Jake spent the next three days readying his defenses and inventing psionic attacks that he thought would be effective against another psionic. He had sent his mother to work, the girls were all in school, and Jake had visited the high school himself to ensure that his presence was not missed. Around sunset on the fourth day, he decided that he was as ready as he could be. He drove back out to the mansion and parked about a mile away.

Jake had come to the conclusion that trying to sneak in using his psionic powers to mask his presence would not work. That was what most of the defenses were designed to prevent, after all. So that left hoofing it, from a distance where, to a telepathic alarm system, it might look like he was simply a wild animal foraging for food. He also designed a "cap" for himself-- a false layer of simple animal thoughts, similar in concept to the fake personality he made his mother, that would make a casual mind probe in his direction pass over him. He hoped. But if someone did break through this rudimentary mind shield, they were in for a nasty surprise: he had designed the shield to follow the puncturer's trail of thought back and do some serious damage to the invading mind before the shield reset itself. If the attacker was of the same caliber his parents were, he or she would live the rest of their lives as vegetables.

Trying to follow a pattern a wild animal would use, Jake meandered slowly towards the large house. It was closing on midnight before he actually made it to the grounds.

Standing right outside the magical defense perimeter, it was easy for his enhanced senses to see the way the detection web was set up. It literally looked like a spider web, radiating out from the nexus at the center of the house, and each little section could pinpoint an intruder within a ten foot square. It would then be a simple matter to send a concentrated burst of death wailing down on that one point, obliterating anything living within that specific space. But Jake had already discovered a weakness on his prior visit here.

Sending a smooth, passive tendril of thought along the actual strand of the web itself, he slowly began working his way towards the nexus. The web did not detect something that did not fall within a space between the lines; the line itself was only a hairsbreadth wide, and anything larger than a microbe would have fallen at least slightly inside-- except for something like a thought, which had no mass, no substance...

After a few moments of concentration, his probe had made its stealthy way to the center of the detection web. Jake then split it, sending it out again on all of the web's radii. There were nearly three hundred of them, and the focus required was incredible, but in a few more moments all the spokes of the web shimmered in his mind with the subdued glow of his will. The web was his. After one last moment of checking, Jake sent the preset command through his original probe.

Abruptly every line he had superimposed his awareness upon swelled-- and burst into shards of crystallized nothingness. The web collapsed completely. To Jake, it was simply the most awesome sight he had ever seen, but he didn't have time to admire his handiwork, as he had already started hearing shouts of alarm coming from the Chapterhouse. He took off at a dead run, he took advantage of his new physical prowess and sprinted in before those in charge of security could recover.

Even though things had gone precisely as he had planned, he was still surprised when he made it to a side door unmolested and, apparently, undetected. He quickly discovered that the door was locked; not wanting to draw attention to himself, he dared not force it. Slowly, quietly, he began to edge himself around the house to find another entrance-- only to walk right into a young man rushing the other direction.

They both stumbled to a halt and stared at each other. Jake immediately began preparation to blast his mind into nothingness when he realized the boy was even younger than he was. The other just looked at him, stupefied, and started stammering.

"Hey, do you know what's going on? All I know is the elders started cursing at us to come out here and stand watch. Do you know what we're watching for?" Jake almost sighed in relief; this boy thought that he was one of them-- some acolyte in training. He couldn't believe his luck.

"Yeah, something went wrong with the intruder system, I think. Maybe a power surge or something. I think they want us to make sure it's not an attack or something. I was just going around checking doors. If any are open, we should check them out." The young man nodded and fell in beside Jake as they went around the house, boldly looking for unlocked doors.

Jake grinned to himself. This was a perfect cover-- walking around with a "fellow" acolyte, looking for an entrance. If they were stopped by someone less ignorant than his newfound friend, he would make sure the trainee did all the talking.

