A Hypnotic Beat

Story by Jessie Shadowhold on SoFurry

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Hey guys, it's been a while.

I've been taking the train recently to work, and started writing again. Most of it isn't porn-y and fun, but some of it is. I was especially inspired by Sisco and his train writings, and one story in particular has always snagged at my imagination.https://www.sofurry.com/view/1068428

This one always hit some very specific fetish buttons in my head, so I wrote one that is in the same universe. Sisco gave me permission, of course. I hope you all enjoy it, and I hope that I start writing again, it's always so fun for me.


It was cold and raining outside the club, and that gave me a moment pause to leave my car.

I was parked in the structure across the street, and I stood in the shelter from the rain in my special outfit for the night. You have to dress up for a club, don't you know, and tonight was no exception. Hell, it was a special occasion, and I was dressed appropriately, leather pants and dancing shoes and not much else. The rain was only a momentary pause. When I did, I heard a small voice in my ear, egging me on.

You have to go in, you have to, the voice said. I felt an urge too, a deep, gut pull towards the front door of the club. The club had what I wanted in it, had what I needed tonight. So I built up the nerve to brave the rain.

The water pattered off my fur, the die I had used to turn my naturally white coat into a vibrant mix of pinks and blues would run if I stayed out here too long, so I hurried across the side-street to the front door. It wasn't an obvious entrance, it would have looked like any other door to a warehouse if you hadn't known. It was a large, red double door made of metal with old, rusty looking hinges. There was a small sign, it looked like a 'warning, do not enter' sign, white with red lining and red text. But if you read it, you might find out what kind of night you were getting yourself into.

The Spiral

I could just hear the beat of the music inside over the constant thrum of the busy city around me. The beat was lilting, uneven, like a dancer on a drunken bender, and there was something in the beat that already made the edges of my mind go a bit fuzzy.

Go in, the voice said. Go. I couldn't resist the voice. I opened the double doors and the music grew just a bit louder, my brain just a bit fuzzier. The room was a bland looking waiting room, the kind that you would find at a doctor's office but without chairs, just a front desk and a plain waiting room. Except that it was manned by two huge nagas.

The first one, a muscled one with grey scales and a leather jacket that was on this side of the desk, gave me a once over. He grumbled, and got up from his coil on the ground.

"Name?" he asked, the annoyance heavy on his voice. He crossed his powerful looking arms across his chest.

"Jason..." I said shyly. Something inside me felt weak and vulnerable near the nagas, but I also couldn't look away from his eyes, even as they rolled up in his skull when he heard my generic name. The Naga turned to the one behind him.

"Any bunnies called Jason on the list?" He asked, and the second Naga grinned, enjoying his co-workers annoyance. The second one was more cream colored, and had a white shirt on. I immediately decided to call them White and Black in my head.

"What, are you saying that's a common name?" White said.

"Shut up and check," Black shot back.

"Oh look, there's one," White joked, not even looking at the clipboard as he pointed at it.

"Smartass,"

"Just give him the test."

Black grumbled, but turned back to me. His eyes immediately locked to mine, and I could feel the power in them. Feel his eyes flatten my thoughts against the back of my skull.

"Sleeeeeeeep," he commanded. I felt the power of his eyes flow into me through mine, his will immediately snuffing out my own. My eyes shot wide and I felt like I was falling in place, his voice droned on.

"In a moment, I'm going to count down from five to one, and when I reach one, you will be under my control," he said, "And when I'm in control, you will answer everything I say. Do you understand?"

I felt my whole body shiver and start to lose sensation as he spoke. The voice in the back of my head whispered to me. "Listen to all Naga, be obedient. He is not master, he does not own you, but listen to the Naga. Obey the Naga." I nodded my head, the motion felt like the whole world tilted forward and back.

"I understand and I obey," I said. My voice seemed distant, and I wasn't quite sure that I was the one saying it. I saw the Naga smile, and a shallow wave of pleasure rolled through me. My body responded, my cock strained in my tight leather pants and my eyes fluttered.

"Gooooooood," black crooned.

"Five..."

My head started to spin, or maybe it was the room. My thoughts seemed distant, but still there.

"Four..."

My vision seemed to swim and even though I had my eyes were open, the world went dim and fuzzy. Some of my distant thoughts seemed to evaporate, like walking through a doorway and forgetting why you were there.

"Three..."

I was slowly losing awareness of the room, just a blank space with no real definition, the only thing that existed was the naga eyes. More thoughts vaporized in the distance.

"Two..."

