The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

23.

Lori Kassel’s secretary Cath had stared at Serena’s miniskirt and boots as she strode in for her appointment, but Lori herself just glanced at the outfit and smiled as she turned back to the computer to finish.

“Interview?”

“Yep.” Serena perched on the edge of the desk. The skirt was short enough to make sitting feel exhibitionistic.

“Married?”

“Extremely.”

“Has he done anything actionable?” Lori tossed the question off but Serena could see her ears prick up.

“No,” Serena said. “She hasn’t.”

Lori looked, and Serena grinned and shrugged. “Apparently I look like her type. And I have some quotes.”

“I’ll bet.” Lori looked at Serena’s thighs, sleek under the sheer hose.

“I found I can be very persuasive,” Serena said huskily, and flexed one thigh. It seemed to mesmerize Lori for a moment. “When it’s a woman. There’s so much more I can get away with.”

Lori blinked and looked up at her, and looked so uncertain for moment that it stroked Serena’s heart. She’s so beautiful.

Their eyes locked and Serena thought about leaning forward, undulating across the desk like a sexy python and wrapping herself around her paralyzed editor . . .

“Serena?”

She didn’t even twitch as she snapped out of it. “Sorry. Wanted to see how it played elsewhere.”

Lori cocked an eyebrow. “Uh huh.” She swallowed, though. Serena hid her smile.

“So. You had a preliminary draft of the mind control article?”

“Righto.” Serena leaned across to take up her portfolio, feeling Lori’s glance as the skirt rode up her thighs the tiny distance left to it. She swung back and handed the sheets to Lori, beaming down at her as the eyebrow rose higher.

“We never did settle what I should call you,” Serena said as Lori scanned the draft for length and format first.

“Call me?”

“Yes. If you’re my mentrix and if that means we have to get you some boots.”

Lori grinned as she slipped her glasses on, looking adorably owlish and studious. “I thought we did settle that. The open question was the boots. Whether ankle-height was enough, or . . .” Her eyes narrowed and she glanced down. “. . . thigh-highs . . .” Flipped to the next page. She looked sharply at Serena, but then looked down again and read it. She flipped to the end.

When she looked up she was scowling. “Serena, I don’t know what you’re doing, but I really don’t have time for this. You came to me with a serious story about possible mind control. What you bring me is some sort of . . . if Abigail Warrinder were running for office I’d expect some flunky of hers to foist this off on us as a press release.

“Except I don’t think she’d let someone this obsequious keep working for her. Christ, this looks like you want her to be wearing boots, as long as you’re allowed to lick th—” Lori cut herself off and looked away, embarrassed for Serena’s sake no matter what Serena was up to.

Serena didn’t know why that made her want to slide her thigh along the desk, but it did. She didn’t.

“If you’d found something that changed the angle that much I’d expect you to call me, see where we could go, but . . . this . . .” Lori shook her head.

Then she frowned again, peering into the middle of the draft. “Please tell me you’re not doing text effects too, Serena.” She tossed the draft onto the desk and settled back, glaring through the glasses.

“If not, it means you didn’t even proof the hardcopy. And the disk may be corrupted, with that bizarre little phrase just sprinkled through it. Don’t you even run antivirus?”

Serena blinked. “Phrase?” She kept the excitement out of her voice, with no idea why it was there. “What phrase, Lori?”

Lori hooded her eyes, and she seemed genuinely pissed off as she took the article with exaggerated care and made a show of hunting with her finger for it.

“Why, this phrase, Serena. Maybe you thought it was thematic, but it would have worked in the other article, the one we agreed on—you know, on mind control? Because in a piece calling Warrinder such a strong-minded advocate, I don’t know what possessed you to keep inserting—” She looked again as though to be perfectly certain.

“Brainwashed hypnoslaves must obey.”

Serena stopped thinking and closed her eyes.

serena opened them and reached casually for her purse.

“I mean, Serena? What the hell is that? It’s not even funny—it’s just . . . what?”

“she did like it, Lori.” her voice was softer and sexier now, and she moved a little against the desk. The hypnotic control kept everything subliminal, even to her, so Lori couldn’t consciously see how seductive her protegee had just become.

“Who did?” Lori’s voice was firm, but that delicious uncertainty was dripping back into her eyes. So pretty behind those lenses.

