Diane stopped at the bottom of her driveway and glanced behind her as Richie brought up the rear. "Thanks again for seeing me home, I know it's late and you ... um, well, have your needs."

Richie shrugged, but from the way he was sitting on the bike, Diane surmised that he had sported an erection much of the way down. "So what about tomorrow?" Richie said. "You want to try for more visions?"

"That's just it, I don't know where to go from here. I mean, it's obvious Penny came back to Haven, but what she did after that is a mystery." She glanced down the road. "I was thinking of talking to Mrs. Radson tomorrow if I can. Maybe she would have some suggestions."

Richie hesitated, looking more troubled than the discomfort in his pants could account for. "Yeah, sure, we can do that," he said in a clipped voice.

Diane tilted her head. "Something wrong?"

Richie shook his head. "Forget it. What time you want to head over?"

"I don't know yet, I'll have to call Mrs. Radson after dinner and ask her. I'll call you when I know. I better get inside, mother is probably getting worried. I should've been home long before this."

Diane dismounted and walked her bike up the driveway, glancing behind her as she reached the garage door security keypad. Richie was still at the bottom; he would stay there until he saw Diane was safely inside the house.

Diane typed in the code. Her heart thumped when she saw that the garage was empty.

"Wait, where's your Mom's car?" Richie called out.

Diane turned her head. "I don't know. Oh, wait, she's probably at the store. She mentioned this morning she might have to get something for tonight's dinner."

Though Diane thought this would be rather late for her mother to be out. She supposed it was possible her mother did not realize she needed something until she started making dinner, but for someone that well-organized, it would be a rare occurrence.

"You sure about that?" Richie said in a suspicious voice.

"Yes, I'm sure," Diane lied. "She probably left a note for me inside."

"You want me to come inside with you?"

Diane considered it but shook her head. This was her own home. If there was one place she did not need to play the part of the coward, it was here. "I'll give you a call later, Richie. Thanks for everything."

Richie nodded. He was still standing there as the garage door closed in Diane's wake.

Diane took out her house keys and paused at the door. Her heart was still pounding. Perhaps she should have had Richie come inside with her, especially when she inserted her key into the lock and found it was already unlocked.

"Don't panic," she whispered. "Just ... don't panic. This is my own house. I'm safe here."

Diane swallowed and stepped inside.

The house was unnaturally silent. She was not used to it being empty. She flinched when the door banged closed behind her on its spring-loaded hinges.

Diane crept through the living room as if expecting someone to jump out at her. She glanced at the windows and the front door, but neither showed any evidence of forced entry. She stepped to the window and swept the curtain aside. Richie was gone.

A faint, distant creak made her spin around in place, heart hammering. She let out a shaky sigh and stepped into the kitchen. If her mother had left a note, it would be on the refrigerator door. She found nothing.

She glanced at the greased pan, then peeked inside the fridge and saw the bowl of seasoned meat. She let out a small, relieved sigh. It was looking more like her mother had indeed headed down to the store.

Diane spun around again and uttered a tiny gasp. She had felt a wave of heat pass over her, leaving her skin flushed. She stepped back into the living room as it came over her again, stronger this time, her nether regions tingling faintly.

"Hello?" Diane called out in a tremulous voice. "I-Is someone here?"

She stood absolutely still and listened. All she heard was her own pounding heart and labored breathing. The tingling in her pussy had become a low heat. Her hips swayed as moisture gathered in her folds.

Diane glanced towards the front door. Should she leave? Where would she go? What if this were some trick designed to make her leave? Or was this just her own line-tapping power about to activate? Or was the potion starting to work on her like it had Cassie and Richie?

Diane let out a husky sigh, her nipples poking the fabric of her sweater. Whatever it was, it was getting worse. Her pussy was damp, and she felt too hot in her clothes. She glanced at the door to the garage and wondered if she had enough time to do something about this before her mother got home.

She started towards the stairs. Her panties rode uncomfortably tight against her mound, the slight jiggle of her breasts in her bra making her nipples tingle. She stopped at the top of the stairs when she realized that her soft panting was not from exertion.

This isn't right, Diane thought. I shouldn't be getting horny this fast.

Diane turned around, intending to head back down the stairs. She let out a husky sigh and shuddered, her hips gyrating as if in a vain attempt to stave off the heat in her sex. She managed only a few steps before she shuddered again and leaned against the banister, her panting deepening until it matched the needy ache in her pussy.

