Chapter 18

‘Bastard!’ she yelled, and her flat-handed swing would have floored him if it had ever connected with the side of his face, but Hugh caught her wrist easily and held it, unable to conceal the faint traces of that familiar triumphant smirk.

Without that Susie would probably have believed him, would have accepted his explanations, but all the time she listened to his words her mind kept focusing on the tiny lifting at the corners of his mouth and the arrogant gleam in his eyes, almost as if he was taunting her, admitting the whole thing was a pack of lies and daring her to challenge him. As if he knew that in the end it didn’t matter, because she would always do what he told her to do - especially if his instructions required her to drop her silk underwear, spread her legs and allow whoever it was next to do whatever it was they wanted.

‘I was just going along with it, like they wanted me to,’ he insisted. ‘I had to think of someone, a name, real quick, and Sophie just sprang to mind. It doesn’t mean anything, it’s just a game, part of the show, for fun. I just went along with them so as not to arouse their suspicions.’ But she didn’t believe that, not even remotely. She definitely did believe, though, that as usual Hugh had been an enthusiastic participant, and took complete advantage of her being held and unable to stop him getting exactly what he wanted, and equally unable to stop herself responding as he did. And she knew that was high on Hugh’s list of pleasures; not just having his way with her, but doing so despite her reticence and enjoying the traitorous response of her body as it overpowered her conscious mind and forced her to welcome him and induce her to climax.

After the rituals ended, when all the hooded figures had shuffled away anonymously, when Susie had showered and dressed again in her black dress, they had tea with the silver-haired man in a comfortable lounge. Once again urbane and civilised in an expensive suit, hair neatly brushed and voice gently soothing, she couldn’t think of him as the master any more, but as an experienced individual with nothing more sinister in his background than a private fondness for sexual excesses he couldn’t satisfy at home.

‘We’d like to do the same again in a week’s time,’ he said to Hugh, continuing to ignore Susie, just as he had earlier.

‘Of course,’ said Hugh, infuriating Susie with the way he was so quick to make major decisions involving her for her, but she suppressed her annoyance, for now was not the time to lose her cool and spoil the weeks of patient and covert hard work.

‘This evening was a fairly low key affair,’ the man continued, ‘and we do have a much, um...’ he searched somewhere in the air above Hugh’s head for the word, ‘...much more lavish performance in mind, but we’ve been waiting for the right person. As you know, we find that the presence of an outsider can be very beneficial, and especially so if that person has the right qualities. The ritual we have in mind is the most significant we have ever attempted. In fact, very few people have ever tried it, and its importance makes the finding of exactly the right person even more crucial. For this to succeed the female we require must be obedient - no, more than obedient, submissive, even subservient, and willing to do as instructed by a master, which we all know is a very prominent character trait in Susie.’

Ignoring her completely, Hugh agreed this to be true.

‘And as you know, the myth that we need virgins is just that - a myth. Oh, we need purity sometimes, and though it’s hard to find we always manage.’

Hugh raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

‘When we need someone new, someone pure and fresh,’ the man explained, ‘we simply find a new member for the group, someone who wants something we can give and is willing to trade it for something he has that we want.’

Again the raised eyebrow from Hugh.

‘A female - a daughter, a niece, a young bride. They don’t have to be virgins, but of course it’s favourable if they are. But for the very special occasions we need someone equally very special. Obedient but passionate, because sexual energy is vital to the ceremony, and the more energy that’s released the more successful the ceremony will be. And as we’ve all noticed, Susie appears to be just such a passionate girl.’

Again Hugh agreed. ‘Indeed,’ he concurred with oily deference, ‘she is absolutely perfect for your requirements,’ and he unhesitatingly promised that she would do anything she was told to do. ‘Anything,’ he emphasised, without even casting a glance in her direction, and once again she felt the annoyance surge, but also a warmth of anticipation between her primly closed thighs that thrilled her with anticipation.

But as soon as they were safely back at the rented house in Norwich she lashed out with her palm, and now stood in the kitchen trying to suppress the anger stoked by the thought of what she faced, and that it was devious Hugh who was making such major decisions for her, and that for the sake of their undercover work, she had to go along with it all.

