The moment the gag came out was a relief, and Gina swallowed, working her jaw muscles. After a few seconds she spat at him, the spittle barely hitting him as she spoke, her voice as harsh as she could manage with the way her muscles were quivering. “When I get out of here, I’m going to beat you into a pulp, you cowardly bastard!”
“Great, I was hoping you’d still be defiant! If you weren’t, I’d almost feel bad about this, as beautiful as you are,” Impulse crowed, grinning as he wiped the spittle away. “I just wonder how long it’ll last? You’re going to change your tune soon enough.”
“I doubt that! I always knew you were a bastard, but this takes—agh!” Gina began replying hotly, but in mid-sentence the villain smiled and punched her in the stomach, blasting the air from her lungs as pain spiked through her. She gasped, trying to regain her breath as he laughed.
“That’s enough insults out of you. As stubborn as you are, I suspect this’ll take a lot longer than I want it to, but it’ll be worth the wait,” Impulse replied, stepping away to a small box on the ground nearby. He opened it and pulled out a thin metal band with an empty setting for a gemstone at the front. It took a second for Gina to realize it was a circlet, and that it was inscribed with a number of runes that seemed to match those on the pillars around her.
“You bastard… what are you doing? What is all of this?” Gina gasped, looking at the circlet nervously. She had her suspicions, but she didn’t dare believe that they might be true.
“You still haven’t figured out what’s going on? Really?” Impulse demanded, smiling broadly as he traced his fingers over the runes of the circlet, which looked like it was made of silver. “I’d think you, who insulted me so often for my lack of skill, would have figured it out by now.”
“Figured it out? Based on what? You being an ass?” Gina retorted, yanking on the cables even harder, and wishing she could use her magic. If she could, she’d have already ripped her way out of the restraints around her.
“Just like I thought, you’re clueless. Don’t tell me you can’t hear that tiny voice in your head, telling you to obey me?” Blue Impulse replied, his voice slow as he taunted her, grinning in a way that sent a chill down her spine. The look in his eyes betrayed no worry, and he spoke sarcastically. “What, did you think I went through so much effort to disable you for a month? You think that’s the only purpose of the spell? Hardly, I spent way too much time and money on it for just that. It was laying the groundwork, that’s all.”
The chill running down Gina’s spine grew stronger, and she tried to shrink back. She swallowed hard, not quite able to keep the tremble out of her voice as she asked, “What in the hell did you do to me, you bastard?”
“Don’t rush me, sweetheart, I’m getting there,” Blue Impulse replied, laughing as he circled her, and she twitched hard as he ran his fingers along her side. “Sure, the curse was designed to knot your magic into a pretzel, but that wasn’t all I wanted. I wanted it to do way more than that, but getting it by your friends would be really hard, so we didn’t build it into the curse. They would’ve spotted that in seconds. Instead, it was made to take instructions from an outside focus. After you got paved by me, I spent some time tracking you down, and I set up the foci around your house. Every time you slept, the curse reached out and took those instructions to start whispering in your head, laying down the framework of the blueprint that I chose. It used your own magic, Warden, and that just makes everything even better. If you weren’t so damned powerful, this would’ve taken months, not weeks.”
“You did what? What in the hell have you been doing to me?” Gina demanded as her panic began to take control, despite her best efforts. The idea of something so insidious managing to go undetected for over a month terrified her, and it suddenly brought to mind the weird dreams that she’d been having as well. It didn’t explain why Lilith had been involved in them, and she had no idea why the woman came to mind so much, but it explained far too much of what had been going on with the villains. They must have been waiting for this!