Diane realized something was very wrong. She had to call Richie. No, she should call Mrs. Radson! She was only five minutes away. She'd know if this was natural or not.

Diane turned around and dashed into her bedroom. She sat on the edge of her bed, trying to ignore the squelch of moisture trapped behind her damp panties, and reached for the phone.

She never quite made it. Her trembling hand hung inches above the receiver. I don't ... I don't really want to call anyone, do it? she thought.

She swallowed as she fought not to withdraw her hand from the phone and lost. She closed her eyes and let out a quavering sigh, spreading her legs as the trapped heat became too great to bear. When this did little to relieve it or the throbbing in her nipples, she struggled against the urge to strip.

But that's what I want to do, Diane mused within the growing haze of lust. I want to be naked.

Before she realized she was doing it, she had pulled off her sweater and tossed it aside. When she reached for the buttons of her blouse, her hands stopped and trembled.

I can't do this ... I want to ... I shouldn't ... I have to ... I have to get naked.

Diane let out a sigh both lustful and desperate as the blouse joined her sweater. She pulled off her sneakers and socks, then stood and reached for her jeans. She again stopped, but her hips writhed as her sex pulsed with her pounding heart.

I have to stop ... I have to ... have to strip ... too hot ... too horny ...

Her jeans fell down her legs. Panting hard, she stepped out of them, her lithe body clad in only a bra and panties. She wrapped her arms around herself and whimpered, shaking her head in a fruitless attempt to dislodge the feelings she knew were not her own. "S-stop ..." she moaned. "Please stop ... p-please ..."

"We can't stop now."

Diane gasped and looked up. She flinched despite somehow knowing by then he was there. Yet she had not expected to see him in all his naked glory, his cock standing proudly erect, tinged purple in his excitement and pulsing with his heartbeat.

Despite the thick blanket of lust smothering her thoughts, she managed to seize the link to the Harbingers. Yet the shout she thought she had blasted to the others emerged as little more than a tiny, pitiful whimper. The link slipped from her grasp and was lost into the darkening fog of wet arousal.

"We have to do this, Diane," Jason said as he stepped forward, his voice contrite despite the lascivious gleam in his eyes. "For your own good and the good of the other Harbingers."

Cassie lay sprawled on the bed of Debby's guest room for the second time, panting through a lust which never seemed to be satisfied even as her pleasure again rose to new heights. Her fingers curled and uncurled, her thighs quivering as Ned teased her clit with rapid flicks of his tongue.

Cassie closed her eyes and tried to see through the lust without crossing the mind-segregating curtain. Perhaps sharing the experience across her entire mind would satisfy her longer. She pined for a time when the Harbingers were not in crisis, when she could make slow love with Ned without feeling driven by need which was not necessarily her own.

She tried not to feel guilty. Ned had not felt quite up to performing a second time, even with the pause to speak with Debby to bring her up to speed. Cassie had refrained from telling her about what Richie had done with the potion; she held out hope that he would do the right thing.

Ned had refused to let Cassie suffer in unrequited desire. She lay at the mercy of his oral ministrations, which were better than she ever remembered. She gasped and tilted her head back as he clamped his mouth to her mound and closed his lips about her clit, sucking gently. He pressed the flat of his tongue against it and stroked hard and deep, until Cassie squirmed at another excruciating plateau.

"Uhng! Ohhh! ... Oh God ..." Cassie whimpered as her straining pussy relented, and she climbed higher still.

Debby had said she did not believe the potion was directly responsible for the sudden increase in their sex drives. She felt it had more to do with the Harbinger link, as if it had somehow sensed their need.

"It would explain why Diane is not experiencing the same effect," Debby had said. "She cannot store sexual energy anymore, so there's no point."

The implications had fascinated Debby but frightened Cassie. It meant some rudimentary intelligence was at work in the link. Debby was insistent that it was no more than the shared consciousness of the Harbingers themselves, but Cassie's experiences with the wayward spirit in her Projected travels suggested otherwise.

Cassie strained again, her back arching. As if sensing her need, Ned lashed fast and hard, licking so furiously she could not believe he would not have an aching jaw after this.

She cried out as the dam finally burst, and her hips rocked and jerked to the intense throbbing. Ned grasped her thighs and kept his face planted to her sex, his tongue drawing out her orgasm to an almost maddening extent. She let out a gushing sigh when finally he relented. She bounced lightly on the mattress, and only then realized she had lifted her hips off the bed.

Cassie gasped for breath as Ned drew back. "Thank you," she said with a still husky sigh despite the delightful post-orgasmic ache in her pussy.

