The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

I stood on the sidewalk as the Uber pulled away from the curb.

“You sure you’re good here?” my driver had asked.

“Yeah,” I’d answered, pushing open the door. “I’m good.”

Now, I turned around to face the parking lot and the strip mall beyond it. Moonlight bounced off the pavement. There were no cars. Shadows draped down from the eaves, like curtains across the big front windows of the Black Dragon Dojo. My breath fogged a little in the chill evening air. It was quieter here than it had been, deeper in the City. And I felt a sense of security, of calm and belonging, that I certainly hadn’t experienced in Seth’s packed penthouse.

I’d arrived at this place before in moments of uncertainty. The first time, I found it by luck. Then, when I was dealing with Amber’s betrayal, I found myself here without much thought. This time though, as the foundation pillars of my life shifted dangerously beneath my feet, I came with a purpose. I was here to recommit myself to the purpose that I had had when I came here at the start of it all.

I would be a man who could protect the people he loved.

“Chance?” A voice with a familiar accent interrupted my inner monologue.

I turned in disbelief. No way…

Terra jogged up the sidewalk toward me, black ponytail bouncing. Despite the coolness of the night, all the woman wore was a pair of dark yoga pants and a black sports bra. She slowed to a stop and I could see her raise an eyebrow. I couldn’t tell how long she’d been running, because she wasn’t sweating and didn’t seem out of breath.

“Did we have a workout scheduled that I was unaware of?” Her tone was light, but the underlying question was clear: What are you doing here?

I laughed softly, hesitated a moment, then shrugged. I had enough to worry about without feeling awkward for showing up unannounced at my martial arts studio in the middle of the night. “Honestly,” I said, not hiding my surprise, “I didn’t expect to see you. Do you live nearby?” I had to fight the habitual urge to bow slightly in greeting.

The woman brushed a stray hair back from her face, tilting her chin and eyeing me thoughtfully. “Around the block a short way,” she confirmed after a moment. “I was just out for some exercise, enjoying the dark and the moon…” She trailed off, as though waiting for me to offer my reason for being here.

Who goes for a run at 11 o’clock at night? I wondered. Then, I realized that the same could be said for people like me who ran at 6 in the morning. “I’ve been having a rough night.” I looked away from the woman and once again out over the empty parking lot. “I came here to… I guess I came to center myself.”

We stood in silence for a moment before my teacher took several steps forward and down onto the asphalt. She looked up at the sky, letting her arms fall open by her sides like she was soaking in the moonlight. “Why here?” she asked, not looking around. “Because of all your happy memories of this place?”

“Ha,” I laughed quietly. “That must be it.”

Then, when she glanced back at me, I tried to come up with a better answer. “You gave me a chance to improve myself when I was way less capable than I am now. I felt like someone who couldn’t handle a single thing, who couldn’t even stand up for the people he cared about, and yet you were willing to guide me in a new direction. Even in the last month I’ve become a totally different person. That’s how quickly things changed for me, and you helped me make the change in the right direction.” I chewed my inner cheek thoughtfully. “I suppose, of all the places I could have gone tonight, this was the spot I hoped would remind me of the man I want to be. And who knew that I would also run into a friend?”

Terra didn’t make a sound, so if I hadn’t been watching her I might not have noticed the surprised expression that flitted across her face. “I told you before,” she said. “We aren’t friends.”

I shrugged. “Maybe not,” I answered. “But I still feel better for seeing you.” It was the kind of earnest, honest thing that I would once have thought twice before saying. I mean, really, it felt kind of sappy even as I said it. But I wasn’t going to second-guess myself. That’s why I came here, after all. To remember that I was becoming a man who would do and say what he pleased, who wouldn’t apologize it.

Terra seemed to mull over my words for a moment, staring into my face with an intense expression like she was reading my thoughts and trying to figure out my true intentions. The woman’s eyes were captivating, even in the dark, like pools of shadow and low-burning embers. I met her gaze for several long, hazy seconds and, for the first time that I could recall, she was the first to look away.

“It is good to see a friend,” she said slowly, glancing back around at the parking lot.

I blinked, and took a breath to steady myself. I felt like I’d just won something, an invisible and unspoken victory, and I wet my lips before nodding agreement.

“So, if we really are friends, would you tell me what is bothering you?” My instructor sounded as cool as ever, but there was an odd, misplaced curiosity that she couldn’t mask. Like she was as much intrigued by the idea of being my friend as she was offering to hear my troubles.

I blew out a breath and considered her question. Then, I reasoned that this was what I was really here for. I had come because I believed that in this place I was being forged into a better, stronger version of myself. If there was ever a time to get moonlit advice from my strange martial arts teacher in a deserted parking lot on a Thursday night, that time was now.

I left parts out, as I told my story. But, even without a single mention of hypnotized sex slaves or corporate mind control, the story still felt bizarre. My four lovers and I were having trouble in our relationship. Just today, I had lost one of them to her job and one of them to her boss. Another was currently spending quality alone time with her ex-boyfriend and while things seemed good with the fourth, it was probably only a matter of time before new drama reared its head. The most important people in my life were being taken away from me. I knew that I had to do something. I had no idea what that something was.

Terra maintained the same calm, attentive expression throughout. There was an energy about the woman that I had never detected during my previous visits, like some tight, coiled part of her had smoothed out and sharpened. Her focus, though, was as weighty as ever. When I finished speaking, she reached up and undid her ponytail.

She shook her head and a dark waterfall of hair spilled across her bare shoulders. “Will you walk with me?” she asked.

I nodded, a little confused, but followed as she led me down the sidewalk in the same direction she’d been running. A part of my mind tugged me back the opposite way, telling me that I needed to return to Seth’s party, to my companions, to the problems I had yet to solve. The rest of me, though, followed Terra with expectancy and maybe even a bit of hope.

We walked in silence down the street, between the shadows of sidewalk trees and around the corner deeper into the neighborhood. One block, then another. A car drove past us, and the headlights shone on a black, iron wrought fence. I tilted my head to look up at the dimly lit belfry of the small, neighborhood church.

“My home is just past here,” Terra said, calling my attention back to earth and along the side street that ran down one length of the churchyard. It was dark, so it was hard to read her expression. “Would you like to come in for some tea? As friends.”

I hesitated an instant. She’s taking me back to her place? I thought. But then, my sense of may-as-well-go-for-it-at-this-point kicked in and I nodded agreement. “Alright,” I nodded. “Tea. And Terra’s wisdom.”

My martial arts master gave me a lopsided smile as I followed her past the looming church and down the shadowed lane. “Tea, for certain,” she said. “Wisdom… We’ll see if I have any of that in the cupboard.”

She lived in a small white house with a front porch and a bench swing. An automatic light clicked on when we got to the top of the stairs, but Terra put out her hand and I hesitated.

I gave her an uncertain glance.

To my surprise, there was uncertainty in her face as well. Her voice was stiff, almost formal, when she finally said, “I invite you to enter my home.”

I hesitated, then bowed again, slightly. “Thank you…?” I wondered if this was how she treated all her guests.

I must have responded correctly, because the woman turned the knob and I followed her in.

Her kitchen, where I now sat at a round, wooden table, was just inside the front entrance and through a doorway on the left. The kitchen floor was cracked linoleum. Terra, while I watched, had hooked a kettle over onto the stove and was now going through cupboards gathering supplies. I sat back, feeling the usual sense of uncertainty you get when you enter someone else’s home for the first time.

“Do you need any help?” I asked. The pace of my evening had slowed from rapid-EDM-pulse to chill-teamaking-vibes at a surprising rate, and I felt myself struggling to adjust. I had expected my instructor to pull out some 60-cent bags of Earl Grey, but I was getting a whole Japanese tea ceremony.

