Meridsya's Pet 01: Trapped

She said it with humiliating condescension.

I dropped my impulse to try and change myself by imagining something different.

"Why am I still here, then?" I asked, instead. "Haven't you had your use of me?"

She threw back her head and laughed. "No! Oh, I haven't finished with you! Not by a long way!"

I stared at her. It was good, in a way, that she had just explained that I was still home in Brisbane, filling my obligations and not about to panic friends or family.

"So you're keeping me prisoner? Your sex slave?"

"Don't forget you invited this," she said, amused and clearly completely unfazed by my bitterness.

I flashed back to when I arrived here, when she confronted me with my own desire for this. But I was thinking better, with my head not spinning with lust quite so much.

"That was enough for a contract? For kidnapping?"

She gave me another wolfish grin. "You were offered, you accepted. You wished for it. In that moment, you desired it."

"We have legal precedents for sound mind, deception and informed consent," I said, struggling to restrain my temper.

"You also have a saying, 'be careful what you wish for'," she shot back instantly. "Do you truly believe a succubus is bound by your laws? No, we are bound by our laws, laws of mind. We are outside your world, not just your nation."

"No! I do not accept that! How could you truly know what we agree to? How could you be that certain? How could you take a fantasy as consent?"

"Oh, honey, we've been over this. Remember?"

I did remember, and felt sick. She could, Seiren could, read my fantasies. And the ring had sought me out? How could that work? I realised that was the wrong question. I had no idea how anything could work. My objections peeled away, leaving one.

"How could you take a fantasy as consent?" I repeated.

"You forget, this is the world of mind. Thoughts are actions, fantasies and desires are intents. You were offered abduction and use by a succubus, and you desired it. You were sensible enough to imagine constraints upon that, limits based upon your kinks, and I honoured those."

She pointed to the ring that still sat on my finger. "And that compelled honesty. We crafted those rings here, in this world, and bound them to the ones made for us in your world. They are sirens, beacons calling to those whose desires mesh with what they have to offer. You were repelled by the sadistic one, weren't you? That was more than just your dislike or disgust at work. You admired the orgy one but weren't interested. A pity, but I'm sure I can change your mind. I particularly adored your reaction to the monster sex one." She grinned at me, standing there with red skin, horns, a gently waving tail and, I could see, vampire fangs sliding into place. "That's your guilty desire, isn't it? Do you watch hentai? Oh, I feel you do. Don't worry, I can accommodate many desires."

I actually shivered. I might have paled. I was erect.

She threw back her head and laughed. "Oh, delicious! Yes, I will have fun with you!"

Her laughter devolved into chuckling while I tried to control myself.

"So, my pretty boy Lucas, that ring you examined, then accepted and wore, compelled an honest reaction. You could not have chosen any of the others, even if you thought they were aesthetically nicer. You could have declined any of them, but you did not. You invited me. And so here you are, in this world, in my bed, you were inside me, and what crime has been done? None. You are still free and happy -- I do hope -- in your world, living your life."

I stared at her. "So clones don't have rights?" I managed to force out.

She chuckled. There was steel in her gaze. "Buyer's remorse?"

I had to look away for a second. It sickened me, but I was facing the consequences of a fantasy fulfilled. I refused to accept it happily. I doubted many women with rape fantasies would be delighted to have those resolved this way.

I looked down at the ring. On a moment of impulse, I grabbed it and pulled it off my finger, twisting it to help it over my knuckle.

To my disappointment but not great surprise, nothing happened.

She burst out laughing again. "Ha! No, that's not what's keeping you here. And that isn't compelling any honesty now, it's not helping me control your thoughts or influence your body. It's not the ring we crafted to catch you. It's just a pretty piece of jewellery. But please do wear it, I'm rather proud of the design."

I kept it in my fist.

"So, if it's not what's keeping me here, why am I still here?" I forced out.

"Ah, Lucas, that is the question we were getting to. You're here for a very long time, I'm delighted to say. Eternity, potentially."

I stared at her, shocked into silence.

She smiled sweetly. "How about we get comfortable before we have this little talk? It's usually not such a little talk. Come. Follow me."

She pulled a black silk dressing gown out of the air, tossed it to me, then spun and stalked out, moving with pantherine grace.

