TRANCE, Inc. 18

Victoria was stunned into silence.

"Good. You, though," and Seth turned his attention back to Daisy. "My stupid sexy stoner slut... You're already involved. You're at the center of this. Have been since the beginning."

Daisy seemed to be fighting it, resisting whatever TRANCE programming had been installed in her subconscious, but her fingers slipped down the wall to hang at her side. Her head lolled forward a little at his words, then snapped back up. "No..." she murmured.

It was the No that got me moving again, and before I knew it I was standing between Seth and the redhaired girl. My hands were up and I had pulled back my fist by my chin like Terra had taught me. "If you don't cut the crap right now," I scowled, "I will personally beat the shit out of you."

I was gratified to see, for the first time, a hairline crack in Seth's calm mask. He took a half-step back, but before he could respond I heard another voice break in.

"You can't." There was a hand grasping my arm lightly, holding me in place. It was Victoria's voice, and her hand holding my elbow.

In disbelief, I turned toward the woman. "What are you—?"

Victoria's eyes were stormy but her expression was stony. I could have imagined her staring that way at a business rival over a negotiating table, taking their soul with her eyes alone. Her eyes bored into Seth's face but she spoke to me. "You can't," she repeated in clipped syllables. "There are too many witnesses downstairs. Too many consequences. There's no way that path ends well."

I blew out a breath and worked my mouth. "Then what the fuck do you want me to—"

"Ohmygodfuckme..." It was a gasp that interrupted me this time, and I whirled in time to see Daisy sliding down the wall, her knees collapsing to the floor as her body shuddered with what looked like a soulbending orgasm.

No...

Somehow I could tell, even before Daisy's eyes slid back open, that she had lost the fight. Her lashes fluttered up, and her emerald eyes were glazed and blank when they passed over my face. They didn't stop, though, until they locked on something behind me.

Seth.

"I will obey..." Her voice was a soft, haunted whisper. "I will listen and obey..." Then, on her hands and knees, she began to slowly crawl across the floor. "I have no mind. I have no will. I cannot leave. I live to serve..."

"No," I muttered. "No..."

Daisy's ass was up in the air, her hips swaying seductively as she crawled past Victoria, past me, and rose to her knees at Seth's feet. She stared up at him, and the man reached down, offering her a hand. She took it, and he helped her to her feet, staring into her face the whole while with a hungry light in his gaze.

"I cannot leave," I could hear her words like a mantra on repeat, though her back was to me. "My body is yours. My mind is yours." Her voice was as seductive as I'd ever heard it. "My mouth is yours. My ass is yours. My tits are yours. My pussy is yours..."

Part of me, a part that I clamped down on with ironclad resolve, was bursting with arousal. I felt my cock swelling behind my zipper. I could imagine Daisy dropping to her knees, reaching out, wrapping her dainty hand around... I shook my head, trying to dislodge the vision.

Seth glanced past the crimson-haired pornstar, meeting my dangerous look with an expression of unconcern. I could see the tightness in his lean frame, like he was ready to move in an instant, but he kept his face relaxed. He gestured magnanimously and, with a hand on Daisy's shoulder, slowly turned her around to face me. "Say goodbye, why don't you?" he offered. "I don't expect you'll be back to see her again."

"I belong to Seth," Daisy said in that sexy, monotone voice. "Seth is my Master. Seth is my everything..."

"Say goodbye!" the young man ordered, his face sharpening. "And go enjoy the rest of your little harem while you still have the chance. Until someone else takes them away, of course." He gave Daisy a little push, and she took several slow, languid steps toward me.

I bit down on my rage and forced myself to remember what Victoria had said. She was the responsible one and I trusted her judgement. After all, I had alcohol and the remnants of a strange, trippy drug in my system. Maybe I was still hallucinating, and this was just an awful, twisted nightmare.

Daisy was standing in front of me, her voice mouthing words and her eyes wide and blank. Then, to my surprise, she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around my neck.

No... I couldn't hug her back, I couldn't bring myself to pull her lithe body to mine. Not knowing that there was nothing I could do for her now, that I would have to leave and come back with a plan. How could I leave her, knowing what was going to happen next?