“No,” Terra answered, laying out several small, Eastern-style teacups and a short, broad teapot. The pot was black metal and pitted with age, like it was some sort of heirloom. “I will prepare the tea. And, while I do, I will tell you a story. You can see if there is wisdom in it.”

I swallowed and sat back in my chair. It creaked softly. The house was dark except for the dull yellow bulb that hung over the kitchen and shone through a shade made of old plastic.

Terra’s movements were smooth and controlled, like she was following a well-practiced pattern. She removed several packets of herbs from a cupboard, took down a stone bowl and poured a small measure of each packet. As out of place as my teacher seemed beyond the confines of her studio, I was beginning to see that the confident, precise movements that I had originally noted in her training style were evident here, too. When she spoke, it was in rhythm with her preparations.

“I am not very good at this. The wisdom and life lessons aspect of teaching. Back where I come from I was known as a skilled fighter, but my master didn’t think I was ready for the responsibility of taking… students of my own.” She paused, like she was rethinking what she was about to tell me.

But I wasn’t letting her back out. Not now. We were already too deep, and I was too intrigued. “Your master?” I prompted.

A second of hesitation. Then, “Indeed,” she went on. “Just as I am the smith to your sword, I was once a blade to be forged.” Terra’s eyes were faraway for a moment, but then she shook her head. “But my story is not about that time. It is about something that happened after. It is about why I am here, far away from my home, living like this…” She waved her hand, seeming to indicate the room we were in, and the neighborhood, and the City. “Instead of… elsewhere, happier.”

I accepted the teacup from her outstretched hand and set it, still empty, on the table in front of me. She placed her cup next to the other chair, then went back for the herbs. After, she sat down across the table and continued to speak while we waited for the water to boil.

“I understand that your culture in this part of the world frowns on the type of relationship that you have with these women. Polygamy, polyamory, whatever some might call it. My culture is more accepting in that regard. In spite of that, I also had an experience like yours. I met someone, and we fell into a relationship that was considered unacceptable…” Terra trailed off and focused on the small bowl of herbs in front of her. Her fingers were carefully shredding tiny leaves and buds and stems, piling them in a mesh filter. “My master found out, as did everyone I knew. It was exceedingly difficult.”

Silently, I stared at the tiny mulch pile. “And you couldn’t make it work?” I asked. This was not the uplifting inspiration I’d secretly been hoping for. “Is that what you’re telling me? That this was bound to happen and I should just give up?”

The woman’s eyes narrowed, and her lovely face came together in a brief scowl. “Do not put words in my mouth. I hadn’t finished. My enemies, too, discovered my forbidden love. We were forced to part ways, to break off and give up everything we had made together, just to keep each other safe.”

Enemies? I thought, struggling to keep the disbelief from my face. Who has enemies these days? Where are you from, Terra? I wanted to pipe up, to ask what culture she kept referring to. Had she escaped some sort of criminal organization? Or was she from one of those parts of the world that still clung to centuries-old rites and customs instead of adapting to modern times? But the set of Terra’s features kept me silent. She looked guarded, like she knew her story was begging for questions but she was in no mood to answer them.

My teacher seemed to interpret my expression as an inability to see her point. She chewed on her lower lip, then pressed her palms to the table. “I’ve already said that I am not so good at this aspect of teaching. But what I mean to say is this… I learned that you must go after what is yours or it will be taken from you. Be strong until you break, because the things that truly matter are worth it. If you are not strong, if you do not go after what is important, you will regret it. As I do.”

We sat quietly, and I felt the weight of her words hanging in the air. They settled around me, pressing in and urging me to action. But what action could I take? What could I do to unravel the web of manipulation and control that ensnared me and the people close to me?

The kettle whistled, and Terra rose fluidly to fetch it.

I watched her for a moment, and wondered if her story was true or if she had just spun me a fable to teach me a moral. I blinked, realized that the woman had glanced over her shoulder and captured my gaze with hers. Her eyes flared and her mouth turned down in a slight frown. I wanted to speak, to apologize for staring, but I found myself unable to move, trapped by the weight of her gaze.

“You say that I have helped you to change,” my teacher said. She approached the table, kettle in one hand. “But you are still doing the same thing as ever. Running from your problems instead of facing them. You ran away tonight, and that cannot happen again. But it will. A part of you, a part of your mind, is stuck, anchored, wrapped in the chains of the things you’ve done and thought and learned.”

The woman reached out and lifted the mesh filter. She placed it carefully in the body of the black teapot, and then slowly raised the kettle. A cloud of steam rose into the air as she poured the boiling water over the mix of herbs, but as I leaned forward to try and get a scent of the tea Terra’s hand shot out to stop me. Her fingers curled into my shoulder, firm enough to be almost painful.

“Woah,” I muttered, freezing. “What’s wrong?”

The woman’s fingers released, abruptly, and she glanced away. “Be careful,” she said. “This is not some cheap, leaf-flavored beverage. It is a powerful blend of herbs that will help you break free from the chains of your mind. And it must be experienced the right way, or not at all.”

Slowly, I sat back in my chair. I eyed the teapot doubtfully. “Are you telling me that you made some sort of… drug tea?”

Terra pressed her lips together. The movement drew attention to her mouth, and I felt an unexpected thrill pass down my spine. A tingling sensation that could have been a hint of arousal… or fear. “You could call it that. But I would not be so dismissive. I do not share this lightly. In fact, I did not expect to share this ritual at all, ever. But you have impressed me, and that is not an easy thing to do. Your desire to improve and grow is compelling, despite the obstacles you have faced.”

I bowed my head, not sure how to respond. I was flattered, sure. My badass warrior of a teacher was telling me that I had impressed her. And she was also offering me drugs.

Can I really do this? I wondered. This night had already gone so sideways. Was this the best way to right the ship? To my surprise, it was Devil Chance who poofed in at my shoulder to tip the scales on the final verdict.

Drugs? He enthused. Hell yeah, man! You’ve been such a wimp recently, boring and lame and unable to solve your problems. I’m with the hottie on this one. It’s time to break the chains of lameness and stop being a little bitch boy.

I tightened my jaw at the scathing tone of my inner voice, but raised my eyes. I met Terra’s dark orbs, and I knew the woman could see determination in every line of my face.

“Are you ready to break down the barriers holding you back?” she asked.

I nodded. “Yes.” My voice felt scratchy in my throat. I was worried. There was no way this was legal, and it probably wasn’t safe either. But, strangely, I also felt like I could trust my teacher.

Terra reached out and slowly pulled my teacup across the table toward her. She filled it with a single, confident pour and then pushed the small cup in front of me with her fingertips. “Drink,” she said.

I took it in my cupped palms and raised it to my mouth. Steam curled up into my nose and I could smell something calming like lavender and something sharp like pine. My cautious, rational mind tried to object, to throw up last minute resistance. But my hand was already moving.

I tipped my head back and swallowed every drop of the piping hot liquid in a single movement. The teacup sounded far away when my hand set it back down on the tabletop. I tasted something sweet on my tongue, oddly metallic.

I swallowed again, dryly, and muttered, “How long do I need to wait before…”

My hands gripped the edge of the table as reality bent. Then, the world drifted, my vision sharpened and, deep in my mind, something twitched.

Something woke.

Terra was staring at me. I recognized the fact, but I had no idea how much time had passed. I was staring back, and my eyes were dry like it had been a while since I blinked.

I blinked.

I opened my mouth but Terra was already answering my unspoken question. “No more than ten minutes,” she said. “I prepared only a small dose. You have much yet to do, tonight.”