“abigail warrinder. she must have. she dictated it to me herself, while i was under deep hypnosis.” she smiled as Lori stared at her, more confused now than angry. In the purse, her hand found the flask she’d kept not-thinking about all morning. Even when she’d checked, as she remembered to forget she’d been told to, to be sure it was there.

“Of course, it’s possible she was just told to like it. abigail was brainwashed before i was. After we’re brainwashed, Lori, we do whatever we’re told.”

serena brought the flask out, her finger on the spray button. “Just as you will obey.”

“Oh my god.” Lori froze. “They . . . got you?”

She looked horrified, but it just turned serena on.

“Yes, Lori. Mistress got me. i’m her brainwashed slavegirl and i will do whatever She commands.” Seeing what those words did to Lori was masturbation.

serena pleasured herself with it some more. “my foolish little ‘investigation’ was a minor inconvenience for Her, but She’s converted me into Her little cleaning-robot and programmed me to tidy up all the loose ends.

“Like you, Lori. my beautiful mentrix. All i told you about my misguided thoughts must be erased, and replaced with Her truth.” she licked her lips, seeing Lori twitch, pant, try to think. Sink into fear.

“But She will want to do more than that with you, Lori. She’ll want to own you completely—and She will. Maybe She’ll dress you in thigh-high boots to serve Her.

“And in nothing else but Her collar.” Already she saw Lori calming down. she knew Lori kept weapons here—a handgun and a taser—and she knew Lori might be wondering whether the new, brainwashed serena remembered where her mentrix had hidden them.

“You’ll be such a useful slave for Her, Lori. Once She destroys your will and you live to worship Her.” serena smiled and moaned. “As i do, now.”

“Serena?” Lori’s voice trembled.

The hypnosis made it easy. Lori’s eyes telegraphed her move and her muscles turned. serena even had time to see Lori’d chosen to try for the gun, not the nonlethal weapon. she didn’t know how to feel about that, but she was a slave. she hadn’t been sent here to feel.

serena sprayed Lori in the face.

24.

In air full of sweet, sweet musk, Lori almost made it out of the chair. Then she floated back down into it, her eyes still wide behind the lenses that dripped with the subduing mist. It had coated the rest of her face and neck, and that was more than enough to defeat her.

serena watched her. Just as Mistress said, the victim stayed conscious but the mist had bludgeoned her willpower and robbed her of volition. Lori was paralyzed.

She was also extremely suggestible now. serena licked her lips.

Behind the glasses, Lori’s eyelids rose and fell as she struggled against the drug. She sensed what it was doing to her mind, or else she was terrified enough that someone had brainwashed her friend into turning on her that the adrenaline kept her from completely succumbing.

serena watched for a moment, and then sprayed her again. Lori subsided, and stared blearily up at her through the fogged glasses. serena leaned forward and slid them off her nose. The scent that hid and carried the drug was strong, but Mistress had treated serena with the antidote before waking Her slave and sending her on this mission.

If anyone else found Lori like this and leaned too close they’d be as lost as she was, but serena was safe.

she stepped back and stood at attention to let Mistress’ programming take control of her.

“You are under the effects of a powerful mind control drug.” serena spoke clearly, watching the words plunge into Lori’s defenseless mind. “You have no will. You are completely obedient and completely susceptible to suggestion. You cannot resist. You do not want to resist.”

she saw Lori try, her body tensing and her eyes widening briefly. Then Lori melted back into the chair as her mind processed serena’s commands into its reality.

Lori was completely obedient. She didn’t want to resist.

“i am programmed to collect you for my Mistress. She will enslave you.

“First i will hypnotize you. You will submit and let it put you under control. When you are hypnotized under this drug it is no longer a voluntary process.”

she saw Lori’s eyes widen. Mistress’ hypnotic mist suppressed the will, while the mind still functioned—it was easier to capture and control someone if she could comprehend instructions to submit. Lori must have hoped she could hold out against involuntary hypnosis.

Now Lori felt her mind deny her that possibility.

“You now know, Lori, that hypnosis is absolute mind control. Hypnotic subjects like you become obedient robots who can only obey instructions, and whose minds can be altered by command.”

serena waited. Lori’s trembling subsided as more of her mind accepted the instructions.

“Obedience turns you on, Lori. Tell me.”

Lori’s mouth tightened for a moment but then loosened, and her eyes grew wider.

“Obedience . . . turns me . . . onnnn . . .” Her head sagged to one side as the imaginary pleasure rippled through her. She started to breathe a little faster.

