The first thing Ned noted about the Inn was how much it failed to intimidate with its mere existence. If anything, it looked warm, pleasant, and inviting, as if he would experience nothing more than a comfortable night's sleep were he to stay a night. He wondered what he was expecting. Dark clouds? Gothic styling? Sinister black mist? Perhaps he had expected the building itself to have its own Aura.

Cassie had said she felt a "wrongness" when she had dropped him off some three blocks away, but he felt that starting from the Inn was the easiest way to complete his task. Richie had to be nearby waiting for Jason to exit. The Inn stood just down the block from the southeast corner of the intersection. Richie would be either on the street going north or further east down the street upon which the Inn stood.

The smarter place to wait would be in the opposite direction from which Jason came, so he could simply continue to follow. Jason had likely come in from the east and would head back that way, so logically one would wait towards the west. But this was Richie, who was not prone to good tactical thinking. Ned would have to remind Cassie of this; Jason would have known to go over the details with Richie ahead of time and made sure he knew what he was doing.

Ned chose the street heading east, crossing to the other side, as the street curved such that the Inn would not be visible on the same side of the street. He had just stepped off the curb and turned east when he saw a head suddenly retreat behind the edge of an office building about fifty feet down the street.

Ned sighed and rolled his eyes. He strolled to where he had seen the head and turned down a narrow alley. "Gotta hand it ta ya, Richie. Yer methods of spyin' would put James Bond ta shame."

"Shut the hell up," Richie snapped, standing near his bike which leaned against the wall of the building. "Where the fuck should I be?"

"Try the other direction, Sherlock."

"Huh? But he's gonna come this way when he comes out and ... oh ... shit." Richie grabbed his bike and started walking it towards the street.

Ned stood in front of him. "Hold on there, old hoss. Got some bizness with ya first."

"What? Wait, what the fuck are you doing here?"

"Delivering this." Ned reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone. "Courtesy of the Kendall family fortune."

"Oh, yeah, thanks." Richie stepped forward with his hand outstretched. Ned snatched it away at the last moment. "What?"

"First yer gonna tell me what ya really are gonna do with it."

Richie frowned. "I don't know what the fuck you're talking about. I was going to use it to call you guys if something happens."

"Richie, yer a lousy liar."

"Fuck you, Ned. Now just give me that thing."

Ned held it out of reach and stepped back. "Ya said something ta Cassie about the exchange the phone is in."

Richie's eyes widened, and Ned knew he had hit paydirt. "So what of it?" said Richie. "I was curious, that's all."

"That don't be a question someone the likes of ya would ask fer no reason."

"What the hell does that mean, 'the likes of me?' You saying I'm stupid?"

"Not at all," Ned said in all sincerity. "But ya don't strike me as the kinda guy that would be innerested in that sorta technical detail. So what gives?"

Richie clenched his hands into fists. Ned stood his ground, despite the very real possibility in his mind that Richie might strike him. "I don't have to tell you jack shit about it," Richie growled.

"Look, I'm gonna level with ya and tell ya something that Cassie mentioned ta me. She likely didn't want me ta repeat it, but she don't always see the big picture. She's worried 'bout ya, big time."

Richie's eyebrows rose. "She is? Why?"

Ned detected a serious note of interest in his voice as well as surprise. "She can sense things in people's heads. She and Mrs. R. fer that matter. They both see something disturbin' in yer head."

"What the fuck, Ned? You saying they think I'm in with--"

"No," Ned declared. "Not the Darkness. More like yer arguin' with yerself. Like ya got two voices in yer head."

"Why the hell is that news? Cassie is the one who said I have some sorta link to my Dad."

Ned shook his head. "She thought about that, but that ain't it. I don't get the whole explanation she gave me, but I trust her when it comes ta this sorta stuff."

"Then I really don't know what the fuck you're talking about." Richie paused. "And that link is goddamn loud enough lately to be a freaking voice in my head. No offense, Ned, but Cassie's got her fucking wires crossed on this one. She's hearing the same thing I am: my father. He's been pissed off enough at me lately that it's a wonder the whole fucking town can't hear him."

Ned frowned. "Pissed off? Fer what?"

Richie hesitated, his eyes shimmering. His lips were parted, as if ready to speak, but the words would not make it down from his brain. "For lots of stuff. Like fucking my mother. Things like that."

"That was hardly yer fault--"

"I don't want to talk about this. It's none of your fucking business what he's mad about."

"Fair enough," Ned said, though he was not at all happy that Richie had taken again to hiding everything that happened to him or his family. "So back ta the phone and why ya asked that question."

Richie rolled his eyes and turned away, throwing his arms in the air. "Fine. I've been having trouble calling my Dad using the pay phones around town and thought the cell phone might be easier. Satisfied? Now can I have the fucking phone?"

