Jason was starting to doubt the wisdom of his decision to come to the house.

Jason had suspected ulterior motives from the moment Heather had claimed her only interest was conversation on her oversexed nature. Fair play had compelled him to inform Melinda despite Heather's wishes that the meeting remain clandestine. He hoped he would not regret that decision.

The irony was not lost on Jason. Only that last summer had Jason's own fantasies run hot and thick about Heather. Now he tried everything he could to avoid realizing them.

Jason sighed and collapsed back onto the sofa, his gaze falling on the coffee table and a bundle of yellowing papers held together with a frayed string. They crinkled in his fingers as he scooped them up.

Elizabeth's legacy had excited him he first received it. His initial elation faded when he realized that the yellowed pages generated more questions than answers. Yet the map that detailed the mysterious lines of force that ran under Haven was invaluable, as were Elizabeth's observations and insights about Haven. She had touched on the idea of mind control, at least up until the point of Mara's death.

Several of the pages sported yellow sticky-notes marking pages that might be relevant to Heather's "condition," added in haste after Heather had summoned him.

Jason heard the back door in the kitchen open. He lay the papers on the table and stood up. He cleared his head of any perceptions or anticipation regarding anything sexual. He uttered a vow to stick to the topic and took one final deep breath.

He heard the back door close, a puff of cold air prickling his skin. He started to speak before Heather even appeared at the threshold. "Heather, I looked for some information for you in the journal and found some related material, but nothing directly about your, um, condition. I thought we might ... uh ..."

Jason trailed off when Heather appeared and Melinda stepped out from behind her.

Jason had learned to read emotions better on people's faces. Haven had made it a necessity. Melinda wore her heart on her sleeve, so she was the easiest to read. He had only to take a glance at her face to know what was happening in her head, and who was behind it.

Jason tried very hard not to be angry with Heather. Her influence over Melinda met with tacit acceptance as a lingering effect of Nyssa's former influence, so long as Heather did not take it too far. But "too far" was a moving target.

Heather managed a smile. "The ru ... um ... Melinda insisted on coming along."

Melinda motioned towards Jason and opened her mouth to speak. Heather lay a hand against her ass cheek and caressed it. Melinda shuddered and moaned instead.

Jason could not stop a frown from touching his lips. "Why are you doing that to her now?"

"I'm sorry, she was acting really bratty," Heather said, her voice as pleading as Melinda's gaze had been a moment ago. "I just wanted to keep her quiet for a bit."

Melinda let out a lustful sigh and squeezed her eyes shut.

"Well, can you ease up on her?"

"Why? Don't you like her this way? I mean, she's already got the hots for you."

Melinda shivered and wrapped her arms around herself, pushing up her breasts. Jason's eyes were drawn to them, and he wondered if he had missed the fact that they had swelled since the summer. The distraction caused a slight stir in his nether regions.

No, don't, Jason thought. Focus. FOCUS.

Heather's smile turned sultry. "Melinda would just love to have your cock inside her all the time. It's all she talks about when it comes to sex."

Melinda's hips swayed. On the way over, Heather had tugged at Melinda's panties until the crotch pulled into her mound. Now the slick fabric rubbed against her swollen clit. She panted softly. Her eyes closed even tighter.

Jason swallowed as his cock stirred again. I will NOT be distracted by this!

Jason balked at the intensity of Heather's control over Melinda's emotions. He wondered if it were this way at home with their private trysts, and when his cock stiffened further in response, he regretted even thinking about it. "Heather, just let go of her, please. I don't want to see her like this if its not coming from her own head."

Heather opened her mouth but said not a word. There was a moment of conflict in her eyes, a moment that Melinda needed. She suddenly whimpered and dashed towards Jason, nearly bowling him over.

Jason threw an arm around Melinda's waist and pulled her close. The touch made Melinda shiver and moan, shattering what little concentration she had mustered. Her nipples tingled where her breasts pushed against his arm. Her pussy ached, and she resisted the urge to grind her hips against him.