I coughed, glanced away, took a deep breath and nodded. I met her eyes again. My mind was still whirling, but there was a balance to it, now. Like a rotating top, spinning in place but without a single wobble. I couldn’t really describe what I’d seen and felt in the last dozen minutes, but there was a settled quality to my thoughts. The kind of stillness you get after you’ve made a decision and are ready to follow it through to the end.

I knew that I would have to sit down and ponder if I wanted to unravel what I had just seen and thought and felt. But now was not a time for sitting. It was a time for action.

“I’m ready,” I said.

My Uber pulled to a stop at the curb and I stood up from the swaying porch swing.

Bzz.

In my pocket, my phone vibrated. It wasn’t the first text I’d ignored, and I had a missed call from Victoria, but I brushed them aside as I faced my teacher. She was leaning forward on the wooden railing, hands clasped and eyes fixed on the street. Then, she turned slowly to face me as well.

I scuffed one shoe on the deck, then said, “For what it’s worth, I think you’re pretty good at the teaching stuff.”

Terra looked surprised, and then she couldn’t keep a small smile of satisfaction from her face. “Truthfully?” she asked.

I nodded. It’s one thing to tell someone all about your problems. It’s another thing to tell them how much you admire them. Maybe it was the alcohol that still buzzed in my system. Or maybe I was still spaced out on whatever was in the tea Terra had given me. But I felt very little of the nervousness in that moment. “A lot of the time, you seem like a mythical teacher out of some movie. The things you do, the way you teach, the way you talk…” I trailed off, shaking my head. “Now, tonight, you’re a life saver who shows up at exactly the right moment to dispense the advice I needed to face my fears and win back what’s mine.”

“The advice… and the drugs,” Terra added.

I laughed, and Terra joined me for several quiet chuckles. Her laugh was a pleasant sound. “And the drugs,” I agreed. I hesitated. “Where did you get that tea, by the way?”

The woman paused, then said slowly, “It is from… the time before. From my old master. A parting gift, because he knew my way would be hard and lonely.”

“Ah.”

At the curb, my Uber honked impatiently.

I nodded several times. “Well, I’d better go,” I said. “People to save, and all that.” Then, before I could stop myself, I had stepped forward and was hugging the woman.

She froze up for an instant. Then, I felt her body slowly relax. Her arms circled around my body and her palms pressed into my back.

“Thank you,” I said, stepping away and toward the front steps. I bowed slightly. “I’ll see you soon, Terra.”

For the first time, Terra inclined her head in a small, brief bow of her own. She was mostly just a shadow by the time I was halfway to the car, but I heard her words clearly when she answered. “I will see you soon, Chance.” When I looked back over my shoulder, her dark eyes reflected the moonlight. They were watching me, and I felt their weight on the car until we turned the corner and left her behind.

We had started something, Terra and me. I knew it, knew that something in our relationship had changed, knew that I had taken a step in my training that I had never anticipated. One day, soon, I would be a different person because of the choices I made tonight. But there was still too much to do, too much to resolve before I focused on the future. For now, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and glanced down at the glowing screen.

Not even midnight, I thought. Plenty of time to turn things around.

Victoria picked up her phone immediately, but the first voice I heard filtered in from the background.

“Is that Chance?” It was one of the twins, but over the phone I couldn’t tell which. She sounded like she was having a good time. Heavy party music thumped in the background.

“Yeah, give me a sec…” Victoria muttered. I didn’t know if the woman was talking to me or her companion, but then I heard the music grow quieter. There was the sound of a door sliding closed, and then the woman’s voice again. “Chance, hey! Where the hell are you?”

“Never again.” Victoria’s lips pressed to my forehead, then to my mouth. She stepped back but didn’t let go of my shoulders. “I know you’re an adult, but I’m protective, okay? You can’t just disappear on us.”

Despite her worry, the statuesque brunette looked ravishing in her purple dress, and against the backdrop of Seth’s apartment she almost looked like she could have just been another party girl, instead of a responsible executive who had charged herself with taking care of four other human beings. Beside her, a lithe young redhead wearing a familiar minidress.

It was Daisy, but her sister was nowhere to be seen. Amber, too, was missing.

“Well?” Victoria asked. “Where were you? You said we could talk when you arrived.”

For a split second, I was tempted to lie. After all, it was likely that Landon Shrike had unfettered access to everything in my lover’s mind. But I’d thought about it on the ride over, and the time for secrecy was past. Hiding things, tamping down emotions and avoiding confrontation had been the kindling for each of the problems my companions and I had faced. Instead, I just shook my head.

“Not yet,” I told her. “I’ll wait until we’re all together. Where are the others? There’s something we need to discuss. Now.”

My tone was firm and Victoria’s demeanor changed in an instant. She nodded quickly and turned, her eyes scanning the crowd. Daisy, though, seemed not to pick up on my urgency.

The teenager’s eyes widened as she stepped forward, and they reflected the dancing lights all around us. “I missed you, baby…” she said, resting her hands on my chest and pouting cutely. “I got done with my conversation with Seth and came out looking for you, but you were gone.” Her hands slid down my shirt, then landed on my hips at the last moment instead of going lower.

“So you’re broken up?” I asked, scanning the crowd for crimson hair and blonde. “Officially, and all that?” I wanted to be there for Daisy, to be happy for her as she overcame this obstacle from her past, but there were too many fires other that had to be put out.

“Mmm, well…” Daisy smiled and leaned in, kissing my neck. I could smell her perfume, and I felt a gentle zing of desire course through me. Not now, I thought. But before the girl could finish her reply, another familiar figure stepped out of the crowd.

“Hey, babe. Where did you disappear to?” Amber kept her tone light, but I could still see the frown that she was keeping off her pretty face. “It’s not very polite to leave a girl waiting after she sends you pictures like that. For more than an hour, I might add…”

I swallowed and wrapped one arm around Daisy for emotional support. Just the sight of my girlfriend was hard, and that clingy blue dress made me want to forget that she was also wrapped firmly around the little finger of my most dangerous opponent. The memory of those pictures made me want to bend her over until she could grab her ankles and fuck her until she screamed my name.

Instead, I gave her an apologetic look. “Hey, Amber. I’m sorry, okay? Something came up and I had to step out. I’m going to explain as soon as I can, but first we need to find Carmen and get out of here.”

I could tell the woman wanted more of an answer, but her natural good nature and her habit of going along with my suggestions seemed to kick in. She bobbed her head in agreement, though her blue eyes didn’t meet mine. “Okay, Chance. I think I saw her heading up the stairs at the back of the party, where Seth took Day earlier.”

My brow furrowed with confusion, but Daisy just giggled and nodded. “Carmen is the best sister. When I got back from filming the breakup video with Seth she didn’t get mad at me for wanting to smoke. She just said she was proud of me and that she was going to give that prick a talking to.”

I met the teen’s gaze. Now that I was looking for it, I could tell that she wasn’t completely sober. Her smile was just a little too bright, and her eyelids drooped gently. For an instant, I was worried. Then, I reminded myself of what was at stake. There was no time for trivialities. At any moment, a call from Landon Shrike could get to Victoria or Amber and ruin everything.

I shoved aside my concern for the girl and flashed a smile. “Great,” I said. “That’s perfect, Day. Thanks. We’ll go get her. But first…” I held out a hand, palm up. “I need your phone.”

Daisy blinked her wide green eyes. “My phone…?” She fished the device from the inside of her bra and held it up. “What for?”

“I promise,” I stressed. “I will explain everything. For now, I just need you to trust me. Please.” I figured if I took Daisy’s first, it would be less suspicious for me to do the same with the others. Then, I could be at least momentarily secure from interference.

The girl shrugged. “Okay,” she agreed. “I trust you.” She smiled as she said it, and the smile had an innocence that punched me in the chest.