"What kinda trouble are ya havin'?" Ned asked.

"What the fuck difference does it make?"

"It makes a whole fat lot of difference," Ned declared. "If Haven's Queen o'Darkness is findin' a way ta mess up communications outside of town, that means it's got about a metric fuckton more power and influence than we think it does."

"It's not that, okay?!" Richie yelled. "It's ... my Dad's blocking Haven numbers on his phone. That's all. I didn't think it was important enough to call a fucking press conference."

Ned sighed. He did not have Cassie's empathic sense, but a gut feeling told him that this was not the whole story. Why would his father arbitrarily block Haven phone numbers? Ned knew about the vision Richie had of his father watching over the house years after the divorce. That did not strike Ned as the sort of man who would want to cut off all access to his son.

Ned stepped forward and handed Richie the phone. "Ya coulda jus' said so in the first place. Cassie woulda been happy ta let ya use the phone fer that. She'd be tickled pink if ya got back with yer Dad."

"Thanks," Richie muttered as he pocketed the phone.

"Cassie's programmed the phone numbers of her, Mrs. R., me, an' Diane inta the speed dial list if ya need 'em. An' if ya do get in touch with yer Dad, can ya let Cassie know?"

Richie glared at him, and Ned had no idea how to interpret it before it faded to a grunt of acknowledgement. Without another word, Richie walked his bike into the street, mounted it, and pedaled away.

Ned stepped out of the alley and watched Richie speed past the Inn and turn down the cross street at the intersection. He waited for another minute before he witnessed Richie's head pop out from behind a building and then disappear again.

"Yeah, nice work, Mr. Bond," Ned muttered as he walked away.

Elena's taunts and furtive touches of Jason's cock had dissolved into a passive acceptance of her rising pleasure. She lay flat on the bed with her feet drawn up to the edge of the mattress, sighing and moaning softly in escalating ecstasy. Even without her absolute control over him, Jason had the skill to please her and then some.

Jason planted his lips to her wet mound and lashed her clit with his tongue, until she drew in a sudden, sharp breath and let it go as a husky sigh. She trembled as he sent her pleasure soaring, then eased off to let it plateau and drift back. He sensed this had not been part of her plan, but she was too distracted by the intensity of the sensations flooding her psyche to call him out on it.

Which is exactly what Jason had hoped would happen.

She has to lose herself to it, Jason had thought, and it had become reality. When he tried to feel guilt over establishing even this tiny bit of control, all he had to do was remember what the cult had done to Melinda. He had little doubt that his was the superior moral stance.

Jason suddenly drew his head back. Elena uttered a forlorn sigh and whispered, "No, don't stop ... Why did you--?"

"Tell me about the other men who worship your pussy."

"Wh-what? Why would I ... uhnng ... oh yes ..."

Jason had returned his mouth to her pussy. He thrust his tongue into her tight tunnel and sucked gently on her clit. He closed his eyes and thought of how helpless Elena must feel, squirming in sensual delight which would not carry her quite over the edge, making her dependent on Jason for her satisfaction.

"Other men ..." Elena moaned. "Yes ... mmm ... other men worship my pussy ..."

Jason drew back just long enough to say, "What other men?"

"Why did ... mmm ... y-yes, they ... heads of ... the regional offices ... but why ... ohhhh!"

Elena arched her back, panting hard as Jason licked her clit with the flat of his tongue. He drove her to the excruciating edge of orgasm but held her back simply by willing that she would not cum. She gasped and writhed, shoving her pussy into his face in a desperate plea for release.

"F-fuck ... why can't ... I-I need to cum ..." Elena moaned.

Jason drew back, and she let out a frustrated sigh as her stimulation fell back from the brink. "What do you do with them?" Jason asked, pausing a second before planting his mouth to her mound again.

"What? ... Why should I tell ... oh God, I love that ... s-send me over ..."

Jason had drawn his lips around her swollen clit and sucked, lashing his tongue against the tip. Her hips bucked as he sent her pleasure spiking right at the straining edge of orgasm. Jason now understood this to be the penultimate vulnerable state of the mind, where its priorities of privacy and control clashed with the intense sexual needs of the body.

She needs to tell me if she wants to cum, Jason thought, and redoubled his efforts in emphasis of the point.

"Uhng! ... Uhhng! ... M-make them want ... my p-pussy so bad ... tell me anything ..."

Jason paused in his ministrations long enough to say, "What do they tell you?"

"P-please don't ... uhnng! ... they tell me ... uhnng ... no, c-can't tell you that ..."

Jason thrust two fingers hard and fast into her tight cunt as his tongue flicked the shaft of her clit. A protest died on her lips as her hips bucked. She placed a shaking hand to the back of his head and tried to push his face to her pussy, but he resisted and it fell away.

