Part 13B

Danica tried several times to find a way into Nichtar's chambers the next day, but had no luck. The man never seemed to leave his rooms. Once she closed the shop for the day, Danica met William and he showed her to the shop where he had acquired his shoulder bag. Danica requested one to use as the base for a new bag of holding, asking that the leather worker only tool the leather with the scrollwork she wanted, leaving the assembly of the pieces to her.

Putting the bag together herself provided Danica with the opportunity to cast the necessary preparatory spells over the item. She still would not be able to seal the bag magically, as that would require her presence to cast spells during the preparation of the leather. Danica wished she had some of Olaf's prepared leather. The big man had figured out a way to prepare leather with the necessary components for preparatory spells included in its tanning. Danica had tested some of the leather, and it proved to work just as well as if she had cast the spells during the tanning.

Danica smiled as she thought of Olaf, whom she had not seen in some time, and then shook her head to clear it.

Afterwards, William and Danica went to a local inn. The couple quickly found their way upstairs to a room. The owner of the inn looked positively scandalized when the pair returned downstairs only a couple of hours later and turned in their room key. Apparently, he was not used to such business occurring in his inn.

Oh well, he'll get over it, Danica thought after she parted with William. She had enjoyed bedding him — coming several times — but the experience paled in comparison to fucking and sucking William in public.

Danica tried again that night to sneak into Nichtar's chambers. The man remained within, and Danica's magic showed her that he was not sleeping. She couldn't figure out how to get in, get what she needed, and get away.

Danica grew more frustrated and nervous the next day as she worked in the shop. The Master was supposed to return today, and Danica realized that she had not seen Andrea all day. Nichtar hurried around the building all day, obviously in preparation for the return of his Master. Nichtar looked both excited and nervous as he went about whatever tasks he was performing.

Danica seriously considered taking great risks, using a bolder approach to get what she needed. She knew that closing time was fast approaching, and Nichtar had a look about him that said the Master would arrive soon. Plans ran through Danica's head in a rush, each rejected for one reason or another, as her last hour behind the counter slowly ticked by.

When Danica closed up the shop, she decided she was going to use invisibility magic to enter Nichtar's chambers now. He was in the storeroom doing something, and Danica knew that she would have no better opportunity.

Danica quickly returned to her room to gather up her possessions. Her eyes opened wide when she felt magic wrap around her. Danica resisted the magic with all her will, and heard a dull roar in the back of her mind, as she silently screamed, No! When the thought of that word formed in her mind, the roar in her head felt as though it burst outward, and the magic attacking Danica weakened.

For an instant, she thought she was going to win the battle. Then, the power of the Art directed against her surged, and she knew no more.

Danica awakened with a start and quickly looked around. A look out the window revealed that she could not have slept long, as the fading light of dusk had barely changed from when she had lost consciousness.

Feeling confused, Danica sat up to pack her things again — and realized what had happened. Every bit of magic she had brought with her was gone. Her rings were missing from her fingers, her bag of holding was gone, every little bit of Art she had in the room was gone. Even her hood ring with its powerful enchantments was missing.

Danica put her head in her hands and half growled, half sobbed, "No — dammit!" She quickly regained her composure and left the room, determined to use her magic if she couldn't use her rings and trinkets to accomplish her goal. She used her magic to look outside the room for Nichtar, whom she assumed must know what she was doing.

As she reached for the door handle, Danica changed her goal. Damn the punishment for failure. I'm getting Andrea and getting out of here. Something was making the hairs on the back of Danica's neck stand up. Something was very wrong here.

Danica wrapped invisibility around her and left the room, heading toward Andrea's. She passed the door she had sought to enter all this time, and saw Nichtar within, behaving as if nothing untoward was happening.

Danica didn't have time to contemplate his odd reaction. She hurried down the hall and into Andrea's room. She passed through the door with her magic and returned to visibility with a gulp of worry. Andrea lay stiff and obviously entranced on the bed. Danica brushed away the tears forming in her eyes and concentrated with the second sight. She knew that she had to quickly determine what spells affected Andrea and break them. It would be nearly impossible to teleport her in her current state, and dangerous for the young woman.

The door opened behind Danica. "Ah — excellent. Converse," Nichtar said. Danica felt the tug and resisted it for a moment, on the verge of turning to release her magic on the man. Something inside her told her not to do it — at least yet — and she relaxed to feign falling under Nichtar's spell. Danica's mind whirled as she tried to deduce some way to escape the current situation. An aura of magical power surrounded Nichtar that appeared almost incandescent in Danica's second sight. She knew his magic was strong and likely enhanced by several magic items as well.

