Melinda barreled into one of the bedrooms of the house. "This is nuts! We shouldn't be here. We should be back at the school trying to do something for Heather."

Richie followed her inside and kicked the door shut behind him. He leaned against it with his hands thrust in his pockets. "We are gonna do something, pipsqueak."

Melinda whirled around. "You can't seriously be thinking about sex right now. Not with all the stuff my Mom is talking about!"

Richie smirked. "Wanna come see how much I'm thinking about it?"

Melinda wrinkled her nose, but her gaze drifted over his crotch. "You really are a perv."

"Yeah, okay, fine. Then you are, too."

"Huh?"

"Try and tell me you ain't hot and wet right now."

Melinda frowned, but her eyes gave truth to Richie's words. "That's not the point."

"Yeah, it never is with you."

Melinda folded her arms and huffed, but with little enthusiasm. Her head spun with snippets from the conversation between her mother and her school principal. She wanted to shout at him that they had to stop and listen for any valuable information that they would otherwise miss if they were distracted by sex.

Her eyes widened when he approached her, but she did not retreat. Her arms loosened when he started to unbutton his shirt. "Shit, you really do want to do it with me," Melinda said in a small voice.

Richie snorted. "Can't imagine whatever gave you that idea."

"This is so wrong. I don't care if it helps Heather to ..." She trailed off when Richie gave her a funny look. "I-I didn't mean it like that."

Richie hesitated, then nodded. "S'okay." He cast off his shirt.

Melinda rolled her eyes. "Yeah, okay so long as you get to boink me."

Richie undid his belt. "Fuck, yeah."

Melinda shivered and lowered her arms. Her eyes darted up and down his body as if she didn't know where to place them. Her gaze finally locked on his crotch to a slow escape of breath from between her parted lips.

She had planned to look away at the precise moment Richie lowered his jeans, just to be defiant, but lingered instead. She stared at the bulging outline of his cock against the white cotton of his briefs, a tiny, glistening stain near the tip.

Melinda wanted to utter some biting, clever retort. She wanted to tell him that Jason's was bigger, or better shaped, or longer, or something. Instead, her resolve to avoid sex with Richie all but melted in the heat from her wet and aching pussy.

Richie kicked his jeans to the side and grasped the waistband of his underwear. He stopped and looked at her. "So you gonna get naked, or what?"

The comment inflamed both her desire and her defiance. She whirled around and placed her back to him, her hair slapping him in the chest. "Make me."

Richie shrugged and stepped behind her. He thrust his hands up the front of her shirt.

Melinda gasped and staggered in shock. "What the hell?! What are you--!"

"Doin' what you said," Richie drawled in her ear as he squeezed her breasts in his fingers.

"Richie, I didn't ... uhnn ... ohmigod ... I can't believe you ... uhhng ..."

Richie reached under her shirt in the back. He snapped the bra clasps open with a yank, his other hand lifting the cups and spilling her breasts free under her shirt. He kneaded them, fingers squeezing hard around pliant flesh.

Melinda squirmed as if trying to get out from under his touch, but it was as weak an effort as her resistance. "Uhnn ... s-stop it."

"Make me."

Melinda squeezed her eyes closed, willing her body not to respond. Instead, she moaned when he weighed her breasts in his hands, lifting them once and letting them fall with a faint slap against her chest.

"Shit, your tits really did get bigger," Richie said.

Melinda's body flushed with desire, her feet sliding apart from the swelling heat in her pussy. Her trembling hands lifted her shirt over her head. As she tossed it aside, Richie popped the button on the waist of her jeans and thrust his hand down her panties. His fingers plunged into wet heat.

"R-Richie!" Melinda moaned. "Ohmigod, you ... uhngg! ... G-God ..."

His fingers banged into her cunt until she panted. "Shit, you're tight," Richie breathed in her ear.

Melinda's shaking hands pushed her jeans until they slid off her hips. Richie jammed his crotch against her backside, rubbing the bulge of his cock between her cheeks. "Ohmigod, I'm so horny," she moaned, her cheeks growing pink.

Richie smirked. "I love hearing stuff like that, y'know?"

"A-Alright." Melinda struggled to turn herself around in his arms. He loosened his hold and watched with a widening grin as Melinda pulled down her panties. "Alright, we'll do this. Just--"

"Not 'til you say it," Richie said.