"Tell me if you want to cum," said Jason out of the corner of his mouth.

"Uhng! ... you can't ... uhnng! ... I don't ..."

Jason held the statement in his mind as gospel truth, angling his fingers so they rubbed against her clit with each stroke. Her fingers curled into the sheets, her head tossed back.

"Uhng! ... tell me ... all their dirty secrets ... l-lavish gifts on me to not report them ..."

While Jason was already confident of his moral superiority, he sensed something was still unspoken. "What about those without dirty secrets?"

"P-please ... took ... t-took pictures ... blackmail ... s-send to his wife ..."

Jason had the final piece. She had left the cult but taken the power Victor had bestowed upon her and abused it. She cannot be trusted with this power, he thought, and nothing in his mind would rise up in challenge. How could anything possibly justify this woman's continued use of this power to ruin men's lives? He could not live with himself if he did not put a stop to it.

He could not enslave her. He already had a slave, and taking Elena would raise suspicions when she never returned home. Perhaps he could stop her from wanting to use her power further.

Or maybe she wants cock more than she realizes. Maybe she should want their cocks instead of making them want her pussy.

Yes, that would be ideal, if he wanted to punish her as well as stop her. But why not punish her for what she did? It could serve to further incapacitate her.

But did he have ... yes, of course he had the right. He had the moral high ground. He knew right from wrong, and she either did not know or did not care. Then there was what the cult had done to Melinda, though Elena had not likely been with them when it had happened. Not that it should matter to me. I despise the cult and hence all its members. She's guilty by association.

He knew now what he had to do. He focused all his will on the solution and stopped blocking her orgasm. She cried out as she crested, her pussy squeezing tight around his fingers. Her hips jerked and her body thrashed as her climax spread through her body and into her mind.

His thoughts rode the coattails of her pleasure, sliding easily into her subconscious, where he planted the thought that would make everything right. He found no way to feel any qualms over his actions. She was a former cultist. She had to be neutralized. The ends justified the means.

Elena moaned and went limp as her climax faded, her eyes falling closed. Jason slowly stood, his cock having become rock-hard in intense excitement over what he had done. Whatever lingering guilt may have remained was lost in the triumph that he had done the right thing.

Elena turned her head and opened her eyes. They shimmered first in confusion and then need as she stared first into his face and then at his cock.

"Do you still not want my cock at all, Ms. Wood?" Jason asked.

Elena swallowed. "I-I don't understand ... why ... " She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself, pushing up her breasts. The nipples were still hard and erect. "G-God ... why ... why am I still so horny?"

Jason smiled. "Maybe you want my cock more than you thought."

"But I ... mmm ... this isn't ..." Elena shivered again, her pussy oozing and swollen. "Y-yes ... I don't understand why ..."

Jason slid his hands along the insides of her thighs and drifted closer, the head of his cock inches from her folds. "You sure you want it?"

Elena arched her back and moaned. "Yes ... please ... p-put it inside me."

Jason curled his arms around her thighs. He pressed the head against her entrance to her shudder of anticipation. He began to penetrate, then paused and eased off. "You sure about this?"

"Please, fuck me!" Elena cried. "Put your cock in my twat!"

Jason sank into her, letting off his own excited sigh as her tight cunt yielded to his entry. He rocked his hips in a slow and steady rhythm, letting his pleasure build slowly so he did not become too distracted and to leave Elena begging for more.

"So what about those men you want worshiping your pussy?" Jason asked.

Elena panted and closed her eyes. "Please, more ... harder ..."

"What about them?" Jason repeated without complying.

"Uhng ... I ... I want their cocks inside me ..." Elena moaned.

"How will you do that?"

"Whatever ... uhng ... whatever i-it takes ... money ... gifts ..."

"Not your power?"

"No!" Elena cried. She arched her back as Jason thrusted faster. "N-no ... can't use it again ... n-never cum again if I use it ..."

"We can't have that," Jason said, his voice growing more breathy and strained. "After all, you have to have cock."

"Uhng ... oh God, yes ... I must have cock ... I need it so badly ... I need to be fucked ..."

"No matter what they look like?"

Elena panted hard as their bodies slapped together, the bed squeaking softly. "D-doesn't matter ... just want cock ... God, I so want cock ... please, fuck me harder ..."

This time, Jason complied, as his own pleasure needed to be consummated. He had realized that reinforcement right after control was achieved ensured it would stick. Jason made her cum first so he could slip into her mind to that effect.

As Elena writhed and moaned in orgasmic delight, Jason pounded into her until his cock throbbed as well. He closed his eyes and buried himself inside her, enjoying the feel of his cock pulsing against the tight confines of her cunt. He waited until he was fully spent before withdrawing.