"Anything fer ya, babe," Ned said in a warm voice. He crawled beside Cassie and plucked a tissue from the box on the night table.

Cassie's gaze slid down his body and between his legs, where he sported a rather obvious bulge in the crotch of his jeans. "Wait, Ned, are you ... well, ready again?"

Ned drew back to a kneeling position as he cleaned his mouth and face. "Ah, if ya mean am I a feelin' a bit more giddy-up in my git-along, yeah, but nothing ta write home about."

Cassie sat up and drew in her feet. She reached between his legs and lay her hand against his crotch to both his surprise and delight before he could suppress either. "You're hard."

"Uh, yeah, but ya don't hafta ... um ..."

Cassie pulled down his zipper and fumbled with his briefs. She heard tiny sighs and moans as she teased the cotton to one side and released his cock past the zipper. She gave it a few slow strokes, and both heard and felt the sensual delight of her touch.

"Babe, if ya keep that up ..." Ned said in a quavering voice.

"Here, lie on the bed," Cassie said, drawing back.

"Oh, wait, ya don't hafta--"

"I want to, Ned. Please, you were kind enough to do this for me when you weren't quite ready. Now that you are, I want to repay it."

"But--"

"Unless you don't want your cock in my mouth," Cassie said, her cheeks glowing.

Ned blinked, then scrambled to arrange himself without another word of protest.

Cassie's heart thumped. She knew she was taking a chance that this would rekindle her lust. She had not a fraction of the experience of either Heather or Melinda, but after she had been forced to do it in her Projected state, she wanted to do it on her own terms.

She undid Ned's belt and tugged down his jeans and briefs. Cassie wrapped her fingers around his shaft, letting out a husky sigh as it sparked her own renewed arousal. She hoped it was just her love for him and not the potion again.

She stroked him until she elicited a soft moan. She almost didn't want to stop; he felt so nice in her fingers. She tilted her head to one side and slid her tongue up and down his shaft. She then realized she did have an advantage the other girls did not. She could sense his excitement, his rising pleasure, and know how well her attentions were working.

Cassie pressed her lips against the head of his cock and bestowed a light kiss. He shuddered and uttered a strained sigh as his cock slowly passed her lips. She delighted in the waves of pleasure rolling off him like wind-driven swells on the sea.

Her head bobbed, sending him into a steady and sensual climb. In a way, she liked this better than straight sex. Without being distracted by her own pleasure, she could feel the joy of perceiving his, that she was really giving something in return and not just taking. It made her feel a little less like her mother and a little more like she could deal with the confrontation in her own psyche when she tried to free Jason.

She felt a small sense of chagrin that everything seemed to lead her back to the crisis of the moment.

Cassie finished him sooner than she had wanted; her empathic sense only went so far. He suddenly let out a loud, strained groan and spurted into her mouth. She clamped her lips around the upper part of his shaft, pumping the lower with her fingers, trying not to let more of his seed escape than the few drops which had already rolled down his cock.

She was forced to draw back and swallow what she had already taken, leaving his waning orgasm to dribble a few more weak spurts of seed down his shaft. She took his now flagging cock back into her mouth to lap up what she could. She swallowed again and said in a sheepish voice, "I feel like I made a bit of a mess of it."

"Oh man ..." Ned groaned. "Babe, no, that was great! Don't worry about it."

Cassie grabbed a few tissues from the night table and handed them to him, blushing. "I promise, I'll get better at this eventually."

Ned grinned as he cleaned himself up. "An' I'll be happy ta provide ya with practice."

Cassie smiled faintly. She knew what had been left unsaid: when this crisis is over. Everything hung on that. On her.

Cassie slid off the bed and gathered her clothes. "We better get going, this is far later than I had intended to stay."

Ned zipped himself up and jumped off the bed. "Have ya given any thought ta where we can do this once Mrs. R.'s hubbie gives us the heave-ho?"

Cassie sighed. "To be honest, Ned, that's the least of my worries right now."

"Yeah, I figgered, I just--"

Cassie gasped, and her hand flew to her bosom. "N-Ned, did you just feel that?!"

Mystified, Ned shook his head. "What was it?"

"It was very faint, but ... oh goodness, it was Diane!"

Ned's eyebrows rose. "Diane? What did ... aw, fuck, it's not Jason, is it?"

Cassie hurried to dress herself. "We have get over there! Jason can't be allowed to--"

Ned stepped up to her and grasped her arms. "Babe, we can't."

