Diane found she could ignore the low heat in her pussy if she concentrated on whatever she was doing, better if she were talking to someone at the same time. Thus it was a relief to gush to Debby about what they had already discovered through Richie's visions.

"Goddess, but Mrs. Sovert's life seems both so complex and so tragic," Debby lamented with a sad shake of her head.

"I still don't see how she could have just handed herself over to the Darkness," Diane said. "Not when it looked like she came back to fight it."

"And the poor woman never realized she had budding psychic abilities."

"And that bitch of a sister treated her like a fucking mushroom," Richie grumbled. "Fed her shit and kept her in the dark."

"Jo's got to be behind a lot of this, Mrs. Radson," Diane said. "I almost wish we had something of hers."

Debby looked thoughtful. "Diane, may I see that pendant for a moment?"

"Huh? Oh, sure."

Diane pulled it out of her pocket and handed it to Debby. Debby lifted it by the chain and let the slightly tarnished heart swing at the end. No light glinted from it, as the early morning sunshine had already given way to rolling clouds, bringing a renewed nip to the air.

"Hmm," Debby hummed.

"What is it?"

"Well, I was trying to see if I felt any sort of vibes from this object," Debby said. She glanced at Richie's skeptical look. "I know that doesn't sound very scientific. The best way to describe it is a bit of a person's psychic aura can sometimes be imbued into an object that is very dear to the person or which was kept with her much of the time."

"Mrs. Sovert has had this for twenty years," Diane said. "She wore it all the time. Are you getting anything from it?"

"Well ... yes and no." Debby brought it closer to her eyes, then clicked her tongue and said, "Diane, please be a dear and turn on the lamp behind you."

Diane did so, and Debby scrutinized the pendant for a full minute. "I am not sensing anything of relevance to your task but ... I am sensing something familiar about it, as if I have seen this aura before."

Richie leaned forward. "What, you mean you met her before?"

"Well, not formally, no. But where I have been sending Susan to the same high school, and she is Heather's age, perhaps I spotted her at ..." She trailed off and shook her head. "No, that wouldn't be right, would it? Sorry, I'm so used to my heightened senses now that I sometimes forget I used to need help to bring out the psychic auras."

"Mrs. Radson, we need to know where to go next," Diane said. "Can you think of anything?"

Debby steepled her fingers. She nodded to Diane and looked towards Richie. "Let me make sure I understand this power of yours. You can touch or hold an object that someone interacted with at some point and see a vision of the past?"

"Yeah, that's right," Richie said. "I have to be there, though. Right where it happened."

"In that case, can you simply carry it through town? Perhaps you'll catch Mrs. Sovert while she's traveling somewhere and follow ... no?"

Richie was already shaking his head. "It don't work that way. It's like it's guided or some shit like that. Like the way Heather used to get her visions of the future. She can see stuff important to us, but she can't tell me whose gonna win the World Series."

Debby nodded. "Yes, I had a feeling that was true, but I had to ask."

"So what do we do?" Diane asked. "I feel like we just hit a dead end."

Debby looked at the pendant again. "This is really bothering me, Diane. Perhaps it's just wishful thinking, but ..." She handed the pendant back to Diane. "So how do you see these visions? You just hold his hand while he touches the pendant?"

"Yes, that's right."

"And does it give you any discomfort?"

"Well ... I-I really didn't like seeing Victor again, but--"

"Nothing can hurt us," Richie said. "It's not like a friggin' time machine, for chrissakes."

Debby nodded. "In that case, I suggest you try it here."

Richie frowned. "Huh? What, right here in the living room?"

"But you said you never met Mrs. Sovert," Diane said.

"That I remember," said Debby. "I'm disturbed that the pendant should feel so familiar to me. Please, humor me."

"Well, all right." Diane stood up and sighed when her panties clung to her mound. "Better than doing nothing." Or feel my pussy get all hot and bothered, she thought with chagrin.

Richie shrugged, stood, and held out his hand. Diane took the pendant, hesitated, then clasped her hand to his.

Reality unexpectedly shifted.

