Chapter 7

“Can I be the one to kill him?” Katerina’s eyes glinted with malicious joy.

“What?” Preston-Emily’s voice cracked in shock, but on this ordinary Monday, none of the other assembled women seemed all that shocked.

Katerina looked around as if she’d just announced the sky was blue on a clear day and was not believed, “Oh come on, that’s what we’re here to talk about right? That’s why the big all hands meeting.” She was wearing jeans and a long sleeve athletic shirt that she’d picked up today. It was the first thing she had been able to wear in months that wasn’t hand picked by Preston to please his visual appetite.

Lonnie shrugged muttering mostly to herself, “I dunno, maybe it’s for the best.”

Preston-Emily gaped, “No, no, that’s not why I asked- I - I mean I know we need to figure out how to keep him trapped. I don’t want to kill anybody.”

Candace nodded, “Yes, sure, I don’t want to kill anyone either but what if he gets his powers back? This is our only chance to do it.”

Prisha fidgeted with her robe, “I - don’t want to think about that.” A silence fell over the women for a few seconds. She continued, “I don’t- I won’t be a part of murder. I can’t.”

Katerina sneered at her, but held her peace.

Preston-Emily cut in, “No, I’m not - I want to get my body back at some point. I can’t live as him for the rest of my life.” Candace shrugged in acquiescence.

Vivian didn’t bother to look at the other women, instead she twirled a black queen chess piece in her fingers. “You know if you get your body back, he gets his power back. You’ve established that. So right now, you’re holding on to a fantasy. I get that. For now there are a whole slew of people, human beings that need your help to be set free. If that means we have to keep rotations keeping his body healthy and his mind ... distracted, then I’m staying here to help. But Emily, you need to understand that this is a stop-gap measure and you are definitely under time-control here.”

Katerina was proving to be the most difficult to corral. Emily wrung his hands together feeling more nervous by the moment. This decision had to be unanimous, because they had to be able to trust each other, all of the women. The way Katerina was looking her up and down, sizing her up left her feeling small, even in Preston’s large body.

“Okay,” Katerina said, “we’ll keep this going for a few days.”

Preston-Emily blinked. That was way easier than expected, and not in a way that left her with a settled stomach. Despite the general acceptance of the plan, she approached Katerina soon after the meeting.

“Hey, Kat, could we talk for a second?” she reached out carefully touching Katerina’s shoulder, trying to be as soothing as possible. Katerina hesitated a moment at the touch. Noting her silence, Preston-Emily withdrew her hand.

After another heartbeat, Katerina took a deep breath and turned to look at Preston-Emily. “Sure, what is it you’d like to talk about.”

“I wanted to make sure that you were really okay with the decision.”

She smiled, “Yes, well. I know what you’re trying to do. Don’t worry about me, you’ve got plenty to do.”

Emily dropped her head, “I know, but it’s just really tiring trying to undo what he’s done.”

Candace interrupted them, her voice insistent, “She’s more right than you know, Emily. It’s not just about us. You know he has a whole business empire feeding his accounts, right? You have access to all that money, but also the responsibilities that come with it.”

Emily shot back, “I don’t care about being a billionaire. This isn’t some windfall for me.”

Katerina shook her head, “Unless that ship keeps sailing, there are going to be people who come here. If I know your host, that won’t be good for us.”

Emily felt her temper rise, but she tamped it down. “Alright, I’ll take care of it.” She ground his teeth and headed back to Preston’s computer. She wouldn’t say it aloud, but for a moment there, she felt a harsh rebuke rise up in her throat. She wanted to tell Candace to back off, after all she had to make sure Katerina was on board and besides, she knew what she needed to take care of. Emily shook it off and sat down in front of the computer. Again, there were a slew of notifications on the phone from calls and meetings missed. There was too much, how the hell was she going to know where to begin?

Candace stepped in the home office and over to the closet, quickly putting on a pencil skirt, blouse and blazer. “You’ve got a meeting that you can still make right now, if you let me help you.”

“Okay, let’s do it, what am I walking into.”

Apparently, there were a series of disputes over the correct course to take over a set of mineral rights which that particular mining conglomerate had acquired. But there was a problem with increasing bribery demands for the local officials after the last election had cause a change in party. Candace set up the call and stood in the background as was apparently her custom.

Over the teleconference, a silver haired man with a punchable face smiled at Preston-Emily. “Look, Preston, you’re the deal maker, that’s why we called you in on this. If this continues the way it’s going, those rights are going to be taxed at full rate plus bribes, and that’s going to seriously eat into profits. I need you to do your negotiating magic and fix this. You’re the whiz kid after all.”

Emily thought for a moment, while everyone on the other line looked on in silence. She could see fear in most of them, even without being to see their aura. Something about it gave her a prideful feeling. She felt strong, and suddenly sure of the right course. Decisively, she said, “No.”

