"Picking up the Pieces"
XXVIII.
Dawn spread soft pinkish light upon the mansion as I left the master bedroom to inspect the grounds. Jeanie and Vanessa followed me.
I had dominated Vanessa, but all her kingdom had crumbled.
Everyone had left.
"They are all gone," Vanessa said wearing her a black silken robe. "The Djinns, the Ifreets, the Seers, the servants, even the mortals. Once you broke me, they all fled."
"I have seen Houri loyal to their masters despite their being broken," Jeanie said.
"I was a Ghul Mistress," Vanessa explained. "We admire strength and power and when power erodes, so does loyalty. My mistress is a Ghul Mistress now. Not a Houri mistress. She would do well to start acting like one."
"Your thoughts, Jeanie?" I asked my Djinn servant.
"Vanessa is right,” she said pondering the idea. “You are a Ghul. Showing weakness will only lead to a stronger Ghul attacking you. There is only one path for a Ghul and that is power."
"Power means people, right?" I said. "Now it's just the three of us."
"Four," Melissa said approaching from behind. She had just roused from the magical sleep of the Flower of the Sahara. "I said I would serve you if I had the opportunity. I cannot speak for the remaining Huntresses. They have fled like the rest."
"Ok," I said. "We have something to start with. Try and locate the deserters and bring them back. When we are ready, we go after them and like it or not we make them loyal."
"Yes, mistress," Vanessa and Melissa bowed and left.
"We have to leave this place, right?" I asked Jeanie.
"That would be prudent," she replied.
"Good, I want a fresh start," I said.
"Claudia, what are you going to do about Raymond?" Jeanie asked suddenly bringing up exactly the question I pondered in my mind.
"I don't know," I answered honestly. "I think I need to settle things down first. Keep myself alive and free of all these power mongers."
"To stay free and alive you must become a power monger," Jeanie said sadly.
"If that is the case, then if I have any hope of making things right with Ray, I must become the very best power monger I can be."
"That's what I'm afraid of," Jeanie said.
"Me too," I replied with tears creeping into my eyes.
Jeanie approached and gave me a hug that made me really feel I was not alone.
At least for that moment, I knew I wasn't.
XXIX.
My name is Felix Porter. I am a Ghul Seer.
I was at the airport. I had a ticket to London. There were Ghuls there that would pay very well to have an expert Seer of my qualifications. I was not a handsome man. The scar on my face was quite disfiguring. But that was of little importance. I could see better than most Seers. I could detect and predict fairly accurately and that made me an interesting asset after having been freed from the service of Vanessa.
I was thinking of my plans and what the future could hold for me when I heard a familiar voice behind me.
"Felix," said the voice. "I do believe you are about to embark on a trip far away. Why the haste? I could take you there through the Primal Plane. You can save yourself the cost of the ticket."
I felt my stomach churn nervously. It was Vanessa.
She was dressed in an elegant black dress. She was all made up and her hair was perfectly combed and scented with that damned perfume that drove me mad. She looked tired, which was to be expected after her ordeal, but she still remained beautiful. Her green eyes still sparkled and dark wavy hair still held me in thrall. I had been freed of servitude, but she certainly still had a sort of power over me.
"I won't go back to serve you," I said very sternly. "Never."
"Fair enough," she said. "I did not treat you very well."
She treated me horribly. The teasing, the abuse. It was constant. She would tickle me senseless just for the fun of it. She'd show me her feet, her body and watch me react, but she'd never go farther than that with me and she knew that gave her even more power over me.
I was spellbound to her and I'd kill for her in an instant.
Even now I fought the urge to do anything she asked for.
Perhaps I still was spellbound.
"I won't serve that Claudia either," I said mustering my will and determination. "She'll be a side dish on some other Ghul's plate before she knows it."
"That I cannot accept, you know," she said smiling. I hated her. Her perfect white smile. It weakened my knees. Weakened my will. But I had taken precautions.
She watched me, studying me. Thinking about me. And then, as the knowledge dawned upon her, her luscious lips curled into a different all knowing smile.
"You still think about me..." she stated realizing how she was affecting me.
The truth be told I thought about her constantly even now after being free from her power. She was beautiful and sexy and she could ask me and I would not deny her anything. She was bad for me. Very bad.
"That does not matter," I said shaking my head. "I'll not serve again unless it is of my choice. You can torture me to break me. I'd rather die."
I shifted a quarter turn to keep the mortals oblivious of my actions and words. I pulled open my shirt tearing off the buttons revealing the insurance policy I'd spent many years preparing and many hours tracing it. It was a guarantee that I would never serve again in this life.
"This rune is special. It took quite a bit of research and it was difficult to trace onto my own chest so quickly," I explained. "If you break me, I will die. I will not serve again. Not like that."
"My mistress needs you. I promised to bring the deserters back," Vanessa said. "I can't do it alone."
"You can go back to your mistress and tell her that I said no," I barked harshly.
"You have a gift," she said. "You can see what we cannot. You were easy to track. The others will post a challenge since they move more freely through the Primal Plane. I despise Claudia with all my soul, but I am in her service and I will do her good service until she becomes the side plate she most certainly will become."
"Go. My plane is boarding. You can't afford me," I said. "In London they will give me resources and power and respect."
"We all want something. What do you want? What makes serving again worth while?" she asked drawing closer. Her perfume was faint, but it arrested my senses and clouded my thoughts.
A thought fleetingly entered my mind.