Cassie glared at him and nearly raised a protest. Instead, she let out a helpless sigh and hung her head. "You're right. We might give everything away."

"If this potion is workin' as good on her as it did on ya, she'll be okay."

"If she doesn't become traumatized by it," Cassie said in a hollow voice. She resumed dressing at a less frantic pace. "Let's go. We need to get out of here before Susan or Mr. Radson comes home."

Diane tried shaking her head, but her eyes had already flicked down to his cock, and she knew it would taste just as good as any pussy. "Jason, please ... y-you can't do this ..."

Jason stepped closer. "Oh, I most assuredly can," he said in a silky voice.

Diane backed up until her calves hit the side of the bed. "I-I don't mean that ... I mean, I can't--"

"Yes, you can. In fact ..."

His hands touched her sides. She shuddered and moaned, her pussy aching as his fingers trailed down her sides and over her hips.

"... you get so very horny from my touch."

"Oh God, yes ... I-I mean ... n-no, please ..."

Jason slid his hands up her sides and around the cups of her bra, squeezing them until he had elicited another moan. His hands slid around her trembling, helpless body and undid the bra clasps.

Diane's last protest died on her lips as her bra slipped off, and his hands kneaded the petite mounds of her breasts. He pressed his thumbs against her nipples, and she writhed with tingling need, hips swaying.

Jason's hands slid down her sides and hips, his fingers hooking her panties and tugging them down. Diane shivered as the crotch peeled away from her glistening pussy and dropped to her feet.

"You said you were a lesbian," Jason said in a soft voice. "But I'll bet you're thinking a lot about my cock right now."

The images almost drowned out reality. She saw herself kneeling at his feet, taking his thick, delicious cock into her mouth and sucking every last drop of his seed. She saw his cock sliding deep into her tight pussy, feeling as good as Heather's tongue or fingers.

She gazed at him with half-lidded eyes. All thought was fading like mist, her sense of self slipping away with it. Jason embraced her, and her remaining resistance melted at the touch of his warm body and the press of his hardness. She ground her hips against him, pussy desperate for his presence within it.

Diane's mind spun for a moment like a merry-go-round set too fast, and it was as if she had stepped into a movie about herself.

She saw him pull her down onto the bed. She saw herself straddle him and hump his cock to the rhythm set by his firm, guiding hands on her hips. She felt his cock spearing her helpless and needy pussy, his thrusts nothing short of heavenly pleasure, as if his cock was exactly what her pussy had been waiting for all this time.

It took her another minute to realize she was still inside her own body and not some spirit hovering over it. Jason had control and had no control over her at the same time.

When she understood what was happening, her first instinct was to seize control of the wayward part of her psyche, and she succeeded for a split second before she forced herself to pull back. Her humping faltered, and she let out a very tiny yelp. He did not appear to notice.

Diane was both elated and terrified. Keeping her panic at bay was no easy task. All she could see was herself being enslaved yet again. If she let it happen, what guarantee did she have that she would ever get that part of her mind back? If she failed to regain it, and the potion wore off, would it spread to the rest of her mind?

"That's it, Diane," Jason said in a breathy voice as his hands fell away from her. "Feel how good it is to fuck. Think how good it would be to do nothing but fuck."

Her protected self cringed and wanted to crawl away and hide as her isolated self fell deeper into his thrall. She sensed its thoughts changing, filling her with an icy chill as she recalled coming out of her Victor-induced enslavement and remembering all those feelings she had and could not stop.

"It also feels so good to do what you're told," Jason said as he cupped her breasts.

Diane arched her back and leaned forward at his silent bid. His hips rose to meet hers, and their bodies slapped together in escalating synchronized pleasure. Diane's protected self felt caught up in the emotions if not the programming. It would feel her impending, mind-blanking orgasm just as powerfully as her enslaved self.

"Obey and fuck," Jason said as his voice became more strained and his breathing more labored. "They make you ... so happy, Diane ... obey and fuck ..."

Jason's words dissolved as he became too wrapped up in his own pleasure to speak. Yet the strength of his mental power never diminished. She felt it wrap around her isolated self like thick chains, growing ever tighter as she neared climax. Her pussy strained at the edge, and she knew that once it went over, she would be his sex kitten.

Diane wanted to scream. She fought the urge to snatch back her other self and bolt from the room. She managed to find the fortitude only when all her fear was drowned in a tidal wave of ecstasy. All of her being reverberated to the strong, throbbing cadence of her orgasm. His cock was her ultimate and only source of pleasure, and she looked forward to worshiping it at his bidding.

