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This text is (c) 2009,2010 by Melanie. All rights reserved.
 
 
Seventy-Eight

With determined steps, I crossed the courtyard of the apartment complex and exited the gates. I got into my car and headed south on La Cienega.

I found it hard to compose myself, because thinking back to Alyssa's words made me feel a black rage rising inside of me. I had never been violent, not even as much as many other men, but I had had my share of scrapes and fights. Going after someone for revenge, however, was a new experience, and one I could have done without.

By the time I made the right turn on Adams Boulevard, I was in a killing mood, and no two ways about it. I knew I had made a promise to Tanya, to let her get out with her skin intact, but I had made no such promise to that lowlife she had shacked up with. Yet I shied away from killing in general and didn't want to burden my own conscience with a murder. I would let him live. In a way, anyway.

I parked the car and took the books from the trunk, knowing that I would not know all the spells I might need to use, and crossed the street to enter the block that housed their apartment.

Coming up the steps, I readied myself to act quickly, in case Tanya was already conscious again and waiting for me. I reached the door and pushed it open. It offered no resistance, so either Tanya was still out, or it was a trap.

I took a running jump inside and whirled around immediately, but no one was hiding to the side of the door or behind it. From the corner of my eye I saw Tanya where I had left her. The man was nowhere to be seen.

I went into the Bathroom and found him where I had left him, securely cuffed to the water pipes. The blood on his wrists and his other injuries had dried and he had fallen asleep. I stepped closer and gave him a kick to the jaw that made blood erupt from his lip and made him come wide awake in an instant.

“I have Alyssa back,” I said, “and she has told me what you have done to her.”

I didn't see much of a reaction in his eyes, maybe just a tiny bit of a brightening up, as from a pleasant memory that had been invoked. I felt disgusted by this choice example of a corrupt human being.

I smiled a mirthless, cold smile, not because I felt like it, but for his benefit, as I said, “I won't kill you.” He seemed to perk up a little bit and I continued, “But I will make you wish I had. You will remember what you did for every single day of the rest of your miserable existence.”

I left the bathroom and went to the living room to see about Tanya. I used my well practiced Levitation skills to lift her off the ground and move her to the open bathroom door, where she would have a good look at the man. I used a corner of my mind to maintain a force that kept her pushed against the wall, unable to move, then I connected to her dormant mind and pushed some energy across the link. Her eyes fluttered open and she took a moment to take in her situation.

“Did you get your daughter back?” She asked, and I heard the unspoken question of 'Did I help you enough to stay alive?'

“Yes,” I answered, I have her back, safe and sound, except for what he did to her.

Tanya's eyes widened slightly in surprise, it seemed she wasn't even aware of her partner's activities. I decided that it made no difference in the end and turned to him.

“You,” I said, “have violated my daughter. I don't even know your name, and I don't care.” I said. “You won't need it anymore after I'm done with you. Or much else of what you have.”

I cast a ward which included a spell that would let no sound escape, an easy modification to the standard spell I knew so well.

I said, “No one can hear you.” with another one of those cold smiles.

He struggled to move away from me, almost as if we wanted to melt into the wall. I took a step forward, using my powers to pin his legs to the floor I used a knife I had taken from the trunk of the car, along with the books, to cut his pants open. Then, with a savage rip, I tore open his shirt.

“Take a good look at yourself,” I said, “for the last time.”

“What are you going to do to me?” he asked.

“You'll see,” I answered, “and feel, too.”

There was one spell that I knew as well as no other. I had spent countless hours in my sleepless nights, brooding over it, hoping that Alyssa was wrong about it. I had examined it, picked it apart in my mind, looked at it from all angles and studied every part of it. I needed no book to read this spell from, no reminder. I was the reminder, I carried the spell within myself.

The spell was made up of a number of other spells, interwoven tightly to make it useful for it's intended purpose. Now I carefully stripped out some parts of the spell in my mind, and readied the remainder for casting. As the glowing symbol appeared in my mind, I asked, “Any last words?”

“Fuck you, bitch!”

“Why, how thoughtful of you to think of my sexual pleasure,” I said, “but you are the one who gets fucked.”

With that, I cast the spell and stepped back.

The man looked at himself, fear rising inside him when he felt the pain coming on. Then, he screamed a wordless scream of unbearable agony. I tapped into the energy of random people around me, taking a very little from each, not enough to hurt them, but enough to maintain a steady stream of energy to the man.