"Jason," Heather breathed as she stepped forward. "How about doing two girls at once?"

Jason stared. "Huh? What are you talking about?"

His cock answered for him, expanding and insistent against the inside of his briefs. Melinda clutched at him and brought her lips to his ear. For a few more seconds, she could only pant, and the sound of it and the touch of her hot breath against his ear made Jason shiver.

"Sh-she's going to make you horny," Melinda moaned, half in lust and half in despair. "She's going to make you have sex with her."

"Melinda, I've told you before, I don't make anyone do anything," Heather said, her voice cross but losing none of its sultry cadence. She turned her gaze back to Jason and smiled. "If Jason fucks me, it will be because he really wants to."

Heather advanced. Her jiggling breasts and swaying hips commanded him as she took each step. His cock strained in its confined space, and his mind turned to thoughts of sliding it into Heather's nice, wet pussy ...

Jason suddenly averted his gaze and tried to retreat, but Melinda clung to him, panting in his ear. Whatever resistance she had managed against Heather had dissolved into hot lust.

Jason's mind raced. Was Heather able to do the same thing to him that she did to Melinda? Or was he just succumbing to his own weakness?

"I know you want to fuck me, Jason," Heather cooed. "You want your cock inside me. So do I."

Jason shuddered. He saw himself lying on his back with Heather humping him. It was too easy to conjure, impossible to dismiss. His fantasies of her had been too ingrained, even after having realized them several times over.

"Jason."

The proximity of her voice startled him, and he turned his head without thinking. He stared directly at Heather's bosom and into the shadowy cleft past the stretched buttonholes. With a sly smile, Heather started to pop the buttons and release the swell of her breasts.

Speech failed Jason. His hips writhed in a vain attempt to accommodate his cock. Heather stopped unbuttoning her blouse and hooked her fingers into Jason's belt. She yanked, and Jason's cock sprang fully tumescent in the crotch of his briefs.

"Better?"

For the few seconds, Jason was back in the office of Nyssa the school nurse. She had just used her own powerful seduction to the same effect and had performed the same gesture. It shocked him out of his sexual stupor. He stumbled back, dragging Melinda along with him. In that moment of lucidity, a page of Elizabeth's journal passed before his mind's eye.

"Jason, please, I need this," Heather said. "You want to do this. Melinda does, too."

Melinda moaned and shivered. Her trembling hand groped Jason's crotch. Heather undid the rest of her buttons and slipped off her blouse.

Jason stared at Heather's bosom. Many of his sexual fantasies had involved those wonderfully big boobs. Summoning the last of his moment of resolve, he gave form to a thought and forced it through his head.

The square of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the sides.

Jason blinked. The juxtaposition of that logical thought with the raw lust in his body was so ludicrous that in any other context he might have laughed. The girls would; even Melinda called him a nerd now and then.

Heather drew close. She pressed her bare breasts into his chest and started undoing the buttons of his shirt. Melinda fumbled for his zipper.

His attempt at resistance was like a makeshift earthen dam against a flood, and now it was leaking in earnest. Lust roared around his consciousness like a raging river. He blasted out another thought, envisioning himself shouting it at the tops of his lungs:

Matter and energy are equivalent, as given by the relationship energy equals mass times the speed of light squared.

Instead of a shout, it sounded no more than a tinny, off-tune radio station in his head. His zipper opened, and Melinda's slim hand grasped the bulge in his briefs. Heather had his shirt open and rubbed her soft boobs against his bare skin. Jason only quivered in response when he tried to retreat once more, one foot drawing back but going nowhere.

He needed something else, something more complex, something to make him think ...

Any mass can become a black hole by compressing it to its Schwarzschild radius, which is two times the mass times the gravitational constant divided by the speed of light squared ...

Jason's muscles clenched. His body shook with the effort to translate his resistance into action. Heather's hand had dropped to his belt. Her nipples were hard points against his chest. He wanted to just fall to the floor and let them ...

