The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

It feels like a million years has passed when I finally wake up on the couch. My eyes flutter open when I give it a try and I’m more disappointed in that than I want to admit. I feel fuzzy around the edges, but my head is working right. I can still remember just where it is that Dust’s little factory is hidden away. I remember a majority of what happened in the shower . . .

I guess Dust was the one who made it easy to forget times spent with enough dust to form a nest piled up between your ears.

“Sarah! Sarah I’m so glad you’re finally awake! I was so worried!” Olivia’s voice startles me out of my own headspace. She’s standing over me, but I didn’t see her until I heard her voice. I may be just a little bit more out of it than I thought. “What happened . . .?! I woke up when Aurora started crying, and when I walked into the bathroom I saw you laying in a pile of dust with two women passed out over the edge of the tub! My first thought is to call the police, but I thought I would wake you up first and see if that might be counter productive . . .”

Slowly, I shake my head and sit up. I tilt my head to the side just to check, but no dust sprinkles out. There might not have been enough that got in my ear for that to be necessary. That, or it’s stuck in there good. “They knew I caught one of their sisters . . . Should probably call the police. In the mean time, I’m going to get my hands a little dirty.”

My head spins when I stand up. Sitting up against the wall are two women who can’t be older than nineteen tied up using . . . linens? We don’t keep any rope around so I guess it was sheets and towels or . . .

Well, shirts.

I wish I could trust our shower enough to get a quick soak, but I don’t have the time. Quicker than I should for feeling so light headed, I start to slide into my signature uniform after making sure nothing is missing from my belt. I think I’ll ride Sylvia. I’m probably expected by this point, anyway.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going so fast?! You were just tits up in a bathtub full of dust . . . They were in our home with our daughter! If they hadn’t just been after you . . .” Olivia gives a voice to the worries that are already starting to well up inside of me.

Grabbing my boots, I move back over to the couch and shove my feet into them hard as I can. “That’s why I’m hauling ass, Olivia. Dust sent them. She was never one to send others to do her dirty work, but I’d assume a lot has changed since she was a slave of The Lady. Call the cops . . . call the badged squad too. I’m sure they’ll use this as a new excuse to harass me . . . Tell ‘em we had a break-in and we apprehended them. I’m going to go and make sure there’s no one else to send.”

Freaking out a mother is never a good idea. They didn’t do anything to her, but they just as easily could have. They could have done a lot worse to me if I hadn’t thought of sparking. I wasn’t even trying to defend myself! I just wanted to feel her hands kneading me. They could have finished with me and then gone after Olivia. If they’d dusted her enough before she woke up . . .

There’s no time to spend worrying about this. Dust has had free reign in Midas for way too long. It’s time to shove her in a sealed cell somewhere nice and secluded.

Maybe I could find wherever they’re stashing Pink and have them share a cell. It would certainly be interesting enough to make a low budget sitcom about. They’d even only need a solitary set.

“Sarah . . . You be careful out there, all right? Don’t go getting yourself dusted again!” A part of me wishes Olivia could take on the guise of Aureus and help me take down the dust ring once and for all, but this is personal. I’ve saved Dust’s mind twice now, three if you count the fact that I never fried her mind into smoldering rubble back at Chronos, although I did try . . . booby-trapping my shower seems a little . . . ungrateful.

Besides, I let her get away after I was depowered. Jade and I could have stopped her, but I didn’t even try. I should have at least tried to have her get some help. Together we could have found a way to get her out of any trouble she might have gotten into, but . . . I can’t imagine my life turning out this way if so.

Knowing that doesn’t make me feel any better.

“I promise, Olivia . . . I’ll be home as soon as this is all taken care of. Look out for Aurora for me . . .and call Valerie, just to make sure they’re okay? I’d hate for anything to happen to Sylvia . . .” With my belt in, place the only thing I need to do is run out to the garage. I never would have thought Dust would do something like this. Showers were always more Pink’s style, anyway. I can still remember those times with the soap, the shampoo, the pink steam . . .