Diane blinked at bright sunshine, and the curtains undulated in a breeze blowing in the open windows. She heard a sound like someone blowing a puff of air between her lips. She turned to the sofa and jumped back a foot.

Debby lowered a candle to the coffee table -- a different one than the present -- smoke curling from the still smoldering wick. Her younger but still matronly form was clad in a pastel sun-dress. Large-lensed glasses filled her face, something most decidedly absent from the Debby of the present.

Richie snorted. "She looks like an owl."

Debby steepled her fingers, and then she may have well been the Debby of the present. "Your psychic aura presents a bit of a challenge, Ms. Rockland."

Diane shifted her gaze. Seated at the other end of the sofa was a young woman with long, straight black hair. Dark sunglasses hid her eyes. She clutched a large purse in her lap.

"What the hell?" Richie said as he looked around. "Where's--?"

"This whole experience has been very challenging for me, Mrs. Radson," said the woman.

Diane's eyes widened. "That ... that's Mrs. Sovert's voice!"

Debby smiled and placed a hand on the woman's arm. "Please, call me Debby. I don't like formalities. So may I call you Mary?"

"Mary?" Richie said, raising an eyebrow.

The woman's lips twitched into a demure smile, and she shifted in her seat. For a split second, light glinted off gold near her breasts.

"I saw the pendant!" Diane cried. "That's her! That's Mrs. Sovert!"

"Yes, Mary is fine," said Penny. "I just want to know ... is this something normal?"

"What the fuck is she talking about?" Richie said.

Before Diane could snap at him to be quiet, Debby's reply was interrupted by a shrill chorus of "Mommymommymommy!"

Debby turned and gave an indulgent smile to a little girl bounding up to her. "Yes, Susan, what is it?"

"Susan?!" Diane cried.

Richie smirked. "Heh. She was cute as a kid."

Much of little Susan's excited words were cut off by their short exchange, and Debby stopped the rest with a firm reply. "Now, Susan, you know you're not to interrupt Mommy when she's with a client."

Susan pouted and twisted her foot, folding her hands behind her. "Sorry," she said in a whispery voice. "I'm hungry and there's no bread left."

"Yes, dear, I intend to go out to the store when I'm done here."

"She can't be more than seven," Diane said. "She's Heather's age, so this has to 1996."

Debby sent Susan bounding away and up the stairs to her room, singing to herself about how she was going to get a nice ride in the car with Mommy soon. Debby turned back to Penny and smiled. "Sorry about that."

"No, it's fine," Penny said, a ghost of a smile playing on her lips. "I have one her age. And another who's five going on twenty."

Richie sniggered. Diane grinned as well.

"Let's get back to this, shall we?" Debby said. "Now, 'normal' is a loaded word, Mary. When dealing with matters of psychic abilities or the supernatural, the word doesn't have much relevance."

"But ... what is it I'm seeing? Is it ... is it evil?"

"That is again a difficult concept to define."

"Shit, she was waffling on this stuff even back then!" Richie cried.

"Shh!" Diane hissed.

"--nothing in your psychic aura that would suggest any sort of mental imbalance," said Debby.

Penny paused as if to digest this. "All right, that's fine. So do you know what it means? Why do I see this around some people and not others? It's not the same that you see when you look at me through the candle flame, is it?"

"No, I don't believe so. The psychic aura appears as a sort of round glow above the head, following its contours. It doesn't encapsulate the body as your visions do."

Diane gasped. "Richie, she can see the Auras! That's got to be what she's describing."

"--after seeing one of these things on someone, I don't want them anywhere near my daughters," Penny said in a frightened voice.

Debby leaned over and placed her hands on Penny's shoulders. "Calm down, Mary, please. We don't know what its nature is yet."

Penny shivered. "They're just so ... so black. Like light just falls into them."

"Holy fuck, you're right," Richie muttered.

"I did see something in your psychic aura which suggests a brush with the supernatural," Debby said. "But not enough to say for certain that you would wield any sort of extraordinary abilities."

"So ... so you're saying this could be in my head?"

"Or it could be a harmless manifestation, and the color may not signify anything."

Penny nodded and turned her head, looking intensely thoughtful. Diane surged forward and thrust her hand into Penny's shoulder.