"Stand and join hands with Danica, Andrea," Nichtar commanded. Andrea immediately stood up and walked over to Danica. Danica clasped hands with the young woman, her mind still racing for a solution. She couldn't complete the teleport spell quickly enough, as the spell was one she had not yet discovered shortcuts for.

Nichtar crossed the room and touched the two women's hands with his own. A magic item activated, and Danica felt magic carry her away. Upon reaching Nichtar's destination, Danica looked around at the very dark room. She saw two beds placed close together on the opposite wall of the room. Both beds were plain mattresses with no linens on them — and both were ominously speckled with bloodstains.

Danica immediately let her mind surge back into full control, abandoning her feigned trance. Whatever he has planned for us, I'm not going to lie down and meekly accept it.

Nichtar's eyes widened when Danica apparently defeated his charm magic. Danica instantly fell into her magic and blasted the man backwards with a powerful gust of wind.

Nichtar's magical defenses activated, but the protections proved insufficient to prevent him from flying into the wall with tremendous force. He collapsed to his knees, the wind knocked out of him.

Andrea still stood next to Danica, moving normally despite the magic enthralling her. Now that she wasn't stiff and unmoving, Danica felt it would be safe to teleport the two of them away.

Danica spoke the words of the teleportation spell before Nichtar could rise. She had barely begun when she felt an ominous chill sweep through the room. The chill was both real and imagined. The temperature did drop, but the dampening of magic in the room chilled Danica to the core. The effect was similar to a dispell, but not absolute. The chilly aura simply weakened magic, rather than stopping it completely.

Danica ceased her casting, knowing that the effect on her teleportation spell could prove disastrous. A door opened as Danica tried to stave off panic and find a solution that would free her and Andrea from this nightmare.

The odd woman Danica had seen speaking with Nichtar sauntered into the room. Behind her came two more women, both dressed in the same sort of transparent gowns that did nothing to hide their beautiful, pale bodies.

Behind the women walked a man. Danica didn't really find him handsome, but he possessed a strange aura of powerful sexuality that somehow made him attractive to her. Despite her panic, Danica felt her body responding to the man.

Nichtar coughed and tried to rise when the newcomer shut the door. The strange man said, "It would seem that your hold on this one was not as strong as you thought, Nichtar." The man smiled, and Danica screamed. She saw the fangs protruding from beneath his upper lip and knew him for what he was — a vampire.

Danica immediately gasped out the first words of the Positive Forcebolt spell. She knew the magic was the only chance she had. The vampire lord obviously recognized the magic, because he hissed and pointed at Danica.

The three gorgeous vampire women leapt at Danica, covering the distance across the room in that single leap. Danica was mere words away from completing her spell when the women fell on her and bore her to the floor. The vampiric women pushed Andrea aside, and the blonde fell hard against a bed.

One of the women clamped her hand down hard over Danica's mouth. Another grabbed Danica's hands and roughly pulled them over her head. The woman's nails dug into Danica's flesh, and the supernaturally strong grip caused Danica to scream around the hand covering her mouth. The last woman grabbed Danica's legs with the same unbreakable grip.

"Put her on the bed," Danica heard the vampire lord hiss.

Danica struggled against her captors, but the women easily lifted her and slammed her down on the bed. Danica heard Andrea scream, and looked over to see the vampire holding the blonde's head in his hands and staring at her with obvious hunger. Danica let out a scream of anger and helplessness, struggling harder against the grip of the female vampires.

Andrea's scream died out. Danica glanced over and saw the blonde relax, her eyes glazing over. Danica knew that the reaction meant that Andrea was in the grip of the vampire's charm. The vampire ordered Andrea to lie on the bed, and then turned to Danica as Andrea obeyed his commands.

"I am very pleased with these gifts, Nichtar — especially this one," the vampire said as he stepped toward Danica. "Release her," the vampire then ordered the women holding Danica down.

Danica immediately tried to summon up her magic again when the women released her and backed away, but the vampire caught her head in his hands with supernatural swiftness. He roughly turned her head and forced her to look into his eyes.

Danica could feel his charm slamming into her mind. She silently screamed and brought her will to bear. She knew that if she failed to resist and destroy the creatures, Andrea was going to die for her failure — and Zoraster's twisted amusement.

The vampire gripped Danica tighter, and his lip curled into a snarl as he tried to bore his will into her. Danica continued to resist, and knew she was winning the battle. Her fingers again moved in the gestures of the Positive Forcebolt, and she started to mouth the words despite the vampire's powerful gaze.

The vampire lord broke his gaze and grabbed Danica's hands with one of his own, while he cuffed her across the face with the other. Danica's involuntary cry of pain broke her partially completed spell.