Proton decay ... a proton can theoretically decay into a neutron to carry the mass, a positron to carry away the charge, and an anti-neutrino to carry away the remaining energy, given by the formula ... the formula ...

It would not come to him, except that the result was in electron volts, but the struggle to remember it was enough. He staggered away from them and collapsed on the sofa, panting hard and clenching his fists as if to beat away the last vestiges of induced lust.

Heather remained as she was, as if the fact that Jason was no longer there had not quite reached her head. When she finally looked to him, she wanted to chase him down and pounce on him, but stood and trembled instead.

Melinda reclaimed her will in the moment of distraction. She turned and gave her big sister a weak shove.

"Stop it!" Melinda cried, though her voice was still husky with lust. "I t-told you, he found a way to resist it. Just stop it!"

Heather staggered back a half step, groaning and dropping her face into her hands. "I-I'm sorry ... I didn't ... I just needed ..."

Jason let out the breath he was holding and hoped whatever he still felt was just his own hormones. The part of him that was the quintessential male teenager screamed at the lost opportunity. His cock still pulsed with his pounding heartbeat. "I know," Jason said, his voice still breathless. "But if I do something like this ... if both Melinda and I do something like this ... we want it to be because we decided we'd do it."

Heather looked up, stricken. "Jason, I don't understand any of this! I didn't ask to be so fucking oversexed."

"I just don't want you stealing Jason from me!" Melinda whined.

"I'm not! I told you I don't want him like that. I just want to fuck him now and then. Come on, Melinda, you want to do it all the time, you're always so hot for him ..."

Melinda shuddered and moaned. She fell to her knees, hands trembling with the effort to resist being shoved down her panties. "Uhnng ... y-you're doing it again ..."

Heather sighed and turned away. "I can't freaking control it with you, Melinda!"

"All right, look," said Jason. "You're obviously, um, in need. Maybe we should take care of that and then talk about this."

"Oh, sure, yeah, so generous of you," Melinda sneered as she stood up.

Jason frowned. "You have something better to suggest?"

Melinda's eyes widened. She opened her mouth to protest, reconsidered, and shook her head.

"All I know is that I get better precogs if I've had lots of sex," Heather said. "But now it's like this power has a mind of its own. Jason, didn't Elizabeth mention anything about this in her journal?"

Jason took the papers again and thumbed through the makeshift bookmarks to give his fingers something to do. "I haven't found any mention at all about the powers that Mara gave us. I don't think she really even knew about it. She knew Mara's intentions but not her methodology. We're going to have to figure this one out ourselves."

"Fine!" Melinda said. "We'll go give the Sex Queen here what she wants. But if she's going to make me do this, she's going to make me do it the way I want for once ..."

Gina had never seen this man before, yet she felt she knew him. He was a stranger, yet intimately familiar. She did not know why the cemetery had seemed so cold and lonely to her. It sheltered her from the wind despite the bareness of the aspens, and filled her with warmth despite the Rocky Mountain autumn chill.

The stranger smiled at her again, filling her with a sense of calm detachment. Without a word, she crossed the cemetery, dropped into the seat beside him, and folded her hands demurely in her lap.

"And who is that I have the honor of sharing this beautiful morning?" the stranger asked.

"Gina Caligano," she replied without a second thought.

"Victor Mann." He extended his hand. "I am sure it will be a great pleasure to know you."

Gina reached for his hand as he continued to speak. At the word "pleasure," she felt warm and tingly, as if she had just downed a nice mug of hot chocolate on a cold night. She released her breath as a contented sigh. She smiled and nodded.

"What brings you out here so early on a Saturday morning, Gina?" asked Victor.

"It helps me ..." Gina began.

"Yes?"

Something had stopped her. She was ready to tell him anything and everything, knowing it would feel so good to do so. Yet now she reconsidered. "It ... um ... helps me get some exercise. And ... and I just wanted to, I guess."

Gina flushed with guilt. She had refused to tell him the truth. He was an adult, a person in authority. She had no business withholding the truth from one.