"You want me," she concluded.
I gulped weakly. Damn her. I was an open book. One of the top ten Ghul Seers in the world, and I was an open book.
"Like Jason had me," she smiled again and my resolve weakened more yet. Her faint, faint perfume penetrated to my inner being. Curse her smile. Curse her scent. Curse my weakness.
"Something like that," I said nervously.
She touched my bare chest. It felt electric.
"Jason never had me," Vanessa said. "I had him. Would you like me to have you?"
"Yes," I said nervously.
"Then swear your loyalty to Claudia and will make all your fantasies come true."
I was dealing with the Devil.
"Do you swear?" I asked her as my heart pounded loudly in my chest.
"May oblivion alone keep me from my word," she said vowing before the universe.
"Then the universe be my witness, I swear loyalty and servitude to the Ghul Claudia," I promised sealing once again my fate to that of another Ghul Mistress.
Power surged and we both felt it. It was done.
Vanessa smiled.
And with that so ended my short lived freedom.
XXX.
I tracked down most of Vanessa's former slaves with relative ease. They never saw the opportunity coming. Most left with just the shirt on their backs with little or no preparations. No one really made an effort to cover their tracks.
I wrote out the list of where they were and where I expected them to be headed over the next 48 hours.
Claudia came to formerly receive me and the information. She was young. Twenty at most. But she looked older than the day we kidnapped her. More refined. More mature. She wore glasses and a dark grey pants suit. Her hair was collected in a bun. She looked intelligent and serious. The Djinn was her shadow and she lingered not far behind her watchful and vigilant of everything transpiring.
"You are my eyes, Victor," Claudia said. "I can't see without my eyes and I thank you for your help to find my hands. You will be treated very well. I promise you."
Ghul promises. We are true to promises, but usually not how you expect. Claudia's promise ringed of sincerity though.
"Rest, Victor," Claudia said. "I'll take care of rounding them up."
And I did. Claudia had taken control of the extensive penthouse of an exclusive apartment building. There were many rooms and I was given one of my own.
It was unoccupied so she did not enslave the residents like Vanessa had done. She was different for certain. She was not abusive like Vanessa. I wondered if there was any hope for her.
Or any hope for me, for that matter. I'd betrayed my desire for freedom. I'd betrayed my former colleagues. They would not forget this. And if Claudia fell soon...
A knock sounded on my door.
"Come in," I answered from a chair in my room.
It was Vanessa.
She was dressed in a black silk robe and wore elegant black slippers on her feet.
"I've come to keep my promise," she said.
"I know," I said. "A Ghul always keeps a promise. I have done my part well I suppose."
"You seem glum," she said sitting on the bed in my room.
"I can't help but think that I traded freedom just for a moment of bliss."
"You did," she said. "But I promise you that this moment will be worth it."
She kicked off her slipper and her bare foot was revealed. It was inviting and daring me to come forward.
I approached like a moth to a flame. I was going get burned.
I went to my knees and took the foot tenderly in my hands and I kissed it on the toes. Kisses progressed and I sucked on the toes with relish. They were slim and long and perfect in my eyes with bright red polish in the nails.
I traveled up her leg and proceeded to kiss my way up her legs. She was deliciously ticklish and reacted authentically and playfully. I toughed her body through the silk of her robe feeling her curves flow inward and outward and feeling her firm torso surrender to the softness of her bosom.
I kissed her around her neck inhaling deeply of her perfume and running my fingers through her hair. She cooed and giggled as I tickled her ears and kissed her jaw. I kissed her on her full lips and she returned my passionate kiss with equal passion.
She tore my shirt off and deftly opened the buckle on my pants. I pulled the robe off of her and her breasts tumbled out into my presence. I dove into her bosom crushing her soft breasts in my hands. I kissed her nipples and they hardened in my mouth. I sucked her nipples tugging on them gently with my teeth. I kept the breasts in my hands lest they might somehow disappear and I kissed lower and lower until I reached her navel. It was long and deep. I kissed it and felt her tense as it tickled her.
She pushed me back on my chair and she climbed on me. I shuddered as her wet lips parted and she took me into her without reservations. She was kind and gentle and slow. She could have gotten it over quickly and tossed me aside having technically complied, but she didn't. She held back as I approached orgasm and then she led me closer and closer time and time again. The whole time I worshiped her breasts as they bounced wistfully into my face. She skillfully led me and when I did come it was a emotional dam breaking.
I sat their in my chair spent and convinced a lifetime of servitude was worth it.
"Will I see you ever again?" I asked as she retreated from me and began to dress. By 'see' I did not mean just 'see', of course.
"A debt is paid in full and it was always just a debt," she said slowly and without malice.
I did not feel bad by the comment. I did not feel bad at all, in fact. I felt strangely free.
Vanessa pulled her silk robe closed and tidied her hair before leaving. She did not say good-bye but she paused at the door before departing.
"I despise Claudia as you know, but I am bound to her," she said. "I know you despised me for how I treated you when you were bound to me. I didn't think much of it all those years, but now I've seen many things in a different light. For what it's worth, I'm sorry."
And with that she left.
I patted myself gently on the cheek as if reviving myself from a deep stupor.
To hear her apologize was worth everything to me.
Maybe there is hope for us, after all, I thought.
XXXI.
J'sella had me laid out naked and gagged on a rack that was not unlike the one Constantinius kept her on when I lived out those moments as the Houri master all those hundreds of years ago. It was probably the same one in fact.