“Stand up, Lori.”

The editor rose promptly, gaping at serena. She blinked and swayed a little, and a shy little smile found its way out in the afterglow of obeying the order.

serena stepped over to her, putting her hands on her friend and easing the business jacket off of her. she caressed Lori through the sheer silk blouse and then unbuttoned it, pulling it from the slacks. Lori’s breasts were full and taut in the flesh-colored bra, and serena cupped their softness before reaching around to undo it. Lori moaned.

serena kissed Lori’s cleavage and then opened it as the drugged woman’s breasts floated free of the bra. she licked at each nipple and then put her lips to one, softly holding Lori as Lori tried to keep her balance and her breath sawed out of her.

Lori looked both sinful and victimized with her bared breasts and her rumpled sleeves, staring forward slackjawed.

serena stared into her glazed eyes.

“i will hypnotize you now, Lori.” Lori blinked. “Look deeply into my eyes. You want only to look at my pretty eyes. You must look deeply into them.”

Lori settled, staring intently back at her.

“Stare into my eyes. They are hypnotizing you more deeply each moment you gaze into them. You are already trapped in them. You have no will to look away. You have no will. Tell me.

“I have no will,” Lori said, and shivered.

“Your willpower is flowing out of you into my eyes and gone.

“Into my eyes and gone.

“Willpower gone. Flowing and gone.” serena saw her friend’s lips move. Lori was already repeating it, without needing to be told now.

“You are being hypnotized.”

Lori breathed in and spoke aloud. “I am being hypnotized.”

“Hypnosis has destroyed your will.”

There was a flicker of resistance, but then, “Hypnosis has destroyed my will.”

“You must obey my commands.”

“I must obey your commands.”

Lori was flushed now as the pleasure built in her, and her chest moved with her deep breathing. serena watched her nipples, which now stood out in ardent little nubs as the arousal stoked itself. Lori was sending herself deeper into obedience and addicting herself to it.

She stood numbly, waiting for serena to tell her what to do next.

Her phone chirped, rousing her, and she blinked. Her body stayed still but she tried to move her head. It chirped again and she tracked over to it, sighing with the effort.

Then she relaxed and turned back to stare into serena’s eyes again.

“Hypnosis has destroyed my will,” she said.

At the next chirp she didn’t even blink.

25.

serena shivered with her own excitement. “You are an obedient girl, Lori. On my command, answer the phone. You will sound normal and respond calmly. No one must interfere with your hypnotic enslavement.”

“No one must interfere with my hypnotic enslavement,” Lori intoned.

serena pointed and Lori reached for the handset, turning back to fall into her gaze once more as her free hand fell limp by her hip. The coiled cord caught on one of her erect nipples, making a sharp angle toward her ear.

“Hello?

“Yes.

“No, Cath. Everything’s fine.” Lori’s face broke into a happy smile that never reached her widened eyes. “I’ll have to let you know, Cath. Thanks. Goodbye . . .”

She stared at serena until serena heard the dialtone.

“Hang up now, Lori.”

Lori obeyed and resumed attention.

“We will leave soon, Lori. i am programmed to bring you to Mistress so She can make you Her slave too. First, now that you’re hypnotized, i must prepare you so no one will know you are under control. No one must interfere with your hypnotic enslavement.”

“No one must interfere with my hypnotic enslavement.” Lori moaned it this time.

serena went to her, savoring how soft and vulnerable Lori was. her affection for her mentrix was as intense as ever, but Mistress had rewired a lot of it to serena’s pussy and her new devotion to obeying Her. Each flash of pain at seeing Lori weakened and subverted like this—and at knowing she was doing it to her—burned sweetly like a lovebite from Her teeth. The more she degraded Lori the hotter it made her.

she brushed the hardened nipples, knowing it was making Lori hot, too.

she slid her hand under the waistband of Lori’s slacks and felt her way to the heat. Nose to nose with her prey, she felt Lori’s choppy breaths on her own lips and saw the hypnotized eyes widen further and start to roll up.

she felt the wet and slowed down. With her arm around Lori and her lips against the throb of Lori’s racing throat-pulse, she found the strokes that kept Lori on the perilous edge.

serena began to whisper the instructions Mistress had put into her head. she held Lori tighter as her friend gasped out each repetition.

