> The Clockwork Conundrum : A Beatrix Belladonna Tale > by Dr Sharaz Jek > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A sepia miasma rolled across the cobblestone streets and parted in wispy vapors each time a carriage passed. The clop of clockwork hooves were muted by the dense pea soup fog, the automatons directed by their drivers down gas lit roads lined in lamps. Dark clouds swirled around a pallid moon, the backdrop lined by a series of weathered buildings. A clock tower that loomed above the cityscape chimed at the stroke of midnight. The deafening sound carried the ominous promise of doom, a reminder that with the deepening darkness, the monsters came out to play. Few dared linger here at this late hour. Especially a lone woman, save the rare prostitutes who plied their trade, brought to destination and forced towards the ghettos, out of sight from the rich, so-called nobles that ruled like parasitic vampires. A lone female figure approached the hookers who hid near the alleys, and would step out when a potential customer passed by. “Hey honey,” called one of the three sisters who strolled out with a click of heels. “A female customer? How unusual,” said the apparent leader of the three, orange poofs of curly hair hanging behind her. “Or do you intend to join us?” “I don't trust anyone who wears a veil,” noted the second, purple hair done up in twin tails. Like her sisters she wore a corset, black dress, and heels, ample cleavage bared although she was the most slender of the trio. “Aw, she's no harm I'm sure!” The third sister was the shapeliest, her blue hair tied up in a thick ponytail. She beamed wide at the prospect who had approached. Offering a hand she said, “We didn't catch your name, miss...?” “I did not provide it,” answered the woman, whose wry smile spread beneath the black silk veil. She too wore a black dress and heels, her rich brown hair done up in a bun, a tiny hat with a bow tethered to one side of her head. Over her slender shoulder she allowed a parasol to rest, as if the touch of moonlight on her deathly pale skin was somehow offensive to her. “You have lovely eyes,” said the leader who stared into those chestnut brown irises. She placed a delicate hand on her bare cleavage. “I am Adagio Dazzle, and these are my sisters, Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk. I take it you have business with us?” A titter arose from the stranger. “Adorable names. Hmm, yes I am interested in the three of you. I can pay handsomely.” She undid the tied ribbon that restrained her own top, partially bared her pale breasts as the thread unraveled. The lumps were partly freed with an ample bounce, and she reached between the crack, removed a pouch heavy with a clink of coins. “Check them Sonata,” commanded Adagio. Sonata took the bag, studied the contents, and placed a gold coin between her teeth. After a bite she announced, “They're real! Gold and silver! There's a small fortune here!” She failed to hide her giddiness as her wide eyes lit up. Aria crossed her slim but toned arms. “So, I assume you want a go with all three of us at once? We normally don't do that...” Adagio added, “But for this price we can make an exception! Oh yes, you could have all three of us until the dawn.” The woman swiped back her pouch. “Certainly. But I showed you mine, now you show me yours. A final test to see if you fit my...specifications. I must ascertain if you carry any diseases.” The siblings appeared offended at the implication, but shrugged and decided to deliver what a potential customer wanted. Gradually, all three of them started to strip in the mists. She leered at the three with a lick of her lips, watched their clothes pool at their ankles and their undergarments followed. Tits were freed with jiggles, Sonata's bulbous, Adagio's also quite sizable to a lesser degree, Aria's small but perky handfuls. Each of them had a neatly trimmed bush that matched their hair color, and accentuated their tight slits. Adagio asked, “Like what you see?” She and her siblings started to strike playfully provocative poses. They stuck out their titties, hips, and asses, bent over for her, coyly giggled and smoothed hands over supple flesh, their nipples erect in the cold. The woman offered up a gold coin. “May I touch?” They rapidly nodded as Sonata greedily swiped the coin from her, and she set her parasol aside and took the heavy tits into her palms. “They're perfect,” she noted as she kneaded and squeezed them. She went down the line, stop to similarly play with Adagio's and Aria's sweet, luscious melons, as pliable flesh squished in her hold. “Ooh~,” cooed Sonata as her nipple was pulled on, her breast distended to its fullest under the harsh tug. “Exquisite indeed.” She leaned in, took one of Adagio's tits into her mouth, and hungrily suckled on it. The hooker moaned and closed her eyes, her cheeks colored as teeth gently nipped at her pink bud and a warm tongue traced circles around her areola. “Enjoy all the foreplay you want,” said Aria as their inflamed, puffy pussy lips moistened under the stranger's lusty attention. The stranger undid the back of her dress, allowed it to fall around her, completely naked below. She reached back for her parasol. “Oh, I will.” A metallic swish sounded as a blade extended from the cane and caught the glint of the moon's rays.  There was barely time to scream as their silhouettes twisted, reflected off the filthy alley. The assailant shed her garments so their filthy whore blood wouldn't stain her, felt the warm scarlet messily, noisily splash over her pallid contours. A cackle sounded as a puddle of crimson washed over the attacker's heels... ***** Sunlight poured over the city once dawn passed. The crime scene was blockaded off, surrounded by investigators who drew chalk outlines to estimate where the bodies had fallen, dried blood still on the sidewalks. Yet whoever, or whatever had done this, had also somehow spirited away the corpses. Cameras flashed as reporters and mobs were kept at bay. “Bloody jackals,” grumbled the officer in charge. “All three of them must have been completely drained of blood.” Unable to do more than watch from a distance, a fresh arrival in this world watched from a distance. From the moment the woman arrived Beatrix Belladonna realized how scandalously under dressed she was, and with a hand wave altered her usual leotard, wide-brimmed hat, cape, gloves, and heeled boots combo to something more conservative...but still on the flashy side. “Better I hope.” She stared down at her shapeliness, caught her reflection in a dingy puddle, her bright eyes violet and her long hair platinum with a purple tinge. She struggled in her form-fitted, frilly dress, tempted to loosen her top and let her cleavage spill free...but thought better of it as most would assume that she too was a whore. “Damn it, I feel naked without my hat!” She shuddered at the murder scene in the distance, unable to break past the rowdy crowds that bayed for justice even if she wanted to. She could sense her magic was intact after her arrival but dared not cast a spell in the open, uncertain how they would react. But she could not simply skulk in an alley forever, either! Her mind raced through her limited options. “I need answers. Hum.” She stroked her chin with an index finger, surveyed the area, and spotted a shoddily dressed boy who shouted and waved a newspaper he tried to peddle. A stack rested near him. “Sorry about this, kid!” Her hand glowed as she wrapped a paper up in her aura and quickly pulled it into her hand. Guilt bit into her heart, and so she replaced the stolen item with a stuffed animal she had planned to give to her daughter, hopeful it would suffice. Unfolding the paper, she rapidly skimmed it for information about this world. She needed to learn the customs here, what might get her thrown in jail or worse, as this place looked far more uptight than most of the worlds she ended up in. “Stuffy, repressed, conservative...check. But with a hidden sleazy side, like expected. Weird mix of high and low technology.” After she finished reading she crumpled up the newspaper and tossed it into the nearest bin with a sigh. Eventually, she would have to mingle. Better to get started already! She swallowed hard, then stepped out. Fortunately, few people paid attention to her with all the bedlam around her. She watched in fascination as a clockwork horse went by, gears spinning and clicks sounding as the machine moved with unparalleled, unnatural grace. The witch wanted to flag down a coach for a ride, but reminded herself she was pretty much broke here. Worries about where she would stay for the night and how she would eat filled her thoughts, but she decided to shake them away for now. “Never used to worry about this stuff so much,” she muttered. “But that's before I had a daughter to think about.” Not that she would trade little Abby for the universe. No,she was partially why she still traveled, as she needed to increase her potency with her portals and passively gather energy here to someday reached the far away plane of existence where the child was trapped. Thinking it over, maybe there was a way she could approach the crime scene. But it would be risky. She wound her way back through the maze of alleys, taking her close to the cordon as she could without revealing her presence. Darting her eyes about to make certain she was not observed, she wiggled her fingers which glowed as she worked a spell. She wove a complicated series of illusions like her mother had taught her from childhood, brought down an inky black cloud that blossomed over the area. From what she had read the citizens here rightfully feared the night, and what lurked in it. Like expected panic immediately set in. Officers screamed and fled the scene. The onlookers threatened to riot. Beatrix paled and feared she would set off a stampede, so she quickly made her way into the black cloud, searched it quickly, and found a bloodied gold coin she scooped up with her aura, intrigued as she secreted it away in her dress. Curiosity sated, she escaped and banished the illusion. Quickly as it came, the 'darkness' vanished. As an alchemist she would study the object, learn what she could from it in private. Once she was far away she held it up to the sunlight and watched the sun's rays glint off it, and her smirk fell when she remembered what happened to those poor streetwalkers. “I'm hardly a detective, but maybe I can help solve this case? Maybe I should have taken my teacher with me.” She put the coin back away, thankful the dress her magic woven functioned like the inner folds of her cape and had a seemingly infinite amount of space to call on. No doubt linked to her Prima Materia, the eye-shaped piece of jewelry on her choker. Setting off in a random direction, the witch was blissfully unaware someone observed her from a rooftop... ***** In the labyrinth of sewers there was housed a secret laboratory. Placed upon the beds were the corpses of the sisters, completely nude and pale, tubes shoved up their orifices. Machines whirred to life and pumped them full of a replacement blue blood. After they were filled, diodes buzzed and they were shot up with electricity that make their naked skin jiggle and limbs kick. “I could almost believe they're resurrected already,” mused the woman who had slain them. “Patience,” answered a bald, muscular bulk, obscured by a button up lab coat and goggles. “Soon, I will conquer death itself.” “No one will miss these whores,” she stated. “Prostitutes they may be, but I will help them ascend beyond their humble origins. Despite his warnings she wandered closer to watch, her eyes lit up by the volts zapped into the denuded beauties. She cupped her hands behind her, leaned in so close her cleavage almost spilled loose from her top. Licking her chops while she watched flesh wobble and fill with color, soon moans arose from the sisters, so stimulated by the shocks juices leaked down their inner thighs and over their puckered up assholes. Several minutes later, the electrical bombardment finally reached its end. The machinery wound down. The scientist stomped over to her side to overlook the test subjects. “You've done well, Penny Dreadful. The finest of my creations.” Gloved hands caressed her chin and cheeks with paternal affection. “Thank you, Kilroy.” When he released her she did a twirl that made her skirts sweep. “Unfortunately the cuts will leave some scars.” As he spoke she traced said cuts she'd made to drain them. Their life force had blood away on the promise that her master and creator would build them into something superior. “They'll be faster, stronger, unable to die of age, and most importantly, loyal to us. Unfortunately, society will never understand my work.” “I'll teach them,” assured Penny whose slasher smile widened. “Just point me to who you want killed!” “Subtlety, my dear.” He patted her head. “What I need is more components to create more of this artificial blood. I spent most of my reserves to resuscitate these three.” He nodded at the nearly empty tanks by his lab equipment. “Take them with you. Consider it a...test run. Here are your targets.” He handed her a document with a list of places to hit in the dead of night. “Leave it to me!” Penny Dreadful curtsied and scooped up her parasol from her corner of the room, situated by a frilly bed. “Oh, but I could use a tune up! If you would, master...?” She undid the strings on the back of her dress, let it pool at her ankles to leave her completely nude. On the surface she appeared to simply be a human woman, albeit quite beautiful. Yet when he started to peel back the artificial skin on her buxom breasts, the transparent shell that made up her frame below revealed a series of cogs, gears, and other machinery, not unlike the creations used to travel the city above. Only her design was even more advanced, of Kilroy's own creation. She was his masterpiece and she beamed with shared pride back at him. A hushed moan escaped her lips when he opened her up and started to oil and tune her. He called her a perpetual motion machine, told her she would 'outlive' him many times over. The idea filled her 'heart' with an unspoken, existential dread. “Remember,” he said and looked