Fortunately, nothing like that happened. They ran into a few other acolytes, most of whom were as confused as his partner. One tried to sound authoritative, suggesting that perhaps he was a slightly higher ranked trainee and placed in charge of this chaos. Once he heard what Jake and his unwitting accomplice were doing, he nodded like he had thought of it himself and told them in a self-important voice to carry on. Smirking in the cover of darkness, Jake "carried on."

In little time Jake had managed to discover an open door on the other side of the house, leading into what looked like a kitchen. He looked to the other boy. "I'll check this one out, you keep going, okay?" Once again, the boy nodded, and Jake was alone inside the house.

The kitchen was large, dark, and quiet. Given the cloak- and- dagger nature of this exercise tonight, it was almost spooky. Jake didn't know where or when to expect a booby trap, and that made him a little nervous. Silently, carefully, he made his way through the kitchen into an empty hall. Quietly he checked all the rooms as he went down the hall. He had to find an office that would hold some of the information he was looking for.

The second door on his left abruptly opened as he reached for the knob. He jumped back as the door swung inward to reveal a stunningly beautiful woman. Her hair was jet black, running down the back of her well- endowed torso to her ample hips. Her features were slightly Oriental, but she had bright, large green eyes. She started to walk through before she noticed him; when she did, she started violently and with a strangled gasp leaped back into the room. Knowing that she could easily raise the alarm, he leaped after her before she could slam the door shut.

Running to follow her, he entered a classroom with two older-looking men and four young women, including the girl who had just ran from him. The men looked up in surprise and anger, then immediately flung their hands towards him, fingers spread wide. Jake felt the energy rise before he saw it, and had plenty of time to erect a mental barrier before the lightning arcing from the men's fingertips splashed across his shield in a bright coruscation of light. Immediately he struck back with a burst of his own psionic energy, and that was the end of that.

The two men, blank-faced, slowly toppled forward, dead long before they hit the ground. Belatedly, he realized that two of the girls in the room had been in contact with the dead men, and had also caught the force of Jake's counterattack. They crumpled in unison with the men. Jake stood silently for a moment, shaken. He had killed four people. Never before had he even killed one person, and now four bodies were laid out before him. Intellectually, he knew it was in self-defense, but that paled before the reality he now looked upon.

Motion and noise drew him back from his introspection. The two remaining women had scrambled into a corner as far from him as they could get, and the girl that had opened the door unsuccessfully tried to cut off a shriek of terror, in a panic to escape him. Sighing, Jake quelled their gibbering with a spear of thought, inserting concepts of tranquility and reason, soothing their distraught minds. It seemed all he did any more was pacify people. The other girl, he noticed, was also quite beautiful. She was a tall, curvaceous redhead with an elegant face and blue eyes. Only a few adjustments to her mind and he could... no. That was the path to corruption. Power implies responsibility. Jake focused on the girl he had met at the door. "What's your name, girl?"

She looked at him from across the room, then quickly got to her feet and scurried over to him. The redhead followed suit. "M-- My name is Melinda, sir. Please don't hurt me." Even with his mental comforting, she was still quaking in fear of him. Jake silently cursed himself. He had handled this situation badly from the beginning. This girl was student, too. The two men he had killed had probably been her teachers.

"I don't hurt people unless I'm defending myself, Melinda. But I do need some information. A message was sent to this Chapterhouse over a phone line, and after receiving it, somebody sent a demon after me. Have you heard anything about this?"

Melinda looked over at the pile of bodies. "My Master might have known, sir, but I'm just an apprentice. I'm sorry, sir."

Jake blinked. Master? Was she a slave? Or an apprentice? He asked her. She was obviously surprised at his ignorance. "My... Master... was my teacher, and he could do with me as he wished, or I lose my Candidacy. That is the way of things. How can you not know that?"

"As he wished? What kind of stuff did that entail?" She couldn't possibly mean what it sounded like... but then again, who was he to judge a system that had probably been working for centuries, at least?

"You know!" she flared. "Sex, any kinky or perverted thing he could think of, bearing children, chores, anything! It's why women aren't allowed apprenticeship until they start having their period!"