“I will. Now shine on Silver Girl . . . Make me proud.” Before I run out the door, I give Olivia a long slow kiss. My toes curl in my boots, and every small spot on my spine feels stimulated. A kiss from a woman like her is more than enough to help me feel confident.

All I can do for now is hope I’m not just confident, but also better at resisting Dust’s wiles than before.

McLeary’s Herbal Refinery is not a place I ever would have assumed to be a dust processing plant. To be fair, I’d been in the same camp with everyone else thinking that the dust was just being sold pure. It’s not like Dust wasn’t potent without any outside help . . .

Sylvia is parked a block away in an alley. My luck, today will be the day someone makes off with her, but I’m far too impatient. I’m not impatient enough to be stupid and use the front door, but only because I stop and think for more than two seconds. Chelsea told me the way anyone who’s anyone enters is in an alleyway. A woman is always standing watch outside, and even if she’s dusted I don’t think she’d accept the password from me. Dust did tell them about me, after all.

As soon as I turn down the alleyway, she sees me. She’s a pretty young thing, tight leather pants and a small latex top, but I don’t give her time to grab for the door. I might not be the fastest woman in the world, but a quick salvo of sparks from a flicked wrist and she falls onto the ground with a muted cry.

No one comes running out the door, so I figure it’s safe to assume she didn’t set off the secret alarm. That’s good enough for me. Careful not to make too much noise I make my way in.

Honestly, I have no idea what I was expecting. The building seems like one big room with two levels dividing various women. All of the air is full of just enough dust to make me feel fuzzy around the edges. The equipment, the women working . . . it looks like something out of a meth lab, but much more organized. I’ve never taken one of those down, but I guess if I can beat Dust here then at least I’ll have done close enough.

If I had the time, I would try and spark as many women as I could and deliver them all to the authorities before going in after Dust, but . . . I’m sure that she’s prepared for me to do something stupid like that. Before I met The Lady I only used my sparks on others as a distraction . . . sounds good about now.

I duck behind a couple of boxes to scope out the scene. Behind all of the workers on the lower level is a room that looks like it’s probably meant to be an administrational office. Odds are ten to one that’s where I’ll find Dust. Even the space between the door and the wall looks carefully insulated no doubt for good reason. If they’re discussing important business that’s definitely not a good time for a waft of dust to send everyone but its namesake into a trance.

A few sparks slide out of my fingertips and I send them around the boxes and up onto the ceiling. Plenty of eyes follow them, so I send out a few more. Carefully I make my way around the victims most dazed by the sight of shining silver stars, and quicker than I would have thought I’m through the door.

If Dust expected me, and really thought the guard or the workers would notice me with that much dust in the air, I’m offended.

Behind the door the air is a lot clearer, and I can take deep breaths without feeling heavier. Breathing loudly in front of the door is going to get me caught, so I try to look around for something else to hide behind. Ah! The office is well-sized and a few filing cabinets in a corner make for the perfect cover.

On the far end of the room, Dust leans over a desk covered with papers. She looks just like she did in my mind’s eye. She has the same short black hair, the same tight black clothes, the same paper-white skin . . . In front of the desk sits a woman who’s probably one of her distributors. She looks pretty from behind, nice curly brown hair anyway, but she’s not the one I’m here to put an end to . . .

They talk, and I listen. Right now, I have no clue what I should do right now. My first instinct is to fire spark after spark after spark but I don’t like the odds that Dust has something planned for that.

It’s better to overestimate an enemy, but sometimes I think I take it to the next level.

“So, the money has been coming in?” Dust’s voice sounds exactly like it always did, young, dark, and mischievous. Being here feels like a worse idea every moment.

“In droves.” Her associate’s voice sounds professional and smooth. Dust has definitely moved up in the world from being a business woman’s lap cat. Even if it’s just from bad to worse, she’s definitely doing something with her life.