Which made the editor’s phone call a formality. He, and Susie, knew that he couldn’t really ask more of her than she’d already given, but his enthusiasm for the next step along the investigative path was almost tangible down the telephone line, and Susie knew she couldn’t start thinking about backing out now.

One of the problems that meant their work had to continue, was that Hugh’s latest secret pictures were good, but not good enough. The shapes and the actions were visible, especially when silhouetted against the pale shape of Susie’s nakedness. But the faces were blurred and indistinct, each participant’s identity hidden in the shadows of a black hood.

But Hugh had recognised one or two and the editor was desperate to nail them properly, especially when Hugh told him that he’d managed to ascertain that a VIP guest of significant importance was expected to attend. So, desperate for Susie’s co-operation, the editor promised to speak with the local police chief and arrange for surveillance from the boys in blue on the night. He assured her the mention of secret occult rituals involving local patricians, politicians and dignitaries would be more than enough to guarantee their involvement. Susie was less than overwhelmed with relief at the thought, but at least it meant their work would be over at the weekend, come what may, and so she agreed.

Two days later she and Hugh were in an office at the county police headquarters on the outskirts of the city, planning the details of the coming Saturday night’s events with three senior officers, all male, who regarded her with overt, condescending interest, staring openly, examining her legs, her breasts and her bottom. That, plus the way they too addressed Hugh the whole time, ignoring her, made her feel they weren’t much different to or better than the people they were setting out to entrap.

About the only thing of interest to emerge from the meeting - at least as far as Susie was concerned - was the discovery that devil worship, even when genuine rather than feigned, is in itself not illegal. Later that evening, alone in her bedroom, Susie made sure the door was safely locked against the snide bastard Hugh. She wouldn’t have been a bit surprised if he’d taken their engineered congress of the other evening to mean he could make free with her any time he chose, and just come in and help himself. But with the door locked he couldn’t, and Susie sprawled on her bed with her laptop, and after a swift e-mail check to make certain that Sophie was still safe at university and a hundred miles away, she began trawling the net, looking for information about devil worshippers.

She found out a little very quickly and then not much more. The first thing she discovered was that Satanists are not to be confused with witches, who are usually female and are adherents of the pagan religion of Wicca, the left hand path or whatever, and generally speaking are - in most cases outside popular fiction - little more than benevolent loonies.

But genuine Satanists are a very different bucket of giblets altogether, being mostly male and generally gripped by an unpleasant ambition for power and wealth, both material and sexual. And beyond them are the devil worshippers proper, who believe in chaos, destruction, lust and wickedness, with the ultimate goal of restoring Lucifer, Prince of Darkness, to his throne, ruling the world. Conjuring up the devil himself is the greatest and most difficult piece of magic to which a true believer can aspire, and they dedicate their lives to study of the black arts in order to become capable of this feat. Luckily, thought Susie as she read, it didn’t seem to have happened yet, probably because all those lovely virgins sidetracked them so easily.

The genuine devil worshipper has no qualms, scruples, morals nor regrets and regards all humans who are not likeminded as nothing more than useful fodder. However, and perhaps luckily for the bulk of humanity which does not share this ambition, true Satanism is not an organised religion, and there is no central authority or ruling body, no structure nor any kind of organisation at all. Anyone who wants to can just set up in business as a devil worshipper and invite whomever he or she chooses to join in with him. Satanists are almost exclusively men, as Susie had already discovered at first hand, but many practicing worshippers involve their wives, girlfriends and female family members, who are usually attached to the group as sort of official hangers-on known as Sisters of Light.

Susie clicked to another site. They have women so they can have sex, not Sisters, she thought, and felt the seam in the groin of her jeans separate the soft flesh as her body moistened in her knickers. ‘Typical men,’ she murmured, and suddenly Satanists weren’t so sinister after all. ‘Just a bunch of blokes dressing up in silly costumes and poncing around in the dark so they can trick gullible girls into opening their legs.’ She saw the picture in the back of her mind and opened her own legs, easing the seam and feeling the moist heat under her fingertips.