That blew Jake's mind. "Why would a woman agree to such a thing?" he asked incredulously.

Melinda and her redheaded companion looked at him as if he were daft. "For the power! What else is there?"

"Responsibility..." Jake answered dazedly. He couldn't believe how ignorant these young women were. They couldn't have been any older than 20. The two women gave him that baffled look again. Then the redhead knelt before him and spoke.

"Sir, your power and skill are obvious. My Master is dead. Will you consent to apprentice me?" Melinda shot a resentful glance at her, then knelt herself and repeated the redhead's words almost verbatim.

Jake chuckled. From potential murderer to potential mentor/ lover in five minutes. These poor women were so intent on power that they would give up anything to acquire it. It was sickening, but intriguing all the same. "I'm not exactly one of your organization." They just continued to stare up at him, expressionless. "The things I would teach you would probably be different from what you'd expect." Still no reaction. "Don't you have something to say about this?"

Melinda, her glorious green eyes not straying one bit from his, answered, "What you teach us will define your status among others. It is in your best interest to make us as powerful as possible."

Jake considered. They might be a valuable source of information regarding the organization he seemed to be infiltrating. But, Jake had to admit, the most attractive factor of this proposal was getting these two gorgeous women to do as he wanted.

He turned to the redhead. "What's your name, girl?"

In a soft voice, she replied, "Sarah."

"All right, Melinda, Sarah, I accept you both as my apprentices. Now show me the depth of your desire for the power I will teach you to use." He looked at both of them as arrogantly as possible.

With grins of triumph, the girls immediately started pulling down his pants, still on their knees. The competition between them was causing problems with his underwear, however. Each girl seemed desperate to make herself his personal favorite. Jake personally despised both women-- he hated selfish, shallow people-- but by the time he was done with them, they would either be leaders among their society, powerful and responsible, or mindless slaves with no power whatsoever. But for right now, he was caught in the middle of two beautiful girls struggling to be the first to suck his cock.

Time to fix that. "Sarah, stand up." Sarah stood up, a look of perplexity flashing across her features. "Take off your clothes. Melinda, what are you waiting for? I want your lips around the base of my cock pronto." Immediately Melinda began to swallow his stiffening member as Sarah quickly disrobed.

Melinda's head was smoothly pistoning up and down on his rod by the time Sarah finished undressing. "Sarah, Melinda, switch places. Get undressed, Melinda. Sarah, don't just lick it, deep throat it. There you go... ah, finger yourself, Sarah. I want to see you get into it. Come on, Melinda, aren't you done yet? Ah, good, hmm, good job, Sarah. Come stand next to me, Melinda. That's a girl. Now turn around. Yes. You have a marvelous body, Melinda. Now bend over, spread those cheeks. Let's see your little rosebud. Hmm, that's a tight little hole, isn't it? Okay, Sarah, tongue- fuck your friend's asshole. I want it lubed up nice with your saliva so I can fuck her ass without too much difficulty. Yes, just like that. Stick your tongue as far in as you can. Slick it up. Great. Okay, Melinda, get ready. Guide me in. There... we... go... yeah. Sarah, stand in front of Melinda. Melinda, start eating her out. I want you to make Sarah moan."

Jake was pounding in and out of Melinda's tight little hole, watching her do her best to eat out her main competition. It was nice to get these women to do anything he wanted without using his powers-- all he needed was their own greed and lust for power. Melinda was obviously in pain but taking this invasion of her ass stoically as she desperately lapped at Sarah's pussy, frantic to please her new teacher. Sarah was making it as difficult as possible for her, as well, controlling her reactions to the tongue ravishing her pussy as well as she could.

