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To Dream of Darkness

A story by DoggyStyle57

Chapter 55, Written September 2013

===

Chapter 55 - Paying the Price

Sarina and Asha spent the evening seeing what they could do to improve the security of Lord Pennington's mansion, and for Lord Pennington himself. She cast a spell on his favorite ring that would allow her to track his location, if he went missing. She added protection against compulsion and control spells (for everyone except herself) to the amulet that protected him from having anyone affect his thoughts or read his mind. And she added a scrying spell around the mansion that would allow her to see and hear what was happening in virtually any room of the mansion, as long as she was within 100 miles of the place.

Well, I think we can't do much more, short of putting guards in place," Sarina said to Asha, when they were done. "And there might not even be any threat at all. I told the Shepherds about the mage that was willing to work with Sir Jeremy to use their summoning for their own purposes. It's up to them to deal with it now."

"Very well, Mistress," Asha replied. "Should I continue to protect Lord Pennington personally?"

"Yes. And after dinner tonight, I want you to take my place in bed with him," Sarina said.

"As you wish, Mistress. He can be rather entertaining in bed, despite being so old for a mortal. May I ask what prevents you from sleeping with him tonight? I thought you rather enjoyed bedding the old fox and making him believe he is mating with his daughter."

"It's time for 'Heather' to ply her trade in the taverns and on the streets at night, I think," Sarina said. "I need to gather information."

===

For the next several weeks, while Asha kept up the appearance that Sarina was staying home each night with Lord Pennington, Sarina transformed herself into 'Heather', a black furred adult vixen in her late twenties, and she worked the streets at night like a common whore, in the same neighborhood in the lower east side of London where Sir Jeremy's mistress, Meghan, had her flat. Sarina also worked the streets by day as Heather, starting shortly before noon on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, so she could be near Meghan's flat when Sir Jeremy met with his young mistress. By day Heather wore a tawdry dark red dress, which showed ample cleavage. At night she added a full length black cloak, with a hood.

She rapidly learned that Sir Jeremy and his trollop were being watched by agents of the Shepherds of Order. There were four of them watching the young whore's flat, though only two were ever watching the girl's activities at any one time. One grey-furred fox who was a member of the Order had hired Heather's 'services' and mated with her in the alley outside Meghan's flat, as 'cover' for his hanging around in the area. Heather in turn had raided the fox's mind while she had sex with him, and learned that Meghan's four 'watchdogs' were all very low-ranking members of the Order, who knew only that they were to watch the young whore and report any encounters that she had with Sir Jeremy, or if anything unusual happened to her, such as an abduction. But curiously, they were also under orders not to interfere if the whore was abducted!

There wasn't much more to be learned from the other males who paid for Heather's services in the taverns and alleyways of this poor neighborhood. Except for Sir Jeremy and the four Shepherds that she had spotted, the other males in the neighborhood all appeared to be local, working class folk, intent only on getting a few minutes pleasure from a cheap whore. She learned more than she cared to know about the lives and activities of the poorer sort of folk in this neighborhood, and what sort of sexual pleasures they delighted in, but nothing of any serious use to her.

One evening, at about an hour before midnight and just when she was about to go home for the night, Sir Jeremy arrived in a private carriage, rather than coming by day, as was his habit. Heather became instantly alert and wary, since the old bulldog had never before visited his whore at night, or in the company of anyone else. The carriage driver was, like Sir Jeremy, quite heavily shielded against mental intrusion. Heather could also sense that there were several other people in the carriage, but she could detect no thoughts from any of them.

Sir Jeremy came out again several minutes later, escorting his whore, Meghan. The Irish Setter girl was still in her night clothes, as if he had roused her from her bed and given her no time to dress at all, and she seemed to be in a trance of some sort, staring straight ahead with a blank look on her face. Meghan got into the carriage with Sir Jeremy, and they drove away, with no one saying a word.

Heather looked for the men who had been watching Meghan's flat for the Shepherds, and was not surprised to see that both of them had vanished. She could detect the residual traces of two teleportation spells where they had been standing before the carriage arrived. After looking around to be fairly certain that no one was looking at her, Heather teleported to a rooftop several blocks away, in the direction the carriage had been travelling.