Dust nods and her smirk grows just enough to notice. “That’s good.”

The other woman’s voice takes a slightly worried tone, although not one of genuine concern but more self-motivated selfish anxiety. “And of course, that’s more and more girls melting their minds. They say it’s the worst drug addiction since-“

“I don’t really care. No one’s making them use it.”

“Well actually some people-“

“I meant no one’s making them use it on other people.” Dust sighs as if she’s sure the other woman is the stupidest woman in the entire world. It’s good to know she has so much faith in her underlings. “And what about the cops?” Her voice sounds so happy and sweet when she asks. It reminds me of the way she spoke to me while we were holed up in that “hospital.”

“Well it is hard for undercover to work when you don’t sell a drug to someone unless you’ve dusted them and asked.” I’d heard some of the things that happened to narcs trying to bust the dust ring. They did at least one good thing – they made me feel better about my little club accident.

Dust’s face twists into the most pleased grin I’ve ever imagined, much less seen. “Yes . . .” I can imagine her petting a gray dusty cat with that grin on her face.

“So, no, the police aren’t bothering us . . . Some of the supers . . .” The woman’s voice actually sounds worried this time, and she shifts in her seat. I know that I’m not the only one trying to bust Dust, especially with the addiction being so rampant, but I know there can’t be too many. If there were I’d like to imagine she’d be busted by now. “Like the girl who snuck in through the sealed door and seems to think anyone with shiny skin could be stealthy.”

My body goes stiff and I feel like slapping my hand into my forehead. This is definitely not good. Not only is she absolutely right, although my skin isn’t nearly as shiny as the word “silver” might make it out to be, but this was the dumbest thing I possibly could have done. With a sigh, I step out into the open and hold up a hand with a spark at every fingertip. “Well, I guess you have a point, but you were never really all that stealthy either. Took me a while to find you, but an abandoned warehouse? Come on, you would have been better hidden in an overhead compartment!”

A sick feeling in my stomach twists at me and I regret being here even more. What she’s doing is wrong, and I know she won’t listen to reason, but coming here specifically to stop Dust somehow feels disloyal.

“Little silver!” Dust looks towards me and grins, sliding herself over the desk. Without fanfare she lifts a hand in the air and then snaps her fingers before pointing at the ground. “Kneel little silver.” Goddess! It feels like, like nothing I’ve ever felt! Suddenly there’s just a weight between my legs, a hot pulsing sensitive deep weight so far between my legs I can’t place it, can’t fight it, can’t resist it as it tries to pull me down.

“No! No I . . . they didn’t get to finish in the bath, they . . .!” I whimper so sharply it hurts my own ears before I fall down onto my knees. My eyes roll back into my head just a little, but I try to focus, I try to look forward, to look at her, to struggle up, to something. “Nnn . . . Dust . . . I . . .”

She clasps her hands together cutely in front of her chest, and her voice when she speaks is a cruel mocking version of my own. “-Want to beg you to do whatever you want to me. Oh Dust, please, please, please, make me squirm like a dying animal stabbed on a spear! Only it’s not blood I’m leaking out everywhere! Please!”

“Dust . . .!” The weight is still so heavy I fall forward onto my hands and try to look up at her. It’s so hard not to fall onto the floor and stare into the back of my head, much less even stay kneeling. “That’s . . . That’s not what I want to beg! Nnnn . . . We have a history, it doesn’t have to be like this . . .!”

“It does if I say that it does, little silver.” It pulls even harder when she speaks, like horrible animal instinct. “So yes, it is what you want to beg. Tell me . . . what do you know of dust? The drug?”

“Nnnn . . . Pl-pleeeease . . .” I try to squirm to push myself up, to steady myself, but it’s no good. Didn’t come here to be dusted or whatever the hell she’s doing to me, came here to stop her, to protect my family, to . . . “I . . . It’s different than just your dust, but it . . . Must be refined or combined with something or . . . It’s mostly sold to use on others, not personal use . . . and knowing you, and what I learned about your dust when we were prisoners together . . . Every person who’s ever been exposed is an easy target . . . Oooh . . !”