Then, without changing her expression or the level of her voice, Daisy murmured, "Get out of here."

It was only through a massive force of will that I kept a shocked expression off my face.

"Come back when you know how to save Carmen," she told me. I couldn't see her expression, because she abruptly lowered her head to press it to my chest, but I felt her lips move as she kissed me softly before pulling away. "I can't leave her all alone. Trust me. Get out of here."

"Lovely," Seth said, bored. "You've had your goodbyes. Now leave before I change my mind and take everything I want."

How? How did she do it? I was too stunned to stop her as Daisy pulled away and I drew back toward Victoria and Amber. Somehow, some way, Daisy had overcome her TRANCE conditioning.

"Come on, lover." It was Victoria, pulling me through the doorway and back down the hall.

After a moment of resistance, I followed. Daisy was staying with her sister. She was being noble and sacrificing herself to draw Seth's focus away from her brainwashed sister. But that didn't mean I wanted to stick around for what happened next.

Behind me, echoing quietly down the empty corridor, I could hear Seth's smug voice as he turned his attention to Daisy. "Now, get on your knees and open wide, like the dirty little slut you are..."

And, even more quietly, I heard the girl's voice in reply.

"Yes, Master..."

* * *

"Shit shit shit." I clenched the railing inside the elevator until my fist hurt.

Ding.

When we got to the lobby entrance Victoria held out her hand and beckoned. "I'll get the car," she said quietly.

I fished the keys from inside my jacket and offered them to the woman.

She took them, then lifted my wrist in gentle fingers and softly kissed my palm. Her dark eyes were concerned when they met mine. "It'll be okay," she promised. "We'll figure out how to get them back. We'll beat that arrogant little asshole."

I swallowed. I wanted to say something about Daisy, about the truth of what was going on, but We left her was the only thought that ran through my head. We left her with that twisted trust fund douchebag, with her mindwiped twin sister and no plan for escape. Somehow, Daisy's fate seemed worse than Carmen's. But my hesitation cost me, and Victoria was already turning away and click-click-clicking on her heels through the front door.

"Good evening, ma'am." The doorman bowed his head respectfully as he pushed the door open and she strode through with a determined gait.

Beyond Victoria, out in the semicircular drive, a shiny black SUV pulled up in front of the building.

I blew out a sigh and sagged against one of the expensive couches. "What the hell are we going to do now?" I wondered aloud.

It was a rhetorical question, so I was surprised when Amber murmured a loud, "Hmm..." in reply. I furrowed my brow and turned her way, but the woman seemed a distracted, her expression troubled. She glanced away when I looked for her eyes.

"What is it?" I asked. "What does that mean...? I hope you're not still upset about me leaving you mid-sext. I promise it was urgent. And it seems like we have bigger problems now, anyway."

"No, baby, it's nothing," Amber said, flashing a little smile. I would have been relieved, but the expression seemed a little too bright for our current mood. "It's just that I remembered something."

I frowned. "What is it?"

"Good evening, sir."

I heard the doorman's voice behind me as the busty pornstar tossed golden hair back over one shoulder. Then, with a nonchalant shrug, she gestured in the direction of the entrance. "I already have a ride home tonight."

I spun on my heel.

The man standing in the lobby of Seth's building was tall, with a healthy tan and a long black coat that looked expensive. I would have put him in his early forties — old enough to be given the respect of middle-age but young enough to still have the glow of youth about him. His smile looked wolfish as he raised his hands toward my girlfriend.

"Amber, my dear," he said in a low, rich voice. "So happy to see you outside of academy hours."

"Principal Clayton," the bubbly blonde replied. She twisted a strand of hair around one finger as she sashayed toward him. "So happy you could come."

* * *

"You just let her walk out with him?!" Victoria's voice was stunned.

I scowled, stabbing my seatbelt into the lock ferociously. "What was I supposed to do?" I snapped, yanking on the strap. "I wasn't just going to grab her and pin her to the floor. The doorman and the front desk manager would have called the police, for a start. And I could see that the guy had two big bouncer types standing by his car. They were staring at me with the kind of look that said they wanted to start something. I can't help any of you if I'm spitting teeth and can't see out of my two black eyes."