I didn't want to kill him, and I didn't want him to pass out. I had cast my own spell on him, the one I was caught in, but with a couple of choice modifications.

My spell was crafted as a transformation spell for a willing subject. It was made so it would be mindful of energy, not depleting the subject's life force. It was also crafted to cause the subject to sleep a magical sleep while the changes happened.

I had stripped both these protections out of the spell.

As the spell changed his body, it remade every cell. The process was apparently excruciatingly painful, and without the protection of the sleep, the victim had to suffer through that pain. By feeding him energy, I made sure he would survive it.

I hadn't known if it would work as intended, and I never anticipated it would cause as much pain as I saw reflected in his eyes now. But I didn't care, in a way I even enjoyed seeing the punishment take it's painful course.

His screams lessened as his voice gave out, and with a dull, broken expression on his face, he watched as his body changed. When the pain subsided, his bone structure was changed. He now had wider hips and was shorter. His arms and legs had lost all defined muscle and his smaller hands had slipped from the cuffs and fallen to his sides.

He had to look on as is manhood shriveled away, until his view was obstructed somewhat by the two protuberances that were now part of his chest.

As the spell progressed to change the soft tissues of his body, all his injuries vanished, leaving him unblemished and beautiful, an apparent female of about 22 years. The changes had also reached his face and throat and restored the voice that he had lost when he had screamed in pain until he could scream no more.

Tanya had been looking on, with fear showing in her eyes. I thought that she might be afraid that pain like this was also part of her future.

I turned to the new girl and said, “You have no past. You don't exist. No papers, no name. You also have no criminal record anymore, and you're free of the drug.

“Your life is in your hands now. You can change. You can lose your belligerent male ways. You have all the paths available to you that a woman has in today's society.

“But, this is not a mercy. It is not a gift. It is a chance.”

I turned to Tanya, releasing her from the hold I had on her, pulling her into the bathroom to stand next to the new girl.

“You, Tanya, get no such help. He had to go through the pain to become she, you already are a woman. You will not be free of the drug. You have to kick the habit yourself.

“Now it's time for your punishment.” I said.

I gave them a good, long look, daring them to say anything. I received only silence.

I said, “Your punishment is this: You will be linked to your victims. All the children you captured and sold will never have a nightmare again. Because you will have them. You will experience all the nightmares of all your victims. You will feel their pain. If one dies, a part of you will die.”

They stared at me, uncomprehendingly. “But... you can't do that to us.” Tanya said.

I replied, “I can. And I will. Follow me.”

I returned to the living room, where I had left the spell books. They followed meekly, aware that I had the power to subdue them easily if they tried to object.

Back in the living room, I cast a caging ward around them and set to reading the spells I would need.

“What will happen to us?” asked Tanya.

“You will be set free. I will destroy the drugs you have. I will take all money you have. It will be donated to a children's charity. You will not return here. You leave with the clothing on your back and Tanya's papers. Nothing else. Now be quiet.”

I returned to my reading and studying and slowly built the spell I would need to achieve the effect I wanted. I took the pattern from my own spells again, making sure the spell could never be removed.

Finally, it was done, the spell floating before me, and before I could give it a second thought, I cast the cruel punishment on the pair.

“It is done.” I said. “You are forever linked to your victims' fates.

“Whatever nightmares they would dream are yours. Whatever pain they suffer through abuse, you will feel. If someone burns them with a cigarette, you will feel the burn.

“You have one chance. Find them. Find and rescue each and every one of them. If they don't feel pain, you won't.

“I'm done here.”

I picked up the purse, threw the drugs on the table, pulled out the money, blood money, from the purse. I threw Tanya's driver's license at her and let the purse fall to the floor.

Then I cast a final spell I had prepared. A breeze seemed to waft through the apartment as things rearranged themselves. Trash and paraphernalia vanished, furniture repositioned itself, damage walls became whole and the boards on the bedroom window vanished. Also, all personal possessions of the pair vanished as well, save for one of Tanya's skirts and a top and a pair of panties.

I picked up the items and threw them at the new girl, saying “Put them on if you want. If not, you can also leave naked.”

She scrambled to put the items on, fumbling with the skirt until Tanya helped her. I dispelled the cage and the wards and opened the door. “Out you go,” I said, picking up my books.

They went outside onto the walkway and I pulled the door closed. In the window was a sign that hadn't been there before. It read: “For Rent”.

I went past the pair and down the steps, dropped the books into the trunk of my car and drove off without looking back. Justice had been done.

End of part Twenty