The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Brianna moved immediately into Angel’s place in the little town outside San Diego. Slowly, carefully, the new rhythms of their lives began to coalesce. They got to know each other again and spent hours talking into the night about what had happened in the last two years of each other’s lives.

The demarcation point of these talks was two years ago when Brianna had left the strip club and enrolled back in college. They never spoke about what happened before that, when Kendra was the name of the game and the game was played for blood. Ever.

But while there were many good moments, things did not go as smoothly as Angel had hoped. The residue of High Lights and what happened there was too strong to just be washed away as though by a spring rain.

She noticed that Brianna was not as ebullient or talkative as she had been. That playful wickedness, the unchecked wildness, that pure joy of life that used to illuminate her face so often, that enthralled Angel so much, was mostly gone. She would see signs of it once in awhile but they were like embers that briefly flared up then died, as though there was no fuel to keep them going.

She would often sit outside in a chair, just staring off into space, a searching look on her face, as though there was an answer just out of sight, barely eluding her reach. Angel would leave her alone at those times, alone to think and work out whatever it was going on inside. She knew if Brianna wanted her there she would ask.

After a few weeks this ritual became accompanied by crying jags. Angel would stand by the kitchen window and could see Brianna’s body shake with the force of her tears and anguish. She wondered what was finally coming to the surface in Brianna, what forces were tearing at her so violently.

She suspected she knew the main reason.

Angel worried constantly that Brianna would reach a breaking point and would harm or kill herself.

She would stand at the kitchen window for hours, watching every moment Brianna was out there in that chair, her knuckles white from the force she exerted pushing on the counter.

And she wished Robert was alive again. So she could kill him again and again, a million different ways. Slower than she had before. And she realized that Brianna was not the only one who had suffered damage from that time. She too was victim. The evil fire of High Lights and what it wrought ran deep in both of them.

It was like they both had third degree burns of the mind.

Brianna had frequent night terrors. She would wake up screaming, sweat soaked, her eyes wide and hysterical with terror. She would be shaking and start crying, deep gasping, horrible sobs. The sobs of someone truly and forever damned.

Angel wondered how Laura had dealt with this, what story Brianna had used as a cover. Or perhaps she had never had these attacks before. Maybe Laura had never seen any of this. Maybe Angel was the cause of it all.

Maybe it was only because she was back with Angel that these things were happening, that the flood gates to the horrible past were opening.

And deep down she knew it was true. It’s because she’s back with me.

But Angel was no stranger to nightmares, they had been intimate partners with her for so long and she knew what to do. She didn’t ask Brianna what she was dreaming about, she would just hold her tight, running her hand through her hair, gently, whispering her love to her, promising her that all was OK, that the dreams held no sway over her nor could they harm her. She would do this as long as it took until Brianna slowly calmed down, then drifted off to sleep. Angel would still hold her throughout the night. It seemed to help.

Angel did all she could to mitigate Brianna’s suffering.

But she started to wonder if the only way to really, finally save Brianna was to leave her. To separate her from that link to High Lights and what happened there. As she had been with Laura.

Brianna never told Angel what monsters populated her dreams and that was fine with Angel. She had never told anyone about the demons in her dreams either. It was a personal thing. It was up to Brianna to tell or not.

For Brianna waking was not the end of the ordeal. Because in those early moments of awareness she would remember flashes of the dreams before they faded: Her being fucked by endless men, being used and loving it; her bashing a red head woman’s face into a pulp with her boot and gloating like a mad woman; her covered in blood, head to toe, a knife in her hand, looking like a sex demon from hell, orgasming and wanting more of it, laughing, reveling in the crimson bath. And worst of all, leering over a terrified Angel who was tied to a bed.

Brianna suspected these images and many others often as bad were latent subconscious memories of things she had done.

But the worst involved Angel. It was these other dreams of her lover that seemed the most real, so real that their images lasted in her mind long after the others faded.

In these very specific dreams she tortured and killed Angel, slowly, increment by bloody increment, reveling in her lover’s pain and agony, her wounds and bloodshed and eventually her death, completing something she knew she must do, something she desired more than anything.

But when she woke, Angel was right there to comfort her, so she couldn’t have killed her. What did these monstrous visions, so damn clear in her mind, signify? What did it mean? She knew she had betrayed Angel under Robert’s influence but just how far had she gone? Did she actually want to kill Angel back then?