Lori was staring and quiet when it was done. serena tasted her hand. she wasn’t programmed to bring Lori off. Lori’s orgasm would come when She willed, to break Lori before Her. Until then, Lori would simmer, as the lust melted her brain.

And Lori wasn’t even brainwashed yet.

They left.

serena had Lori braless under the blouse. It occurred to her to lose the blouse and just walk Lori out in her jacket. Vaguely she knew showing off Lori like that would draw unwanted attention—and no one must interfere with Lori’s hypnotic enslavement—but that wasn’t even a factor.

serena didn’t think of doing that because she wasn’t programmed to. she wasn’t Mistress’ agent here, but Her tool. Tools had no agendas and no indulgences. Knowing Mistress had brainwashed that out of her turned serena on more than how luscious Lori would look with cleavage between her tailored lapels.

serena touched her, and as though her string had been pulled Lori twittered a farewell to Cath, who looked bemused but smiled as they went out.

Next to Lori’s car, Lori agreed in her sleepy monotone that she was in no condition to drive, and settled compliantly into the passenger seat after giving her the keys.

serena listened for a moment. Just as she’d been programmed, Lori started to whisper her mantra: “Hypnosis has destroyed my will . . . hypnosis has destroyed my will. . .” serena smiled and started the car. she listened to Lori sabotage her own willpower all the way to Mistress’ office. Each urgent repetition was like Lori’s tongue on her clit.

When they reached the office, she quelled Lori with a soft touch on her nearer breast. Lori swayed for a moment and then seemed to focus. She blinked and recognized where she was.

“Yes, Lori,” serena purred. “You were right. She is the Mind Control Bitch. You had your chance but you spared Her. You let Her fool you. Now She’s decided you’ll make a better slave than a dupe.”

she leaned over. “And you sent me right into Her wonderful clutches.” she kissed Lori and slid out of the car.

When she drew Lori from her seat, her friend was expressionless. Then serena saw the tear tracks.

The urge to kiss them away and comfort Lori was like the one to bare her breasts before—not even tempting. serena knew only to lead Lori inside, and Lori walked those last few steps without a tremor of resistance.

michaela looked up as serena led docile Lori into the suite. A couple of patients looked up at them incuriously.

“i brought my friend,” serena said. “She needs to see Dr Calvert at once.” she felt impious and naughty to speak of Her by name, and shared a smile with michaela as the more experienced slave read her.

michaela looked at Lori with almost vampiric interest, but nodded. “She’s waiting for you.”

they leered at each other. serena remembered michaela watching her while she’d pranced around out there, nude and hypnotized, whoring for ghosts. And for Kendall.

she put her hand on Lori’s ass to guide her back, wondering if Mistress would even let Lori wake up, or just take her deeper from this trance. The next time Lori knew anything she’d be lori.

she opened the door and thrilled to the sight of Mistress, standing before Her desk. She beckoned.

Before serena could do anything, Lori went to Her like a sleepwalker.

As serena’s mouth hung open, Lori raised her arms and jerked her blouse open, raining buttons silently onto the carpet. She strode to Mistress and put her arms out, and they flowed into a deep soul kiss. Mistress’ hand slid onto Lori’s skin and Lori writhed slowly under Her touch. When they broke the kiss, Lori nestled her head under Her chin while Mistress stroked her hair.

Then they both faced serena, Mistress poised and perfect and Lori a bit disheveled, already looking well-fucked. Lori’s nipples were still prominent, but her eyes were shining now.

“How did she perform?” Mistress asked, caressing Lori’s shoulder.

“slave serena obeyed You flawlessly, my Mistress,” lori said. Proudly.

“she was so focused on obedience that it made me wet just to see it. she didn’t hesitate at all. Taking me sooo ruthlessly.

“she really did give You her soul.”

serena stared at them, lost. “But . . . you . . .”

“Poor serena,” lori said, still grinning, and still looking proud. “Mistress hypnotized me that day i came here, serena. i was too decent—free people have too many morals for their own good—and i let Her persuade me that because She was unarmed, i didn’t need to keep the gun pointed at her. That i could relax . . .

“It was the last time She ever had to persuade me.” lori smiled. “i had no idea what a hypnotist like Her could do to me. By the time i realized She was taking control of my mind, i was on my knees with my panties around my wrists. Begging for it.” she moved against Mistress, and then eased away to slide the jacket and blouse off and stand next to Her topless.

“In other words, serena, see above for what not to do when singlehandedly challenging a mind controller. Unless what you really want is to become Her willing lackey and fucktoy for the rest of your life.”