... much can I tell her? How much can I say without revealing what I've found? I can't let her know too much or they'll come after her, too. I know I could just adjust ... no. NO. I refuse to use this power on a whim! Bad enough I have to use it on poor David just so he doesn't have a nervous breakdown. My God, I thought he was going to go into shock the first time he saw one ...

Diane snatched her arm away, eyes wide. "Oh my God ..."

"What? What?!" Richie demanded. "I wish you'd stop fucking doing that!"

"--under any stress lately?" Debby was saying.

Diane did not quite have it straight in her mind yet, and she did not want to miss the rest of the conversation. She waved Richie off, and he muttered curses under his breath.

"Yes, but largely from this." Penny paused. "I'm not sure we're getting anywhere with this."

"I wish I could tell you more, Mary," said Debby. "But it often takes several readings before I can see definite patterns in your aura. Would you consent to come back again?"

Penny nodded. "I might. But ... I do have one more question for you."

"Of course, my dear. What is it?"

"If ... if I did have some sort of ability ... if I was seeing something of some significance, is this something I can pass to others?"

Debby tilted her head. "Do you mean can it be inherited?"

"Well ... yes, that would be something I had not thought of, but what I meant was ... I don't know of a delicate way to put this, but ... can it be transmitted by an act of sex?"

Richie's eyebrows rose. "Huh?"

Debby offered a soft smile. "That is a very legitimate question."

"It is?" Penny said, surprised.

"Sexual energy is a very potent force. With proper thought and practice, it can be put to constructive use."

Diane saw stark realization on Penny's face, and she thrust her hand into Penny again.

... it! Why did I not see this all along? My GOD, it explains so much! But if that IS a means to power, it's a means to control as well OH GOD HEATHER AND MELINDA ...

Diane snatched her hand away and staggered back. For a moment, Penny's icy fear lingered in her as well, as if her heart had become frozen by its touch.

"Mary? Are you--?" Debby began in alarm.

Penny shivered and nodded. "Yes, sorry, something just had occurred to me ...um, anyway, a-about my question, Debby?"

"I cannot give you a firm answer, only possibilities," said Debby. "But I do know that sexual energy can be shared between partners, and it is just one form of the many energies which flow through all of us."

"Yes, I think I see," Penny said. "Maybe more than you know."

Debby wore a dubious and slightly anxious look, but she nodded and smiled. "I do hope that I helped."

Penny stood up. "Yes, you did, actually."

Debby stood as well. "I do hope you return for another reading. I feel it will help better pin down what it is you are seeing."

"I ... I think I'm starting to get some ideas. Thank you for your time. I'll consider it."

Penny rushed towards the door and vanished as sunlight was replaced with incandescent white.

"Oh thank the Goddess," Debby of the present said in a relieved voice. "Your psychic auras did not appear abnormal, but the way you were so still as statues when--"

"Mrs. Radson, you did meet Penny Sovert!" Diane cried.

Debby stared. "Are you sure? I still don't remember it."

"She was wearing a wig and dark glasses, and she went under another name. She called herself Mary Rockland."

Debby went white as a sheet and slowly collapsed into the sofa oblivious of the shouts of the others.

Jason thought he would get tired of Cindy and Kim by now, but he never really did. It helped that their sexual skills had become even more impressive, no doubt thanks to being employed by Stacy.

He toyed with the idea of arranging for Diane to work for Stacy part time, just so she could gain some of the skills lost to her due to her formerly lesbian outlook. He was sure she could be made to suck cock with the mind-blowing skill of Kim, or learn to perfectly time her humps and squeezes of her cunt muscles like Cindy.

He did wonder if perhaps he should have visited Diane that day instead of indulged himself with Cindy and Kim. Surely her mother would have been more than happy to allow Diane to travel about Haven in the safety of his company.

It was the truth, after all. Jason had done this so she would stay safe.

He limited himself to one round of sex, as much as he wanted more. He was not sure whether it was just his perception because he was feeling so confident, but he believed his sexual endurance had increased. He seemed to recover faster and stay hard longer after cumming.

