TAKER
by trilby else (trilelse@mail.anonymizer.com)
PART FOUR
13.
“The breeze is blowing cool, so cool.” Holly said it so softly Petra barely heard her, even next to her here on the sofa.
Deep in the cushions, head tipped back, Holly’s upturned eyes were closed. She saw only the safe, peaceful garden where she’d let Mistress lead her.
Petra and Bree sat on either side, one of Holly’s arms hanging limp as a garland from the hand each one held. The closeness was Mistress’ idea: She always wanted Her subjects to know She couldn’t whisper anything their friends didn’t hear.
Petra heard very little. As soon as She began instructing Holly, Petra lost track of Her words. She only needed to make Holly feel safe—not actually listen. Mistress wasn’t speaking to Her slaves.
Holly must be hypnotized.
The imperative pulsed in her mind. Reality was Holly, relaxed beside her.
Trusting Petra and Bree. Being taught to trust Her.
If Petra weren’t already Mistress’ slave, Her low, controlling voice would have put her to sleep right beside Holly. Helping Holly surrender to Her felt gentle—nothing like capturing disobedients in the chaos of the Taking.
Or even like holding Kirsty down in the car until the mind-damper flatlined her will.
Mistress faced the sofa, in a wing chair they’d moved for Her. “What happens, Holly,” She asked very softly, “when the cool breeze blows?”
“I go deeper to sleep.” It was a weird turn-on seeing Holly as the bright student again—eyes closed now, learning only to sleep and listen.
Her leg was relaxed against Petra’s. Motionless. Not like Kirsty’s taut thrash.
Something twisted in Petra—but not tightly. It was hot to watch Holly succumb and so warm to see how gently Mistress lulled her and so cool to glimpse how empty Bree’s eyes were.
Holly’d been a superb subject. Petra had heard intelligent people made the best ones, and her friend was very smart. The smart Angel. With her friends alert beside her, she’d relaxed and cooperated with each suggestion Mistress gave her.
Holly was very deeply hypnotized now.
“Why does it send you so deep, so deep, to sleep?” As Mistress spoke, Holly’s breathing fell into Her lullaby cadence.
“Because you’ve hypnotized me.” She confessed it like a child certain of forgiveness and happy to be caught.
“Very good,” Mistress assured her. Her purr licked Petra’s slit. “You learn so well, Holly. It makes me want to teach you more. Would you like to learn more?”
“Yes, please.” Holly beamed.
Holly had let herself be taken much deeper than she’d agreed when they started. Petra knew it, and knew Mistress had brainwashed her to help.
“Let’s see how well you remember, Holly. Try for me now.”
“Yes.” Holly’s hand stiffened in Petra’s and her arms strained as she attempted to lever herself upright. Her head stayed back and her eyes shut, and her face only flickered effort.
She kept smiling.
“When I try, I only fail and get tired,” she recited. “When I try . . . I can’t.”
“How does that feel, Holly?”
“Nice.” Holly sounded just like Mistress, when She’d put the word in Holly’s thoughts.
“You will remember that—”
“—even when I forget,” Holly finished, another lesson she’d retained at once.
As her friend fell deeper under Her spell, Petra wanted to weep. And strum herself. She knew what Mistress truly was, had felt how pitilessly She could ravish a mind She coveted. She could have had Holly on her knees, babbling eternal devotion or just gaping dumbly up at Her. But She hadn’t.
Petra tingled with awe. Mistress’ kind were so skillful at taming lesser species, like humanity. Versatile enough to break a spirited girl like Bree to snap-to obedience, collar Petra as Her hunting bitch—and now charm Holly to sleep, using only Her voice and the weak human hypnosis She derided.
God—Her kind were truly destined to control this world.
“Think for me about trying now, Holly.”
“Yes.”
“You will always think of these ideas together, Holly. Trying to remember what I tell you, when you’re awake, will be like trying to press against your friends’ hands. They will always feel the same.”
“They will always feel the same,” Holly agreed.
“They will be the same, Holly.”
“They will be the same.”
“You cannot remember when you try to remember.”
“I cannot remember when I try to remember.”
Mistress nodded. Petra and Bree delicately stroked Holly’s wrists. “You will relax and enjoy that, Holly.”
“I will relax and enjoy that.”
“Try to remember now.”
“Yes.” Holly pressed. “I—mmm—can’t.” They looked down as she smiled under closed eyes and made a small, happy sound.
A butterfly kiss, compared to the pleasure She’d used on Petra. But here, below Holly’s conscious defenses, it was enough to fasten the ideas together. Holly would obey without knowing why, and train herself each time to obey more deeply.