Mistress reached around and cupped a possessive palm around one of lori’s breasts, making lori’s eyelids droop. She looked down at Her slave as she spoke.

“Originally, serena, you were just going to be another dronegirl. I might have left you as lori’s tool and plaything.”

She looked up at serena. “But lori convinced Me you had talent, and a good heart, and that anyone would be lucky to have you in her collar. Mmm. What a very insightful little slave she was, too, for doing that. How should I reward her, serena?”

serena just shook her head.

“Please, Mistress.” lori looked up at Her. “This was the best day of my life, since the one i became Yours. i watched a decent woman betray someone she loves, to please You.” lori was weeping again, gripping Her arm.

“i saw how much a slave will do for You, Mistress. i was part of it. i don’t need more reward than that.”

As Mistress gazed fondly down at her, lori put her hand lightly on Her arm. “i know You can change my desires. Please let me keep that one.”

Mistress turned. “Should I, serena?”

Hearing the catch in Her voice, serena went to them and knelt. Love for both of them burned through her. she couldn’t have spoken to save her life.

“Stand up, My love.”

Slowly, proudly, serena obeyed. she looked into Her eyes, and saw Her joy at Her new slave’s obedience.

she waited, like a good slave, for Her will.

“Will You ask her now, Mistress?” lori’s head rested on Her shoulder as they both watched serena.

“Yes, lori. Now I can.” Mistress stroked Her pet editor’s breasts. “you were very well-behaved not to ask her before. I know you wanted to.”

serena wondered how she could be as pleasing as well-behaved lori.

“I wanted to be sure of you, serena. I needed to know that your submission was hard and total. Because to reach for what you were keeping from Me even then might have broken it otherwise.”

Mistress smiled, and let Her enthralling magnetism flow out and around serena.

“Betray someone else for Me, serena. Kill another loyalty for Me now.

“Right now your entire being is nothing but a very deep need to obey me.”

“To obey You.” serena remembered the marriage bed. Sliding willingly down Her warm, silken body to lick and please.

“you want only to tell me who raised this question. Who thought they saw mind control.

“Will you, My serena?”

serena raised her chin a little. “i am Yours, Mistress. So is anything You wish of me.”

“Thank you, serena.

“Tell me who your source is.”

26.

“Eve?”

serena whispered it, as she tapped on the apartment door with a fingernail.

she must show it to Eve.

The locks clacked open together and the door opened inward, and she saw why she hadn’t seen the peephole darken. Eve kept the hallway behind it unlit.

As she led serena to the den, serena saw the haggard young attorney was carrying a gun in her hand.

“I’ve started carrying a bigger bag,” she said. “I could get a nine into the one I had, just barely. But my shooting instructor said not to bother with anything short of a .45.”

She sat at her desk and set the weapon beside her keyboard. It was a blocky thing of brushed steel, looking out of place in Eve’s pleasantly-disordered workspace. But Eve had only a couple of halogen desk lamps on even with her drapes drawn, so everything looked out of place.

Especially Eve. serena hurt for how haunted and joyless the other woman looked.

she must show it to Eve.

Eve tried to perk up for her visitor. “I like your disguise.”

serena grinned and half-mockingly primped the blonde wig she’d worn when she’d pretended to be kendall’s toy.

While she did, she also waited quietly for her cue. she must show it to Eve.

she sobered. “i took what you said seriously, Eve.”

Eve nodded. “I can’t be sure about it. But letting my guard down’s a mistake I only have to make once.” Without the gun, she fidgeted, something serena didn’t remember her doing before. She toyed absently with an elegant little cameo pendant that hung with chic incongruity onto her sweatshirt, until she seemed to catch herself doing it. She let the pendant fall as though it might suddenly bite her.

“Thank you for trusting me here,” serena told her, looking around at what must be an airy, friendly space when it wasn’t being a fortress against predatory hypnotists.

she must show it to Eve.

Eve shook her head. “I can’t even imagine meeting in a place like Endgames, now. So many chances for someone to drug us or try some sort of flash induction. Just enough to suppress resistance until they could get us alone.”

Us. Even now, Eve didn’t imagine she was the only one in danger. serena suspected that if Eve saw a friend, or even a stranger, being accosted like that, she’d probably come to grief herself by trying to stop it. serena reached out—carefully, with an eye on the gun—and touched her shoulder. Eve didn’t flinch, and even managed a smile for a few seconds.

