A Serpent in Paradise Ch. 05

Author's note: This story is primarily a continuation of "Paradise Obtained", but also includes characters from "The New Neighbours/The Good Master" and "The Friday Night Games Club".

This is the culmination of my 'Haller universe' stories, so is not the best place to begin. I would recommend reading the other stories first; doing so will add depth of character background and make various things clearer.

All characters are over 18.

A Serpent in Paradise: Chapter 05

The journey of Matthew Mitchell and his small party, comprising Katya, Millie Parsons and Delilah, to Romania could not have gone more smoothly. Albrecht Haller had been as good as his word. His private Learjet had flown them from the UK to Germany, where they had dropped off Georgia Harding and Carly Stone, and then taken them on to a small airfield near Cluj-Napoca.

Conveniently, but not coincidently, one of Haller's many business interests had a stake in the ownership of the place, which assisted in swift passage through customs and quarantine requirements. More importantly, when Katya took delivery of the car she had hired and asked to be delivered to the airfield -- a four by four SUV -- she discovered, as arranged with Albrecht Haller, its luggage compartment contained an assortment of highly illegal weaponry.

Millie picked up an assault rifle with glee, "An F88 Austeyr," she said. "It's what I trained on in the army. Beautiful." She stroked it like a long-lost lover.

Katya grinned, "Yeah, I asked for it especially for you. Bit crude in my opinion. Ok for a soldier I suppose, but just have a look at this. An SSG 69, one of the best sniper rifles in the world, Austrian made. With this I could kill you before you even knew there was any danger, never mind got in range with that thing."

"Will you two stop drooling over those horrible guns," cut in Matt unhappily. "Remember nobody is shooting anybody with anything unless it's absolutely unavoidable. The aim is to get Svetlana, Nikki and Ilse out safely and, if possible, capture Mills and do it all by having a good plan not starting a war."

"Sorry Boss," said Millie, although she was still cradling the assault rifle.

Katya merely said, "Agreed Matt, but some backup is always nice. Do you want a handgun? There's enough for all of us."

Matt looked disgusted. "No, I don't. I know zip about guns. I'd be more danger to myself than Mills with one."

"I'll take it," said Delilah, "and if I get Mills in my sights I might just pull the trigger."

"Let's just all put the guns away until we get nearer Hawk Castle," said Matt, starting to get alarmed by this display of feminine militancy. "We don't want any accidents or run-ins with the local police." The others conceded the point and returned the weapons to the holders they had come in, somewhat reluctantly in Millie's case.

After that, things went better. The drive to Hawk Castle was actually quite pleasant. They shared the driving duties although, much to her disgust, Matt banned Millie from taking the wheel. Her high speed, high risk, high skill approach to cars was not what they needed given they were trying not to attract attention. It was about 350 kilometres to Hawk Castle and while that was only about a seven hour drive, they chose to stop overnight on the way as Katya wanted to get to the castle around dawn.

Matt shared a room with Millie, making out they were a couple. He chose her because he knew she would not pressurise him for sex, which Delilah certainly would have tried, and he was too tense for that. Katya and Delilah also shared, although they were clear with the hotel receptionist that they were just friends and, oddly enough, this was true. For some reason neither seemed to feel any great desire for the other although given a submissive man or woman they would happily have shared.

They were up very early the next day, before the sun was in fact, so they could arrive at the castle at the time Katya had selected as most tactically advantageous. As they passed through the last stretch the Carpathian Mountains, Katya, who was driving, gave a sigh of something like contentment and said to Matt in the front passenger seat, "Part of me loves it here; almost like I've come home."

"Part of you?" Matt queried. It was an odd turn of phrase. He knew Katya's backstory was strange, but he had not heard the details.

"Yes, I have these three separate personalities inside me, but don't worry, they've worked out their differences and we all get along well now. The part of me that's a vampire -- Natalia she's called -- feels right at home here. Its Dracula country you know."

Matt, who had been struggling with the split-personality thing, was hit with this new revelation and said in surprise, "Vampire?"