I swallowed down the nerves that rose in my throat, hoping that I could keep her safe from the coming conflict. I could feel it already, the building tension that told me I was rushing into a scenario with only one way in and one way out. A situation where I either went home tonight with my family intact or shattered. I turned away from Daisy’s smile and focused on the matter at hand.

“Amber?” I asked.

If I had expected there to be some resistance, I was disappointed. The woman shrugged and offered me her cell without hesitation. If I’d had any doubt that she was being manipulated without her knowledge, that clinched it. No one simply hands over a prime piece of evidence without complaint. Not unless they have nothing to hide, or don’t know they have something to hide.

“Thank you,” I said, and my heart thumped loud in my ears. I will do everything I can to save you, I promised her silently, shoving the two devices deep into my pocket. You don’t belong to Landon Shrike, or to TRANCE. You’re mine.

When I turned to Victoria, she already had her cell in her hands. She was completing a text, and had a thoughtful look on her face, but then offered me her phone without complaint. “I just texted Carmen,” she said. “To say we were looking for her.”

Thank you, I thought, but I simply nodded.

“Alright,” I said, lifting my chin and putting an arm around Daisy’s shoulders. “Let’s get your sister and get the hell out of here.”

The second story of Seth’s penthouse was just as spacious as his downstairs. The hardwood floors were loud under my companions’ high heels and the sound of music and revelry vibrated up the stairs behind us. The upstairs landing was a long hallway with an open space at the far end and doors on either side. Despite the packed party below, no one else seemed to have ventured up above.

Seth was just coming out of one of the doors as we arrived.

Daisy’s ex had lost the dark jacket he had been wearing earlier and was down to his white dress shirt, rolled up at the sleeves with a couple buttons undone. His hair was as mussed as ever, but he somehow still gave the impression of having just rolled out of bed in time for a modeling shoot. He glanced over at us, registered no surprise, and took several steps closer. He stuck his hands into the pockets of his navy slacks and leaned one shoulder against the wall, the picture of casual swagger.

“Hey there,” he said. His eyes met mine unflinchingly. They were grey, I realized. I hadn’t been able to tell downstairs, with all the flashing lights.

I stared right back. “We’re looking for Carmen,” I said. I stuck out my chin. I was no longer willing to back down. “I heard she was up here tearing you a new one.” My tone was cool, collected. I’d never been one to talk trash, but I’d heard enough from Daisy to know that this man was a snake, regardless of his outward mask of civility.

To my surprise, Seth wasn’t at all flustered by my remark. Instead, he simply raised his eyebrows. Then, he chuckled. “Come on, then,” he said, in an equally calm, measured tone. He didn’t speak like any teenager I’d met before. He sounded more like Mike Lassiter, like a businessman or an experienced executive. He motioned with his head in the direction of the door he’d just closed. “We’ll see if Carmen shares your assessment.”

His words set off warning bells in my mind, but I didn’t know how to respond other than to square my shoulders and stride confidently toward him. The young man turned as I approached, leading the way back to the door and turning the knob. He paused for an instant, and I thought I saw a smile ghost across his face in the dim light.

Then, he pushed the door open and I stepped in after him.

Only to stop short…

I know this place.

I looked around, my confidence threatening to desert me as confusion muscled in. The red walls, furniture and four-poster bed in the center. The racks of toys on the walls, the loops of rope and belts and playthings.

This was Daisy’s BDSM bedroom, twinned, and in the center of the floor knelt Daisy’s twin, herself.

I met Carmen’s gaze, and her expression was desperate. Her eyes were wide, her red lips were parted in a soft, moaning gasp. One hand was planted on the floor in front of her. The other was buried between her spread thighs. She was completely naked.

As the others fanned out behind me her face transformed. The girl’s eyes rolled back and her hips bucked forward. She arched her back and cried out gently, softly, and I recognized the sound. Carmen was cumming.

My jaw must have dropped open, because it snapped shut as I took several quick strides in her direction. “Carmen,” I said sharply, kneeling beside her. I lifted a hand slowly, but felt hesitant to touch the teenager. Then, I noticed that her lips were moving, and I stopped to listen. What I heard sent a splinter of cold stabbing through my chest.

“I will obey...” Her voice was a low, panting whisper. “I will listen and obey...”

I recognized those words.

“I have no mind. I have no will. I cannot leave. I live to serve...”

How? It wasn’t possible.

“I cannot leave. My body is yours. My mind is yours. My mouth is yours. My ass is yours. My tits are yours. My pussy is yours...”

They were the words of the TRANCE hypnotic programming video, and as I stared into Carmen’s face a wrenching, stunning puzzle piece snapped neatly into place.

“I have no mind. I have no will. I cannot resist. I must obey. I live to obey…”

“What the hell did you do to her?” I growled, whirling on Seth. My hand curled into a fist as rage surged through me. “What the hell did you fucking do?”

Beside me, Carmen’s low murmur continued. “I am your sexy teen fuckdoll… I am your slutty little plaything…”

Beyond Seth, my companions were staring with wide-eyed horror. Amber’s hand was to her mouth and Victoria’s jaw was tight as the first flickers of anger began to spark in her expression. Daisy, though, was the worst off. The usually collected teenager had stumbled back against the wall, pressing her hands back to keep herself upright. Her usually pale skin had gone milky white, and her eyes were huge pools of green. Evidently, even her high couldn’t protect her from this.

“Oh, you poor man.” Seth, alone, looked composed. His lips quirked up into a little smile, and he shook his head. His grey eyes bored into mine. “You’re surprised? How? You didn’t think that you hit the absolute jackpot, did you? All these gorgeous women, just waiting for you to show up and use them?” He raised an eyebrow and very obviously scanned me up and down. “You certainly couldn’t believe you deserved that kind of luck.”

I pushed myself to my feet, standing upright with tension in every line of my frame. Seth knows their trigger phrase. The thought smashed into my mind like a train wreck, threatening to destroy the certainty and confidence that had been giving me hope. But how…? Dumb luck, like me? No… I don’t believe it.

Seth must have read the confusion in my face because he snorted softly and shook his head. “You really don’t know how things work, do you? You don’t just get things for free in life. You buy them. Or…” and here he grinned. “You make them. Custom-built.” He spread his hands, cast out a glance encompassing the space around us. “Just like I custom-built this room. And,” he gestured to Carmen, “just like I had this one custom-built, perfectly designed for me and my pleasure.”

“What are you talking about?” I demanded. I wanted to slug this smug prick right in the jaw, but it felt like my feet were rooted to the floor. After weeks of not knowing, of uncertainty about the means and aims of TRANCE, it looked like I was finally going to get some answers.

In the worse possible way, at the worst possible time.

Seth chuckled. “What? You just thought that some porn company was hypnotizing women to make them better actors? Where is your imagination? No. No no no.” He hung his head and shook it, like he was disappointed in me. “Those women are being shaped. Shaped and advertised in the most blatant way. For who? For me. And people like me. Winners, who make and take what we want. Not lunks like you who blunder around and rip off other people’s hard work.”

I took a step forward, my fist rising and drawing back.

Seth raised his eyebrows at me. “Are you sure you want to do that?” he asked, and it wasn’t the calm, readiness of his stance that stopped me in my tracks but the easy, confident tone of his voice. “You got to play out of your league for a little while. Way out of your league,” he added, giving me another up and down. “But now it’s time to give me back what’s mine. I won’t even begrudge you the fact that you’ve broken them in. Get out, and be grateful for what you still have. Two beautiful, mindfucked babes, waiting to be used at your leisure.”

I hesitated. “What do you mean two?”