Victor turned towards her and leaned one elbow on the back of the bench, folding his hands in midair before him. "Really? Just because you wanted to?"

Gina had to stop from cringing, as if he had caught her in the lie. "Yes. Is there ... is there anything wrong with that?"

"I guess it would depend on what you mother wants of you."

"Oh. She said it was okay," Gina replied, some of her guilt easing. "She gave me permission."

"Ah, I see. It is always good to be mindful of your elders, Gina, but I am sure that your mother already impressed that upon you."

Gina nodded quickly. She felt more on even ground here now. And yet ...

And yet ...

A tiny smile tugged at one corner of Victor's mouth. "You know, Gina, I can read people very well."

Gina shifted in her seat. "You can?"

"Yes. And I can sense that you have something else on your mind."

(use your own judgment)

"You can tell me," said Victor, leaning forward, his voice dropping to a soft and intimate tone. "You can always tell me."

Gina felt pressed, like weights laid against her from all directions at once. Yes, she could tell him, couldn't she? He could be trusted. He could always be trusted, even though she had never seen him before ...

But did that make sense?

"You can trust me, Gina."

A breath shuddered past her lips. Words rose unbidden, and she fought to keep them down. But that was wrong. He could be trusted. That was the way things were.

(use your own judgment)

Victor leaned back, his penetrating gaze fixing on Gina. "It feels good to trust."

Gina let out a contented sigh as another feeling of simple, diffuse pleasure washed over her.

It feels very good to trust.

That time it seemed it came from inside her own head. Damp heat oozed in her pussy. She squirmed and let out a very small moan.

"So what else could you tell me about your mother, Gina?" asked Victor in a very casual voice. "Something else she told you, perhaps?"

"She told me to use my own judgment." More moist pleasure squished in her pussy, like gentle strokes against her flesh.

Victor's eyebrows rose. "Did she, now? When did she tell you this?"

"Just this morning."

"And you are apparently taking this to heart, it would seem."

"Have I done something wrong?"

Victor stared into Gina's eyes for another second. "That depends. Do you think you have done something wrong?"

Gina did not respond. The tingling in her pussy abated, leaving her with a maddening, unrequited ache.

The truth always feels good.

"No, I don't think I've done anything wrong." Gina shivered as her pussy swam once more in wet pleasure.

Victor smiled. "Of course not, Gina. You were only following your mother's wishes. She wished for you to take a walk, and that is what you did."

"Yes, of course," Gina said in a breathy voice.

Victor scrutinized her, as if he could tell what she was thinking. Perhaps she should tell him it had been her idea to take a walk. He deserved the truth from her. But not telling him was not the same as telling a lie. She could keep it from him, and she would not be doing anything wrong.

Her pussy still strained with the need to confess. If answering his questions truthfully felt good, volunteering a truth would be ecstasy.

"You have something else to tell me, Gina?" Victor asked.

Gina opened her mouth. Her pussy rose as if in anticipation.

"You can tell me."

No. She couldn't tell him, and she had no idea why. She shook her head.

"You are quite the interesting girl, Gina," said Victor. "I feel there is so much more to you than I could possibly learn right now."

Gina said nothing. She would volunteer nothing further, no matter how good it might feel, even as the unsatisfied ache in her pussy distracted her.

A smile touched the corners of Victor's mouth. "I hope you will think pleasantly on this conversation, and on any other opportunity that may arise in the future."

Gina imagined herself sitting down like this again, letting him ask question of her and baring her soul to him, as if he were her confessor or confidante. Her pleasure rose and crested, eliciting a single soft moan as her pussy throbbed in gentle orgasm. It would not abate, and continued at the same soft level until she was squirming and moaning in simple bliss.

Yes, you will enjoy these conversations very well.

Gina let out a sigh as the throbbing finally subsided. She lifted two sultry but confused eyes to Victor.

Victor stood up. "Well, as lovely as this was, I believe it is time to move on." He turned and smiled at her. "A good day to you, Gina. I will look forward to us meeting again soon."