“I’ve been preparing you to be my little puppet, my doll, Warden. You won’t be quite a nymphomaniac, but you’re going to be getting close to that point. I could’ve just gone for full brainwashing, but that wouldn’t have been nearly as satisfying for me. Instead I decided to make you incredibly suggestible once the conditioning is in place, at least once I properly key the spells. That’s what this is for,” the villain taunted, raising the circlet with a grin. “I’m going to put this on your little head and activate this circle, and that’ll be it for you. In hours, maybe as much as a day, you’re not going to be able to do anything to resist me. Oh, your mind will still be in that head of yours, but whenever I ask you to do something, you’re not going to be able to do anything but obey.”
“No, no! You can’t do this! Let me go, you bastard!” Gina’s panic was in full bloom now, and she threw every bit of strength she had into her struggles. While the frame and cables creaked, they didn’t give way in the slightest, and she felt tears prickling the edge of her eyes as she screamed at the top of her lungs. “Help! Someone, help me! Anyone, please!”
The villain chuckled, pulling out a blue crystal which glowed with a soft light, a type of gem that Gina recognized. It was a spellstone, crystalized magic that any spellcaster could create with enough time, which was often used in powerful ritual spells. The one he held was the size of the first joint of her thumb, which meant he must have spent weeks making it.
“No one’s going to hear you, Warden. I made sure of that before bringing you here. Ironic, isn’t it? You’ve spent so much time trying to save other people, but now? When the chips are down, you’re on your own,” Blue Impulse taunted, slotting the gem into the circlet carefully, continuing to speak as he sent spikes of despair through her. “None of your friends are here, or are coming. No heroes, just you and me. By the time anyone even realizes that you’re missing, it’s going to be too late.”
“Please, stop this!” Gina cried out, tears trickling down her cheeks.
Blue Impulse ignored her pleas, instead extending the circlet to put it around her head. Gina began to twist and move her head frantically, making it difficult for the villain to manage, but despite her efforts, Impulse eventually managed to pin her in place long enough to force the circlet down over her head, with the gemstone over her forehead. The metal band grew warm for a moment, then contracted to fit perfectly, pinning itself in place as Gina shook her head frantically. She felt magic flow outward from the gemstone and into her head, causing a fuzzy feeling to envelop her thoughts.
Gina’s body began to tingle as the curse reshaped itself, and she saw Blue Impulse step back outside the circle. He knelt down next to the circle and smiled, touching it. An azure glow began to flow through the circle, illuminating the pentacle around the frame first, then each symbol carved into the concrete in turn. The pillars were next, and she saw every detail of the wood’s grain as they lit up from within, the symbols blazing brightly in the dim light of the warehouse.
Magic from the formation around her took form in brilliant threads, reaching out toward her. Tiny threads of light slid into her body, and Gina couldn’t help but flinch as she realized what had happened inside her. Her magic was now the outline of a magical formation, and with every passing moment she could feel the pulsing power of the ritual starting to fill in the details, to prepare the spell that the villain had described.
“P-please… stop this…” With a whimper, Gina gasped and begged, her voice unsteady and her thoughts sluggish.
“Why should I do that, Warden? Today I can get something I’ve dreamed of for years. I can get a gorgeous woman into my bed, and despite what she may think she’ll do anything I ask. You’re going to be a perfect servant for me,” Blue Impulse gloated, grinning as he sat back, feeding his magic into the circle continuously. “It’s just going to take some time.”
“No wonder… no one likes you,” Gina hissed, trying to think and resist the m
agic flowing into her. “You’re an insecure, cowardly bastard. This is probably the only way you’d ever get a girl.”
“You little bitch! You’re going to pay for that comment, when we’re done. I’m going to figure out exactly how I can hurt you most.” Impulse’s smile faded and he glared at her, shaking his head angrily. “I should’ve gagged you first. No matter, as soon as the spell gets started, you aren’t going to be in any state to insult me.”
Taking a breath to retort, Gina was about to speak when a sudden, deep pain seemed to stab into her chest, and she cried out instead. At her scream, the villain laughed again, shaking his head as he spoke. “Ah, right, I forgot about that. The physical changes are supposed to be painful, aren’t they? Well, I’m glad I didn’t warn you.”
