Chapter 36

Penny stared at Victor, unable to move. "But ... V-Victor, I don't understand, why are you--"

Victor stood and stepped up to her. She drew in a sharp breath and let it go as a hot, quavering sigh as her body was flooded with powerful sensations of both lust and guilt. "That is not something a whore would say, is it?"

Penny trembled, and her pussy flared hot. Her guilt did not abate, even as misplaced as it seemed. She could act without shame as needed before anyone, even the reverend from the church. This should be no different.

"One more chance, Penelope," said Victor. "I am sure you would not want me to express dissatisfaction with my little slut."

Penny forced a trembling smile. "No, of course not," she said, her voice dropping to a more husky tone. Her lips curled into a sultry, playful smirk. She stepped back from him and swiveled her hips. "I got what you want. A nice wet pussy to fuck. I'll spread my thighs nice and wide for you and let you fuck my brains out. I--"

Penny stopped. Her arousal had surged, her pussy soaking her panties, leaving them glistening and musky. Her cunt ached for a nice, hard cock. Her mouth craved a dick between her lips. Yet upon the heels of each lusty thought came a deep and rising tide of shame, threatening to drown her.

"Yes, please," Victor said in a soft voice. "Do go on."

Penny wavered for a moment before she dropped to her knees and slid her hands up his legs to his hips. "Or do you want it in my mouth? Want me to suck on that luscious cock of yours? Just squirt your hot cum all over me, all over my face and tits. I'm used to it. I'm used to ... to being all hot and sticky from ... f-from..."

Penny's shaking hands slid off his hips. Her gaze dropped. Tears blurred her vision and dripped to the floor. Her throat locked, holding back a scream until the urge passed. She whimpered and sobbed. "Y-you're doing this to me. P-please stop."

"So what are you, Penelope?" Victor asked.

Horrible, shameful pleasure rose in her pussy. Penny's hands dropped from Victor as she collapsed. She sobbed into the carpet.

"Tell me what you are," Victor repeated.

"A ... wh-whore." Penny squeaked.

"I didn't hear you."

"A whore. I'm a whore. A complete, slutty, wet little whore! Oh God, please, make it stop!" Penny screamed.

Victor remained still for a few seconds, then turned away.

Penny's sobs became moans as the shame retreated and her lust surged. "Thank you," she breathed, raising her head. She rose on her knees and began to stand up.

"Stay where you are, Penelope," Victor said without turning around.

Penny dropped back down to both knees and averted her eyes. "Victor, why did you do that to me just now?" she asked in a tiny voice.

Victor folded his hands behind his back and appeared to scrutinize a picture on the wall where a window would have been were it not for the secret passage behind it. "To remind you of your place."

Penny sighed. "I'm reminded of that every day, Victor."

Victor turned around. "Perhaps you're not paying close enough attention to it. You need to understand this: you are indeed a complete whore. It's not just an act or a metaphor."

"I was made this way," Penny said in soft defiance.

"You fell into that role quite well on your own when you first came to the Inn before the Darkness took you. Or rather, before you let it take you."

Penny's eyes burned. "Victor, please, I get enough of this from my children. They're the reason I do this."

Victor stroked his chin as he regarded her.

"It was either me or my daughters!" Penny shouted.

"And yet, it would have your daughters anyway. As I would."

Penny's lips parted, and her face paled. She shook her head, eyes wide and shimmering. "N-no ... no, you said ... you already picked--!"

Victor stepped up to her and stroked her hair. Penny trembled with the urge to recoil. The cruelty had been doubled. The Darkness had retreated from her mind just enough to allow her to think on what she was doing. "And if I decided I would take a second slave? Or change my selection? That is my prerogative. You may not be a member of my cult, Penelope, but the Inn is obligated to assist it. It was the arrangement I made with Missy."

Penny's lower lip trembled. "Please, Victor ... please ... I just want to protect my children as long as I can. Please don't take Heather! Don't let Terri take her!"

Victor's hand dropped. "Be a whore for me again, Penelope."

"What? But I can't--"

"Yes, you can. Do it."