She just watches me, not moving closer and not needing to do anything else to make every moment horrifically pleasurable and straining. “Where does the dust come from, little silver?”

I want to argue about being called silver, little silver, instead of Silver Girl, especially when I’m taller than her, but . . . she’s a lot taller than I am right now, and in a lot more control. “Nnnn . . . nnn . . . I . . . You . . .?”

“Mmmm . . . yes . . . So if the dust that sometimes is in the air . . . Is combined with other things to make it more pure . . . What is the most pure amount you can find, little silver?” Her voice is mockingly powerful, but from this position I can see why. My whole body is shaking as the feeling of pure raw sexual need to collapse tears itself through me. It hurts only with its intensity. It feels so damned good!

My body stiffens more on its own, but it’s not really helping. I know I don’t have much longer before I collapse, and thinking, thinking is making it worse. “Nnn . . . the dust on you . . .!”

“And the second time we spoke . . . You had lipstick smeared on your face and your thighs.” She keeps on watching me, her cold eyes looking right into mine. It’s so haunting, but so hot. “What does that tell you little silver?”

My lips shudder as my eyes flutter on their own. I can’t keep watching her, I can barely stop from falling . . . Everything feels so hot . . . “I n-never knew it was on my thighs . . . and that we . . . that we fucked . . .? I already . . . kinda knew that hun . . . you weren’t very subtle, even if you d-didn’t really leave me feeling sore!”

“It was on your thighs . . . You didn’t wash it off for a long time. And it means, my tongue was in your mouth, and in your twat. Hot, wet, slick, and thick, the purest source there is, up inside your wittle little silver twat.”

“Nyaaa!” The cry tears itself out of me as I finally collapse onto my stomach and my hands fall limply at my sides. Her voice, hitting each little syllable so hard and firm, sends thoughts through my head that I can’t ever possibly imagine, that I’ve never felt before. It feels so, so damned good. “Nnn . . . must’ve . . . felt nice . . . too bad I can’t remember how those . . . dusty gray lips felt . . .”

It’s a last ditch effort, those three words, and I have no clue if they’ve been pulled out of her head, but I have to try. I need to do something, to stop her, to get out of here, but I can’t even sit up!

“Honey . . . I told Pink to tell you that. And it was hot.” She kneels down in front of my face, and holds up her hand. I know what it means, and I try to hold back, to hold my breath, but when she blows into her palm and the gray cloud of dust covers my face I’m helpless.

My body stiffens one last time before it turns fully limp, and all I can do is mewl and feel my eyes hood. “You . . . but . . . The Lady said she . . . she wasn’t supposed to tell . . . said you needed me to get . . . ooh! Oh so dusty . . . but so clean . . .”

“I’m sure. We’ll have fun later. I’m busy.” Without another word to me she turns away, and moves back to her meeting.

The weight of the dust, of my body, it all feels just too much. There’s nothing I can do to resist it, to fight it, to do anything at all but pitifully mewl and endure it. “Later . . . nnn . . .” My vision starts to tunnel, so much dust, all of it inside of me, up inside of me, in my face . . . and Dust isn’t even paying attention in the slightest.

When the world comes back into focus I know I’m not on the floor anymore, but I’m not sure quite where I am. Papers are under my back and under that it feels like wood. The weight between my legs feels even worse, and . . . oh my. Dust is right over my face, kneeling, I can guess why. She seems to just be relaxing up there, groaning. “Your sparking tongue always was very good . . .”

My body feels so sweaty. If any of those papers were important, they’re ruined. I haven’t felt like this with Dust in so long, not since . . . maybe the elevator? It doesn’t matter. Fluttering my, eyes I try to focus, try to remember how I got here. My tongue is moving on its own and I can’t focus enough to stop.

