A Murder - A Maker Pt. 03

"You can see he is a cyborg, can you not? An expensive process. Brain chips, compatibility networks, fake nerves, software to limit the strength he puts out. How vulnerable must that be. Do you see how he prowls?" I nodded, feeling the grin she offered as she looked down at him. "All of it, corrupted. Every limit for his safety and for others ripped away, viruses given to make him furious. Beyond - a beast enraged and unthinking." My eyes widened at her explanation and I recoiled in horror. She held me close, her mocking laugh stinging at me as I shook my head.

"His opponent comes now," she told me, arms still a cage around me, anticipation in her voice. I was still horrified at the thought, but I cracked my eyes open to slits, watching the opposite door in the arena silently open. I knew the fight would be to the death and it nauseated me, but I couldn't resist the sick fascination that stirred within me.

The man that stepped into the other half of the arena was a cyborg as well, afflicted with the same restless, momentarily impotent anger as the first. One of his eyes had been replaced by an electronic one that darted about independent of its natural counterpart, and both of his legs shone metallic.

"Every hint of compassion or higher thought they could hold has been ripped out," Vivian whispered in my ear, distracting me from the announcer that blared out through the speakers wired around the large room. "All they have is aggression and fury. They might have been peaceful men. They might have been friends, even, and it would make no difference. Is it not fascinating? I have a bet on the second one."

The crowd below pressed close to the railing, and the smaller group atop the balcony edged forward for a better view as well. The murmurs of the viewers built steadily, then fell away after a staticky burst over the speakers. Trepidation and excitement built up within me.

The opaque wall separating the two men in the arena vanished. They had each been pacing restlessly still, unaware of one another, and when it disappeared the first man was looking away, toward the railings overhead. The second caught sight of him and leapt forward immediately, letting out a terrifying scream. They collided, toppling to the ground as the second man raked his fingers across the first's face, scoring bloody gashes. The first let out an enraged bellow, metal elbow slamming back into the other man's ribcage and sending him tumbling off. Bile rose in my throat and I squeezed my eyes shut, leaning back into Vivian and wrestling down the impulse to reach up and cover my ears.

The fight dragged on longer than it should have. Without their humanity, the two likely shrugged off damage that would have incapacitated any normal person. I heard screams, bellows, wet crunches, and metallic clangs, the sounds of fighting punctuated by gasps from the crowd or bloodthirsty cheers. Finally the sound of metal scraping on metal tore through the large room, grinding on before something snapped and a booming crash followed. I felt Vivian deflate with an ambivalent sigh, then hoarse, animal bellow of triumph emerged from the arena. Swallowing, I opened my eyes, choked, and quickly tore my gaze from the pit. The first man had won, but I could not imagine he had long left to live.

A giddy rush of adrenaline worked its way through me, even as I fought back another wave of nausea. Everything about the display was exciting and horrifying and new; I struggled to keep a grip on what I thought about it all.

Vivian unwrapped her arms from around me and straightened, returning to her dignified regality now that the fight was over, yet even though she had lost the bet a gleam of satisfaction showed in her eyes and her smirk. She scanned the others around the balcony and began to move forward, only getting a few steps before a crisply dressed man intercepted her, a beguiling smile on his face.

"Vivian Voss," he said, pausing and dipping his head and shoulders in a stiff quarter-bow. "I wondered if I would come across you here. And what is this in your wake?" His attention slid past the woman, fixing on me. "You brought an empath, did you? The capstone of your family's success, here to rub it in all of our faces." He was a handsome man, skin olive-toned and dark eyes slightly canted, the tilt accented by epicanthic folds.

I felt Vivian's hand brush my back as I came aside her, then she propelled me forward and into the man. His arms wrapped around me out of reflex, expression surprised, and I saw that morph into wry amusement as we both heard her say,

"Get a good feel, Eramis. That is the closest your company will ever be to having their hands on an empath."

He held me indecently close, and I could feel his heart quicken as he studied me. When he let go it was only to reach up, taking my jaw and turning my head this way and that, his gaze narrowed in a close inspection. He reached down, fingers lightly wrapped around my throat as his thumb traced the barcode on the side of my neck, and I bunched my jaw in an effort to keep from reacting to the inspection. He dropped his hand again, lightly pushing me away before taking my hand. I blinked, then stared as he leaned down to kiss the back of my palm, a half-amused, half-earnest look in his eyes.