to the Dazzlings. “They're more fragile than you.” “Of course,” she replied as he closed her shell. She redressed and shook the sisters to stir them. Grumbles arose when they stumbled to their feet, took in their surroundings, memories suppressed but their basic personalities intact. “I'm your mistress now.” She prodded at each of them with the tip of her parasol. “Dress yourselves and prepare to follow my lead!” They slipped into similar costumes they had worn as streetwalkers. The lowliest of low to polite society. Aria rubbed her scalp. “What happened? My head aches something fierce.” “You probably drank too much like usual,” answered Adagio who crossed her arms under her breasts. “Or maybe our last clients got a little too rough,” reasoned Sonata who giggled to herself. Penny prodded them some more while they bantered. “You work for me now. I'll explain more on the way. Consider yourselves our eyes and ears. I know you whores maintain a network of your own. Can you defend yourselves?” “We usually leave our protection to Aria,” said Adagio who nodded to the middle sister as she flashed a switchblade she found. “I can brawl. And I won't hesitate to cut anyone who hurts my sisters,” assured Aria who twirled the shiny blade. “Won't be the first time I had to put down some animal who threatened my family.” She lifted her skirt and tucked the sheathed weapon into a garter around a bare leg. Despite being the slimmest of the three, her lithe body was well-toned with taut muscles. “I'm the cute one,” chirped Sonata who beamed wide to show her teeth. “For some reason she's the most popular one,” noted Adagio whose eyes rolled towards Sonata's impressive bust. “I'm the brains of the operation. After you and your master, of course.” She curtsied back, pride still written all over her movements. The sisters took a moment to take in their surroundings, which included the partially finished machinery and other such experiments in the lab. One of which included a miniature reactor that resembled a mechanized human heart. Shrunken creatures were trapped under bottles, curled up and surrounded by discolored fluids that bubbled. Satisfied that they would obey and serve their purposes, Penny took one last look at Kilroy who had returned to his experimentation before she marched from the lab. The prostitutes followed her into the murky maze of the sewer system. Muck rolled down the reservoirs. A number of rancid stenches filled the atmosphere. Their shadows crawled over the walls. Each step they took echoed, alongside the drip of fouled of water that sluiced in a drip-drop from above. Aria smacked Sonata aside with a thrust of her slender hip when she attempted to hug her for comfort. “Watch it, sis, or you'll take a bath in that piss and shit!” She stomped on ahead in her heels, face drawn in a perpetual sneer. “This place is scary,” whined Sonata who tried to cling to Adagio instead, only for the eldest sister to evade her. “There's nothing to fear, I assure you. We're the scariest things here,” promised Penny who smirked into the darkness. Already she liked these lively, lovely lasses with cute asses. She slowed her stride to fall behind them and admire their backsides, the roll of hips and buttocks, barely contained within their prissy attire. She licked her chops and couldn't wait to test run them later. Yet for now business came first. There would always be time to feel them up some more and explore their treasures later. Under the cover of darkness, the foursome climbed the ladder and pushed aside the manhole to surface onto the streets. ***** At roughly the same time Beatrix flipped the gold coin in her hand and followed the faint trace of a magical signature she sensed on it to the source. Whoever once owned this positively radiated with the supernatural. Night had fallen, and she trailed the invisible thread down the blocks, all the way to what appeared to be a factory which loomed in the distance. “That's ominous,” she murmured, the structure framed by the moon. “Dare I break and enter...?” The witch was still unaware that a duo atop the rooftops continued to shadow and observe her. She clambered up the structure, thankful that after the last time her cute butt had nearly been sold into sexual slavery, she had practiced her ability to pick locks! She summoned up her tools and set to work. While she was still clumsy at it, after a couple minutes the padlocks popped open with a click. Slowly she opened the side door, cringed at the rusty creak that split the silence, and slipped inside. Like expected, once she crept deeper inside the dusty, dim interior it proved to be a front. Whoever claimed this place had hidden a laboratory deep below, which she discovered easily enough after a a few minutes more of scouring and searching. The hidden panel peeled away under her magic aura, whereupon a staircase was unveiled which she walked to the bottom. Her heart skipped a beat when she realized why she had uncovered the secret passage so easily. Someone had already beaten her here, and she caught them far up ahead With no time to turn back, she ducked into the shadows to hide. Sonata turned and tilted her head to one side. “You hear that?” “Probably a stray rat,” spat Aria who poked her sister in her bouncy, bared cleavage. “I'm serious! I swear someone's there,” replied Sonata who stamped a heeled foot. She started to creep closer. “Not now,” said Adagio who grabbed her arm and yanked her back. A glow smothered the three of them and their leader, Penny Dreadful, who waltzed ahead and tapped her umbrella tip on the tanks filled with bubbly liquids. “Pay dirt,” said Penny whose eyes widened to saucers to match her slasher smile. “Master will be so happy!” “I could swim in this stuff,” said Sonata happily, who had already forgotten the potential intruder as she spaced out. “Oh, but um, how will we transport all this? It's not like we can carry them in our milkers!” She squeezed her voluptuous titties. “We'll take a little at a time. We can always return for more,” assured Penny. “Oh look, how convenient! They already have bottles ready to siphon the substance!”  She noted a number of empty containers on the counters. Adagio crossed her arms. “And what if the owners show up? I take it we deal with them?” “Precisely,” said Penny whose skirts swished when she spun. Her wide eyes easily penetrated the darkness, and narrowed when she spotted the witch who hunched down, frozen in place by sheer dread. “Speaking of which, here's your chance, girls.” “Told you it wasn't my imagination,” chirped Sonata who beamed bright. “Shit,” cried Beatrix who scrambled from the dark and attempted to climb the stairs. Long before she could hope to reach the exit the foursome were on her tail, swifter than any normal human. One of the hands that reached for her seized an ankle, yanked her down. She cried out and winced as her chin slammed on the stairs. A coppery taste filled her mouth when she was pulled between the four who surrounded her. The sisters held her down. Beatrix started to fire up a quick spell, only to have the umbrella tip pressed between her breasts as a blade popped from it. “Don't move,” warned Penny who prodded her under the chin. “Who are you?” “Just a curious traveler,” mumbled Beatrix with a nervous chuckle, color drained from her face. She shivered as the blade lowered, back between her breasts, the front of her dress shredded open to let her tits wobble free. “Ooh~,” whistled Sonata who stared. “They're almost as bouncy as mine!” “Incredibly soft and supple,” observed Adagio as she reached out and began to fondle them. Pale flesh gave between her fingers when she squeezed, wide nipples pinched until they were erect and an involuntary moan escaped their prisoner. “Think the slut likes it,” said Aria as Penny continued to drag the blade down, cut through the dress which fell away and came to rest on a mound contained by panties. “Gross,” she cried when the witch messily emptied her bladder. More nervous laughter arose from Beatrix. “So,, I'll be on my merry way now...?” “Not a chance,” said Aria. “Why don't we get this bitch's panties off?” “Swell idea. You do it,” commanded Adagio. Aria shot her a dirty look, but since Penny didn't step in to correct her she had no choice but to hook her digits in the panty line, where she slowly pulled down the urine-stained pair to expose the witch's yummy muffin. “Looks like the drapes match the curtains,” snickered Adagio as she studied the wet, platinum pubes around a tight slit. “What to do with you?” Penny mused aloud. “Do I take you to the master? Or...?” She prodded the cool metal blade against Beatrix's snatch, made her squirm and quietly whimper, as she toyed with the idea she would suddenly shove it deep inside. Beatrix clammed up further while she tried to think up a way out. But she couldn't work a spell faster than this madwoman could stab her, let-alone open a portal and escape from this crazy world in time. No, she was absolutely at their mercy! Yet she refused to be resigned to her fate, no matter the odds! Not when there was a daughter out there who needed her! Again she started to weave a fresh spell, only more subtle this time. She would have to call the magic slowly so as not to be noticed, until the predators were akin to the frog that didn't realize the water around it had started to boil until too late. Her fingers wiggled at her sides. She would only have one shot. To fail would mean certain death! > Chapter 2 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A rattle above made Penny Dreadful and her trio of minions pause. Beatrix also tilted her head towards the source, as the hidden door creaked open and faint light spilled into the underground laboratory, the five women enveloped in a soft glow. The witch shivered when a gunshot split the air, raced past her head and made her hair whip, the Dazzlings forced to split apart as the bullet pierced their leader's bosom. Penny's eyes widened, when empty, and she was thrown back to land in a crumpled mess. A pair of feminine silhouettes were visible and cast their long shadows on the shocked faces below. Gunsmoke waffed in the air alongside the stink of melted mercury. “Stay away from the witch,” warned one of the women as their heels clacked on the stairs. “Or you'll be next!” The pistol's long barrel was trained on them as they approached. Beatrix stared down at Penny, whose downed body continued to twitch. A hole left in her breast where the bullet exited revealed her clockwork interior mixed with circuitry, which sizzled and smoked, the stink of burnt and blackened metal left behind. “You...you killed her,” cried Sonata, she and her sisters on the verge of panic as they didn't know what to do now. “She deserved it,” came the deeper, more mature voice of the second, taller woman. Her face was obscured by a porcelain white mask with scarlet tear marks that ran down its cheeks, and lush lips that matched painted on. Silky black hair trailed to her ankles, her pallid skin and voluptuous shape visible through a thin, transparent black gfown. Red eyes stared them down. Laughter sounded from her partner who swiveled her gun across the Dazzlings. “Now, now, Camellia. These poor whores are victims, too.” Her pink hair was tied into double braids that trailed over slender shoulders, her eyes emerald and her cheeks dotted in freckles. She grinned in a cocky manner, her slender, well-shaped frame garbed in in a full-body form-fitted white leather decorated by gold cross designs that lined the open, skirt-like attire that swept behind her when she strode onward. “I doubt they can be saved, Esmerelda. The process has been completed. Best to deal with their mad creator,” replied Camellia,  whose heavy breasts and hips swayed with elegant steps on bare feet, as she moved in a ghost-like manner in a trail of a gown. “We've come to rescue you,” announced Esmerelda who pushed past the witch. “So step aside, and-” Penny Dreadful snapped back to her feet with a marionette-like twitch, moved with inhuman speed and precision, and slapped the pistol from Esmerelda's hand. The latter spun and went for a sword sheathed at her hip, while everyone sprang into action at once, other than Beatrix who was frozen in bafflement and bewilderment at their sudden, unexpected appearance. Hands lit up when Camellia called on her magic, dark hair left to whirl around her when she closed her eyes to chant. Inky black wisps trailed around her, and she cast with a shrill scream, a splatter of crimson blood launched in a tornado. “Gross,” yelled Sonata who barely dodged and was splashed by a curtain of red. “More like hardcore,” answered Aria who twirled a razor-like knife, her mouth curled in a feral snarl. “Don't kill them,” called Esmerelda who cracked a whip that had been tied on her belt. Her lashes drove Adagio back, but her main focus was on Penny, who had abandoned her followers and rush to reclaim her container of unknown substance. Beatrix snapped out of her fugue, concentrated on her own magic, and her hands shimmered as a translucent unicorn horn manifested on her temple. She seized Aria in her aura, the would-be assailant left to rage in impotence, pinned in place. Blood splash across the walls and ran down the lab. The two huntresses swiftly took command of the situation with Beatrix's aid, Sonata tied up by Esmerelda's whip which repeatedly coiled around her. Again, Adagio attempted to rush in. An explosion rocked the area and knocked several of them from their feet. An inferno enveloped the equipment on display, the bluish-liquid clearly volatile and flammable as the blaze spread. Penny said, “If I can't have this treasure trove...” She cackled, framed before the fires and smoke as the flames licked in a pop of embers and threatened to surround them. “Gotta escape,” cried Aria who wiggled in her magic prison. Adagio smirked and yelled, “What's more important? Us? Or your lives...?” “She has a point,” admitted Camellia who started to withdraw. “Come, my love.” She linked her arm with Esmerelda's and pulled her back. Aware they were her sole hope, Beatrix pulled back with them as they headed upstairs. The three of them broke into a run to escape the hellish consumption, which spread above in a blossom of