When the waters of lust finally receded, it left her protected self high and dry. Her isolated self, along with the body currently puppeted to it, let out contented moans and sighs and snuggled against him. "Oh, that felt so good, Master," Diane purred.

A tiny shudder went through Diane's body as her protected self's reaction was strong enough to breach the divide for a split second. Again, Jason did not seem to notice. He wrapped his arm around her and smiled. "This is for your own good, please realize that."

"I'm just happy to be your little pussy slave, Master."

"Yes, and I'll make sure you stay happy."

"I'm happy when you tell me what to do, and when you fuck my pussy."

"And you'll never have to worry about whether someone will use your power for ill."

"Oh, no, I won't ever use it unless you tell me to, Master."

Diane could at least be content to know that they had been right about why Jason wanted to take her, but now she had to play the part of the slave. All she could do was watch and wait to see how this played out.

And to hope she could avoid crying her eyes out the moment she took control of her isolated self again. If she ever could.

Janet Woodrow was normally a very patient woman. She managed to occupy herself during the first ten minutes of her incarceration inside a tiny room she suspected they normally used for interrogating suspects.

After twenty minutes, it was wearing thin. She had been herded in there by the rather stiff-voiced, dour, blonde-haired officer as soon as she had arrived and was told the officer would be with her "shortly."

She had tried to demand to speak to someone else who might know the disposition of her daughter, but each time she was told that only Officer Tanner could help her, and she needed to be patient. All attempts to ascertain her daughter's welfare were met with the same blue wall of silence.

She paced the room as the time crept towards the half-hour mark. This was nothing like Diane's broken leg when she was twelve. As soon as Janet had arrived, she was treated to the sight of a very much alive and well daughter, save for the cast on her leg.

The door opened behind her, and she spun around as Officer Tanner entered the room.

"About damn time," Janet said, marching up to the officer. "What's going on? Can I at least see my daughter and know she's all right?"

Tanner folded her hands and gave Janet an officious look. "I'm sorry, ma'am, there appears to have been something of a mix-up."

Janet stared. "What??"

"We called you down here in error. We do not have your daughter here after all."

Janet was too stunned to speak. She did not know whether to be relieved or furious.

"I apologize for the inconvenience, ma'am. You're free to go."

The officer's stoic response helped tip the balance. "How ... how dare you!" Janet exploded.

The officer looked at her with equanimity.

"You get me down here, you get me all worked up over the safety of my daughter, you refuse to tell me a damn thing, and you apologize for the inconvenience?!"

Janet was shaking. Part of it was the incredible rush of relief coming over her only now that her daughter was okay and likely at home worried about where her mother was.

"I regret the mistake, ma'am," said Tanner, not batting an eyelash. "I assure you we'll track down the source of the error and ensure it never happens again."

Janet wanted to demand to know how it happened. The more she dwelled on it, the more suspicious it seemed. She thought how Diane had likely been home all alone for the past half hour. Anything could have happened to her while Janet was stuck at the police station.

Janet shoved the officer aside just to vent more of her fury and barreled out of the police station. She ignored the pleas from the receptionist to sign out and raced to her car. As she started the engine, she thought to call the house on her cell phone, but in her current emotional state she was sure she would burst into tears. She needed the drive home to collect herself.

As she pulled away from the curb, she took a few deep breaths. She had to convince herself this was not some grand conspiracy to separate her from her daughter for some nefarious purpose. This was the police for heaven's sake! They would be the last to be involved in anything bad going on in Haven.

Or she hoped to God that was the case, for she would have nowhere else to turn were the unthinkable to happen to her daughter.

Diane had been allowed to dress herself when her "master" went downstairs to use the phone. She wanted to listen on the extension, but that would have meant taking full control of her mind, and she was far from a stable emotional state.

Her enslaved self radiated total bliss, a soft smile on her lips as she enjoyed the lingering ache of vigorous sex. She shimmied her hips as she drew a fresh pair of panties into place, moving with a slow, sensual rhythm she had never done in her most intimate moments with Heather. Every move was calculated to put on a show, as if Jason were watching her at every moment.

Indeed, in a way, he was. Tendrils of his mind had wormed into her isolated consciousness, directing her thoughts like a puppet on strings. She heard Jason climbing the stairs and turned to greet him as she fixed her bra in place. She paused until he had entered the room, knowing he would enjoy one last look at her before she had to cover herself further.

"Just wanted to let you know that your mother will be home shortly," Jason said in a bright voice.