I put the coffee down to pull the robe on, rising on my knees on the bed to close it and tie it, belting it over my cock to keep that out of the way. It was not wanting to go down. I wondered if I would have a permanent erection.

The robe was barely longer than hers had been. If I sat down, it'd have to be carefully.

I followed her warily out the room's one door, sipping the coffee. It helped me feel grounded. It was reassuring, even if it had, apparently, no caffeine in it.

The next room was even more extravagantly opulent. It was also Victorian or Georgian, also dominated by dark wood and red hues but with that pale green wallpaper. Wasn't that stuff arsenic?

There were side tables, a huge glass display cabinet, another writing desk, floor-to-high-ceiling bookshelves, several armchairs scattered around and a huge circular rug over most of the floor.

Meridsya was sitting in an armchair towards one wall, one of a pair facing each other with a small table between them. She gestured to the other.

Feeling extremely wary and wondering what the fuck this suddenly formal scene was for, I moved to the other chair and sat. Carefully. Meridsya was sitting quite casually, unconcerned about what might end up on display.

"Would you like me to remain like this, or go back to looking human?" she asked.

"I really don't mind," I said, cautiously.

"Pick one," she said. She sounded inviting, not impatient, so that was something.

"Stay like that. In case I forget where I am and who you are."

"And do you think that likely?" she asked, amused.

"Probably not."

She smirked.

"Very well. Where were we? Oh, yes. You're not a temporary, shallow copy of your consciousness. Such a thing is not even possible. You are you, your mind, here. And minds are not simple things. Minds are the greatest things. Even human minds, not native to this world and not attuned to its potential though they are. Minds are not easily created but are easily copied, and they are not easily destroyed. To destroy a mind, to kill it, would take more energy than I and all my sisters and brothers could summon. The complexity of a mind represents the same power as the sun, but untappable save for," she waved a hand and her skin rippled, becoming green scales, her tongue forked, for just a second before rippling back to red skin, "minor influence.

"So now that you are here, having accepted my invitation -- well, you're here for good. A consciousness, in this world, is practically immortal. There is no ageing, but there is change. You can in time become someone other than you are now, but can not so easily become nothing. There are only two ways to let a mind end itself: Achieve what you refer to as Nirvana and dissipate to become part of everything, something no consciousness can survive intact, or go mad and lose all trace of self-awareness, unravelling away until there is nothing left to have self-awareness at all. Your body gives you shape. Using your body maintains that shape -- was that a pun? If so, I intended it. I could seal you in a room with no air or light or sound or gravity, I could freeze you in space and rob you of touch, and you would know madness and in time you would cease to exist. Would you like that? Do let me know if you find my company that repulsive."

Ice crawled through my veins. I could not imagine ever choosing that. I would have to be mad first. Maybe it could be a way to find some sort of nirvana state, but I doubted my mind could ever find that much calm.

In a way, the threat had been good. The shock of knowing I was here potentially for all eternity, a slave, this succubus's toy, had opened a gulf beneath me. The threat helped me regain some sort of focus.

"So, what now?" I forced out. "Am I to be your slave for eternity?"

She stretched, her breasts rising up until her nipples popped out of her robe. "Ah, at last! Good. Any further questions, any more background before we come to the talk we need to have?"

"Do you think there's anything else I need to know?" I asked. Her mocking of my ignorance stoked my anger every time, when she was responsible for most of it.

"Oh, I think we'll get to that as we get to it," she said, readjusting her robe to hide her nipples again, although their outlines were very obvious. "Very well, pretty boy. I have you for a year. Don't you remember?"

I flashed back to the night and felt sick all over again. Yes. Seiren had said a year, hadn't she?

I didn't say anything. Clearly, I didn't need to. My expression was enough.

"One year, that you wished for," she pointed out, not sounding malicious about it. "And a year I intend to take." She gave me a look that made me feel more objectified than I ever had in my life. My cock throbbed.

"And after that year?" I managed to force out.

She shrugged. "After that, we see. I may still be interested in you. You may still be interested in me. Whether you continue as my pet is something we negotiate at the time."

I had to double-take on that.

