Animal Magnetism and Electricity

"What my colleagues fail to understand about animal magnetism is the ultimate goal," said Doctor Adam Wagner. "They have sentimental ideas about the state of man in nature, as some sort of untouched angel. Knowing what we know about humanity, why should we assume that returning to a more primitive state would result in nothing more than a beautiful doll?"

Rachel sipped her tea quietly as she listened to the doctor. She had been entranced by him long before ever seeing him in person; his papers on the use of electricity to stimulate the nervous system had caused fights to break out in university hallways between teachers of all the scientific disciplines. For her part, Rachel had been fascinated by them, and when she had actually begun working with him, she'd found that even the most simple experiments broke apart every theory she had ever been taught.

"I suppose we can't blame the scientific community for their optimism," Rachel said. "What creator doesn't hope their work will be a thing of beauty?"

"There are many different forms of beauty" he replied with a smile. "Wouldn't you agree?"

Rachel blushed. Doctor Wagner was, in her opinion, the most beautiful man she had ever seen. His youth was past, his dark hair streaked with grey, and the shadows under his eyes spoke of countless sleepless nights, but his brilliance shone from his eyes and his precision was clear from his graceful hands. She had never exchanged words of love with him, nor did she intend to, but still...

"A creature such as man," Wagner went on, "contains as much of the devil as the angel, or even the beast. It is my belief that if regressed, the human mind and body would be able to reach a state described in stories of myth. What could seductive demons and creatures of the night be but memories of perfection lost?"

Rachel put her hand to her head. She wanted to respond, but the words she'd had in her head just a moment ago were hard to remember, and she was unaccountably dizzy. Had the room always been this warm? Her eyelids fluttered, and the last thing she saw before they closed were Wagner's brilliant eyes focused intently on her, the slightest of smiles on his face.

***

"Rachel? Miss Hoffman?" Wagner's voice woke Rachel from a dreamless sleep. She didn't know why her body felt so stiff until she tried to move her arm, and found it stuck in place by her side. Her mouth was dry, and when she tried to lick her lips, there was something stopping her- but what? Rachel opened her eyes and blinked away the sudden brightness. She was in the laboratory, with all the clockworks and lightening machines running at full power, and she was strapped down to the comfortably cushioned operating table. Above her, lights buzzed and sparked and cast blinding flashes back and forth.

Rachel couldn't speak when she tried. It took a moment to realize it was because of the cloth stuffed into and tied around her mouth.

"Rachel! You had me worried for a time there. You may feel some soreness in your limbs, but I assure you that you will soon be feeling better than ever before."

Wagner looked happier than Rachel had ever seen him before. She wriggled about just to see if she was trapped in a dream, but she could distinctly feel the cotton over her tongue and the leather holding her hands down beside her. Her shoulders were oddly heavy, but no matter how she turned her head, she couldn't see anything more distinct than a dark shadow out of the side of her eye.

"I must apologize for the gag and the restraints," Wagner said casually. "Until you've gotten used to the new shape of your teeth and nails, I don't want to risk you hurting yourself."

Rachel immediately pressed the sides of her fingers against each other and ran her tongue against her teeth as far as she could beneath the gag. The situation was less frightening than baffling. Whatever was going on, Wagner was overseeing it, so it had to make some kind of sense, didn't it? She was still searching for possible answers when something sank in, which should have been obvious from the start but had somehow not occurred to her in her confusion about the straps and gag.

She was naked.

"I knew that you were an ideal test case from your first day of employment," Wagner said as Rachel looked at him with wide eyes. "Manipulation of animal magnetism by electricity often results in mental degradation, but with your intelligence I knew you would be able to make it through. And as rare as that is, in combination with your physical charms-" and here he patted her bare thigh in an almost friendly manner- "you provide remarkable raw materials, as it were. The wings will need more sessions of electricity to reach their full size, but your fangs and claws are already looking lovely."

Rachel shook her head frantically and attempted to to articulate the words 'let me go' through her gag, but all that came out were indistinct moans and squeals. They were comical sounds, and Wagner dismissed them with a smile.

"There's no cause to be so frightened," he said. "You woke up this morning as a woman like any other, in flesh if not in qualities. Beneath the power of harnessed lightning, you have become a new Lilith, far too beautiful to cast from the garden."

She clenched her teeth down around the gag when Wagner ran a hand up her torso. One fang scraped the inside of her lip, and she felt the taste of blood soak through the cloth in her mouth. Wagner didn't seem to notice this, as he was more interested in cupping her breast.

"You cannot know how wonderful you look, your skin shining with electrical power," he said. Rachel shook her head again, less to dissuade the doctor than as one last effort to wake up. Reality resolutely stayed the same around her, however, and when at last she stopped long enough to focus, the sight in front of her was that of Wagner undoing his belt.

"A magnificent creature," he murmured, and Rachel screamed as loudly as she could through her packed mouth. Wagner leaned over the table and took hold of her by the waist. No amount of thrashing beneath the leather straps could dislodge him- indeed, he looked down upon her fondly, his eyes gleaming with that same intensity she had once found so captivating.

"Magnificent," Wagner repeated, and then pushed inside her. The shock of violation shot through her, but the only pain came from the suddenness of his entry. Under other circumstances, Rachel might have wondered whether her ongoing transformation might have left her in a state of ready arousal, but she could not have such dispassionate thoughts while her body clenched around the doctor raping her.

Over her own muffled cries, Rachel heard Wagner's sighs of pleasure, as well as the rocking of the table as his first rough thrusts eased into a rhythm. Rachel dug her claws into the cloth beneath them, but she could not rip off the straps. Nor, she found, could her fangs rip their way through their gag. The use of fang and claw seemed to excite Wagner, however, and he picked up the pace as he fucked her, hands pawing over her waist, her breasts, her neck- and her shoulders.

When Wagner ran his hands over the dark masses above her shoulders, she jolted at the touch. She must have had the start of wings after all, for she felt sensitive skin stretched across delicate bone. Seeing her react, the doctor rubbed the wing stubs far more deliberately, and Rachel felt vibrations through her body down from her shoulders to her thighs.

The lights buzzed and whirred above her as the doctor used her, and she thought she could feel the static crinkling over her skin. Rachel thought of Icarus being destroyed by the sun, but she could not fall away from the powerful beams. She was no longer trying to struggle, but still she shook and jumped in her restraints beneath the dual touches of Wagner and the light. She could not hear all of what he said when he whispered into her ear, but she heard the word "mine," and it was at that word that she felt her climax.

Rachel shook and shivered as she never had before, and Wagner groaned happily to feel her clench around him as he enjoyed her. She was still feeling the tremors of orgasm when he spent himself with his last deep thrusts. Rachel closed her eyes in exhaustion, but she could hear him as he redid his fastenings and fixed his clothes back in place.

"You are the most delightful project I've ever embarked upon," said Wagner. "Just think of what you have contributed to science in our experiments, and we've only just begun. I wonder what the next session of electricity will do..."

Rachel opened her eyes to see the lights growing ever brighter while the eager doctor started up the electrical machines again.