ash and smoke that spat from the hatch. They escaped into the darkness, the factory lit up into a pyre. Making certain they were far away before the authorities arrived, the lovers took Beatrix with her up a fire escape, where they watched the building burn from a rooftop far in the distance. Yet no longer how long the three of them waited, there was no sign Penny or the Dazzlings had escaped. Stars twinkled in a crimson sky and framed a darkness shrouded moon, as a cool breeze howled and washed over them. Beatrix continued to huff and wiped sweat from her brow. “S-so...who the heck are you...?” “Huntresses of the supernatural,” explain Camellia. “We figured you are, as well. We could tell you were a witch in an instant. Moreover, you're an outsider of sorts, are you not? You should stick close to us, for your own sake, miss...?” “Beatrix Belladonna.” She offered a hand which the woman took. “You're so...cold...?” “We're not exactly 'normal',” said Esmerelda with a sly smile as she too shook her hand, and thankfully proved much warmer to the touch. “But you hardly are either, are you? For instance...” She poked one of the witch's tits which comically wobbled. “H-hey, so maybe I 'enhanced' them a bit with alchemy! So what?” Beatrix crossed her arms defensively. She shuddered slightly but didn't stop Esmerelda when she freed her tits with a bounce from her top, and started to fondle the globes of soft flesh. “Mmm. They're full of magic. That's how we tracked you,” teased Esmerelda with a titter. She kneaded her breasts in slow circles,, traced around her wide pink areola, pinched the nipples that stiffened to almost painful erectness. “Unnaturally bouncy, jiggly, large titties, which any woman would envy...” She licked her lips and pulled on the supple flesh. Small pants escaped Beatrix who half-closed her eyes and flushed. Her touch was sensual, erotic. She felt her loins heat and moisten, slackened and surrendered to the huntress, a slave to the pleasure she stoked in her feminine core. Camellia shook her head. “Esmerelda, we are supposed to be professionals.” “Ah, but what is life if one can't indulge in hedonism on occasion?” Esmerelda giggled as she pressed closer to the witch and continued to molest her, met by low moans as her hapless prey squirmed in her grasp. Shaking her head, Camellia explained further. “We protect the populace from what lurks in the darkness. That creature, Penny Dreadful, is merely a creation of an old enemy of ours, a mad scientist who calls himself Kilroy.” “S-so she's behind the murders...oh~” Beatrix moaned louder under Esmerelda's greedy gropes. “Yes,” said Esmerelda who distended the titties before her, pulled into a conical shape before she released them and watched in fascination while they slapped back into place before she attacked them anew. “Will you help us track Kilroy?” “She's an amateur,” interrupted Camellia with narrowed eyes before the witch could respond. “H-hey,” managed Beatrix bewteen moans. “I've...I've been on my share of a-adventures~!” She squeaked and came in her panties, almost felt her knees give beneath her as she shook from the explosive orgasm that rippled through her. “How shameless,” mused Camellia who folded her arms and shook her head. “Fine. Let us take her to our hideout.” With a disappointed sigh her fun was cut short, Esmerelda released Beatrix's tits and let her cover herself back up. “Oh, very well. We can resume this some other time!” She winked. “Follow me!” She headed to the fire escape and they followed. The three of them head away, while the fire department attempted to extinguish the hellish holocaust before it spread... ***** Soot covered the face of Penny Dreadful, who wiped the smudged away. More caked her partially scorched garments. Luckily the fire caused portions of the building to collapse, and since she and the Dazzlings no longer needed to breathe, they had escaped in the chaos. Immediately, the four of them had slipped back into the sewers with what artifical blood they could carry. A low hum sounded from the familiarity of the lab she called home. The Dazzlings were stripped and went dormant as they were placed atop the slabs, their orifices filled by tubes. Kilroy poured the artificial blue blood into a machine. “An unfortunate setback,” he stated as she explained the situation. “But at least you recovered enough to sustain all of you for a while.” “The three of them performed as intended,” noted Penny who studied their naked forms, which quivered when the tubes turned azure and their shapes were slowly pumped full to audible churns. “If your old enemies hadn't shown up-” He dismissively waved a heavy hand. “I'm more curious about this new face. A witch? We could use her.” “I'll make her ours,” swore Penny who undid her dress and let it fall until she, too, stood denuded. Her master had patched up her chest wound the best he could on short notice, reminded that she too would have to be refuled for the next hunt. But first she made her way into a shower in the corner of the room, connected by pipes as Kilroy rigged it to siphon water from the city's supply. She turned on the faucet, closed her eyes, and hissed low when the cold waters slapped onto her bare skin. Behind her Kilroy continued to tinker with his equipment, including his experimental, heart-shaped generator. She smoothed down her wet mane and trailed her hands over her curves with a small smile. He would build her better. Like he always did. The witch would be his to experiment. And her new allies, the master's old enemies? She would soon cut them down... ***** Taken to a lush townhouse on the edge of town, everything about screaming hedonistic decadence to Beatrix. She mentally took some notes for her own mansion, back in another dimension she traveled from. For now she stared at the white building, decorated by columns that held it up and nude statues of women, which also adorned a fountain at the center of a hedgemaze. Her hand was taken by Esmerelda who led her up the stairs, into the double doors which were pulled open. When a pair of beautiful maids approached Beatrix whispered, “Foal-Bearer...? Wet Nurse...?” Yet she shook her head and realized this wasn't some alternate universe counterpart of the twins she was familiar with, and noted there were more maids around the enclosure. “Welcome,” said the maids who curtsied in unison. They parted to allow them in, the foyer expansive, with suits of armor on display with busts, statues, and paintings, a chandelier that sparkled above. It was eerily similar to her own manor. Yet she noted the walls were decorated by a vast arsenal of collected weapons, which she studied with a hushed gasp. “Come along,” said Camellia as Esmerelda pulled the witch's slender hand. Beatrix cocked an eyebrow at all the women. “They all live here? How do you afford all this?” “We have connections,” teased Esmerelda who tittered. “Oh, and the maids? They're automatons. Not really alive.” She led her up one of the twin stairways, while a heart was lit by one of the maids and crackled to life below with a hiss.  Soon the three of them arrived at a wide, white bathroom where more servants came to attend them. Tired and sore, the couple stripped down completely, save for the white mask which Cammelia didn't remove. Beatrix waved a hand to banish her clothes and her breasts bounced once freed. She followed them into a bath the maids drawn, the tub roomy as it steamed. Warm waters settled around their succulent skin. A reminder they had survived. Bubbles rose up and popped as the maids poured in liquids that gave the water a perfume scent, and Beatrix couldn't help but stare at their breasts, suspended so that they practically slipped free of their low-cut tops in front of her face. She was shaken from her reverie by a playful voice. “Go ahead,” urged Esmerelda. “Touch them. They don't mind!” Swallowing hard, Beatrix's hands trembled when she reached out and cupped the tits before her. They were surprisingly warm to the touch, as she freed the shapely melons from their prison with a bounce, and started to roll them in her palms. From behind her Esmerelda cupped the witch's own titties, met by a squeak as Beatrix colored and relaxed herself. She sucked in a deep breath when the hand slipped down, over her belly, between her thighs as it traced her tight slit. Squirming as the huntress mashed her wet, naked tits against her back, she felt her index finger slowly trace up and down her cleft. “O-oh goodness,” murmured Beatrix with half-lidded violet eyes. Slow circles were traced around her cunt, but didn't sink into her lower lips no matter how much she wished otherwise, even as her clitoris swelled as it was teased out. Camellia swam around to the witch's front and pressed her own heavy melons to Beatrix's own. The masked woman's tits were massive and so pale like the rest of her, veins were visible under her skin, swallowed up by massive, feminine pink nipples. Suds ran down her shapeliness. She and Esmerelda started to pepper her neck in kisses. “So be it,” she whispered. “We share her.” Beatrix raised an eyebrow. “Uh...?” Pops sounded with low hisses as the huntresses revealed fangs that expanded from their mouths, two on top and a match pair on the bottom. They pressed their luscious lips to Beatrix's neck, who gasped and froze up as the teeth penetrated her flesh. Droplets of blood rolled down her skin and pooled into the waters, paralyzed and dizzied as her mind clouded in bliss. Would they drain her? Some insane part of her almost wanted them to, unable to escape their hold once she came, hard... > Chapter 3 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sandwiched between a pair of lovers, Beatrix purred like she was in heaven. Their plush lips danced all over her neck, bit into it and drew more hot blood that ran down her bosom into the bubbly waters. Camellia and Esmerelda slid lower as they pancaked their soppy breasts on her, pecked at her ample tits as they started to nibble and suckle on them. Their hands wandered all over her wet curves, fondled and kneaded them while she squirmed and moaned more. Each time they bit into her skin and sucked at the wounds, her mind clouded further, and her full-face flush darkened as a multitude of orgasms crashed over her. She shook and went slack like a doll in their arms, submitted to the pleasure the vampires afforded her. Blood mixed in the bubble bath and sloshed around the three supple women. The automaton maids watched with neutral expressions, completely still until they were needed next, one's breasts left exposed after Beatrix had felt her up. Water splashed over the side and rolled across the tiles as the lovers grew more eager to devour their snack. Esmerelda pushed the witch's thighs open, using a couple fingers to spread open her pink flower. Purring in satisfaction, she shoved her digits into the dank hole, which squished as she curled upwards to stroke her g-spot as she continued to squirt into the waters. Camellia suckled on a bite-marked tit, distended it as she pulled it back between her lips, before it popped off and bounced back onto Beatrix's chest, her mouth still connected by a trail of saliva mixed with blood through a mask slit. “Should we turn her?” “If we do it can't be undone,” reminded Esmerelda who drove her fingers in-and-out the witch's tight pussy. “And it will leave us weak for a time,” mused Camellia who returned to peppering their prey in bites, sucks, and kisses, most of them concentrated on her heavily marked tits. Beatrix swayed with hazed over eyes between them. They swam to where both faced her in the wide tub, and the vamps formed a seal with their lush lips around Beatrix's tits, as their fangs sank into them. The witch cast her head back and howled with another explosive climax, toes curled as she gripped the tub's sides and sloshed more bloodied, bubbly water onto the tiles while they bit, licked, and suckled her perky areola. Their hands continued to wander across her, traced her legs and groped her buttocks, fingers shoved into her sloppy pussy and puckered asshole. She whined and whimpered like a bitch in heat, unable to form an intelligible thought. Hands clasped under her thick thighs when Camellia lifted her up, sunked her masked face into her heated wet cunt, and pressed her lips to her twat. The tongue sunk in, spread her, and started to lash at her pink walls which clenched and dripped over her lips, down the ring of pink flesh that made up her exit hole and contracted each time she was thoroughly eaten out. Her muscle seemed impossibly long, pushed deeper and deeper as it licked the strands of honey juices that lined her love tunnel, mashed against her cervix, and devoured the girl goo that drooled from her feminine core. She gasped when the tip pried open her final barrier, penetrated into her slimy womb and rolled around as it started to clean her slippery walls. Shrill shrieks of bliss escaped between Beatrix's teeth as her eyelids fluttered, struck by a climax that rolled through her ovaries. She came on the mask face, squirted across her lips and down her throat, her nectar left to drizzle down her chin. Her back was propped on Esmerelda's breast to hold her up, as the other vamp spread her buttocks and shoved a couple digits in-and-out of her anus. The added stimulation drew out Beatrix's throat release, left to shake between the lovers. Lost in absolute ecstasy, Beatrix's mind threatened to shut down completely, as they removed themselves from her, raised her to her feet, and pressed their nakedness with a moist squish as they continued to rain bites and kisses on her. “Ah...no...” Much as she desperately wanted to continue, Beatrix refused to be their slave! Her translucent horn manifested back on her skull, shimmered, and loosed a burst of wild magic. The explosion was intentionally harmless but knocked the women from her and rolled the tub over, as their nude bodies slid out onto the floor. She leapt out, slipped on the watery tiles, and her plush ass slid across them. Scrambling to her feet and almost tripping, she pushed aside a maid automaton, out the door and back into the hall. Water rolled and dripped off her bouncy curves. “Stop her,” commanded Camellia who narrowed her