Penny stared at him with haunted, pleading eyes, but his gaze remained hard and cool. She forced her lips to curl into a slow, trembling smile. Her hips squirmed, her panties squishing against her wet folds. She panted, her breaths squeezing her boobs against the cups of the bra, the nipples hard and aching.

"You ... you like me like this? On my knees? On all fours? I'll crawl on the ground like a dog for your cock. Just stick it in me, fuck me good and hard. I'll..."

She trailed off. This time, the shame was her own.

Victor smiled. "See how easy it is? Just like it should be. You obey my will as you obey the Darkness' will."

"You can't take Heather!" Penny cried. "You didn't prepare her. You never even looked at her. Only Terri did anything, but she ... she doesn't--"

"What Terri is doing is no concern of mine."

Penny's mouth worked for a few seconds before any sound would emerge from between her lips. "Then ... you don't want Heather?"

"I am not going to answer that, as it should not matter. What I want is what I get, and right now my concern is for Melinda, not Heather."

Penny paled again. "She's too young."

"I do not want her in that capacity," Victor said. "But I insist on your full cooperation for what I do want of her."

"I don't understand."

"I do not intend to detail every one of my plans to you. I grow weary of explaining myself. Suffice it to say that she is needed to assist in convincing others to act in a manner more conducive to my efforts."

"The Harbingers?"

"Ah, good, you know of them."

Penny nodded. "I was told to disrupt them where I can."

"Hmm. Not doing a very good job, are you?"

"There is only so much I can do, Victor! I can't watch them every minute."

He waved a hand. "I am not the Darkness' emissary, you have no need to explain such matters to me. And I will tell you what I want exactly once. I will have Melinda taken tomorrow, Saturday, with the intent to release her Sunday morning before the need arises to follow through on an implied threat."

Penny bit her lip to suppress any audible reaction. She knew what the cult could do. She also knew that Victor disdained indiscriminate sexual contact between the cultists and underage teens until the night that one was taken as a slave.

Yet this was unprecedented. Even when faced with adversaries that threatened to reveal him, Victor never struck at their underage teenage children.

Victor gestured for her to rise. She stood as he spoke again. "I need two things from you. First, arrange whatever excuses are needed to whomever they are needed to cover her absence Saturday night. Use your Darkness-given powers if needed."

"I don't want to see Melinda hurt," Penny said. "It's one thing for her to be forced into sex with her peers, but--"

"And second, I want you to send her on an errand sometime Saturday afternoon. Alone. My cultists will take care of the rest."

Penny swallowed hard. "They won't do anything to her? Not without your word?"

"Nothing will happen to her if I get what I want," said Victor. "Perhaps you may consider impressing that upon her fellow Harbingers." He turned away and headed towards the hotel room door.

Penny whirled around. "Victor, wait!"

Victor paused and did not turn. "Yes?"

"If you're not after Heather this year, then what is Terri Hollis doing with her?"

"Perhaps you should ask her yourself."

"So she's not doing this for you?"

Victor's voice was tense. "Asked. And Answered."

He opened the door and let himself out.

Jason dodged his way through the crowded hallway after second period. He heard Melinda call out to him some distance behind him, but ducked his head and kept going. He didn't have time to be sidetracked.

He spotted Diane, who was making a beeline for her lover's locker. "Hey, Diane, wait, got a second?" Jason called out as he burst out of the crowd.

Diane flinched and sighed. "Only if this has nothing to do with the Harbingers."

"It kind of does, but it's nothing really sensitive."

"I'm not sure you should take the chance that--"

"Anyway, it's about what you had said before, about us just doing something to you if we find a way to break you free of Victor."

"Yes, and if you do have an idea, please don't tell me."

Jason shook his head, trying not to look impatient. "It's related to that, but not quite that." He stepped closer and lowered his voice. "If we found a spell that required a volunteer, someone to be the focus of the spell--"

Diane wrung her hands. "Jason, I already told you, just do it to me. The more you talk about it, the more I can spill to Victor if he--"

"But it's not just you!" Jason blurted. When Diane stared in confusion, he ran a hand through his hair. "I mean, it would be something that could help all of us, but it requires ... well ... the focus has to be enslaved to the others. Temporarily."