Katya laughed at the look on his face. "Not a real vampire of course," she explained, "they don't exist. But Natalia believes she's one and very useful that is too. My combat skills and will to succeed largely come from her. I just need to rein in her cruelty and malice, but I've got that sussed now. Katie helps, she's is so sweet and nice."

"How did you get like this?" Matt asked.

"One of your lot; a mind-controlling bastard called Bradley Gilmour. He purchased Geoff Mills' method from him and used it to turn the original me -- Katie Wade -- into his sex-slave. That, I suppose, would have been the end of my liberty but for the fact that Gilmour decided to get clever; a little too clever for his own good as it turned out. He used mind-control to make me think I was a vampire -- Brad likes his little games -- but it turned out in the process he had created a new personality, one he wasn't in control of. To cut a long story short, that enabled me to free myself."

Matt's speciality as a scientist had been the functioning of the human mind and he knew that Katya was glossing over how difficult that must have been. "That's extraordinary. It can't have been easy to reconcile two personalities."

She grimaced, "It wasn't, but I've managed it. Katya is an amalgam of Katie and Natalia, both and neither of them at the same time. It was awful but I'm stronger for it, and it has its benefits as well. For one thing I'm totally immune to mind control."

"What?" said Matt, surprised once more, "how can that be? I'm sorry Katya, but I'm something of an expert on the subject and that's impossible."

Katya gave a small grunt, which might have meant anything, and then suddenly turned the car off the road into a small layby. She parked, switched off the engine, turned in her seat toward him and said, "Go on then Matt. Use that clever device of yours to make me your slave. I'll leave it up to your whether you want to add me to your harem, although I've seen you looking so I guess you'd enjoy that."

"Stop it Katya," said Matt, intensely uncomfortable with this and conscious that Delilah and Millie were now watching intently from the back. Like all his girls they knew that they had been mind-controlled because he had -- eventually -- told them so and they had no problem with it, again because he had told them not to.

"Oh Matt, just imagine, in five minutes time these pretty lips could be fastened round your cock as I give a blow-job to my new Master. You'd like that wouldn't you? Yet another submissive sex-toy for your collection." Katya gave him a coquettish smile.

Matt grew more alarmed. "Look, I know you think my method wouldn't work on you, but it's a completely different system from Mills' one. It's more powerful and has never failed or been broken. I don't need another... um... girlfriend, I need Katya the warrior."

Katya's tone of voice changed completely, "Just fucking do it, you bastard, or 'Katya the warrior' is going home and leaving you here to sort your own problems out."

With the greatest reluctance, Matt took his mind-controlling device from his pocket. "Are you sure about this?"

"Yes," said Katya firmly. "Get on with it."

Matt held the device up. It looked somewhat like a small pocket torch and when he switched it on it emitted soft blue light, which pulsed in a hypnotic pattern. "All I need you to do is look at the light," he said.

Katya gazed at the light. Matt was aware from his many previous uses of his invention that the effect began immediately and the subject had 30 seconds or so at most to look away before they would lack the will to do so. So intent was Katya's stare that Matt didn't even bother to emphasise the need to look at the patterns of pulsing blue light as he usually did, but simply waited the time out. Given the confusion of her personality he decided to ask her a simple opening question. "What's your name?"

"Katie Wade," Katya said, her voice gentler and less certain than he was used to.

"Good Katie, keep looking at the light. When I speak to you, I want you to relay back the essence of my instructions so I know you have understood. Do it now."

"I must repeat your instructions," Katie said in a monotone voice.

Matt's heart sank a little. She seemed to be reacting no differently to his other subjects. Nevertheless, he was committed now and should see it through.

"Well done. Keep looking at the light" he said, but what to do next? He wasn't really trying to seduce her, after all -- although he had to admit she was a very attractive woman. The easiest way to test his control was to ask her something personal which she wouldn't normally discuss. "When and how did you lose your virginity, Katie?"

"The night after my 18^th birthday, at the end of my party. There was a boy I'd been dating for a while and... well it felt like the time was right," she replied. "It wasn't very good though. He was much too quick."

That certainly seemed like a frank answer. A mix of ego and libido prompted Matt's next question: "What do you think of me?"