And why did upon awaking from those specific dreams were her emotions different? A part of her horrified by what she had dreamed but another part sexually aroused and thrilled at the idea of having killed her lover.

And sometimes, after the most vivid dreams, as Angel held her and comforted her, Brianna had powerful urges to put her hands around Angel’s slender throat and rip the life from her and it took everything she had not carry out that imperative that she knew would make her feel so good.

And this scared her more than everything else combined.

Brianna wasn’t the only one dealing with these concerns. In the back of her mind Angel wondered what else being around her might awaken in Brianna and so she watched her girlfriend carefully, always keeping a hidden eye on her.

One fall night as Brianna took her lone vigil yet again in the chair outside and began to cry, Angel knew she had to do something or Brianna would come apart mentally and physically. She had to stop this or leave, give Brianna up to save her, to save them both. There was no other choice.

Angel had never interrupted Brianna’s tortured nights in the chair hoping that she could work her way thought those particular demon’s that feasted on her there. But it hadn’t worked and now she was going to see if she could push these particular monsters away.

She knew what ailed Brianna out here was not the same as her nightmares and she knew what it was. It was why she had never told Brianna about what she had done to her stepfather. Because Angel knew that Brianna’s one weakness was she loved Angel too much, cared too much, lived to protect her, was too sensitive to anything that could harm her.

Angel stalked out of the house, a chair in one hand and bottle of whiskey in the other. She jammed the chair next to Brianna and plopped down in it. She gave Sparky a quick wink. The dog was curled up around Brianna’s feet, his big brown eyes glued to the sniffling woman, seeming to offer every ounce of his canine support and love. He was there for Brianna, right at her side, every single time she went for her spooky, private penance

Brianna wiped her face of tears as Angel sat.

“Hey you,” said Angel, casting a sidelong glance at Brianna, once again using the first words they had spoken to each other.

Almost by rote Brianna gave the reply that was given back then. “Hey you, too.” But Angel could plainly see and hear that Brianna’s heart was not in it.

They sat for a moment then Brianna said, “What are you doing?” She sounded defensive, not happy with the intrusion.

Angel took a huge swig from the bottle. Her mouth quirked sideways before she spoke. “I’ll tell ya. I’m gonna get good and tight here in a little bit and I sure wish I had someone to do it with. Like I used to on a Friday night.”

Brianna nodded, like a zombie and stared straight ahead.

She reached out and grabbed Brianna’s shoulder, hard.

Brianna turned to Angel in surprise.

Angel took another drink, as though girding herself for the task ahead. She felt like the blackest witches heart beat in her chest and her mouth tasted of ash for the words she knew she would speak. She hated herself deeply for what she was about to do.

“Listen up good cuz I’m only going to say this once. And if you can’t get it or understand it, I think maybe this needs to end. Maybe you should go find Laura or just get off somewhere by yourself because you are killing yourself being with me and I won’t be a part of it. I won’t do that to you or to me.”

Brianna’s mouth dropped. “What do you….”

Angel put her hand on Brianna’s lips. “Uh uh. Don’t say anything, just listen. Those men I killed. They were evil. All of them.” And now Angel started to lie, because as much as she hated to deceive Brianna she knew she had to. It was the only way to try get past this particular hurdle.

Lie one: “Killing them doesn’t bother me at all.”

Lie two: “None of them meant a thing to me.”

Lie three: “I never think about them. Ever.”

“I would have killed a million men like that to save you. What are their rotten lives compared to one good person? A person like you?”

Brianna closed her eyes and a sob escaped her mouth.

“So if you sit out here bawling, thinking of what I did for you, blaming yourself, wondering what it did to me, crying your life away, you’re not only wrong but stupid. So you can sit out here every damn night and destroy yourself and what we have, all for nothing, or you can believe me.”

Angel reached out and turned Brianna’s head to her.

She bore into Brianna’s eyes, her blues level with Brianna’s greens. There was no mirth or friendship in her face.

“I have never lied to you. I never would. Especially about something like this. If those killings were hurting me I would come to you, let you help me. But I never did because there is nothing that I need help for. I feel nothing for them. Do you understand? So every tear you shed is a victory for them. For Robert. He is still making us break apart. He is still fucking with you. Aren’t you sick of losing to him? How long will you let him run your life? Where is the backbone you used to have? Are you that weak?”

Brianna shook her head slowly and sniffled.

