway. “Julie, when Miss Foster left us this afternoon, did she say where she was going?” Harker’s former assistant shook her head. Lilith turned back to her visitors, “I am sorry I cannot be of more help, gentlemen, but Miss Foster appears not to have been very vocal about what she was doing.” She smiled at the two men as she rose from the couch, the black satin of her dress caressing her body lovingly. Both Adam and Bryan found their eyes caught by the play of light on the shiny dark material, and her smile deepened. “If she returns, I will tell her that you were asking about her, shall I?” she purred. It would not be hard to take them both right now, she thought, but things are complicated enough already. “That will be all, for now,” she finished. It was not a question. Adam and Bryan rose and turned to leave, knowing they had been dismissed. Mara choose that moment to kick out at the dining room table, sending the centerpiece crashing to the floor.

In the dining room, Edward took charge. He grabbed Mara and Carl, and shoved them towards a door way concealed in the paneling. “Downstairs! Homer, take them downstairs, quickly! Women into the kitchen, men, guard the doors!” When Lilith rushed in from the living room, with Adam and Bryan in close pursuit, the servants jumped the men, and a struggle began. Lilith darted through the room to the panel leading to the stairs.

Outside, Mason thumbed the talk switch on his radio. “Go! Now! Go!” The sound of breaking glass and splintering wood rended the frosty mountain stillness.

Inside the house, confusion reigned as dark clothed figures of men and women crashed through the doors and windows. Where they encountered Lilith’s servants, the struggle was brief, as the invaders expertly wielded a variety of non-lethal, incapacitating weapons.

Below, in the basement room, Mara saw a door leading to another part of the basement and another set of stairs leading up. She broke Homer’s grip on her arm easily, and struck a blow which sent both Homer and Carl to the floor. She yanked Carl to his feet. He seemed dazed, like a man just waking from a dream, as yet unsure which was the dream, and which reality, but his eyes were clearing rapidly. Mara pulled him towards the opposite stairway. Lilith and Edward descended from the dining room as they ran.

“Stop them!” Lilith screamed as she watched her chosen one running off. Edward crossed the room in a bound, and caught Mara by the hair. She pushed Carl forward. “Keep going, Carl! You’re the one she needs.” Edward pulled Mara down the stairs, and shoved her to fall at Lilith’s feet. She pulled Mara up to her knees, her grip in the younger woman’s hair. She then jerked Mara to her feet, and turned her around to face the stairs, her hand tight on Mara’s throat. Carl stood at the top of the stairs. “Now Carl,” Lilith said, her voice hardly disturbed by the excitement and activity, “You know you do not want to be responsible for this woman’s death. Be a good boy and come back down.”

“NO, Carl, don’t listen to her!” Mara cried out. “Run! Find the others and get out of here while you can!” Carl looked at Lilith and then at Mara. He knew Lilith was not bluffing, but he was equally aware of what awaited him if he let Lilith take him again. He looked around frantically. On the landing in front of the door, there was a small statue on a pedestal. All his anger and frustration came to the fore as he grabbed it and threw it directly at Lilith. Homer, just getting back to his feet, cried out in fear and dismay at seeing his goddess attacked. Edward dove to catch the missile, and knocked Lilith to the floor. In the confusion, Lilith released Mara, who scrambled to her feet, and yelled up at Carl. “Go! NOW!! Don’t worry about me!” She started towards the stairs, seeing that Carl was headed out the door at the top. She was halfway up herself, when Homer caught her and dragged her back to Lilith. The succubus’s eyes blazed with more than human anger. “You will pay for your interference, girl!”

Carl rushed through the door into a hallway in the servants’ quarters of the mansion. Three figures grabbed him: a tall middle aged man in an inverness cape, an even taller young man in a chauffeur’s leather livery, and ... his father? “Dad!” Carl exclaimed. “Quick, down here! They’ve got the Foster girl.” He turned to go back down into the basement.

“Don’t be a fool!” Harker snapped as he and his son restrained Carl. “We have everything well in hand. She won’t be harmed.” Mara’s scream as Edward forced her to the floor seemed to belie Harker’s word’s. Carl started back for the door. Harker caught Carl’s arm and shoved him to Baxter, who held him firmly.