“Ah.” A smile of smug satisfaction crawled across Seth’s face. “You’ve reminded me. I can’t tell you how long I’ve waited for this moment.” He cast a glance back toward the door, his eyes fixing on Daisy. He lifted an arm and lazily crooked a finger at her. “Come here.”

I saw fear flash across Daisy’s face, but then her face drew taut. “No.”

Seth’s smile didn’t even twitch as he turned fully toward her. “You will come for me,” he said. “One way or another. Just like you’ll cum for me. Over and over and over, as I do whatever I want with you and that tight body of yours.”

The crimson-haired teen pressed herself off the wall, but stood firm. “Stop whatever you think you’re doing,” she said. “Fix whatever you did to my sister. Then, if you never speak to us again, we might let you off easy and pretend like none of this ever happened.”

Daisy’s ex-boyfriend rolled his eyes and sighed. “All my patience,” he said. “All the time and money I spent on you. On you and your sister. A matching set — two gorgeous, fuckable sextoys who never say ‘No,’ who never even think the word ‘No,’ who never even think at all. And still, I knew that when the moment came you’d be like this. All ‘you can’t do this Seth’… But I’ve waited long enough. I’ve invested enough money. And you know what?” He spread his hands. “I’m not even going to pay Landon to take down those promo videos. You’re already out there, babe, your face and body on tens of thousands of screens. You and your sister both. But what do I care if people see? You’ll never belong to them like you do to me. Completely, with no reservations, no barriers and no limits. They can get off and wish they were good enough to own you, but they can’t. I’m the only one who can turn you into a stupid sexy stoner slut.”

I heard the subtle emphasis on the final words, and saw the trigger phrase run through Daisy like a shiver of relaxation. Her features tried to tighten, but her lips fell open and her eyelashes fluttered. “Ohfuck…” she groaned softly. “Ohfuckme…” The girl’s knees buckled and she put up one hand to catch herself against the wall.

Next to Daisy, Victoria’s eyes blazed with anger. She whirled on Seth, but as she opened her mouth and took a step forward the younger man cut her off with an abrupt gesture.

“Ah ah ah… I wouldn’t get involved if I were you. Not unless you want me to trigger you, too.” Seth stared into the beautiful brunette’s dark, furious eyes. “I may not know your personal registration triggers, since I only bought and paid for these two gems, but if you’re with TRANCE I can use your all-access phrase and turn you into a horny little nympho.” He smirked and raked his eyes down the woman’s figure. “And may I say you look like a great fuck, so don’t tempt me.”

Victoria was stunned into silence.

“Good. You, though,” and Seth turned his attention back to Daisy. “My stupid sexy stoner slut… You’re already involved. You’re at the center of this. Have been since the beginning.”

Daisy seemed to be fighting it, resisting whatever TRANCE programming had been installed in her subconscious, but her fingers slipped down the wall to hang at her side. Her head lolled forward a little at his words, then snapped back up. “No…” she murmured.

It was the No that got me moving again, and before I knew it I was standing between Seth and the redhaired girl. My hands were up and I had pulled back my fist by my chin like Terra had taught me. “If you don’t cut the crap right now,” I scowled, “I will personally beat the shit out of you.”

I was gratified to see, for the first time, a hairline crack in Seth’s calm mask. He took a half-step back, but before he could respond I heard another voice break in.

“You can’t.” There was a hand grasping my arm lightly, holding me in place. It was Victoria’s voice, and her hand holding my elbow.

In disbelief, I turned toward the woman. “What are you—?”

Victoria’s eyes were stormy but her expression was stony. I could have imagined her staring that way at a business rival over a negotiating table, taking their soul with her eyes alone. Her eyes bored into Seth’s face but she spoke to me. “You can’t,” she repeated in clipped syllables. “There are too many witnesses downstairs. Too many consequences. There’s no way that path ends well.”

I blew out a breath and worked my mouth. “Then what the fuck do you want me to—”

“Ohmygodfuckme…” It was a gasp that interrupted me this time, and I whirled in time to see Daisy sliding down the wall, her knees collapsing to the floor as her body shuddered with what looked like a soulbending orgasm.

No…

Somehow I could tell, even before Daisy’s eyes slid back open, that she had lost the fight. Her lashes fluttered up, and her emerald eyes were glazed and blank when they passed over my face. They didn’t stop, though, until they locked on something behind me.

Seth.

“I will obey...” Her voice was a soft, haunted whisper. “I will listen and obey...” Then, on her hands and knees, she began to slowly crawl across the floor. “I have no mind. I have no will. I cannot leave. I live to serve...”

“No,” I muttered. “No…”

Daisy’s ass was up in the air, her hips swaying seductively as she crawled past Victoria, past me, and rose to her knees at Seth’s feet. She stared up at him, and the man reached down, offering her a hand. She took it, and he helped her to her feet, staring into her face the whole while with a hungry light in his gaze.

“I cannot leave,” I could hear her words like a mantra on repeat, though her back was to me. “My body is yours. My mind is yours.” Her voice was as seductive as I’d ever heard it. “My mouth is yours. My ass is yours. My tits are yours. My pussy is yours...”

Part of me, a part that I clamped down on with ironclad resolve, was bursting with arousal. I felt my cock swelling behind my zipper. I could imagine Daisy dropping to her knees, reaching out, wrapping her dainty hand around… I shook my head, trying to dislodge the vision.

Seth glanced past the crimson-haired pornstar, meeting my dangerous look with an expression of unconcern. I could see the tightness in his lean frame, like he was ready to move in an instant, but he kept his face relaxed. He gestured magnanimously and, with a hand on Daisy’s shoulder, slowly turned her around to face me. “Say goodbye, why don’t you?” he offered. “I don’t expect you’ll be back to see her again.”

“I belong to Seth,” Daisy said in that sexy, monotone voice. “Seth is my Master. Seth is my everything…”

“Say goodbye!” the young man ordered, his face sharpening. “And go enjoy the rest of your little harem while you still have the chance. Until someone else takes them away, of course.” He gave Daisy a little push, and she took several slow, languid steps toward me.

I bit down on my rage and forced myself to remember what Victoria had said. She was the responsible one and I trusted her judgement. After all, I had alcohol and the remnants of a strange, trippy drug in my system. Maybe I was still hallucinating, and this was just an awful, twisted nightmare.

Daisy was standing in front of me, her voice mouthing words and her eyes wide and blank. Then, to my surprise, she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around my neck.

No… I couldn’t hug her back, I couldn’t bring myself to pull her lithe body to mine. Not knowing that there was nothing I could do for her now, that I would have to leave and come back with a plan. How could I leave her, knowing what was going to happen next?

Then, without changing her expression or the level of her voice, Daisy murmured, “Get out of here.”

It was only through a massive force of will that I kept a shocked expression off my face.

“Come back when you know how to save Carmen,” she told me. I couldn’t see her expression, because she abruptly lowered her head to press it to my chest, but I felt her lips move as she kissed me softly before pulling away. “I can’t leave her all alone. Trust me. Get out of here.”

“Lovely,” Seth said, bored. “You’ve had your goodbyes. Now leave before I change my mind and take everything I want.”

How? How did she do it? I was too stunned to stop her as Daisy pulled away and I drew back toward Victoria and Amber. Somehow, some way, Daisy had overcome her TRANCE conditioning.

“Come on, lover.” It was Victoria, pulling me through the doorway and back down the hall.

After a moment of resistance, I followed. Daisy was staying with her sister. She was being noble and sacrificing herself to draw Seth’s focus away from her brainwashed sister. But that didn’t mean I wanted to stick around for what happened next.