She agreed, when Mistress suggested it, that she really would not want to remember anyway.
Then, Mistress began to tell Holly what she wouldn’t remember.
Whatever She was hypnotizing Holly to do, Mistress wasn’t going to smash her limits. She was conditioning Holly to remove them herself. And addicting her to being hypnotized for it.
Holly repeated her new truths. Her deep, growing trust in her hypnotist. Her craving to experience hypnosis whenever her hypnotist would grant it.
Her serene certainty that her friends were helping her.
Later, Mistress might instruct Holly on what she’d be willing to do to earn hypnotic pleasure from her new friend. But for now, it was all a gift to Her subject.
It was enough. Bree and Petra reached down and pulled Holly gently forward by her shoulders, still holding her slack hands. Mistress guided Holly back up from her trance. Holly responded, obediently securing the garden gate until her hypnotist led her there again, to listen and sleep in the cool breeze.
When Holly was awake, she hugged Bree and then Petra, and began a low, excited discussion with Mistress.
Petra felt drawn to walk over to where Bree stood, near the door. Something about an early day tomorrow spoke itself out of her mouth, and Mistress and Holly waved goodbye.
She followed Bree through the thinning party. Professor Danforth smiled as she passed, but seeing her with Bree and knowing they were under Mistress’ control, she didn’t commandeer Petra for another oral session. Danforth had kept everyone from the room, and of the few who knew Dr Charpentier was there, most had a vague idea of her new duties that made a little furtiveness seem logical.
That had served Mistress’ purposes. Petra was happy her mouth had paid for it.
In the vestibule, out of earshot, Bree turned her head as of on bearings. “Petra. We will return to my apartment.”
Petra stiffened and stared back. “I understand. We will return.” More pussyglow—it tripped the not-yet-memories of the Taking, obeying other slaves without question. When Bree walked out, it took effort not to fall into step with her.
In the car, as Petra belted in, Bree’s hand on her thigh stilled her. Petra looked forward through the windshield.
“I have just received programming.” Bree’s voice was icy with Her telepathic hypnosis. Mistress must already be away from the building and its crude human sensors. Free to control Her slavegirls as a Taker should. “Mistress is pleased with your obedience in hypnotizing Dr Charpentier.”
Petra shivered at Her praise, moving against Bree’s hand. It turned her on hearing Bree call Holly so formally—but Bree was just Mistress’ phone right now, not the friend of any human.
“You respond well to control.”
The toneless command, from a girl wearing that dress . . .
“I obey only Her,” Petra managed. Only Mistress’ will kept her from leaning over and ravishing Bree.
Bree’s hand squeezed, and then she was kissing Petra. While Petra was still stunned, Bree reached past her to the glove compartment and took something out. She gave it to Petra before settling back to belt in, and then palmed Petra’s thigh again.
Petra was holding the dull black cube she’d used before, to fixate Kirsty’s mind as they brought her back to Mistress.
“Now it will hypnotize me,” she murmured.
“Yes, Petra,” her friend said, stroking her. “It is basic slave-training equipment. Human minds are helpless even at its default setting. I have been desensitized. But you—” Bree’s hand left her skin, rose to touch the side Petra was to watch. “—will see only the flash.”
“So bright,” Petra gasped, and it was.
“So pretty,” Bree whispered. Already the car and tonight’s events were fading in the ghostly flash.
“I can’t . . . look away . . .”
Bree didn’t need to instruct a conditioned slave. When she heard Petra start reciting “I must obey,” she started the car.
The next thing Petra knew, Bree was walking her inside. It thrilled her that she’d been a mindless automaton, and pressed closer to Bree. The other slave put an arm around her.
Mistress was waiting in Bree’s darkened flat.
Petra dropped to her knees. Bree came to attention, flat-eyed in Her mental grip.
Ignoring her, Mistress advanced on Petra, grinning. Her trim, pale body was covered only in a short tunic almost the same copper as Her hair. Petra noticed again how long and toned Her legs were. How lovely they’d feel against her face.
Behind Her, Bree suddenly moved, silently bidden to light candles.
It was nothing to Mistress that Her slave had served Her at some human lackey’s cunt—that had been another use of her.
Petra could smell Her cunt, dizzied by the sweet foreign tang of Her arousal. One taste, and Petra would forget ever going down on Danforth’s.
She looked down through the brightening shadows. “Yes. You’ll drink deep of Me, slave. But first I’m going to suck some things from you.
“Look into My eyes.”
Petra obeyed, already juicing. Her eyes widened at what Bree’s candles let her see, and Mistress laughed.
She’d doffed Her contacts. Alone with only Her slavemeat to witness, Her eyes once more were glorious, alien yellow.