Angel’s voice was cold, pure ice, even has her heart wrenched. “Now I’m going to go back in the house and get so totally wasted. You think about what I said. If I see you out here again after tonight alone, crying over me, then I’m gone. I’ll leave you and this house to your tears and you can wallow in it till you drown.”

Angel started to get up but Brianna reached out and grabbed the hand that held the bottle. Brianna glanced at the chair. Angel cocked her head, sat back down. Brianna pursed her lips, eyed the bottle and nodded just ever so slightly. Angel nodded back, also barely perceptible and slide the bottle to Brianna.

Brianna turned the bottle up taking several massive swallows, just as the old Brianna used to do when they wanted to get trashed together.

They sat there for a moment, just looking at each other, the contours of their faces, the emotions in their eyes.

Brianna slide the bottle back to Angel. “Your turn.”

Angel had a slash of a smile curling up one corner of the mouth, her eyes dancing with the challenge of the drinking game they played so often over the years and even more so at Brianna’s response.

The goal of this endeavor had been to snap Brianna out of her guilt. The goal of the game was brutally simple and very direct: get loaded.

The bottle was full. There was just the two of them. The night was young.

That mix was just right. It always had been. There was plenty of time to accomplish both ends of the plan.

Angel took the next drink.

After that night Brianna never retreated to her chair alone to cry. Instead they would go there together and talk and laugh, to enjoy the view and be young again. And things seemed to be getting better.

One night Angel was at the kitchen counter, making supper. She had turned into a very good cook in her time alone, studying complicated recipes and replicating them to perfection. Brianna joked that she was going to turn them both fat. Brianna couldn’t get enough of her cooking and wolfed down the meals.

Once when they were eating she asked Brianna what made her like the food so much. Brianna looked at her for while, a Delphic smile on her lips, got up, walked over to Angel, took her hands in hers, and said, “For one thing, it tastes so damn good. That’s one reason, but not the real one. The biggest reason is because these hands touched it,” she said as she pulled Angel’s hands up and kissed them.

Oh god Brianna. Angel’s heart skipped at those words.

Tonight she was cooking a surprise for Brianna, pork tenderloin with new recipe she knew Brianna would die for.

She had told Brianna not to come into the kitchen until the food was done. She couldn’t wait to see the look on Brianna’s face when she put the food in front of her. Brianna was charmed by how giddy and delighted Angel was about it all. This is just going to be the best surprise ever! I can’t wait to see Brianna’s face! thought Angel. She was so very excited. She felt like jumping up and down just thinking about it.

Angel was preparing a creamy Dijon sauce for the pork tenderloin smiling and humming a tune. She found cooking really made her happy, the whole process of taking disparate ingredients and molding them into an entity that could elicit such pleasure. She supposed like drawing there was something about the creative process that tickled a part of her brain.

Brianna entered the kitchen stealthily. She looked at her Angel working on a new creation and smiled. She wasn’t going to cheat and see what her lover was making, she simply loved watching her when she worked at things she loved to do and wanted to spy her doing that for a few moments.

She watched Angel hard at work, knowing she wanted to create a perfect supper for her. She loved the cute little movements of her body and arms as she went at her task, bopping around. She was beyond adorable. She also loved that tight ass as it swayed. She could envision the look of total concentration on her face, lost in the job at hand. It was so lovely; she had seen it so many times over the years. She was so tempted to walk over to her just to see but she wouldn’t. He had to honor her promise. She loved Angel so much and there was no way she was going to ruin her surprise.

Then she glanced at the kitchen table where Angel had been cutting up some onions.

Next to the cutting board was a long, shiny knife.

Brianna found herself staring at that knife. There was something about it that seemed to jog a hazy memory. There was something about knives. Big vicious looking ones.

She kept looking at it, so…shiny, so lethal, so capable of cutting up more than just food. Suddenly she felt dizzy. She blinked her eyes a few times trying to clear her head.

She looked at her young lover. Angel’s back was to her. She had no clue Brianna was there. She looked so unaware….so defenseless. So totally and helplessly defenseless. There was something about that in conjunction with the knife that struck an odd cord with Brianna, made her think about it all. There was something about those two things that seemed to go together.

Suddenly Brianna felt a deep dark chill. A powerful, unreasonable fear suffused her mind. She felt terror, for her and even more so for Angel. Something bad was going to happen to them. She could feel it in her bones.