“Mmmm . . . now now . . .” Her white fingers press into my forehead and push me down against the desk. From the position I’m in I can see past her skirt to her pretty black coated lips and all the rest of her face. “That’s more than enough . . . Only so much a girl can take. Tongue in your mouth. Tongue in your mouuuth little silver.” She grins, and her thighs squeeze around my head so firmly it makes my body clench.

At least after those words I can pull my tongue back inside and well, try to think. I smack my lips to try and wake up, to move them and gain some grasp of control, but everything feels so far away. “Nnn . . . Dust . . .”

“Yes, yes, I know . . . I know. Go ahead . . . Ask anything you want . . . I haven’t even decided whether or not you’ll be getting off this desk with a thought in your dirty head or not . . . So you might as well ask now while you still can.” Her pale fingers slide through my hair and it sends tingles down my spine.

Coos slide from my lips without any consent from me, and all I can think about well is pressing into her fingers. I’m a little scared, worried, unsure, but it feels far away . . . Asking might distract her, though, might help me wake up, spark my way out of here. “You, back . . . back there . . . in Chronos . . . you’d said you needed my help to get Pink . . . You were just . . . toying with me? But, but The Lady, she’d . . . she’d been upset that Pink told me those words . . .”

“Little silver, think about it . . . Thiiink about it. How would Dust even know those words? The Lady’s personal subduing phrase?” She grins, and her fingers start playing over my scalp, making it tingle and making me groan.

“You . . . That’s . . . That’s right. I . . . There’s gotta be more between you and The Lady than I know about . . . isn’t there . . .?” I mewl and look up at her face. The petting makes me feel good, almost like a pet in that way that always gets me flowing, but that makes me worried. I have a life now, a family now . . . I don’t want to be a dust bunny, but goddess does it feel nice to be her plaything again.

“Whatever makes you say that?” Her voice turns sweet again, but she feels like a cat petting a mouse. Any second she could close in for the kill . . .

Crying out about how I saved her mind more times than she even tried to save mine doesn’t seem the right way to go, and her scent so close to my nose makes me quiver. Chronos suddenly feels so confusing. I knew some things that happened had to be different than I remembered them, but nothing felt circumspect enough to doubt or question . . . “If The Lady was saying what you would want her to say . . . and didn’t, or pretended like she didn’t know you knew that . . . and if you didn’t really need me to get Pink . . . then I . . . Please make it make more sense? You’ve done too good a job on my head for me to think of what questions I need to ask . . .”

“It means . . . Maybe one or two visits to The Lady, was just you sitting on my lap, silly.” She grins more and it sends harder shivers down my spine. “Role playing is fuuuun . . .”

“Y . . . you . . .” I can’t help it, I just stare up at her, petrified, confused, so unsure what’s real and what’s not in my mind about those days. “Never did see you go anywhere, and we were on the top floor . . .? But . . . I . . . is She even real . . .?” I close my eyes tight as I can to try and block out this confusion. Memories should make sense, this should click into place easier, it shouldn’t freak me out. Everything just feels so . . . dusty.

“ . . . Of course . . .” She whispers, but her voice caries down to me perfectly. “And you sent her to jail remember? It was just once or twice . . . Just the little peons playing games. She liked that . . .” Dust sighs, and it’s not a happy sigh. “I signed the contract just like everyone else . . . Pages after pages after pages of reading . . . clicking balls . . . drooling on the table as she asked questions . . . she had such nice legs . . .” For a moment, she seems in a reverie as she sighs and twirls her fingers delicately across my ears. “But it’s over now . . . though . . . I guess I do owe you, for what happened afterwards, don’t I?”

The fact that she remembers and that matters to her makes me feel a little better. When she left, when it was just me, Jade, and her, I’d been really disappointed she didn’t stay . . . and I hadn’t intended to shove The Lady behind bars. “I . . . I didn’t want to. And . . . yeah, reading, clicking, lovely legs . . .”