Two shining orbs of perfect, powerful light. Dangerously good, like I could stare into them forever. My body tingled with pleasure and nothing else, not even the sensation of standing. The last of my thoughts were going up in smoke, and...

I wasn't aware of him saying one, just blankness. It's was hard to stay present, everything was simply blank, my mind, my thoughts. There was Black's voice, and mine, and the whispers in my ear telling me what to do, but I wasn't participating. It was just... happening. I still felt a tingling of thoughts though, just enough to know that I was me, that I was under hypnosis. But the thoughts seemed incaporial and so very far away.

I was vaguely aware of the room, and that Black was about to wake me up again. His voice said something, I couldn't make it out.

"Two..."

I could feel my limbs again, but I still couldn't move them. Some thoughts seemed to bounce across my mind like bugs on a pond.

"Three..."

My eyes fluttered with rapid blinking, my eyes felt dry. The room was coming into focus, I noticed there was another Naga. I remembered I dubbed him White.

"Four..."

I could stretch my limbs, the world was fuzzy, but there. I was at a club, I was here to meet someone. Someone special. "You are here for the one named Raphael, he wants you to call him Master," The voice said.

"And Five, wake up, bunny boy." Black said. I was finally fully awake, and his eyes lost their powerful blaze.

"Do I pass?" I asked.

"Flying colors," White said. "As bright as the fur paint. You must be Diamond's new toy."

"Diamond's real name is Raphael. You are here to meet Raphael. He wants you to call him master." the voice said. I felt a deep-seeded urge to obey the voice. I couldn't resist.

"I am," I confirmed with White. That deep urge felt like an anxious weight until I opened my mouth again. "He is my Master." The urge turned to a wonderful pleasure, I felt my cock twitch in my pants again. White and Black both noticed, Diamond had commanded that I don't wear any underwear tonight, and my mostly-hard dick was painfully obvious against the tight leather. Both naga grinned.

"Damn, how does he get the cute one's like this?" White said.

"He's a trust-fund kid, he has all the time in the world to find them," Black responded. He nodded to me, which made his eyes bob wonderfully. "You can go in, kid."

Black opened the door on the other side of him from the desk. The musical beat exploded around me and quickly pushed into my head. Each beat made my thoughts fuzz all the way through, making it harder and harder to reason it out. The blacklights played against the pink and blue pattern on my fur, the one Diamond had told me to wear, and against the eyes of both naga's in the room. I stood stunned, looking at both of their eyes, captivating and bright.

Black chuckled. "Have fun," he teased, as he gently pushed me into the club.

The sound was deafening. Even by regular club standards, the base rattled my lungs and made my head pulse. But this was a special club, and the base was more than just a base, the music more than just music. I heard binaurals in the background, tones that made it harder for subjects to think, harder to concentrate. There were subliminal tracks too, and in no time, I felt my arousal skyrocket, adding another distraction that made thinking hard as lust pumped into my body with every beat.

I started walking around the mass of furry bodies dancing at the center of the dancefloor and I tried to take the room in. It was actually a warehouse, high ceilings and no insulation, but it was hot like every club I'd ever been in. There were a few tables around the outskirts of the dancefloor, some couches and large seating pillows with naga's lounging and other fur's enthralled by their eyes. There bar with neon lights in the night, and the blacklight everywhere made the colors explode outward and dark colors crush together so the whole world was made of bright lines and soft shadows. I saw the DJ, a Naga with every-color-neon tattoos woven into his natural scale pattern and eyes that flicked between dozens of furs in the crowd like he was manically searching for someone he knew. The blacklight made his green eyes especially hypnotic as his head bobbed to a heavy, fuzzy beat.

His eyes flicked to me, and I suddenly lost consciousness, a quick, blank moment that I couldn't account for. I almost immediately came out of it, but the music seemed to be a different beat and key, so I wondered if he had held me longer than I thought. It took me a moment to realize I was already dancing in the midst of the crowd.

"Daaaaaaaannnnnnssssssssssss" the DJ hissed, and I couldn't help myself. I felt my arms raise on their own and my body start to gyrate seductively. There were dozens if not hundreds of furs around me of all different species, sizes and colors, all dancing, all lost. Some of them had neon dye like mine glowing and squirming with their bodies, others were simply dark shadows that only suggested the desire behind their shapes. Something in the beat made me want to grab them, touch them, grope them all. My hands wouldn't obey me, and they slowly reached out to the closest fur on my left, a red squirrel with a tank top and short shorts, both painted with spirals that seemed to spin as he moved. My will faltered as I tried not to grab him, but it was hard, so hard. It was so hard to resist, and I was so weak. I would be so easy to give in.