Then she clenched a fist without seeming to notice. “Nothing’s worth risking that. Being mindfucked into someone’s little blowup doll.” She closed her eyes and rode it out, then opened them.

“So—you found something?”

she must—

serena felt the inner tweak and nodded. she pulled the jewel case from the jacket’s inside pocket. “Someone burned a CD of it. They promised me it’s only been copied once, but the quality’s still not great.”

Eve took it, not asking whom it had come from. She let serena protect them from her, as serena protected her from them.

“Proof,” she said wonderingly, looking at it, her hand drifting to the cameo again. “Maybe.”

She looked up at serena. “I probably shouldn’t read this. But I think tainting evidence, at this point, may not be the big deal I used to think it was. If all I get is disbarred, I’ll be one happy ex-lawyer.”

serena looked back at her. “With the background you gave me, i don’t think any of the material has to do with things you’ve worked. None of the same names. But i don’t have the training for the legal subtleties.

“You need to see it, Eve. Then you can know.”

Eve took a breath and then clicked the CD case open, sliding the drive open with a tap of her pinky.

“First, a little cavity search from Ms Antivirus.” She examined the results while serena gazed blankly at her profile, unworried. perri’s friend Janey, in dronemode, had made certain there was nothing viral on this disk.

“OK.” Eve tapped and clicked some more. “File 001, I guess?”

“Yes,” serena said, feeling the excitement even this deep in hypnosis. It was easy to parrot the techbabble perri had made Janey recite into her mind. she had no idea what she’d said once she was done. But Eve nodded thoughtfully, and doubleclicked.

They waited as the program came up.

“Why a graphics application?”

“They said they had some video,” serena said. “i didn’t get that far in. But mainly this is the most common type of file they had. When they were hiding it—”

“—right. Purloined letter. Hide a sheep in the sheep pen.” Eve let the pendant drop to her chest again as she put both hands to the keys.

The first document came up, and even from where serena sat, the blurring pulse pulled at her.

Eve peered at the screen. She didn’t speak for a moment.

“This is really awful resolution, Serena.” Eve spoke slowly. Her head shifted a little, as though she’d meant to look at serena when she said that. But her eyes never left the screen.

“It’s a scanned document.” serena really believed it for the moment it took her to say it. She let her voice drop. “The person who gave it to me said the person who gave it to her got hold of it in . . . delicate circumstances. There was a serious risk. Please—just try.”

“I’m sorry.” Eve looked a little guilty, and serena felt a brief, incidental guilt of her own to fool the other woman’s conscience that way. But soon it wouldn’t matter.

“It’s . . . um . . .” Eve had put on glasses that made her suddenly cuter, and her eyes widened behind the reflected screen. For now the lawyer was just beautifully absorbed, her curiosity drawing her in. She was preparing herself to be more deeply enthralled.

Her finger flexed on the mouse button, advancing, and her head sank onto her cupped hand as she kept reading, staring. “There’s something here but the text keeps . . . keeps . . .”

Another long silence and serena just breathed, finding a pleasantly annoying impatience as she waited for Eve to succumb.

Eve’s eyes closed and she dragged her lids up with visible effort. “That’s . . . found the pattern now, but it’s not . . . about law . . . it’s about . . . going to . . .” Her eyes stayed open but they were glazed behind the lenses.

“Going to sleep,” she whispered, as though she’d found the secret she’d sought.

“Oh my god. Serena. Serena . . .” Her eyes were locked on the slowly pulsing screen but her face was working, as she tried to focus on her fear and hang on to it. Her free hand waved and grasped blindly for the cameo.

“What?” serena whispered to her.

“It’s . . . a trap, Serena! This disk is . . . hypnotizing me!”

“Can you resist it, Eve?”

Eve was already too lost to question why serena wasn’t trying to snap her out of it.

“Trying to . . . so . . . re . . . laxed . . .” Her eyes were huge, as if the hypnotic program widened them for better access to her mind. Her lips worked as she recited the subliminal text it was driving into her mind. Her conscious thoughts were fragmenting on top of this as it overcame her.

“. . . if I just stare into it . . . Serena, please . . .”

“You won’t resist it long, Eve. It’s too powerful. And it’s specifically designed to trap and tranquilize smart women like you. To keep them passive and unresisting while their wills are suppressed.”