My thighs clench at the thought of The Lady’s long, gorgeous legs. Just thinking about nuzzling and licking along her sweet legs makes me feel so damp. She had the hottest moans . . .

“I . . . I appreciate you remembering that but I . . . I just was doing my best, for you . . . ran into her again, too, that witch. That’s how I got my sparks back . . .” Yanuka’s introduction is still burned into my mind as a frighteningly erotic encounter, but the last time we met wasn’t nearly so frightening.

“Oh?” Dust sighs, and it feels like she might actually care. We shared a lot of tough times and fun times together. She’s a bad guy, but I still hope that meant something . . . “Tell me all about that then . . .”

So I tell her everything. I tell her everything that happened with Quillspawn and everything that happened with Yanuka afterward. The story is abridged so she won’t get bored and decide that I’m more trouble than I’m worth, but I tell her everything that matters. I tell her about Silhouette’s return, and I tell her about Olivia. She actually attentively listens. I don’t think Dust has ever really listened to me before.

As nice as it is, the feeling is a little creepy.

“That’s really all there is to tell . . . She’s still out there, Yanuka, and who knows if she still really bares a grudge or not, but I really don’t know what else I could say. I’m sort of just here at your mercy . . . Do your worst, I won’t be able to take it personally . . .” I shouldn’t be hoping that she does.

“Huh . . .?” She blinks down at me. “Do my worst? What do you expect me to do, exactly?” Dust actually seems confused as she slips off of me and stretches out with a sound close to a yawn.

I stretch out a little myself, hoping that her confusion is a sign she’s not prepared to turn me into a little dust filled toy. “Well, best or . . . I am kinda fuzzy. You made it sound like I wasn’t going to be thinking anymore . . . and as much as I like being mindless . . . I’ve always had a thing for thinking . . .”

“I was mostly being facetious. Don’t come around here again . . . Well . . . We’ll be moving . . . but don’t come around this operation or you won’t be thinking, and I’m sorry about what happened at your apartment. Nothing like that is going to happen again either. We’ll just stay out of each other’s way.” I didn’t notice that Dust wasn’t wearing a shirt until she slides it back on.

For better or worse, I seem to still be clothed. Whimpering, I close my eyes and try not to be a complete idiot when I open up my mouth. “Dust . . . You know I can’t just give up, and . . . I mean, if this was like Chronos, I might be able to understand and find a way to overlook it but . . . What you’re doing, what’s happening, it’s not like that at all, it’s . . .” Just the thought of them in my apartment makes me worry more and I look up to her with that thought in my eyes. “They were serious about what they were doing, and if it wasn’t with your okay then I can just imagine what some of the other things your people might be doing . . .”

Dust quirks up her eyebrow and sounds none too happy when she responds. “Oh! Oh, I’m sorry. I’m selling something that makes people feel good and has no real side effects, so is in a lot of ways less dangerous than alcohol . . . As opposed to kidnapping girls to kidnap other girls and selling their services like whores?”

It makes me wince more than a little to realize her point. “Might be less dangerous, but are people who are not being held in check with the ability to just dust whoever they want and get whatever they want safe? The Lady kept everything regulated, and we might have been kidnapped and used, but we were safe and pampered as could be when she wasn’t using us . . .” For just a second I worry about just how happy my voice sounds describing it, but I suppose there’s nothing I can do. I’ll always look back on that time favorably, even though I can’t and wouldn’t want to go back to it. “And none of those drug addicts are being saved from redheaded witches, either . . .”

Dust sighs and rolls her eyes. I’m really pushing my luck, but a part of me wants to reach through to her. I was able to become Patina with the information I learned from Chronos, and took down a giant space station of mind controlling doom and an inky witch. Can’t Dust aim a little higher than being a drug lord? “Now, the general form of dust makes no one any more compliant than say . . . being drunk and sexed up. Silver . . . Silver. Take the offer. Don’t make me change my mind.”