She sat on a chair contemplating me. She had left the denim overall and heavy boots and traded them for a light gossamer robe. She was tattooed as I had seen her before. From head to toe she had different wards and symbols. They started to make sense more and more. I saw runes of power, of protection, of lust and of seeing. I could not draw them yet, but they made more sense as I observed them.
We were for all I knew in the bottle where she was kept all those years ago. The roman villa it emulated was the same. I did not remember how we got here. Sucked into her pillar of fire, I had lost consciousness.
Here I was at her mercy. Gagged, naked and waiting for her decision.
"I cannot decide," she said as if on cue.
I was gagged and I could only mumble into the gag. My life was in peril here and there was nothing I could say nor anything I could do.
"I should have killed you," she said. "But your words intrigue me. If I kill you, there is deep satisfaction. But then that is all. If I let you live, I risk your wrath if you should ever get free, but I can explore more in depth what you say of Hadrian Constantinius."
She tapped her forehead absorbed in thought.
"I will let fate decide," she said. "But first I will torture you like Constantinius did to me."
She stood up and attacked my ribs with vicious tickling fingers. The gag disappeared and before I could speak I laughed without control. She explored my body. Emma had inspected me like a clinical nurse, Claudia like a lover, but J'sella inspected me with sheer fascination. It was as if I was a new toy, just recently opened on Christmas.
Everything was explored and inspected. She found her way to my underarms and she discovered it to be my weakest point. Her nails tickled wickedly mercilessly torturing me where I was most ticklish. She tickled lightly dancing her nails in my armpits and then she would dig them in deeply taking the tickling to another level.
She was ecstatic. She was enjoying this. How many times did Constantinius torture her? How many times must she have dreamed of having the upper hand?
She lingered at my feet enjoying how they thrashed under her fingers and she tortured my legs. I tried to speak, I tried to beg, but she seemed most entertained hitting that ticklish nerve just as I attempted to articulate a sentence. After a few pathetic attempts, I gave up and just laughed an screamed.
It went on for what might have been an hour, or maybe more. No way to judge time while being tortured. Ten minutes may seem an eternity.
After screaming and laughing against my will, literally being toyed with, I realized how angry I would be if I were enslaved and tickled ruthlessly at my master's whim for decades.
She shifted her tickling to my privates and I jerked and screamed in the bondage as she tickled my balls and stroked my shaft with her fingers. I felt aroused was the beautiful Ifreet explored there and my manhood grew long and hard. It throbbed against my lower belly as I laughed and screamed still more.
She stopped and contemplated my crumpled sweat drenched form. I could not speak and I dared not in case she might take up the tickling again to silence me.
"Here is the deal, Houri," she finally said revealing an hourglass that hovered in the air. "I will stroke your shaft until the sand leaves this hourglass. If you should climax before the last grain of sand passes, I will burn you here and now. You would be a poor representative of the line of Hadrian Constantinius if you were so easily controlled and manipulated. Resist, and I will aid you in your lost cause."
I would have argued that the test was quite unfair but before I could speak she took me in her soft hands and she started stroking gently.
The words died on my lips and I instantly grew silent. I futilely tried to think of every turn off I could think of but invariably my focus turned to the woman and her tattooed hand that gave me all its attention.
As her hand ascended and descended ever so slowly. I tried to concentrate and when it seemed I might succeed, she gently tickled my inner thighs. I clamped my thighs together laughed myself silly and my concentration was broken. She wiggled her fingers with a spidery motion deep in my thighs and I released them immediately attacked by another fit of laughter.
She toyed with my belly button, inserting in and twisting around. Not terribly ticklish there, but terribly distracting to be sure.
I strained with every fiber of my being to resist the orgasm that built up and accumulated deep inside. My life and maybe the life of Claudia depended on me.
Up and down she gently stroked my manhood. She twisted ever so slightly during the trajectory of her motion making the pleasure exquisite but also excruciating.
I watched the sand and how slowly it fell. Every time I approach the point of no return, J'sella pulled back ever so slightly. I stood at the threshold and she slowly drew back allowing me to regain my composure.
Back and forth, she took me back and forth playing with all my senses, daring me to resist. I was her toy and she could do with me as she wished. If she wanted, I little more tighter, a little more longer and it would have been enough to seal my fate.
The time finally and mercifully ran out and J'sella stopped.
She did not seem disappointed though.
Maybe she did care after all.
I was weary and stressed and weak. I did not believe I would even be able to get up if she released me.
She then went on to prove me wrong again.
She smiled at me and opened her robe. Her magnificent breasts fell out and my manhood throbbed even more. I felt lust like I had never felt before.
"You just have to ask and I will make love you will not forget," she said. "I am wet and moist and I will slip over you in a moment. Just say yes and it will be so."
I would like to say that it was easy to resist. That my love for Claudia was a beacon that led me through the temptation J'sella put in my path.
But I was a man, I was aroused and she was perfect in so many ways.
Such are the weaknesses of the flesh.
I nodded just once, but there was not doubting my affirmation.
She climbed on the rack, straddled me, and before I could reconsider, she pulled my solid cock back she slid on it like a sheathe on an ancient gladius.
It was magical, powerful and ultimately... short.
It was simply too much. The sexiest woman I had ever seen descending on me. She was hot and soft inside and her tightness simply was too much to bear.
I exploded into her with an orgasm more intense than anything I had experienced in my life.