"I'm attracted to dominant men. You are a dominant man, so I find you attractive." It was said in the monotone his device tended to produce, but was still a pleasing answer for Matt.

He began to cast an appraising eye over the woman sat opposite him. She had insisted on him doing this and he had argued strongly against it, so it wasn't really his fault if she had succumbed. In which case why not take things a bit further? He glanced at the girls in the back seat. Delilah smiled at him and Millie nodded. He guessed they were wondering what fun they could have with a new harem sister.

"Katie, unbutton your shirt for me, I would like to see your breasts." Matt's voice was tense with sudden desire.

Without warning Katya fetched him a hard slap across the face. She spent a lot of time working out in the gym and packed quite a wallop for her size. Matt slumped back and hit the rear of his head on the car door. Delilah and Millie gave shocked cries of surprise.

"Well it didn't take you long to start hitting on me did it," said Katya sounding more amused than angry. "Just be grateful it was a slap and not a punch."

"You... you weren't under?" said Matt, realisation dawning.

"Of course not you idiot. I was acting to see what you would do."

"But how?" Matt was still struggling to believe his infallible method had failed.

"It's having three personalities. You were trying to control Katie and Katya and Natalia were just watching and laughing at you. You didn't even get anywhere with Katie because the other two intervened to stop it. To enslave me you would have to control all three at once and as you can only address one at a time -- and I get to choose which one -- that's impossible. Hence, as I told you, I can't be controlled."

"Does Geoff Mills know you're immune?" Matt asked, suddenly seeing the potential tactical advantage of this.

"Very unlikely; we only met once and he made no attempt to control me on that occasion. Plus he's even more arrogant than you, so the idea he might meet someone he couldn't enslave won't occur to him."

"That could be useful," said Mike. Then, apologetically, he added, "Look, I'm really sorry for what I did. I just got tempted. I can see now what you were doing and I got what I deserved."

Katya gave a nod to show she accepted his apology. "For the record, what I told you about the boy at my birthday party was true," she said with a small grimace. "And also that I find you attractive; but we are never going to sleep together, so you can put that thought out of your head, Matthew Mitchell."

"Yes Katya," Matt said, feeling unusually humble. He recognised he had been taught a lesson that there were limits to everyone's power and, in case he forgot, there was a bruise on the back of his head to remind him.

*****

The same night that Matt, Katya and the girls spent resting in a Romanian hotel, Mike Roberts was engaged in rather more vigorous pursuits. Before that it had been a curious sort of day. Philip Harris had come to see him without prior arrangement, which was hitherto unknown. The mystery was explained when he produced two bottles of clear liquid from a bag and put them on the table. Mike recognised them instantly.

"You know what this is?" Phil said.

"Only too well," said Mike, "but why are you giving them to me? In theory I could make new mind-controlled slaves with this stuff, not that I will of course."

"You could," conceded Phil, "but I trust you not to. In any event, and to be clear, I haven't given you anything and certainly not two bottles of Mills' mind control formula. In fact these bottles don't even exist, so obviously you can't possibly have them."

Mike laughed, "Ok, if you insist. But still -- why? What are these non-existent drugs for?"

"Protection, for you and yours; a defensive weapon if you like," Phil sounded distinctly unhappy.

"But we don't need protecting," Mike said. "Mills seems to be after Mitchell and all my girls are here with me, except Carly. I'll admit I didn't much like her going with Georgia Harding but they've only gone to see Haller in Hamburg, so nowhere near Mills."

Phil looked sceptical, "Maybe, but I don't like the whole situation. If you need to use this, don't hesitate, Mike. Do what you must."

On that grim note Harris had left, leaving Mike confused and unsettled. And as that weren't enough, his wife had decided to take issue with him. The fact that he could simply have ordered her to be quiet and she would have had to obey never occurred to him; he loved her too much for that. If something was on Jess' mind we wanted to know what it was.

In this case her subject matter was her husband's neglect of his harem. He had made love to her recently, but a number of his girls had not shared their Master's bed for some time. Mike was always amused by how often his wife demanded he have sex with the other girls; it was not a problem most husbands had to face. But Jessica didn't see it that way at all; the women in question were her beloved harem sisters and they deserved to be fucked by their Master as often as possible.