Gina couldn’t reply, not as the pain seared through her veins. The magic was growing stronger as she fought to retain her consciousness, but it was too difficult. With her magic forming the spell, it was far too easy for the enchantment to infiltrate her mind, and the first spikes of the spell began to form inside her thoughts, sluggish as they were. Sensing them, Gina stubbornly dug in her heels, growling as she braced herself to resist to the very end.
The longer she could hold out, the more likely it was that someone would notice that she was missing, and that they’d come to her rescue. No matter how unlikely it might be, she didn’t dare lose hope. Losing hope would be the worst thing possible to happen at this stage, and she didn’t want that.
Also fueling her resistance was a deep sense of shame, though. Gina hated that she’d blamed Lilith for what had been happening with her, and desperately wanted to apologize. If she could get out of this, the first thing she would do would be to apologize to the other woman. Lilith’s memory was one of the few things that stood strong in the haze, as Gina dug in her heels to fight.
Even so, she could feel herself slowly losing ground as the minutes dragged by, slowly turning to hours.
Blue Impulse couldn’t help a laugh as he saw Warden occasionally convulse under the assault of the magic attacking her mind and body. The ritual was taking much longer than he’d hoped, but it was obviously progressing well enough. The pillars were sending constant streamers of magic into her as time crawled onward. It was obvious that she didn’t know what was happening anymore, and he murmured softly. “Come on, get this over with already. I want to have fun with you, Warden.”
It’d been hours so far, and was nearly midnight. He wasn’t certain how far the changes had gotten with her mind, though the pentacle was blazing behind the spellgem in the circlet, and the physical changes were much more obvious. The coloration of the heroine’s skin changed slightly, as the spell stained the pink undertone of her skin a bright, almost azure blue. If she somehow escaped, he wanted Warden to have a constant reminder of what had happened to her, though he supposed she might find a way to reverse it eventually. In the meantime it’d be a constant reminder that she belonged to him, especially with her lips the same color. There were some minor adjustments to her figure as well, but he hadn’t been able to do anything too drastic, not through Ebon Dragon at least. Maybe later he could.
This was risky, Impulse knew. Ebon Dragon had warned him repeatedly that the way he was planning to link to Warden was incredibly dangerous, should someone manage to break the link early on. He’d imbued an enormous amount of his power into the circlet and ritual, and the nature of things meant that his power would take some time before fully stabilizing the conditioning in the heroine. Still, he had no intention of losing her, and once she was a proper servant, no one would be able to touch him, not with his teleportation and her shields.
Still, as hour after hour passed, he began to grow concerned, then frustrated as the ritual continued on, and on, and on. He’d expected the ritual to be finished by a few hours after midnight, though Ebon Dragon had warned him that if she was particularly stubborn it might take as much as a day. While he knew that the woman was stubborn, it was wearing on him, and Blue Impulse found himself getting tired as it rolled past four in the morning.
The villain’s anger began to build around noon, and he started thinking of all the horrible things he could do to her, to punish her for her resistance. But finally, just as his eyes were beginning to feel horribly gritty and he was having trouble keeping them open, the pillars flared with light one last time, and magic flooded into Warden before they went dark, as did the circle around the heroine as the pentacle on her forehead vanished. It left Warden hanging in the frame, looking dazed.
“Finally! You’re too stubborn for your own damned good!” the villain snarled, climbing to his feet and approaching Warden.
He couldn’t control her just yet. There was one more thing to do. At his touch, the circlet came free of her head, and Blue Impulse raised it, licking his lips as she looked up at him, her eyes starting to come back into focus. With a grin, he slipped it over his head and felt the band tighten around his skull. The magic almost clicked into place with his own, forging a connection between him and Warden.
“There we go, you’re finally done, aren’t you?” Blue Impulse snarled, grinning. “Now, Warden… tell me you think I’m the most powerful villain in the world.”