She smiled at me a little condescendingly. "I have you for a year, and a year only by our contract. After that, I could hold you here against your will, but I am a succubus, a creature of pleasure, and there is no benefit for me if you hate your confinement. You are here because you wanted to be. You dreamed of it. You desired it no matter how much you might have denied or qualified it to yourself. This is your fantasy, and I assure you that I will fulfil it as I use you until you satiate me, day after day. But when the contract ends -- well, we might agree to a new one, or we might not."

I was actually speechless for a second. I had to struggle to get my head around what she said. I could start seeing the sense in it, the internal logic, but it was a sociopathic logic I rebelled at.

"What did you want me for? What do you want me for?" I struggled to say.

Meridsya gave me a look that almost pulled off wide-eyed innocence. "Why, sex, sweetie!"

"Why me?" I enunciated carefully. "I'm just human. I know your kind has abilities in bed my kind can only dream of. I can only guess what else you can do. Why do you need me?"

"Because we're very competitive, it's much less fun with each other," she said, with a dismissive wave.

Then she laughed and shifted position in her chair. Her leg shifted, and I was completely unable to ignore how juicy her thighs looked, rubbing over each other. With a tremendous effort of will, I looked back at her face.

"No, the real reason, pretty boy, is for the same reason you can't tickle yourself," Meridsya continued. "I don't just desire sex, I need it. I'm not a succubus because I'm a nymphomaniac. We all are, yes, but it's because we, as succubi, feed on sex. It gives us structure. It solidifies our forms, anchors our souls. We are creatures of energy. In your world, you are defined, anchored, shaped and maintained by matter and you need to consume matter to maintain yourself. We are creatures of energy in this world, defined by the patterns we make in it, and we need other patterns to prevent corruption. You, structured by your belief in matter, are a rock even here in this world and you need only engage with your own body to maintain yourself -- use it, be physical. You don't need to eat. You can, certainly, I can provide any food you wish, but it's just a habit, practically an addiction, and there is no digestion and no excretion, I'm very glad to say.

"There are not only succubi and incubi, here. Some of us live on music or poetry and are called muses. Some of us live on pain and suffering. I live on sexual pleasure. I can observe your world, I can ride along in receptive minds, I can tease and cajole and inspire dreams and fantasies and acts humans may not otherwise be brave enough to try, and I can snack on wet dreams, but it's diluted, unsatisfying, sustaining but poor fare, like having sex through a curtain while wearing a thick condom. But the loophole in the rules, the delicious loophole, is that I can bring you into this world and keep you as my pet and have all the sex I need, when I need it, and it is rich and glorious. Don't you think that's an attractive idea for me?"

I stared at her. Her explanation, as impossible as it would be for me to understand the physics of it, made sense by the logic she had laid out for me. But I also saw, with a wild surge of hope, what it might mean for me.

"Is that my guarantee? That you want good sex, not just to use me? You want me to enjoy myself? Is that why I'm not just tied up in a cell?"

She laughed and applauded. "Well done! You spotted it! Yes, I want you to enjoy yourself. I'll happily fulfil your fantasies not just because you were chosen to suit my desires, but because you are so much sweeter and more enjoyable that way. I won't torture you not just because I don't care for it, but because you wouldn't be very enjoyable. I keep my pets happy. You get regular wish fulfilment, and I get to be the one doing it."

If she hadn't said "pet" I probably could have accepted my place then, and resolved to remember that I was a copy, living in dreamland, and made the best of it. But that rankled.

"Thank you for your honesty," I said. The urge to be spiteful was great but I try not to be that person. I try to reward good behaviour. "But, I have to wonder how I can trust you. I don't know the rules of this world, I think that's been made clear."

Her eyes actually flashed. Not a metaphor -- a red fire sprang up in her pupils for a brief second.

"I will tell you this once more and only once," she said, pure restrained rage dripping off every syllable. "What I tell you, is true. I enjoy playing verbal games, but I do not deceive and I never, ever lie. Have you heard that the fae can not tell lies but will spin deceits and lie by omission? In this world, we can not tell lies because, in this world of magic, where reality is patterns, we can no more lie than you can give up breathing in your world because what we say is what is. Humans can lie. We don't even know how. And for that reason, you will never be trusted as our equals. But we can not because we are of this world and have power because what we say is true. And I do not deceive, I do not lie by omission, because I have fucking honour. Do you understand?"