Behind me, echoing quietly down the empty corridor, I could hear Seth’s smug voice as he turned his attention to Daisy. “Now, get on your knees and open wide, like the dirty little slut you are…”

And, even more quietly, I heard the girl’s voice in reply.

“Yes, Master…”

“Shit shit shit.” I clenched the railing inside the elevator until my fist hurt.

Ding.

When we got to the lobby entrance Victoria held out her hand and beckoned. “I’ll get the car,” she said quietly.

I fished the keys from inside my jacket and offered them to the woman.

She took them, then lifted my wrist in gentle fingers and softly kissed my palm. Her dark eyes were concerned when they met mine. “It’ll be okay,” she promised. “We’ll figure out how to get them back. We’ll beat that arrogant little asshole.”

I swallowed. I wanted to say something about Daisy, about the truth of what was going on, but We left her was the only thought that ran through my head. We left her with that twisted trust fund douchebag, with her mindwiped twin sister and no plan for escape. Somehow, Daisy’s fate seemed worse than Carmen’s. But my hesitation cost me, and Victoria was already turning away and click-click-clicking on her heels through the front door.

“Good evening, ma’am.” The doorman bowed his head respectfully as he pushed the door open and she strode through with a determined gait.

Beyond Victoria, out in the semicircular drive, a shiny black SUV pulled up in front of the building.

I blew out a sigh and sagged against one of the expensive couches. “What the hell are we going to do now?” I wondered aloud.

It was a rhetorical question, so I was surprised when Amber murmured a loud, “Hmm…” in reply. I furrowed my brow and turned her way, but the woman seemed a distracted, her expression troubled. She glanced away when I looked for her eyes.

“What is it?” I asked. “What does that mean…? I hope you’re not still upset about me leaving you mid-sext. I promise it was urgent. And it seems like we have bigger problems now, anyway.”

“No, baby, it’s nothing,” Amber said, flashing a little smile. I would have been relieved, but the expression seemed a little too bright for our current mood. “It’s just that I remembered something.”

I frowned. “What is it?”

“Good evening, sir.”

I heard the doorman’s voice behind me as the busty pornstar tossed golden hair back over one shoulder. Then, with a nonchalant shrug, she gestured in the direction of the entrance. “I already have a ride home tonight.”

I spun on my heel.

The man standing in the lobby of Seth’s building was tall, with a healthy tan and a long black coat that looked expensive. I would have put him in his early forties — old enough to be given the respect of middle-age but young enough to still have the glow of youth about him. His smile looked wolfish as he raised his hands toward my girlfriend.

“Amber, my dear,” he said in a low, rich voice. “So happy to see you outside of academy hours.”

“Principal Clayton,” the bubbly blonde replied. She twisted a strand of hair around one finger as she sashayed toward him. “So happy you could come.”

“You just let her walk out with him?!” Victoria’s voice was stunned.

I scowled, stabbing my seatbelt into the lock ferociously. “What was I supposed to do?” I snapped, yanking on the strap. “I wasn’t just going to grab her and pin her to the floor. The doorman and the front desk manager would have called the police, for a start. And I could see that the guy had two big bouncer types standing by his car. They were staring at me with the kind of look that said they wanted to start something. I can’t help any of you if I’m spitting teeth and can’t see out of my two black eyes.”

The brunette cursed softly as we pulled out of the drive. “Did they say anything else? Do you know who he was? Did you see which way they went?”

I glowered silently for a moment, seething. Rage bubbled in chest and my head, and I was struggling not to turn it on Victoria. It’s not her fault, I reminded myself. You’re pissed off at Seth. You’re pissed off at Landon Shrike. You’re pissed off at whoever this Clayton guy is. You’re not pissed off at the woman who has stood by you through it all.

Victoria let me calm myself down, navigating with quiet competence in the direction of—

“No,” I said abruptly. “We’re not staying at Starside tonight.”

The woman shot me a sideways glance. “Chance…” Her tone suggested she wanted me to be reasonable. “It’s close. And if there is any way we can turn things around, we should be close by.”

But I shook my head. “I need a clear head if I’m going to be of any use to Daisy or Carmen or Amber or any of us. And I’m not going to be able to think straight sitting in the twins’ place while they’re back there with… him. Please.”

The woman sighed, but after checking the rearview she switched lanes and took a turn. After a couple minutes, we hit the freeway that would guide us back to the suburbs.

“So did they say anything useful, at least?” she asked.

I took a breath, then nodded. Keep it together. Everyone you care about is counting on you now. Everything that matters depends on your ability to think clearly. “His name is Clayton,” I answered. “and as far as I know he’s the man in charge of the Brighton Barnsworth Academy.”

It was dark, so it was difficult to read Victoria’s expression, but I could tell from her tone she was as frustrated as I was. “But what was he doing here? Why did he show up? What is he doing with Amber?”

“I don’t know.” I twisted my knuckles against my forehead. “He mentioned getting a call from Shrike, saying that Amber needed a ride. Clayton said it was lucky because he had someone he wanted Amber to meet. Someone she’d been waiting to meet.” I pressed my mouth tight closed as I watched it again in my mind’s eye.

Clayton had gestured to one of the large, intimidating men that followed him out of the car, and the bruiser had opened back door of the SUV. There was the figure of a man sitting inside. As far apart as Amber and I had drifted, it had still been painful to watch her blue eyes widen and her lips part in a little squeal of excitement.

“This is Mr. Morrison,” the university administrator had said with a smile. “Won’t you join us?”

Amber had practically skipped through the door in her high heels, seeming to have forgotten completely about me.

I knew that, despite how things appeared, my girlfriend wasn’t acting of her own will. She had been hypnotized, conditioned and trained. Prepared by TRANCE for some stranger — this mysterious Mr. Morrison, maybe? — just as Carmen and Daisy had been prepared for Seth. I still wasn’t sure what part the Academy played in this frightening game, but a few things were certain.

The twins had been taken. Amber had been taken. Victoria was compromised. And my only ally tonight was a woman I barely knew, with a strange past that I should probably find highly suspicious.

And me.

I felt my fists clench as anger billowed up inside. For the first time, though, it wasn’t a useless, frustrated feeling of impotence. It was a righteous, uplifting sensation. I felt the air in my nostrils as I pulled in a deep breath. The voice in my mind was quiet. It had a fumbling, newborn sense about it. But it was me. And I knew that this ally would never be taken, never be compromised.

“What is it, baby?” Victoria asked. “Did you remember something else?”

I shook my head. “Nothing.” I needed some quiet. To think. To rack my brains for some sort of plan. There was something there, I sensed, some hint of an idea. Something I’d heard or seen that would give me a clue if I could only remember what it was. But I couldn’t, and it left me with an irritating sense of anticipation. As if an answer were there if I could only put my finger on it.

When we parked in the downstairs garage of my building, Victoria reached out and grabbed my forearm before I could climb out of the car. “I’m worried,” she told me. She looked away when she said it, like she was ashamed. “I know you all look to me to solve things, but I don’t know how to solve this. The twins aren’t themselves. Seth and TRANCE did something to them. Amber is being consumed by the same monster… I just don’t know how to stop it. I don’t know.”

I didn’t know either. I didn’t know how to end this nightmare and I didn’t know how to respond to Victoria except to put my hand over hers and squeeze reassuringly. But silently, to myself, I wondered, Do we really do that? For some reason, I had always had some notion that I was the one who everyone came to with their problems. Call me self-absorbed, because as I thought about it I realized the truth of her words.

“It’s going to be okay,” I muttered after a brief silence, trying to sound confident. “We’re going to figure this out. And you’re not alone. I’m right here and we’ll do it together. Okay?”