He felt it symbolic that he should leave his seed inside her as a way of marking her as properly altered to cause no more harm. He had picked up from her thoughts that she had already permanently settled the birth control issue. He was relieved that she had already seen to it that she would not breed.

"Mmm ..." Elena moaned, her eyes closed, her lips curled into a satisfied smile. "God, that felt so good."

"Did you already see the director for Haven's regional office?" Jason asked as he picked up his clothes.

Elena answered without lifting her head, still basking in the glow of post-coital bliss. "No, I'm supposed to see him Monday."

Jason grinned as he dressed. "Bet you can hardly wait."

"Oh, yes ... God, I hope he has a nice big cock."

"I wish you luck, then. Be pretty hard for you if he refuses and you have to wait for the next one."

"I know, I'm going to be so horny until I can get another cock in my pussy."

Jason finished dressing and headed for the door.

"Wait!" Elena cried as she sat up.

Jason paused at the door and turned. "Yes?"

"Um ... will you be around later? Or tomorrow? I mean ... I'm going to need more cock by then and I really liked yours."

"You'll have to talk to Stacy and see if she can arrange something for you. I'm sure she can."

Elena nodded and gave him a wan smile.

Jason gave her one last lingering look, congratulated himself on a job well done, and left.

Penny retied the sash of her robe just to give her hands something to do long enough to cross the kitchen to the coffee pot. "Do you want a cup, Jo?" she asked in a neutral voice.

"None for me," came her sister's haughty voice near the door.

Penny glanced behind her and saw that Jo had not advanced past the threshold. She poured herself a mug of coffee and returned to the table, holding her robe closed over her delta as she sat down. "What can I do for you, then?"

"We need to talk about Melinda."

Penny paused to take a sip for no other reason than to stretch the conversation further and give her daughter a longer reprieve. "Is she giving you any problems?"

Jo gave her a wry smile. "Oh, not at all. She's a nice, compliant, living sex toy. The trigger Kelly left inside her works wonders."

Penny nodded and held her tongue, though her pussy tingled in approval. "I'm glad she's working out for you," Penny said, her low-level arousal adding a touch of huskiness to her voice, but little else conveyed any sense of enthusiasm.

Jo smirked. "Stop lying. Oh, wait, that's right. Seeing your daughters farmed out as sexy prostitutes is hardwired to your twat."

Penny let out a sigh far more lusty than she had intended, her hips squirming as heat blossomed in her sex. "Can you get to the point, please?"

"Of course, since this is sure to get your pussy wet. I want to take Melinda home with me."

Penny hesitated with the mug halfway to her lips. She set it down, where it rattled from her trembling hand. "Today?"

"Today or tomorrow. Though I hardly see the need to delay."

Penny paused and expected words of wisdom from her Mistress, but none were forthcoming. She sensed it hovering nearby, observing in silence. She wondered if this were some sort of test. Perhaps that was why the Darkness was allowing her more independent thought of late. It wanted to see where her loyalties lie.

Didn't it understand? Didn't it remember? She would not have made this arrangement if she had not put her daughters' well-being first. Despite the guilt which threatened to swell, she continued to tell herself that she had had no choice. The wolves were at the door, and Jo had been about to let them in.

Penny writhed, her pussy aching and damp. She saw the corner of Jo's mouth rise. If she let Melinda go now, she would likely spend the rest of the day in orgasmic bliss. "No," she finally said in a shaky voice. "It's too soon. I need more time to decide."

Jo sighed. "This really is ridiculous, you know."

"If I can't keep them with the family, Jo, then I want some say in what happens to them!"

"You cannot tell me that was part of the bargain."

Penny hesitated. "M-maybe not," she admitted in a softer voice. "But ... but it hasn't seriously objected. I think it's going to give me some say in the matter."

"I sincerely doubt that it meant for you to 'shop around' like someone looking for the best deal. I'm the best you'll get. You've already decided for Heather."

Penny wanted to tell Jo that the arrangement with Laura was intended to be temporary, but she saw no means to get Heather out without confronting Laura directly. She did not want to risk making things worse.

She knew Laura wanted both her daughters. It was one reason why she had let Jo have her way with Melinda, though in retrospect she no longer saw that as a better alternative. A lot of decisions she had made since the 'deal' she had struck with the Darkness seemed to fall into this category, yet she could not let herself question it, for that was the entire basis of her life now.

"Laura was an act of expediency," said Penny in a flat voice.

"Does it know that?"

Penny said nothing and took a sip of coffee, having to hold the mug with both hands to keep it steady.

"You really like to play with fire, don't you?"

"Jo, stop pretending to know it better than I do," Penny snapped.

"Oh, I know it enough. You seem to forget that I researched it right alongside you."

"If that's what you call what you did, and not just finding a way to stab me in the back--"

Jo laughed. "Listen to us, acting like we're teenagers again. Let's go back to acting more mature, shall we? Though I do want to point out that you had ample opportunity to join Victor and I. You could have avoided all this."