Carl was outraged. “You can’t let that witch harm the girl! You don’t understand what she is capable of!”

“We understand exactly what she’s capable of, young man,” Harker replied, rounding on Carl, his steel grey eyes blazing with anger. “Are you really that eager to die?”

“Maybe we better let them handle it, son,” George Williams said.

Carl quieted for a moment, and Harker believed the argument won. But as he turned to speak to his son, Mara screamed again, and Carl struck out sending the two vampire hunters flying. He dashed back to the top of the stairs, and paused as he saw Edward raise his hand to cuff his cousin. Lilith was reaching out hungrily for Mara’s face as the younger woman struggled to avoid looking directly at her. “Am I really that easy to replace, Lilith?” Carl snarled as he came down the stairs slowly. Lilith turned towards him, her eyes hot with passion and need. “Let the girl go, and I’ll do what you ask of me.”

“No, Carl,” Mara cried. “You can’t. The moment she has the upper hand, she’ll forget any promises she’s made. The others will be here any second...”

“Others?” Lilith repeated, fixing her eyes on Carl. “There are no others for you, my darling. Come with us. Edward, bring the girl. What others...?”

The report of the .38 was ear-splitting in that confined space. The bullet struck the floor just beyond Edward Foster as he dragged Mara towards the door in the side wall. “Me, for one,” said a grim George Williams from the top of the stairs.

Lilith grimaced. Everything was unraveling. “Homer! Edward! come with me! Bring the girl!” They could hear the sounds of the fighting throughout the house, as servant after servant was overcome by Harker’s and Mason’s men. Mara tried to fight, but Homer picked her up and carried her. Lilith led them through the door, which turned out to be thick, armored, and airtight. Edward slammed it shut, and threw a lever which locked it as solidly as a bank vault. Homer set Mara down, and Lilith shoved her to the floor, bending over her.

“You have caused me a great deal of trouble, Mara, but you shall not escape me.” She placed both of her hands on either side of Mara’s head, forcing the younger woman to look up at her. “If I cannot breed, then I must appease my hunger. And you will be the one to feed me.” Her voice grew soft and dreamlike, her gaze compelling. Mara felt her self control weakening. “It is time for you to pay for what you robbed me of.” Her gaze intensified, and she began stroking Mara’s hair. She hummed a strange tune, which tunneled into Mara’s mind and washed over her will like a flood. Mara was swept along with the music, helpless to resist. “That is right, child,” Lilith’s voice came along the flood, warm and safe. “Let me take control. Let go of the struggle, the worry, the decisions ...With me, you will know only pleasure.” Mara tried to reassert her self, her sense of personal individuality, but Lilith sensed her efforts and increased the intensity of her spell-binding tone. “Pleasure, Mara ...and no more decisions. Only warmth and love ... warmth and love ... and pleasure...” She moved one hand to Mara’s breast, and began caressing her nipple through the thin fabric. Mara gasped as she felt a bud of pleasure open inside her, growing and filling her with an intensity that was frightening and beautiful at the same time. For a moment, she continued to try and fight off the sensations, but the words, the music, the pleasure, all combined and she found she was helpless to resist ... she no longer wanted to resist. “That’s right, child,” Lilith crooned as her hand stoked Mara’s breast slowly, gently, lovingly. “Let the pleasure ... the warmth ... the love ... pull you towards me...”

Mara felt herself being drawn along the flow of music and pleasure. As her emotional energy built and focused on Lilith, she felt it being drained out of her. She felt Lilith feeding on her life force, the sound of her voice encouraging and exciting her. It was as if her vitality was being sucked out through her eyes. She tried to pull away, but she could not. She cried out weakly as she felt herself slowly dying, dying of pleasure.

Then there was a break. The pull on her very essence snapped, and with the interruption, pain and such a sensation of loss! She looked up through pain-clouded eyes to see Homer pulling Lilith off of her, his face confused and dismayed, his eyes filled with concern and anguish. “Mistress, stop! You’ll kill her! You promised...”