'Asha! I need you!' she commanded mentally, as she watched the carriage passing her position on the street below.

'You called, Mistress?' the fire elemental said in her mind.

'I must know where that carriage goes,' she commanded, staring at it and giving the image to her servant.

'Consider it done, Mistress. I am now in the lamp flame on the left side of the carriage,' Asha replied smugly.

Heather teleported again, this time appearing on the steps of a cathedral. She walked swiftly inside and left a message with the priest. As soon as the priest had the message and agreed to deliver it, Heather teleported to several more churches, each time leaving a message, to be delivered as soon as possible.

'They have entered a large, square barn on the edge of the city, Mistress,' Asha said to Heather's mind, nearly half an hour later. 'The building is warded against hellspawn. I cannot go in or see what is happening inside without being detected. I'm not even certain I could cross the barrier at all. But I am quite certain they are within.'

_"I am coming,'_Heather sent to her servant, as she determined the elemental's location and teleported to her side.

Asha was in her native form, a creature of living black fire with a roughly female shape, and invisible and inaudible to all but her Mistress, or a sufficiently talented mage. "They went in there, Mistress. I cannot say who or what is inside, but the spells that are keeping me out would require a stronger mage than Sir Jeremy to cast - or the efforts of several mages of his skill level, working in concert. Those wards would be quite sufficient to contain a greater demon. You, Mistress, could probably walk right in, as you are not from Hell. But if you do, I will be unable to hear you or aid you, until that ward spell is eliminated."

"Then go now and guard Lord Pennington," Heather commanded. "Sir Jeremy must once again be preparing to summon that demon. Either he has regained his memory, or someone has instructed him once again regarding how to do it. The fool can go right ahead and damn himself to Hell, and be shredded by that demon, for all I care. But I do not want him, or the Shepherds, getting their hands on that mind control spell that the demon was offering. Nor do I want his trollop, wife or children to suffer for his folly."

"My, my! Contemplating an act of selfless heroism, Mistress?" Asha inquired.

"Not at all. I just hate seeing my own efforts reversed, with no gain for myself, nor do I want to put up with the inconveniences that having a major demon set loose in the city could cause. If I can prevent him from sacrificing his trollop and his family to his ambition, it will quite effectively thwart his efforts, and may well turn the demon against him and anyone who is aiding him. If I _can't_stop them from being sacrificed, then at the very least, I intend to see that he does not gain from it," Heather said.

"If you say so, Mistress," Asha said with a grin, vanishing into the night to seek out Lord Pennington.

===

Sarina decided it would be best to retain her appearance as Heather, in case anyone spotted her. Heather's dark fur and black cloak worked as well for this sort of 'night work' as it did for Heather's supposed occupation. She walked slowly around the outside of the building, seeking a safe place to enter. She saw no guards at all outside the building. That seemed odd, but if Sir Jeremy wanted to do this quietly, and without the aid of the Shepherds of Order, having fewer people who knew of his activities would be to his advantage.

From what she could passively detect, the primary ward spell against hellspawn was circular, like most containment wards for demon summoning, and reached to just inside the center of each of the four walls, as well. It was still incomplete, but enough of it was already in place for her to determine its extent and nature. There was a weak secondary warding effect on the walls and ceiling of the building itself, which seemed to only be attuned to preventing hellspawn from passing that barrier. It was probably only there as a failsafe, to have more energy sent to it if the main containment circle failed. The tracks of the carriage led to a large, an unlocked side entry near one corner, which was partially open. She decided against casting any spells just yet, and cautiously slipped inside. She felt the ward spell as she passed through it, but the spell did not react to her.

There was a stack of hay bales between her position and the center of the room, with a narrow gap between two of the stacks of bales. Very close to her and on her left, she could see the back end of the carriage, now parked in the corner. The two horses were being unhitched by the carriage driver, and his attention seemed to be entirely focused on his animals. On the far side of the hay bales, she could hear two voices talking in low, urgent tones.

"I'll take my horses and wait at the tavern, Sirs," said the carriage driver.

"Do so, and don't return until sunset tomorrow," said Sir Jeremy, from the center of the room. "You can collect your carriage then."

Heather hid in the narrow gap between the stacked hay bales as the carriage driver led the horses away, closing and locking the door behind him. Then she walked as quietly as she could to investigate the carriage, keeping it between herself and the source of the other voices.