Victoria worked her jaw, nodding quietly, and I realized that the woman was so stressed out she was close to tears. It made me wonder how much of her aura of control and confidence was an act, how much of her responsible nature was just a crazy attempt to solve everyone else’s problems and make it seem like she had none of her own.

Damn… I thought. And on top of it all, I don’t know if I can trust her.

I felt safe so long as Victoria’s phone, her line of communication to Landon Shrike, was in my pocket. But how long could we make it before I had to deal with the fact that our enemy could reach into her head whenever he wished? How much could I risk by sharing my insights and plans?

We climbed the stairs to my landing, and Victoria’s keys jingled quietly as we approached the door.

“Chance?”

The sound of my name surprised me, and I spun to see a young woman coming to her feet behind us. She had apparently been waiting, sitting quietly on the flight up to the next floor. Her dark hoodie had hidden her in the shadows.

“Who’s there?” I demanded on instinct, stepping forward a half pace.

The girl came down the last few steps and dropped back her hood, revealing a shoulder-length mane of chestnut hair. She approached another step closer, and in the moonlight that filtered into the stairwell I could see that her hair was streaked with dark blue. But it wasn’t until I heard her voice again that I recognized her.

“Your name is Chance, right? Last time I was here, I called you something else.”

Oh my god, I thought.

It was Mia.

My heartbeat tripled and pounded in my head as I struggled for a response. I didn’t have time for this, didn’t have the energy or focus or poise to deal with the sorority sister or whatever crisis had made her show up now, at the worst possible time.

Of course, Devil Chance made it all better by jumping to the best possible conclusion. She’s not pregnant, is she? DC demanded. Oh that would not be good, man.

I blinked. Shit… My memory of that night was hazy, and my mind was scattered. Had Mia and I fucked? I couldn’t remember. Probably. We had been going at it like rabbits for almost two hours.

I glanced at Victoria. We didn’t need any more problems right now. Was there a diplomatic way to put this problem off until later?

The mature brunette came to my aid. “Mia,” Victoria said quietly. She paused, tucked back a segment of dark hair, then went on. “Chance and I are having a very difficult night. I’m sorry to say this, because you’ve obviously been waiting for us, but we’re going to have to talk to you another time.”

I was surprised when Mia shook her head. “It’ll only take a minute,” the young woman answered. “I’m moving out tomorrow, so I wanted to come say goodbye.”

Wait… “What?” I muttered. First of all, why was Mia moving away in the middle of the school year? Second, why did I deserve a visit? I cast back in my memory and the last time I recalled seeing the girl was when she fled my apartment the morning after an impromptu orgy.

Except for when you watched her through your window and described her for Lassiter as the perfect bimbo sextoy, DC commented.

Mia glanced between me and Victoria, then added. “Is it alright if we talk alone? Just for a minute, I promise.”

My companion hesitated, then threw me a glance and blew out a breath. “I’ll be inside,” she told me. “We need to deal with… everything. As soon as we can.”

I nodded. “Right,” I agreed.

Then, the door swung shut and it was just Mia and me on the landing.

I raised my eyebrows at the young woman. “So…” I said. I shuffled my feet. “We needed to be alone so you could say goodbye? I hope you don’t plan on murdering me now that you have me out here undefended.”

The girl laughed softly, a sweet sound. “Murder you? For what?”

I shrugged. “Some might say that the last time we met it was to trick you into joining a crazy wild sex party. And I don’t remember you wanting to stick around after.”

“Right.” Mia played with her hair. A little nervously, maybe? “I’m sorry I rushed out. It’s not like… a situation I’ve come across often. What do you do when your neighbors are a guy and his polyamorous harem of gorgeous babes?”

I snorted. “I guess when you put it that way…” I trailed off, waited for her to say her piece. When she stayed silent another moment, I prompted, “You said you were moving out tomorrow? Are you switching schools or graduating early or what?”

“I’m actually leaving my sorority.” Mia nodded several times. “And that’s part of why I wanted to come over here. What I waited almost an hour to say.”

I cleared my throat. “And what did you want to say?”

“Thank you.”

I blinked. This was unexpected. “For… what?”

“For the crazy wild sex party.” Mia laughed softly, then went on. “Yeah, it was insane and I never expected to ever experience something like that in my life. I probably won’t again. But, at the same time, it took me to such an extreme that I learned something about myself. When your lovers invited me over and hit me with that weird meditation video, I know what they were using me for. I was just the Hot Sorority Chick that you all invited over to bang, right? And that was okay for a night. It was fun to be her, to totally sink into that persona. But the ditzy, platinum-blonde barbie who loves yoga pants more than yoga and pictures of coffee more than a nice dark roast? That’s not really me.”

The girl was shaking her head now. “I was always less confident when I was younger, and more bookish. A lot more of a tomboy, too. But then I started working out and got boobs, and suddenly all the guys I hung out with started getting irritating and all the girls I surrounded myself with started getting jealous. When I got to college and I met all my sisters they acted like they had it all — the looks and the grades and the money and the parties. I got it in my head that I wanted to be like them. I could be smart and act like a ditzy sorority chick, if it made people like me. But how you act is who you become. I started turning into that girl, little by little. I dyed my hair platinum blonde for crying out loud. And after that night with you, I decided that enough was enough. I’d gone plenty far down that rabbit hole.”

It was clear that Mia had been keeping these words bottled up for a while, that I was maybe the first person to ever hear the articulated version of her personal journey. I probably could have responded better. I felt relief flood through me. “So, you’re not…?” I started to ask, then I trailed off, uncertain how to finish the question.

“I’m not what?” Mia looked confused.

I shrugged in discomfort. “You know… pregnant.”

“Ha!” Mia doubled over for a moment, laughing with her arms wrapped around her stomach. When she straightened, she was shaking her head. “No. But I guess you could say that I do need to give birth to something…”

I gave her a blank look.

“A new me,” she said. Then, instantly, she winced. “Ooh, wow, that metaphor sounded so much better in my head.” I laughed softly at her disgusted expression, and she turned it into a little grin. Mia looked really cute with dark hair.

“I wish you the best with that,” I said. I smiled, and felt some of the tension in my chest ease. “And thank you for coming by to tell me all this. I bet you’ll be really successful wherever you end up.”

“Yeah,” Mia agreed. “Well… Anyway. Yeah. I know you have stuff to do,” and she gestured to where Victoria had disappeared in my apartment.

I nodded. “Right. That’s right, I do have stuff.”

I’d say we brought the conversation in for a landing as well as any two strangers could, after having a meaningful conversation for the first time. We stood in silence for an awkward pause, and then Mia gave me an impulsive hug. I felt her body against mine, soft and curvy in all the right places, but she stepped back before I could reciprocate.

So many hugs tonight, I thought. None of them expected, all of them in crazy circumstances.

“Thanks, Chance,” Mia said again.

There was a flash of bright blue eyes in the weak glow of the overhead light as she turned, and then the girl was hurrying down the stairs and into the night. I stared after her for a moment.

Then, shaking my head, I turned toward my front door.

“Alright,” I muttered. “Time to save the day.”

The interior of the apartment was dark, but I could hear sounds coming from the direction of the bedroom. I followed them down the short hall and through the door on the right. The bathroom door was halfway open, yellow light spilling around it and across the bed.

“Victoria?” I called quietly.

“Yeah, babe?” Out of sight, the woman sounded less anxious than before, and I was grateful.

“She’s gone.” I said, sitting on the edge of the bed.

“What did she want?”

I shrugged, leaning forward and feeling my weight sag down into the mattress. “To thank me for getting to be part of a hypnotized orgy?” I shook my head. “Anyway, she’s gone now. And we need to hammer out a plan.”

The sliver of light broadened in front of me as the door opened, and I could see Victoria’s figure backlit against it. I blinked as she sashayed through the door, and then tensed against the sheets when I saw what she was wearing.