Gina's gaze remained locked on him as he left along with the last vestiges of her extended orgasm. He strolled through the gate and crossed the old dirt road, then meandered north up Old Fairview. He passed around a gentle curve in the road and slid out of sight behind the aspens.

Gina's head swam, as if coming out of a dream. For a moment, two realities vied for attention. She was still staring at the point where Victor had disappeared. When she finally wrenched her gaze away, she gasped in shock and jumped from the bench to her unsteady feet.

The cemetery was again a moldering ruin. The desiccated tree trunk twisted into the sky like a gnarled hand. Part the stone support of the bench was cracked where a section of fence had fallen on it. Broken bars pitted with rust stood out in garish red-brown relief against clumps of snow. Weeds choked the graves, only their pitted and weathered headstones marking the departed's resting place.

Gina stumbled back towards the gate, then yelped when her backside fetched against cold metal. She spun around to find the old gate still locked shut.

She swallowed and picked her way through the fallen fence with alacrity, nearly tripping on the dead roots of the cottonwood. She backed away into the intersection and stared, having to hold her feet pressed to the ground. She wished Victor had not left. Perhaps he could tell her how to make sense of what happened.

Gina let out a breath. Her pussy tingled faintly.

Yes, that was it. He would talk to her again, and she would ask him what happened. He would be able to explain it. She trusted him. Until then, she would ...

She uttered a short gasp and whipped her head around. For a few seconds, she felt the weight of scrutiny upon her. She fled back down the road from which she had come.

Stillness settled over the cemetery again, save for the breeze that blew from between the aspens flanking the old road. Footsteps approached, crunching against the remains of the aspen leaves at the edge of Old Fairview.

Victor peered down the old road. His eyes followed Gina until she disappeared into the distance. The anger that burned in his eyes was one of careful restraint, like a well-tended campfire rather than a chaotic inferno. Every movement was meticulous, even to the thoughtful folding of his hands before him on his trench-coat.

Yet his anger might have been worse, had he not believed that the situation could be salvaged.

He had much to do. Gina could barely keep even something as simple as the altered perception of the cemetery in her head. Had Roberta not shirked her duty, he would have only had to introduce the concept into her psyche, and she would forever see the cemetery as a wonderfully warm place of solace and tranquility. Even the simple task of gaining Gina's trust had challenged him, forcing him to resort to a heavy-handed reward system. Nevertheless, it was enough to let him start the work that the careless Roberta had abandoned.

Roberta had failed, but he would not. An experiment sixteen years in the making would not be allowed to fail this close to fruition.

For Jason, Melinda's rearrangement had not mattered much.

Heather still got into Jason's head, filling him with her desires and making them his own. Heather became his whole world, and he trembled with the desire to satisfy her, imbued with the knowledge on how to do it. Licking and sucking at her nipples while his fingers teased her pussy excited him more than anything else could. His cock hung under him, rock-hard, aching, its head dripping with fervent lust.

The only thing that was different was that Heather was on her back and unable to make all the little noises that the real Jason loved to hear.

Melinda sat on her big sister's face. She squirmed and moaned as Heather licked fast and hard. Melinda whimpered as she rose. She leaned forward and plastered more of her wet sex against Heather's face. Heather writhed and uttered several muffled cries as she fought for a better position to both breathe and service her sister.

Heather's desires for Jason changed. He lifted his head from her breast and moaned with desire that surged into his aching cock and tempted it with her wet and ready pussy.

Panting in anticipation, some of it his own, he positioning himself between her spread legs, the swollen head of his pulsing cock poised at her labia before he realized what was wrong.

Condom, the thought struggled against the tidal wave of lust. I've got to put on a ...

His muscles clenched and urged his cock forward, ignoring his protests. He felt the labia part for him, the head of his cock growing slick.

I can't do it like this! I might get her pregnant! I ...

... no ... no, it won't, it will be okay ...

The moment of unexpected conflict surprised him so much that he managed to pull back a bit. Heather wrapped her legs around him in response, pulling him forward through sheer force of will.