You obey all Naga, you obey them all. You will do as they say, but remember, this is not your master, the voice said. I could hear and almost make out a whole series of hissing commands just under the beat of the music, flowing and weaving into my head, telling me to do it. The squirrel noticed, and was already so far gone. I could see it in his eyes. He reached out to me as well, his hands gently starting to stroke my chest. That touch was too much for me, and my hands won the battle of wills. They fell on the red fur and lithe body of the squirrel, quickly stoking and rubbing his arms and chest and stumach.

"Yessssss, grope and kisssss and bite and moaaaaaan," the DJ commanded, and I was powerless. My hands slipped easily to the squirrel's crotch finding a hard bulge pushing against the denim there. Our chests were pushed together, by the crowd around us or the hypnosis, I couldn't tell. His hands also found my cock, sticking down my left pant leg and straining up into the leather that held it. His hands felt frustratingly muffled by the leather, it felt good, but not satisfying, so unsatisfying. I felt like I wanted to strip down right there and loose myself to his touch.

The squirrel squirmed against me under the attention of my hands, I put one hand up his shirt and found his sensitive nipples and began to tweak them. I felt more than heard him squeak with pleasure. Suddenly, he bit down on my shoulder, his body shuddered, and his eyes rolled back into his head. He simply shuddered on my body, on and on for an endless moment as the beat went on, but his cock didn't get any less hard, I felt no wet spot, he simply was lost to the pleasure of my fingers on his nipples as the beat went on and on, pushing us higher and higher.

The pain of his teeth on my shoulder felt amazing, his hands grabbing at my cock never stopped, and something in the music forbade me from reaching climax, stopped me right at the edge. My partner continued to shiver, continued to shudder like a poor leaf caught in a hurricane of music and someone else's willpower.

And then it stopped. The beat shifted, the hissing subliminals ended, the music became just music, clearing my mind up again. It left the squirrel and I to untangle awkwardly, and as I looked around I saw so many other furs doing the same, a few "lucky" ones taken in by a naga they had been dancing with.

"I, uh..." I didn't know what to say, but over the pounding of the still loud music, I didn't know I could say much.

The squirrel, however, didn't seem very interested in me. His eyes passed over me like I was just so much scenery, until he looked behind him and his whole posture changed. I watched him as he skipped happily off to the arms of a waiting naga that sat on one of the many pillows around the edge of the dancefloor. The squirrel farley lept into the waitin coils of a clearly excited naga, who also eagerly looked deep into the squirrel's eyes. I was sure, even from this distance and with the heavy music, that the naga was hypnotizing the squirrel deeper and deeper. Hell, he might have instructed the squirrel to find someone to molest, given him triggers to orgasm whenever someone touched his nipples. I couldn't really understand why I was so jealous.

You are here looking for someone, the voice said, You are here to find Raphael, he goes by Diamond, you will call him Master. And remember... remember....

The voice was insistent, and even though I was awake, the constant hypnosis up and down was making my head feel thick, like thinking through syrup. Like everything was a fog so thick I could cut out blocks of it and build a house. I wasn't sure what I was doing, but I started to make my way to the outside edges of the crowd, looking for something or someone.

It wasn't until I was at the very edge that I saw a symbol painted over a door. A diamond made of pink and blue, like the pattern on a rattlesnake. I suddenly recognized it as the same shape I had painted all over my body. The one I had been told to pain on my body.

Diamond is here, you call him Master.

I managed to pop myself out off the dancefloor between two other furs and land right in front of the door. Now that I was fully out that I noticed two naga's, each with a smaller fur, a mouse and ferret on the left and right respectively, laying dazed in their coils, guarding the door. They both had their eyes glued on me. They had a single glowing diamond shape painted on their foreheads, and their eyes glowed as well in the blacklight; their sudden attentions made my mind fuzz out a little again. They were shadowy and intimidating, and I felt paralyzed before them, waiting for them to speak first.

"What are you doing here?" the one on the left asked. His diamond was blue, and his eyes held me in place.

"I have heard that a diamond is a perfect shape," I said automatically. I was surprised at myself, I had no idea where that came from. Had I forgotten something I had learned while I was in hypnosis?

"And why is that important?" the one on the right asked. As soon as he spoke, my whole body reoriented to him, as if turned by a huge invisible hand. His diamond was pink, and even as he spoke, he casually teased the small mouse nestled in his coils.