Melinda blinked and stared, though her gaze would not remain at eye level. Her gaze flicked downward when Richie hooked his fingers into the waistband of his briefs and gave it a small tug.

"Say you want me to fuck you."

Melinda's eyes widened. "What, me being wet isn't enough?"

"I wanna hear it."

"Come on, Richie, this isn't fair, I'm already so horny it hurts! Don't--"

"Maybe I can make you say it."

Melinda backed up a step. "Don't you dare! You don't even have ... you don't ... what ... uhng! ..."

Richie grinned. "Heather said something about this. About this power givin' us what we want when we fuck."

"Th-that's what the House did!"

"This is different. No one's pullin' our strings."

"You're pulling mine!"

"Just a little. Fuck, Melinda, lighten up," He paused. "I'm not the same Richie from the House, okay?"

Melinda fell to her knees. Her pussy dripped once on the carpet. "Unng ... What's d-different about this one?"

"This one's not as big an asshole," Richie said. "Like maybe this time I hope you enjoy it, too."

Melinda looked up.

"Yeah, big surprise, huh? Now, you gonna say it?"

Melinda stared at him for another few seconds, then tried to stand up. She was surprised when she could. He was still in her head, but nothing like the House; just enough to convey a very clear image.

"You want me to say that, too, don't you?" Melinda asked in a low voice.

"Don't matter if you say that part, I'm gonna do it anyway."

Richie pulled down his briefs. Melinda bit her lip to suppress a whimper as his cock sprang out, pulsing with his heartbeat. She trembled with an anticipation whose source she could not determine. Him, the link, or her own desires? The end result was the same: she could think of little else than his cock inside her.

"Well?"

Melinda looked up. "F-fuck me," she whispered.

Richie grinned. "What was that? I didn't make that out."

"Fuck me, Richie. F-fuck me hard." She blushed. "Fuck my brains out."

Richie expected her to follow it with some quip about how lame or silly it was. Instead, her eyes grew dark with lust, and she trembled with need. A single drop trickled down the inside of her thigh.

Richie nodded once and grinned. "Yeah, we can do that."

"Maybe all of us should have stayed in the living room," Cassie said in a quavering voice as she stepped into the bedroom.

Jason said nothing as he followed her in, pausing at the threshold. He grabbed the edge of the door but was reluctant to close it.

Cassie's steps were small and measured, her eyes darting around the room. "I mean, it would make sense, right? Since this link is supposed to be powered by all of us."

She turned towards him. Jason shifted his feet and finally pushed the door shut. He felt obliged to reply. "Um ... we're probably okay. Heather said Mara told her that everyone didn't have to be doing it with everyone else all the time."

Cassie stared until her skin flushed hot. She tried to look away and failed.

Jason hesitated for another few seconds before he finally stepped towards her. He shifted his weight a few times, drawing Cassie's attention to his hips and then his crotch. Heat settled over her entire body at once, like diving into very warm water.

Cassie could not tolerate the silence. "Are you ... are you at least getting a little excited?"

"Uh, yeah, I am. More than a little, actually. You?"

He realized it was a stupid question even as it passed his lips. Cassie returned a faint, sardonic smile. "Let's just say that I'm glad I thought to bring an extra pair of clean panties for when we're done."

Jason trying to grin, but it faltered, and pink touched his cheeks. As Cassie witnessed this endearing reaction, her pussy throbbed in faint chorus with her heartbeat. Despite her now aching need, she realized that he was not going to initiate it.

Cassie raised her eyes to his and lingered there as she unbuttoned her blouse, her hands moving with a steadiness that surprised her. The bulge in his crotch swelled. She could only guess at what he was thinking of her. He could not stand still, his eyes quivering as if caught between conflicting imperatives to both look at her and not look at her.

She tried to smile to ease his discomfort, but could manage only a sultry gaze which made him shift his hips again.

Cassie shed her blouse, and heat rose to her cheeks. Not in embarrassment or modesty, for she was beyond such things now. When her dress fell to the floor, she shivered in pleasure as he traced the contours of her body with his eyes.

As she was about to unhook her bra, Jason approached her, though he remained at arm's length. His desire felt tangible to her now, tingling in her nipples as the cups loosened and fell away from her breasts. A sigh shuddered past her lips when his eyes roamed over her bosom, his gaze as good as a slow slide of fingers across warm flesh.