She realized instinctively that Angel could help her. She had to warn her, tell her something very wrong was happening. She took a step to her lover and opened her mouth to say something.

But then she closed it.

As if on auto pilot she drifted slowly, silently towards the knife. When she reached it she stopped.

Brianna could feel her thinking slow down, as though stuck in quicksand until she couldn’t think at all. She stared at the knife, her eyes wide like saucers and unblinking. She found she couldn’t take her eyes off it, didn’t want to.

Strangely she thought she heard something, a voice. She whipped her head around to see if anyone was standing behind her. Nothing.

She turned back the knife. Yes, she was sure she heard a soft whisper yet again. This scared her even more. Am I going crazy? What’s wrong with me? she thought to herself, on the verge of tears.

She kept trying to figure out what to do, how to handle this. She felt so confused. Her brain was always so sharp, so fast to make decisions yet she felt like some somnambulist imposter in her own body now.

Maybe if I could hear what the voice said I can understand what’s happening. Maybe the voice can help me, Brianna thought desperately. Suddenly she knew that was exactly what was needed. It felt right. She had to try hear the words, to understand them. That would clear up her confusion.

She cocked her head, concentrating, zoning out, now only wanting, no needing to connect to those soft, enticing whispers. She noticed her breath quicken and she could see her round firm boobs heaving with what seemed like lust, desire. She began to notice something else, her pussy was beginning tingle in the most delightful way.

She glanced up at Angel again.

Suddenly Brianna broke out in a wicked, dark grin. Everything was coming into focus and she was loving how she was coming out of the fog she had been in for such a long time. She was right. The voice was going to make everything OK. She could handle this herself. She suddenly stopped worrying, all those silly fears she had a moment ago for herself and Angel just floating away like a fuzzy cloud. Brianna let out a soft sigh of intense relief. Everything was all right. In fact it was perfect. She felt great.

The voice was clear now, so sweetly seductive, so irresistible and it told her what she was and what she needed to do.

I want to kill Angel.

I’ve always wanted to kill Angel.

I have to kill Angel.

Killing Angel will get me off

Brianna contemplated these new ideas. Especially the last one. It sounded...

interesting. She was pretty sure she had never done anything like that before…kill someone for sexual gratification. She smirked, wondering why the idea had never occurred to her till now.

She realized she didn’t need to call to Angel for help. Angel always helped her and she loved her for that. And Angel would help her now. She would help her get her pussy off like it never had before. Angel would give her life so that she could have all kinds of amazing, yummy orgasms. Because they loved each other, because Angel adored her, even though Angel may fight this on the surface, she really wanted to die so Brianna could feel that good. She was sure that when it came down to it, Angel would welcome sacrificing her life on the altar of her beautiful, demanding, needy cunt. That’s what love was all about, giving of yourself to the other. And Brianna knew in her heart their love was just that type.

She was sure that even if Angel screamed when she started using the knife on her, carving that sexy little body up that inside, way down deep, Angel would actually enjoy it. Because that’s how strong the love was between them. Their bond was special, unbreakable. No sacrifice was too great. Hadn’t they proven that to each other over and over again? All the things they had gone through for each other to arrive at this moment?

And Brianna knew how great it would feel, both girls, so deeply in love, working together one more time to fulfill a goal. It would get her off so damn much. She was so fucking horny. A soft moan found its way deep in her throat. Oh fuck am I turned on. It was like a fever taking charge of her mind.

And just thinking about it was making her body light up with a massive sexual charge.

She could feel her nipples lying heavy on her breasts, so hard now they felt like lumps of hot coal.

Her pussy was burning out of control, pulsating with imperious, unquenchable desire and command. A sensually irresistible mandate Kendra luxuriated in and wantonly opened her mind to absorbing it entirely. Ahhhh man, this feels so god damn good. So fucking right, her dazed mind managed to tell her.

Her free hand moved involuntarily between her legs. Her cunt was so fucking wet so fucking fast. Wetness dripped down her muscled thighs. Her pussy was leaking so hard she could smell herself. The mixture that invaded her nostrils and made her have just a slightest orgasm was the real fluid coming from her pussy and the imagined smell of beautiful dark red blood.

Angel’s blood. Her beautiful little sacrifice.

But that scent would very real in just a few moments. Brianna would make it gloriously real. Her pussy quivered, intoxicated at the thought, demanding it, spurring Brianna on. She felt so good, so sexy, so in control of herself again.