Stacy gave him a smile as he stepped inside. "Hello, Jason, always good to see you. Please, sit down."

Jason crossed the room and sat. "What can I do for you?"

"First of all, congratulations are in order. You handled Diane very well."

Jason smiled. "Thank you. It was a bit close, but I got it."

"Curious that you're not with her today. I expected you to show up with her on your arm, looking at you adoringly and willing to please you any way she could."

"Oh, she will please me, no doubt about that. And I made sure she is quite hopelessly enthralled with my cock. In fact, she's likely to go through the whole day with a warm and wet pussy."

"Yet she isn't with you."

Jason paused. "Yes, I had thought about that. Meaning why I didn't do it."

"And? Only because I'm curious. In no way is that meant as a criticism. In all things, you must feel you're in the right."

"I'm not sure why I didn't do it. I did have a sort of run-in with my parents this morning."

"Oh?"

"My mother," Jason said in a flat voice. "She, um, wants to have sex with me."

Stacy gave a rather matter-of-fact nod of her head.

"It's rather complicated," Jason said in a slightly strained voice. "But I've settled it in my head. I'll accept her advance, but my father is not too keen on it. I'll find a way to resolve it one way or the other."

Jason already knew of one way, which he had entertained while basking in the glow of his freshly enslaved Diane. He could almost make an argument in favor of a similar situation being the best thing for his mother.

"Very well," Stacy said. She folded her hands. "Back to Diane, then. Do you feel everything is going as you like? Do you feel in the right?"

"Overall, yes," Jason said, though there was a slight hesitation in his voice.

"And what are the next steps?"

"At first, I had not considered beyond securing Diane and her power."

"Ah, that's very important, Jason," said Stacy. "Her power."

Jason nodded slowly. "Yes, I think I know what you're going to say."

Stacy spread her hands. "Only as a suggested course of action, nothing more. I'm here to help you reach your full potential, and one way of doing that would be to use Diane's power to influence the other Harbingers into coming around to your way of thinking. After all, you were the leader."

Jason's thoughts turned to Cassie. While she was nowhere near as strong-willed as he felt the leader of the Harbingers should be, her psychic abilities were an incredible asset. If she developed them properly, she could become rather powerful.

But could she be trusted with that power? Often he had believed that her lack of boldness was offset by her kindness, but there was such a thing as being too kind. What's the point of having power if you don't use it?

Jason nodded. "Yes, I was the leader. I am the leader. The idea that I had to give it up was foolish."

He hovered on the brink of a decision. Cassie was the moral conscience of the group, preventing them from going too far with their abilities. Jason had effectively solved that dilemma. Her old role was no longer needed.

And she was so pleasant to look at naked, and she was more of a tigress in bed than her looks suggested.

"Yes, as much as I wish there was another way, I'll use Diane to help me enslave Cassie," Jason said.

Stacy slowly smiled.

"But not today. Not this weekend."

Stacy hesitated only a second. "And why is that?"

Jason was a bit nonplussed. He was not sure where the words had come from. They had simply been there, as if they had been waiting to be said. Now his mind raced to find a justification.

"I do remind you, Jason, of how easily you were able to take Diane. If you fear Cassie's psychic prowess, you may be overestimating--"

"That's it," Jason said as his mind seized on an idea. "That's just it. Diane was almost too easy."

Stacy tilted her head. "I'm sorry?"

"Yes, that's it. That has to be it. I was wondering about the distinct lack of any attempts to 'rescue' me. Maybe they were planning something like that and Diane was bait."

Stacy considered, leaning back in her chair. "That is a bit of a leap of logic. Do you think the others would be capable of sending Diane to her -- well, from their perspective, anyway -- to her doom?"

"Well ... maybe ... I mean, they're desperate by now, aren't they? They're still working under the assumption that I'm intending to 'take them over.' Well, that's not far from the truth, only their assumptions about my motivations are wrong. They may be desperate enough to try something like this."

Stacy paused. "So what are you saying, Jason?"

"That me being with Diane all weekend may have been what they wanted all along. Maybe I had some sort of intuitive flash that told me I better not go over to Diane's."