"Come on, Sarah, grab her head, make her pleasure you." Sarah smiled in satisfaction and grabbed Melinda's head, smashing the black-haired beauty's mouth over her pussy and rubbing her nose against her clit. "Melinda, you've loosened up too much. Clench me with your ass. Milk it. Make me shoot a load of cum up your hot ass!" Jake could hear Melinda grunt as she struggled to obey, squeezing his flesh with hers. In only a few seconds, Jake could feel the familiar pressure build in his balls. With a gasp he started to fill her back door with his cream. Ramming into her a few more times to make sure she had gotten every drop, then pulled out with a pop. He thought he could hear her sigh with relief. Sarah was smiling, assured that she had been established as the ranking apprentice.

"Okay Melinda, stand up. Good girl. That was very nice. Let me taste Sarah on your tongue." He french- kissed her for a few minutes, then looked over to Sarah, still with that smile on her face. "Sarah. My cock is dirty. Blow me till I tell you to stop." Oh, it was quite a sight watching that smile wipe off her face as if it had never been. Ashen- faced, she knelt before Jake and took his softened length into her mouth, gagging only once as she began to massage his dick back to hardness. Meanwhile, he explored his green-eyed apprentice's body, deciding he liked everything he saw. Courtney would love her. And Tina would like Sarah.

Since he was hard again, he decided to make them realize they were equal in his eyes-- as low as dirt. "Sarah, up! Turn around. Yes, you know what's next. Bend over and display your ass for me. Okay Melinda, you know the drill. Tongue- fuck Sarah's asshole. All over, good. Get that thing inside her ass. Okay. Good. Assume your position, Melinda. Now, Sarah, I fully expect you to bring Melinda off. Don't disappoint me. Now guide me in. Yeah. Oh yeah! Wow, Sarah, you're even tighter than your friend here!" Indeed, Sarah was a better ass-fuck than Melinda. She seemed to know what she was doing. In no time he was shooting his load deep within her bowels. After having Melinda suck him clean, he decided they had been properly christened, and told them where to meet him after his business was done here. They didn't know what he was looking for, so it was back to searching the house for him. His quest for vengeance could be delayed for a dalliance here and there, but not for long. Quietly, stepped out into the hall again.

The hall ended in a large foyer with a majestic staircase leading upstairs and another hallway across from him. Deciding to be as methodical as possible, he slinked across the foyer and checked all the doors in that hallway. He reached the end of the hall without seeing or hearing anything. Jake was beginning to feel very uncomfortable. Where was everyone? He turned around and headed for the stairs, wary for an ambush.

At the top of the stairs there was another hall. All the way at one end, he could see a dim light shining under the door, and a muffled voice. Jake steeled himself. This was it. He was tired of running around, not even knowing what he was looking for. Time to go for broke. He walked up to the door, opened it, and let himself in. Then he spent the next minute trying to come to terms with what he saw.

The room was huge. Incredibly, impossibly huge. There was no way that this room fit inside the house-- it would have a tough time fitting on the grounds! It looked like a giant cylindrical library that went up and up and up, maybe fifteen stories high, with shelves and shelves of books. He had never seen anything like this before in his life. It was maybe 300 feet wide, with staircases on either side, crawling all the way up to the top. The bottom area, where he had entered, was surrounded by doors exactly like the one he had come out of. In the middle of the floor were a great number of plush chairs and ornate desks, as one would find in any high- class library.

As he stood dumbfounded, several older- looking men poring over a nearby tome on a desk glanced up irritably from their study. One of them, an owl-faced man with spectacles, looking every bit the stern schoolmaster said in a tone that fit his demeanor, "Yes, boy, who is your message for? Be quick about it, or I'll let your master know of your tardiness." Jake smiled. Now he would finally get some answers.

Ignoring the old man for the moment, which certainly did not go unnoticed among the other men, Jake casually strolled over to one of the luxury chairs and sat himself down. The schoolmaster man started spluttering.