It was the knife flash that warned Angel. There was a large window in front of her as she worked on supper and the sun was shining through. When Brianna picked up the knife the sun flashed off it.

Angel saw Brianna in the windows reflection and started to smile and turn. She was going to shoe Brianna out of the kitchen so she couldn’t see what she was preparing but brought herself to a screeching halt. What she saw reflecting back to her made every hair on her arms and back of he neck raise to absolute attention.

Brianna was standing there, holding a knife, lovingly running her hand along its edge gazing at it and smiling. Her eyes were wide and vacant, unblinking, unfeeling, just shinning with the crazy all consuming light of a true believer. The smile on her face was dangerous and so very wickedly sinful.

Angel knew that look and that smile so very well. She had seen it and suffered under it so often. It was not her sweet love Brianna Brandt that stood behind her defenseless back but her sworn enemy, Kendra Kelly. She didn’t think it was the real Kendra come back after all this time, not the fully formed beast hiding carefully as she had once feared, but rather some vestige echo, a ghost thought that somehow was influencing Brianna to do this.

If Kendra had been hiding there all time, playing a game, she would have attacked long ago during the months they had been back together. And the idea that it was Brianna who wanted to kill her was the biggest horror out of all that she had been through. She could feel her heart breaking into pieces like so much shattered glass broken upon hard pavement.

They had come so close. So very close. She actually thought they had made it, these last few weeks, the two runaways, beaten the odds and the evil men and would have the rest of their lives together.

It had all been for nothing.

Something had set Brianna off at this moment. Angel knew it. Instinctively she knew it was something about that knife combined with another factor.

But she had no time to dwell on any of that now. She slide her eyes around the kitchen, still using the window, not daring to turn around looking for some room to run. The reality of it was there no way in hell she could make it out of one of the two exits before Brianna would batten upon her. Just moments ago the kitchen seemed so spacious, too big really, yet now she as felt like hamster in a shoe box.

Angel thought she would panic, finally caught for once, totally unawares, trapped in this small space, confronting an opponent so physically imposing, so adept and skilled at hurting, with no time to think out some perfect plan the way she had before. The other times she had weeks to orchestrate her complex plans, now she had only seconds.

And she felt the panic pounding in her head just as it was in her heart, like twin galloping horses coming down the home stretch of her life, trying to reach into her core, disabling her, making her an easy, frightened victim.

Her mind turned to Future Cat and that last prediction. You are going to die, it had promised with calm certitude. Was that weird hallucination even now smiling knowingly, a little sadly, in a deep synapse of her brain, or perhaps somewhere else, at a warning not heeded?

She could see herself overwhelmed, beaten, taking hostage, just a piece of meat to be molded by Brianna’s knife, just as she had promised that night on the phone as she fled.

And Sparky, what of Sparky? Skinned alive, Kendra had gloated, while Angel was forced to watch. Sparky was outside, playing in the fenced in yard, just as trapped as Angel was. Would this influenced Brianna remember that threat? Would she carry it out?

But just as quickly, all those dark, paralyzing thoughts melted away. Instead she felt a cool, calm sensation flowering in her mind like an ice bud opening wide.

It was like meeting an old friend, a friend who always seemed to appear when she needed to come up with a solution to a very deadly situation. She had felt that friend with her stepfather and again when planning and executing what happened at the warehouse. And she welcomed that friend one more time, just in the nick of time.

Angel could feel her mind humming now, doing calculations and permutations at a scary fast speed, looking for that edge, like always.

Angel immediately came up with a double plan, the first to try direct Brianna off her course of action and the second one, the ultimate solution, to be implemented only if the first option failed. She felt no emotion now, just resolve and a steely determination to do what she had to in order to survive.

She took just the slightest step back and hiding her hand with her body and opened the counter drawer. She reached in and grabbed a longest, sharpest knife she could found. Like the knife Brianna had, it was very long and very sharp.

She then turned slowly, at the same time moving her hand first to her side then her back so Brianna could not see the knife as she faced her.

At the same time Angel put on that face that had served her so well over the years, in those hard, cold situations, with so much on the line, when he had to deceive someone to get the edge on them.

She smiled at Brianna, so innocent, so helpless, so sweet, so naïve.

“Hey Brianna, what’s up?” she said with a lovers delight dripping on every word her blues eyes shining with welcome. “Couldn’t resist coming in, huh?”