14.
“Being hypnotized is even better than sex.” Holly blew slightly into the slot of the coffee lid.
Petra blinked politely, glad that no one in the packed cafe seemed to have heard.
“No. No. I mean for sleeping.”
Petra cocked an eyebrow.
Holly sighed. “Not that I have any recent experience of the one.”
“You win,” Petra said. “Now I can’t demand you unfuck that hideously awkward phrasing just now.” She saw Holly waiting for her to pry into Holly’s slow sex life, watched the relief as Holly saw she wasn’t, and Holly’s wrong assumption about why not.
Holly had no idea how interested Petra was in her hypnotic adventures.
“’Of the one.’ Meaning you’ve indulged in the other? Again?” Petra’s programming kept the arousal out of her voice. “Wow. Ms Tyler’s created a monster.”
Candace Tyler was the name Mistress wore among humans. It felt naughty to call one of Them by name like an equal, but Petra knew it was all ultimately in Their service.
When They were done with Earth, no human would know what names were.
“I just had no idea how it felt,” Holly gushed. “Yesterday when—” She drank.
“When? Give.” Petra knew what had happened.
“I’d gone to Bree’s, to pick up something I left there the other day when I was worry-dumping on you guys, and—”
“Left? What was it?”
“I—don’t recall, actually.” For a brief moment Holly’s eyes brightened with the effort, but then she blinked. “Anyway, just after I got there, Candace showed up too. Turns out she’s actually a training client of Bree’s! It’s wild. So Bree was tied up with some online thing and we were waiting, and . . .”
Petra poked her lightly. “And you got yourself hypnotized again?”
Holly blushed. “I couldn’t resist.” She giggled at Petra’s stare. “Right. I know what that sounded like.
“But Candace was really cool about doing it, and I guess she’s a little fanatical about it too—she didn’t notice how excited I was to go under again. And Bree was right there, so it was completely safe.”
Petra smirked. “Somehow, ‘Bree’ and ‘completely safe’—”
Holly laughed. “Candace looked right at her and said ‘Forget the cluck, missy.’ But I got to tell Candace I slept like a log the night she’d hypnotized me.” She shrugged. “Go figure—she didn’t even take credit for it. Said I was probably crashing from the stress of the reception. God, if that hadn’t gone well.”
Petra smiled, her mind still locked on what Mistress had programmed her to learn. “Bree was pretty eager to be the cluck-girl that night, wasn’t she? I’d be worried she’d let herself get hypnotized, watching it happen to you.”
Holly took a deep breath. It was already easy to cast her back into the experience of going to sleep for Her. “Um. Yes, thought about that. But Bree’s no pushover—there’s steel under that ponytail.
“She wouldn’t let herself go, while she was looking out for me.”
Her faith stung Petra, but pleasurably, like a crop across her ass. It drove her to continue. “Still—you must be pretty comfortable with Candace.”
She paused. “You really trust her.”
Holly’s lips parted slightly. “Yes,” she murmured. “I trust Candace completely.” Her eyes almost crossed a little. Petra wondered what She’d done to train Holly for such a response so soon.
Petra met them as they focused. “Yes. I felt very comfortable when she—hypnotized you—at the reception.” Her emphasis was as subtle as Mistress wanted it. So was the way Holly’s eyelids fluttered. “You were right to trust in her.”
“Trust in her,” Holly nodded, then blinked and looked at the cafe’s doorway. “Oh wow. There she is!”
Beckoning, she half-rose as Mistress joined them.
“Thanks for the company,” She said, looking around. Her eyes were behind the contacts again, but still compelling. “I was supposed to meet someone’s assistant here to set up an interview with their boss. But they waited until just now to message their regrets. And the place is full!”
“Glad you could join us,” Petra said. “We were just talking about you.”
“Way to keep my secret,” Holly laughed, then nodded to Her. “But I’ve been raving about how good it felt. Thanks again for letting me recharge yesterday, too.”
“I meant it, Dr Charpentier. You’re always welcome to call on me for a session. You’re a very responsive subject.”
“Thank you, Candace.” Holly dipped her eyes. “And, please—call me Holly. I mean, I’m the subject, right?”
“I can see the rapport,” Petra said, looking between them. Holly blushed, as if that had awakened her to how submissively she was acting. “No, really, Holly. It’s clear that you really trust Candace.”
“Trust,” Holly whispered, staring at her, then blinked. Petra didn’t move, and watched Holly convince herself she’d only imagined saying it.
“You seem to be under a lot of stress, Doctor. Holly.” Mistress smiled at her like a lioness at a gazelle, but Petra jazzed on how Holly smiled back, seeing only concern. “But hypnosis can make it all go away.”