I froze under her wrath but under the circumstances, I felt a detached sense of surprise and curiosity, not fear, as she threw words at me. What she said made sense. I only had her word to go on, and the internal logic she had explained to me, but the logic did hold up.

"OK. I understand. Again, thank you," I said. "OK. You feed on sex with me? So what do I feed on, if not food?"

"Your existence here, your stability, is the body image you carry in your subconscious," she said. "Using your body reinforces that." She gave me a smug look. "You feed on sex, too."

"But it doesn't have to be sex," I pressed.

She shrugged. "No, but where's the fun in callisthenics?"

Fair enough. But... "You need us, you need our world? You're parasites on us," I said. I couldn't avoid that dig.

She just gave me an amused look. "You're parasites on cows."

That was me told, then. "Don't eat beef, but I get your point," I conceded. "So, you want my body, that's it? You can get milk, but you decided to buy the cow?" It was a horrible mangling of a misogynistic line, but I didn't care.

"Not your body: you. I could render you unconscious and rape you but it wouldn't feed me at all. I could drive you wild with desire every time I wanted you but it would be a barren meal I could not long survive on. What would you rather eat? Stolen dry bread and water, or ... what do you like to eat?"

"Curries and paellas?" I suggested, not feeling flippant enough to come up with an elaborate menu on the spur of the moment. "So you want my active participation? You want me to make love to you?"

"No, just enthusiastic sex," she said with an amused tone and expression. "I want your enthusiasm. You fantasised about being taken, you desired to be taken by a supernaturally erotic being, and I gave you that. But I have no desire at all to keep an unwilling slave. Your hate, your fear, would be distasteful if I bound you to me. I want someone who desires me, who will welcome me with open arms and eager tongue, and I was hoping I had found him. I don't want your love, I don't need love. Others do. My needs are purely erotic. I won't love you, but I do lust after you, and I invite you to lust after me with no other emotions."

I was temporarily speechless again.

"And I get out of this?" I managed to say in an almost level voice.

She burst out laughing. I managed to contain myself as her laughter subsided to giggling.

"Me!" She said, before having to contain another bout of laughter. "Me, using you! Your fantasies fulfilled! This world does not know exhaustion, only boredom and satiation. It does not know weariness or over-use or injury, only pain I have no wish to cause you. We could fuck from sunrise to sunrise if we wished, but believe it or not, we do have satiation and we do have boredom. We have mental tiredness.

"And you would live as my pet. We have no money, in any case. My kind has other currencies among ourselves, bargains and deals and arrangement and favours given and owed. But you have no place there for you have no power here, no powers, only yourself to offer. But I will keep you and pamper you. You will be," she paused for a tiny moment to add emphasis, "kept well."

"And after the year?" I asked, thickly. I was having to concentrate hard against my body's growing desire for her, with every dirty thing she said.

She steepled her fingers together. "Well. You may choose to serve another, if they take a liking to you. Or serve in a brothel."

I burst out laughing in incredulity, but it made perfect sense. It just seemed so pedestrian.

"Oh, yes," she said, unperturbed. "Those who have not been offered a contract or who do not wish one, but who desire our hunger or who wish to satisfy their own urges, work in brothels. And you may be offered a long-term contract if a client takes a liking to you. There are also artist's communes, and others I won't go into, for those of us who feed in those ways.

"But going to a brothel can be so unsatisfying if we don't find what you're after, and you would face serving clients who seek something you have no particular desire for, or who are unsatisfyingly ... vanilla. But it is an option.

"There are, also, human communities which have little contact with our kind."

I stared at her. That surprised me immensely, but I also sensed a big qualifier in her tone of voice.

"There are quite a lot of you," she continued, "compared to our numbers. There are nowhere near as many of us here as there are of you in your world. We do not breed as you understand it and with no death, we feel no urge to replace ourselves. But, at any given time, most of us have at least one pet, slave or captive and we rarely keep the same one forever. So some humans move from owner to owner, some choose the brothel, some wish nothing more to do with us. But you are not trusted by all our kind. It is not desired that you live among us freely. So, there is a community that lives apart from us, although your inability to mould this world, to build, makes it essentially a shanty town. We do not often offer our assistance, and the price is high. What you get from serving me, or serving others in a brothel, is not just sex but also a far more pleasant life."