In the throes of a feeding frenzy, Lilith turned on Homer, unable to stop herself. She seized his face in her hands, locked her hungry gaze on his, and forced him to his knees. Homer’s body went slack, and his face relaxed into an expression of ecstasy.

“No! Homer, don’t!” Mara cried out as she got woozily to her feet, her head spinning, her body weak from what she had gone through. She staggered towards them, thinking to break them apart, but Edward held her back. “Edward, please! Let me go! She’s going to kill him!”

Homer was far too deep under Lilith’s spell to heed Mara’s warning. His cries of joy at being able to once again serve his beloved Mistress slowly became weak cries of terror as Lilith fed. He tried to pull away then, but it was too late. His body went completely limp as Lilith drained him, only her grip on his face holding him up. Then she released him, and he sagged bonelessly to the floor. Mara looked down at him lying there with tears streaming down her face. She could see no signs of him breathing.

Lilith rose, mixed emotions chasing themselves across her face. Satisfaction, even satiation, was replaced with horror as she saw exactly on whom she had been feeding. Anger replaced the horror as she turned to Mara. She cupped Mara’s chin roughly, and glared at her with eyes that were cold and hard, yet filled with remorse. “He was a devoted slave to me, girl. You are going to have to be more than very good to replace him. You are going to have to pay for this. The next stud I find to breed you with will make you hurt! It’s time we were leaving, Edward. Bring her!”

Edward grasped Mara in a come along hold, and dragged her to the wall. Behind some paneling, another door led into a hidden tunnel. Lilith led the way into the passage. “Interesting, is it not? I did not even have to build it. It dates from your Civil War. This house was built on the foundations of an even older one,” she commented as they hurried down the shaft. “The Stumps were partisans, during the War,” Edward added. “Capt’in Stump probably dodged Yankee patrols this way more than once.” “The electric lights were my idea,” Lilith finished. “As was the armored door. It will be a while before your friends can follow us.”

Outside in the basement, Carl and George Williams tried to force the thick strong room door, without success. Leonard and Baxter Harker joined them, but even their additional strength made no impression. Adam and Bryan, slightly disheveled, emerged at the door to the dining room, and hurried down to add their efforts as well, still to no avail. “I doesn’t make any sense,” Adam exclaimed in frustration, “that they would lock themselves in a dead end!”

“Wait a minute!” Bryan said. “This house used to belong to the Stump family. It was built on the site of an older house, which was burned during the War Between the States.” The others looked askance at him, wondering what was the point of this history lesson. “You see, Cap’in Stump was a Partisan Ranger, a guerilla. He had a bolt hole, a tunnel out of his house in case he was cornered by the Union cavalry. Local legend has it that he escaped that way a number of times, when the Federals thought they had him surrounded in his home.” He grew excited. “When we were kids, we sometimes used to play in a sort of a vegetable cellar, which the local kids claimed was the place where the tunnel came out. It was only a little ways downhill from here. Where’s that map?”

“Mason has it!” Adam exclaimed. “Let’s go!” He reached into his pocket, and pulled out the small hand-held radio. “Mason, do you copy? Suspects will be emerging from a tunnel about ...” he looked at Bryan.

“One ... two hundred yards.” Bryan stated. “Downhill, towards town.”

“It’s Lilith, the Sheriff, Homer, and they’ve got Mara,” George added.

“Make that the female suspect, two male suspects, and Mara as a hostage, coming out of a tunnel between one and two hundred meters ... east of the Main House. Intercept, and apprehend if it can be done without risk to Miss Foster.” He slipped the radio back in his pocket. “Let’s move!” He started up the stairs. Carl and George followed. Harker turned to his son.

“Baxter, get a couple of good men, and keep trying to get this door open. Don’t let anyone get back in this way ... except us, of course.” Then he hurried after the others.

Lilith, Edward and Mara came out into the forest a couple of hundred yards from the Main House. Edward’s foot caught on a root, and he lost his balance. Mara twisted free, and turned to get away, but she was still weak and slow from the experience of having Lilith steal her life force. Lilith reached out and grabbed her by the throat. “You belong to me now, Mara! There is no escape for you!” Mara struggled feebly to break her grip, but Lilith dragged her down a path, to where a van was parked on a dirt trail. Edward followed, and when they reached the van, ‘cuffed Mara’s wrists behind her, and shoved her roughly into the back, face down and helpless. Lilith took the passenger seat in front.