Petra knew her friend would never have let something that oversimplified go unchallenged, but Holly didn’t seem to hear it.
Glancing around as her blush deepened, Holly leaned forward. “Could—you, um, do it here?” She swallowed at Her blank look. “Hypnotize me. Here.”
Mistress pretended to consider. “Yes. I think I could. You were receptive before—and I think you can resist the commotion here, for me.”
“Petra? Would you—?”
“Glad to, Holly.” Petra didn’t even glance at Mistress. And it was nice to see Holly so pleased.
Mistress assumed control, and the crowded cafe receded around them. “Before, Holly, when you went into trance for me, I implanted a sleep trigger in your mind. Do you remember accepting that?”
Petra watched Holly try. Then her friend sagged almost imperceptibly, caught in the pleasure-trap of how nice it felt not to remember.
Holly shook her head, wide-eyed. As if Her voice were already too relaxing to question, Holly didn’t even ask why she couldn’t.
Mistress nodded, silently excusing Holly her weakness of mind. “It was a posthypnotic suggestion that, when I said a certain phrase, you would return immediately into the trance I prepared for you. Do you understand?”
“Yes.” Holly almost forced it out. She was trying to assert herself, be more than a bobblehead doll. “I—will return to trance.”
But she did that by agreeing more actively that she would obey her hypnotist.
Mistress gave a pleased-teacher smile, and let it soften Holly again. “Do I have your permission to use it on you now?”
Holly nodded, too excited to speak.
Mistress looked at her intently for a moment, letting all the dominance-submission feel settle over Her subject. “Listen carefully to me, Holly: let me lead you down the garden path.”
Holly sighed, her face going blank. She stared emptily at Mistress, head moving loosely for a moment. “I am hypnotized now.” She sounded incredibly tired, but happy.
“Very good!” Mistress cooed. “Are you ready to close your eyes for me, Holly?”
Holly nodded like a bobblehead doll.
“Do you remember what happens when you close your eyes for me, Holly?”
“Yes.” Holly blushed as she confided it. “I fall deeper into my hypnotic trance.”
“Close them now, Holly.”
Holly obeyed. She moved her head slightly. “In my trance,” she whispered, “each breath takes me deeper. More relaxed.”
Mistress let her breathe for a while. Looking around, She saw no one had noticed Holly go under.
“Holly.”
“Yes?”
“Do you remember what happens when you open your eyes for me under hypnosis, Holly?”
Holly nodded meekly again. “Yes. I fall deeper into my hypnotic trance.” She didn’t even notice her identical wording.
“Open them now.”
Then Holly looked completely awake, as she looked across the table at her hypnotist and waited for instructions. She didn’t look away from Mistress when She glanced at Petra.
Petra barely felt Her power, but the light touch was enough. With Holly rapt, Mistress had no further use for Petra until She finished programming Holly and needed Petra for continuity.
She went into her own trance. She felt nothing about leaving Holly mentally alone with Mistress—that was Her will.
Just as at the reception, Petra wasn’t really here to monitor Holly’s trance. She was a slave helping dupe someone into submitting to hypnosis. They were hypnotized. She had performed well.
Mistress’ words flowed over her, unheard but still powerful. Looking over the heads of the oblivious patrons, through the slanted glass roof of this part of the cafe, she saw the highrises of this insta-built location, wondering how many of the condo units were occupied. So small, and yet so hard for many but the elite to afford.
Petra rationed herself a smile. These elite had no idea.
After the Taking, They’d level this. Takers would never jail Themselves in tiny human dwelling units. Their homes would still tower above the wreckage of pathetic humankind.
They might commandeer the downtown museums as palaces. Petra would mount the great steps each day with mindnumbed reverence to receive orders—or march down in step with other drones to impose Their will on some hapless disobedients.
Petra remembered from the training-dream that she and other drones would be kept in clean but barren and crowded kennels, possibly concrete basements out of Their sight. Tamed humans would accept close quarters, and needed no stimulation. Petra saw herself obediently disposing of books, pictures, DVDs . . .
Mistress brought her back to unTaken reality before waking Holly. Petra shared the pleasantries as She left, then listened to Holly enthuse about her latest trance.
“That’s really weird, though,” she observed, watching her friend’s reaction. “Seeing Candace so soon, and often. Lucky for you, but weird.”
Even as Holly’s eyes lost focus, Petra knew She would be pleased.
“Weird?” Holly blinked. “I don’t think there is anything unusual about it at all.”
