47

The both of them shook their heads at my continued defiance, but continued to lead me along until we made our way into a larger clearing. There were a larger set of standing stones here, not quite as big as Stonehenge, but still pretty damned big, and they all had glowing green markings on them. On one side of the clearing I saw both Kelli and Jess tied to a pair of poles that had been driven into the ground, their naked bodies hanging by the wrists with barely enough room for their toes to touch the ground. Jess was still out, but Kelli was awake, and I felt that she was trying to feign unconsciousness so I decided not to call out to her.

Matt was at the head of the clearing where a stone altar sat, placed there centuries ago when this ring of stones had been built. He was making some final marks on the ground, and was placing several items around his candle lit area quite carefully. He turned with a frown on his face to face Jasmine as she strode up to him and he held his hand up to stop her where she was.

"I thought I told you..."

"There is something wrong," she said as she interrupted him, and the flash of anger in his eyes made me cringe at the danger Jasmine was in right now. "Your fucking collar isn't working."

"What," he exclaimed and his head whipped around to stare at me standing with his other two Neko. "That's not possible. There is no way that those damned hags could have seen this, or stopped me tonight."

Matt moved with a swiftness that startled me and grabbed me by the collar that I wore. He closed his eyes and placed his palm against the cool metal, and began to recite some words in a language I could not understand. He kept this up for at least a full minute, and his sonorous chanting became more and more frustrated as it failed to work as expected. After giving up his attempt with a growl he grabbed me by the face and squeezed until my eyes started to water in pain. He was trying to see something in my eyes that might give away the secret that would give him his prize, but he had no such luck.

"What trick did you play, my little Neko slave," and he slapped me across the face as he talked. "You don't have enough power to resist this artifact you little cunt, so how is this even possible?"

He didn't even bother to wait for my answer before throwing me full force into one of the large standing stones, and I struck the rock so hard that I found it difficult to breathe for a moment. While I was trying to get to my feet, he grabbed me again and raised me up above his head and slammed me down onto a thick wooden table that he had set up near the altar. Again, the air whooshed from my lungs, and while I tried to recover he attached the shackles to a set of fastening rings mounted into the wood. I was stretched tight enough that I could not move.

"Well, I guess that I will have to use the power of the circle to get things moving," he grumbled while walking back to the altar. "Pity, I wanted to use that burst of energy to really bind you deep. My own, silent, perfectly subservient, Neko automaton. I would have enjoyed fully stripping you of any remnants of free will you had left and leaving you locked in your own mind. Oh well. Perhaps with the next Neko, whenever she shows up."

Matt spent another few minutes drawing more symbols and circles on the ground around my table, and even a few on my body, and then he leaned over me and placed his hand on my forehead as he began his second round of chanting. I could feel the stones around me thrum with the power that they contained, and Matt's words began to pulse in time with the power from the stones. And then it stopped, abruptly, as he was blasted off his feet by some unknown force.

Matt sailed through the air for about twenty or thirty feet, and when he hit the ground I could hear the grunts and painful exclamations as he continued to roll across the dirt for another ten. I had been right to trust the ward, and Kelli. Now I began to struggle with my bonds, hoping to somehow pull free so that I could actively do something to change the real life ending to my nightmare.

Jasmine had run to Matt's aid, and he was slowly getting to his feet, shaking his head. Once he seemed stable he turned to me and the look of fire and hate in his eyes made Jasmine's feelings seem like mild annoyance. He stalked back across the ring of stones to the table that I was bound to and slammed his hands down on either side of my head.

"There is no way that you and that incompetent circle of bitches could have cast that much protection against intrusion," he seethed, flinging droplets of spittle across my face. "I have more power in my big fucking toe than that entire group of harpies, so you will tell me what you did before I begin cutting apart your friend, your lover and mate, and anyone else you love right before I kill you for just being annoying to me."

Now it was time to play the trump card I had in reserve, and hopefully it would shake Matt to the core enough for me to free myself and the other girls. Jasmine could stay with him for all I cared, as they deserved each other.

"You are so behind the times, Matt," I replied in as mocking a voice as I could. "The Circle figured out a long time ago how to craft a ward so powerful that it offered perfect protection, and has perhaps a hundred times the strength of any ward that has ever been cast. You can't get in my mind because it has been sealed against shits like you for all time."