“No? You can’t possibly expect-”

“David, listen up.”

The silver haired man looked from side to side and corrected, “My name is Frank.”

“Whatever, look if those mineral rights were worth a damn, you wouldn’t need me to be fixing this. You’d be making enough money that the bribes wouldn’t matter. I’m not going to waste my valuable time fixing the margins to eek out a profit. Unless the opportunity is so damn sexy that you have got the profit motive to find a way to make it work, then don’t waste my time on it.”

“But the dividends-”

“You screwed this up. You want to fix the dividends? Find a real money maker, then talk to me.”

She cut off the call and the screen went black. Emily let out a giggling sigh of relief.

“Jesus Christ what the hell was that?” Candace was in shock.

“I don’t know, but that was just cool.”

“How did you do that?”

Emily shrugged, “I don’t know, I just felt like I knew it. I mean it makes sense right? If there was a lot to be made, they’d bribe and get it. So I just went for it. Do you think it worked?”

Candace chuckled, “I honestly have no idea. I think Mr. Emerson is probably wetting himself right now, though.” Emily smiled and leaned back in the chair feeling pretty self satisfied. Candace decided to keep the meetings to a minimum, or rather, she suggested it to Emily who decided that was the wisest course of action. The ladies had prepared lunch, but Preston-Emily was feeling a touch of cabin-fever, so she decided to go out for lunch and asked if Candace could join her. Prisha and Lonnie were on babysitting duty, so Candace agreed.

Patricia gave them a lift to Lincoln’s Bistro where a table for two awaited them.

“This is so weird,” Candace confessed.

“What’s weird about it? I mean aside from the obvious,” Emily grinned crooked.

“I don’t know, I’m out to lunch with ... Him, but you’re not Him.”

“That’s the obvious,” Emily teased.

Candace shook her head, “No, I mean that, when I was with him, he’d rarely take me out to eat. But when he did, I was madly in love with him, desperate for his attention and approval, willing to do anything he might think of at the drop of a hat. Except that I also hated his guts.”

“And now?”

“And now, he - you are sitting across from me and I don’t feel desperate crazy love. Instead, I actually, I like you. It’s totally different.”

“Better I hope.”

Candace laughed, “Indescribably.”

Emily reached out a placed a hand on Candace’s, “I’m glad we can be friends, Candace.” The moment skin touched skin was suddenly very strange. Candace’s hand felt cool to the touch, soft, feminine. It felt electric, like a rush of blood to the head. She suddenly realized how beautiful Candace really was. Her long dark locks and those haunting golden eyes were suddenly enchanting. She was so fetching, the way she looked down and smiled.

“Stop it,” she complained with a smile. Emily suddenly became aware of a rush of blood somewhere she had not experienced before. “You’re giving me that look you, I mean he gave me.”

“Oh, sorry,” Emily pulled back her hand like lightning and shoved it to his lap stammering, “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”

Candace giggled, “It’s fine, I know you don’t mean that. It’s just, it’s really weird - different, right?”

Emily nodded, more focused on trying to push down her erection surreptitiously. That did not work the way she thought it would. Emily forced her thoughts far away from that. It had just been an aberration, she insisted to herself.

Even though she didn’t have any relapses during lunch, she decided to walk home and let Candace take the car and go shopping. She said it was just a desire to get some air and Candace didn’t argue, but the truth was that she just wanted to avoid temptation of the enclosed car and the scent of that woman’s perfume. She hadn’t even noticed it before, but now she was in fear of it.

Emily evaded the lustful temptation only to find herself with another temptation. As she walked, she began to see people. Not just faces she’d avoid looking at by staring down, but faces that were too scared to make eye contact with her. She could even see surface emotions, the flavor of what occupied their minds. She had the chance to see the true lives of hundreds of people all around her. Their pain, their joy, their weakness, their lust was open for her to watch if she only take a look. She saw the opportunism of a pickpocket and with a thought saw that he actually only did this for the thrill and as a way to work on sleight of hand for his magic act. With a slight push she made him think of his mother and how disappointed she’d be if she saw him. Almost instantly, his surface thoughts bloomed cautionary yellow. Perhaps some could be made better.

It was so easy to poke and tinker, it called out to her. Besides, she knew better than they did. Most people didn’t need any correction, but there certainly were many people who did. Now she had the power to do that. She smiled wide and started scanning for something in particular. It was a smell that she recognized: Misogyny.

They were there, and suddenly she felt a world of possibilities open up to her.

Hurt them? Fix them? But how could she guarantee that the fix she’d put in would hold like the hack work that Preston had done. Shrugging to herself, she thought, ‘Fuck it, I won’t know if I don’t try.’

An hour later she got home exhausted and with a mild headache, but with a smile plastered across her lips. When Prisha reminded her she had more women she needed to try to help she groaned.

“Okay, I will, just let me get a 20 minute power nap.”