"She's a beauty," he told Vivian, straightening. "A shame I cannot steal her away for a more thorough introduction."

"Oh, I do not think she would object," Vivian replied, triggering a bloom of color in my cheeks. I lowered my eyes from his, looked at our hands, and then gently pulled mine free.

"You're the obstacle there, not her," he rebuffed, turning away from me as he spoke with Vivian. He walked forward and wrapped an arm around her back, guiding her over to the balcony. I stared as they conversed, my blush gradually fading, and wrestled with my feelings for the man. Part of me wanted to rip his clothes off, part of me wanted to have him do the same to mine, and part of me wanted to launch him screaming off the edge of the balcony. The feelings were so contradictory and forceful that I knew some of it had to be from Vivian, but knowing didn't help ease the confusion.

"What did you think of the fight?" he asked, glancing back over his shoulder at me. "It made me wealthier, and that's all the sweeter since I can imagine the money I've made came right from Vivian's pockets."

My eyes widened and I glanced beyond them to the railing, then back to his face. Keeping away from the edge, I mustered up a weak smile. "It was... Interesting, sir," I offered quietly.

"She couldn't stomach it at all," Vivian added, smirking at the embarrassed look on my face. "Not a squeamish little thing, but she had a hard time stomaching the violence. I think her eyes were closed until it ended."

"Who do you work for?" I blurted to the man, needing first to change the course of conversation, then wishing I had managed to do so gracefully.

He smiled at my discomfort. "Sederyne. We rival the Voss franchise on most fronts. Or I should say we did. We'd been trying to do something similar to his empath program for a time, but he managed to perfect the idea well before we did. We've had victories in other areas, but nothing rivals that sting." His eyes searched over my figure once more, lingering on the shape of my legs through the dress. He shook his head, sighed, and said, "More's the pity. We stopped research after empaths took the spotlight, but we did come up with an interesting drug that makes people extremely prone to suggestion. It's only temporary, and it doesn't give a susceptibility to thoughts, just verbal or visual stimulus. Unfortunately, while something like that's certainly promising, it's not exactly the type of thing you can put on the market without sparking some outrage."

Vivian patted his arm gently, fingers curling to drag her nails over the fabric of his shirt. "We can't all be winners," she told him with a patronizing smile. He rolled his eyes and pulled away from her, straightening the shirt. "You may benefit from your father's success but you certainly had no hand in it," he cut back, smiling at the wrinkle of her nose that resulted. "I have a few meetings to attend here before I can leave, so I had best get going. Always a pleasure seeing you, Vivian." His eyes swept to me and I straightened, for a moment wanting to slip off in his wake. He seemed to view me as a product more than an individual, but that was nothing new. Smiling, Eramis shook his head and took his leave.

"That took all the bite of losing right away, seeing the envy dripping from him," Vivian sighed happily, gaze settling on me. I swallowed as she advanced on me, my chest tightening. "We are going to be leaving for the Moon tomorrow," she confided to me softly. "But I have no further plans for this evening. Shall we see how much it takes to break down that polite equanimity of yours, pet?"

I swallowed, feeling a little breathless at the promises I could feel in that question. She smirked at me, edging closer, starting to corral me back until my knees hit a plush chair and I slowly lowered myself into it. She leaned over me, a hand setting on each of the chair's arms. I sank deeper into the chair, unable to look away from her.

"You have not answered," she chided.

"If- If you want," I said, stomach churning.

She shook her head, tongue clicking in a gentle reprimand. "That is not sufficient," she told me with a little shake of her head. "You want me to take you back and unravel you, do you not?"

My cheeks burned at the question, chest rising and falling with deep breaths. Of course I did, but admitting it was agony. "Yes," I managed, hands balling into fists.

She raised her eyebrows expectantly.

"Please?"

--

"PLEASE!" I sobbed.