“We need to get out of here now!” Edward said in alarm, as he heard the sound of voices, and men crashing downhill through the brush. He could see flashlights shining back in the direction of the house, but coming closer. “Mistress, do we really need to bring her with us?” With Mara in the van, he knew, Adam Corwin would have all the excuse he needed to call in the State Troopers and have them stopped.

“I need someone to feed on until we can collect the others,” Lilith snapped back impatiently. “Would you rather I used you?” Edward shook his head, and she frowned darkly. “I thought not. Get in and drive to the airport.”

Edward turned to go around to the driver’s seat, when Adam emerged from the brush and grabbed him, sending them both crashing downhill into the bushes. Adam returned first, and reached into the back of the van to pull Mara out. Edward, bleeding from a cut to his scalp, staggered back onto the trail, his gun in his hand. He struck Adam over the head, and shoved Mara’s would be rescuer into the van beside her.

“How nice,” commented Lilith. “Another volunteer.”

Edward all but fell into the driver’s seat, started the van, and headed down the narrow trail much faster than was safe in the dark. When he hit the main road, he turned East, and headed down the mountain with his passenger and hostages.

Back up the hill, nearer the house, Carl and the others heard the van start off down the dirt road. While Harker and Bryan and some of the others dashed madly through the woods in the hope of intercepting the escaping vehicle, Carl grabbed Mason. “The cars? Where are your cars?”

Phil Mason got the point immediately. “Allen! RC! Bring the cars around. Sparks, have a couple of men meet us at the entrance to the drive,” he barked into his radio. He turned and retraced his steps up to the drive, then down the drive to the main road.

At the trail, Bryan led Harker to the path up to the ‘vegetable cellar,’ which had proved to be the escape hatch local legend had always insisted it was. The lights from the tunnel could be seen through the half-open door, evidence of the haste in which Lilith had exited.

Harker turned to those of his operatives who were with them, “Johnny, and Susan, isn’t it?” he said, addressing one of the figures who had acted as a scout and a young woman carrying a medic’s bag. “Go back up to the house through this tunnel and let Baxter and the others in. Tell him to get the car. We must pursue this Lilith person at once. She must not escape!” As they started into the tunnel, he stopped Johnny. “I do not have to tell you to be careful. She may have left a rear guard.” The younger man nodded grimly.

“Well, Mr. Foster,” he said to Bryan. “We seem to have rescued Carl Williams for you, only to lose your sister. Come with me, and we will see if we cannot save her, and end this horror as well.” They began the climb back up to the house.

Edward drove recklessly down the mountain, not realizing that Harker, Mason and Carl were already in pursuit. They reached Cider Mill Rd. and turned south, continuing until they reached the Birch Hollow Airpark. Lilith climbed out of the van, and approached the man working behind the office desk. Seeing her, he rose to his feet, bowing his head in deference. “Mistress,” he exclaimed. “How may I serve you?”

Lilith smiled briefly at the man’s adoration. “Is the plane ready?”

“No, Mistress,” he replied in distress. “We did not expect you until morning. The pilot is here, and the ground crew is preparing it, but strictly speaking, night flights are not supposed to originate here.”

He took out a flashlight, and led her to the hanger, Edward driving the van slowly along behind. Inside the hanger, a ground crew was performing the pre-flight maintenance on a Cesna Skymaster under the direction of the pilot. “This will do nicely,” Lilith smiled at the field master, when he indicated the aircraft. She ran her hand along his arm. “How long will it be?”

“Not until first light,” the pilot spoke up. “It would be too dangerous to try to take off until then.”

Lilith returned to the van and watched as Edward secured the still unconscious Adam. He had moved Mara to a sitting position, and fastened her hands behind her to the seat supports. Mara looked up at her captor coldly. “Why can’t you admit that you’ve lost?”