As she got closer to the carriage, she peeked beyond it, at the center of the barn. Within the huge containment circle for demon summoning were six smaller circles. Five of these were spaced equally around the rim of the greater warding circle, and were connected with lines and diagrams to form a five pointed star. The pentagonal shape that formed the center of this star was the edge of a five-sided ring of runes marking an inner summoning circle, which Sir Jeremy and a cloaked and hooded male were just finishing inscribing. The sixth circle was between two of the points of the star, and appeared to be a place from which the summoner could stand within the circle, while remaining protected. That struck her as quite odd, since normally the summoner would be outside the circle, for protection against the hellspawn that they were summoning. And there _was_another protective circle, which was fully outside the primary one, in the corner farthest from the carriage.

Heather quietly opened the carriage door and looked inside it. As she had expected, she found Sir Jeremy's wife, his fourteen year old whore, and his eight year old son, and his ten and twelve year old daughters unconscious within it. They were either drugged or under a sleeping spell. The twelve year old girl was closest to the open door. Heather got the child out of the carriage and hid her in the crack between the stacks of hay bales. Then she risked a quick shapechanging spell, assuming the appearance of the child, and took the twelve year old bulldog girl's place inside the carriage.

===

"Did you feel something?" the hooded man asked Sir Jeremy.

"It's nothing. I'm just strengthening outer wards on the building, now that the carriage driver and horses are out of here and we are alone, that's all," Sir Jeremy said, without turning. "Any mortal living creature or supernatural being that tries to enter now will trigger an unmistakable alarm. Not even a member of the Shepherds can attempt to cross without detection. And it would take a very powerful mage to break through."

"No regrets about your part in this?" the hooded man asked, as he quietly erased part of the inner summoner's circle, and changed the diagram ever so slightly. "You accept what the demon intends do to your wife and children, and to your mistress as well?"

"None. The demon promised that he won't kill them or do any lasting harm. And once I have the spell and have used it on them myself, they won't even mind that he repeatedly raped all of them this night. They may even recall the experience fondly. After tonight, I'll have my mistress, a more sexually interesting wife, and even have my daughters as sexual playthings for my son and I to enjoy. And you and I will have all the power we could wish for," Sir Jeremy stated, turning now to face his co-conspiritor. "No one can stop us now, as long as you've done your part."

"I certainly appreciate your cooperation. And I can assure you, the Shepherds will not interfere with what we do tonight," the hooded man said, taking down his hood and revealing the lean features of a grey wolf. "After all, their leader has directly ordered them all to stay away from this area. They have no reason to refuse my command, and none of them know what it is we do tonight. After tonight, it won't matter what they think. My control of them will be absolute. Those who objected before can quickly be controlled. Now, help me to get the sacrifices into position."

===

In the carriage, Sarina listened to the conversation, and cursed herself for not considering the possibility that the highest leaders among the Shepherds might happily accept Sir Jeremy's sacrifice of his family, as long as it was they who controlled the transaction. And as Sir Jeremy and the Shepherds' leader approached the carriage, Sarina's sense of smell confirmed that the person she had reported her findings to had been the leader himself. He must have taken action against the rogue mage that had originally conspired with Sir Jeremy, and then led the unsuspecting Lord back down the trail of temptation, so he could use the Sir Jeremy, and his family, and his whore, for the Shepherds' own purposes. And no doubt the Leader had no intention of actually sharing power with Sir Jeremy...

Sarina's thoughts faded as she was hit with a sleep spell. She did not try to resist the spell, since from what she had learned earlier, the Demon would want its victims awake and aware while it had its fun with them. Well, he would get more than he bargained for, when it was her turn.

===

The Leader cast a fresh sleep spell on the victims in the carriage, to ensure none of them would awaken before it was time for them to play their parts. Then he and Sir Jeremy moved each unconscious body to one of the five circles at the points of the star.

"Should we remove their clothes?" Sir Jeremy asked, as he placed his wife in one circle.

"No need. I'm sure the demon will enjoy forcing them to undress, or ripping the clothes from their bodies. Just make sure none of the diagrams on the floor get smudged or broken. We don't want any of them getting loose before it is their turn, now do we?" the leader said, as he placed the twelve year old girl in her assigned circle.