Brianna nodded like a chastised guilty girlfriend even down to blush that spread across that incredible face. She flashed that crooked smile she knew Angel loved so much. “No, I couldn’t.” replied Brianna with sweet curious enthusiasm, her green eyes shining like she wanted to devour Angel.

Time for plan one. Angel would use Brianna’s programmed subservience to short circuit whatever was going on in her mind. She had been testing Brianna every other week, giving her small suggestions, such as getting her a glass of milk, innocuous, innocent things to see if she still was wired for control. And so far she had always responded the same, her face getting placid, calm and eager to do what Angel asked, like it was so important to her. Angel was disappointed that the effects of the mind control had not worn off yet but she knew it would take time. But not now. If there was ever a time to use that power it was now.

“Oh don’t be a party pooper,” said Angel. “It won’t be long now. Just be a little patient, OK?” She gave Brianna a hard commanding stare. “Listen. I want you to go back to the living room. I want you to go back there right now. It’s what I want you to do,” she said with totally authority. “Do you understand? I want you to go to the living room and wait for me there.”

Brianna stood for a moment, watching Angel closely. She blinked a few times and for a brief moment Angel thought it would take hold that her plan would work. But her face did not smooth out at Angel’s command. Instead her lover just shook her head slowly. “I can’t Angel.” It was all she said. The stark finality of it very clear along with all its implications.

Whatever strange spell that was at work in Brianna’s mind was too strong to break. Angel’s heart sank with those words and in that moment it seemed her life had no meaning left at all.

In the next instant Angel shifted to the second plan. She had no choice.

It would have to be the knife. It was now life or death. The thought of what she was about to do filled her with endless blackness and despair. She didn’t know how she would go on even if she won this battle.

Angel knew Kendra so well. All her quirks and mannerism and personality. She knew her exhibitionism and ego, her penchant for inducing psychological fear were bloated beyond all measure, like a massive tick feeding on a hapless victim. She would not make this quick. She would take Angel prisoner first. She would want Angel to know everything, to suffer and cry as Kendra preened and gloated and strutted about before she did her lethal damage. And if this was a ghost Kendra influencing Brianna she would act accordingly. At least she hoped so because it would give her a shot at survival. Her other edge was Brianna didn’t know that Angel knew what she was at this moment. These two things would give her a sliver of a chance to walk out of this kitchen alive.

Angel took the measure of the girl in front of her. Her normally clear eyes were dull and glassy but that wasn’t what really grabbed Angel’s notice. It was Brianna’s body. All those years of working out and training facing her in that hard in its prime package. He body radiated power like the sun did light. And she knew how to use all of it to hurt people.

Now Angel didn’t want to run. To run would be to give in to fear, to be chased down and handled so easily. Instead now she wanted quite the opposite. She realized to win this she would need to meet her head on. Sucker her into range. Bring her close, get her right up to me. Strike fast and strike hard before she knows what’s happening. Strike to kill.

Brianna gazed at the love of her life. And as Angel had her last second thoughts of their coming encounter, so did she. God I love her so completely. I love her for what she is about to do for me, she mused. I know she will enjoy this as much as I will. I bet she even gets off on it. This is what we were meant to do, me and Angel. She let out an audible sigh at how well this was going to work out for both of them, how happy it would make them.

Angel fought to stay in control. She felt like she was looking into the abyss. To kill Brianna up close, with a knife; to feel it go into flesh and muscle, to see that blood, hear the screams of a person she cared more about than she did herself. It was too horrific to even contemplate. It was not like pulling a trigger. She would feel Brianna die under her hand. If she was the person who won.

She tried one last time. She was imploring so hard the cords on her neck stood out. “Brianna, please,” she said, “just go to the living room and I’ll be there in a moment. Can’t you do this for me? Just do this one thing I’m asking!”

Brianna shook her head. “I tried. I really did, Angel. I waited as long as I could but I just can’t resist,” she said slyly.

Angel nodded. Even as she gained firm purchase on the knife she clutched behind her she forced a happy grin on her face that felt like a ghastly mask. At this moment she wished she had died at that warehouse with the others rather than do what she would try to in just a few moments.

But she was still alive. Angel swallowed hard. I can do this. I can beat her. Just stay calm, wait for the right moment, then don’t hesitate a second.

When she spoke it was all she could do to keep the emotional quiver of a dying dream and heart out of her voice. “Well then, come over here and I’ll show you the surprise I have.”