She blinked again and grinned. “Tell you what—I’m really ready to take Saturday off, week after next, at Bree’s. You coming?”
15.
“Damn it. I know I packed that suit.” Holly rummaged uselessly through the bag once more. “It was right before Petra called.”
Petra nodded, as if her agreement helped. She remembered the call. She no longer knew the trigger she’d used, but she remembered instructing Holly to put the suit away again, then forget.
“Oh, stop.” Bree was already in hers, a bright blue one with a barely-legal bottom. “You look tres hot.”
Holly wasn’t as curvy as Petra or as athletic as Bree, but she did look sexy in the bikini Bree’d lent her. She was, of course, charmingly bashful about it, but Bree herded her toward the door, leaving Petra to tote the cooler and reading materials out to the pool.
Someone knocked.
Petra saw Holly look at the bedroom as if considering flight, but Bree checked the peephole.
It was Mistress. She strode in and stopped, exaggerating Her surprise at seeing the three of them dressed for poolside. Briefly Petra wondered if She imagined them as harem offerings, but unlike Her slaves, Mistress wouldn’t be lost in what-if dreams.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Bree! A bad time. But I left that here the other day.” She pointed to a portfolio on top of a low bookshelf, and Bree scampered to retrieve it.
“No problem, Candace,” Bree told Her. “Actually, while you’re here, could you hypnotize Dr Stressfracture here into dialing it down a little?” She palmed Holly’s bare shoulder as if calming her.
Just seeing Her seemed to tranquilize Holly, but Petra saw her squirm a little. Her trance-addiction had her, and even a joke about letting Mistress hypnotize her tripped her need.
Mistress seemed intrigued. “That’s up to Holly. It looks like you three are—”
“Yes.” Holly trembled, abashed, glancing at her friends. “I mean, if it’s really no trouble?”
“She just wants an excuse not to parade her cute self out there.” Bree rolled her eyes.
“’Oh stop,’ as someone commented recently.” But Holly lost her edge as soon as she looked back at Mistress. “Um, may we?”
Mistress looked her up and down without leering. “There’s certainly no dress code. It won’t take a moment,” She added, as though Her slaves might object.
“Cool.” Bree’s smile looked like real amusement. “A hypnotist and three bikini girls. We could sell tickets.”
Petra quelled Holly’s worried look. “No. Designated drivers.” She stressed the plural and pointed at Bree.
Holly looked back at the living room. “Where should we—”
“I think you’re experienced enough to go into trance on your feet.” Mistress stepped forward, and Holly straightened, eyes widening.
“Listen carefully to me, Holly: let me lead you down the garden path.”
Petra watched it send Holly deep. She didn’t fall, but the tension went out of her stance. Mistress had been training her—She didn’t bother with that formal request for permission.
Taking Holly’s bare shoulders, Mistress instructed her quietly. Then Holly was standing straight and opening her eyes without the reminder that it deepened her trance.
“Yes, Candace. I am totally comfortable being hypnotized by you.” Just saying it made Holly happier. “I trust you completely and without hesitation.”
“That pleases me greatly, Holly.” Mistress let Holly feel the praise. “I’m happy to have earned your faith, and your friends’ also. They’re certainly loyal to you and eager to keep you safe.”
“Safe,” Holly murmured. “Yes.” Her smile brightened as something new occurred to her. “But since I trust you completely, I won’t need them to be with me anymore when I let you hypnotize me.”
“Now that you—yes, Holly. That’s a very good idea! More convenient for you, too, and them.”
Holly waited, smiling. Under Mistress’ spell now, she’d stand there for the rest of the day without even wondering what she was to do.
“You know, Holly, at least one of your friends was, herself, eager to experience hypnosis.”
“Bree.” Holly gazed forward.
“You were concerned for her, Holly. Do you remember why?”
Holly’s brow wrinkled, then smoothed. “I can’t remember.” Her smile deepened as she enjoyed that. “But I can’t even imagine worrying now. Hypnosis feels so safe. So good.”
“Yes, Holly. Bree has watched over your sleep. Wouldn’t you like to welcome her into that sleep?”
“Yesss, Candace.”
Mistress reached out and touched Holly’s chin, nodding approvingly as She turned Holly’s head toward Bree. “Offer it to her, Holly.”
Holly accepted the handling without protest. “It’s so wonderful, Bree. I wish I’d let you feel it before. Wouldn’t you love to let Candace hypnotize you now?”
Bree grinned at her. “Oh, yes. I was going to ask her to program you. Maybe to go to the pool topless.”
Holly just kept smiling, with Mistress’ hand under her jaw.
“But—I’d rather be where you are, now.”
Mistress let go of Holly, who kept watching Bree.