Jason's mind whirled. Why would be think it would be okay? Was that from Heather? Was she so addled with lust that she threw safety to the wind? Was it the Darkness influencing them? What better way to take a Harbinger out of action but to force a pregnancy on her!

But there was no Aura on either her or himself. What was it? What ...?

The head of his cock was again nestled in her folds, and his resistance fell to burning need. He sank into her, an excited breath escaping his lips. He relished the sensation of his bare cock against the tight, slick confines of her cunt, so much better than even the most sensitive condom.

Jason lost himself to both Heather's lust and his own, letting himself continue to fulfill an ongoing adolescent wet dream.

Melinda cried out as she came, but she did not relent. She had fought for some control of this tryst and intended to keep it. She drew herself upright and her pussy squished tight against Heather's mouth. "Keep licking me, bubblehead!" she declared, though the customary epithet was weak, as if she had to fight harder to be allowed to use it.

Jason leaned forward, pumping his cock hard into Heather's depths, knowing she would want it that way. Heather panted into her sister's pussy, her tongue more insistent with her rising pleasure. Melinda panted as well as she rocketed towards a second climax.

It's going to happen again, Jason thought before becoming lost in the ecstasy of the moment. A shrill cry rose from Melinda. A jet of hot, liquid warmth squirted from Heather's pussy, splattered against Jason, and ran down the insides of her thighs. Jason's cock throbbed inside Heather's flooded depths.

Enraptured by their shared orgasm, they prolonged it without conscious thought. Jason continued his slow, deep thrusts, leaning further forward for better contact with Heather's clit. Heather's pussy milked Jason's cock, another smaller squirt of fluid splashing her cunt. Melinda squealed as Heather drew Melinda's clit between her lips.

They parted from one another as their orgasm wound down. Jason sank back on his feet. His cock dripped from the bits of his seed that had clung to it. His eyes were still glazed, and he shook his head to clear the remaining fog of pleasure.

Melinda's gaze focused on her boyfriend's flagging cock, then whipped back and forth. "Wait, where's the condoms? Where's the one you just ..." Her eyes widened. "Ohmigod! Ohmigod! You didn't ...! You ...! Oh, SHIT!"

Heather was still in a post-coital haze with no desire to be pulled out of her enjoyment of the lingering, satisfied ache in her pussy. "Melinda, what the hell are you yelling about?"

Melinda leapt out of bed and pointed at Jason's cock. "He didn't use a condom, you dumb bimbo!"

"Don't call me that!" Heather shouted, eyes blazing.

"Then why are you acting so stupid? Did you make him not wear one? Is that it?"

"No, I didn't! I ... At least I don't think I did ..."

Melinda threw up her hands. "Oh, great. Just fucking great. Now you're going to get pregnant."

"I am not going to get pregnant!"

"And how the hell do you know that?"

"I don't know! I just do. I'm not going to get pregnant from this."

Jason finally found his voice. "A precog?"

"Jason, please, I really just don't know," said Heather. "I don't understand how I know things like this. I wish I understood how my power worked."

"If that's even your power!" Melinda said, folding her arms. "If it's not just wishful thinking!"

"Shut up, runt, you don't know half of what I'm going through."

"Huh, yeah, sure, right. I'm the one you're always using as your sex toy. Why don't you go to Diane, huh? She's the submissive anyway, she'll let you do whatever the hell you want to her."

"I've told you over and over again, midget. She's been busy with family stuff the past weekend and today. She'll be free again tomorrow."

"And you couldn't let this wait until ...?"

"Look, this is getting us nowhere," Jason said. He climbed out of bed and began retrieving his clothing. "Melinda, I'm willing to trust Heather on this. I got some sort of sensation like that as well."

Melinda huffed. "Fine. Whatever."

"Melinda, stop acting like a brat," Heather snapped. "Maybe this has something to do with our periods. Maybe you don't have to worry about pregnancy either, you ever think of that?"