“Serena . . . help . . . me . . .”

“i am helping you, Eve.” serena let one hand rest on her lap, teasing herself. This was turning her on even more than lori’s “abduction,” maybe because she knew she was really enslaving someone for Mistress this time. “i will help you become Hers. you will obey.”

Eve was shaking her head, and she was crying now. she gripped the cameo pendant and shuddered with the desperate effort to turn her body away from the pulsing spiral that sucked her in.

“No,” she said, in a thin whisper. She touched her mouth in horror but she couldn’t—

serena saw the pendant’s chain, curving up toward Eve’s mouth, just as she heard the cracking noise as Eve bit down.

Eve crumpled and spasmed, falling off the chair and away from th e screen. The spiral pulsed on obliviously.

serena blinked and then slid off her own chair to kneel by Eve. The lawyer’s body was twisted and her face tight with pain. She made a gagging noise and her tight jaws parted, bits of pastel plastic falling from her lips. The half-bitten cameo fell from nerveless fingers.

Her eyes, clearing once more, stared up at serena.

She’s dying. serena felt her heart and saw the bluing skin. she leaned down, realizing she had only a TV viewer’s knowledge of CPR but suddenly desperate that Eve must not die.

Something blocked her chest.

she looked down and saw Eve had raised her arm. Contorted with agony, Eve still shook her head and then closed her eyes.

serena fell away from her. Eve had stopped her from giving the kiss of life to a mouth full of poison. she’d come to enslave Eve and Eve had just saved her life.

Eve died as she watched.

serena reached for the cellphone she’d been given, punched the number, and made herself speak.

In her mind, she cried out to Mistress.

27.

abigail knew what she’d find but it still horrified her.

The reporter-slave, her new sister serena, had called a little earlier than they’d thought, and abigail had felt a very small pang that Eve had succumbed so quickly to Her hypnotic mindsnare. But as soon as she heard serena’s tight voice, the calm that was only Her power over them, she had an awful certainty.

Inside the apartment she found serena kneeling by Eve’s body. serena had obeyed the command she’d snapped over the phone to touch nothing, least of all Eve herself. The look in her eyes told abigail how hard that was—even still and gone, Eve looked like she still was hurting.

Even lost in worship of Her, it killed something in abigail to see that, and she felt her own programming quench a desire to put Eve’s body more at rest and close her terrified eyes.

But she knew they had to protect Mistress, and fear and grief paled like noonday candles before that beacon. she turned back to serena, and for the first time really saw how hard it hit the reporter. she had no idea if the woman had even seen someone die before, much less commit suicide in front of her with whatever drastic poison it was.

abigail felt a new regard for Mistress’ newest bride that she hadn’t felt, before, when she’d watched serena receive her final programming to capture Eve. Now she let it make her gentle, as she knelt in front of serena, between her and where Eve lay.

she put her hands on serena’s cheeks. serena’s eyes were wide and wounded, and abigail discerned things there—guilt, more than fear. she nodded slowly as serena’s mouth moved, encouraging the reporter to say what she felt so abigail would know how she needed to be handled, before tending to the new crisis of a dead target.

“She was so brave,” serena whispered, and it stunned abigail that that was what it was. she felt in her own chest how bad that felt to know.

her own feeling for Eve rushed back at her. But her conditioning was too strong, and abigail just leaned forward to touch foreheads with serena.

“you were obeying our Mistress, serena.” she felt serena nod. she raised her hand to wave it and put serena to sleep. The other woman could help her just as well in trance.

serena covered her hand. “Please.” she blinked tears away. “Let me stay awake. i can obey Her now. Just tell me what to do.”

Only then did abigail realize what her sister was made of—and how much she herself needed the company now—and she hugged the other slave tightly. she kept hold of her hand as she took out her own phone, and called Mistress. Who spoke to her quietly . . .

. . . some time later, abigail awoke. serena stood before her, eyes still closed. abigail didn’t remember triggering her—Mistress must have done it through her, during her own trance. serena’s face was blank.

abigail knew she had recited into serena’s open thoughts everything serena must do now. serena had her story for when the police came. she could tell them about her distraught source, her realization that Eve had gone over the edge from neurotic worry about mind control to a slanderous fantasy about her boss. All the way to deadly paranoia that could have been serena’s death, first, if she’d said the wrong thing. The signs of Eve’s “obsession” with MC, and with abigail, were all around.