eyes. The maids burst into a run with controlled, swift movements, close behind the witch. She leaped and practically flew, grunted when her cunt landed with a wet slap on the bannister, and slid across it down the stairs faster than they could follow. She landed on her feet at the bottom, certain her delicate flower would be bruised as it throbbed and burned. But she had more important matters to worry about, the double doors ahead when she raced towards it and wrapped her aura around the knobs. “Damn it,” she cried when more maids that waited at the bottom intercepted her, their faces twisted like they were enraged. Her hands lit up. Colorful beams hissed from her raised palms when she blasted a couple of the clockwork machines aside, who were hurtled aside under the impact, but many more replaced them and were quick to surround her as she loosed more spells. Arms closed around her with inhuman strength, pinned her in place. One seized her horn to stifle her wild casts. “Cease this,” came Camellia's voice when she and Esmerelda marched forward, still nude. “We mean you no harm.” “Could have fooled me,” admitted Beatrix who glared back at them. “Look, I'm all for a little 'fun time', but you should have told me you're vampires!” The bite marks they left all over her tits in particular still throbbed in mild pain and pleasure. Esmerelda smirked on their approach. “Would you have stayed?” She traced the witch's cheek and licked her chops. “I...don't know.” Most of what she knew about vampires were from old books, and she wasn't certain what rules applied to these two. She couldn't deny their magnetic quality, their perfectly sculpted forms and penetrating, exotic eyes. While her heart beat slowed, and she heaved less, the automatons slowly released their hold on her but still blocked her escape route. At a snap of Camellia's fingers a few of the maids retreated to the kitchen. Some fetched towels and wiped Beatrix and the pair of nocturnal huntresses down, then directed her to a velvetine couch where she was seated and felt the plushness conform to her squishy buttcheeks. Across from her sat the pair, and the maids soon returned with fresh brewed, steamy tea and a snack tray. “I am sure you have many questions. Allow us to explain,” said Camellia and the witch nodded. “We were turned by another like us. Vampires are not a natural occurrence, but in this case our 'master' had experimented on himself through alchemy in pursuit of immortality, and ended up in a horrific state. We escaped him and now are forced to slake ourselves on blood.” “Virginal blood when possible,” purred Esmerelda who nibbled at the sweets on the tray and slowly licked her lips. “It's the sweetest. And before you ask, the mad doctor Kilroy wasn't responsible. But we have had many run-ins with his work.” “Looks like this is a world filled with mad science and the supernatural,” mused Beatrix between sips. “Yes. We protect the populace and sate our needs, but do not slay innocents,” explained Camellia. “Our former master left more than psychological scars on me...” She unclasped the straps to her white mask, hands trembling when she slowly started to remove it, and revealed a once impossibly beautiful face now marred by horrific red scars crossed across her flesh. Beatrix sucked in a gasp. “S-sorry! I couldn't help myself!” Camellia shook her head. “I understand. I am used to such.” She replaced the mask. “Our master is dead at our hands, but our struggles continued. We do not age, we do not share most of the weaknesses attributed to us by disposable fiction, yet without blood we would rapidly lose our vitality. We are simultaneously blessed and cursed in equal measure.” “We want your help,” purred Esmerelda who traced a hand over the witch's bare thigh. Beatrix thought it over for a moment. “...fine. I'll do it. But no more tricks, okay? That's supposed to be my department!” The huntresses nodded, and she further relaxed her posture once more of the hot tea settled into her stomach. “So~...” She looked around her. “This mansion, does it have a name? It's a wonderful place, kinda reminds me of home!” “We call it the Cauldron of Conception,” said Camellia who smiled. “Like a womb that protects and nurtures us.” “Nice name,” said Beatrix who slurped up the rest of her drink, which a maid refilled. “While we're sharing secrets...” Esmerelda traced up the witch's side, and circled her palm around a heavy tit. “Remember how we said we're products of alchemy? When we bite our 'prey', we can alter parts of their chemical composition!” To demonstrate, she squeezed down on the tit flesh, and Beatrix shuddered with a blush and light moan as milk squirted from her erect nipple. “O-oh?” Pleasant vibrations rolled through Beatrix's milky melon, a warm white trail left to leak down her breast. Her lashes fluttered when the vamp reached forward, wrapped her lips around the tit, and started to roughly suckle her sweet milk. She could almost submit to them and stay here forever, left to indulge in what pleasures they offered. But no, she couldn't leave her loved ones behind, particularly Lady Oona Ewe, Bellatrix Primadonna, and most of all her dear daughter Abadonna. Yet since she needed to sped time in other dimensions to absorb their energies, and further bolster her ability to weave portals in hopes she could one day reach whatever higher dimension trapped Abadonna, she decided it best to aid them for now. ***** A mass of naked, feminine flesh surrounded Penny Dreadful, who had taken the rejuvenated Dazzlings to her private section of the lab and ordered them to service her, which they were all too happy to do. They surrounded her nakedness on all sides, peppered her all over in bites, kisses, and fingers that danced across her pliant curves, met by her throaty moans. Her nails dug into Adagio's poofy curls, forced her face into her cunt. “Eat me,” she demanded and was attacked by her tongue.  She also tugged on Aria's pigtails and ordered, “Suck my tits, bitch. Sonata, eat my ass.” They hurried to comply. Every time she was filled with fresh, artificial blood, she swelled with desire. She imagined it was the same for these whores. Kilroy took no interest in their amorous activities, consumed by his work. She could hear and feel the hum of his machines even from her, but her focus was on the hands, fingers, and tongues that explored her flesh and her needy holes. Still not satisfied, Penny snapped her fingers to summon a device she had asked her creator to build for her. Muted clicks and whirs sounded when the machine crawled her way, its surface slick and squishy, its eight tentacles covered in suckers that pulsated. Its eyes were inky black. She was told it was based on an octopus, and crafted to be her pet. Yet she had him further modify it to serve another purpose. It responded to her will, left a slimy trail behind it on its approach. The clockwork creature extended its coils, which started to wrap around her and the Dazzlings. Warm to the touch, their thighs and breasts were constricted by the extensions, which dripped over their bare flesh while mewls arose from them. “Oh, you tease,” said Penny as she stroked her pet. “Penetrate us already, you brute!” One of its tentacles lashed over her slit, before it plunged in amidst a wet spatter. She arced her back and grit her teeth to swallow a cry, felt it spread and fill her, one of its suckers wrapped around her g-spot like a tiny mouth as it suckled hard. It was able to hit her in places a penis would struggle to. Buried itself deeper, drove open her cervix, and invaded her womb. “This thing is the tits,” said Aria crudely as she too was filled, a bulge visible on her distended belly after it claimed her uterus. “Sh-shame it only has eight legs,” said Sonata between pants as it took her twat too, her bulbous breasts squeezed and smacked. “I can fix that,” assured Penny who silently communicated her desires to the pet. From its core sprang another multitude of tentacles, which were quick to claim every warm, moist fuckhole they came across as the bitches were triple-penetrated. “What the-,” was all Adagio could shout wide-eyed before her mouth, cunt, and ass were skewered deep with a squish. Like the others she was quick to submit to its dominant thrusts, their buttocks spanked and their tits crushed under its slimy coils. They were lifted into the air, squeaked around the invaders in their lips and messily came a number of times, especially when Penny willed its limbs to vibrate, their slime-covered flesh left ot quiver as they blushed and were rocked by multiple climaxes. She lost track of how long the machine used them. By the time they were dropped into a puddle of their mixed secretions, all their well-used holes were pleasantly sore, and once sated the device immediately coiled back in on itself and shut down. Their bosoms rapidly rose and felt, soaked in sweat and its mucus-like slime that made their nakedness glisten under the lab's light. “Not...bad,” admitted Adagio between her ragged panting. “Usually, to get service like this we'd have to see a doctor to calm down hysterical women...” She recalled the variety of devices the last doctor they had seen years ago had used on them. “Don't threaten me with a good time,” said Aria with a sly smile as she wetly kissed her. Sonata rubbed her own slicked, heavy breasts tih a purr and asked, “S-so...can it be used as a weapon...?” “Oh yes. As you see it can easily restrain a female,” noted Penny with an evil titter. The master's old enemies? She would make them her bitches, too. Not to mention that foolish witch who had escaped them. She licked her sticky lips at the idea. ***** An hour later Beatrix found herself naked in a wide bed, surrounded by her hostesses who pressed their bared bodies to her and stroked her mane. Tiny hickies and bite marks decorated her all over. Glazed eyes matched her dreamy, post-coitus state. Her messy mane trailed about the pillow her head rested on. She felt like a confined princess who never wanted to be rescued. Yet she reminded herself of what she needed to do and recalled a token from the crime scene. “Say~...” She reached behind Esmerelda's ear and plucked the coin from thin air. “I'm pretty sure this is Penny Dreadful's.” Camellia's eyes widened under her mask. “So that is how you tracked her! Do you realize what this means?” Beatrix nodded with a self-satisfied smile. “We can track her to her lair!” “I knew you would come in handy,” said Esemerelda with a sly smile and wink. “How about tomorrow morning, dear witch?” “Sure. I'm cranky without breakfast,” admitted Beatrix. “As are we,” confessed Esmerelda as they peppered her breast all over with more pecks. She shuddered with a blush, surrendered to them, as their hands brushed over her entirety. The silk sheets rustled below them. “You're dessert!” Beatrix cast back her head, her breast arced once Esmerelda slid between her legs. It was hard to think about anything else but the vamps each time they attacked her. Her thighs were forced open, her legs lifted up as her toes curled. She banished the coin for the women, her violet eyes once more left to wander across the familiar manor. Was she merely homesick? After all, her home had merely taken on the appearance of mansion to hide it was an eldritch abomination...hadn't it? Yet the vampires who ate her out and sucked on her tits soon swept such memories aside, for the moment. > Chapter 4 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A contented smile crossed Beatrix's face when she slumbered. She swished and stirred, moaned and mewled in the silken sheets, still left in the faint throes of ecstasy as tiny stabs of pleasure radiated from the bite wounds all over her, most of them concentrated on her bare breasts. She reclined surrounded by the vampire lovers, who slept more soundly. Somewhere, a muted voice called to her. “Abadonna?” She murmured to herself and rose almost silently from the bed. Her partners didn't stir as the witch started to sleepwalk to the door. Its creak was nearly inaudible when she exited into the hallways. The clockwork maids on perpetual duty bowed and curtsied when she passed and made her way down the stairs. Clocks sounded in the distance. A fire burned in the heart and cast the somnambulist in its ghostly glow. The unknown force continued its call to her, and she had no choice but to follow. Eventually, she arrived in a vast library, the shelves lined in innumerable books. Yet she was guided to one tome in particular, locked beneath a chained case. Despite the series of complicated echantments woven into it, clear by the runes that shimmered on her approach, her lips started to chant alien words. Piece-by-piece, she undid the seals, and the layers of chains fell away one at a time with a rattle. Finally, the lock fell away. She cast a final spell to disarm the magic trap that would alert anyone if the alarm was tripped. Her hands shook when they were laid on the dark tome. The Necronomicon, its cover layered in the stitched-together flesh of various victims, dried and woven like some grotesque quilt. Thick as it was on the surface, when one opened its cover an infinite number of pages were somehow stored within, each filled with forbidden dark arts and entries on various abominations. She clutched the book to her bosom and once more followed the voice, which was slightly louder now. A male's voice, harsh and brittle. She carried her prize towards the basement, and wove another series of spells to break the numerous locks. Her bare feet padded on the stairs that wound their way down, into the abyss of darkness that swallowed her up below. In the basement she heard another rattle. “Yes,” rasped the male's voice. “Come closer.” Huddled in shadow sat a bony figure, flesh old and worn on its skeletal frame, hidden by a once vibrant cloak that had faded, tattered, and molded. Bloodshot eyes bulged from his skull-like face when he stretched out his elongated fingers to accept the Necronomicon. She started to hand it over, oblivious to the sorcerer who had invaded her haunted dreams. His dried lips stretched under his hood, ready to snatch the tome from her grasp. Light suddenly flooded the chamber, illuminated by torches carried by the automatons that