She was about to lower her panties when a thought entered her head, one very vivid and very much not her own. She cast her eyes deep into his, and shivered hard when it came to her again, a vision from Jason's mind of him coupled with her in tight, sexual union. Her desire became hot, raw lust as his thought became hers.

She pulled down her panties and stepped out of them. She tried to smile. "You could say something, you know."

"You're gorgeous," Jason blurted, then slapped his forehead. "I-I mean--"

Cassie giggled. "Jason, you better take your clothes off, I ... no, wait ... you want me to do it, don't you?"

Jason stared."Oh, shit, you didn't just pick up on ... you ... what are you ...?"

Cassie began unbuttoning Jason's shirt. By the time she parted it and bared his chest, he was panting, and his cock strained against its confines.

She lowered his jeans and helped him out of them. Her pussy left moisture on her thighs as she moved, her panties stained dark with her liquid arousal. She dropped to her knees and grasped his briefs, and he trembled under her hands. Cassie pulled down his briefs. Jason's cock bobbed before her, thick and purplish from the intensity of his erection.

Cassie took it in her hand, fingers flirting with its length before curling around its girth. Jason moaned and shivered. His thoughts turned, and her desires followed. She licked her lips, staring at the small drop that oozed from the tip of the head.

She forced herself to take a deep breath and slowly let it go as she stood. She wanted to do that for Ned first, then she would allow herself do it with the others. She didn't count the time when Melissa was controlling them.

"Please, let's do this," Cassie said in a shaky, lusty voice. "Please fuck me. I need it."

Diane rushed headlong into the bedroom at Ned's urging. He glanced down the hallway again, gave one last shout for his parents, then stepped inside and shut the door behind him with a bang.

Diane turned back towards him, folding her hands before her and standing as motionless as a statue.

"All right, I think the coast is clear," Ned said in a voice of strained excitement. "Hope it stays that way."

Diane nodded, not a word having passed her lips since they had started for his house.

Ned swallowed. He stared at Diane and tried one last time to see Heather's lesbian lover with little hope of success. That had begun to fail when he had realized that Diane had taken even simple comments such as "this way" or "down that street" as outright commands, and she panted in escalating sexual heat with each one.

"Um ... take your clothes off," Ned croaked.

Diane pulled off her top and started undoing her jeans.

Ned hated this. No, he loved it; what he hated was admitting it.

He watched each piece come off, thinking he would stop her before the next one. He failed again, exhausting his final options as Diane stood naked before him. Her pussy was wet, framed by two of the most lithe legs Ned had ever seen. He wondered how he had missed such a detail. He had seen her in the nude before. He should have spotted it.

But Diane had not been his. Now she was. Her pussy was his. Her legs were his. He had a right to notice them now, and to ponder how they might please him.

Victor did this to her, Ned told himself.

It didn't matter. As the first command fell from his mouth, he wondered if he were fighting the wrong battle. "Get in bed."

Ned thought he had seen her pause, but it may have been his imagination. She lay on her back, her pussy swollen and wet between her parted thighs. She drew her feet towards her and spread her knees further apart, as if exposing her sex better to her master.

Ned's cock strained, unable to expand further in his briefs. When a tug of his belt failed to help, he undid it. His jeans fell to his feet, his cock tenting his briefs. He opened his mouth, stopped, struggled, and clenched his teeth. "The wrong battle," he murmured.

Diane raised her head, her eyes dark with lust and submission.

Ned's jaw and hands unclenched. "Go frig yerself. Real slow. Don't cum."

Diane draped her hand over her mound, her fingers finding her clit and teasing it with furtive strokes, fingertips swirling in little circles across slick, wet flesh.

She arched her back and moaned, her thighs quivering. Her hips squirmed under her hand, her breath heavy and wanting.

Ned thought he had it figured out. If they spent their time fighting Diane's inner demon, they wouldn't have enough to use elsewhere. Diane was not a plant for information, she was a drain on their resources and power that they could have directed elsewhere. Such as against Victor himself.

Bet he didn't even know about the spell we need her for, Ned thought as he smirked. Fuckin' tool.

"Yeah, keep doin' that," Ned said as he shed the rest of his clothes. "A little faster now."

Diane whimpered as her fingers sank further into her slit and massaged her clit with quick, straight strokes. She writhed with her rising pleasure, then moaned with a desperate cadence as it plateaued short of climax.