“Because I haven’t, my dear,” Lilith laughed as she looked over her prisoners, though the laughter was a trifle forced. “I am alive, and I have slaves. I am prepared to begin anew somewhere else.” She regarded Adam. “Perhaps I will even let you watch as I chain this one’s mind to my will.” She saw Mara’s expression, and her smile grew wider, but even colder. “You have feelings for this one, don’t you? How sweet!” She turned to Edward and the pilot. “We will leave as soon as the plane is ready.”

“I think they might have something to say about that, Mistress,” the Sheriff replied, nodding towards the door of the hanger.

Back in Lilith’s basement strong room, Johnny threw the lever which released the sealed door. Baxter Harker and another of the vampire hunters were visible standing back from the entrance, stun guns ready. They relaxed slightly on seeing their teammates, and a third stepped into view from where he had been concealed beside the doorway.

“Your father says to get the car, and bring it to the front,” Johnny reported to Baxter, who nodded and hurried from the basement.

Susan spoke from where she was bent over Homer’s still form. “This guy is still alive...barely. Get a stretcher!”

The Williamses and Phil Mason, with some of his operatives, reached the foot of the drive about the same time that RC brought one of the cars to that point. He threw open the drivers door and called, “Allen is bringing another car, and Harker’s people have an ambulance right behind me!” Even as he spoke, a van with medical emergency vehicle markings swerved around the car and headed up the drive. Harker, Bryan Foster and some of Harker’s team could be seen stepping out of the way of the ambulance and then continuing down the drive towards the entrance.

“Max, you drive. RC, take the radio. Jack, in the back with me,” Mason snapped out orders to his men.

“I’m coming too!” insisted Carl.

“No, Mr. Williams,” Mason replied. “This operation was staged to rescue you. I’m not taking you back into danger.”

“But I know where they’re going!” Carl replied heatedly. “Dad, give me the gun.” George Williams looked doubtfully at his son. He was not behaving rationally. He should want to get as far away from that woman as possible, not go after her.

“Where?” asked Mason, shortly.

“Tell you in the car,” Carl snapped back. He held out his hand to his father. George reluctantly gave him the revolver. A couple of Mason’s men loomed significantly around them, as Leonard Harker, with Bryan Foster and Harker’s followers hurried up.

“There is not time for this!” Harker snapped. “If we are to rescue Miss Mara, and catch Lilith, we must move quickly! Where do you think they are going, young man?”

“Lilith had been making preparations to fly out,” Carl replied, as he retrieved a box of cartridges from his father, checked the cylinder, and replaced the expended round. “There’s a little airfield near here somewhere, and she owns a plane.”

“Birch Hollow Airpark!” exclaimed Bryan. “I remember where that is. Let’s go!” He jumped into the back of Mason’s car, dragging the Private Detective in with him. Max the driver, and RC the radio operator followed, and before anyone else could move, the big sedan sped off down the road.

“Well, Mr. Williams,” said Leonard Harker. “While we are waiting for my car, perhaps you would explain why you want to follow Ms. Preston so avidly.”

“She fucked with my mind!“ Carl blazed forth. “She treated me like a pet, some kind of lapdog! She was sucking my very life from me, and I ... I could tell ... when she did that to me ... I could see into her mind ... I could see she had done it before, to lots of men ... and women. And she’ll do it again. She has to be stopped! If I have to kill her!”

“Who has the better right,” mused Harker, as his son pulled the limo up alongside of them. “All right, Carl, get in, and you too Mr. Williams, and Craig,” he designated one of his hunting team, “and one of Mr. Mason’s men. Do you have a radio with which to contact your employer, young man? Good. Now, Carl, where is this airfield?”

Lilith looked out the door of the hanger, where Sheriff Edward Foster indicated. Two cars pulled onto the taxi-way and were coming towards the hanger. They pulled up short of the fan of light coming from the open door, and six or eight figures emerged and spread out. The airpark manager, the pilot and the two mechanics moved forward to confront them. There was a brief scuffle, then the men from the cars continued advancing. Edward stepped forward, his hand on his gun. “You fellows hold it right there...” he began.

“Give it up, Foster,” came the weary voice of Adam from the back of the van. His tone shifted to an official, clipped delivery, “Edward Foster, Lilith Preston, you are under arrest for kidnapping and suspicion of murder. You have the right to remain silent, but anything you say can and will be used against you...”