"And my daughters would still be in danger, just from another source!"

Jo sighed and shook her head. "Still just like you always were back then. Can't see the big picture."

Penny put down her mug with a thump, splashing coffee onto the table. "We can spar all morning, and it still won't change my mind. Melinda is not going with you yet."

She braced herself for a rejection of her thinking from her Mistress, but she sensed nothing. The only sign of its continued influence was the aching need in her pussy as her mind filled with imagery of Melinda remaining forever nude, wet, and helpless. Her hips writhed and her back arched as warm and wet pleasure flooded her sex, liquid arousal dripping onto the chair seat.

"Yet you're practically cumming at the idea of Melinda being my slave."

"Th-that's irrelevant. All that matters is what I've decided." Penny paused. "And I'm getting no objections."

Jo frowned and waited, as if hoping Penny's statement would be proven false. Penny expected it as well, and yet nothing came. The way the Darkness was acting worried her. It had never deviated this far from its path. She knew it had acquired more intelligence and critical thinking skills from its recent influx of energy, but she had no idea to what ends.

"Very well," Jo said in a sighing voice. "Have your continued illusion of security for your daughters. You act as if one day it will suddenly decide to go away. It will only become more powerful. All you can hope for is to position yourself to be rewarded with some degree of power yourself." She smiled. "Although I guess you have already done that. You imagine yourself as having power over your daughters. I suppose you could, if you gave up the illusion of protecting them."

Jo whirled around on her heel and left.

Penny let out a ragged sigh, her pussy begging for relief. She shook her head violently for a few seconds, trying to reject thoughts of her daughters as compliant sex slaves. "I made a deal," Penny breathed, her hands gripping the edge of the table.

Indeed, you did, the Darkness' silky words slipped into her mind.

Penny shuddered and slid a hand between her legs. She moaned as fingers sank into sopping folds. She shook her head again, but the imagery persisted. She saw Heather and Melinda masturbating on command, moaning both in pleasure and adoration of their owner. Her fingers began slowly stroking her clit in response, pleasure rising as a warm, heady mist into her mind.

Yes, I know, I sensed all the questions, all the worries.

"Please ... p-please tell me I did the right thing," Penny moaned.

Oh, yes, you most certainly did, came the Darkness' reply. But perhaps not in the way you thought.

"Uhng ... I don't understand ..."

You will soon. Then all your remaining questions will be answered and all your remaining worries put to rest.

Penny's cunt swam in unrelenting aching lust. She wanted to plunge her fingers into her pussy and finger-fuck herself senseless. Instead, her fingers kept to a slow, sensual rhythm, her pleasure rising to a plateau which left her craving more. Her hips writhed as if trying to do what her fingers would not.

The Darkness had let her deny Jo yet made her masturbate to the idea of her daughters becoming sex slaves. The juxtaposition of the two ideas would not stop nagging her despite the flood of raw sexual need.

Yes, that will be answered as well. It will all become clear to you.

Penny let out a tremulous sigh and withdrew her fingers from her pussy despite her need. She shuddered and said in a tiny voice, "Thank you, Mistress."

Now go about your business. We'll leave your pussy wet and needy for awhile, as I need some amusement today as I wait for other plans to come to fruition.

Penny rose and shivered as she felt a drop trickle down the inside of her thigh. She let out a slow, lusty sigh and left.

Stacy looked up as Jason entered the room. "So how did it go?"

"I think it went okay," Jason said as he sat down. "I'm pretty sure she was with Victor's cult at some point."

"You are indeed correct. She was a rather influential member, so much so that he bestowed some of his power on her."

Jason nodded. He was relieved to hear that he had pegged everything exactly right.

"I take it she's been abusing her power?" asked Stacy.

"Yes, quite a bit. I can't imagine how many marriages she screwed up."

"And I'll bet you put a stop to that."

"I had to. I couldn't let her keep doing it."

"Of course not. You are in the right, after all."

"I punished her as well," Jason said in a more tentative voice. "Did you put that idea in my head?"

"Let me ask my own question which may make the answer to yours moot," Stacy said. "Did you feel justified in punishing her?"

He hesitated only a second. "Yes, I did, at the time."

"And now?"

Jason paused a bit longer. "Mostly, yes."

"And where do you feel some doubt?"

Jason tried to find the right words and failed. He could sense his doubt only as a vague discomfort, as someone might feel after taking too many liberties with another's hospitality. "It's hard to describe. Just a feeling that for some reason I shouldn't have done it. I didn't do it with Cindy. I made her happy all the time instead."

"Yes, this is true," Stacy said. "But then again, was Cindy being malicious, or did she simply not care?"