"I must worship his perfection, for he is my Master," I answered without hesitation. It must have been post hypnotic suggestion, nothing I had ever said felt so right, so effortless to say.

The two naga looked at each other, I couldn't quite tell in the shadowy blacklight, but it seemed like one nodded and the other grinned.

"Enter, slave. You have done well." the one on the left said, as the one on the right opened the door. I felt such a rush of pleasure, such a heavy, syrup-y, wonderful wave of rightness, when they said I had done well. I almost couldn't feel my legs move forward, I almost couldn't tell that I was entering the room. I almost couldn't tell that I was going past the point of no return.

The door closed behind me, and the music stopped completely. The sudden lack of heavy base was almost deafening in its own right. I was in a mental fog, but I could see the room around me still. It was also lit by blacklight, but here everything was painted that same pink or blue. The carpets and the walls were pink, so uniformly that it was hard to tell where wall started and the other ended. The furniture was blue, there was a mirror against one wall with a blue frame, and it seemed to only reflect the blue objects around. It was surreal, unearthly, and so bright it almost hurt to see. Something about it made me more and more aroused, something planted in my head for weeks now.

And then I saw him.

There was a naga pillow at the far end of the room, and there he ley. Diamond. He lounged, his head higher than two other naga he was curled up with. There were two rabbits in their coils that I had a hard time making out, because all of them were covered in blue and pink diamond patterns painted on them, the light making them seem to bleed into each other, like they were one, monstrous siren with five heads filled with your deepest desire. The center head had his hood down, it seemed, but it was hard to tell in this lighting, hard to think here. All five of them were stark naked, and I saw that the two rabbit's were mindlessly sucking on two sets of naga cocks each, not blinking or moaning, just sucking mindlessly. There was a third set of naga cocks at the very center of the mass of coils, they pulsed as I walked closer, fully erect and just begging for a third mouth.

I felt my legs slowly move towards him on their own accord, my eyes could leave the center, highest naga that was surely Diamond. I had never seen him, he had been sending me emails and audio files for the last several months. He had been the soul center of my entire life for so long it seemed, and now I was finally here, with him. And every step made me desire him more, made my body burn up with a hot pleasure I couldn't even process.

As my body pulled me closer, I could finally make him out from the others. His hood hadn't been down like I thought, he just didn't have one. A rarity among naga, but not an impossibility. I could see now why he didn't have one, the diamond patterns on his body were painted to match his scales, he had a beautifully intricate pattern that went from his head to his tail, which had a massive rattle. Diamond was a diamondback, and a monsterous one at that.

My body stopped just short of the mass of naga coils, my body shivered with anticipation. I somehow knew that as soon as I touched those coils, I would be lost forever in a terrible bliss. I wanted it so badly. I yearned for it. I felt my body kneel and my head bow, I could see only the top of Diamond's rattle.

You are here for Raphael, you are here for Diamond, you will call him Master.

"Master," I heard myself say. It was all passive, like I was taking a ride in someone else's body. I was so totally controlled, and I was loving every second of it. Just saying the word Master brought me so close to orgasm, I couldn't believe it. I wanted to cum right there, but I couldn't. Diamond hadn't given me permissions yet.

Diamond's rattle shook to life, the dry, hissing sound made my head go fuzzier and fuzzier, it's sound suddenly became everything to me, my whole world.

"Jassssssson, my ssssslave." It was Diamond's voice. As soon as he spoke, my head shot up into the center naga's eyes. His were a startling blue, so bright and pure that the sky itself couldn't compare. His will hit me like a boulder, rolling over my body and snuffing out any thoughts I had. But there was still a voice.

This is Diamond, you will call him Master. But remember.... Remember....

"Ma-Masss...Master," I managed to say. My mind was gone, getting my tongue to make the right shapes was like wrestling an alligator.

"You are a good slave to come here, a good slave to obey me," Diamond said. His every word felt amazing as it vibrated through my brain and into the rest of my body. "It's been so long, and you've been so good for obeying me. We have to be so careful. So careful, there are people who think our relationship is bad. They would take you away from me, take my other slaves away from me."

I could see the other two naga's and the furs in their coils sudder in time with my body as he spoke. I didn't want to go away from Diamond, not now or ever again. His rattle droned on, drowning out any chance I had of having a thought.

"Come to me, slave, lay in my coils,"

I did as I was told, crawling onto the mass of tangled naga bodies carefully, reverently even. Touching the coils was as amazing and as horrible as I thought it would be. Despite the coolness of the cold-blooded flesh, my hands felt like they were on fire, but a fire that felt tingly and arousing. My knees were less effected through the leather, but every time my bare skin touched scales, that fire singed me, burning more and more away in my mind.