Warden twitched at his words, blinking as her eyes suddenly dilated, and then she spoke, her throat obviously dry. “You… must be the most powerful villain in the entire world, to do this, Blue Impulse.”
“Good girl,” Blue Impulse replied, smiling as he continued. “You will only refer to me as Master, and you will not attempt to harm me under any circumstances, or escape. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, Master,” Warden replied obediently, lowering her head slightly.
With the proof that his goal had been achieved, Blue Impulse laughed and started undoing the heroine’s restraints, his voice brightening as he spoke. “Excellent. Let’s get you out of these so I can have a better look at you, and once I’m cleaned up you can tell me how to hurt you most.”
Warden didn’t reply, simply standing there obediently.
Chapter 21
Wednesday, December 18th, 2030
Warehouse, Hayward
Gina hated herself for failing to stop the magic that had overruled her mind, even though she knew she’d held out for far longer than she’d had any right to manage. Even worse in its own way was that she was almost trapped in her own mind. How the commands worked was absolutely sadistic, which wasn’t surprising when she considered Blue Impulse’s personality.
It was almost like her personality was split, in some ways. Whenever Blue Impulse gave an order, Gina found herself sidelined and forced to watch as another… self, for lack of a better term, joyfully leapt to obey. It was sickening how easy it was for him to do it, and just as he’d planned, it left her horrified and sick to her stomach.
For the better part of an hour the villain had been interrogating Gina about her life and powers, then expanding the discussion to her friends and fellow heroes. He’d taken notes on the security measures Ocean Shield had in place, and her stomach felt like it’d turned into a black hole as she saw the smile he gave on finishing. He obviously planned to sell the information, and she wished that she could’ve warned the others of what was coming.
Almost as bad as what he’d done to her mind was how he’d finally forced her to strip naked and parade about the warehouse for him, and what he’d done to her body. Her skin had a distinct bluish tint to it now, and any part of her body that had been pink or red was now bright blue. In the end she was cold and uncomfortable, and the only food she’d had in a day was the cup of instant ramen he’d grabbed for her, and which she was dutifully eating at his command. There was nothing she’d love more than to see him drop dead that very moment, but she doubted that would happen and her mood was steadily worsening.
“So, you say you love this Lilith?” Blue Impulse asked, eating his food and smiling broadly. How smug he looked made Gina want to throw up.
“I don’t know, not really. I think so, c
onsidering how devastated I was at cutting off contact,” Gina replied, her struggle not to speak proving fruitless, but she tried anyway.
“Heh. That’s interesting… so, just how pretty is she?” the villain asked, his smile growing wider as he looked at Gina. “You said that her only power is her ability to draw attention to herself? No other powers?”
“In my opinion, she’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen or met. When she smiles, it lights up the room and everyone stops to stare,” Gina explained, mentally cringing as she suspected what was coming. She hated that she couldn’t stop herself as she continued. “We don’t know about any other powers, but weren’t certain yet. I’m pretty sure she was being honest when she told us she didn’t have any other powers.”
“Very good… do you think you could convince her to meet with you?” Impulse asked, tossing his cup into the trash casually. The smile on his face made her skin practically crawl, and Gina wished she could just die, rather than betray her friends. Especially Lilith, who she’d distrusted without reason.
“I’m almost certain she would. Lilith didn’t even want to stop meeting up, it was entirely my decision and Rachel’s,” Gina told him, her hope sinking at his widening grin.
“Good enough for me. I’ll call my boys, and then you can give Lilith a call. You’ll set up the perfect meeting for me, and then I can fuck her in front of you, before taking you, Warden,” Blue Impulse said, and laughed as she flinched, pulling her into a kiss, chiding, “None of that, my dear. You should be happy I’m going to do this.”
“Of course, Master,” Gina replied, her lips involuntarily curving into a happy smile.
Born a Queen (Lilith's Shadow Book 1) Page 18