With a thought she released me and I crushed her body to mine kissing her passionately. I was exhausted and she was blissful.
I felt guilty while I held her as the weight of my actions came to haunt me. We lay together on a soft bed that replaced the hard rack. I could not believe what I had done. Had I gained the means to save Claudia only to lose her?
"She is a Ghul, Hadrian," J'sella said softly reading my thoughts. "You were only recently turned a Houri. No relationship can survive that. At least none I have seen in 10,000 years."
"I won't give up on her," I said. "I might have betrayed our love, but I owe it to her to help her. I owe it to Jeanie too. Once I make sure they are safe, I'll see how I move on. And don't call me Hadrian. I am Raymond. We might be the same soul, but I certainly am a different person. "
"As you wish, Raymond," she said. "Tonight we will rest. Tomorrow morning I will help you find them."
Her body was hot and sensual, her energy powerful. She rubbed her naked body against me again and I became harder than the first time. I pounded into her with total abandon. The energy was incredible. The power that coursed through me was phenomenal. Once again spent, J'sella slept next to me her arm wrapped across my body.
Though exhausted, I could not sleep myself. Thoughts plagued me.
I fully realized that she had seduced me and she had beaten me.
I was not bound by any vow to her, but she had conquered me nonetheless.
And yet I was not her slave. And she was not mine. I did not fear her as I did before. I felt admiration in all the senses of the word. What was going on?
Constantinuius had dominated and enslaved her. I had taken the step he dared not take.
Was I right to take this step? Would I break the cycle of hatred and vengeance?
Or had I set myself up for a much more dire fate?
I decided that I’d do my best and let fate decide.
And with that idea firmly set in my mind, I finally allowed myself to sleep.
XXXII.
I am Emma Wright.
I packed my special belongings quickly racing from one side of the tattoo parlor to another in a frenzy. Time was my enemy.
I had knocked out my two assistants John and Roxy. They rested on their reclining chairs in a dreamless sleep oblivious to what was going on.
They were normal mortals. Of course, I selected tickle masochists as my assistants. I taught them the trade of tattooing while offering them a chance to explore their tickling fantasies as my frequent subjects in my tickling experiments.
I regretted knocking them out like that. I added a word of amnesia to make them forget the last couple hours..
I have lived in this city for twenty years. The parlor had been mine the last ten.
I would miss it.
I'd already prepared the deeds transferring the tattoo parlor to John and Roxy. I laid them out so they might make their claim when they woke and had come to their senses.
The Grand Mistress of the Houri ordered me to leave town and help her consolidate Houri power. There had been several shifts in Ghul power and they wanted us all together.
I would do as the Grand Mistress commanded. Sadly, I would do it without Hadrian. He'd got himself killed and for nothing. I would have to respond for that folly. After all, I had taken him to J'sella myself. I do not know what I was thinking.
I eyed Hadrian's Galdius and wondered if I should take it or abandon it. So much to move. So little time to do it.
There was a knock on the door. Some customer eager for his tattoo. Too bad. The parlor was closed for the day. He or she would have to get their tattoo 3 blocks down the street. Half the price maybe, but no where in my league. John and Roxy would maintain the place. Of that I was sure and that reassured me.
I ignored the knocking and picked up the pace.
"Hi, Emma," I heard Ray suddenly say from behind me.
"Jesus!" I exclaimed. "Don't scare me like that. I thought you were dead."
"I should be," he answered. "But here you have me. I need your help."
"No can do," I said. "All Houri are ordered out of the city. Power is shifting. I don't know how you survived, but you must report to the Grand Mistress. She will know how to help you."
"I don't want to report to the Houri yet. I want to do this my way."
"It's not your decision, Ray," I said.
"Like hell it's not. I want you to tell me where Claudia and Jeanie are," he demanded.
"I don't know. I told you."
"You're lying. You’re a Seer. I think that you are not interested in finding Claudia and you are afraid of where Jeanie probably is."
"We are not playing this game," I told him. "First time you wanted to go and get fried of your own free will, I was game. But now the Grand Mistress had asked for your ass and I'm taking you in. You are powerful in potential but you are still a long way from being a threat to me. I'll strap you down to the device downstairs and I'll soften you up with some tickle torture you've never imagined possible."
"We ARE playing this game," he said confidently.
I prepared to attack him and in that my defenses went down and my vulnerability was instantly exploited.
I felt a series of rings of fire tighten around me. They appeared around my arms pinning them to my sides, around my knees holding them tight and around my ankles.
I tried to speak and a powerful force held my lips frozen in place.
“Hello, Emma,” a voice said.
“I am J’sella. I have heard much of you, but we have not had the pleasure of meeting,” she said. She should be angry and burning things but she was calm and strangely serene.
When people are not what they always appear to be, it is usually a bad sign. Things become unpredictable and we Seers make our living predicting accurately.
She traced a symbol on my forehead. I could not figure out what it was, since her fingers moved so quickly. Nothing good, I was certain.
"You’re going to answer each and every one of Raymond’s questions," she said.
"Like hell I am," I mumbled as best I could.
"Like hell you will,” she said as she pushed me on the forehead activating the rune and sending me backwards to the floor.
What was next?
I’m a Seer and a torturer.
I could see well enough into my future.
Laughter and tears, screams of ruin, no doubt.
I braced myself for hitting the floor, I don’t recall ever getting there.
I was down and out for the count.