The brunette cursed softly as we pulled out of the drive. "Did they say anything else? Do you know who he was? Did you see which way they went?"

I glowered silently for a moment, seething. Rage bubbled in chest and my head, and I was struggling not to turn it on Victoria. It's not her fault, I reminded myself. You're pissed off at Seth. You're pissed off at Landon Shrike. You're pissed off at whoever this Clayton guy is. You're not pissed off at the woman who has stood by you through it all.

Victoria let me calm myself down, navigating with quiet competence in the direction of—

"No," I said abruptly. "We're not staying at Starside tonight."

The woman shot me a sideways glance. "Chance..." Her tone suggested she wanted me to be reasonable. "It's close. And if there is any way we can turn things around, we should be close by."

But I shook my head. "I need a clear head if I'm going to be of any use to Daisy or Carmen or Amber or any of us. And I'm not going to be able to think straight sitting in the twins' place while they're back there with... him. Please."

The woman sighed, but after checking the rearview she switched lanes and took a turn. After a couple minutes, we hit the freeway that would guide us back to the suburbs.

"So did they say anything useful, at least?" she asked.

I took a breath, then nodded. Keep it together. Everyone you care about is counting on you now. Everything that matters depends on your ability to think clearly. "His name is Clayton," I answered. "and as far as I know he's the man in charge of the Brighton Barnsworth Academy."

It was dark, so it was difficult to read Victoria's expression, but I could tell from her tone she was as frustrated as I was. "But what was he doing here? Why did he show up? What is he doing with Amber?"

"I don't know." I twisted my knuckles against my forehead. "He mentioned getting a call from Shrike, saying that Amber needed a ride. Clayton said it was lucky because he had someone he wanted Amber to meet. Someone she'd been waiting to meet." I pressed my mouth tight closed as I watched it again in my mind's eye.

Clayton had gestured to one of the large, intimidating men that followed him out of the car, and the bruiser had opened back door of the SUV. There was the figure of a man sitting inside. As far apart as Amber and I had drifted, it had still been painful to watch her blue eyes widen and her lips part in a little squeal of excitement.

"This is Mr. Morrison," the university administrator had said with a smile. "Won't you join us?"

Amber had practically skipped through the door in her high heels, seeming to have forgotten completely about me.

I knew that, despite how things appeared, my girlfriend wasn't acting of her own will. She had been hypnotized, conditioned and trained. Prepared by TRANCE for some stranger — this mysterious Mr. Morrison, maybe? — just as Carmen and Daisy had been prepared for Seth. I still wasn't sure what part the Academy played in this frightening game, but a few things were certain.

The twins had been taken. Amber had been taken. Victoria was compromised. And my only ally tonight was a woman I barely knew, with a strange past that I should probably find highly suspicious.

And me.

I felt my fists clench as anger billowed up inside. For the first time, though, it wasn't a useless, frustrated feeling of impotence. It was a righteous, uplifting sensation. I felt the air in my nostrils as I pulled in a deep breath. The voice in my mind was quiet. It had a fumbling, newborn sense about it. But it was me. And I knew that this ally would never be taken, never be compromised.

"What is it, baby?" Victoria asked. "Did you remember something else?"

I shook my head. "Nothing." I needed some quiet. To think. To rack my brains for some sort of plan. There was something there, I sensed, some hint of an idea. Something I'd heard or seen that would give me a clue if I could only remember what it was. But I couldn't, and it left me with an irritating sense of anticipation. As if an answer were there if I could only put my finger on it.

When we parked in the downstairs garage of my building, Victoria reached out and grabbed my forearm before I could climb out of the car. "I'm worried," she told me. She looked away when she said it, like she was ashamed. "I know you all look to me to solve things, but I don't know how to solve this. The twins aren't themselves. Seth and TRANCE did something to them. Amber is being consumed by the same monster... I just don't know how to stop it. I don't know."

I didn't know either. I didn't know how to end this nightmare and I didn't know how to respond to Victoria except to put my hand over hers and squeeze reassuringly. But silently, to myself, I wondered, Do we really do that? For some reason, I had always had some notion that I was the one who everyone came to with their problems. Call me self-absorbed, because as I thought about it I realized the truth of her words.