Diane's lips parted and her eyes widened.

"You see, I can't allow you to give carte blanche approval for something like that. You have to know what you'd be getting into."

"I'll do it."

Jason paused. "We haven't decided to do this yet, we're just thinking about it."

"I'll do it, Jason."

"Are you sure you're not just agreeing for the sake of being helpful?"

Diane let out a slow, husky sigh. A slave to the Harbingers. The thought was so easy now. Whatever doubt lingered was lost in a wave of warm pleasure. She could help without arousing Victor's suspicions.

She could finally be useful.

"I can do this, Jason," Diane said in a softer voice. "This is what I'm supposed to do."

Jason stared at her, then nodded. "All right."

Diane said nothing more. Yet the thought of her new-found purpose stirred in her mind, and Jason's thoughts stirred in sync. It made sense to him as well. Diane was perfect for this role after all. She would do well as a slave.

"Temporary," Jason finally said, his voice strained. "It would be a temporary enslavement."

Diane nodded, though there was a flicker of disappointment in her eyes. Jason felt the same thing, but rationalized it as a desire to hold on to their augmented powers longer. "Of course, Jason, I know," she finally said in a flat voice.

"Well, that's all I wanted to ask. Um, like I said, we haven't decided yet if--"

"You better do it now that you've told me about it," Diane said. "Otherwise, if Victor gets wind of it, he might try to stop it."

"I don't think Victor will want to use you anymore against us, not when he already failed to get the Book from us. We're one step ahead of him there."

"You don't understand, Jason, I have no idea what else I may have told him. When he puts me under, I don't remember anything. I don't even recall if I told him what you said to me when I tried to get the Book from you."

Jason looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"You remember, what you said to me about the pendant when I took the Book -- well, the fake Book -- from you."

Jason shook his head, mystified.

"It was something like the Book not doing what he wanted without the linked pendant."

"I never said that."

"Yes, you did, Jason, I heard you, and Victor probably got it out of me."

"I don't recall saying that. Are you sure?"

"Positive," Diane said. "I may be useless to the group, but I remember things I heard very well. Jason, I need to get to class. Please, just do whatever you need to do to me if it will help."

Heather avoided the teacher's gaze as she stepped inside Ms. Hollis' classroom. Her eyes darted about the room, but it appeared that Brad had not arrived yet. Her eyes instead fell upon the dark-haired girl in the back of the room.

Heather was stunned at the sight. Gina's shorts were molded to her pussy. As if responding to Heather's gaze, Gina slid her hips forward, catching the shorts on the seat and pulling it snug against her sex until the moisture began to seep through.

Shit, she's not even wearing panties, Heather thought.

"Like what you see?"

Heather spun around.

Ms. Hollis offered a sly grin and gestured for Heather to approach the desk. "You didn't answer me. Do you like what you see?"

Heather took a deep breath and cast a stony mask on her face. "I don't understand what you mean."

"Is that why you're so resistant? You like pussy more than cock?"

Other students filed into the room. Heather noted that no one batted an eye at the conversation. What were they hearing, she wondered, if anything? "No, Ms. Hollis," Heather finally answered.

"But you must enjoy pussy at least as much as cock, since you were so fascinated with Miss Caligano's twat."

Heather licked her lips. "Yeah, all right. I guess I do like them both."

"I would be happy to indulge you when you report to detention this afternoon."

"Should you be telling me this out loud, Ms. Hollis?" Heather said, raising her voice. "After all, this is kind of inappropriate, you know. Sexually propositioning me and all that."

Ms. Hollis grinned and chuckled. "Nice try, but it works for both of us. No one hears anything more than a teacher dressing down a student whose grades are slipping."

Heather glanced to the side. A student smirked at her as he passed. "Isn't it kind of hard maintaining two conversations at the same time?"

"Simpler than you think. I don't have to maintain a complete illusion, just suggest what's happening. The human mind loves to fill in the gaps."

"You don't get tired? How much do you have to concentrate to--"

"Enough," Ms. Hollis said. She pointed. "You'd best get to your seat. Class is about to start."