“That’s good,” Mistress said. “Trust me, Bree. Look into my eyes.”
The blonde’s mischievous expression collapsed as she complied and fell into Her gaze. Petra didn’t know if She’d made Bree Her marionette for this or if Bree was obeying implanted commands.
If She hadn’t conditioned Holly out of it, Holly would’ve been very worried. Bree was being the pushover after all, submitting to the hypnosis almost before Mistress’ soothing instructions told her how. In seconds, Bree looked as mindless as the moment Mistress had first enslaved her, in almost the same spot.
Holly hadn’t seen that. She just beamed, thrilled Bree could feel what she felt. She swayed a little as Mistress pretended to send Bree deeper, and Bree responded as if her willpower were flowing out of her.
Petra’s own programming activated as her cue approached.
Now Mistress spoke to both Her passive subjects. They smiled drowsily as She proposed a fun game for them: they were now a hypnotic cult, devoted to their priestess’ voice.
Both of them eagerly accepted. Bree’s grin looked as real as Holly’s, before they made their faces blank. Mistress had them both stare into Her eyes as She taught them cult truths—nothing scary enough to snap Holly out of her dazed acceptance, but strongly deepening her with each droning repetition.
They fell silent at Her nod. Holly was clearly reeling, but already too much under Her influence to do anything but focus and await instructions. If this had been a real cult, Holly might be halfway toward brainwashed allegiance. Of course, Holly would never have let a cult slip its tentacles this far into her head.
In the quiet, She let it keep echoing in Holly’s mind for a few moments, training Holly to enjoy indoctrination as well as trance.
“But what about Petra?” She asked. “Do you want to share this tranquil feeling with her?”
The hypnotized women turned together toward Petra. Holly’d really succumbed, her eyes fanatically wide. Behind her Bree stiffened, primed for the initiative. “Yes,” she said. “Petra must be hypnotized.”
Holly’s confusion lasted less than a breath. She must do as Bree did—for the cult.
“Petra must be . . . hypnotized.” She smiled a little, too blissed to giggle, and Petra smiled back.
“Petra must become one of you,” Mistress murmured. “She must join the cult of hypnosis.”
“Join us,” Bree intoned, cuing Holly.
“Join us,” they chanted together, and the trance easily damped any urge to laugh. Petra stood still, programmed to act nervous but still trusting her spellbound friends. It inhibited her from emoting real fear—nothing must frighten Holly, so Holly’s “victim” must seem as willing as she was.
Petra saw her friend, then. Past the glassy eyes and mind-slave behavior, she knew how much Holly hated to injure anyone. Mistress was working delicately around that to condition Holly, but for a moment Petra suddenly knew how good Holly must be.
The moment passed. Petra was totally Her slave, and seeing two sexy women in bikinis hypnotized into menacing her was only turning her on.
Mistress must have touched Bree’s mind. Still chanting, Bree started walking toward Petra. When she brushed against Holly, Holly barely noticed before letting it impel her to stalk Petra too.
“Join us. Join us.”
Petra gasped, seeing what her dream-victims saw: Their slaves, helplessly obedient and immune to any appeal. She would be taken and enslaved in turn. There was no escape.
Knowing nothing of Takers, Holly was still caught up in it enough for her hands to float up sleepwalker-like in front of her, channeling some forgotten movie’s image of tranced obedience.
Mistress smiled. Holly was also caught up too deeply to laugh at the silliness.
Bree accepted the cue and both of them paced across her living room to where Petra waited, miming paralysis at their strange new obedience.
Petra kept her stance loose and open, not defensive, and let her excitement show. She was a key stimulus now, as Mistress conditioned Holly to link pleasure with hypnotic control. Holly’s own arousal was clear as her nipples strained against the borrowed bikini top.
They captured Petra with light hands, and she relaxed in their grip. She looked into Holly’s eyes. “The cult has hypnotized you.”
“Yes,” Holly whispered, eyes rolling a little with the joy of Petra submitting. “We’re hypnotized.”
“Then I . . . must be hypnotized?” She leaned toward Holly, so Holly would take her weight and feel the dependence. “Join? The cult?”
“You must,” Bree said firmly.
“You must,” Holly half-moaned.
“I must.” Petra looked into Holly’s eyes and let her gaze go unfocused. “I must be hypnotized.”
“Well done, my obedient followers,” Mistress said. “Bring her to me.”
“Yes, Priestess.” Bree pressed Petra, so that Petra moved against Holly. Holly tightened her grip and began to walk back to Her.
“We obey,” Holly said, unprompted.