To be continued...
XXVIII.
Dawn spread soft pinkish light upon the mansion as I left the master bedroom to inspect the grounds. Jeanie and Vanessa followed me.
I had dominated Vanessa, but all her kingdom had crumbled.
Everyone had left.
"They are all gone," Vanessa said wearing her a black silken robe. "The Djinns, the Ifreets, the Seers, the servants, even the mortals. Once you broke me, they all fled."
"I have seen Houri loyal to their masters despite their being broken," Jeanie said.
"I was a Ghul Mistress," Vanessa explained. "We admire strength and power and when power erodes, so does loyalty. My mistress is a Ghul Mistress now. Not a Houri mistress. She would do well to start acting like one."
"Your thoughts, Jeanie?" I asked my Djinn servant.
"Vanessa is right,” she said pondering the idea. “You are a Ghul. Showing weakness will only lead to a stronger Ghul attacking you. There is only one path for a Ghul and that is power."
"Power means people, right?" I said. "Now it's just the three of us."
"Four," Melissa said approaching from behind. She had just roused from the magical sleep of the Flower of the Sahara. "I said I would serve you if I had the opportunity. I cannot speak for the remaining Huntresses. They have fled like the rest."
"Ok," I said. "We have something to start with. Try and locate the deserters and bring them back. When we are ready, we go after them and like it or not we make them loyal."
"Yes, mistress," Vanessa and Melissa bowed and left.
"We have to leave this place, right?" I asked Jeanie.
"That would be prudent," she replied.
"Good, I want a fresh start," I said.
"Claudia, what are you going to do about Raymond?" Jeanie asked suddenly bringing up exactly the question I pondered in my mind.
"I don't know," I answered honestly. "I think I need to settle things down first. Keep myself alive and free of all these power mongers."
"To stay free and alive you must become a power monger," Jeanie said sadly.
"If that is the case, then if I have any hope of making things right with Ray, I must become the very best power monger I can be."
"That's what I'm afraid of," Jeanie said.
"Me too," I replied with tears creeping into my eyes.
Jeanie approached and gave me a hug that made me really feel I was not alone.
At least for that moment, I knew I wasn't.
XXIX.
My name is Felix Porter. I am a Ghul Seer.
I was at the airport. I had a ticket to London. There were Ghuls there that would pay very well to have an expert Seer of my qualifications. I was not a handsome man. The scar on my face was quite disfiguring. But that was of little importance. I could see better than most Seers. I could detect and predict fairly accurately and that made me an interesting asset after having been freed from the service of Vanessa.
I was thinking of my plans and what the future could hold for me when I heard a familiar voice behind me.
"Felix," said the voice. "I do believe you are about to embark on a trip far away. Why the haste? I could take you there through the Primal Plane. You can save yourself the cost of the ticket."
I felt my stomach churn nervously. It was Vanessa.
She was dressed in an elegant black dress. She was all made up and her hair was perfectly combed and scented with that damned perfume that drove me mad. She looked tired, which was to be expected after her ordeal, but she still remained beautiful. Her green eyes still sparkled and dark wavy hair still held me in thrall. I had been freed of servitude, but she certainly still had a sort of power over me.
"I won't go back to serve you," I said very sternly. "Never."
"Fair enough," she said. "I did not treat you very well."
She treated me horribly. The teasing, the abuse. It was constant. She would tickle me senseless just for the fun of it. She'd show me her feet, her body and watch me react, but she'd never go farther than that with me and she knew that gave her even more power over me.
I was spellbound to her and I'd kill for her in an instant.
Even now I fought the urge to do anything she asked for.
Perhaps I still was spellbound.
"I won't serve that Claudia either," I said mustering my will and determination. "She'll be a side dish on some other Ghul's plate before she knows it."
"That I cannot accept, you know," she said smiling. I hated her. Her perfect white smile. It weakened my knees. Weakened my will. But I had taken precautions.
She watched me, studying me. Thinking about me. And then, as the knowledge dawned upon her, her luscious lips curled into a different all knowing smile.
"You still think about me..." she stated realizing how she was affecting me.
The truth be told I thought about her constantly even now after being free from her power. She was beautiful and sexy and she could ask me and I would not deny her anything. She was bad for me. Very bad.
"That does not matter," I said shaking my head. "I'll not serve again unless it is of my choice. You can torture me to break me. I'd rather die."
I shifted a quarter turn to keep the mortals oblivious of my actions and words. I pulled open my shirt tearing off the buttons revealing the insurance policy I'd spent many years preparing and many hours tracing it. It was a guarantee that I would never serve again in this life.
"This rune is special. It took quite a bit of research and it was difficult to trace onto my own chest so quickly," I explained. "If you break me, I will die. I will not serve again. Not like that."
"My mistress needs you. I promised to bring the deserters back," Vanessa said. "I can't do it alone."
"You can go back to your mistress and tell her that I said no," I barked harshly.
"You have a gift," she said. "You can see what we cannot. You were easy to track. The others will post a challenge since they move more freely through the Primal Plane. I despise Claudia with all my soul, but I am in her service and I will do her good service until she becomes the side plate she most certainly will become."
"Go. My plane is boarding. You can't afford me," I said. "In London they will give me resources and power and respect."
"We all want something. What do you want? What makes serving again worth while?" she asked drawing closer. Her perfume was faint, but it arrested my senses and clouded my thoughts.
A thought fleetingly entered my mind.
