***
Elsewhere, in the bowels of the castle, Sister Reedy was conferring with two other Visionists, Brother Ralph and Brother George. Along with her and the chief acolyte, they were the hardest of the hard core true believers – people who had stuck with the Messiah since the earliest days of His holy mission.
“I can’t believe what’s happening,” Brother Ralph said. “What is Father thinking about, consorting with a demon spawn?”
“It goes against his most sacred teachings,” Brother George said.
“She’s bewitched him!” Sister Reedy hissed. “Did you see the brazen way she looked at him? She wields satanic power, let me tell you!”
There’d been a time when she herself had looked at the Messiah that same way – years ago, when she was young and attractive. And he’d responded, too, oh yes! She’d been one of his first converts, throwing over her drug addiction and replacing it with absolute devotion to him.
She’d introduced him to the sexual arts – driving away all rivals, performing any sort of perversion he requested, and many others he’d never imagined. He’d enthusiastically adopted her nickname ‘Reedy’ in tribute to her lithe sensuality and her long, supple body that could twist around him in all manner of orgasmic contortions.
To complete her life’s work, she’d borne him a wonderful male offspring to advance the Cause into the next generation – after the Messiah had ascended to his celestial reward at the right hand of the Heavenly Father.
But things had changed a lot in more recent times. She’d gotten older and her looks had faded. Younger rivals elbowed their way into his affections. This had been a harsh blow, but she drew consolation from her status as mother of the sacred heir ... until that awful day when they’d partaken the Nectar of Truth.
She’d been confident that Roderick junior would live to assume his lawful place at the head of the righteous. But after he’d drunk the Nectar of Truth – presented to him with her own hands no less! – he’d gone into convulsions and died with the others on the banks of the Sacred Sea.
The trauma of witnessing his death had nearly destroyed her. She’d drunk her own portion of the Nectar praying fervently that she would also perish, but she’d been one of the survivors. Since that day, her fanatic belief in the Cause had increased many fold. It was all she had now.
“What’s to be done?” Brother Ralph asked.
“I don’t think we can do anything, yet,” Brother George said. “We can’t betray our oath to Father, even if we don’t understand what’s going on.”
“There’s evil afoot tonight,” Sister Reedy muttered.
Two men entered the room – the guards who had escorted the female demon spawn to the Messiah’s chambers.
“What are you doing here?” Sister Reedy snapped.
“Father dismissed us,” one of the men said. “He told us to leave him unattended.”
“Well, get back up there right now!” Sister Reedy cried. “Don’t depart from his door for an instant!”
The look of fanatical rage in her eyes brooked no disagreement.
“Yes, Sister,” the men replied and fled the room.
Venomous thoughts about the female demon spawn squirmed in Sister Reedy’s mind – torture, dismemberment, fire ...
25. Climax
Roddy finished his tirade and looked down at Star expectantly. His arms were crossed over his chest, his eyes blazed with fervent power. She looked back at him with a mixture of wanton lust and absolute horror.
I can’t go on divided like this, she thought desperately. It’s going to destroy me.
Either her rational self or her wanton self would have to battle this monster. Star knew, in the depths of her being, that her rational side was not up to the job.
This is it, girl – no turning back!
With a wrenching mental effort, she forced her reasoning, moral and decent persona into the background. A final thought went with it: I love you, Winston!
Then she summoned up her darkest, most debauched yearnings and released them like a pack of wild dogs.
“Oh, baby!”
Star surged up, grabbed Roddy, and pulled him back onto the couch with her – kissing him ferociously, biting his lips, his neck, tearing at his clothes.
“Give it to me now, Big Boy!” she panted.
They tumbled onto the floor and rolled across the exquisite oriental carpet.
Roddy was taken completely by surprise. The strength of this robotic female was incredible, far beyond that of any flesh and blood woman, far beyond his own. He’d always been the violent sexual aggressor, he couldn’t handle this new situation.
Star thrust a hand into his underwear. Then she paused.
“What’s this?” she said. “Feels like little Roddy is on vacation.”
She withdrew her hand, laughing scornfully. “Wait til the others hear about this!”
Roddy stumbled back to his feet. The room spun around him in a psychotic carnival ride.
“Stop laughing at me!” His voice had shot up an octave.
Star got to her feet, still laughing, and stood directly before him.
“What do you know?” she sneered. “The all-mighty leader – nothing but a limp noodle. Winston will love that!”
An insane fury contorted Roddy’s face. “Damn you!”
He grabbed Star’s throat and tried to strangle her, but her titanium alloy substructure was impervious to the assault.