lit them in unison. Beatrix snapped to awareness and shrilly screamed at the monster before her, clutching the toem back to her breast. “Wh-what...?” “We cannot leave you alone for a single moment,” said Camellia who crossed her arms. “You almost had us this time,” noted Esmerelda who kept her pistol trained on the chained up prisoner. Grumbles rose from the man, spittle falling out of his cracked lips. “I see you've captured another slave. You two are no better than me, despite what you like to believe. No matter how much finery you surround yourselves with, you can't escape the stink of your past.” He rattled with a cold, drawn out chuckle, shaken in the robes that clumped around his thin form. Beatrix swallowed hard with realization. “He's the one who turned you, isn't he? You claimed he was dead...” “Dead to us,” said Esmerelda who shrugged. “I taught these two much of what they know,” mused the alchemist turned vampire. “You exaggerate,” shot back Camellia with a muted huff. “Nonetheless, I made you two into what you are. Shaped you,” he finished with a rictus grin smile. Beatrix shivered when she kept the book clutched to her chest. “Why do you keep him here? To spite him?” “It's more than that,” confessed Esmerelda with a shake of her head. “We used our 'master' in a ritual to help build our fortune. See those chains? They're bound to our mansion, feed it. We realized even a building could take on life.” Her free palm caressed a wall and felt a subtle, heartbeat-like throb. “The 'Womb of Conception' feeds on him to invigorate itself, and thus us!” Thinking it over, Beatrix's thoughts bounced all over the place. Could this be the same house she now lived in? But how was that possible? From what she knew, that mansion was an eldritch abomination that had escaped imprisonment in the Necronomicon? Her mind railed at the possibilities, reminded that she held the dark tome to her bare bosom. Her own home needed nourishment from a powerful demon to sustain it. Once it had captured her sister Bellatrix Primadonna, before she had chosen to fuse with it in order to preserve itself. Much of the layout here was also similar to her home. “I...shouldn't be here,” she mumbled to herself. Her adventures took her across time and space,  yet she had always traveled into the future when she returned to a dimension. Yet creatures who also moved between dimensions could always be met out of order, and she dreaded the potential consequences, should she introduce a major paradox to the delicate web of reality. “Forget what you saw here,” urged Camellia, who wrapped an arm around the witch's waist. “It is for the best.” “I...I guess so,” she replied dumbly, trying to make sense of it all. Again, it felt like her world had been flipped upside-down. Well, she couldn't complain about a lack of novelty in her life! “S-so...what's his name...?” “Lord Dhullex,” he announced in a clink of chains. “Oh, how low these two whelps have laid me...” “You deserve far worse,” assured Camellia who haughtily curled her lip beneath her porcelain mask. She directed Beatrix up the stairs, and Esmerelda blew their former master a kiss with a wink before she and the maids also ascended. The basement door slammed shut and the locks were replaced. “It's our fault really,” admitted Esmerelda. “We should have known your dreams were vulnerable. It took us years to escape his mental hold. But you? You're not used to him.” Beatrix looked at the tome and asked, “Where did you get this?” “It was his,” explained Camellia. “Where he found it, we do not know. He was well-traveled and learned. A master of the blackest arts. This mansion was once his. To enslave him here was a fitting punishment. But we dare not read that book.” “A wise choice,” admitted Beatrix. The Necronomicon could compel others to read it and binded with their souls, yet she sensed its power here was weak. Perhaps it was early still into the damned book's career, yet she doubted it could be destroyed now. They returned the tome to its place in the library, then headed to the bathroom where the maids drew them a bath. Soon they were submerged in the soapy, bubbly waters which steamed and surrounded them in its phantasmal vapors. The pool swished around Beatrix as the lovers soaped her up, the suds left to roll down their glistening wet skin. She closed her eyes and mewled in appreciation. After a fancy breakfast, they would be ready to head out for another hunt. After she was dressed and her belly filled, Beatrix exited alongside the vampire huntresses into the soft daylight. ***** Another factory was hit at the brink of dawn. At instructions from Doctor Kilroy, Penny Dreadful and the Dazzlings had varied their routines, the good doctor eager to throw their pursuers off the scent. But she had a different plan. Better to confront them directly, deal with them once-and-for-all, so that the huntresses and the witch could be used in his experiments. She petted her mechanical octopus who crawled beside her. The whores followed close behind. It was rare for her to operate in broadlight, but by the same token the huntresses were normally nocturnal, too. “I suppose the poor boy needed a walk,” said Penny who bent down to pet the mechanical animal. “Got the stuff,” said Aria between huffs, a container clutched to her chest. “Good girls,” replied Penny who smiled thinly. “We're small in number now, but someday Kilroy will have an army!” “Excellent,” replied Adagio with a curtsy. “I'm grateful we could prove our worth. After that last debacle...” They lingered in an alley, away from the prying eyes of the public, and watched carriages pulled by clockwork horses and civilians on bicycles ride by in the distance. A reminder of the better life denied the poor sisterly prostitutes by those who ran the city. “Guess it's time to head home, huh?” Sonata frowned. “I wanted some ice cream.” “I'll have Kilroy make some for you,” assured Penny and was met by a cheery squeal that made her ears throb. She had desperately hoped the hunters would put in a surprise appearance, but despite how long she lingered was met by disappointment. Perhaps it was for the best, since she certainly didn't want to let their master down. They headed back towards a manhole, unaware they were watched and pursued... > Chapter 5 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Returning home, Penny Dreadful stretched and yawned in the lab. “Another uneventful day,” she mused. She smiled at her creator, who wandered over and accepted the latest supplies she and the Dazzlings delivered. Kilroy placed the containers on a counter and asked, “Were you seen?” “Of course not. I know better than that,” she assured him. “The girls are working out well, so far.” He tapped the glass and watched the bright blue substance slosh within. “Excellent. It's time you all refueled. Please, make yourselves comfortable on the tables.” His sleeved arm pointed at them, and the four women began to disrobe. “He'll be with us in a moment,” said Penny, who knew the good doctor was a consummate professional. Her eyes trailed to the artificial heart amidst his lab equipment, only for her eyes to widen as a shadow crept into their lair. The gunshot exploded out before she could react. She froze with a gasp, ears filled by the shrill screams of the Dazzlings, eyes filled by the sight of a bullet that ripped through her creator's muscled chest, his lab coat turned red by the hot splash of blood that soaked her face and naked body. The assassin came into view, Esmerelda followed close by Camellia and Beatrix. “Bullseye,” said Esmerelda who blew smoke from the pistol's tip, then leveled it at Penny who snarled. “Nuh-uh-uh. Don't move, dear.” The mad doctor had crumpled on his bearded face and a sticky pool of scarlet spread around him. “I'll skin you alive,” swore Penny whose eyes watered. “Doubtful. You're in no position ot make threats.” She waved with her sidearm. “Now come over here, and-” “Watch out!” Camellia barely raised an invisible barrier in time when Aria struck from the shadows, a razor-like knife in hand that arced with such force the masked vampire was knocked back under the wild blow. Esmerelda spun, took aim, and was tackled by Adagio. She misfired and beakers exploded into shards and smoke, left to bubble over and fizz around the lab while the pair of them struggled, Adagio snarling and clawing at the woman's face. A fresh spell flared in Beatrix's hands and transparent unicorn horn, only to feel her stomach grabbed from behind. “Don't forget about me,” said Sonata as she wiggled in her grip. “Look what you've done to our home!” The spread of ignited chemicals formed a blaze that quickly spread. Like before the artificial blood proved quite flammable, the laboratory buffeted by explosion-after-explosion that rocked the area. Sludge spilled in from the cracked ground. Between coughs Aria yelled, “Stay here and we're all dead!” Adagio's smoke-filled eyes ran with tears. “Mistress, we have to escape!” Penny cradled her creator's limp body. “I won't leave him behind-” A wall crumbled beneath a blast, a tidal wave of muck unleashed that washed all over the lab. Screams were lost when they were swallowed up and cast into the labyrinth of sewers. Beatrix seized a brick, clung on with all she had, and used her aura to grab Esmerelda and Camellia. She wanted to shout for them to hold on, but dared not open her mouth, the putrid stench of water mixed with waste already filling her nostrils. Finally, the waves came to an end. The three of them clambered from a manhole back to the surface, thoroughly drenched. With a hand wave, Beatrix removed the foul moisture from them and cast it aside, while they took shelter in an alley. “Well, that was a bust! Or was it? I really doubt old mad doctor Kilroy survived that, but what about the rest of them...?” “Without him Penny Dreadful will be more unstable. Desperate.” Camellia's mouth pursed behind her mask. “There's no way to tell if they survived or where they are now,” mused Esmerelda who checked her weapons, thankful that due to Beatrix's spell, seemed to be in working order. “Let's return home. I could desperately use a fresh bath.” Beatrix sniffed herself and scrunched up her nose. “Yeah, sadly I don't have a spell to get rid of nasty stenches!” They kept away from the public on their way home. After the experiments done to them, Beatrix doubted the Dazzlings would perish so easily, let-alone Doctor Kilroy's masterpiece, Penny Dreadful. She feared they would be back sooner than she liked. But she had done her part, hadn't she? She reminded herself that, through a portal, she could abandon this place at any time. Yet she couldn't deny she enjoyed their company, and was curious about this world, not to mention the familiar mansion she found herself back in. The maids hurried them back to a tub, where they submerged in the heated waters and were soaked down. She drifted off under their tender touches. Her dreams started off innocent enough, about the love of her life, Lady Oona Ewe, and her daughter Abadonna, who she hoped to be reunited with after her travels increased her prowess in spacial magic. Then came the more lurid fantasies. Ones where Esmerelda and Camellia pretty much made her their love slave. Finally came the horrific face of Dhullex, the alchemic vampire trapped in the basement, who again tried to invade the most private portions of her soul and make her into his thrall. She thrashed and woke up with a start. “Shush. It is okay,” assured Camellia who tucked her into bed. “No one can hurt you now,” said Esmerelda who smiled and touched her lips, the two nude women encircled around her. “Y-yeah.” She sleepily fluttered her lashes, sandwiched between the warmth of their soft, supple flesh. Soon she was lost in a familiar sea of peppered kisses and bites, as the two vampire huntresses took more of their fill from the witch. Resigned to her pleasant fate, Beatrix happily sighed and surrendered to their deft touches. ***** While the good doctor had taught her much, Penny Dreadful lacked his technical skill. She was bitterly reminded of this when, in the section of the sewer where she had washed up, she tried to insert the artificial heart into the open wound in his chest. “No, no, no! This need's a surgeon's touch~,” she wailed in shrill desperation in an attempt to save Kilroy from his fate. Yet his corpse was already cold, pale, and she swore had started to bloat. She barely heard the approach of the Dazzlings, who had finally tracked her down. “You were supposed to make this wretched world better! Come back to me, master!” Adagio folded her arms and shook her head. “So...what do we do now I managed to grab a canister...” She nodded at it. Sonata squatted and tapped the can. “Should be enough to keep us afloat for a while!” “I don't know about you, but I want revenge!” Aria smacked a fist into her palm. Penny huffed and rose to her feet. “We'll have it,” she assured them. For now, she had no choice but to leave Doctor Kilroy here, but assured herself she could somehow return him to life. After all, in a world of mad science and the supernatural, anything was possible, was it not? But first she needed to deal with those who dared to invade their home! “We might know where they live,” suggested Adagio. “Back in the day, we used to hang around the area.” “Until we were driven off!” Sonata made a sour face. “Yeah, I remember that rich bitch with the pink hair.” Aria snarled. “Wouldn't give us tramps the time of day! Lives in a mansion and probably has hundreds of servants! I say we skin her alive!” She flashed her knife. Taking but a moment to think it over, Penny nodded, certain the four of them could take the huntresses. All they needed was the element of surprise! And after they were slain, their manor would be hers, alongside all the resources she would need to return Doctor Kilroy to life! She planted a chaste kiss on his wrinkled forehead, parasol in hand when she readied to set off. > Chapter 6 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stamping down the sewer tunnels, Penny Dreadful stared ahead, eyes narrowed and posture stiff. Behind her the Dazzlings followed but decided to keep their distance. Especially when their leader started to speak aloud. “Doctor