Absolutely nothing. Nothing except her high heels and an expression that told me exactly what she wanted. “Or, she said quietly. “You could hammer me…”

“Vi!” I knew I sounded shocked. “Shouldn’t we be—?”

The woman shook out her hair and stared at me from under heavy eyelids. She wet her lips as my words stumbled to a halt. I could read her face in the splash of yellow light that spilled in from the bathroom. I swallowed. My body was suddenly tingling as Victoria’s dark gaze electrified me.

“We need to help the twins,” I muttered. “And Amber. We have to come up with some sort of plan…”

“Won’t we think better if we work off a little of that stress?” The woman’s voice was a musical purr, and her gaze was locked on the bulge that the shadows of the darkened room couldn’t hide. “We may be up all night, and I know that I’ll think a lot more clearly once we get a little more… relaxed.”

The brunette took a slow step toward me, her big tits jiggling on her chest as her weight shifted, and I heard myself let out a soft, low groan. I couldn’t deny it. I knew that I should have had more urgency, but my body had been waiting for this moment ever since I’d seen my four dynamite babes wriggle into their party dresses earlier in the evening.

“Quickly,” I rasped. Then, I was shrugging my jacket off my shoulders as quickly as I could while Victoria covered the distance between us in two rapid strides.

Her lips pressed to mine as I struggled with the front buttons of my shirt, and I heard her nails click on my belt. Her kiss seared against my mouth, urgent and hot and hard. My cock pulsed, throbbed as Victoria moaned and I felt her lashes flutter against my cheek. My hand rose and cupped a breast, squeezing and kneading and making her kiss me harder.

“Ohmygod baby I want you so bad…” Victoria’s words came in a fast pant as she tugged at my pants, fumbling them down my legs clumsily while I lifted my hips up off the bed. I heard a quiet thunk, followed by the clink of my belt hitting the floor, and then felt Victoria’s warm, experienced fingers wrap around my rock-hard shaft. She was kneeling between my spread thighs, her hand stroking up and down my cock while her dark eyes burned into mine. “I’m going to make you feel so good, Chance,” she whispered. Then, never breaking eye contact, Victoria parted her full lips and lowered them over the head of my length.

“Ohfuck…” I groaned. I felt her tongue swirl around and around, worshipping my cock as the busty brunette slowly slid my manhood into her hot, waiting mouth.

“Mmm…”

I felt a rustle of cloth as Victoria pulled my pants away from my feet with one hand, the other gently massaging my balls. My eyes squeezed shut as my head fell back, and I felt the vibration of my lover’s wanton moan shudder up into my core. My head pounded, blood pumping south and into my length, my body disregarding the stresses of my life and overwhelming them with a single urgent need.

The tip of my cock popped free of her mouth, and I felt Victoria’s tongue lick lovingly up my shaft while her hand slowly pumped my pulsating rod. My eyes fluttered open and I watched as Victoria rose up toward the bed. I scooted back, giving us space, and watched, entranced. Most of the woman’s body was in shadow as she crawled onto the mattress beside me, one hand rising to trail the edge of a fingernail across my chest.

“Fuck, Vi…” The words drifted out on a sigh of arousal.

Victoria kissed my shoulder, the side of my neck, then my jaw. Her body was gliding up mine, her smooth skin on my bare torso and her hard nipples pressing into my chest. I fell back onto the bed as she straddled me, kneeling across my hips. I could see the glistening sheen of her arousal in the shadow between her thighs, my cock pressed up against her slit.

“Are you asking me to fuck you, Sir…?” Victoria’s voice teased me, her fingers twining through mine and pinning one hand to the bed as she leaned forward. Her tits swayed beneath her, tantalizingly close to my lips as she stared down into my eyes.

“Yes,” I whispered.

And then her hips sank down and my cock sheathed itself in her body.

Ohfuckme… My eyelids dropped and I fell into pleasure, my hips rising in time with Victoria’s rhythm, the woman setting a pace for both of us as she sped up. Her pussy clenched around my length, close as a glove and hot enough to send shivers of warmth radiating out into my entire body. One of my hands tightened around hers, the other made a fist in the sheets.

I heard her gasps, felt the shuddering ecstasy that gripped her body.

“Yes, Sir… yes, Sir… Yessir yessir yessir!” Her voice was tight and desperate. She was so turned on I could practically feel her getting slicker around my plunging shaft, her body squeezing tight and begging me to explode deep in her core.

I wanted to, and I squeezed my eyes closed. Then, unbidden, images began to flash in my mind.

Daisy, red lips curled in a gasping smile of delight as I slid into her tight, wet snatch.

I thrust inside of her, making her groan and grind her body down on top of mine. Her muscles clenched, her fingers gripping my hand and her nails digging into my skin.

Carmen, crimson hair falling around her shoulders and over her perky, bouncy tits as she threw her head back and came.

My free hand ran up her smooth side and tangled in her hair, pulling her toward me into a kiss. I felt her shuddering climax run through us both like an electric current.

Amber, her eyes piercing blue and flashing with desire as I pounded inside her drenched slit like a jackhammer.

“We have to save them,” I groaned. I could feel the climax rising within me, tightening my muscles and tingling in my blood.

I felt Victoria’s orgasm begin to subside. I felt her weight shift as she leaned back up and away. But her hips didn’t slow, so I kept my eyes clamped closed. I wanted to sink into the dark, to fall over the edge and come back up with the people who had been taken from me. I wanted to explode, to release the tension and return to a time when things were simple.

Pleasure shot through my nerves. I curled my toes. I was so close.

“I really wish I didn’t have to do this, baby…” Victoria sounded apologetic, even through her panted moans of pleasure.

My eyes snapped open.

In an instant, I took in the sight above me.

Victoria straddled my hips, my manhood sheathed to the hilt in her body. Dark hair tumbled wild around her shoulders and down her back. In her free hand, the woman was holding her phone. The other hand tightened around mine, pressing it to my chest. She must have slipped the device out of my pocket when she got rid of my pants. The glow of the screen lit up the frown on her face.

“I’m sorry,” she gasped, impaling herself once more on my throbbing length, “but Landon’s orders were very clear. If you didn’t seem ready to give up on your girls after all of them had been taken from you, then there would be only one thing left to do.”

Oh shit…

Then, the woman’s finger hit the screen and she spun the phone around as a video blasted to life.

No! I tried to sit up but my mind felt hazy as fast, synthetic music blasted in my ears. It was a familiar sound. And I knew I’d watched this video before. Flashes of it, out of the corner of my eye.

Victoria’s hand was on my chest, her weight pinning me down as I struggled weakly. My cock sank deep into her womb as she rode me, and at the same time the flashing colors dazzled my eyes and my thoughts scattered like clouds in a heavy wind.

“No…” I groaned. The pulsating beat of an electronic melody twined into my mind, and I felt my will begin to crumble. I knew I couldn’t give in, couldn’t give up. I was Daisy’s only chance, Carmen’s only chance, Amber’s only chance. But at the same time…

Wouldn’t it be nice to watch, just this once, all the way through?

My body felt so good, my muscles tight with electric bliss and a gorgeous woman begging me to cum with every fiber of her being. Begging me to give in to pleasure, to give in to her, to give in to the numbing, blissful blanket that was trying to wrap my thoughts in the gentle embrace of submission.

I felt myself explode, my balls emptying their load deep in Victoria’s body. My muscles tightened, my body a single point of pleasure in space. My mind flashed blank, hot, electric. For the space of a second, an instant of ecstasy, there was nothing in me but pleasure.

And that was when I summoned my will.

That was when I started to fight back.