I crawled, instinctively moving towards the cocks at the center. It was a terrible burning need that drove me there.

"Good, Jason. Good slave. Remember, you serve all naga, you are a slave, helpless before all naga. Remember that, and remember that I am your Master," Diamond said. "Now, reach out and touch my cocks."

I couldn't disobey him. My hands shakily reached out, slowly but surly grabbing a meaty, smooth cock each. They burned, that delicious burn, but my hands couldn't let go. They couldn't release the fingers that wrapped so wonderfully around his cocks. As I tried, I only managed to start stroking, slowly and surely but faster the more I wanted to let go.

"Good slave, good Jason. You love giving me pleasure, you feel pleasure when you give me pleasure. You cannot do anything other than what I say, what I say becomes true. You know this."

I did, I could feel it. As I stroked, it felt as if I was stroking my own cock. It was like I was stroking my whole body, and it felt so amazing. Like every stroke of his cock was a whole body massage that brought me ever closer to the edge of orgasm.

"That's a good slave, you are a good slave. As you stroke, you feel the need to suck my cock. You feel it so badly, so fully. Your mouth is so sensitive and so empty, you just need something in it. You need me to be in your mouth. You still cannot let go, but you want to suck my cocks so badly. Every stroke makes you want to suck my cock so badly. You can feel it. You know this. Remember."

My mouthy started to tingle, started to grow more and more sensitive. My lips felt swollen and wet, like they were a whole new sex organ growing out of my skull. I couldn't think any longer, I couldn't focus on anything, the pleasure was too much, to overwhelming to allow me to focus on anything else. Each stroke made it worse, and each stroke made me want to do it again and again. The burning on my hands made me want to let go, but that only made me stroke more and more. It was unbearable, I needed it so badly.

Diamond looked amused."Do you want to suck my cock, slave?"

"P-p-please," I managed, "M-master, I-I..."

"Shhhhhhhhhh, It's alright," he said. His eyes were slowly absorbing me, his hoodless silhouette made him seem more monstrous, more powerful, with his piercing blue eyes and the endless hiss of his rattle. "You are here now, you will be my slave forever now. You will lose your thoughts, your personality, you will become an empty shell. You will become an empty shell, and empty toy for me to play with. You are going to become my empty doll. Not a slave anymore, not even a person, just an empty doll, forever." Diamond held out his hand. "Put your mouth on my cock and be my toy, "Jaaaaasssssssssoooooooonnnnn."

I knew. Even as I had no thoughts, I knew that this wasn't a fun kink. This wasn't a game or a fantasy. He was going to own me. He was going to make me his toy, his plaything, I wasn't going to be able to sleep, piss, or even feel good anymore without his command. I just had to suck his cock, and he would be in charge of everything. I wouldn't have to think, I wouldn't have to be anything but his happy, horny little toy. I wanted that so badly.

He is Diamond, you call him Master, you will obey him. But remember.... But remember.... The voice in my head said again. I needed to remember. I needed to remember something.

His cock was there, pre hung from it like a lewd frosting. My mouth hovered, just above the tip of it, ready to suck, to fall, to become enslaved, but I hesitated. It was that moment of hesitation that must have caught Diamond's eye.

"What is wrong, slave?" he asked, his voice so deafeningly powerful. "Why do you hesitate? Don't you want to belong to your Master?"

"I... I do," I managed through the fog in my mind. "But...,"

But remember... remember...

"Tell me," Diamond commanded. I still hesitated, and his eyes narrowed. "TELL ME!" He bellowed, and the sheer force of his voice caused me to stagger.

Remember... remember....

"I... I know something." I said.

"Yes?"

Remember, Diamond is not your Master.

My sound suddenly exploded from the phone in my back pocket, a horrible, screeching sound that quickly drowned out all the sound around me, and instantly blew away the fog around my mind. A sudden, exhilarating rush of thoughts came back, like heavy rain on a pond. My arousal shifted from lust to adrenaline, from fuck to flight on a dime. The voice was still there, it whipsed along like a breeze through endless branches, rattling my sudden onrush of thoughts, selecting the ones that I really needed to make out.

Your real name is Jonathan, Jason is a false name, you are here for Diamond, you must stop him, you are undercover, you are a cop YOU ARE YOUR MASTER.