Petra’s clit tweaked her, and she saw Mistress’ smile grow sharper. Whatever She’d been doing to Holly under hypnosis, something in Holly was responding.
Mistress didn’t press it, but She had Holly keep holding Petra as She pretended to cast Her cultic spell over the last woman awake.
Petra stared into Her eyes, listening to Her offer an obedience that already ruled Petra’s mind. She was saying it for Holly’s ears, and Petra could feel her friend soften beside her.
Then She stopped, and three obedient humans stood passive and open, awaiting a Taker’s will.
16.
Like ceremonial sentries, Bree and Petra stood at parade rest with their backs to the balcony. Their bikini tops lay on Bree’s coffee table, next to Holly’s, in front of the sofa where She and Holly were talking.
Mistress had ended the cult-game by suggesting that bare-breasted girls were even more cooperative hypnotic subjects. Holly was enough in Her thrall that she started to undo her top, looking only at Mistress, before she even saw her friends obey.
After the deep trance they’d all fallen into, She brought Holly out a little by herself, initiating her in deeper secrets of hypnosis Bree and Petra were not ready to know.
She deepened Holly’s conditioning by having Holly control the other girls for a moment. Believing it herself when Mistress told her, Holly touched their foreheads and murmured that for them, whatever they heard would have no meaning until she touched them again, though the blur of words would relax them more and more.
It had had no effect—Petra and Bree were silent by Her will. What mattered was Holly’s ease at dominating her friends. She’d seemed happy as they accepted her instructions without resistance.
At Mistress’ word Holly had returned to Her side and they sat, with the girls before them to amuse Her and visually condition Holly. Perhaps, without caring why, Holly would find herself craving a blank-eyed woman or two to attend her.
“You handle them so very well, Holly.” Mistress stroked her shoulder. Holly swayed a bit closer to Her, awestruck and smitten. “Freshly-hypnotized subjects can be skittish, but you have Petra and Bree completely under control.”
Holly followed Her gaze to them. “They look so—blank, Candace.”
“You do, too, Holly. When I have you deep, and receptive. They want to be like that, Holly, and being hypnotized allows them to.” She paused as if struck with an idea. “We could give them something to do. They’re topless. Maybe they could be waitresses while we talk.”
Holly looked back at Her.
“Oh, they’ll stay in trance-oblivion. All they’d be able to pay attention to would be our orders.”
“But—”
Mistress chuckled. “What was Bree’s comment?”
“’Cluck.’ Yes.” Holly grinned evilly for a moment, but it faded as she saw how helplessly attentive her commands had left Bree.
“Does it bother you, Holly? Being able to control them so easily?”
Holly studied them. “It does, but then—”
“You enjoy it.” Mistress stroked Holly’s upper arm, and Holly’s eyelids fluttered.
“Yes,” she whispered.
Mistress was tensed beside her, Her eyes glowing behind their blue filters. She looked more beautifully inhuman than ever, coiled beside Her spellbound prey.
“You face this dilemma at work.” Mistress’ whisper tempted like a serpent’s. “Controlling minds is what you must learn to do, and yet you don’t know how to feel.”
Holly nodded. Like a bobblehead doll. Her eyes kept exploring her motionless friends.
Petra wondered if her bikini bottom was visibly dampening. It aroused her more to imagine Mistress hypnotizing Holly out of noticing.
“Dr Orsini faced that, too. She was terribly depressed, and of course told no one. She knew hypnosis was the answer, but only grasped at it when it was too late. Her own disbelief in it doomed her.”
She took Holly’s hand. “Do you believe in hypnosis, Holly?”
Turning away from her staring friends, Holly gazed into Her eyes and nodded solemnly.
“Then trust in me, Holly. I can help you to find the balance. To complete your goals. To achieve control.
“To help those you control to accept it, and obey you.”
Holly frowned uncertainly, but softened as She stroked her face. “I promise you, Holly—you will not be alone. I will always be here for you, and because you trust me so completely, I can continue to hypnotize you and help guide your feelings.”
Holly trembled but didn’t look away. They looked like lovers, and Mistress seemed ready to kiss Holly—or devour her. But a couple of weeks’ daily hypnosis had worked their way on Holly. She gave Her another doll-like nod. “I can trust you to guide me,” she breathed. “And hypnotize me.”
“I will hypnotize you, Holly. Whenever you need it.
“And your friends will be here for you.” She pointed to Bree and Petra, still staring silently over their heads.
“They are your friends, Holly. They can’t advise you, as I can—their minds aren’t as strong or clear as yours or mine—but they can keep you company.”
“Like pets . . .” Holly looked at Bree. Petra felt an exciting chill.