"Just who do you think you are, young man! This is the Library of the Adepts! You're going to be lucky if there's anything left of you to punish if you do not get up at once!" The other men around the desk glared at Jake ominously. Jake smiled again. He now had their complete attention. "You may call me Jacob." he said in a light, amused voice. "I am here to get some answers, and I think this library might be the perfect place to start. Have any of you heard of a creature about as tall as myself, about three times as wide, black, scaly, slimy, with sharp-tipped tentacles, and that can teleport itself in and out of a room at will?"

The owl-faced man's angry glare abruptly changed into a guarded curiosity. "That... sounds... like a Dreck. How would you know how to describe a Dreck?" The other men blinked in surprise, and perhaps a little bit of uncertainty. "One came into my parent's bedroom earlier this week and killed my father, left my mother lobotomized. As I watched, it disappeared before my eyes. I want to find it, and whoever sent it. I traced the only call my parents made back to this..." Jake paused, then pointed at the door he had just entered. He was now positive that he was no longer in the Guild Chapterhouse he had snuck into. "Back to that Chapterhouse. Could you tell me more about these Dreck things?"

"Young man, you are very lucky the Dreck did not kill you and your mother as well. It is puzzling that it would stop at all, as the Drecken eat the souls of their victims before the bodies. That is most likely what happened to your mother. Most likely whoever had summoned it had banished it after it had done what it was sent for; in this case, it most likely was sent after your father. Was he an Adept?"

Jake thought a moment, unsure of whether to reveal his ignorance to these sinister- looking scholars, but decided he needed the information. "Is 'Adept' another name for a practitioner of these arcane arts, or is it a rank?" he asked.

Well, THAT certainly got their attention. The men collectively gasped and started demanding answers. "How can you be here and not know that? You are an initiate, are you not? You have to be, to be allowed into a Chapterhouse!" "Well, no you don't, not if you break in." The men looked at him in open shock. "That was one of the reasons my parents wouldn't tell me about some things, because I wasn't an initiate. They called the Chapterhouse so that I could go meet the Council and determine my status among your Guild. All I wanted was answers, and all I got were more questions. I'm getting a little tired of that." Jake tried to regain control of his irritation.

The owl faced man looked at him hard, then said slowly, "I'm on the Council, and I have never heard of you before." He paused, still studying Jake, and finally asked, "So why did you need to address the Council?"

Jake blinked. This old codger was on the Council? Still, that was as close to an offer of help he had heard yet. "Apparently things did not follow the normal course of events with me. I woke up one day with the ability to do things beyond standard human limits, and some things that can't be called anything less than supernatural. When I told my parents of my capabilities, they said I reminded them of someone they called Ykir." Several of the men gasped again at this information, and even the Council member paled white as a sheet. Oh, yes, that was an important name here. "So they called up the Chapterhouse, and later that night a Dreck came and tore my dad apart. It probably would have eaten my mom, too, but I got there just in time. I don't think it was prepared to deal with someone like me. So right before I got through its shields it vanished."

The owl-faced man had turned from a pale white to an interesting gray. He opened and closed his mouth a few times before words would come out. "You almost got through a Dreck's shields? It tried to kill you but couldn't? Not even an initiate? Ykir indeed! This might not be appropriate for the Council. This might have to go before the Circle!" Another level of authority, apparently. More info that currently served him no purpose. The other men were almost as impressed by this statement as they were about the Ykir thing.

And once more Jake was under the stern gaze of this elderly scholar. "Yet how do I know you speak the truth? We shall test your abilities before I go in front the council and make a fool of myself. Do you have a problem with that?" Jake shook his head. Why should he? "Do you have any other questions, young man?"

"Actually, quite a few, but I'll settle for knowing who you are right now." The older man smiled faintly. "I am Barrachus. Follow me and I will show you where we take the Masters when they wish to become Adepts. If you pass the trial, you will have achieved Adept status among the Council, and that should help your case enormously."

Thinking he already knew the answer, Jake asked, "And if I fail?" Barrachus gave that little smile again. "Then you don't have to worry about anything else-- ever again." Jake sighed. It figured. He was ready.