Vampire Mesmerism
by MagisterAthena
It was a time of cobbles and gas lamps, and Valya was stalking the streets for prey. In the soupy fog, the streetlights only threw hazy orbs of light, leaving the rest of the street in murky shadow. Perfect for catching an unsuspecting person out for a stroll, unwillingly relieving them of some blood (though they’d be very willing once they looked into Valya’s eyes), and sending them on their way without any memory of how they got the twin marks on their neck.
Valya slicked back her long black hair, and straightened up her morning suit. Have to be fancy while stalking the night, she thought with a grin. As she strode on between the leaning rookeries, she closed her eyes and took in a deep breath of the foggy, smoky, soot-stained air. And then her eyes flew open, though she was careful to keep moving normally. Garlic flowers. Lots of them. Far more than anyone would need for any normal reason. A hunter was after her.
And as she listened more closely, she could hear footsteps a fair way behind her, that were almost hidden underneath the sounds of her own. The hunter was on her tail. Valya smiled in a broad grin, one that let her fangs gleam in the lamplight. She knew just how to deal with vampire hunters.
Valya took a few detours down isolated alleyways, forcing the hunter to keep their distance to avoid being detected (though they were unaware they’d already failed). As she walked, she surreptitiously scribbled a note. She took a corner, then strode up to the door of her lair, before quickly sliding the note through the letter hatch before the hunter could round the corner and see her. And now, the trap is set, she thought.
Valya continued down the streets, before stopping in an alley deep in the shadow of the looming foundry next door - perfectly isolated. She turned around, looking down the length of the alley, just in time to see the silhouette of the hunter round the corner. The silhouette froze, seeing that their quarry had noticed their presence.
Then two more silhouettes rounded the corner behind the hunter, and the hunter turned around in alarm just as the other two grabbed hold of them. Valya could hear the faint sounds of the scuffle as she strolled back down the alley, whistling with a grin on her face.
Vampire hunters were always so prepared for a vampire’s unnatural strength, but few were ready for a vampire’s mesmerism, disbelieving the wild legends. The first hunter Valya had encountered in the city had actually managed to capture her, but as soon as Valya woke up the hunter had quickly fallen under her thrall, staring helplessly into her eyes. And from there, every hunter that tried - and failed - just gave her more thralls to capture the next one with.
Valya approached the latest luckless hunter, now with each arm trapped in the grip of their former comrades - who’d done a good job, catching up with the hunter exactly where Valya’s note had specified. They’d even torn off the hunter’s garlic garland, which Valya appreciated - it left the hunter’s neck nice and accessible.
As Valya grew closer, she could hear the hunter desperately trying to convince their former friends to let them go - quietly, as the Constables would take as dim a view of a vampire hunter loaded with weapons as they would a vampire. “...it’s me, Ethel! Remember, I was the one who showed you how to cast silver bullets! And you, Winter, I helped you find that new string for your crossbow! Let me go!”
“They can’t hear you. Or rather, they won’t,” crowed Valya, her smooth voice cutting across the hunter’s cries. Now that she was closer, she got a better look at the hunter. They had a wiry frame, dressed in dark formless clothes, and had stakes and daggers strapped in strategic positions all about them. At one hip rode a revolver - filled with silver bullets, Valya was sure - and at the other a rather thick crossbow that looked like it could shoot stakes. Atop all that, they wore a trenchcoat, and as they struggled and the coat flapped, Valya could hear the clinking of vials of - presumably - holy water. And all of it, worthless as they were held in the arms of their friends.
Valya got up close to the hunter, cocking her head to the side. “Now,” she purred, “who are you?”
The vampire hunter spat at Valya, but missed. “As if I’d tell you.”
Valya shrugged affably, then imperiously turned to one of their thralls. “Ethel, who is this?”
Ethel’s expression was blank, with an edge of a blissed-out smile crossing her face, and her voice was similarly distant. “Oh, that’s Foxglove.” Her nose wrinkled slightly. “They’ve got some strange ideas.” Valya didn’t follow up on Ethel’s observation, their question answered - though the night might have gone very differently if she had.
“Well, Foxglove,” Valya said in a low, mellifluous voice, vibrating sweetly like a singing glass, “why don’t you just look into my eyes while I’m talking to you?”
A gasp from Foxglove. The hunter turned their head to the side, closing their eyes in desperation. They feared catching a glimpse. They knew what a look into a vampire’s eyes meant. Some hunters put more credence in those parts of the legends than the rest.