"Thank you, Master," Diane the slave said in a low, sexy voice. "You're so very good to me." She shuddered. "I-If I may ask ... what did you do to her?"

The protected self had to know. She tried not to push her enslaved self too hard. Fortunately the question had been asked in the same sensual, slavish voice, taking the edge off the intent.

"I arranged for a diversion, that's all," Jason said. "Just long enough to get her out of the house."

Protected Diane felt a sense of relief. She had awful visions of him mind controlling her mother as well. Now she understood how Jason had felt when his mother fell to the influence of the Darkness. She could not imagine it befalling her own mother.

"Now, put the rest of your clothes on like a good little girl, since your mother will be home in only ten minutes or so."

"Yes, Master." Diane sat on the edge of the bed and pulled on her jeans. "Master, when will we get to fuck again?"

"I'm not sure. It depends on how many chores I have to do around the house this weekend."

"I'm supposed to go with Richie to try to get more visions about Heather's mother."

Diane's protected self had nothing to do with that comment. Jason had left most of her intelligence intact.

"Yes, you should do that. I want to avoid confronting the others about this until after the weekend. You go with Richie and do what you need to do, and don't mention any of this."

"All right, Master." She stood up and shimmied her jeans over her hips. "I'll miss you, though. I'll miss your cock."

Jason smiled. She was about to zip her jeans when he nudged her hands away. He slipped his hand under her panties, his fingertips teasing her clit until moisture flowed. Diane closed her eyes and let out a husky sigh.

"Yes, you will miss it," Jason said. "So much so you'll stay just a little wet for me until you get a chance to have it again."

"Mmm, yes, Master," Diane cooed. She sighed in both desire and disappointment when he withdrew his hand. She zipped her jeans and picked up her blouse. Low, moist heat radiated on a slow burn in her sex, and she yearned for more when the soft pleasure would rise no higher than a teasing ache.

"Now remember," Jason said as she buttoned her blouse. "Keep this quiet for now. Don't tell the other Harbingers, and act normally around your mother."

"Yes, Master."

Her projected self felt the pleasure as much as her enslaved self did, and it was like trying to see through a thin haze. She wished she could see the divider between her two halves like Cassie could. Maybe it would reassure her that the constant arousal would not cause the rest of her mind to fall into his thrall.

He headed downstairs, and she followed. "Now, Diane, I need to ask you a question."

"Yes, Master, of course."

"Are the other Harbingers planning any sort of rescue attempt for me?"

Diane froze for a moment from the force with which she had seized her enslaved self. "N-no, Master, not that I'm aware of."

Jason paused. "And you're sure of that?"

Diane nodded, not trusting her voice to her enslaved self.

"Remember how good it feels to obey, Diane."

Diane shuddered, only partially from desire. Her protected self was reminded too much of Victor, and how he had programmed her using only simple pleasure reward techniques.

"Do you want to be a good little girl for me?"

Diane's pleasure rose as if he were stroking her pussy. "Yes, Master," she breathed.

"Be a good girl, then, and tell me what the others are planning."

"Uhng ... n-nothing ... nothing, Master."

Finally, the rising pleasure retreated. Diane let out a tiny sigh and looked at Jason with languid eyes as her arousal was slower to abate.

"Just wanted to make sure," Jason said. "Perhaps the others decided you were too much of a risk and refrained from telling you anything. Maybe they will come to understand what I've done is for the best."

A distant rumbling sounded as the garage door went up. Jason glanced in that direction. "All right, Diane, remember what I said."

Diane nodded. "Yes, act normal around my mother," she said, her voice losing some of its husky edge. She took a deep breath and let it go as a quavering sigh. She swayed her hips once to the gentle heat in her pussy, then stood up straight.

The garage door started down again, and Janet burst into the house just seconds later.

"Hi, mother," Diane said, smiling.

"Diane! Thank ..." Janet trailed off and stopped, staring at Jason.

Jason stepped forward. "Good afternoon, Mrs. Woodrow. I'm Jason Conner."

"What? Jason ... oh, yes, the Conner boy," Janet said with relief. "Yes, I remember her mentioning you."

"Diane had come home and found the house empty," Jason explained. "She was a little nervous about being here alone so she called me and asked me to come over and stay with her until you got home."

Janet's lips twitched into a small but grateful smile. "Thank you, Jason, I really appreciate that."

Protected Diane wanted to shout at her mother to not fall for these lies, but it was obvious her mother was very upset. Just what sort of "diversion" had Jason arranged?