When they all were in place, the Leader took his position in the outer summoner's circle, while Sir Jeremy stood in the inner one. They activated the spells of binding on the circles that contained Sir Jeremy's whore, wife, and children, and then brought the spells on the summoning diagram for the demon to their full strength, before releasing the sleep spells on the victims, and summoning the demon.

===

Sarina awakened to several frightened screams, as Sir Jeremy's mistress, wife and other children awakened and reacted to their situation and to the horrifying appearance of the greater demon in the pentagram at the center of the summoning circle. She mimicked their terrified reactions, while mentally testing her own situation. The Kitsune Netsuke charm that she had on a cord around her neck was successfully preventing the binding spell of her circle from affecting her, as she had hoped it would. But for her plan to work, she would have to act as if she was spellbound like the others, until the demon had its way with her.

The demon was a chimera of many kinds of creatures, and was both nude and rampantly erect. It had the legs and feet of a goat, the torso and sexual organs of a wolf, arms with bat-like wings, and a head like a dragon. It was fully twelve feet tall, making his engorged cock as long and thick as that of a stallion. "So, mortal," the Demon roared. "You have agreed to pay my price after all?" he said, leering at the victims laid out for him, and addressing the more powerful of the two mages, who was outside the summoning circle.

"Yes. As agreed, we now provide you with these unwilling victims with untainted souls, for you to despoil and to use for your pleasure as you wish, for as much as one full day, provided that they are permitted to survive the experience and can eventually recover from any physical abuses inflicted on them. In return, you must teach us the unrestricted spell of mind control, and prove its effectiveness by casting it upon your victims. You may perform any depraved sexual act that pleases you with any of them, or command them to perform with each other in any combination for your amusement," the Leader said, from outside the circle. He named the Demon aloud, and then asked, "Do I have your agreement to this pact, and your assurance that you will depart without objection back to your nether realms, once our bargain is concluded?"

The demon shrank in size to no more than seven feet tall, and said, "As bound by my name, I do agree, in so far as you fulfill your part of the agreement, and do not renege on it. Your own soul is forfeit if you attempt to cheat me. And now, as you see, I have reduced my size sufficiently that my mating with them will not kill them. Your terms are accepted. I will teach you the spell while I play with these six delightful toys."

"SIX?" Sir Jeremy shouted. "But we offered only five!"

"I count six," the demon said, as he began to cast his spell, "starting with YOU!" He pointed directly at Sir Jeremy, who stiffened and then relaxed, with a glazed and vacant expression on his face. "Foolish mortal! Did you not realize that your accomplice altered your protective circle so that it cannot function? You are mine to command, and I shall use YOU first for my amusements."

"Do as you will with him," the Leader calmly said from his own protected position. "Consider despoiling his body to be a bonus. Though his soul is in no way pure, I do not believe that it is already damned, save by concluding his activities tonight. He defied my organizations rules and stole from us, and this shall be his punishment. Have fun raping him."

Unable to control his own actions, Sir Jeremy slowly began to remove his clothes, dropping them in a disorderly heap on the ground. When he was naked, he crawled on his hands and knees to the demon. "How may I serve my Master? He head himself say, in a simpering and submissive voice.

"Suck my cock, mortal!" the demon demanded. "Suck me like a gutter whore, and swallow my seed, before I rape you and despoil your entire family and everyone you care about! You were so eager to give them all to me in return for power that it is pathetic. Experience for yourself the fate that you have consigned them to!"

"Yes master," Sir Jeremy said, with a voice that sounded cheerfully obedient, though in his mind he was screaming for his body to cease obeying the demon. Helpless to prevent his compliance, he began to suck the demon's cock as eagerly as a half-penny whore, while his mistress and family looked on in horror and shock.

His wife tried to leave her circle, but was forced back to its center by the binding spell. She could do nothing but stand by helplessly and watch as her husband committed one depraved sex act after another with the demon. The whore just stared, open mouthed. The children - including Sarina, though her reactions were feigned - all cried and huddled in the center of their circles, watching in fear as Sir Jeremy was forced to fellate the demon, then lick the demon's ass, and then he obediently offered his ass and raised his tail for the demon to rape him there.