Even Jason would admit that the argument felt flimsy. It made sense only in the broadest and most circumstantial way. How could they have possibly worked through Diane?

But did he want to take the chance he was wrong? Perhaps he should focus on resolving the issue with his mother instead.

"All right, Jason," Stacy said. "What do you suggest?"

"I suggest either Monday or Tuesday," Jason said. "I'll have had time to strengthen my hold over Diane's mind. I messed with her dreams last night and I'll do it again tonight, so when I see her in school on Monday, she'll get that much more hot for me."

Stacy looked thoughtful. "Well, Jason, your judgment has served you well up to this point. If you think that's the best course of action, then far be it for me to tell you otherwise."

Jason felt a sense of relief. He was not sure why.

"So, in light of the possible danger, is there anything else you can think of which may make the other Harbingers a threat to your good intentions?"

The potion sprang immediately to mind. Were it real, it had the potential to render his power impotent. Diane could pretend to be enslaved far more convincingly than she ever did with Melissa. He supposed an outside possibility existed that the formula was encoded somewhere in the journal. That could account for why the Harbingers had not made any moves, as they were too busy deciphering the code and making the potion.

He remembered something he had seen the day before. Melinda had rejected a boy trying to get her to flash her pussy at him (she had popped him one in the face with her fist, so perhaps "rejected" was too soft a word). This despite being under her aunt's thrall. Such a thing would have been possible with the potion.

It would explain Diane. If she had the potion protecting her, why bother putting up a struggle? Easier to just fall to him while safe and sound in a protected corner of her psyche.

Then again, people once thought the Philosopher's Stone was real and could cite any amount of circumstantial evidence to support it as well. It made the concept no less nonsense.

"No," Jason said. "Nothing that I can think of."

By the time all explanations were heard, Debby had swung from one end of the emotional spectrum to the other. The last of her fortitude gave out, and she paused while tears trickled down her face.

"Mrs. Radson, I'm sorry!" Diane cried as she sat and draped an arm around Debby's shoulders. "I didn't mean to upset you so much."

Debby shook her head and waved a hand, her throat still too tight for words. She blinked through the lingering tears and spotted Richie, who had gone silent. He had retreated a step, looking on with something very unlike him: a sheepish look.

She took a deep breath to loosen both her throat and her chest. "I'm all right, Diane," Debby said in a strained voice.

"What is it?" Diane asked.

Debby had to take another deep breath before she could give a semblance of a rational answer. "It's hard to describe. I just felt like ... like Mary was the one I had lost. Now you tell me I actually gave her an epiphany, albeit a frightening one. And then I think maybe I pushed her to j-join the ..."

She could not get herself to finish the sentence, and tears welled up in her eyes again. Just before everything went blurry, she saw Richie turn away and thrust his hands deep into his pockets. Now she understood. She wondered just how much Melinda had cried to get him to share his dose of the potion with her.

That was the only explanation which made sense. She had reasoned it out just before Diane and Richie had arrived. She hoped it was the truth, for it would take much of the edge off her anger.

"Mrs. Radson, I refuse to believe you had anything to do with that," Diane said. "If anything, you helped her."

"And then I demand of myself, why didn't I follow up what she had told me?" Debby declared. "She was seeing the Auras! I should have taken it further."

"How could you have known? Isn't it like ... like the pentagram! The way people say it's supposed to be evil or represent the devil or something like that, and you know that's not right."

"This is different, Diane. I appreciate what you are doing, but I had a responsibility to--"

"Aw, cut the shit already, Mrs. Radson!" Richie suddenly shouted, shocking both Debby and Diane into silence. "You didn't fucking do anything wrong. This is all Jo's doing. That fucking cunt Jo."

Debby clenched her jaw to silence the rebuke she instinctively wanted to give him for using the one curse word she would never allow under her roof.

"She was screwing with Penny's head long before you ever met her. Maybe after meeting with you she figured out just what kind of a big fat fucking liar that cow really was."

Debby shook her head and sighed. "Richie, I ... I appreciate your words. I have to sort this out myself. Diane, you have helped me, please don't ever forget that. But it unfortunately doesn't make the memory of my second meeting with her any easier to bear."