Melinda looked like she wanted to retort, but closed her mouth without a word. She looked towards Jason, her gaze hovering over his cock before it was hidden behind his briefs. She let out a tiny, disappointed sigh.

Jason pulled his shirt over his head. "Wait. Did you say periods? As in ... menstrual periods?"

Heather smirked. "And what else would I be talking about?" She told him what she had told Cassie earlier.

"So does it mean anything, Jason?" Melinda asked.

"I don't know," Jason replied. "It must mean something, though, if Cassie's has stopped as well. I want to know if Diane is affected."

"Like it matters with her. She's only into girls anyway."

"Well, it does matter, Melinda." He paused, his cheeks growing pink. "Um, well, that is, I assume it matters to Heather whether Diane is in her period."

"Of course it does," said Heather. "It sort of spoils the mood having to deal with the mess."

Melinda snorted. "So says Miss Fountain o'Cum."

"Listen, runt, if I need to tell you the difference between ..."

"Plus it matters for what it means to the group," Jason said loudly. "Something strange is going on here, and we need to figure out what it is before we go any further. We need to get the Harbingers together."

Heather's eyes widened. "Wait, I don't want to talk about this kind of stuff with everyone!"

"Oh, and you don't already talk about sex half the time?" Melinda said.

"Look, there's just ... just some people I don't feel right talking about this stuff in front of, okay?"

Melinda considered and nodded. "Yeah, okay, I know what you mean."

Jason sighed. He guessed they were talking about Richie.

Richie Gardner had been accepted back into the group during the crisis with Melissa, and he had saved the day in the end. Yet Heather was still wary of him, and Melinda still harbored an intense dislike for him. He was so reticent to hang out with them and had to be dragged to Harbinger meetings that Jason feared Richie felt ostracized from the group.

"Nevertheless, we have to talk about it," said Jason. "This could mean something is up. Remember how Richie's power manifested just when we needed it? This could be something similar."

The implications worried Jason, that something else was in control of their powers, shepherding them towards some goal. He pined for more information from Mara despite knowing his wish would never be fulfilled. He doubted she would have known about this anyway; they had already discovered several things about which she had been dead wrong.

Heather got out of bed stepped up to her sister. Melinda's eyes widened, and she took a step back. Yet when nothing happened to her emotional state, she relented and simply cast a wary gaze on her older sister.

"Melinda, I'm sorry," Heather said in a low voice. "I don't mean to cause this trouble for you. If I could control this better, I would."

Melinda's gaze flicked over to Jason, who cast a pleading look back. Melinda let out a gusty sigh. "You're still a bubblehead, but, yeah, okay," she said in an annoyed but more contrite voice.

Heather managed a small smile.

"But if this thing with our periods means we really can't get pregnant, then I want Jason in me instead of you for a change," Melinda shot back.

Jason refused to react. He missed having real intercourse with Melinda despite the need for caution. The empiricist in him needed proof that Melinda would not get pregnant. "We'll meet here tomorrow."

"We can't get here until the afternoon," Heather said.

"Mom still drags us off to church every Sunday morning," Melinda said bitterly.

Heather nodded in sympathy. She could never forget that day she saw her own mother accept money passed to her from the priest right after Mass. Penny Sovert worked at the Li'l Missy Inn, the supposed source of the Darkness. She could only imagine what her mother did there with her "patrons," but Melinda had spotted the beginnings of an Aura about the priest just a week ago.

Melinda turned to Jason. "Where are we going to meet after this week?"

Jason almost told her about Debby's offer. The real question was likely "where are we going to have sex after this week?"

"We'll talk about that as well," he said.

Cassie sighed as she gazed towards the deepening twilight above the mountains through her bedroom window. Haven lay sprawled in twinkling and deceptively calm splendor. "So I was right, it's Heather that's been influencing me into having sex so much," Cassie said into her cell phone.

"It would seem like that, yes," replied Jason. "I want to talk to Diane and see if she's been affected at all."

Cassie fell onto the edge of her bed. "I don't understand any of this. Is Heather gaining some sort of power over us?"