The sound made the three naga in front of me jerk in surprise, like they had been physically struck, and in that single moment of clarity, I pounced, making a flying leap right at Diamond.

"Sto-" Diamond tried to command me, but my knee drove into his long throat before he could get the command out. I stuck there, grabbing around his head with one arm as I went for a quick punch to the underside of his jaw.

But Diamond was quick too. Before I could attempt to bruise his vocal cords, his tail whipped around my waist and threw me away from him.

My body hit the wall, and I couldn't hear the impact for the pain as I slumped to the ground. A sharp force that sent the world to spinning that dulled the sound around me. The trance I was in almost re-asserted itself as the pain dulled my ability to think for a quick moment, but the sound from my phone was still there, and as I got my hearing back, I managed to get my feet under me.

I slowly stood back up, each moment making me more and more steady. I lifted my eyes to Diamond. His blue eyes were like twin stars, burning and powerful. I couldn't let him win. My feet found a stance that had been trained into me, low and wide, my eyes found a point at the center of his chest to watch, avoiding his eyes, my hands went up near my jaw, open and loose and ready for anything. The voice in my head gave me words to say.

"I am my own Master!" I yelled, unsure of what else to say.

The other two naga sluggishly tried to move, still recovering from the hypnosis they had been placed under, the two furs in their coils were still catatonic, only able to twitch, but Diamond was already up, drawing to his full height, his head brushing the ceiling and his rattle buzzed angrily. His mouth opened wide in an angry snarl.

"Ba-Bastard!" He managed to croak out, his throat still sore and unable to channel his vocal power. The voice in my head was still rattling along as my mind raced along.

The phone won't save you completely, the SWAT team is coming, just keep him here, just hold on, YOU ARE YOUR MASTER.

I had to keep him from leaving, I could see a door behind the still sluggish pile of his hypnosis victims. I"d never be able to chase him if he ran. So I eased in further to my solid fighting stance and smirked. "Your dicks are even smaller than the photos made them look!" I mocked.

Diamond's blazingly blue eyes grew wide with disbelief and anger, He let out a wordless, violent scream and lunged with all the strength his powerful tail could muster. His arms were outstretched, grasping and ready to choke the life from my body. And I was ready.

Some part of my body, trained to work without thinking, knew what to do. He flew at me recklessly, and I quickly stepped just slightly to the side, deflecting both arms away from my body and snatching either shoulder as I did so. I twisted his body downward, redirecting his momentum right into the ground, his long body slapping violently to the floor in an awkward, painful-looking flop. The thud was loud enough to make the still-sleepy naga's on the pillow jump, even over the still-blaring phone in my pocket.

All was still for a long, agonizing moment. Nobody moved.

I reached for the zip ties and electrical tape I had hidden in my belt. "Alright you bastard, you have-"

The scaled body beneath me jerked upright. "STOP!" Diamond yelled, the sound of his voice echoing in the enclosed room. The force of it stunned me, even over the screeching phone. His voice was so good, so pleasurable, I felt the pure sex and anger in his voice as if God himself was about to fuck me to death for my disobedience. An instant, horrible moment of fear and lust.

Diamond had me, he quickly went for my throat again, this time with his mouth, ready to bite me with his long fangs. I'd seen corpses that had bite marks like that, I saw them in that instant. But his voice only stopped me for only that single instant, and he was too slow. I drove my open palm right into the soft flesh just below his jaw, right where his vocal cords were, and crushed them in my hand. I put my whole body into that blow, and watched Diamond crumple like a paper bag, his head folding to his chest and his back thudding back to the floor.

I didn't waste any breath this time, I quickly used the tape to wrap his mouth shut, being sure to keep his nose unblocked and clear, and I flipped him over to use the large zip ties to restrain his wrists. No sooner than I did, A heavy boot kicked in the door.

A line of cops flooded in, most in riot gear, helmets and speakers blaring the same disruption frequency my phone was making but at a much higher volume. Guns pointed at the nagas in the room, the furs that were still barely conscious, and me. I raised my hands, not moving as single inch, making sure I didn't so much as accidentally burp aggressively. One cop, a burly goat with a exceptionally angry looking scowl, came around the corner with his gun pointing directly at me.

"Officer, identify yourself!" he commanded, his voice strangely mundane compared to the other commands I had received that night. But nonetheless an order I had to follow.

"Sargent Jonathan Arison, Illegal Hypnosis division, undercover, badge number 88534, Sir!" I recited. The old goat's eyes narrowed, his scowl looked strong enough to make bullets slow down to avoid a speeding ticket.