"It's going to be okay," I muttered after a brief silence, trying to sound confident. "We're going to figure this out. And you're not alone. I'm right here and we'll do it together. Okay?"

Victoria worked her jaw, nodding quietly, and I realized that the woman was so stressed out she was close to tears. It made me wonder how much of her aura of control and confidence was an act, how much of her responsible nature was just a crazy attempt to solve everyone else's problems and make it seem like she had none of her own.

Damn... I thought. And on top of it all, I don't know if I can trust her.

I felt safe so long as Victoria's phone, her line of communication to Landon Shrike, was in my pocket. But how long could we make it before I had to deal with the fact that our enemy could reach into her head whenever he wished? How much could I risk by sharing my insights and plans?

We climbed the stairs to my landing, and Victoria's keys jingled quietly as we approached the door.

"Chance?"

The sound of my name surprised me, and I spun to see a young woman coming to her feet behind us. She had apparently been waiting, sitting quietly on the flight up to the next floor. Her dark hoodie had hidden her in the shadows.

"Who's there?" I demanded on instinct, stepping forward a half pace.

The girl came down the last few steps and dropped back her hood, revealing a shoulder-length mane of chestnut hair. She approached another step closer, and in the moonlight that filtered into the stairwell I could see that her hair was streaked with dark blue. But it wasn't until I heard her voice again that I recognized her.

"Your name is Chance, right? Last time I was here, I called you something else."

Oh my god, I thought.

It was Mia.

My heartbeat tripled and pounded in my head as I struggled for a response. I didn't have time for this, didn't have the energy or focus or poise to deal with the sorority sister or whatever crisis had made her show up now, at the worst possible time.

Of course, Devil Chance made it all better by jumping to the best possible conclusion. She's not pregnant, is she? DC demanded. Oh that would not be good, man.

I blinked. Shit... My memory of that night was hazy, and my mind was scattered. Had Mia and I fucked? I couldn't remember. Probably. We had been going at it like rabbits for almost two hours.

I glanced at Victoria. We didn't need any more problems right now. Was there a diplomatic way to put this problem off until later?

The mature brunette came to my aid. "Mia," Victoria said quietly. She paused, tucked back a segment of dark hair, then went on. "Chance and I are having a very difficult night. I'm sorry to say this, because you've obviously been waiting for us, but we're going to have to talk to you another time."

I was surprised when Mia shook her head. "It'll only take a minute," the young woman answered. "I'm moving out tomorrow, so I wanted to come say goodbye."

Wait... "What?" I muttered. First of all, why was Mia moving away in the middle of the school year? Second, why did I deserve a visit? I cast back in my memory and the last time I recalled seeing the girl was when she fled my apartment the morning after an impromptu orgy.

Except for when you watched her through your window and described her for Lassiter as the perfect bimbo sextoy, DC commented.

Mia glanced between me and Victoria, then added. "Is it alright if we talk alone? Just for a minute, I promise."

My companion hesitated, then threw me a glance and blew out a breath. "I'll be inside," she told me. "We need to deal with... everything. As soon as we can."

I nodded. "Right," I agreed.

Then, the door swung shut and it was just Mia and me on the landing.

I raised my eyebrows at the young woman. "So..." I said. I shuffled my feet. "We needed to be alone so you could say goodbye? I hope you don't plan on murdering me now that you have me out here undefended."

The girl laughed softly, a sweet sound. "Murder you? For what?"

I shrugged. "Some might say that the last time we met it was to trick you into joining a crazy wild sex party. And I don't remember you wanting to stick around after."

"Right." Mia played with her hair. A little nervously, maybe? "I'm sorry I rushed out. It's not like... a situation I've come across often. What do you do when your neighbors are a guy and his polyamorous harem of gorgeous babes?"

I snorted. "I guess when you put it that way..." I trailed off, waited for her to say her piece. When she stayed silent another moment, I prompted, "You said you were moving out tomorrow? Are you switching schools or graduating early or what?"

"I'm actually leaving my sorority." Mia nodded several times. "And that's part of why I wanted to come over here. What I waited almost an hour to say."

I cleared my throat. "And what did you want to say?"