"You want me," she concluded.
I gulped weakly. Damn her. I was an open book. One of the top ten Ghul Seers in the world, and I was an open book.
"Like Jason had me," she smiled again and my resolve weakened more yet. Her faint, faint perfume penetrated to my inner being. Curse her smile. Curse her scent. Curse my weakness.
"Something like that," I said nervously.
She touched my bare chest. It felt electric.
"Jason never had me," Vanessa said. "I had him. Would you like me to have you?"
"Yes," I said nervously.
"Then swear your loyalty to Claudia and will make all your fantasies come true."
I was dealing with the Devil.
"Do you swear?" I asked her as my heart pounded loudly in my chest.
"May oblivion alone keep me from my word," she said vowing before the universe.
"Then the universe be my witness, I swear loyalty and servitude to the Ghul Claudia," I promised sealing once again my fate to that of another Ghul Mistress.
Power surged and we both felt it. It was done.
Vanessa smiled.
And with that so ended my short lived freedom.
XXX.
I tracked down most of Vanessa's former slaves with relative ease. They never saw the opportunity coming. Most left with just the shirt on their backs with little or no preparations. No one really made an effort to cover their tracks.
I wrote out the list of where they were and where I expected them to be headed over the next 48 hours.
Claudia came to formerly receive me and the information. She was young. Twenty at most. But she looked older than the day we kidnapped her. More refined. More mature. She wore glasses and a dark grey pants suit. Her hair was collected in a bun. She looked intelligent and serious. The Djinn was her shadow and she lingered not far behind her watchful and vigilant of everything transpiring.
"You are my eyes, Victor," Claudia said. "I can't see without my eyes and I thank you for your help to find my hands. You will be treated very well. I promise you."
Ghul promises. We are true to promises, but usually not how you expect. Claudia's promise ringed of sincerity though.
"Rest, Victor," Claudia said. "I'll take care of rounding them up."
And I did. Claudia had taken control of the extensive penthouse of an exclusive apartment building. There were many rooms and I was given one of my own.
It was unoccupied so she did not enslave the residents like Vanessa had done. She was different for certain. She was not abusive like Vanessa. I wondered if there was any hope for her.
Or any hope for me, for that matter. I'd betrayed my desire for freedom. I'd betrayed my former colleagues. They would not forget this. And if Claudia fell soon...
A knock sounded on my door.
"Come in," I answered from a chair in my room.
It was Vanessa.
She was dressed in a black silk robe and wore elegant black slippers on her feet.
"I've come to keep my promise," she said.
"I know," I said. "A Ghul always keeps a promise. I have done my part well I suppose."
"You seem glum," she said sitting on the bed in my room.
"I can't help but think that I traded freedom just for a moment of bliss."
"You did," she said. "But I promise you that this moment will be worth it."
She kicked off her slipper and her bare foot was revealed. It was inviting and daring me to come forward.
I approached like a moth to a flame. I was going get burned.
I went to my knees and took the foot tenderly in my hands and I kissed it on the toes. Kisses progressed and I sucked on the toes with relish. They were slim and long and perfect in my eyes with bright red polish in the nails.
I traveled up her leg and proceeded to kiss my way up her legs. She was deliciously ticklish and reacted authentically and playfully. I toughed her body through the silk of her robe feeling her curves flow inward and outward and feeling her firm torso surrender to the softness of her bosom.
I kissed her around her neck inhaling deeply of her perfume and running my fingers through her hair. She cooed and giggled as I tickled her ears and kissed her jaw. I kissed her on her full lips and she returned my passionate kiss with equal passion.
She tore my shirt off and deftly opened the buckle on my pants. I pulled the robe off of her and her breasts tumbled out into my presence. I dove into her bosom crushing her soft breasts in my hands. I kissed her nipples and they hardened in my mouth. I sucked her nipples tugging on them gently with my teeth. I kept the breasts in my hands lest they might somehow disappear and I kissed lower and lower until I reached her navel. It was long and deep. I kissed it and felt her tense as it tickled her.
She pushed me back on my chair and she climbed on me. I shuddered as her wet lips parted and she took me into her without reservations. She was kind and gentle and slow. She could have gotten it over quickly and tossed me aside having technically complied, but she didn't. She held back as I approached orgasm and then she led me closer and closer time and time again. The whole time I worshiped her breasts as they bounced wistfully into my face. She skillfully led me and when I did come it was a emotional dam breaking.
I sat their in my chair spent and convinced a lifetime of servitude was worth it.
"Will I see you ever again?" I asked as she retreated from me and began to dress. By 'see' I did not mean just 'see', of course.
"A debt is paid in full and it was always just a debt," she said slowly and without malice.
I did not feel bad by the comment. I did not feel bad at all, in fact. I felt strangely free.
Vanessa pulled her silk robe closed and tidied her hair before leaving. She did not say good-bye but she paused at the door before departing.
"I despise Claudia as you know, but I am bound to her," she said. "I know you despised me for how I treated you when you were bound to me. I didn't think much of it all those years, but now I've seen many things in a different light. For what it's worth, I'm sorry."
And with that she left.
I patted myself gently on the cheek as if reviving myself from a deep stupor.
To hear her apologize was worth everything to me.
Maybe there is hope for us, after all, I thought.
XXXI.
J'sella had me laid out naked and gagged on a rack that was not unlike the one Constantinius kept her on when I lived out those moments as the Houri master all those hundreds of years ago. It was probably the same one in fact.