"And I am?" He demanded.

"Captain Argus Fowl, Illegal Hypnosis division, my commanding officer, Sir!" I recited again. I could see the gears turning in his head, his scowl tightening, until he lowered his gun and nodded to the rest of the swat team. They quickly started to restrain the other naga's and furs in the room, making extra sure to close the nagas' mouths and double and triple checking their work and mine. Captain Fowl holstered his gun, and reached out his hand to me. I took it without hesitation, letting him help me up to standing.

"It wasn't the plan for you to take him out," the Captain grumbled. "You were just the wire."

I snorted. "Well Sir, I'm pretty sure he would have made it out the back door if I hadn't."

"So what, he didn't try and put you under as soon as you entered?" He asked.

I shrugged. "He tried, it didn't work the way he thought it would," I lied. It had worked exactly the way Diamond had thought it would until the last second. If I hadn't prepared for it, it wouldn't have gone the way it did.

"Shit kid, I didn't think you could do it," the Captain said. "I was sure I was gonna burst in here to find you either ripped open or gone with a little note from 'Diamond,' here telling me he was planning on keeping you." He shook his head in disbelief and prodded Diamond with his boot. "Hell, the fact you didn't just try and rip my head off for touching the bastard is more than most other cops I know."

I leaned to see behind the Captain and out into the club floor. There were a lot of SWAT officers out there, and a few other undercover cops from the Illegal Hypnosis division. They were all Mongoose officers, something about their brain chemistry made them resistant to hypnosis. But there was no way a careful hypnotist like Diamond would have let a fur even remotely like a mongoose near him. Under normal circumstances, a mongoose officer had to get some sort of plastic surgery to pass as a ferret or a rat maybe. It was why Diamond took only a very select species for his victims. I was also convinced he had a thing for rabbits like me.

"Looks like it was a success all around," I said. "Did you get his flunkies at the door?"

The Captain grunted, "One managed to wriggle out the far window, but the other was stupid enough to pick Sargent Cabbot to be his plaything for the night. He's taking a nap now."

I saw the one naga with the pink diamond on his head, he was already restrained, and the fur I had thought was a ferret was standing over him, club clothes no weapons and all. She saw me looking and gave me a wink. Cabbot was probably the scariest fur I had ever fought. I shuddered.

"Well sir, I think this proves it, right?" I asked. The Captain's scowl returned, his eyes narrowed at me like knives being sharpened.

"I wouldn't be so sure, Sargent," he warned.

"I just put away an illegal hypnotist and possible serial killer, all while resisting hypnosis. This has GOT to be proof I can do this job for real next time."

"Just hold on, kid," he said. "Just give it a few days, you'll be given a week of sick leave, wait it out and recover and we'll talk about it when you get back. Shit, not even the mongoose guys can come out of this kind of thing totally unaffected."

Despite his scowl as he said it, I could see the real worry in his eyes. He was right of course, I was going to need some R&R to get his voice out of my head. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, I could feel a sort of natural pull towards Diamond, a sort of sexual magnetism that worried me, made me irritated I couldn't see Diamond's eyes. And I wasn't even under.

"Yes Sir," I said, "as you say."

"And go get the EMT's to give you a look over," Captian said. He eyed a sort of crater in the wall where I had hit it. Thankfully, the walls were the kind you find in warehouses mostly made of plywood and drywall. They were even further padded with soundproofing, but I still hit the wall with more force than I ought to, had they been brick or sheet metal I would have been shattered on the floor, and even now I was also starting to feel a deep ache in my body. Like I'd been hit by a car.

"Yes sir," I said again as I gave a half hearted joking salute. I started walking stiffly out of the club, past Sargent Cabbot, through the dance floor. I saw a cheetah being pulled away from his naga master. The guy was cute, a thin, fit looking fur who struggled desperately against the officers who were trying to help him. I shuddered. That was almost me, I was that close.

I needed more than a medic to fix that up. It was a good thing I had just the guy.

After the paramedics gave me a lookover, bandaged up a few scrapes and gave me some pain meds, I got back in my car and drove off. I didn't go to my apartment downtown, but to a quiet neighborhood in the subburbs. It was nothing fancy, but they were houses. Real, honest-to-god houses that didn't share walls or a landlord. I had a key to one of them, which I parked in front of and walked inside.

Most of the house was dark, but I was surprised to see the lights on for one room, light peeking out from the corners of the closed door. It was the study. Shen was awake still.

I opened the door and walked in. "Babe," I said, "have you been up all night waiting for me?"