Heather nodded and turned away. She frowned when she saw that Brad had arrived while she was busy with the teacher. He had dumped his books at his desk, but he now sat in a vacant seat near Gina, chatting with her and ogling her with no regard to who witnessed him. Annoyance swelled into jealousy before she could quell it. When she sat down in her seat and caught some of the conversation, she realized something was wrong beyond just bad taste or her own petty emotions.

Brad would sometimes ogle a girl from a distance, or wink at her, or make passing risque comments. He would chat with her for a bit before class, or in the hall. But he would never fawn over her, or converse like a john to a hooker. He displayed the same level of obsession as he had towards Heather while under Melissa's control.

Heather turned to face forward in her seat as the bell rang, and Ms. Hollis called the class to order. Behind her, she heard Brad scramble back to his seat. Ms. Hollis waited for him without a word of admonishment.

"All right, settle down," Ms. Hollis said. She opened her satchel and withdrew a sheaf of papers. "No talking during the test or you get an instant zero."

Heather whispered a curse under her breath. Ms. Hollis had made her miss so much of the normal lesson that she had had no forewarning of this test, let alone know enough of the material to pass it.

Ms. Hollis walked the aisles, distributing test papers. Heather sat up as Ms. Hollis approached. She heard her thumb a set of test papers from the pile and place it on the desk of the student behind her. Ms. Hollis stepped forward and stood alongside Heather's desk.

Heather glanced towards her teacher's hands. Instead of taking another test from the top, Ms. Hollis slid her hand under the sheaf and extracted the pages from there.

Ms. Hollis bent over to place the test face-down on Heather's desk. "You get a special test, Miss Sovert," Ms. Hollis said in a silky voice near Heather's ear. "I expect you to score quite well on this one. In fact, you need to. Your whole semester's grade will be based on it."

Seeger stopped short of the Principal's office and frowned.

He hated coming to Laura's office anymore, but now he understood why. Laura did not vex him as much as her receptionist Marcie Fuller. Her bright and bubbly eagerness would not be unwanted except that it never stopped, as if she were capable of no other emotion. She occasionally squirmed in her seat as if she could not get comfortable, but the look on her face was quite the opposite.

So opposite, in fact, as to be disturbing. He feared that if he let his mind wander too far, he would conjure equally disturbing reasons behind it.

Seeger finally sighed and advanced. "Good morning, Mr. Seeger!" Marcie sang in that breathy voice that Seeger felt was more appropriate passing from the lips of a porn actress rather than a high school receptionist. "Ms. Bendon is waiting for you in her office."

Seeger marched past her and let himself inside. Laura looked up, smiled, and gestured to the seat before her desk.

"If this is brief, I would rather stand," Seeger said. "I have a lot to do today."

Seeger hated lying, but he loathed the idea of admitting that he felt too uncomfortable in her presence to let his guard down.

"It is brief, actually," said Laura. "I understand that you have Richard Gardner helping with Halloween party preparations?"

"Is there a problem?"

"We already have a student assisting. Heather Sovert. It is her punishment, so I think it best she have the sole responsibility."

"It is a punishment for Mr. Gardner as well," Seeger blurted.

Laura paused. "Is it? I saw no note of that on your detention reports."

"It is sort of a punishment. Mr. Gardner admitted to conspiring to start a snowball fight in the bus lot."

"And you assigned him this task as punishment?"

"Not quite. He volunteered."

"So it is not punishment."

Seeger frowned. "If you wish to argue petty semantics, no, it is not."

Laura offered an ingratiating smile. "You are the one who is meticulous with words, Seymour. And I would hardly think it petty. Something is either a punishment or it is not. It is discipline or it is not." She folded her hands. "Please, tell Mr. Gardner that his services, while appreciated, will not be needed Monday."

Seeger's jaw tightened. His hands clenched into fists.

Laura raised a single eyebrow. "Problem, Seymour?"

Seeger forced his hands to unclench. He let out a long sigh through his nose and ground his teeth before willing them to stop. He forced the words to his mouth. "No problem at all, Laura. Speaking of detention, I would like to make a request concerning Miss Sovert's. I would like to sit in on part of it."