She sat on a chair contemplating me. She had left the denim overall and heavy boots and traded them for a light gossamer robe. She was tattooed as I had seen her before. From head to toe she had different wards and symbols. They started to make sense more and more. I saw runes of power, of protection, of lust and of seeing. I could not draw them yet, but they made more sense as I observed them.
We were for all I knew in the bottle where she was kept all those years ago. The roman villa it emulated was the same. I did not remember how we got here. Sucked into her pillar of fire, I had lost consciousness.
Here I was at her mercy. Gagged, naked and waiting for her decision.
"I cannot decide," she said as if on cue.
I was gagged and I could only mumble into the gag. My life was in peril here and there was nothing I could say nor anything I could do.
"I should have killed you," she said. "But your words intrigue me. If I kill you, there is deep satisfaction. But then that is all. If I let you live, I risk your wrath if you should ever get free, but I can explore more in depth what you say of Hadrian Constantinius."
She tapped her forehead absorbed in thought.
"I will let fate decide," she said. "But first I will torture you like Constantinius did to me."
She stood up and attacked my ribs with vicious tickling fingers. The gag disappeared and before I could speak I laughed without control. She explored my body. Emma had inspected me like a clinical nurse, Claudia like a lover, but J'sella inspected me with sheer fascination. It was as if I was a new toy, just recently opened on Christmas.
Everything was explored and inspected. She found her way to my underarms and she discovered it to be my weakest point. Her nails tickled wickedly mercilessly torturing me where I was most ticklish. She tickled lightly dancing her nails in my armpits and then she would dig them in deeply taking the tickling to another level.
She was ecstatic. She was enjoying this. How many times did Constantinius torture her? How many times must she have dreamed of having the upper hand?
She lingered at my feet enjoying how they thrashed under her fingers and she tortured my legs. I tried to speak, I tried to beg, but she seemed most entertained hitting that ticklish nerve just as I attempted to articulate a sentence. After a few pathetic attempts, I gave up and just laughed an screamed.
It went on for what might have been an hour, or maybe more. No way to judge time while being tortured. Ten minutes may seem an eternity.
After screaming and laughing against my will, literally being toyed with, I realized how angry I would be if I were enslaved and tickled ruthlessly at my master's whim for decades.
She shifted her tickling to my privates and I jerked and screamed in the bondage as she tickled my balls and stroked my shaft with her fingers. I felt aroused was the beautiful Ifreet explored there and my manhood grew long and hard. It throbbed against my lower belly as I laughed and screamed still more.
She stopped and contemplated my crumpled sweat drenched form. I could not speak and I dared not in case she might take up the tickling again to silence me.
"Here is the deal, Houri," she finally said revealing an hourglass that hovered in the air. "I will stroke your shaft until the sand leaves this hourglass. If you should climax before the last grain of sand passes, I will burn you here and now. You would be a poor representative of the line of Hadrian Constantinius if you were so easily controlled and manipulated. Resist, and I will aid you in your lost cause."
I would have argued that the test was quite unfair but before I could speak she took me in her soft hands and she started stroking gently.
The words died on my lips and I instantly grew silent. I futilely tried to think of every turn off I could think of but invariably my focus turned to the woman and her tattooed hand that gave me all its attention.
As her hand ascended and descended ever so slowly. I tried to concentrate and when it seemed I might succeed, she gently tickled my inner thighs. I clamped my thighs together laughed myself silly and my concentration was broken. She wiggled her fingers with a spidery motion deep in my thighs and I released them immediately attacked by another fit of laughter.
She toyed with my belly button, inserting in and twisting around. Not terribly ticklish there, but terribly distracting to be sure.
I strained with every fiber of my being to resist the orgasm that built up and accumulated deep inside. My life and maybe the life of Claudia depended on me.
Up and down she gently stroked my manhood. She twisted ever so slightly during the trajectory of her motion making the pleasure exquisite but also excruciating.
I watched the sand and how slowly it fell. Every time I approach the point of no return, J'sella pulled back ever so slightly. I stood at the threshold and she slowly drew back allowing me to regain my composure.
Back and forth, she took me back and forth playing with all my senses, daring me to resist. I was her toy and she could do with me as she wished. If she wanted, I little more tighter, a little more longer and it would have been enough to seal my fate.
The time finally and mercifully ran out and J'sella stopped.
She did not seem disappointed though.
Maybe she did care after all.
I was weary and stressed and weak. I did not believe I would even be able to get up if she released me.
She then went on to prove me wrong again.
She smiled at me and opened her robe. Her magnificent breasts fell out and my manhood throbbed even more. I felt lust like I had never felt before.
"You just have to ask and I will make love you will not forget," she said. "I am wet and moist and I will slip over you in a moment. Just say yes and it will be so."
I would like to say that it was easy to resist. That my love for Claudia was a beacon that led me through the temptation J'sella put in my path.
But I was a man, I was aroused and she was perfect in so many ways.
Such are the weaknesses of the flesh.
I nodded just once, but there was not doubting my affirmation.
She climbed on the rack, straddled me, and before I could reconsider, she pulled my solid cock back she slid on it like a sheathe on an ancient gladius.
It was magical, powerful and ultimately... short.
It was simply too much. The sexiest woman I had ever seen descending on me. She was hot and soft inside and her tightness simply was too much to bear.
I exploded into her with an orgasm more intense than anything I had experienced in my life.