The nature of Satanism itself, and the people it attracts, is such that it encourages domination and control of others, she read, and is based on imposition of the will, forcing others to subject themselves to humiliation and degradation either in pure subservience or in the quest for greater riches. Which is more or less what the master had said, though not so bluntly, making Susie think that maybe he was serious about it after all. Or maybe that was just his sales pitch, she thought, her mind dwelling on the best phrases - humiliation and degradation, she thought, feeling the dampness through the denim as her fingers rested more firmly on the softness beneath the curve. Pure subservience, she said softly, pressing her fingers inwards.

In order to demonstrate subservience the Sisters of Light are regularly required to submit to flagellation and punishment at the hands of one or all the members of the group, again something Susie had found out the hard way, and she closed her eyes to relive the moment, picturing the scene from outside herself, seeing from a distance the spread-eagled nakedness, the firm flesh quivering as each stinging lash landed, hearing the crack of the whip and feeling again the warm glow spreading hot and wet into the white silk of her knickers.

Somehow or other her nimble fingers had undone her jeans and were feeling the real heat and wetness as it soaked into white cotton, and she rolled away from the laptop, lying on her back to push her jeans down her thighs, kicking one leg free so she could part them and savour the wetness of the material, the tingling delight as it slithered across the pink smoothness beneath, shrinking until it was just a stark white line bisecting her and her fingers had vanished on either side, sliding luxuriously deeper into the welcoming warmth.

Plucking gently at her nipples with her free hand, Susie closed her eyes, and as she continued her slow, soothing movements, her mind saw the pictures with pin-sharp clarity. No longer tied, she was using the scourge on the trim buttocks of a slender virgin girl. Full breasts quivered as her body swung in the ropes from which she hung, star-shaped, and the full roundness of her panties was ripe with a luscious juiciness which darkened and dampened the material.

Susie plucked the wet material from her own sex and held it aside, allowing the fingers of her other hand to spread and penetrate freely, stroking, teasing and plunging as she continued to play the scene in her mind.

With the wicked silver dagger Susie cut the girl’s knickers free, and then with her fingers she explored the plump pussy that leaked warm moisture, tight and hot. ‘She’s ready,’ she whispered over her shoulder to the master, and reluctantly stood aside as he placed himself at the entrance to the girl’s body and thrust, and witnessed a rush of sensation in her own sex and sighed a whimper of delight that matched the girl’s shriek of surprise.

Flat on her back, knees raised and parted, Susie presented herself directly into the lens of Hugh’s favourite bedpost camera. When she stiffened and froze, and the neat pink lips clutched at the fingers inside her, Hugh almost changed his mind about letting her go.

The master was right. She was definitely something special, and it was easy to see why he wanted her for his spell. Hugh had been convinced it was virgins he needed, but the master had very quietly informed him that in order to conjure up the Prince of Darkness it would be necessary to offer him something valuable in return. Customarily he would be offered a bride, and it was immediately clear that Susie was intended to fill that role, and become a bride of Lucifer.

Had she scrolled down one more page on the website she was logged on to, Susie might have read all of this for herself, but her laptop had been forgotten as soon as her fingers began their ministrations in her knickers, and the website was now forgotten.

Not even the insistent beeping as its batteries went flat distracted her enough to switch it off, and as the calls for attention grew fainter and fainter, the slow rhythm of Susie’s hips grew stronger and stronger. The girl was kneeling now on all fours, and Susie was beside her, taking each successive man in her hand, guiding him to the girl, spreading the soft lips with two fingers and feeding each new erection inside, revelling in the sensations in her fingertips as she shared the pleasure of both parties, feeling the girl moisten and spread, feeling the men thicken and throb.

On her knees with her bottom raised, reaching back between her legs, Susie had all but pressed her own juicy body against the lens of Hugh’s camera as her fingers worked. The image filled Hugh’s monitor and it was all too much for him. Hastily he unzipped his trousers, clutching the stiff column that sprang free, not wanting her to reach her approaching climax without him.