Mike did point out to Jess that none of them had exactly been going without sex judging by the running lesbian orgy that had prevailed while Delilah and Millie were present, not to mention her own dalliance with Georgia, but Jessica had dismissed this as being "not the same at all."

It was then a curious idea wormed its way into Mike's brain and, try as he might, he was unable to dislodge it. He resisted the notion for several hours but by the early evening he could take it no longer; his idea had to be tried. But first, he had to break bad news to three of his harem. He summoned Caitlin Kelly, Maria Sanchez and Sunita Lal to the main living room of Park Manor.

"Ladies, I'm about to try something I know you would very much like to be part of, but I'm afraid I can't allow it. There could be a risk to the unborn children you're carrying -- my children as well as yours -- and I just can't permit that. I'm afraid you three are going to have to sit this one out. You can keep an eye on Leo for me."

To say the three were not happy was putting it mildly. Caitlin argued bitterly and at length, Maria got into a fiery temper and Sunita, while apparently more mild in her response, just looked at him with a sad hurt look in her eyes, which was perhaps the hardest thing of all to bear. Mike promised to make it up to them at some point in the future, but on the issue at hand he was immovable; he would not risk harming their babies. In the end he made it an order, leaving them no choice but to obey.

He got a very different reaction when he gathered Jessica, Sakura, Ellie and Becky. They knew something was up and were intrigued and excited. "Follow me," he said and led them to the master bedroom. There they found he had laid out five little shot glasses, each containing a small amount of clear liquid. Beside them rested the ultrasonic device he used on his missions for the intelligence services, questioning people from who they wanted honest answers.

"Ladies, my dear wife has suggested that I've been neglecting you. Well, I'm only one man and it's no easy task to keep so many women satisfied. Also, Jess keeps reminding me that I need to be masterful and that you actually like it more when I am. So, I've come up with an idea. It's an experiment and I'm not quite sure what will happen but I'd like to try. Would you like to give it a go?"

Even without knowing what he intended there was a chorus of agreement from the girls; there was something about this that was exciting them.

Mike picked up the ultrasound and handed it to his wife. "I don't think this thing works if you try and use it on yourself, so what I want you to do is this. I will drink one of these shots and then I want you to tell me, with all the conviction that you can muster, that I am a masterful man who will use his women to my -- and their -- satisfaction."

"Hmmmm... oh yes, Master," said Jessica in a delighted voice, "I certainly will."

"After that give the ultrasound to me and each of you drink one shot glass." Mike was still wondering about the wisdom of using the mind control drug in this way but once he'd had the idea it just wouldn't go away.

Mike drank his glass and Jessica did as he had instructed her. Then he took the ultrasound from her. The four girls each took a glass and stood in a row, from left to right, Jessica, Ellie, Sakura and Becky. He was intimately familiar with all of them and loved each in her own way but now he found himself looking at them again with fresh eyes.

What he saw was four hot sluts, ripe for fucking; an ebony and an Asian beauty, flanked by two of his favourite blondes. If they had been freshly bought from the slave market for their Master's pleasure they could hardly have been a better selection. He wondered momentarily where these base thoughts were coming from and then realised it was actually only his most secret fantasies being released by the drug.

As one, the four girls lifted their glasses and downed the fluid. Mike turned on the ultrasound and said, "You four are worthless slave-sluts, my property. You exist only to give pleasure to your Master. You have no rights and no say. I will take you again and again however I please and you will love it because you are serving your Master."

He switched off the ultrasound and threw it aside. The four girls looked like they might faint or perhaps just melt on the spot. Four pairs of eyes were staring at him in adoration. "Why are you standing in my presence slaves? Get on your knees before your Master."

As they hastened to do so Mike walked over to his wife. She was wearing a blouse he recognised as one of her favourites, but now he suddenly grabbed it and ripped it open at the front, buttons flying everywhere. The part of his mind that was still sane thought he was going to be in trouble for that tomorrow, but at this particular moment Jess looked like she might swoon from excitement; her eyes stared up into his, a look of complete submission in her gaze.