"More the latter, I think."

"And Elena?"

"Definitely the former," said Jason. "She practically boasted about what she could do."

"There is your difference."

Slowly, Jason nodded.

Stacy smiled. "Perhaps I nudged you in the right direction concerning how to punish her, but the desire and follow-through came from you. We all have a distinct capacity for revenge, Jason."

"But that doesn't necessarily make it right."

Stacy grinned. "Now, did you mean that, or was that just an automatic response?"

Jason was not sure. The words had indeed sprung into his head almost of their own accord, but now he came up empty when he sought justification for them.

"Focus on the end result," said Stacy. "You stopped her from doing further harm. What is wrong with vengeance when a greater good has been served?"

"And ... and I was in the right."

"Indeed you were, Jason. No doubt about that."

Jason nodded and let out a slow, relieved sigh. Things had gone better than expected. He wondered now why this place had worried him. He had not been tasked with performing arbitrary attacks upon the Harbingers as he had feared. He was sure if the time came, he would weigh all the facts and take action only if he had the high moral ground and felt he was in the right.

"So let's review what you've learned today," Stacy said. "First, that those who abuse their power should be stopped. Second, it is justified to punish them for that abuse if you are in the right, and it serves the greater good of stopping their abuse."

"Yes, that makes sense," said Jason.

"And you still remember what you learned earlier?"

"That I need not feel guilty for what I've done."

"Exactly. Do you feel guilty over Elena?"

Jason recalled the moment Melinda was released by the cult, and how she had fought not to appear traumatized. "No, not at all."

"Very good. That was the only new task I had for you today, but you should spend some time with your slave Cindy."

Jason nodded and smiled, his cock already swelling. "I'd like that, yes."

"Besides rewarding you for doing such a good job today, it will get you more comfortable with having a slave. You can go to the same room as last time, and I'll have her sent to you."

"Thanks," said Jason. "Is there anything else?"

Stacy considered. "Why don't you play with Cindy until about lunchtime, and then lunch will be my treat." She grinned. "Then maybe I'll send you up to Elena's room again, and you can reinforce one last time how much she loves cock."

Jason nodded and stood.

"And before you go, if you would answer me one question," Stacy said. "Has this experience been as bad as you were expecting?"

Jason wondered if she had already picked up on that same thought he had had just a minute ago. He was glad to have her vocalize it, as it helped assure him he was on the right track. "No, not really. But ..."

"Yes?"

Jason had a thought about the Darkness, how he had not felt its tendrils enter his head this time. He admitted that the time before he had only barely felt it. Maybe it wasn't trying to take control of him after all.

He shook his head. "It wasn't important. I'll head over to the room now."

"Cindy will join you shortly, and then you can check with me after lunch."

Jason headed out. Something still nagged at him despite his best efforts to reassure himself. This was supposed to be something dire, something which could somehow destroy the Harbingers. He had spent a week with very little sleep trying to decode a deluded Witch's journal to stop it. Now he could not see what it was he had to stop.

Jason entered the hotel room and eagerly awaited the attentions of his slave.

Richie had not realized the two problems which would confront him on his vigil: boredom and hunger.

Boredom had struck first. He thought he could be content with ogling pretty women as they passed by, until he had exhausted his supply of those worth looking at rather early. He mused that they worked in shifts, and he was unlucky to show up just before the "old and ugly" shift showed up. The confrontation with Ned had actually been a welcome diversion.

When it became too much to bear, he chanced leaving his post to dash into the nearby newsstand and buy a comic book. This held him until the second problem manifested as a rumbling in his stomach.

He cursed not having brought a watch until he remembered the cell phone. He flipped it open and saw it was close to noon. "Shit," he muttered and wished he had the number of a decent pizzeria that would deliver. His only prospect for food was a fast-food burger joint far enough away that he would no longer be able to see the front of the Inn.

He ducked into the newsstand again for a bag of potato chips. He wolfed them down and took out the cell phone again to check the time. He was about to put it away when he happened to think about his father.

Richie glanced at the Inn and then back to the cell phone. After a small bout of cursing at the menu structure, he found the phone's number and confirmed it was not any exchange with which he was familiar.

His thumb hovered over the keypad for a moment before he sighed and flipped it closed, stuffing it deep into his pocket. The last thing he needed was to have to interrupt the conversation with his father to chase after Jason.

At least that was the excuse he intended to believe.

As the day dragged past lunchtime and into the early afternoon, Richie realized another reason why he loathed the boredom: it gave him time to think.

He realized something he had not wanted to admit to himself: that Jason had acted as his moral compass. Without him to ask for advice -- or to berate Richie when he did something wrong -- he felt lost. Even when Richie became angry with Jason for harping on him, over time it had had the desired effect: Richie started making the right decisions more often than the wrong ones.