With a thought she released me and I crushed her body to mine kissing her passionately. I was exhausted and she was blissful.
I felt guilty while I held her as the weight of my actions came to haunt me. We lay together on a soft bed that replaced the hard rack. I could not believe what I had done. Had I gained the means to save Claudia only to lose her?
"She is a Ghul, Hadrian," J'sella said softly reading my thoughts. "You were only recently turned a Houri. No relationship can survive that. At least none I have seen in 10,000 years."
"I won't give up on her," I said. "I might have betrayed our love, but I owe it to her to help her. I owe it to Jeanie too. Once I make sure they are safe, I'll see how I move on. And don't call me Hadrian. I am Raymond. We might be the same soul, but I certainly am a different person. "
"As you wish, Raymond," she said. "Tonight we will rest. Tomorrow morning I will help you find them."
Her body was hot and sensual, her energy powerful. She rubbed her naked body against me again and I became harder than the first time. I pounded into her with total abandon. The energy was incredible. The power that coursed through me was phenomenal. Once again spent, J'sella slept next to me her arm wrapped across my body.
Though exhausted, I could not sleep myself. Thoughts plagued me.
I fully realized that she had seduced me and she had beaten me.
I was not bound by any vow to her, but she had conquered me nonetheless.
And yet I was not her slave. And she was not mine. I did not fear her as I did before. I felt admiration in all the senses of the word. What was going on?
Constantinuius had dominated and enslaved her. I had taken the step he dared not take.
Was I right to take this step? Would I break the cycle of hatred and vengeance?
Or had I set myself up for a much more dire fate?
I decided that I’d do my best and let fate decide.
And with that idea firmly set in my mind, I finally allowed myself to sleep.
XXXII.
I am Emma Wright.
I packed my special belongings quickly racing from one side of the tattoo parlor to another in a frenzy. Time was my enemy.
I had knocked out my two assistants John and Roxy. They rested on their reclining chairs in a dreamless sleep oblivious to what was going on.
They were normal mortals. Of course, I selected tickle masochists as my assistants. I taught them the trade of tattooing while offering them a chance to explore their tickling fantasies as my frequent subjects in my tickling experiments.
I regretted knocking them out like that. I added a word of amnesia to make them forget the last couple hours..
I have lived in this city for twenty years. The parlor had been mine the last ten.
I would miss it.
I'd already prepared the deeds transferring the tattoo parlor to John and Roxy. I laid them out so they might make their claim when they woke and had come to their senses.
The Grand Mistress of the Houri ordered me to leave town and help her consolidate Houri power. There had been several shifts in Ghul power and they wanted us all together.
I would do as the Grand Mistress commanded. Sadly, I would do it without Hadrian. He'd got himself killed and for nothing. I would have to respond for that folly. After all, I had taken him to J'sella myself. I do not know what I was thinking.
I eyed Hadrian's Galdius and wondered if I should take it or abandon it. So much to move. So little time to do it.
There was a knock on the door. Some customer eager for his tattoo. Too bad. The parlor was closed for the day. He or she would have to get their tattoo 3 blocks down the street. Half the price maybe, but no where in my league. John and Roxy would maintain the place. Of that I was sure and that reassured me.
I ignored the knocking and picked up the pace.
"Hi, Emma," I heard Ray suddenly say from behind me.
"Jesus!" I exclaimed. "Don't scare me like that. I thought you were dead."
"I should be," he answered. "But here you have me. I need your help."
"No can do," I said. "All Houri are ordered out of the city. Power is shifting. I don't know how you survived, but you must report to the Grand Mistress. She will know how to help you."
"I don't want to report to the Houri yet. I want to do this my way."
"It's not your decision, Ray," I said.
"Like hell it's not. I want you to tell me where Claudia and Jeanie are," he demanded.
"I don't know. I told you."
"You're lying. You’re a Seer. I think that you are not interested in finding Claudia and you are afraid of where Jeanie probably is."
"We are not playing this game," I told him. "First time you wanted to go and get fried of your own free will, I was game. But now the Grand Mistress had asked for your ass and I'm taking you in. You are powerful in potential but you are still a long way from being a threat to me. I'll strap you down to the device downstairs and I'll soften you up with some tickle torture you've never imagined possible."
"We ARE playing this game," he said confidently.
I prepared to attack him and in that my defenses went down and my vulnerability was instantly exploited.
I felt a series of rings of fire tighten around me. They appeared around my arms pinning them to my sides, around my knees holding them tight and around my ankles.
I tried to speak and a powerful force held my lips frozen in place.
“Hello, Emma,” a voice said.
“I am J’sella. I have heard much of you, but we have not had the pleasure of meeting,” she said. She should be angry and burning things but she was calm and strangely serene.
When people are not what they always appear to be, it is usually a bad sign. Things become unpredictable and we Seers make our living predicting accurately.
She traced a symbol on my forehead. I could not figure out what it was, since her fingers moved so quickly. Nothing good, I was certain.
"You’re going to answer each and every one of Raymond’s questions," she said.
"Like hell I am," I mumbled as best I could.
"Like hell you will,” she said as she pushed me on the forehead activating the rune and sending me backwards to the floor.
What was next?
I’m a Seer and a torturer.
I could see well enough into my future.
Laughter and tears, screams of ruin, no doubt.
I braced myself for hitting the floor, I don’t recall ever getting there.
I was down and out for the count.
To be continued...