"Wait, second meeting?" Diane said. "The impression I got was that Mary -- I mean, Penny -- wasn't intending to come back."

"She didn't. I ran into her quite by accident at a small motel north of the city a little over two years later."

"A motel?" Richie asked, frowning in confusion.

"I'm sure she was there for the same reason I was, Richie: two feet of snow and howling winds," said Debby. "The storm had hit unexpectedly the night before while I was heading back into town after meeting with my Coven. I got that far before the state patrol closed the road, and I stayed overnight in the motel. I saw Mary -- that is, Mrs. Sovert -- in the lobby the next morning, rather upset with the attendant. Something about losing her pendant. It may have been that one."

"Well, she musta got it back," Richie said.

"Yes, she did." Debby said. "They would not let her back into the room as she had already checked out, and she had to browbeat the attendant into looking for it."

"Wait, something doesn't make any sense," Diane said. "How could she have lost her pendant?"

"How the hell does anyone lose anything?" Richie said.

"These are not like her car keys, Richie. The pendant is very important to her. She always has it with her. She's always wearing it outside the home. You don't lose something like that in a motel room."

"Diane, I think you're on to something!" Debby said. "I tried to engage her in conversation. She was very surprised at seeing me, and very uncomfortable in my presence. She acted very much like someone trying to hide something."

"So what happened?" Richie said.

"I don't remember the details of the conversation, probably because she didn't say very much. Soon the attendant came back with her pendant. Not long after that, a state trooper stepped inside to tell us the road was open again. Then ..." Debby's eyes widened. "Yes! My Goddess, how could I have forgotten that?! I still have it! One moment, please."

She bolted from the sofa, leaving what she was sure were two rather confused yet curious Harbingers in her wake.

She ran into her bedroom and to her dresser. She paused as tainted memories clutched her heart. She opened the drawer which once held the pendant she so foolishly let Susan obtain and eventually relinquish to Melissa. She fished out a small wooden box and unlatched it. From among the assorted detritus with significance only to her, she snatched a receipt with faded printing and yellowed edges.

She bounded down the stairs and handed the paper to Diane. Richie crowded near her to see. "I can barely make it out, it's so faded," Diane said, squinting. "Haven Gra ... Grade ... Grande? Oh, Haven Grande Motel!"

"As Mrs. Sovert was leaving the motel, the attendant called her back," Debby explained. "Saying she had forgotten her receipt. She snatched it and hurriedly stuffed it into a small purse. The purse was bulging with more receipts, and one fell out without her noticing. I picked it up and tried to give it back to her, but she was already peeling out of the parking lot when I got to the door."

"And you kept it all this time?" Diane asked, eyes wide.

Debby gave her a tiny smile. "Sometimes I have a feeling about things. I felt at the time I should. I have a whole box of things like that."

"Where's the motel at?" Richie demanded.

"It's just off the state highway that Main Street becomes when you cross Ridge Road," Debby said. "About ten miles."

"Okay, then, let's go!" Richie said, snatching his jacket from the back of the easy chair and marching towards the garage.

"What?!" Diane cried. "Richie, it's ten miles!"

"Then we sure as fuck better get a head start if we want to be back by dark!"

Debby stood up and crossed the room. She glanced towards the window as something slowed and stopped beyond it. "Richie, you can't do this!"

"What the fuck not?!" Richie demanded.

"For one thing, Cassie's limo just pulled up." Debby said. "And for another, it's going to start snowing by the early afternoon, and the weather report said to expect six inches by the time it's over tonight. I am not about to allow this on your--"

"Come on, Mrs. Radson! How the hell are we supposed to find out about--"

"If you would let me finish!" Debby cried. "Give me a little while to see what Cassie wants, and I will gladly drive you up there. We can be back well before dark."

"Thank you, Mrs. Radson," Diane said in a relieved voice. "As much as I want to know more, I'm not sure I can make it that far and back on my bike."

"Now, mind you, I don't know how much we can accomplish," Debby said. "They won't exactly just let us visit any old room."