“Shut up!” Edward exclaimed, drawing his gun. The combined team of Harker’s and Mason’s men outside stopped. “Mistress Lilith, get in the van.” He backed towards the driver’s side of the vehicle.

“Drop your gun, Sheriff,” came Carl’s voice from behind them. At the same time, the springs on the van creaked as someone entered it from the rear and went to the aid of Adam and Mara inside.

Lilith turned, and saw Carl standing near the rear of the van. An open door in the back of the hanger indicated where he had come in. Her eyes turned cold as she stepped towards him. Carl squared his shoulders and faced her, steeled by his freed anger and frustration. Lilith noted his demeanor; she sensed that she had lost some of the control she had held over him. She composed her features, and spoke in in a warm voice as she approached him. “You can come with me, Carl. Think of all the time we’ve spent together. The loving, the shared warmth...”

“You stole my life from me, you bitch!!” Carl cried out, bringing up the gun he had gotten from his father. Lilith saw the look in his eyes, and dodged as he fired. His bullet missed, although the shot brought Edward around, and sent the approaching vampire hunters diving for the ground. Edward shot Carl as he turned, and then staggered to the driver’s side door and scrambled in. Carl fell to the ground with a cry, but scrabbled for his gun and struggled to rise. Lilith ran back to the passenger door, as Edward started the engine. Harker’s man, Craig, who had been working to free Adam, reached over the back seat to grapple with Edward. Carl grabbed the back door of the van and pulled himself into the back. Lilith watched incredulously as he got shakily to his feet. “You’re going to stop this now, Lilith!” Carl said coldly, raising his gun again. “Tell the Sheriff to turn off the engine.”

Lilith merely stared at him, and Carl felt the draw of her will like an invisible leash. He began to waver, his self-control still far too tenuous over his own mind. As he lowered the gun, Mara cried out, “No, Carl...” Adam finished extracting himself from his bonds, and grabbed the gun from him. At that moment, there was the muffled report of the Sheriff’s pistol, and with a curse, Craig fell back away from where he had been attempting to restrain Edward Foster. He stumbled into Adam and Carl, and the three of them tumbled out of the back of the van in a heap.

Carl climbed to his feet first. “You know you want to come with me, carl,” he heard Lilith say in a low, seductive voice as she attempted to regain control of his mind. “We can start all over again, just the two of us.” Adam, too, stood, still holding the old revolver. Lilith looked over at him. “Your friend could join us. I would give him Mara as his companion.” Adam reached out and gripped Carl’s wounded shoulder, tightening his fingers on it until the pain penetrated Carl’s mind, and he turned his head and looked at him. “You know you don’t really want to lose to her, Carl. She means to kill you.” Carl’s expression came back to life, and he felt Lilith’s control weaken again. He stepped back away from the van.

The engine roared as Edward put the van in gear and floored the accelerator. Harker’s and Mason’s men jumped from in front of it as they sped back down the taxi-way and careened around the corner and out the gate.

“They’re getting away,” someone cried in dismay.

“They won’t go far,” Craig gritted through clenched teeth. “The Sheriff shot me through his own shoulder. The bastard must be bleeding as bad as I am. Can somebody call a medic?”

“Now I can call the State Police,” said Adam. “We can have roadblocks on all roads around here in no time. Although,” he went on musingly, “I have no idea how I’m going to explain this night’s work to my Captain.”

The State police found Mara wandering on the verge of Harpers Ferry Road, unable to speak, her mind completely numb. She was taken to the county hospital, where the doctors could find no physical cause of her condition. Save for a few bruises and scrapes, she was not injured physically. Harker’s ambulance picked her up the next day, over the emergency room physician’s objections, and moved her to the clinic maintained by Harker’s group for their ‘special cases.’

Mason’s team found the van. It was driven off the edge of a gully by the side of Harpers Ferry Road. Sheriff Edward Foster was still seat belted into the driver’s seat, which was saturated with his blood. They never could tell whether it was the bleeding from the self-inflicted gunshot wound, or the wreck which killed him. Lilith was no where to be found. Harker, for one, was not surprised.