“That’s it!” Star grabbed Roddy’s crotch, kneading brutally. “You’ve got it now, Big Boy.”
Roddy cried out with exquisite agony. Star shrugged his hands off her throat and crushed her mouth against his. She swayed her hips powerfully, grinding into his throbbing erection. Roddy groaned, succumbing to her overwhelming sexual power.
“Violence turns you on,” Star panted. “Me too!”
She pulled away, leaving Roddy stunned and disoriented. With a few savage motions, she ripped off her blouse, then the rest of her clothes. Roddy looked on, mesmerized.
“But it’s danger that really gets me hot,” Star said.
She rushed to the window and climbed up on the stone ledge, spreading her arms wide under the sensuous night sky. Impossible, contradictory emotions raged through her circuits. It seemed a moment equally suited to live or perish.
She glanced back toward Roddy. He looked tiny, insecure, uncertain – his face drained of blood. The all-powerful messiah was nowhere in sight. Star crouched low, like a predatory cat, and fixed him with a powerful, erotic stare.
“Come up here!” she commanded.
As if in a trance, Roddy stripped off his clothes and approached with hesitant steps to the edge of the window.
“That’s a good boy,” Star purred.
She gripped his erection and guided him up onto the window ledge. Through her orgiastic mental fog, she tried to observe where he stepped. Disappointment shot through her when he found solid footing.
She released his organ and gestured into the night expanses.
“Here it is!” she cried. “All yours for the taking – the earth, the heavens!”
Roddy overcame his trepidation, driven on by Star’s erotic madness.
“Yes!” he shouted. “Yesss!”
They stood together in orgasmic exaltation, masters of the universe. Reveling in their damnation. Time stood still ...
Then, with a brutal effort of willpower, Star quashed her frenzied emotions. She shrank back fearfully.
“Over there,” she said in a quavering voice, “I-I see them.”
“Who?”
“Your people, hundreds of them ... they’re coming for you.”
Terror suddenly contorted Roddy’s face, his eyes widened.
“W-where?” he gasped.
Star pointed toward the lake glittering in the moonlight.
“Out there, by the water.”
Madness and reality blended into a gruesome composite. Star could actually see the ghosts of the murdered Visionis
ts now, swirling in the unholy vapors over Pickle Lake.
“No, it can’t be ... they’re all dead.” Roddy began to tremble violently. “I killed them myself. I gave them the poisoned chalice ... they would have betrayed me!”
He tried to move down from the window ledge, but his foot stepped on the loose stone. It gave out under him, spinning away in the darkness.
“Help!” Roddy shrieked.
He reached toward Star. Instinctively, she thrust a hand toward him, but restrained herself. His fingertips brushed against hers, then slipped away. Roddy fell into the void, screaming horribly.
Star watched him hurtle to the flagstones far below. Her face was inert, blank, like a manikin’s. From the direction of Pickle Lake, hundreds of shades rushed to greet their messiah with open arms. They didn’t look friendly.
26. All Hell Breaks Loose
In the detention room, A. K. and Shotgun had wearied of their constant arguing. They stood together by the window, cradling their weapons in their arms like lethal babies, glaring at the captives who seemed as bored and indolent as they were.
The blue robot, in particular, appeared to have slid into a deep funk, his chin resting upon his chest. No more irritating questions came from him to break the monotony.
A. K. yawned. “I wish something would happen, already.”
“Yeah,” Shotgun agreed.
“Ahhhhh!!!!”
The screaming messiah hurtled past the window flailing his limbs uselessly in the thin air.
“My god!” Shotgun cried.
“Holy crap!” A. K. shouted.
They leaned far outside the window. A horrible SPLAT! assaulted their ears from the flagstones below. The screaming ceased.
“Father!” they gasped.
Winston and Iridium jerked into wary attentiveness. Ripper and Fang rose from their corner and moved toward the window to investigate.
“Get back, you idiots!” Iridium snarled.
The mech wolves halted, looking to Iridium for further instructions.
The guards turned back from the window – both of them trembling and white as sheets. A. K. fainted dead away, sprawling on the floor like a discarded bag of manure. Shotgun was still capable of action, though. An insane rage overtook him.
“Damn you!” he shrieked.
He fired his weapon point blank at Fang. The mech wolf disintegrated, scattering components about the room like shrapnel. Ripper fled back to the corner, whining.
“It’s all your fault!” the crazed guard shouted. “Death to the demon spawn!”
He pumped another round into his weapon and aimed it at the blue robot.
Winston cringed, holding his hands over his face in a useless protective gesture.
“Look out, pal!”
Iridium jumped in front of him just as the shotgun fired.