Valya’s eyes narrowed, a predatory smile baring her fangs to the dim gleam of the lights. A struggle, she thought. She gently grabbed hold of the hunter’s chin, forcing their head to the front. Foxglove’s eyes screwed even tighter closed.
And then Valya snapped - right by Foxglove’s ear. She’d moved her hand in quietly, so it startled Foxglove. And their eyes flicked open - an automatic reaction - for what should have been a moment. But… they caught the vampire’s gaze. Valya could see the gleam of their shimmering crimson eyes reflected in Foxglove’s own, watched the muscles around their eyes flicker as they tried in vain to look away, to close their eyes. But it was too late.
“That’s right,” Valya soothed, a cruel grin on her face. The vampire hunter would hate hearing that from the blasphemous creature they were meant to be hunting. And would hate even more that they responded to it, courtesy of Valya’s hypnotic gaze. The sounds of the city grew distant in Valya’s ears as she concentrated on bringing Foxglove under her thrall.
“Just keep staring, keep falling into my eyes. It’s so nice to stare, isn’t it? Your friends stared too, and they certainly seem to be enjoying themselves now. All my thralls do.”
Foxglove’s struggles were getting weaker and weaker in the arms of their friends. Valya held the gaze of the vampire hunter, relishing every moment as she watched them succumbing.
“So hard to look away…” Foxglove murmured, clearly struggling to marshal the willpower to say that much. Valya’s grin sharpened.
“Yeah, and it’s so much nicer to just keep looking at the pretty eyes, isn’t it? So fascinating to watch how they shimmer, those lovely patterns that just draw you in.”
“Draw you in…” the hunter’s words came thickly, as they fell further into Valya’s eyes. Excellent, Valya thought. Their vision narrowed, focused on Foxglove and their eyes, judging the success of their hypnotism.
“The lovely glow of my eyes just soothing your thoughts away, leaving nothing but the desire to look even deeper into my eyes”
“Deeper into my eyes…” the hunter drawled, and Valya felt a savage joy at her mounting success.
Then a frown creased her brow, and her glee faltered. Why did the hunter put in the effort to say that? And why did her eyes feel locked onto the hunter’s?
“That’s right,” Foxglove said in an ironic echo of Valya’s words - back to being strong and confident like before, but this time softer, almost musical. “You’re stuck looking into my eyes now, aren’t you?”
Adrenaline coursed through Valya’s body, but it was muted, buried under soothing, agreeable feelings. This… this hunter’s mesmerising me!
Valya didn’t have time to marshal her thoughts again before Foxglove’s words scattered them like autumn leaves. “You must have thought a lot about how it feels to be enthralled, haven’t you? Would you like that feeling? I bet you’re curious - maybe you can imagine it…”
Automatically, Valya’s thoughts flicked to those she’d enthralled. Those blissful smiles, their dazed gazes. She had wondered…
But then Valya shook those thoughts off. She had to fight! “You-you tell me, you’re the one looking in my…” she trailed off, started by how drowsy her voice sounded. She was already succumbing. And that realisation ate away at her, that her resistance was already failing her.
Foxglove noticed, and pounced. “Yeah, you’re just looking into my eyes, nothing to worry about, you can just keep staring. You’ve done that enough before, right? That’s the way it’s supposed to be, so just look, nice and deep.” Valya’s eyes stayed fixed on Foxglove’s, an overpowering compulsion to keep looking defeating their best efforts.
“I- how are you doing this?” Valya asked before she realised she was doing so out loud. Even that was barely audible, her slack mouth struggling to form the words.
“Why don’t you tell me?” Foxglove taunted.
Valya’s thoughts felt like they were flowing through molasses, and she only realised that the question was a distraction after she’d been drifting even further into the vampire hunter’s gaze. It’s… too late, Valya struggled to think. Then, with one last flutter of her eyes, Valya dropped into trance, sighing the last of her resistance and her thoughts away.
As Foxglove watched the vampire’s head nod down to their chest, a grin that was equal parts feral and astonished spread across their face. By the saints below, they thought, I actually did it. Their comrades were still holding their arms in an iron grip, but Foxglove barely noticed, too carried away by the high of their achievement.
Foxglove had always been fascinated by the phenomenon of mesmerism, of having that power over someone. When they’d found out vampires were real and been recruited to hunt them - not in that order - that interest had kindled into a roaring flame. One that had seen them through long nights hunting through the old legends for any scrap of detail on the legendary power their colleagues dismissed - and honing their own skills at the new science on their comrades.