His scream of rage, accompanied by a vicious slap across my face, had me frightened for a moment, and I felt Kelli's fear and concern for me coming across our bond, but I had to press my advantage now.

"So here is how it is going to go Matt. You can't break the ward, and since I guess midnight has passed I now have less than twenty four hours to permanently bond with Kelli or the Neko magic will end and I will go back to being just a normal human. Have I got that right?"

The anger in his eyes now mixed with frustration and I knew I was on the right track.

"So basically," I continued, "In less than a day, you will lose the chance to bind me to you without my consent, and whatever power that I have now will probably be lost for all time. Sad, certainly, but the price is worth it to keep that power out of your hands."

Matt screamed at me again and stalked away from the table, his hands holding his head as if he had a pounding headache. And he was talking to himself, muttering low enough that I could not make anything out. Jasmine, however, had come up to the table and leaned down to whisper to me.

"I'm not sure how you managed any of this you conniving whore, but I have had enough. He wanted her alive for some reason, but now, if he can't get what he wants then I will take what I want."

My heart was suddenly filled with dread at the rasping sound of Jasmine drawing her knife, because she was looking at Kelli's still bound form with pure malice in her eyes.

"You took something from me, something that I would have given anything at all to have, and so now I will do the same to you."

She slapped me once more, but the sting was minor compared to the fear that I felt, and strode off across the circle towards Kelli. I fought and pulled, but my strength was not enough, and I watched the end of my life approach with every step that Jasmine took toward my love. She was nearly there, and the crazed grin on her face as she raised the knife to strike Kelli tore my heart in two. Then Matt's voice boomed across the ring of stones.

"Jasmine, if you touch that woman I will cut you apart so slowly that you will wish for death thousands of times before it finally takes you. She is mine to do with as I see fit, and you will not jeopardize my efforts. Now attend me here."

"God, Matt," she whined at him. "Why can't we just kill them all and be done with it. I want to go home."

"We can't kill them yet, because I still have one or two things that I need to try. So help me prepare the altar, or join them in chains. Your choice."

The shocked look on Jasmine's face would have made me chuckle at any other time, but right now it was a fight for our lives and I needed a new card to play. Kelli was still somewhat calm, but fear was starting to creep through and it was certainly worrisome. So I watched and I thought, hoping that an opening in Matt's strategy would present itself.

The two of them worked on setting up a new set of symbols and circles around the altar, and Matt was shifting some of his magical objects around. Kelli was watching them surreptitiously and the sudden frown on her face indicated that something they were doing was troubling her. Within moments her eyes opened in fear and realization, and I noticed what was about to happen a little too late to try and shout a warning.

Jasmine's shriek as Matt grabbed her by the neck from behind chilled my blood, but made me struggle that much harder. He threw her down over the altar and with a gesture she was secured to the stone surface by silvery ropes. With her arms stretched down and behind her, Jasmine's naked chest jutted up in a ridiculously obscene manner. It was the fear in her eyes, though, that I will remember forever.

"Oh come now my dear," Matt crooned to her, adding a condescending pat to the face. "Surely you realized that it would come to this. If you didn't then you are even less intelligent than I thought you were."

Jasmine was blubbering now, and the only thing I could do was fight against the chains that held me down. Matt reached down and took the silver knife that she had strapped to her thigh, the only thing she was wearing under the cloak, and stood over the altar as he looked down in thinly veiled contempt.

"It's sad really," he lamented in false apology. "I need life force energy to break her protection, and I need her friends there for leverage over her. Oh well. I guess I will just have to find another acolyte."

Jasmine was screaming by that point and the only thing I heard from Matt was more of the magical words in the strange unknown language. I fought the chains that much harder, but in the end it was just not enough. I fought until the last possible moment, then turned my head to look away as Matt plunged the small knife down towards Jasmine's struggling form. The only thing I registered was the sickening metallic thud as the knife plunged into her chest, and the gurgling change in her screams as her life blood was spilled in order to fuel whatever sick plan Matt was trying to bring to pass.

I felt sorry for Jasmine, I really did. I was still angry at her. Hell, I was fucking pissed, but no one deserved her fate. I tried to get free again as I felt the thrumming increase in power that Jasmine's senseless death had added to the stones, and Matt held out his hand towards me and started chanting again.