"I better get home, it's getting kind of late," said Jason as he headed towards the door. He looked at Diane and smiled. "See you over the weekend."

Diane nodded and smiled back. "Yes, I'll be looking forward to it, Jason."

Janet gave her daughter an odd look before turning her head towards Jason. "Jason, one moment, please."

Jason stopped just short of the door and turned around. "Yes, Mrs. Woodrow?"

"Don't you live on the other side of town? Well over in the northeast corner?"

"Yes, ma'am. Why do you ask?"

Was her mother starting to understand that something was wrong? Did she hear the faint huskiness in Diane's voice? The protected part of Diane's psyche could only hope, yet she wanted to warn her mother against getting involved any further than she already was. She now lived in absolute dread that Jason would do to her mother as he just done to her.

Janet shook her head. "It's nothing. Yes, you better get home before your mother worries about you."

"Oh, she's okay with this, trust me, Mrs. Woodrow. Anyway, it was a pleasure meeting you."

Jason let himself out the front door.

Janet stared at the closed door for another few seconds before stepping over to her daughter. "Diane ..."

"Yes, mother?" Diane replied in a soft voice.

Janet paused. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Did anything ... happen while I was gone?"

Diane tilted her head. "Happen, mother?"

Janet shook her head again. "I suppose that was a foolish question."

The next words out of Diane's mouth were purely of her enslaved self's doing. "Jason was kind enough to keep me company while you were out. I enjoy his company. He's a very good friend. I'm looking forward to seeing him again over the weekend."

"Seeing him," Janet repeated in a level voice. "As in ...?"

Her words hovered, and Diane realized her enslaved self was stuck for a response that did not involve extolling his sexual prowess. "Just to hang out with, mother," the words from her protected self tumbled from the puppet's mouth. "Along with the other friends I've been going around with."

Janet seemed to relax slightly, not so much at the words themselves but at how the voice sounded less like lust on a slow burn. "I apologize for leaving the house so abruptly," she said as she took off her coat. "And for dinner being late."

"It's okay, mother. Did you have to go to the store?"

Janet paused. "No. But it's something I would rather not talk about right now." She draped her coat over the back of the sofa and headed into the kitchen. "Normally I'd ask for help, but I was pretty much done with the prep-work when I had to leave. You can go up to your room for a bit if you want."

"Thank you, mother," Diane said in a voice with enough of a husky cadence that she caught a glimpse of her mother glancing over her shoulder just before Diane reached the bottom of the stairs.

Talk of Jason had made her so warm and wet. She took the stairs with maddening care, letting her hips swing to the slow and sensuous beat of the liquid desire in her pussy. The tug of her panties in her slit brought a lusty smile to her lips, the brush of her thighs against one another a tantalizing tease against her swollen labia.

She entered her room with every intention of playing with herself, imagining Jason's cock teasing her folds instead of her far less skilled fingers. Instead, she froze as she was about to lie on the bed. She remained a statue for another few seconds before a violent shudder wracked her body. She twisted herself around and fell to the edge of the bed.

Diane blinked rapidly as everything around her appeared five times brighter and more colorful. The clink of distant kitchen utensils sounded like giant metal rods smacking against one another in metallic discord.

Her room blurred. An intake of breath dissolved into a sob. She clenched her teeth and swallowed hard against the scream that wanted to rise from her throat. She could do nothing, however, against the tears which streamed down her cheeks.

She sniffled and wiped her face, choking down a second sob. Despite having control over her thoughts and emotions again, her enslaved self was still in control of her body. Despair and fury clashed with the steaming ache of need in her pussy.

She wiped her eyes, but the tears refused to stop. She could never sit at dinner as an emotional wreck. She needed time to come to terms with what had just happened to her, and how easily -- again -- she had fallen.

She jerked her gaze up as she heard the garage door go up. Her father was home. It would at least serve to distract her mother so she would not hear Diane falling apart.

Diane stood and took a few deep breaths, snatching a tissue from the box atop the dresser. She dabbed her eyes and fought to take solace in the fact that the potion was working and was allowing her to keep her enslaved self at bay. It was off in its own little world, believing it was moments away from a rewarding round of self-pleasuring to fantasies of Jason's cock.

Diane could not let herself think on Jason too much. In this context, it would trigger a visceral and unfair hatred towards not just him but herself as well.

My fatal flaw personified, Diane thought bitterly. My inability to be anything but a wimp.