The rich white dress was a sodden tangle of sweat that clung to my breasts and back, the skirts pushed up around my waist. I lay stretched on the bed in her suite, hands bound together by a length of silk that then wrapped to and beneath the bedframe, giving me sufficient range of motion to thrash. And I did thrash; every part of me was too sensitive. My nipples ached against the dress each time it tugged against them in my writhing, and the awful thing she had put in my sex worked so relentlessly that I was no longer sure what I was begging for.

She'd smirked at me when we got back to her rooms, advancing on me with a smooth bolt of black fabric to blindfold me with. After she laid me on the bed and bound my wrists she began to push the skirts up, kissing and nipping my skin as she revealed it, already leaving me in a fit of squirming by the time she broke away to retrieve a 'gift' for me. It had felt like a dildo at first as she eased the lubricated thing into me, the flattened base of some kind of pushing down on my labia once it was in all the way. Vivian tied thin straps from that base around my hips, then climbed over me to ask, in a whisper against my ear, if I was ready.

That had been at least thirty minutes ago. When the thing within me came to life it twisted and pulsed, straining against my muscles before somehow easing back to push into me again. It felt more like a tongue than a phallus, wriggling with each push into me, the slight contortions and flares in its presses and pulls never failing to catch me just the right way to tear forth groans of pleasure. Vivian held my head in both hands as I started to squirm again, my breathing deepening. I whimpered and grimaced as it expertly drove me closer to orgasm, the base starting to thrum with an inner vibration that spread out into my groin.

She slowed it somehow as I arched my back and dug my heels into the bed, the vibrations mellowing and the flexible, shifting thrusts within me dragging nearly to a halt. I was left on the edge, mouth open to cry out, and a whimper of dismay eked its way out instead. She laughed softly, weight settling on my abdomen as she took my mouth in a possessive kiss.

She held me on the edge of climax for nearly ten minutes, a small thrum against my strained entrance or a smooth twist and caress deep within me forcing me back every time I started to collect myself. My whimpers turned to pleading between the kisses that muffled my lips, body starting to writhe beneath Vivian but unable to do more than show unappeased need. After the next kiss I felt her lips on my ear again, deep breaths stirring my hair before she asked,

"You want to cum?" I nodded urgently, head jerking back as the tip of the thing within me pulled back, thickening against my inner walls in a torturous wave. She nuzzled the side of my face, a dark sort of glee in her answering, "Alright." It should have made me worry, but instead it gave me a sense of hope and anticipation that had me curling my hands, tightening to fists around the rope leading from my wrists to the headboard.

Powerful vibrations hit me from the base of the thing to the tip, rolling my eyes back in my head as it thrusted deep within me again, the sinuous twists it accomplished seeming to light every nerve in my core on fire. My thighs clamped together and I bucked under Vivian, a choked grunt escaping my mouth before I cried out inarticulately, the long-awaited orgasm crashing into me forcefully. The thing strapped to my hips was too intense by far and wouldn't relent, its vibrations spreading down into my thighs now that they were clamped around its base. Each jolt and each thrust pulled new, panted gasps and cries from me and I quaked.

The orgasm took a long time in mellowing, forced on and higher by the device, and when at last it started to ebb another one was on its heels, weaker and riddled through with discomfort. But I was helpless to stop, so I bucked and whimpered while raw pleasure ripped through me again and a cold sweat broke out over my skin. Vivian dismounted me when that orgasm faded as well, and I started to roll across the bed as the vibrating tool thrust in and out of me, striking all the sensitive parts of my body and making me whimper from distress as much as pleasure.

My hips had been grinding willfully to try and complement its thrusts at first, as useless as that was, and now they squirmed in an equally futile effort to get free. I could feel the next orgasm rising and I rolled onto my stomach, fighting up onto my elbows and pushing my knees as far apart as I could manage. It did no good, the inexorable, too-forceful thing twisting to accommodate the curl within me, pulsing vibrations driving me reluctantly to the edge again.

"It's too much," I groaned, shaking my head desperately. "Make it stop, please make it- Oh, God, nono- OH!"

I heard Vivian's laugh behind the scream that tore from my throat, my spine curling and knees clapping together uselessly as the next orgasm hit, sending me over onto my side. Everything ached and screamed from too much stimulation even as a dulled wave of pleasure spread through me, making me curl into a ball first, then spasm back out. The blindfold was soaked but wouldn't budge.