He did not feel comfortable asking Cassie the same sort of advice. First and foremost, she was a girl. He felt things like this should be talked about with other guys. Ned was his only prospect in that regard, and Richie didn't like his attitude.

Which left only his father.

Richie did not want to go there, and he pulled out the comic and re-read it just to force his mind from that path, and then again when he got to the end. He was on his third re-read when he glanced over the top edge of the page and saw Jason walking his bike to the street.

"About fucking time," Richie muttered. He mounted his bike and almost started pedaling before Jason had. Jason glanced behind him as he steered his bike off the curb, looking directly at Richie before taking off.

"Yeah, fine, you fucking saw me," Richie muttered as he followed. "Big fat hairy deal."

Richie stayed no more than a block behind Jason, with Jason taking occasional leisurely glances behind him. Richie tensed each time it happened, and he cursed under his breath when he got the notion that Jason was mocking him somehow. Even from this distance he could tell that Jason's Aura was darker, trailing out behind him like an inky black cloak.

Jason suddenly took a turn Richie had not expected, and he pedaled to beat the devil. He skidded around the corner only to find himself barely ten feet behind Jason, as if he had purposely slowed down just after going around the corner. Before Richie could say anything, Jason took off again and raced down the block, heading towards Green Avenue.

Richie pedaled faster, and cursed when Jason turned left up Green, towards the Sovert house. "You are not fucking with the girls!" Richie growled. "I'm not gonna fail Melinda again!"

He raced around the turn, leaning steeply into it to prevent a fall. The wheels slid on some lingering ice and almost came out from under him. He righted it just as Jason pulled far ahead. Richie cursed and raced after him, only to see him take an abrupt left turn down Mist Lane.

"What the fuck?!" Richie cried. He raced around the same corner, and saw Jason ease back to a more leisurely pace as he followed the gentle curve of the street. Richie stopped when he saw Jason turn up a driveway and realized Jason had just arrived back home without incident.

Richie saw the garage door go up and Jason walk his bike inside after exchanging words with his father, who stood on a ladder stringing Christmas lights from the gutters. Richie frowned and turned to pedal home.

Richie was almost disappointed. At least having something happen would have justified wasting more than half a day. At his house, he ran his bike into the garage and threw it against a wall. He thumped the button with his fist and barreled inside.

"Hi, Richie!" Cathy greeted him in her usual and annoying bubbly voice. She sat on the sofa before the TV, wearing her lacy black ensemble of panties, bra, stockings, and garters. She stood up and slipped her feet into five inch heels before walking over to him. "Are you in for the rest of the day?"

"Yeah, I guess I am," Richie said. "Mom still out?"

"She said she would be back by four." Cathy smiled. "We have plenty of time to fuck."

Richie stared at her, his cock growing hard. He thought he was getting tired of this, but after having wasted so much time, he felt he needed due compensation.

Before he could say anything, the phone rang.

"I'll get that," Richie said. "You get your pretty ass upstairs and in my bed."

"Right away, Richie!"

Richie slapped her on the rear as she passed, and she uttered a yelp and a sexy giggle. His gaze lingered on her swaying hips as he entered the kitchen and swiped the receiver from the hook. "Hello?"

"So did you see how silly it was to follow me?"

Richie frowned. "Jason? What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Just what I said. I could have led you anywhere I wanted. I even headed towards Melinda and Heather's house and then back to my house."

"Yeah, so?"

"What's to prevent me from waiting five minutes after you're gone and then heading over to their place again to mess with them? Or waiting until after dinner for that matter? You can't watch the place twenty-four hours a day."

Richie's fingers tightened around the phone. "Is that what you're going to do? Wait until I'm not watching and then go fuck with them?"

"Of course not," Jason snapped. "I'm just making a point. In fact, they haven't told me to go do anything to any of you."

"Yet, you mean," Richie growled. "I saw your fucking Aura, dude. You let them mess you up."

Jason paused. "I don't know what their intentions are. I thought I did, but not anymore."

"Come on, man, you said yourself what they're gonna do! They're gonna turn you against us!"

"And yet they haven't. I don't think they will. I don't really feel like they're taking control of me anymore."

"Then what the fuck are they doing to you?" Richie demanded.

"It's almost like a sort of training. Showing me how to use power in certain situations."

"Huh? You mean mind control power?"

Jason chuckled. "Nothing gets past you, does it?"

Richie clenched his teeth. This did not even sound like Jason speaking.

"Yes, mind control. Situations where it's okay to use it, where it would be justified."

"That's fucking crazy-talk," Richie said. "It's bullshit."

"You can say that after all the times we used mind control on others to further our goals?" asked Jason. "Or even on each other for our energy needs or just for sport?"

Richie paused. He had never wished for his mind to work more like Jason's, but that was before he was pitted against it. "It's not the same thing," was all he could manage to say.