“They can serve you in some of the same ways,” She laughed. “They’re human, after all. But once they understand their lives will now revolve around being helpful to you, they can be useful.”
Petra breathed evenly. So sweet to serve dear Holly, instead of being whored out to someone like Danforth. Except Mistress might still use her for that, programming her not to tell Holly.
“After you leave today, I’ll remain here with Petra and Bree.” She considered them. “They submitted to hypnotic control quite easily. They’ll accept their true roles in your life.”
Why was her mind so active? She envied Bree beside her, who probably had only silence behind her eyes. But she kept wondering. What would Mistress do with Holly when They came? Would Petra and Bree be programmed to safeguard her in the chaos?
She realized why Mistress valued Holly—it was Her solution to the primitive human mind-control project. She was simply hypnotizing its director into a high-functioning slave.
For a moment, Petra melted with pride and love. Holly was the smart Angel—even under alien domination it made sense she’d be raised above them.
“Will they really be able to decide, Candace?” Holly wasn’t resisting Mistress’ lesson. She’d accepted a need to submit to Her, along with Her distinction of guidance from the control She—and Holly—would have over lesser slaves.
Petra was happy. Someday she might kneel at Holly’s feet while Holly bowed to Her.
“Yes, Holly. I can see they’ll be in very good hands when I imprint them on you. Of course, I’ll deepen their trances to make sure they’re able to decide correctly.”
Holly was too diffident to do more than look at Her questioningly.
“You’ve controlled them yourself, Holly.” Mistress was understanding. “They’re content when they can obey—they just need direction. It’s their destiny—and their good luck, I have to say—to serve someone like you.”
Petra wondered whether Mistress had planned to enthrall Dr Orsini to control her institute, before Orsini had killed herself. Pride told her Mistress must think Herself lucky to get Holly instead—
Her finger was under Holly’s chin again, as She stared down. “You are totally comfortable with controlling those who need it.”
“Yes,” Holly whispered.
“You will trust me to tell you who is to be controlled.”
Petra had actually almost come. She’d thought Mistress had disposed of Orsini, maybe with an assassin as brainwashed as Bree, so She could place Holly there instead as Her pawn. Being so close to Their ruthlessness, even that precise, turned her on.
But Orsini’s final search about hypnosis didn’t fit. Petra was sensing her conclusion before she thought it. She wanted to kneel, cry out, beg Mistress to stun her mind before she knew.
She couldn’t move until she was told.
Then it fell on Petra like a wall collapsing behind her.
Orsini and Holly. The same dilemma. Both women in charge of mind control. Both—horrified.
She shot herself in her own eye.
Something gave way inside her. It was like a year of painkiller wearing off faster than it took to scream. She saw Holly with the back of her head gone. Staring at the muzzle, knowing, determined to die with eyes open.
What almost slew her was how bad she knew Holly would feel to do that.
Bree was a robot and just obeyed Her. Petra was a thinking-slave and She could make Petra orgasm at obeying any command She liked.
But Holly—Holly would be like the lovely violist. A special human slave They’d keep mostly unmindfucked for her talent.
The violist might not hate what she played, or that she played it for Them. But if Holly realized what They were using her for, she would hate it. Hate Them. Even hate Their tainted instrument.
Put a bullet through it.
No.
In a moment Petra wanted to relax, to wait, to confess all to Mistress and stand while She wiped it away and made Petra obedient again.
Even the orgasm paled next to how bad she knew Holly would feel to do that.
She didn’t understand but she knew. She tried to keep her mind blank and leaped forward and saw Mistress looking surprised—
Surprised?
—Holly was standing Petra couldn’t throw herself at Mistress slid-crashed into Holly and the tackle carried them over the couch Petra tried to land first to break Holly’s—
They hit. Petra shoulder hurt and Holly was heavier than she looked. As Mistress leaned glaring over the top of the couch like a baleful sunrise, Petra turned her face away and looked at Holly’s.
Slapped Holly as hard as she could.
“Hollyyyy!” Her throat hurt.
But Holly blinked. “Pet . . . Petra?” She put a hand to her cheek. “What the—fuck?”
“Wake up!” She prayed it would get through to Holly. She was scared of losing her voice.
She was terrified of hearing Hers.
She was fighting an alien mind-controller and even if she won, she’d lose, and everyone here would be Her mindslave and—
Her eyes locked with Holly’s.
Holly didn’t understand. Petra couldn’t tell her, even if She spared Petra’s mind.
But she knew. If Holly didn’t have to die like that—
Petra listened to the silence in her head, trying to find words for Holly.
Waiting for Mistress to reach into her mind again and make her obey.
Trying not to think what Her command would be.