I lost track of things, never truly let to recover, each orgasm hitting as a mixed blessing that made me struggle and twist on the bed all the harder, until I had exhausted myself and could only shake my head, fighting onto my knees and seeking the sound of Vivian's constant amusement at my plight. A hand took my jaw, supporting me onto my knees.

"I can barely see the glow from your eyes," she told me, voice alight with her power over me. "How tortured you look, pet. Shall I free you?"

I nodded, throat raw and hoarse as I begged,

"Please, please, oh my god." I could feel the next orgasm nearing and I tried to shake my head within the grip she had on my jaw, whimpering.

"Very well."

The words filled me with an intense relief that withered as her other hand cupped a breast through the damp fabric covering it, squeezing hard and grinding my nipple against the heel of her palm. I tried to beg her to stop but she pushed me into my next orgasm, overwrought nerves screaming within me and turning the words into a senseless moan. I curled forward and down, breaking her grip on my jaw and encasing her other arm as my forehead hit my knees, body jerking with irregular spasms.

Then it was over. Her fingers no longer squeezed and the device within me had gone quiet and still, though still uncomfortably present whenever a twitch had me clenching about it. Drained, I began to pant for as much breath as I could draw in from my fetal curl, head shaking back and forth helplessly.

"There, there," I heard Vivian coo, voice thick with condescending sweetness. "You shall be alright, pet. I intend no more for you tonight."

I could feel her satisfaction and it gave me a sense of exhausted bliss. She had made me writhe and suffer in a torment of her design, and I had pleased her. The knowledge gave each throb a sort of purpose, and I managed a haggard, "Thank you," as I felt her undoing the bindings around my wrists. I stretched my hands out, twisting them each way before settling them on the bed, one of hers slipping through my damp locks to massage the back of my scalp and the top of my neck. I stirred, wincing as the buckles around my hips caught skin and pinched.

"May I-"

"Yes, yes," she answered, withdrawing her hand from my hair. "Go ahead."

I struggled back up to my knees, breathing more deeply as I straightened. Each buckle came off easily, and then I reached down to take the thing's base and pull it free of me, shuddering at the sensitive warnings that shot through my core as it slid out.

"You may take the blindfold off too, you know," she reminded me, vaguely amused.

I'd forgotten about that. Setting the object down, I sank down onto my heels and stripped away the damp cloth. I winced at the room's dark light, blinked a few times, and glanced down to examine the thing that had tortured me.

It looked something like an isosceles triangle with the long edges curved inward and the short one curved out. The whole thing was bent slightly, arching upwards, and from the center a vaguely phallic column rose, colored a fleshy pink and glistening enough to evoke a bit of shame within me. The pillar had an amorphous quality to it, with small curls and ridges that suggested it could easily change shape, thickness, or rigidity at a whim, and the small sensors that lined the inside of the base suggested some sort of computer was involved. I shivered and slipped my hands between my thighs, covering myself protectively as a different ache set in from the sudden absence.

"Loss or no, I think this evening has been thoroughly rewarding," Vivian said. When I looked at her I swallowed, the sheer radiance of her aura impressing itself upon me. For this woman, any torment would be worth enduring on a daily basis. She patted the bed and rose, continuing,

"Come, then. There is a fresh blanket in the closet and I have no intention of sleeping under this one, after all you have put it through. Change them. We shall be off in the morning, but I need not pull my things together until then."

I nodded my obedience but didn't rise. It took a moment or two longer to convince my body to cooperate, though eventually I gave my thighs a final squeeze, moved my hands to smooth out the tangled skirt of my dress, and tottered off the bed for the closet. Vivian ended up wanting a companion for the night so I spent it with her in my arms, listening to the quiet rhythm of her breathing before my mind had settled enough to let my body sink into an exhausted slumber.

--

I spent the next morning scrambling back and forth through her rooms, pulling things together at her direction and packing them into containers for her manservant Jonathan - who I was forced to meet, blushing and awkward, before she gave me anything new to wear - to carry off for her private ship. He had a polite smile, and seemed to do his best to discreetly look away in my presence.