“You didn’t drink at lunch did you?” Prisha asked with a touch of anxiety.

She shook her head, “No, I know I need to keep a clear head for this.” She clasped his hands and gathered her energy, “Okay, start calling in some of the fully functioning women he has out in the world. They should be pretty easy to fix. They’re already mostly independent, right?”

Preston-Emily waved off Candace with the very reasonable and noble excuse of the work she had to do helping to free more women. She couldn’t bring herself to say anything about the incident at the restaurant. ‘Testosterone is a powerful drug.’ She took a few moments to reflect on her feelings, only to realize that she hadn’t done that in a few days. She always did that, it wasn’t like her not to. A thought hit her with intense dread, ‘Am I turning into him?’

“No, that’s not possible,” she blurted to herself. Of course anything was possible, but at long as her body was being taken care of, He was contained. It didn’t make sense. The only thing that made sense was this was hormonal. ‘Damnit, come on Emily. Focus, there are women who need to be freed from this ass.’ She closed her eyes and nodded, there were more important things to take care of right now.

Preston-Emily was pleasantly surprised to find that the first two of his external women were not actually very tweaked.

“Oh my god, that’s why I was always reaching out to you with deals? I thought, I had an obsessive crush, I thought I was coming here to cheat on my husband.” A woman in a smart business suit sat across from Preston-Emily fidgeting. In a start, she quickly buttoned up the top button of her blouse.

“Nope, that was something that Preston Harrison had done to you.”

“But you’re not him?”

She shook his head, “Nope. But I’m really glad to see you taking this so well.”

“It explains a lot, honestly. He’s not coming back is he?”

Preston-Emily smiled, “Not if I can help it.”

“I - I need to go home. I’ve been working so many late hours.”

“Go, family is everything.”

She smiled, “You really aren’t him, thank you, whoever you are.”

Emily’s heart soared as she left the room and back to her life. Perhaps it was just an easy case, or maybe she was getting better at controlling his powers. Either way, she was just elated to find at least one happy ending.

Candace came in dressed in business attire accompanied by a familiar face.

Preston-Emily inhaled sharp at the sight. Sarah walked in and looked at her with a smitten look, like a woman who finally was allowed to feel sunlight on her skin.

“My Lord, how may I serve you.”

She forced a smile, but her heart fell at the sight of the modifications that’d been done to this woman. “Please, have a seat.” It was incredibly complex. There wasn’t just a single hack, there was an entire structure intricately splitting her mind apart. She couldn’t even comprehend what some of the things were meant to do. Just trying to see it all was tiring and she was already exhausted.

“Sir?”

She’d been staring for way too long. “Sorry, I’m a little tired. I’m ... okay, how about this, you don’t need to call me, sir. Let’s see if we can get there.”

Sarah looked quizzically at her master, but then smiled, “Of course my lord.”

“For now,” she muttered and reached out with her mind to connect to Sarah’s mind. But this was different. There were two branches split, and it was so jumbled, it felt like a tangle. She pulled back.

“Oh, my lord, why did you stop?”

“Sarah,” she sighed weary, but she continued, “I need to be straight with you.”

Sarah interrupted, “Master please no,” sadness swamped her words, “I know I haven’t always been the best slave, but please, I don’t think I could handle more bad news.”

“Sarah, please...”

Her head fell, “I know it’s bad news ... because you’re using the fake name you gave me.”

“Fake name?”

“Please, if I’m going to be banished from you, at least use my real name.”

Preston-Emily stood up, “Okay, there’s a place to start, let’s get you your real name back.” With a smile she walked around the desk and over to Sarah. “This will be easier if I can touch you.”

“Oh, yes my Lord.”

A hand to her cheek made the connection simple, and Emily focused on one thing, her true name. It hit her like a blaring air horn, “KITTYSLAVE”.

“Kittyslave is so happy, thank you master!” She leapt up and clung to her master with unbridled joy.

“What?”

“Kittyslave is so happy master. Master is taking Kittyslave back! Kittyslave did good with the Emilyslave?”

“What do you think is happening Sa- Kittyslave?” The name turned her stomach, but something about Sarah’s overwhelming happiness told her it was time to be really careful.

“Master is getting rid of the Sarah-mask so Kittyslave can be a proper slave again,” she fell to her knees and started stripping off her blazer.

Emily watched stunned as she clung to his leg with affection and relief. There was no way this was going to get done tonight. Definitely not when she was exhausted, she’d been a fool to try. Emily silently cursed herself for her foolhardiness. She walked back to her desk and buzzed Candace with the intercom.

When her most trusted ally poked her head in, Preston-Emily sighed, “It seems Sarah will be staying with us for a while. Can you take care of the accommodations for her please?”

Kittyslave’s eyes shone with joy and she squealed with delight as she hurried out.

Candace looked back, “Is she one of us?”

Emily replied with great weariness, “Well, yes, and not yet. I’ll need more time with her.”