"Never have I had anyone — especially a woman — resist me so completely. It is no matter. It will only give your blood a flavor of fear that is nearly intoxicating, and you have revealed to me in your struggles something that will give more flavor to the sweet essence of your life."

Without looking away from Danica, the vampire pointed behind him and said, "Reveal her."

The three female blood drinkers tore Andrea's clothing from her body, their fangs now revealed in their hunger. One forced Andrea's right leg up high, revealing her pink folds.

"She is yours," the vampire said and jerked Danica's head toward the scene, forcing her to watch.

Danica sobbed uncontrollably as she watched the horror unfold. Andrea emitted only a quiet, oh, as the three vampire women sank their fangs into her smooth flesh. Two bit into opposite sides of her neck, while the third sank her fangs into Andrea's thigh. Danica's stomach churned at the sound of them sucking the beautiful young woman's life from her.

Danica saw Andrea's nipples harden, even as the light slowly faded from the blonde's eyes. Danica remembered reading that when a vampire drained someone's life, the creature's saliva released substances that caused euphoria in the victim. Andrea's back arched and her mouth opened in a silent gasp as her life slowly seeped from her.

Danica didn't even see Andrea's body settle back to the bed and go limp. She couldn't see the final flutter of Andrea's eyelashes as the last sparks of her life faded. Danica's eyes were too filled with tears to see anything.

Danica felt her head turned roughly to the side and let out a gurgling gasp of fear and sorrow as she felt the vampire lord's fangs sink into her neck. She felt the strange euphoria spreading through her as it had for Andrea. Danica's nipples stiffened, her juices flowed, and her breathing quickened — for a few moments. Then, her breathing slowed again as consciousness slowly left her. She retained just enough presence of mind to realize that the same sensations were running through her body that she experienced when on the verge of an orgasm. As the last of her senses shut down, Danica felt her soul fleeing her body.

Danica awakened with a gasping sob. She was disoriented, and felt as if she had not moved for days. Memories of what had happened to her immediately surged to the surface, and she sobbed again. She assumed that she was awakening in a crypt somewhere — likely with Andrea nearby — and would now have to stalk the night as a bloodsucking vampire.

When Danica opened her eyes, something completely different met her gaze. Andrea was indeed nearby, nude and strapped to a wooden table. Zoraster and another man hovered over the both of them with wide, satisfied smiles.

"Awake, little rose?" Zoraster asked with a laugh. "I apologize for the deception, but it was necessary to achieve my ends. Fear not — young Andrea will remember none of this when I allow her to awaken. Now sleep, little rose. You have had a trying evening."

Once again, Danica succumbed to the blackness.

Danica awoke again, still feeling as stiff as a board and knowing that she had bedsores from the burning pain she felt in several places. She managed to force her eyes open and sat up, wincing in pain from the effort.

A pitcher of water sat on the bedside table, and Danica drank two glasses to get rid of the dry, pasty taste in her mouth. She haltingly walked to the tub and filled it, finally starting to feel better as the warmth of the tub sank into her body. She had just climbed out of the tub when the door opened and Zoraster entered.

"Feeling better, little rose?" Zoraster inquired with a wicked laugh.

Danica grabbed her towel and started to dry off. "What kind of psychotic experiment was that supposed to be? What was the purpose of making me imagine all that?"

Zoraster chuckled. "Imagine? No, little rose, that was not your imagination. Everything was real. It was simply not your body — or that of Andrea's — which experienced what actually happened. Your minds were there, but your bodies were here within the room where you first awakened."

Danica dropped the towel when she realized what had happened. "Clones," she muttered under her breath.

"Yes — clones. I made special clones of both you and young Andrea. It took a great deal of work to link your minds to them, even more to make you ignore and forget certain things while inhabiting the bodies. Yes, that is why you continuously ignored the unnatural things like your girlish tightness. The clones were, in fact, both virgins when initially released from the chambers where they were grown. I took great pleasure in correcting that little problem."

"Why, you sick bastard?" Danica asked and stomped across the room to find some clothing to put on. She started dressing as Zoraster moved toward her and continued.

"For exactly the reasons I told you when I gave you the task. Had you actually completed your task without the measures I had set in place, I would have been remarkably pleased and surprised. As it was, your failure actually resulted in success, which is how I intended the scenario to play out. Your ability to resist his charm tempted the vampire to take you for himself. He normally offers Nichtar's gifts to his harem of female slaves. I have the spells I wished to acquire, and have eliminated a creature that stood in the way of a cooperative venture," Zoraster explained as he leered at Danica while she dressed.

Danica refused to comment. Instead, she sat down on the bed when she finished dressing. She stared hard at Zoraster as he continued.