"I don't think it's as simple as that. Maybe I can talk to Mrs. Radson. I still haven't really found anything in Elizabeth's journal about it."

"Jason, could it just be some innate need to boost her own ability? I mean, shouldn't she be getting her visions as clearly as Richie or I do?"

"But that would mean she needs an inordinate amount of energy compared to you or Richie."

"Well, maybe that's just how it works."

"It's possible, certainly. You mentioned yourself that sex has boosted your own abilities."

Cassie did not want to admit that she did not care for having her own power "boosted" in this way. The discomfort at the growing magnitude of her abilities was at odds with the guilt she would feel for refusing to use it to help the Harbingers. "About the meeting tomorrow, did you get in touch with Richie?"

"Yeah, finally. He'll be there, I think. Oh, and it's at three now, not one."

"Oh, okay." Cassie paused. She thought she had heard a bit of annoyance in Jason's tone. "Is that the only time Richie could make it?"

"That's part of it. But Heather had called me back and insisted we meet later."

Cassie paused, then blushed. "Oh, she wants to ... um, with Diane ..."

"Yes."

Cassie recognized that Heather and Diane had real feelings for reach other beyond just sex, but Diane's willingness to submit to the spells of the Book alarmed her. "Jason, you're not going to let Heather use ..."

"No," Jason said firmly. "No one is looking at this Book again, not for that purpose."

Cassie was relieved, but wished Jason did not bear all the responsibility. She wanted to share the burden. She had felt that her father's mansion was about as safe a location as there could be for the Book, at least until Jason had shown her Elizabeth's map of the lines of force in Haven.

Mysterious energies originated along these lines. The House at the end of the street had sat along one of them. Melissa had gained her powers at a spot along another, and Agatha before her had first performed the Rite along an adjacent one. Two came close together near Haven High School. Another ran under the hospital where Jason's father worked.

And one ran directly under the Kendall mansion.

Nothing unusual had ever happened at the mansion to Cassie's recollection, other than her own Dream Gift ability. It was enough, however, to forgo using the Kendall Mansion as a repository for the Book.

"You really think it has some other purpose?" Cassie asked.

"I know, it's just a hunch, and I don't like making decisions based only on hunches," said Jason. "But something doesn't seem right. Something is not adding up."

"Is there anything more I can do?"

"I really wish there was something I could give you to do. I know you've been experimenting with your dream power, but I don't have anyone you could use it on."

Cassie shuddered. "I'm ... I'm supposed to try it again on Ned tonight."

"Well, let me know how that goes." Jason paused. "Um ... without revealing any intimate details of course."

Cassie smiled wanly. "I understood what you mean, Jason. Thank you."

"Okay, I should get going before--"

"Oh, Jason, wait! Will we be talking about the school Halloween party tomorrow as well?"

She heard a soft curse. "Damn, I keep forgetting about that."

"I know, we've all been sort of ignoring it, and it has me worried."

Of all of Mara's parting words, the most disturbing had been to Heather. She had warned Heather to stay home Halloween night, that there was a small risk to her. But thanks to Melissa forcing Heather to masturbate in the middle of Terri Hollis' class, she had drawn punishment in the form of being volunteered to help with setting up and running the school Halloween party.

"It would help to know what the threat is in the first place," said Jason. "The implication is that if Heather could be a target for something bad, then someone else assuredly will be a target."

"But a target for what?"

"I don't know. But now that you reminded me about it, I'll do some research to see if Haven has a history of anything unusual happening on Halloween."

Cassie nodded and frowned. She had her own reasons for disliking Halloween, but she was not going to share them unless forced. She would do as she did every year since her powers manifested: hope that the same thing that happened every year at this time would not happen again.

"I really have to go now, Cassie."

"All right, I'll be there tomorrow. You need me to pick you up?"

"No, I can get there by bike."

Cassie smiled. She hoped it would be just her and Ned in the car, if for only a short time. "I'll see you tomorrow. Bye, Jason."

"Bye, Cassie."

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