Ned grasped his rigid cock and stroked it as he watched. "Faster," Ned breathed, approaching the bed. "Don't cum."

Diane threw her head back, moans interspersed with gasping sighs as her fingers whipped against her clit. Her hips rose into her hand, her body trembling. Several whimpers rose along with her pleasure, pussy straining against his command not to crest.

"Stop."

Diane let out a ragged moan as her hips settled, her hand falling away from her mound. The pleasure in her sex inched back, and she squirmed once more in the unsatisfied ache left in its wake.

Ned climbed into bed and over her. Diane gasped and stared with widening eyes dark with both lust and trepidation. Her gaze was drawn to his cock as it hung from his body like a thick pole, then darted back to his face a second later. Her lips parted, and she drew in her breath as if about to speak.

Ned didn't give her the chance. He speared her pussy and pushed himself into her with a wet squelch.

Diane closed her eyes and tilted her head back, her hands clenching until her nails dug into her palms. Her muscles held tense for a breath, then released with her shaky sigh, her eyes drifting open. A ragged gasp passed her lips as he sank into her, fingers curling hard into his arms. Her eyes pleaded.

"Ya got something ta say?" Ned rasped as he pressed his hips against her.

Diane's gaze shimmered. She lifted her hips to meet his, pleasure rising as her clit was mashed against the shaft of his hard cock. "Please fuck your slave, Master," she moaned.

Ned grinned. He wrapped his arms around her and rolled until he was on his back, keeping his cock buried inside her.

"Yer the slave," Ned said. "Yer s'posed ta do all the work."

"Why are you offering me this deal?" Penny demanded.

Laura smiled. "Do I need a reason?"

"You don't need me. You can just deal with Terri and shove me out. You're right, I can't guarantee that the Darkness would support me against you. So why are you doing this?"

Laura strolled up to Penny. "I thought that would be obvious. You seem to know about Victor and his goals."

"I know of them. I don't participate directly. I'm not a member of ... I'm not one of his cohorts."

"Member?"

Penny shook her head. "I've spoken enough on that subject."

"Perhaps you haven't, or you'd realize why I don't want to deal with Terri," said Laura. "Victor is an enigma, a cypher. I have no clue as to his agenda or his motivations. Or whose side he's on."

"And you think I'm on your side?"

Laura considered. "Perhaps not. But ultimately, when everything is said and done, we both have the same boss. I much prefer keeping the number of players to a minimum."

Heather let out a noise as if she were trying to speak, but it became a shrill whimper as her pussy rose and strained, holding her on the knife's edge of orgasm. She lowered her head and panted as she was eased back from the brink. Her thighs burned and twitched as if wanting to part for a lover.

Laura looked towards Heather. "I'd love to give her a nice, mind-numbing orgasm, but I understand that might stain the nice costume I got her." She turned back to Penny. "I heard she positively gushes when she cums. Is that true?"

"The Darkness won't care about our deal," Penny declared. "Not when the time comes."

"But in the meantime, I can take full advantage of it. Rome wasn't built in a day, Ms. Sovert, and neither will whatever little empire the Darkness is fashioning for itself. And you are not going to convince me to give up Heather no matter what you say, it is as simple as that. So do we have a deal?"

Penny could not bear to look at her daughter. Meeting Heather's eyes would shatter her composure. She wished she could have conveyed to Heather how much it had hurt to let her enslave Melinda during Nyssa's reign. Neither of them would ever understand that it was all Penny could have done to protect them. It hurt just as much now.

"One condition," Penny said in a strained voice.

"No conditions, Ms. Sovert, I--"

"And that condition is that you won't claim her the week of Halloween. You'll start with her the week after that."

Laura sighed. "And why is that stipulation so important to you?"

"It doesn't matter. Either agree to it or not."

"And why should I agree? Perhaps it would be easier to have my little harem girl entertain me privately the night of the party and just take her home with me."

Penny struggled to think of something to tell Laura.

The real reason for her request -- or, rather, the reason she would let herself believe was real -- was to keep her safe when Victor conducted his ceremony. Heather would be away from the party and back home by then, and Penny could convince herself that Heather was safe from Victor for all time.

She was careful not to think that Heather would be free to help her friends stop Victor for all time.

Laura's lips curled. "You're afraid of something, aren't you? What is it?"