Kilroy,” she whispered, her eyes wet. “I'll avenge you! I know you're there, watching me!” She smiled when the familiar bald bulk of her creator appeared at her side. “Of course. I'd never abandon my finest creation,” the apparition assured her. Sonata cocked her head to one side. “Who's she talking to?” “She's lost it,” said Aria who curled her lip. “Hush you two,” warned Adagio who nonetheless agreed with the assessment. Yet the clockwork woman took no notice of their banter, full attention locked on the vision of Kilroy who clouded her eyes. “This way,” his voice said to her. She followed around the murky bend, only to gasp when she realized where he had directed her. “Oh!” Washed ashore was the mechanized octopus he had crafted for her. “I thought for sure you were lost when those maniacs attacked!” The automaton whirred to life when she plucked it up and drew it to her bosom. “It's my fault really,” assured Kilroy. “I programmed it to obey your commands, but not to defend you on its own. A foolish oversight. Fortunately, the adjustments are simple.” She tinkered with the machine like instructed. “Better.” Her smile widened when the octopus hopped out of her hold on its own accord. “Next time we run into those nasty bitches, don't hesitate to crush their skulls!” She tittered and spun in a circle, mimicked by her metal companion. “There's another manhole,” noted Aria who clambered up to remove it. “Better not to travel in the open,” reminded Adagio, dubious of their leader. Sonata chewed on her lower lip. “How much further do we have to travel? My feet are sore!” Her ear was pulled by Aria, who had slid open the manhole. “Almost there,” promised Adagio who sighed. “Trouble is, are we ready?” “We're ready,” promised Penny who turned to face her minions. “Who needs a plan? We'll rush into their mansion and take them by surprise, like they did to us!” Already, she could see faces frozen in terror, blood spilled by their hands! She clambered up the ladder, the rest of them close behind. ***** Beatrix stood before a mirror in a nightgown and brushed platinum locks tinged in violet. Again when she slept, she heard the faint voice of the old vampire in her dreams, yet this time she was able to resist his call. A trace below the silk, over the bare skin of her breasts, dotted in bite marks, made her acutely aware why. Her hostesses had marked her. Tried to turn her into their thrall. Were these vampires truly much better than their enemies, she wondered? “Th-thanks,” she whispered when one of the clockwork maids tried to pamper her. “You seem uneasy,” came the curt voice of Camellia behind her. “Just...not sure what to think.” She sucked in a heavy breath, reminded that these vampires could be seen in the mirror, as like Camellia her lover Esmerelda also crowded around her. Their hands brushed over her skin and threatened to undress her. She shivered and cooed, her eyelids left to flutter under their touch. “Why think when you can feel?” The sweet posh voice of Esmerelda filled her ear. “That would certainly be easier,” confessed the witch who shuddered and hissed out a low moan between her teeth when they lifted up her scant clothes and shucked them aside, their own bared skin pressed to their own in readiness to feed. “W-wait! What if I need my strength? After what we did back there...” “If they somehow survived, we'll deal with them later.” Esmerelda nipped her neck. One palm slid down their prey's hip, while another rested on a breast. “You have other concerns,” reminded the white-masked Camellia who cupped her other tit, popped her curved teeth, and bit into the flesh. Blood oozed from twin wounds. The witch squirmed and moaned, paralyzed between the two of them. Her mind threatened to dull, unable to resist the two mature vampires. An explosion below that rocked the mansion shot her back to awareness. Immediately the two women pulled away from her and the clockwork maids nearby went on full alert. “Check that out,” commanded Camellia. “No doubt Penny's after us,” said Esmerelda who slipped into her costume. Beatrix swallowed as she waved back on her own attire, still a bit woozy and left to sway on her heels. Pretty soon she rushed to follow after the hostesses. By the time they arrived at the stairs, a crushed clockwork maid hurled in their direction, which Beatrix deflected with an invisible barrier. Below the thrown object was revealed to be the automaton octopus, who strained to overcome more maids. Esmerelda whirled her pistol, only to yelp when a knife sailed into her hand. Its thrower was Aria, who smirked at her from below, another blade already in hand. “Time to end this,” yelled Adagio who stood in the rubble of the blown open manor doors, courtesy of a fuel tank they had stolen. “Amateurs,” muttered Camellia who called upon her magic, her pale hands lit up. Beside her Esmerelda yanked the bloodied knife out and cast it aside. Penny Dreadful, who snarled, once more saw the face of Doctor Kilroy, heard his calm and measured voice. “Don't listen to them. I will empower you all. That's why I had you send Sonata ahead,” he explained, and on cue, she and her minions started to shimmer. The blood red aura enveloped them. Aria stared down at herself. “What is this? I feel so...energized...!” “Oh no,” whispered Camellia, whose eyes widened. “The seal has been broken!” ***** “Yes~,” came the rasp of the elder vampire in the basement. His mummified form rustled in his moldy cloak which threatened to crumble around him. The moment the madwoman had approached the manor, it had been easy to reach into her mind even in his state, as her madness left her open, her visions malleable. He shuffled to his feet and spotted the silhouette of the woman who had freed him. “Y-you're creepy,” came the voice of Sonata who nonetheless felt compelled to approach. He leered back with a skull-like face, beckoned her to come. “You've served me well, child.” He traced below her chin. “Now rest.”  She bared her neck to him, whereupon he sank into the offered flesh and suckled. Her eyes hazed over, her blinks slowed, and the color drained from her skin. She sunk to the floor with a thud. Life and youth drained from the woman, transferred to him as he chuckled. Spiky, purple hair and eyes framed the youthful features that returned, and likewise he mended his rotten clothes to their once resplendent shape, as they shimmered around him. Sonata's skin was withered, her breaths shallow and her eyes shut. She had fetched his tome under his mental domination, aware she was mentally the weakest of the sisters the moment he sensed their presence near the manor. His hand slipped around the spell book. "Ah...the Necronomicon," he stated in a masculine baritone. Its dried, mummified contents ruffled when he opened its cover. He marched out the dungeon as his chains snapped around him, his cloak left to drift after him, his well-toned arms bared. The trapdoor that sealed him thudded open. Penny Dreadful, under his mental manipulation, had led a suicidal assault on his enemies. It had been simple to invade her psyche and manipulate her hallucinations, the poor lost fool so dedicated to her creator. "No," cried Camellia when she turned to him. "Yes," he answered with a smile that bared his sharp teeth when he faced down his former brides who had turned on him. He stepped over one of the broken maid marionettes. "Dhullex Faustus, the most powerful vampire who ever lived, has finally returned!" > Chapter 7 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The presence of Dhullex Faustus, former master of Esmeralda and Camellia, who sired the two monster huntresses into vampires and made him his brides, stalked up from the basement, the unchained Necronomicon clear in his hand. His ruined state almost fully healed, after the artificial blood he siphoned from one of the sirens, Sonata's mummified corpse now left behind. Wasting no time, the black grimoire's tome  fluttered open, and he chanted the alien words as an elongated finger traced across the runes that glowed. Esmeralda fanned the hammer of her pistol to let loose a desperate hail of silver bullets...only for him to casually raise a hand, the shots frozen in mid-air. Spiky purple hair whipped behind him, his face twisted in a deathly smile. Adagio was the first to find her voice. "What did you do? Where's Sonata...?" "The poor child freed me," explained Dhullex. "So I suitably rewarded her. She will live on, as a part of me." He licked his bloodied teeth, smeared by artificial blue blood. A hateful shriek rose from Aria, who raised her knife and hurtled across the foyer. "Aria, wait-" But Adagio's words were ignored, Aria blinded by hatred while she shrieked and rushed head on at the master vampire, determined to avenge their sister. "So foolhardy," mused Dhullex, as the blade slammed into his breast. Her aim was true, Aria splattered by wet, hot blood that gushed from the wound, her knife driven into his heart. He winced and seized her by the throat, while she kicked, squirmed, and twisted the blade. "I'll kill you," swore Aria through her bitter tears. "But I can't die so easily! I'm cursed with immortality!" Dhullex bared his fangs, Aria's neck bared to him, ready to siphon her dry too. All the while, the spell he read from the Necronomicon continued to complete itself without him as more runes lit up. Esmeralda slapped more silver bullets into the chamber, while Camellia circled in the darkness, her hands afire with the dark arts she'd mastered. They shared a nod, the couple and Beatrix ready to launch an all-out attack on the master vampire and recover the Necronomicon. Yet the manor itself sprang to life around them, shaking as a groan rose from the earth. Beatrix's heart skipped at a familiar sensation,  at the realization the Necronomicon opened a breach to another dimension, one of the many eldritch abominations drawn here. "Watch out," cried Beatrix, who narrowly evaded a maid marionette that slashed at her. "Dhullex has taken full control," warned Camellia in a snarl. "The same bastard that scarred my beautiful face!" Her pallid flesh hardened behind her mask, skin lined in criss-crossed scars. Penny Dreadful tittered behind them. "Who cares? You killed my creator! My father!" Adagio backed up towards the door, unwilling to follow the madwoman on her quest anymore. She watched helpless while Dhullex's teeth sank into Aria's neck, her sister trapped between agony and ecstasy as the vampire alchemist drained her dry. Her kicks slowed to a stop. She couldn't take revenge for her sisters on her own! But she swore to come back, and somehow, she'd make him pay! Only to discover the doors behind her had transformed into rows of razor-sharp teeth, ready to chomp her to bits. She screamed and shrank back. Dhullex dropped the dry corpse of Aria at his feet. "You see? I've bound a beast from the depths of the Necronomicon here! It obeys my every whim! You have no hope of survival!" The walls started to turn fleshy and meaty around them, the beast fused with the mansion, transmuted into one by the Necronomicon's almost limitless power. Tentacles rose from the walls, lined in a multitude of eyes and teeth, as it dripped with a rancid stench. Dhullex strode forward. "Run! There's nowhere any of you can hide!" The mansion's insides started to twist around them, molded by his will, reshaped into a labyrinth. It watched them wherever they went, as the maid automatons pursued his scattered prey. "We should be on the same side," yelled Beatrix, who barely sidestepped a swipe. "Why? You're partly at fault!" Penny's spiked umbrella slashed at the witch, as the pair ascended the stairs, onto the second floor which was similarly warped by the beast. "You crazy b-," Beatrix yelped, nicked by the blade's tip across her breast. Penny squealed, hit by a bullet in the chest which caused her to tumble back down the stairway. "This way," called Camellia at Esmeralda's side, the pistol tip adrift in smoke. With a quick look back at Penny, crumpled at the bottom of the stairs, Beatrix followed them. They took shelter in one of the largest rooms, Camellia's pale hands alight with her own black magic to hold the Necronomicon's power back. Aware she couldn't hold the abomination back long, nonetheless she strained to keep it at bay, the interior apparently normal thanks to her influence. Esmeralda barred the door, where the couple had already taken Adagio. Adagio sat with her knees to her chest and sniffled. "Wh-what are we supposed to do now? My sisters..." She'd broken free of Penny's control...only to wake up in a nightmare. "They're trapped between a state of life and death," explained Camellia, her ruby red lips drawn. "There's a chance I can breathe 'life' back into them...if we stop Dhullex." Beatrix heard the automatons attempt to bash the door in. "Maybe I can? Open a portal around Dhullex and the Necronomicon, and maybe I can spirit them away in a blink!" "You'll have to be close to him for that," reminded Camellia. Esmeralda chipped in, "Leave that to me! We've beaten him before," she reminded her lover and kissed the cheek of her bloody teardrop mask's cheek. "His attention's split to wield all this power! That means he'll slip up at a crucial moment, and whoosh! That's our move!" "It could work," admitted Camellia. "But the chances are slim, at best." "You know I'm a crack shot love," cooed Esmeralda, who squeezed a handful of the sexy sorceress' wide white buttock, barely concealed by the black slip that adorned her. "We've hunted so many monsters to near extinction..." She traced her lips as she drew closer to her. "Indeed we have," said Camellia, a rare, small smile adorned by the sorceress. "PLease," said Adagio as she rose to her feet. "Allow me to help." Camellia asked, "And what can you do? You are but a common harlot," she stated dismissively. "And besides, Dhullex seeks to drain you too, to stabilize himself back into a youthful form." "I'll distract him while you all move in," explained Adagio, who traced a nail across cleavage bared by her dress. "My sisters and I have seduced more men that you can count!" Beatrix nodded. "Let her try! We have a whole army of maids out there to deal with! Not to mention the mansion," she muttered, aware she