"Why isn't it?"

"I don't have the right words like you do, okay?! It can't be the same. Look where it's fucking coming from! You can't trust anything they're telling you!"

"Richie, calm down. Remember what I said before: they're not sending me after you guys. And if they did, it would only work if I felt that it was justified. And at the moment, I don't feel the least urge in that direction. Really, a lot of what they're doing is stuff I could have deduced myself. After all, we're all capable of feeling this way, like we want to be in control and in the right."

"This is so fucked up, man."

"Please, stop worrying, and don't waste your time trying to follow me anymore, since you saw for yourself how pointless it is. I'll give you another call tomorrow after I get back from the Inn if you're so worried."

"What, you have to go back again tomorrow?"

"Yes. Stacy has another task for me. She's the proprietor of the Inn."

Richie's mind raced. "What time are you leaving for--"

Jason laughed. "Talk to you tomorrow. Bye."

"Wait, Jason, just tell me -- fuck!" Richie slammed the receiver back onto the hook. He curled a hand into a fist and banged it once against the wall.

Cassie sat down on the edge of her bed. Next to her on the nightstand, steam wafted from a fresh cup of chamomile tea, her third that evening. She glanced at it and sighed as she realized all this tea was more likely to make her have to go to the bathroom than actually relax her.

The last time she had been this nervous about falling asleep was when Stephanie had haunted her dreams before she came to understand that those visitations were from a flesh and blood person and not from beyond the grave. Not that she would have trouble falling asleep. On nights like this, it unnerved her just how easily she could fall asleep anytime and anywhere.

Cassie had brought the cup to her lips when her cell phone warbled.

She flinched and yelped when hot tea splashed on her thigh. She put down the cup and snatched the phone from the table. She gasped when she saw the caller ID. "Ned? Is everything okay?"

A tired voice sighed in her ear. "I found the primer."

Cassie leapt to her feet. "Oh, Ned, that's wonderful! Did you decode all the other numbers?"

"I have," said Ned. "Finally finished two hours ago. Was spending all that time lookin' for the goddamn primer. Finally found it by freakin' accident."

"It doesn't matter how you did it, so long as you did it. This is great! We can go see Mrs. Radson tomorrow and--"

"Now, hold yer horses there, babe, an' let me tell ya the whole story. It ain't all roses and sunshine."

Cassie suppressed both a sigh and a desire to say "now what?" She sat down on the edge of the bed. "I'm sorry. Please, go ahead and explain."

"Turns out that Diane was only half-right about the primer bein' part of the message itself. It's sorta tacked on at the end. Can't believe it was that fuckin' simple and I musta passed over it a hundred times before I saw it."

"Diane will be so glad she was able to help, regardless," Cassie said.

"On the last page ta have a potion ingredient code, she actually talks about a potion, this one ta help sooth intestinal cramps. Lemme read this paragraph ta ya." Cassie heard a shuffling of papers. "She says, 'it's important ta remember when making this tonic that not only is the selection of the right ingredient critical, but the preparation is doubly so. And always measure twice: the wrong amount can just as easily kill the recipe.' She's got the words 'selection,' 'preparation,' and 'amount' underlined. She's never underlined a damn thing in the entire journal."

"That's it!" Cassie cried. "The first number is the ingredient, the second is how to prepare it, and the third is the amount."

"Yeah, I agree. Damn sneaky bitch of a witch."

"Ned!" Cassie said in a shocked voice.

"Aw, that's jus' the exhaustion talkin', babe, and I didn't actually mean it ta be mean. She really was clever ta hide it in plain sight. But we got one last li'l problemo. We still don't know what the hell the numbers mean."

"Oh," Cassie said in a small voice.

"I mean, fine, the first ingredient is one-four-six. What does that refer ta? For all we know, it could be the item number in an herb catalog, but damned if we know which one. And lots o' luck gettin' a copy that was published right around when--"

"It's all in there!" Cassie suddenly blurted.

Ned paused. "Huh?"

"Don't you remember? That's what Mrs. Radson said Elizabeth told her when she received all of Elizabeth's possessions. She said 'it's all in there.' So everything we need must be there somewhere."

"I'll take yer word for it, babe, as I'm so tired I'm barely rememberin' my own name."

"Then get some sleep, please," Cassie said. "I think we're going to have to talk to Mrs. Radson to get any further anyway."

"Okay, I'll call ya tomorrow. Love ya, babe."

"I love you too, Ned," Cassie said in a soft voice. She lingered on the dead line for another moment before snapping her phone shut.

She uttered a more content sigh and glanced down at her cup of tea. She pushed it aside and pulled back the covers. She felt a little less apprehensive about what awaited her in the dreamscape now that she had something to look forward to the next day.

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