Diane scrutinized the receipt. "I think ... yes, I see the room number. Two-oh-seven."

"Then we can tell them we want to check out that room or something," Richie said.

Debby was about to explain how she doubted they would ever let them pick their own room, and how unlikely it was that she would place yet another questionable charge on the credit card when Cassie announced her presence with a hurried knock at the door.

"Richie, you better step back," Debby said.

Richie grumbled and fell into the easy chair, facing away from the door.

Whatever Debby was about to say flew out of her head when she laid eyes on the churning and swollen sexuality band of Cassie's psychic aura. "Cassie, what is it?"

"S-sorry if I sound a little short, Mrs. Radson," Cassie said in a quavering and husky voice. "But is Richie here?"

Debby glanced towards the limo, where Harry was sitting with a newspaper open across the steering wheel. She hazarded a guess that this was a bona fide question and not for show. "Yes, he is," she said in a low voice.

"Thank you." She rushed past Debby, looking around until her eyes fell on the crown of Richie's head. She scooted around the chair. "Richie?"

"Yeah, hey, Cassie, what do you ...?" he started to ask, his voice trailing off.

"Do I really need to answer that?" Cassie said. "Please come upstairs with me before I go insane."

Ned's brow shone with perspiration despite the chill in the air from the heat being turned down. It had taken the screen he now looked at, deep in the bowels of the supposedly protected networks of Haven's cable TV and internet provider, for him to realize just how many state and federal laws he had broken just to get to this point.

He wondered how the hell Jason never batted an eye.

No, he did know. Jason had a deeper understanding of how little the vast hordes of low-paid, off-shore code-monkeys knew about security. He knew when an attempt to break in would be met with little oversight and thus little chance at detection.

Even when a better caliber of programmer was evident, that was only the first hurdle. When Ned had first read that the technique Jason used for breaking into a particular computer system had involved rummaging through garbage bins, he thought it was a joke. Apparently Jason had found a complete roster of employees and their login IDs. He had Googled a few employee names, and got in by trying passwords which were variations on names of their children, or their wives, or their pets, or their favorite sports teams or hobbies.

Yet now that Ned had gotten this far, he was not sure what to do. He was staring at an application that -- he thought -- presented information on the provider's router network. This was supposed to somehow eventually lead him to the Holy Grail of internet subterfuge: Laura Bendon's IP address.

It would have been easier if he could have broken into their user account database, but the techniques that Jason had presented had not worked. Apparently that was one part of the system that was better protected, and Jason had warned that poking at it too much would likely raise an alarm.

The router network application was a weak spot. Line technicians had to access it from remote locations, so it was the easiest "secure" system to break into. Ned was no line tech. He had no idea what half the symbols and ever-changing numbers meant. Most of the options in the pull-down menus meant little to him.

He sighed and leaned back in his chair. He turned his head when he heard footsteps in the hall. Seeger appeared at the door. "I hesitate to ask, but how goes it, Mr. Lussander?"

"It's goin' 'bout as fast as a snail wadin' in molasses in January," Ned drawled. "But it be going. Heh, at least ya ain't seen no FBI vans pullin' up outside."

Seeger scowled. "Do not even joke about that."

"Sorry. Gotta keep my spirits up, y'know? Anything else I can do ya fer?"

"I came here largely to ask if you wished anything for lunch."

Ned blinked and glanced at the time in the lower right corner of the screen. "Crap, is the morning already gone?"

"It is a little before twelve, but I have not had any breakfast," Seeger said. "Is pizza all right with you?"

Ned grinned. "Pizza is always all right by me. Especially when they put everything but the kitchen sink on it. Ooo, I know one place, they put hot chilies on it an' call it their Pizza Bord--"

"One large pepperoni pizza it is then," Seeger said in a flat voice before he turned away.

Ned smirked. "That's my guy."

He turned back to the screen and frowned. Great. Now I'm both befuddled and my stomach is growling.

Ned placed his hand on the mouse. "Well, we ain't got no choice but ta poke this bear with a stick and see what happens ..."

Cassie had gone into the tryst with nothing less than blazing need, and Richie was quick to show both how much his burned just as brightly and how bad he was at hiding it.