Diane had to go downstairs. His father would be expecting to see Diane soon after he arrived home. She was nowhere near calm enough to see him in this state.

It took a minute before she could puzzle it out, but she managed to extricate her will over her enslaved self. It commandeered her senses, stopped her tears, and left her mystified as to why she had been crying in the first place. Surely she was feeling nothing but contentment over her new life as Jason's sex slave.

She shivered at the thought, letting out a slow, husky sigh, her hips again swaying. She took a deep breath and steadied herself. She must obey her Master. She must not let on what she had become, no matter how happy it made her.

With a soft smile plastered to her lips, she went to spend some quality time with her parents.

The door lock engaged a split second too late, and Cassie swung the door open. "Really, Miss Kendall, the hour grows too late for any more delays. I really must get you home."

"I'll only be a minute, Harry," said Cassie with a roll of her eyes as a bemused Ned stopped and turned around halfway up the walk to his house. She climbed out of the car. "I need to tell Ned something."

"Can it not wait until--"

Cassie silenced him with a slam of the limo door and trotted up to Ned. Ned peered past her and smirked. "Better not be too long, he's lookin' like he could chew nails in there."

"I don't care, this is important," Cassie said in a hushed voice. "I couldn't talk to you when Harry could overhear."

"So what's up?"

Cassie let out a relieved sigh. "I think Diane is going to be okay."

Ned grinned. "I thought ya had sensed something jus' before we got here."

"I sensed her taking control of her split self." Cassie cringed. "Goodness, Ned, the anguish I felt over the link! She's really taking this hard."

"So long as she's all right, she'll survive this."

"I hope she can. This is the second time -- no, third, if you count what Melissa almost made Heather do -- that she's been made to feel so helpless."

"Ya think this may mess with her chances at freein' Heather?"

"To be honest, I've been dubious about her chances from the start. I can't even be sure of my own chances!"

Ned grasped her shoulders. "Babe, yer gonna be fine."

Usually Cassie could find solace in his words, but now they had become an annoyance, as if he were trivializing her task. She knew he didn't mean it that way, and it allowed her to force her lips into a tiny smile of gratitude.

"That is, so long as ya don't go Projectin' yerself ta the mall again," Ned said in a mildly admonishing voice.

Cassie gave him a sheepish look. Before they had left the house, she had been forced to tell him and Debby what had happened. She would have felt like a hypocrite otherwise, insisting that Richie had to come clean about what he had done when she failed to do likewise.

"If any good came out of it at all, it means the Darkness may start to get complacent," Cassie said. "It thinks it scored a victory over us with Diane, and it thinks it can get at me."

Ned rubbed the back of his neck. "The problem there is it can, babe. An' almost did."

"I'm not going to give another chance. I'm not Projecting anymore until I confront Jason. Maybe that will make it think it scared me off."

"Ta be honest, I'm not so sure I like yer alternate idea fer yer leisure this weekend."

Cassie sighed, wondering when that would come up again.

"I mean, if we're talkin' 'bout the Dark Poobah takin' pot-shots at ya--"

"Jason has said time and time again that he doesn't think his father is involved with the Darkness."

Ned frowned. "Yeah, an' now ask me how much I trust the government."

"If it helps any, Ned, I plan to talk to him out in the open in Harry's line of sight."

Ned glanced at the limo. Inside, Harry made a dramatic effort of looking at his watch. "Considerin' how little help he was when Melinda was taken--"

"Nevertheless, it will have to do."

"I still wish I was comin' with ya."

Cassie wished she could take him up on the offer. While she was reasonably sure Jason's father was acting on his own volition, there was always the tiny possibility that Jason's mother had compromised him. "I want you going with Diane and Richie. I'll try to call them tomorrow and see where they're at. I really hope I can wheedle a good deal of free time to myself this weekend." She shifted her weight and let out a husky sigh. "For several reasons."

"Wow, are you getting hot and bothered already?"

Cassie had hoped it would hold off longer, but her pussy never really cooled any further than a low, simmering heat. Now it was tingling again, and her thoughts flirted with the prurient. "I-I better get back," she said, dashing back to the limo. "I'll call you tomorrow!"

Cassie threw herself into the limo and pulled the door closed. Harry gunned the engine and pulled away from the curb with a brief squeal of rubber. "Please, Miss Kendall, I implore you to think of my own continued service with the Kendalls," said Harry. "If nothing else will sway you away from your constant tardiness."

Cassie ignored him. She had her own worries about the coming weekend, more than she could count. At least the ones which she could see through the thickening fog of desire.

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