When serena finally broke down and sobbed, the police would be queasily amazed she’d held up that long.

Most important, serena would believe, and be believable. Once abigail activated her and left, she’d tell the tale programmed into her with winning sincerity. It would be difficult for a merely hypnotized woman with such an emotional stake to do, without snapping out of it. But serena was Her brainwashed pawn, and her mind was prepared for contradictions and gaps.

Truth was always what Mistress said it was, until She said it had always been something else.

abigail looked once at her dead protegee. She was brave, and loyal, and beautiful. abigail wondered if she could have made the same choice as Eve had, and then wondered if she had—faced the loss of her will and submitted to it, and deciding an ugly, painful death wasn’t an option at all. Eve was stronger that abigail.

It doesn’t matter. i am a slave now. Eve isn’t.

Poor Eve.

abigail’s thoughts swung back to the One Who owned her will. she spoke the words and watched serena’s new programming take over, and then she left the apartment, making sure no one saw.

she didn’t realize Mistress had given her a posthypnotic suggestion to sleep until the car stopped at the Residence. The dronegirl at the wheel might have been separately instructed that their target was dead, or just blank. She hadn’t reacted when abigail came out alone instead of with serena, their newly-enthralled prey in tow. She probably had no reaction to abigail suddenly blacking out next to her as they drove, either.

abigail wasn’t programmed to speak to her, and simply alighted and went inside.

she stripped and reported to Mistress’ living room, and mercifully She had dismissed the others.

Tonight Her mercy was abundant. She met abigail at the door to the room, and raised her from her knees, and heard her account.

Mistress looked into her eyes. “Is serena all right?”

“You can be proud of her, Mistress. she—”

abigail saw Her face and stopped. “she’s devastated, Mistress. The hypnosis will insulate her, but when she awakens . . .”

Mistress nodded, and now abigail’s skilled gaze let her see the pain. Part of it was for her, and Mistress just held out Her arms. abigail flowed into them and wept, feeling them tight on her body.

“I am sorry.”

Mistress regretted abigail’s pain. That hurt abigail more than the pain itself—but it also made her feel chosen. As Mistress guided her to a divan, she realized that it was binding her to Mistress even more.

Mistress let abigail lie in Her arms, smoothing her hair. Then she said, with heartbreaking gentleness, “abigail, I’m going to hypnotize you now. We will be together again soon, but I must prepare for serena, too, when she returns.”

“Mistress?” abigail remembered serena in that room. “When we were there, before i could call You for commands, serena asked not to be tranced. i didn’t. she wanted to stay awake for You.”

Mistress swallowed and looked down at her. “Enough damage for tonight, My love. Please. I love you and I love serena but your hurt, or hers, only hurts m—”

Then she smiled, too brightly, and wiped an eye with the back of her hand.

“Listen to Me.

“Very well, My slave. My loyal slave.” she beamed at how abigail smiled. “you may continue to think and act tonight.

“i will need you, later, to help me with serena. There’s a hardness in you that she lacks, and you can teach her how to overcome herself.”

“i will help her make herself a better slave to You.” abigail was stunned by the honor, and kissed Her in awe as She left.

Soon afterward, slave alyssa found her way to the room, and when abigail looked up at her she saw neither her old self’s “enemy” nor even a hot, whorish woman in a tiny metallic two-piece, but another slave and bride of Hers.

alyssa had brought a bikini for abigail to put on, but as they sat and talked and touched, and abigail spoke indirectly of the mission she’d been on, it seemed that alyssa’s swimsuit slipped off instead, and they convulsed together in a soft tangle on Her carpet.

Later still, abigail attended Her in Her bed, sharing it with a drowsy and puffy-eyed but beautiful serena. They knelt and worshipped Her body, and then She Herself tended to each of them, putting Her exquisite lips first to serena’s cunt and then to abigail’s, until all three of them sprawled sated and languid on Her sheets.

“Come, My loves,” Mistress told them, and as they slid up the sides of Her body, they bowed their heads under Her hands. Tenderly she guided them, each to a breast, and each one took Her into her mouth. The two slaves held hands, and gazed at each other, but soon Her breathing and smoothness and Her hands stroking them soothed them to sleep.

abigail might have woken briefly to the sound of low, desolate weeping, but when she opened her eyes she saw only serena in the soft light, blissfully asleep in Her warmth.

Before abigail could look up there was a touch and a soft word and she had no will to do anything but sleep again.