"I will not speak with you further on any topic except Heather. Now, do you agree to my condition?"

Laura folded her arms. "A counter condition, then. Tell me what designs Victor has on this school that might concern me."

Penny shook her head. "I can't tell you what he's doing, but I can say that it will not affect your influence at this school. He has no designs on anything you currently care about. And he's not a rival for your power, either. He'll be gone in another week. I doubt you will ever see him again."

Laura tapped her arm as she considered. "Very well. I accept the condition. I get her starting the Monday after Halloween. Let's just hope I don't have to do too much retraining with her."

"I'll ... I'll make sure she abides by it," said Penny.

"So we have a deal?"

Penny swallowed hard and sighed. "Yes. We have a deal."

"Ohmigod," Melinda moaned. "Mom actually did it, she ... uhng ... sh-she's going to make Heather ... uhhn, Richie ... s-stop, I can't even think!"

Richie's fingers pressed into Melinda's flesh as he tightened his grip around her hips. He pulled her towards him with each thrust, her ass slapping hard against his body. He pressed a hand into her back and mentally nudged her to lift her hips to change the angle of his penetration. He pounded harder into her until her breasts swayed with each thrust.

"Uhn! Uhn! Uhn!" Melinda grunted in the same wet rhythm, her slick pussy tensing and squeezing around his cock each time it entered.

"I don't want you to think," Richie said in a voice raspy with exertion.

"Uhn! Uhn! Ohmigod! We have (uhn) to hear what (uhn) Mom and--"

"Shit, you don't stop whining even when you're being fucked."

Any cheeky comeback she may have dispensed was lost when he plunged deep inside her cunt and pushed her forward. She let out a small yelp as her ass rose even further in the air, her head shoved hard into the pillow. Melinda whimpered, pinned to the bed by Richie's repositioning as much as her mind by her soaring pleasure.

"Yeah, that's better," Richie grunted. The slap of their bodies became sharp as his cock banged into her helpless pussy.

Melinda tried to speak once more, but she could only pant and whimper. Her feeble protests dissolved when she realized how much she adored being fucked from behind. She would want to do this again, every time she had sex with Richie. She would always associate this sex act with him, and it would never fail to make her horny.

Melinda closed her eyes, her arms clutching the pillow as her body rocked to his rhythm. Her hips moved with his hands, driving herself harder against him. "Uhn! Uhn! Yeah! Ohmigod! Uhn! Fuck me! Fuck me harder!"

Richie smirked. "That's better."

She could let him fuck her this way every time, and it would never be enough. Her fears that this would make her feel any different about Jason seemed ludicrous to her now. Her aversion to sex with Richie mystified her. She should have wanted to do this since the House.

Richie let out a short sigh that was lost among Melinda's moans and squeals. He had managed not to screw with the relationship between Jason and Melinda. Richie didn't want to steal Melinda from Jason; he just wanted to fuck her now and then.

Yeah, real noble of you, came the biting thought in Richie's head.

Richie had resigned himself to the fact that he would always retain some mind control ability. He struggled each day not to use it again on his teacher Linda Davis. The temptation would never stop, and the occasional forlorn looks from her did not help.

Richie had made Miss Davis love taking it from the rear as well.

Not gonna do that again! Richie shouted in his head. Not gonna make her my slave again!

He clenched his teeth and drove himself hard into Melinda until she whimpered with the ache of mounting, unreleased ecstasy.

Cassie soon understood why both Melinda and Heather loved having sex with Jason: he cared about his partner's pleasure without resorting to direct influence or control.

Cassie had been ready to accept him. Her legs were spread, inviting him into her wet and aching pussy. Her gaze shimmered with want. His cock was tinged purple, and the tip of the swollen head was damp. He could have taken her. Instead, he crawled over her and began licking one of her nipples.

Compunction had aroused her, but when her hard nipple was sucked into his mouth, she squirmed and whimpered with her own raw lust. He held it between his lips and lashed at it with his tongue, shivers of pleasure radiating through her body. Her hips rose to seek his cock.

Cassie closed her eyes and tilted her head back. Ned would have done this for her if she had not been in such a sexual frenzy the last few times they had sex. For a few seconds, she felt an echo of her own pleasure, as if Ned were with her instead of Jason. She believed it to be her own fond memories replaying in her head.