The study was the nicest room in the house. The walls were painted a soft green in the few places they where they weren't covered in a warm dark red redwood shelving, and even those shelves were mostly obscured by the endless lines of well organized books. The room had a couch at one end, and a desk at the other. The desk had a few books off the shelf, still stacked neatly in one corner, and a little plack that read Professer Dalshen A. Copperfield, Hypnotic Studies, PhD.

Instead of a chair, the desk had a sort of upright pillow, like a fat tortilla half folded so it would sit the sitter up instead of letting them lounge. It was a special chair, a naga chair.

The naga in question had been reaching for a book, teetering up near the top shelf as his long body struggled to lift itself as high off the ground as possible. He instantly noticed me and gave me a worried look from behind his round, thick glasses. He quickly abandoned getting the book, and slid over to me, embracing me in his weedy arms.

"I couldn't sleep while you risked your life!" Shen protested, not ending the hug. "I tried cooking and cleaning, but kept mixing up which one I was doing, I was so flustered. All I could do is read." He brought me to arms length. His soft emerald eyes were thick with worry. "Are you alright, babe?"

I couldn't tell him the truth, it would kill him to know how close I had come to being trapped. But I couldn't lie to him either. He could spot a falsehood from a mile away.

"It was pretty rocky for a second, but we got him," I said. "And your counter-hypnosis worked like a charm, babe. You should have seen it. LIterally the instant the counter-tone went on I was up and fighting."

"Are you going to tell your Captain about us then? Is he giving you more work?"

I hesitated. "Well, I don't know if we should yet," I said. "The guys I work with... we see the very worst of hypnosis. They've seen more than enough naga turn a healthy relationship to a dangerous one. I don't think they'd understand what we're doing here."

Shen nodded. "I can understand that," he said solemnly. "But are they sending you back out? You need to be de-conditioned, I need some time to get Diamond's nasty triggers out of your head."

"Oh, I agree," I said. "And the Captain gave me a week of R&R to recover, and then he's going to talk about sending me out again."

There was a sort of heavy silence between us for a moment. Shen let me go, and slid his way over to his desk and sat down in his chair. He was smaller than most other naga, leaner, not as long. He had a modest hood, light green scales and the kindest eyes. Like a gentle sunrise in green that warmed the soul. They were still knit with concern.

"I'm worried, John." he said. "I'm so worried that I'm going to lose you."

I couldn't stand to see him like that. I followed him to his chair and sat in his coils, wrapping my arms around his neck.

"Hey babe, don't worry about that," I told him. "This kind of job isn't going to be the norm. It'll be years before we even find someone as bad as Diamond, and we'll have all that time to get ready. This was the first field test and it really worked. Your work was amazing."

His eyes seemed so full as he gave me a questioning look. "Did we save a lot of people?" he asked. There was a deep fear and a deeper history to that question, family portraits and family skeletons in family closets that were blasted open. I knew the history there, I knew why Shen had come up with the idea of counter hypnosis in the first place.

"We saved so many people," I said. "You did good."

Shen sighed. "Ok," he said. We just laid there in each other's company for a long moment, seconds and minutes ticking by as we just cuddled. "So," Shen finally said, "did you want to start the unconditioning now, or...?"

He left it an open question, he was always so careful, so delicate when it came to my boundaries, and I loved him for that.

"Can we start in the morning?" I asked, "Right now I'd just like help sleeping."

Shen nodded and started to stroke my head fur, gently and slowly letting his fingers play through my hair.

We had done this a million times, it was how we met. I needed it especially while I was leading Diamond along the last few months, listening to his audio files as he sent them. I had a hard time really sleeping for the longest time. I curled up in his coils, the gentle give and cool surface of his scales made a perfect pillow. He started as soft as a whisper, the perfect volume in the quiet study.

"Let's relax together," Shen said slowly, putting only a hint of power behind the words. But his voice was so familiar to me, so comforting, it didn't need much to send a wave of loose, soft relaxation through my body. It was the voice I had heard all night long. His comforting, protective voice.

"There's no need to worry, no need to stir. No words, no commands, no Masters, no triggers. Just a simple, single deep thought."

I started to drift already, my thoughts winking out one by one like bubbles in a bath, like streetlights at sunrise. I could feel Shen's breath slowing down with mine, in and out, chest up and down. I teetered at the edge of consciousness for a single, endless moment.

"Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep," Shen said, not even enough force behind it to be a command. But that was enough. I let the last of my consciousness go, and fell asleep in his arms. His safe, protective, perfect arms.