That thought reminded Foxglove of the final piece of the equation; the ones that were irritating their eyes. They turned to their mesmerised, captive vampire. “Order the other hunters to let me go,” they commanded, and felt a thrill at doing so.
The vampire raised their head just slightly, and drowsily slurred, “Let Foxglove go.” At that relayed command, Winter and Ethel both let go of Foxglove, looking to the vampire with blissful expressions for their next order.
Foxglove, newly freed, winced and one by one pulled out their silvered contact lenses, carelessly dashing them to the cobbles. The tiny pieces of glass itched like a fiend had decided to personally torment them, but they’d saved Foxglove from the vampire’s eyes. And gave them a taste of their own medicine, they thought with a cunning grin. So enamoured with their own mystical powers, they’d never even dreamed that someone could develop that same skill to use against them.
Foxglove turned to the vampire, taking a gentle hold of their chin and raising it. The vampire’s eyes fluttered weakly, but they stayed deep in the spell that Foxglove had woven around them. “Who are you, then, my lovely vampire?”
The vampire’s eyes fluttered. “Baron Valya, she/her,” she muttered.
“Good vamp,” Foxglove soothed, “Answering my questions so very well.”
Foxglove could feel their heart thumping in their chest at seeing a vampire, an alluring creature of the night, mesmerized into a stupor under their command. They hadn’t just stayed with the hunters to get a chance to indulge their fascination with mesmerism, but also their fascination with vampires. And now here one was, all theirs.
Foxglove took a hold of Valya’s chin, lifting her head from her breast, meeting her lidded and glassy gaze with their own. Their nominal comrades stood behind them, still waiting for Valya’s word, forgotten in Foxglove’s bright-eyed enthusiasm.
“Show me your fangs,” Foxglove ordered, their voice still carrying the strong musical tones of a mesmerist. Valya bared her fangs, almost in a yawn, and Foxglove admired her shining teeth, her magnificently pointed canines. Foxglove ran a finger over the edge of one, drawing a small bead of blood. This they let drip into Valya’s tongue, and she made a noise of blissful contentment as she tasted the blood.
“Now, when you wake, my adorably obedient vampire, you’ll obey my every word,” Foxglove said, and could see a flicker in Valya’s gaze as she registered the words. “So awake from this stupor, and follow my every command.”
Valya’s eyelids fluttered, then snapped open. But unlike before, her crimson eyes reflected only dully, the glassy reflections only showing obedience.
A tight, savage grin crossed Foxglove’s face, their mesmeric skills assured. Then they took a deep breath, coloured with only a slight shake from their nerves.
“Bite me.”
Awareness crept into Valya’s gaze, but the flat obedience remained. She cradled Foxglove's head almost tenderly, but Foxglove could feel that her grip had as little give as if it has been cast from steel.
Valya’s lips moved towards Foxglove’s neck, as if for a kiss. Then her jaw hinged wide, fangs poised over the curve of Foxglove’s neck. Then she bit.
Foxglove let out a keening noise of rapturous joy as Valya bit, and their world dissolved she she continued. When they came to, Valya was standing in front of them again, her eyes still glassy, a stray stain of crimson at her mouth.
Foxglove felt at their neck - shivering at the touch - and found just two quickly-healing marks at their throat. That was… wondrous, they thought, struggling though the pleasurable, hazy feeling.in the wake of a vampire’s bite.
Foxglove’s eyes refocused on Valya, keen and eager. “We’re going to have a lot of fun, you and I.” Then their mouth curved in a lupine, predatory grin.
The story inspired in part in honour of oft-forgotten hypnosis in the original Dracula - not that done by the vampires, but the hypnosis done by Professor Abraham Van Helsing! He does some at the enthusiastic request of Mina Harker, though he also hypnotises the hunters at one point - interpret “The Professor’s voice, as he spoke in clear, sweet tones, which seemed to vibrate in the air, calmed us all” differently, I dare you!
While Van Helsing doesn't actually hypnotise any of the vampires, there's plenty of cases of Dracula, Lucy the Vampire, and the Brides all hypnotising the various hunters - and this has formed the long and hot tradition of vampire hunters being helplessly hypnotised 😆
…but what if a hunter turned the tables and used hypnosis more directly against their foe?
@Impia At the moment it’s a one-shot, but if I get an idea for something else to write here I will absolutely write more!