Cassie gasped as her need became so inflamed that she could not bear the slow tease of buildup any further. Her voice would not rise above a whisper, and she murmured "please fuck me" over and over until she was begging.

Jason paused, his eyes pained, his cheeks pinkish-red. Cassie tried to give him a reassuring look, but her arms tightened and pulled him down atop her just the same. Cassie let out a slow sigh as his cock sank into her.

A gentle pressure from his thoughts settled against her mind as his cock slid back and forth in her slick tunnel. He wanted to do this again and again with her. The thought wavered and hesitated, as if Jason knew what his own mind was trying to do and resisted it.

It's just the power behind the link, Cassie thought. That's all. It's trying to get us to accept anyone as a partner.

She thought of Ned again. She loved Jason as a friend, but her heart was still with Ned. Another surge of raw lust echoed from her thoughts, joining with the pleasure of her coupling with Jason. She wrapped her legs around him and slid her hands over his rear. Her fingers curled into the tight flesh, urging him harder with each thrust.

Her eyes closed as Jason's desires broke through the weak dam of her resistance and flooded her mind. Her hips rose to his, her body rocking against the bed. Her reluctance to this tryst seemed foolish to her now. How many opportunities to fuck had they missed because of her silly notions? At least now they will get to do it many more times.

Cassie's thoughts exploded into a maelstrom of sexual ecstasy. Her eyes flew open, and she uttered an aborted scream of pleasure as a strained, shrill cry when the sensations from her phantom second lover overwhelmed her senses.

Cassie gasped as she understood that it had come from the link and not her memories. Ned was having sex, and she peered through her haze of both his lust and hers to see his partner.

What? Diane?! But how could she--?!

Cassie's sudden revelation blasted over the link, and now Jason's thrusts faltered as the shock overcame him.

"Please, don't stop, Jason, not now," Cassie gasped.

"I-I won't," Jason breathed. "It's just--"

"I know. We can't figure it out now. Please, just ... just keep fucking me!"

Diane had sunk far into the depths of absolute submission, her way eased by Ned's growing enthusiasm. Victor's shadow quelled every lingering doubt that rose to stop her fall into the pit. Her pussy dripped with need because Ned desired it. She craved his cock because Ned wanted her to crave it.

Ned gripped her hips and pulled her down hard on his cock. Diane gasped and shuddered as he impaled her virgin pussy, dazed for a moment at a fullness in her sex she had never experienced before. She leaned forward, planting her hands on either side of Ned, her breasts swaying under her. She eased her hips up, guided by Ned's hands, and slammed back down again with a moan.

Victor's shadow prompted her, and Diane began to hump in earnest. Ned's hands fell away. "Yeah, that's it. Jus' like that."

Diane's hair fell from her shoulders and spilled over Ned's chest. He grinned and pumped his hips in tandem with her, driving his cock deep into her each time she came down, until she uttered a staccato "Uhng! Uhng! Uhng!"

The tendrils of Victor's shadow slithered into Ned, molding his perceptions into sync with Diane's. It met no resistance, and lacked sufficient intelligence to be suspicious. When it sensed a feeling of victory in Ned's mind, it assumed it was in response to taking this wonderful nubile girl as his slave.

Ned's hands slid around Diane's back and urged her forward. He squeezed and kneaded her ass cheeks, pushing her harder onto his cock. Her breasts brushed his chest, and her hips rocked in steady and eager rhythm.

"Ya learn fast," Ned said, grinning.

"Uhnn, th-thank you, Master," Diane burbled.

"Too bad I can't keep ya jus' fer myself. Ya got a whole buncha folks that'll wanna use ya."

Diane closed her eyes and moaned. "S-slave to the Harbingers."

"Ya got that right."

"I'll be their slave ... u-use me ... uhnng!"

Ned curled his fingers around her breasts, rubbing the nipples with his thumbs. "More fuckin', less talkin'."

Diane nodded and slapped her body to his with each down stroke, her breath becoming a heavy pant as his cock stroked her clit hard. Her pleasure soared, then plateaued and strained once more. Whimpers became pleading cries, her thighs and ass clenched against a final orgasm that would not come.

Ned reveled in Diane's distress, but not for his own prurient reasons. It meant all the Harbingers would be in sync again. This was going to work after all.

His sense of victory rocketed and held with Diane's pleasure. Victor's shadow believed it had accomplished its task.