now saw the conception of her haunted home. Outmatched and surrounded, she knew the moment they escaped the room, they would be in for the fight of their lives! She tried to steel herself for the battle ahead, uncertain if wehter they failed here, it would cause a paradox that could unravel her future... > Chapter 8 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The last memories of Penny Dreadful were a silver bullet taken to the breast. Tumbling down the stairs. Now the automaton lay at the stair's foot in a crumpled heap, oozing blue blood from an open wound that exposed gears and cogs, some of them wrecked as they creaked to a stop. She trembled and attempted to rise, only for her artificial muscles to fail her. "F-father..." She thought of Professor Kilroy, still determined to avenge him with her last artificial breath. "Someone...help me...whatever it takes, I'll..." Glazed eyes caught a movement from the corner of her eye. Different from the manor walls around her, that began to shift. Instead, some creature scuttled towards her position. As it neared in a scrape of metal, her eyes focused on her spider-like, mechanical pet. "You're...alive? I thought I'd lost you in the sewers!" She giggled deliriously when it started to crawl across her, its cool metal traced across her skin and over her dress. On closer inspection, she noticed the machine wasn't entirely what she remembered. Organic matter from the mansion had wrapped itself like a fleshy web around the automaton, helped animated this abomination of flesh-and-steel. She moaned and arced her bosom whenher 'pet' forced its way into her open chest cavity, united with the clockwork killer as she lazily rose to her feet, reborn. "Yes~...much better!" She felt its warmth and ran her hands across her chest. She could sense the life within these mansion walls, as whatever Dhullex summoned from the Necronomicon called to her, directed her. She reclaimed her umbrella, marched upstairs in a click of heels. ***** The moment the door was thrown open, all hell would break loose. But Beatrix, who was trapped inside with Adagio, Esmeralda, and Camellia, knew they were doomed anyhow if they stayed here, so there was no choice but to attempt this risky plan. She'd tried her usual first resort when a situation appeared hopeless, a portal out of whatever crazy world she found herself in, then hesitated at the realization Dhullex used the Necronomicon to open his own to some eldritch dimension. Instinct told her it could potentially cause this dimension's collapse, and take all of them with it! "Get ready," reminded Camellia. "Y-yeah," replied Beatrix. "Sadly, I think Dhullex will see through my illusions..." "Don't think they'll work too well on the maids either," said Esmeralda, who twirled a silver pistol in her hand. "That's where we come in! We'll clear a path, then-" "Leave it to me," said Adagio, her face furrowed in determination to save her sisters. The door was kicked open by Esmeralda, and everyone rushed into action at once. Black balls of fire erupted from Camellia's palms and immolated the nearest marionette maids that attempted to carve their way into the room. The masked sorceress preferred not to apply the dark arts in such a vulgar manner, especially since their use would eventually exhaust her, but under the circumstances she pushed her abilities to the limits. To support her and make certain she didn't drain herself too early, Esmeralda unleashed a euphoric battle cry, her whip snapped around a maid's ankle to yank her down and towards her. With a flick of her wrist she unsheathed her sword and beheaded the doll. Beatrix called upon her own spells here, reminded how much weaker she felt in this dimension as the trio of elements she summoned, fire, ice, and lightning, managed to scorch, freeze, and fry a trio of automatons, respectively. Usually, she could easily handle an entire mob at once! Yet she could also feel herself starting to tire at an unprecedented rate. "Oh my! Guess we took a little too much blood," mused Esmeralda, another doll cleaved apart before its clockwork hands could punch into their flesh and rip them apart. Aided by the pair of casters, Esmeralda cut a swath down the hallway...only to feel the floor ripple underneath them.  "Aha, like a haunted house! And we're the planned victims!" A dark silhouette appeared at the corridor's end, the tome in the caped man's hand. "Food to feed the beast," announced Dhullex Faustus. He strained his will to control and manipulate the eldritch abomination he summoned into this dimension, attempted to finalize the spell that would forever bind the monstrosity into the manor that would become its prison. The patriarch sire resumed his chants...only to pause as Adagio started to approach, past her allies while their weapons and spells kept the clockwork marionettes distracted. "I'm the one you want," she said, as she started to undo the laces around the back of her dress. "You've already taken my sisters! Drink from me, and that once atrophied body will fully heal..." Despite himself, his concentration wavered when Adagio allowed her dress to spill behind her when she strode forward, her complete nakedness revealed to his eyes. A reminder of when he forced Esmeralda and Camellia to become his brides, to ease his loneliness. She moved closer, past the floorboards that rippled like flesh, in a bounce and sway of heavy breasts, her wide nipples perky in the draft. Her hips and buttocks swished, her bare snatch enveloped by a reddish sheen cast by the blood red interior as she forced a sultry smile. She didn't care anymore if she died...simply that Aria and Sonata were avenged. "Stay back," warned Dhullex as she crossed over, mere feet away. "Why?" She innocently clasped her hands behind her and arched her back to make her breasts appear as full and bountiful as possible. "It's obvious I please your eyes..." While the vampire backed up, tome still in hand as he found himself unable to tear his eyes away from the sultry harlot he drank in, Beatrix left the battle in Esmeralda's and Camellia's capable hands as she slipped towards the head vampire. She would only have one shot...! By now Adagio was practically in his face. "You want me," she assured him in her sultriest, musical voice, her hands running over her bare tits, and over her shapely hips. Dhullex bit into his lower lip in an attempt to resist, tried to focus on the pain and hate that had carried him past the point where any mortal would have expired...yet after so much time spent in the basement, he felt famished, even after he drank Sonata and Aria dry. Instinct screamed at him to feed! To fulfill the addiction all vampires shared! And as the first and most powerful of his line, his needs surpassed those of even his hedonistic brides...! Before he could rethink insanity born of bloodlust, he'd dropped the Necronomicon and was upon Adagio. Wrapped in his powerful arms, his sank his fangs into a tit which wobbled under his enclosed lips. She moaned out her ecstasy, paralyzed as he claimed her. While he suckled away at the plush tit, a trickle of blood and saliva left to dribble from the twin wounds down the slope of the harlot's titty, Beatrix slipped behind them and started to draw a circle in the air. He'd been forced to stop mid-summon, as the mansion interior flickered between fleshy walls and the usual structure she was used to on her arrival. By the time Dhullex realized what she was up to and dropped a partially drained Adagio, a few wrinkles visible on the harlot's face as she'd aged a couple decades, the circle Beatrix drew was closed and a bluiosh-white portal shimmered to life before the head vampire. He scooped up the Necronomicon, blood on lips twisted in malice, ready to continue his chant as he was unaware that two portals in close proximity could tear the walls of reality apart and doom them all. Worse, she saw in his eyes such spite he wouldn't care! However, the start of his chants were broken when a slimy tendril whipped out from a wall and struck him. He barely held onto the book and spit when he called, "You fools! I've lost control over the beast I summoned! It won't stop until it's devoured us all!" Black flames from his fist torched a couple of the tendrils closest to him, merely to be replaced by a dozen more, which slammed into his chest. He screamed, the Necronomicon still clutched in his hand, as it tumbled with him into the opened portal. The rift closed behind Dhullex as the eldritch abomination, half-summoned and fused into this dimension, continued to quake the walls and floors as more tentacles lashed out. Beatrix yelled, "At least that's one problem dealt with...!" She stumbled over to Adagio's side, the naked harlot draped on her side across the floor as she wheezed. "Just hold on!" Adagio weakly asked, "Can this...monster be sent back...?" "Unfortunately no," said Camellia, she and her partner surrounded by dozens of marionettes that they had finished off, the broken dolls scattered across the hallway. "But I may be able to finish the seal and imprison it in the manor. It's a complicated spell-" Esmeralda drew her head close and kissed her lips with a wet smack. "You can do it, love!" Camellia nodded once, her crimson eyes narrowed in determination. "There is another catch," she lamented, as Beatrix raised a barrier to block the tendrils that blindly struck around them, the creature blind as it searched for prey. "It requires a sacrifice." Adagio struggled to her knees and caressed her lined face. "Let...me." Beatrix shook her head. "No way! Can't we feed it one of these marionettes...?" "Unacceptable, I fear. The beast needs to extinguish one's life force. Close to flesh these maids are, I know it won't fool this eldritch abomination," explained Camellia. Beatrix's transparent horn flared its aura as she asked, "Then how about we run?" Esmeralda smiled. "Cut our losses? You think this creature will stop here? No doubt it will spread and slake itself on the whole city! But if you don't mind a sizable body count..." "Okay, okay!" Beatrix wasn't ready to sacrifice her life, not when Abadonna was out there somewhere and still needed her...but neither did she want anyone to die in her place! Besides, it took all she had to maintain this shield...she doubted it would hold up on the run! And the portal she opened was far too small to capture a monster of this size! Rather than debate it further, Camellia started to resume the chant from where Dhullex left off. Without the Necronomicon she would have to improvise the rest of the complicated spell, and hoped her knowledge of the black arts would fill in any holes in the spell. Beatrix asked, "Uh, how does this sacrifice work? We don't have to...?" "Over there." Esmeralda nodded at a mouth filled with sharp teeth that manifested on a sticky wall. "Just step inside and let that monster mash your bones and blood!" Adagio started to crawl on all fours towards the monstrous maw, curious how old she appeared? In her forties? Still beautiful, despite the ravages of time. Her sisters would be proud of her. She would take care of them, like she promised, assured by her companions that they would do whatever it took to restore their mummified flesh to normal... ***** "I am your eyes and ears! I hunt for you!" Penny Dreadful whistled, as she lazily finished her ascent of the stairs, down the hallway where her ears picked up the sounds of battle. Dhullex Faustus, hate-filled alchemist-turned-vampire, had lost control of the eldritch abomination, which now communicated its alien voice into her skull by way of her 'pet' as it fused within her breast. She burned with newfound power, determined to butcher everyone responsible for father's death! Esmeralda! Camellia! Beatrix! None of them would be spared...! The vampire couple had named this mansion the 'Womb of Conception'. A name that somehow seemed suitable to her ears now, as an eldritch beast was born into this universe. At this point the last doll maid had fallen, but her enemies were distracted, as Beatrix's spell kept the blinded tendrils at bay, the witch's transparent unicorn horn lit up. Camellia's eyes were closed and her pale hands were raised, locked in a series of chants. Esmeralda at her side, as her silver sword routinely cut down tendrils that neared them. She watched Adagio crawl naked on all fours across the floor, Penny's head tilted to the side in curiosity, but what it all meant didn't matter to her. A metallic swish sounded as the blade extended from the tip of her umbrella, Beatrix's back turned to the killer. Her whistling stopped. She whispered, "Naughty, naughty..." The bio-mechanical fusion had made her stronger. Faster. She rushed in, umbrella raised to strike the death blow... > The Final Chapter > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The umbrella's blade tip arced, carried by the momentum of Penny Dreadful, who leaped at Beatrix's back. The tip sank towards exposed flesh...interrupted by Adagio's scream of, "Behind you!" Beatrix spun and tried to raise another barrier in front of her, a cry emitted as the knife sunk into her raised arm and splashed her in a thick, hot cloud of blood. "Die! Die! Die~!" Penny repeatedly stabbed at the witch, who by now managed to raise a shield that deflected the strokes in a shower of sparks. Unfortunately it meant her attention was divided, as Esmeralda was forced to work overtime to carve apart tentacles. Esmeralda tried to reach for her pistol and take a shot at Penny, but every time she tried another tendril almost reached Camellia in the midst of her chant, which forced the huntress to carve more coils with her silver sword. "You're on your own, Beatrix! My hands are full!" "Great!" Beatrix's horn flashed. She dared not drop her shield, but with her concentration split it was all but impossible to mount a counter attack. A shame she lacked hand-to-hand skills! The blade flashed closer-and-closer, as it chewed away at her barrier. Nor could Adagio help much, as it took all her waning strength to continue her crawl towards the open mouth that adorned the wall, its razor teeth filled with slimy drool that oozed down... A sudden bout of inspiration hit Beatrix as she watched it from the corner of her eye. Beatrix