His cock had come out of his briefs swollen and tinged purple. She had not wanted to speculate on how long he had tolerated such a massive erection. If the discolored sticky spots on his briefs were any indication, he had been battling his mounting arousal for at least the past hour.

She let Richie run the show, but he was content with her on her back and him atop her, slamming his cock into her as fast as his already worn muscles would allow. She felt his fatigue as eddies in the currents of his soaring lust.

For a few moments as their movements synchronized, and the bed creaked to the energy of their coupling, she wondered if this is what it would feel like to be slaves to the Darkness. They would be puppets of induced lust, compelled to fuck each other for its amusement. Despite the good that their forced desire was to bring about, it still felt like a form of slavery.

She shoved these thoughts aside, as they would only tempt her to split off her mind and let just part of her revel in the experience. She needed to remind herself that she was ultimately of one mind, that the division was an artificial one.

She cried out her pleasure and still slammed her hips to his. His cock exploded into orgasm inside her, and still she would not stop, as if intending to drain every bit of pleasure from him. This imagery did not set well with her, and thus she finally eased off. Then it was Richie who wanted to linger, his cock remaining hard enough to set off a second though less spectacular climax in her.

Richie rolled onto his back, rocking the bed with the impact. They remained silent for another few minutes, the only sound their panting for breath. Cassie understood. Both had done the act so many times in the past few days that it was hardly worth noting anymore. Nothing momentous was left to be said.

Cassie hated this moment. She never wanted the act of sex to become this cheap. She hoped she could return to the sense of wonder and excitement that it once held.

"I'm sorry if I interrupted anything," Cassie finally said.

"No big deal," Richie said, his voice still slightly breathless. "We got time, since Mrs. Radson is gonna drive us there."

Cassie slowly sat up. "Drive you where?"

Richie explained his vision, the receipt, and where they were planning to go.

Cassie gasped, draping a hand over her bosom. "Penny could see the Auras! That changes everything!"

Richie shrugged. "I guess."

"What do you think you'll find at the motel? Do you think you'll be able to get into the room?"

"Gotta try. No idea what the hell I'll see. I never do."

Cassie shook her head. "That poor woman. I think I'm beginning to sympathize with her as well. She couldn't possibly have wanted this to come about."

Richie bolted up. "I'm telling you, it's that bitch Jo! I'll bet you anything she completely set up Heather's mother."

"But all those years, surely she would have figured it out?"

"Look, you're not gonna like this, but even as smart as Penny is most of the time, she's as dumb as a post when it comes to her sister."

"Or she just doesn't want to see it. Who wants to see their own sister betray them?"

"For fuck's sake, they were rivals as kids!"

"Only because Penny didn't know about her own powers. She didn't understand why everything kept going her way." Cassie sighed and looked off into the distance. "At least she remembers her childhood."

"Oh, yeah," Richie said in a contrite voice. "Forgot about that. Sorry."

Cassie was more sorry for mentioning it as she hopped out of bed. "You should get going, so you can get that vision before it starts snowing."

"You coming along?"

"I can't. Harry would never take me beyond the borders of Haven let alone ten miles. Plus I want to find out how Ned is doing."

Richie nodded. He got out of bed and started to dress. "Hey, uh, thanks."

Cassie turned towards him while in the middle of adjusting her bra. "Thanks? For what?"

Richie jerked his head towards the bed. "I mean, I know you were like me, you had to do it, but ... well, I just like doing it with you, okay?"

Though his voice sounded irritated, it was not directed at her but himself. Her empathic sense filled in the details; for the longest time after Nyssa, the girls of the Harbingers had all but sexually ostracized him. While it seemed ages ago to Cassie, it was still fresh in his mind.

Cassie stepped up to him and gave him a hug. Surprised, Richie took a few seconds to return it. "Richie, we don't always agree on everything, but I consider you a good friend. Please don't forget that."

Richie made a noise like he was trying to voice words which had stuck in his throat. He cleared it awkwardly, betraying a small trickle of the high tide of emotion which washed over her. His arms squeezed more tightly around her.

Suddenly the day become a lot more tolerable.

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