"So what will you do now?" Penny asked.

"Once you leave, you mean? I'll call Terri back in and we'll have some more fun with Heather. Though there is not as much point to it since I won't have her for another week."

"Then why not let her leave with me?"

Laura stepped back over to Heather. Penny tried to avert her gaze. "We can't condition her completely, no, but I can implant a nice little suggestion or two. Something to make her more compliant with my wishes when the time comes."

She stroked Heather's hair. Heather shuddered as she was again subsumed into mindless bliss, her body little more than an instrument of sexual desire, and her mind a conduit of lust.

"Don't hurt her," Penny said.

Laura stopped and lifted her hand. "Hurt her? Why would I do that?"

"I mean ... don't make her forget who she is. Don't do to her like you did to Marcie."

"Marcie was a special case. She had little will of her own to start with. She let others lead her around. It was child's play to exploit that. Heather has a much stronger will than that." Laura smiled. "I suppose that's why I'm so attracted to her. But then again, if Heather could be persuaded to desire such a change of--"

"No."

"And is that what you will tell the Darkness when the time comes?"

Penny opened her mouth but closed it again without a word.

"I though as much."

"I better go," Penny said in a quavering voice, turning away before she was forced to look upon her daughter again.

"One more question, if you would."

Penny sighed and held the doorknob. She did not turn around. "What is it?"

"Just how did you get involved with the Darkness in the first place? It seems like the last thing you want to do is help it."

Penny's mind vacillated between several possible answers, ranging the entire gamut from a refusal to answer to the unvarnished truth. "A mistake," Penny said in a near whisper, her eyes downcast. "I thought I could handle something on my own when I was really in over my head from the start."

"A mistake," Laura said tonelessly, a dubious smirk curling her lips.

Penny turned her head. "Yes, a mistake. It's an explanation, not an excuse. My intentions were always--"

"Next you're going to tell me that it seemed like the right thing to do at the time."

Penny shot a look of contempt at Laura, then yanked the door open and bolted out of the room.

Penny marched away from the classroom with swift, long strides, her face set like a stone mask. She shattered in less than a minute. She slowed and staggered into the lockers, heaving a great sob and covering her eyes with her hand until the urge to cry had passed.

Laura was wrong. Penny had never had that thought. It had never been the right thing, it had been the only thing; not so much a choice as damage control. She no longer debated the inevitability. Her only other option would have been to live in blissful ignorance, and her daughters would ...

Would what?

Now she could no longer see how much better or worse they would have been had things been different. Penny had fooled herself, had known she was fooling herself, and allowed herself to realize it only now. She had done little to protect her daughters at all. They were no better off now than if she had never become involved.

Penny drew herself up and forced herself to take a deep breath. She wiped her eyes and lifted her head. Grief was pointless now. She had to remain on the path she had made for herself. No one else would be responsible for her.

For a moment she longed to be like many of the others in the lounge. For them -- so deep into the Darkness they knew no thought of their own -- the pain was over.

Heather was not aware of everything she had heard. The words had skittered across her psyche, sliding over the icy grip of Laura's Dark power and settling into the shadowy corners of her mind. Some of it reached the link, as it remained outside Laura's control.

Heather felt the growing tide of emotion from the other Harbingers and knew at once what they were doing. To her shock, she sensed Ned and Diane as well.

She had little will with which to dwell upon it. With her mother gone, she once more became submissive and wanting. No thoughts were allowed to be called her own.

Laura stood before her, and cloth slid soft against skin. Heather stared at the damp stain on Laura's panties, the smell of female arousal heady and thick. A breath shuddered past her lips and carried with it a low, lustful moan.

"Sorry we were so rudely interrupted," Laura said with a sly smile as she stepped out of her slacks and folded them on the desk. "I'll call Terri back in a minute. You seem quite compliant now. Perhaps you are not as resistant as Terri would have me believe?"

Heather could only look up at Laura and shiver with intensifying arousal.

Laura slid her fingers under the waistband of her panties. "Craving this now?" she purred. "You want to lick my pussy now, don't you?"

"Yes, Mistress," Heather moaned.

Laura chuckled. "You don't mean it. Not completely. No matter. This will do for now, then ... we'll see."

Laura slipped her panties off her hips and let them fall to her feet. Without a word, she placed her hand behind Heather's head and drew Heather's face to her damp pussy.

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