“Of course it doesn’t . . .” Sighing, I shift on the desk and finally manage to sit up. Whatever she used on me before, however she used her dust, she let it stop. I should be thankful for that much. “One thing first . . .?”

“Oh?” Her voice is sweet and happy again, but she raises two fingers to show me just how ready she is to snap them if I try something stupid. If I tried to do anything like spark her, I would be in a much worse situation than I am right now If I were actually dumb enough to try sparking her after her display of power over me, I think I would be just too stupid to live.

However, if I can get her to move a little closer and make her vulnerable, I might still be able to make up for being so easily humiliated. “A kiss . . .? Just for old time’s sake?”

“Why little silver! I would have to say you have a huge crush on me . . . And you have a kid with a darling redhead. Do you really want to consensually kiss me right now?” Dust rolls her eyes and playfully snorts. “How does she even begin to put up with you?”

It doesn’t sound like a question, but I answer anyway. Tonight just isn’t my night to act smart, I guess. “Everyone seems to find it pretty easy to put up with me . . . and besides, you always seemed like you had a crush on me too?” I flutter my eyelashes and hope I can get her in close enough. Just enough of a current, and she’ll lose the ability to snap her fingers. After that I can take her in to the police, break apart the dust ring, and be a heroine.

Surprisingly, Dust doesn’t taunt me. She doesn’t argue about a crush or shared feelings. All she does is lean in close to me, and very gently kiss my cheek. I can feel the faintest bit of her black lipstick staying behind. “Silver . . . Go home to your girlfriend. I am not a girl to have a crush on.”

Until this precise moment, I’d never considered truly having a crush on Dust. I’d enjoyed our time together and I’d always wanted her to treat me more like a human being, with warmth and compassion, but I never saw it as a crush. She made me feel really good and she’s a hot little black sun. My heart flutters in my chest and a part of me worries about just how much of my old feelings still linger. “I just . . . miss you. And the little lollypop too, but . . . We don’t have to be against each other like this . . .”

“We aren’t. You stay out of my way. I’ll stay out of yours.” She reaches up and musses my hair in a way that actually makes me feel good. “Now seriously, get out of here before I change my mind. You’re pushing it.”

“All right . . .” I could have tried to spark her lips, but I hesitated. She who hesitates loses her chance to make her enemies lose their minds, even if she wants the enemy to be a friend. I could have overloaded her when I woke up between her legs, but I didn’t even think about it. “All right . . . but if anyone ever shows up in my apartment again . . .”

Dust’s voice is matter-of-fact as she pulls me to the door of her office. “If they do, then they weren’t there from me. Go home silver. Go where you belong.” After she gives me a good hard shove out the door, she shuts it and I can hear the click of a lock.

“Who’s to say where that is . . .?” With a sigh I shrug and start to move toward the exit. Just for good measure I flick a spark at a random dust bunny. She lets out a loud whimper and falls to her knees, but it’s not a whimper of pain. She’ll be fine as soon as she gets back to work. Not wanting to stay in here another moment I make my way back out into Midas, and take a deep breath of fresh air.

We were sisters once, maybe almost lovers, and then enemies . . . Now we’re not even that, anymore. I really hope that Olivia and I never end up like that.

The day is still young as I make my way back to my bike, and my head is ablaze with thought. Aurora should probably get some time this weekend to play with Sylvia. I know that she’s all right. Dust lied to me before, but I’m sure she wasn’t lying this time. I could see in her eyes it did mean something to her I saved her from a pair of witches.

There’s still dust between my legs. I don’t know how to get it out, but there might not be a way to get it out. I don’t know if Dust’s powers are magical or scientific. All I know is that the sandman is nowhere near as enchanting.

I also know that as much as my stubborn pride wants to argue, I’m not chasing after Dust anymore.