shot her a cocky smirk. "You wanna dance, Penny?" "Oh, I do! On top of your grave! I want to bathe in your blood!" The killer grinned in victory the moment Beatrix dared drop her faded protection, her umbrella driven at the witch's heart...simply to be hit by a concentrated beam launched from Beatrix's horn. Rather than focus on raw power, the laser-like beam was almost harmless, yet pushed away Penny like a burst of wind. Penny shrieked as she was hurled into the air, into the wall, where the manor's maw instinctively closed down around and swallowed Penny up. Her screams were quickly muted and finally swallowed up completely. Blue blood dripped from its closed lips and pooled below, a stark contrast to the scarlet haze around the hall. "A worthy sacrifice," quipped Esmeralda. "But will it work...?" "Better hope so," said Beatrix, who swiftly raised her barrier to protect her and Adagio. Fortunately, a short time later Camellia completed the spell. The organic interiors began to fade before their eyes, and returned to the home the monster hunters remembered. "The eldritch abomination has been contained," announced the masked vampire. Esmeralda raised an eyebrow. "Permanently, love?" "That, I cannot say for certain. I may have simply bought us time." Camellia kicked aside a severed doll limb. "We survived, but our beautiful home is a wreck." The tentacles had also turned to dust, a splotch of blue blood splashed across the wall where the mouth once sat, with no trace of Penny Dreadful otherwise left behind. Beatrix said, "Another day saved! Ow!" She clutched her bloodied arm. Looks like the adrenaline has worn off," mused Esmeralda with a titter. She made her way to Adagio and offered a hand to help her stand. "Worry not, with these artificial bodies we should be able to restore Aria and Sonata in time, with a little luck." "That's a relief," whispered the sleepy harlot. "Come," offered Camellia. "You need rest. And you need medical attention, Beatrix. Usually we would leave that to our marionettes, but as you can see..." "Yeah. We were lucky," said Beatrix, who hobbled after the others. The witch stopped to take a look back. The portal she opened was into the middle of space, hopeful that it would end the menace of Dhullex Faustus once-and-for-all. Less likely the Necronomicon, which always seemed to turn back up in unexpected places. A threat she would worry about some other time. For now, she would rest. ***** A few days later, after Sonata's and Aria's mummified bodies were recovered, Camellia used some of Dhullex's old alchemy notes they had stored in the vault to synthesize a new formula, with help from Beatrix. The witch was thankful for all those childhood lessons with Flurry Heart! Soon, they brewed up several vials filled with a rich blue liquid. "It's not quite up to Dr Kilroy's standards," confessed Beatrix as her eyes studied the bubbly brew that spat colorful vapors across a room turned into an alchemy lab. Camellia nodded. "They will have to consume it daily to survive." "Luckily," said Esmeralda. "We have the necessary funds! Of course, those three harlot cuties will have to live here~." Her pink eyes scanned the three nude sisters, their unconscious bodies stacked on cots, ready to receive the tubes that would feed them the fake blood. "A small price indeed," assured Camellia. "Almost a shame Kilroy's scheme needed to be halted," mused Esmeralda. "Think! A fresh body without all those scars..." She tapped her lover's blood tear-streaked mask. "Yes. A shame," said Camellia, as she tried to imagine a whole city of people replaced by automatons, free of disease or aging. Not so different from she and Esmeralda, the monster huntresses doomed to live forever, in pursuit of ways to amend their boredom. They had turned to hedonistic pursuits, fearful they would become like their sire one day. Consumed by malice, to the point he would have taken the world down with him. Over the next hour, the tubes would feed the synthesized blue blood into the sisters, whose bodies quivered with life as they were reanimated. Afterward they would stir sleepily and rose to a seated position as Beatrix asked, "How do you feel? All okay?" "I think so," said Sonata, who stretched with a wide yawn. "Feels like I slept forever!" "Almost like we were in a dream," said Aria, her lips drawn. Adagio wondered aloud, "What should we do now?" Camellia turned to them. "Well, aside from the blood transfusions you have no need of sustenance, nor do you require much rest, so how about a bath?" "Sounds delicious," said Esmeralda with a lick of her lips. "I'll have the dolls draw one!" They had managed to repair a handful, although most of them were thoroughly ruined in their recent battle. It would be quite some time before normalcy returned to their home. "Guess we shouldn't bother to redress, then!" Sonata giggled and stood. "Keep your fat ass out of my face!" Aria pushed her sister's wide rump ahead. Adagio rolled her eyes and sighed. Some things never change." These little squabbles were always how those two showed their affection. They wandered out of the lab, down a hall. A short time later Esmeralda ordered the five clockwork maids available to draw a bath so spacious it could more than fit all of them. Steamy water sloshed about the tub, as Adagio, Aria, and Sonata submerged themselves. With a casual wave of her hand, Beatrix banished all her clothes to follow them in, while Esmeralda and Camellia undressed the old-fashioned way. "Nice, is it not?" Camellia, nude save for her mask while she sat in the pool, scooped up a handful of soapy water and splashed it over her voluptuous pale breasts, where the suds ran down and dripped from the pendulous slopes, so milky and veil her veins were visible. "Paraside," replied Esmeralda with a coy smile, her feet kicked in the waters to splash the sisters and Beatrix. "So, my sweet little witch, what will you do now?" Beatrix paused to look at the doll maids that stood on the sidelines to await further instructions. "I dunno...maybe explore this world some more? Or another world?" She looked to the vampire lovers. "Actually, I'd like you two to see my home some ltime! I think you'll be surprised..." She had never expected to discover the origin of her manor here, remembering when she had first encountered the possessed eldritch abomination, which had nearly killed Beatrix and her friends until her succubus 'sister', Bellatrix Primadonna, struck a deal with the beast and tamed it after the pair fused. Now, her manor fed on Bellatrix's life force in perfect symbiosis. Esmeralda tittered and brushed her foot over Beatrix's. "I look forward to it!" "Yes," said Camellia, as she continued to lazily wash circles around her breasts. "It should make for a nice change of pace. There are only so many supernatural monstrities we can hunt here." The water rolled when Adagio stood, water dripping off her bare form. "We've always paid our way the one way we know how. I wouldn't be content to freeload here." Aria rose as she turned to her. "Are you suggesting....?" "Yes. Our bodies," said Adagio. "You two need blood, don't you?" "Indeed," replied Camellia. "Unfortunately, yours is incompatible with ours. Otherwise, we would synthesize our own. Of course my partner in particular would miss the thrill of the hunt." Sonata shot up last. "How about a dance, to lighten the mood?" "That seems a fair trade," decided Esmeralda, her eyes narrowed to match her coy smirk. "Just sit back and enjoy us," teased Sonata with her own wide smile, as she and her sisters started to dance. Wet, glistening flesh caught the light as they dripped and weaved, plush tittiess swayed, hips shimmied, and pert buttocks wobbled whenever they turned. The three of them were like erotic works of art, come to life. "Mmm~," cooed Adagio, who bent forward so that her tits draped suspended below in the faces of their audience, and shook the fleshy orbs back-and-forth. "Tell us what you like~!" Sonata beside her draped her own tits. "Maybe they're more ass women? Well, Aria's pretty flat in all departments!" She snickered at the middle-sister as she pulled her own nipples. "Shut up!" Nonetheless, Aria bent her toned ass towards the onlookers and thrust it in out. "Tits and asses are nice~," cooed back Beatrix, who landed a hard smack on Aria's ass which made the air crack and left a small red mark as the bare, moist flesh rippled. "Nice indeed!" Esmeralda's hands helped themselves to a tit of Adagio and Sonata respectively, tested their weight in their palm and firmness when she kneaded and squeezed, like they were a pair of ripe, sweet fruits she desperately wanted to sink her teeth into. "Every piece of them," mused Camellia, as her fingers snaked forward and traced over Adagio's and Sonata's snug, slippery slits, which squished lewdly and radiated heat. Gradually, she worked herself into the sisters, felt their wet walls clamp around the intrusions. "Careful," said Sonata as schlicks filled the air. "We're slippery when wet!" "I like them slippery," said Esmeralda with another lick of her chops, before she leaned in and took Sonata's free tit between her lips. The harlot moaned while she suckled away at the pendulous titty, the vampire contented to play with the tits in both hands at the same time. "And wet," reminded Adagio, as Camellia's digits went knuckle-deep into her tight twat. Schilcks and squishes sounded as she all but fisted the harlot, girly goo left to trail down Camellia's hand. "Don't be shy," said a still bent over Aria, whose hands encircled her buns and slowly spread them open to reveal the pucker of her asshole and her own inflamed cunt. "Eat me, bitch!" "O-ok!" Beatrix swallowed hard and dove her face in. She savored the whore's holes, licked and swished around the pink flesh, breathed in her scent and smacked her lips at her taste. Esmeralda said, "Goodness, I'm worked up! What say we all take this to the bedroom?" With a snap she commanded the maids to follow them, and didn't bother to dry off, a trail of water left behind Esmeralda as the pink-haired huntress walked her cute ass down the hall. Everyone hurried to follow her, Camellia disappointed she temporarily needed to withdraw her fingers from those vise-like cunts with a messy pop. The masked woman licked her fingers clean, Beatrix at the back of the procession as she watched beautiful, bare bitch butts bounce. Globes of raw, wet flesh swayed before the witch's eyes, who practically drooled in anticipation while they made their way to a bedroom. A short walk later, and they arrived. Pretty soon Beatrix found herself on the widest bed she had ever seen with all the others. At Esmeralda's instructions, even the five doll maids stripped down to bare their anatomically-correct physiques. "Help service us," ordered the vampire huntress, her thighs parted wide and her fingers used to slowly spread her lower lips open to expose the pretty pink pussy within. The maid drove her tongue into her twat, as a lesbian orgy ensued in a sea of feminine flesh. Camellia and Esmeralda peppered playful pecks and nibbles across the sisters. Beatrix's hands wandered like everyone else's, her transparent horn summoned as she applied her own aura to help masturbate them, her ears filled by the sweet moans she teased out of them. Soon, they formed a daisy chain of dykes, no hole left unexplored. They would switch partners and positions on occasion, Esmeralda content to scissor with them all at least once, like it was a challenge to make them scream her name as she edged out their multi-orgasms. And when they got tired of that, Beatrix tried another of her tricks. She asked the sisters to line themselves up on all fours, asses raised to her and the vampire couple. "Take your pick!" Esmeralda chose Adagio and Camellia picked Sonata, which left Beatrix with Aria, not that she minded! Beatrix's aura formed a twin pair of translucent, horse-like phalluses on each of the three riders, poised before the fuckholes of their mounts and ready to split the bitches wide open. Successfully lined up, their hips thrust forward, met by moans as they imapled them. Then, they proceeded to fuck them into submission and exhaustion in a blur of hips and wet slaps of rippled flesh each time their buns were clapped. Hair was pulled and asses were smacked, the double-penetrated harlots taken for the rides of their lives. On occasion all of them would share kisses, while the dolls on the sidelines masturbated themselves like Esmeralda ordered them too, the air filled with more moist shclicks and brutalized flesh. Juices flooded under the whores, whose holes constricted around the horsecock-shaped auras that endlessly drove in-and-out of their pussies and assholes. "That's it...squirt on me," taunted Esmeralda as her skewered mount moaned and came. By the time their bout of mindless debauchery came to an end, hours later, Beatrix's mouth was filled with the mixed flavors of all the women she'd eaten out. She collapsed in a heap of flesh like the others, her bare breasts heaved from the exhaustive session. "Feel free to use us whenever you like," purred Adagio, sidled between the warm skin of her sisters, their denuded physiques lined in a sheen of sweat and feminine fluids. Sonata panted as she said, "This was so much fun! Much better than the streets!" Aria took a moment to taste herself and said, "I think you've made us addicts." Good little sluts," teased Esmeralda, who landed a sharp smack on Sonata's spanked red ass. She then kissed and nipped her posterior, met by more muted moans. Camellia sat up and said, "Feel free to wander the mansion at your leisure. But do not leave. Remember, you'll need a fresh, daily transfusion to keep yourselves animated." The sisters nodded, content to simply rest there for the moment. They drifted off to sleep, while Camellia brushed her thick black mane, and Esmeralda did up her twin pink braids. No doubt they prepared themselves for more action, Beatrix decided wistfully. Action. Compared to some of the places she encountered, this was almost a vacation! But she couldn't stay here forever. Not when Abadonna was still out there, somewhere. A smile adorned on her face, Beatrix realized she would have to revisit this world someday!