Less than 24 hours after the raid, it was as if it had never happened. Lilith was now a wanted fugitive, with warrants out for her arrest in the cases of some mysterious disappearances over the last eight years, but not nearly as many as had been feared only the day before. Several of the previously ‘missing’ were now patients at Harkers special clinic, as was Mara Foster.

Mara’s brothers and Adam Corwin stood in her room. Jeffery sat down on the bed and took Mara’s hands in his own, his eyes looking into hers anxiously. Her face was expressionless, her gaze, sightless. “Mara? Can you hear me?” Mara continued to stare straight ahead. “Please, kitten. We need you to come back to us.”

Harker entered, accompanied by a young nurse, who efficiently checked Mara’s vital signs. She nodded to the older man, and left. “Well, gentlemen,” Harker said in a quiet voice where weariness and relief contended for prominence, “she is going to be all right. Lilith tried to drain her, and her elan vital was dangerously low, but she is very strong. A quite remarkable young woman, indeed, and very, very lucky.”

“Why is she like this?” asked Bryan. “Why doesn’t she speak?”

“She has had an exhausting experience,” Harker reminded them gently. “And an emotionally traumatic one. She was an independent, strong—minded person, yet she found herself, her actions, even her thoughts and feelings to be but clay in the hands of that monster. She will need a great deal of rest to recover from the physical strain of having her life energy stolen from her, and she will go through a painful period of self—evaluation as she deals with the memory of how her will and self were violated. Yet, I shouldn’t wonder if she does not come out of this stronger than she was before. ‘That which does not kill us...’ as that horrible man Nietzsche said...”

“... had better be able to run away pretty damn fast!” finished Bryan Foster, grimly.

Mara remained locked in her silence for several days, her mind replaying the sight of Homer coming to her rescue like an avenging angel. She knew her brothers were with her, but she couldn’t seem to focus on anything except the fact that the man had given his life for her. She recalled to memory over and over the words Lilith had snarled at her before she had been dumped on the roadside: “You must join him, Mara. You were his life, you must be with him in death!” She knew that Lilith had meant for her to turn to despair at these words, and to seek to end her life, to be with Homer. Instead, Mara reacted in a manner totally opposite from what Lilith had intended. Grief and despair turned to rage, and a vow. If it meant her own life, she would make Lilith pay. She would avenge Homer for his selfless sacrifice.

On the third morning, Mara opened her eyes, and sat up in bed. Her mind was clear, her path even clearer. She looked around the room for a moment, seeing her brothers around her. She smiled at the relief on their faces. Stephen went to the door, and called to the nurse, “She’s awake!”

Before any of them could speak to her, she asked, “Did you think I was going to let that woman win? She murdered Homer. He tried to save my life, and she...” A sob broke though her speech. Jeffery reached for her, and held her as she cried. Harker and a nurse entered quietly, and stood by the bed. Mara quieted after a while, and pulled free of her brother’s embrace. “She killed Homer as she tried to kill me. She has to be made to pay for what she did, Jeffery!” Rage blazed in her eyes now, displacing the sorrow. “She murdered a man for trying to save my life!”

“Mara, Homer...” Jeffery began, but stopped at a gesture from Leonard Harker.

The nurse stepped forward. “I think you should leave her alone now, gentlemen. She still needs to rest. Perhaps only one of you should be in here at a time.” She handed Mara a pill and a cup of water, and shooed them all out of the room.

Jeffery turned to Harker as they stepped into the hall. “I suppose you will explain to me why you stopped me from telling her that Homer Vargas is alive, and in this very clinic?”

“Prof. Vargas is still very weak,” Harker stated calmly. “His recovery is by no means as sure as Miss Foster’s. Besides, when he recovers, if he does, what will he be? A vegetable? His old self, remembering nothing of his service under Lilith’s spell, and consequently nothing of your sister? Or perhaps still Lilith’s creature, still under her spell? We do not know. Until we do, I believe it is better that Mara does not know he is alive. After all, the man she knew may be as departed as if his life had ended.”

“Jeffery!” they heard Mara call. The eldest Foster brother and Harker re-entered the room. “I want you to find that monster! Do you understand? And I want to be there when she is run to earth. I will make her pay for murdering Homer!”