"It was quite fascinating to watch what occurred — both here and there. Your exploits are always a joy to watch, and it was a remarkable surprise to see your body here react to the arousal your mind experienced within the clone. My associate was quite flabbergasted when you soaked his robes in a fountain of cum as the young man behind the bathhouse pleasured you." Zoraster paused to laugh. "I took special pains on your clone to achieve my goals, in the likely event that you were unable to complete the task. In fact, it was actually impossible for you to fully complete the task.

"When you believed yourself lulled to sleep, you were actually transporting all your magical items back here for safekeeping yourself. It was too late in the gambit for you to possibly acquire what I told you I wanted, so I took steps to ensure that you could not foul up the means I truly intended to use to achieve my goal.

"You see, that body was created with a powerful and virtually undetectable enchantment upon it. Should it die, it would disintegrate and do the same to anything touching it at the moment of death. Thus, the vampire sealed its doom by draining your clone of its lifeblood. The moment its heart stopped beating, he was annihilated with it. Nichtar found himself receiving a final rebuke from his Master when the vampire's control over his bloodsucking harem ended. They fell upon him and sucked him dry before he had a chance to even consider escaping." Zoraster chuckled and smiled wickedly.

"You are twisted beyond comprehension," Danica muttered in disbelief.

"That is in the eye of the beholder," Zoraster responded. "You should feel privileged. How many can say they have experienced the unique sensation of a vampire sucking them dry, without becoming one of the undead themselves? You have earned the freedom to venture into that city as you wish, though you may not leave the city borders. Good day, little rose," he said and walked toward the door.

"Go to hell," Danica spat as the Archmage left. Zoraster only laughed and continued out the door.

Danica took some healing potions to combat the bedsores caused by lying immobile for several days, and then went to find Andrea.

She found Andrea in her room, apparently possessing no memory whatsoever of what had happened to her. Danica assumed that someone must have healed any sores or such physical evidence, because Danica found none as she examined Andrea's body thoroughly while they shared each other. The two women relaxed afterward in that warm glow that always filled the room any time Danica coupled with Andrea.

Danica returned to her chambers and her studies once she recovered from the sweet release with Andrea. She found her sleep haunted by dreams of vampires for quite some time to come.

A few days later, Danica heard a knock on her door just after completing the enchantment of her new bag of holding. She opened it and was surprised to see Marlena there.

"Can I... Can I talk to you for a while?" Marlena asked, looking embarrassed and ill at ease.

"Of course, come in," Danica answered, and shut the door behind Marlena when she entered. Danica then said, "Sit down. I just finished some work, and I need a rest, anyhow."

"What were you doing?" Marlena asked, appearing relieved to have a subject to talk about. She was obviously delaying the conversation that had originally drawn her here.

"I was enchanting a new bag of holding. I found an amazing leather worker who did the most intricate scrollwork I've ever seen. I commissioned the bag from him and enchanted it. Would you like to see it?"

Marlena nodded, and followed Danica into her lab. Danica said, "I just completed the enchantments when you knocked. I haven't even had a chance to test it yet. Hopefully, you won't be seeing my first dismal failure," Danica said with a laugh.

"It's beautiful," Marlena gasped when Danica handed her the bag. A nature scene depicting nymphs cavorting in a waterfall decorated the magical sack.

"Now, let's see if it's more than just a beautiful and all but useless bag, or the magical wonder I need it to be." Danica walked over and grabbed a broom from the closet of the lab.

Danica opened the bag and slid the broom inside. The broom vanished completely into the bag. Danica smiled, and then withdrew the broom again. "It works," Danica exclaimed.

Marlena sighed. "I sometimes wish I hadn't devoted myself so much to Illusion. I find it almost impossible to learn other magic. I have a hard time creating a magic item, even if it's based on illusion." She leaned her hand on the table as she spoke, but jerked her hand back and blushed deeply when she saw where she had put her hand.

Danica let out a little laugh. Marlena had put her hand down on a toy Danica was crafting for Andrea. The blonde had hinted that she wanted one, and Danica had just finished glazing this one in preparation for final enchantment. Marlena now stared in surprise at a very realistic cock

"A toy for a friend. I was going to lay the final enchantments on it this evening," Danica explained.

"Does Zoraster use his magic to make you think about things?" Marlena asked out of the blue.

"He's done any number of sick and twisted things to me," Danica answered and frowned, thinking of his most recent many-leveled torture. "What do you mean specifically?"

Marlena blushed a bright red. "I've been feeling... I don't know — aroused all the time, much more so than I ever have before coming here. I've been having dreams as well — dreams about things that make me doubt I'm in control of myself."

"What are you dreaming about?" Danica asked and pulled out a chair for Marlena to sit down.