Cassie trembled hard, muscles in her arms standing out like iron bands, the edge of her sword scraping against the avatar's with a piercing noise that rippled down her spine. She poured energy into herself and the sword until the latter crackled with bright blue sparks.

She whipped her sword upward with another screech of steel on steel, and the avatar careened away. She panted from the effort. Her "body" was only a convenient form around her psyche, but it reacted like the real thing, reflecting her growing mental exhaustion in aching muscles and shortened breath.

Victor's avatar had retreated to the dais. Cassie glanced at Gina and Stephanie. They still lay prone and helpless, their ethereal bodies wracked with mindless sexual bliss. She was alone; it all hinged on her now.

She threw herself at the avatar. He parried her two blows, and butted her away with his shield without losing ground.

"You're drawing on some other power," said the vision of Victor. "I can as well. My Master will provide whatever I need."

He lunged. Cassie met his blow, her arms vibrating from the impact. She parried a second stroke, then a third. She channeled more power through herself and swung her sword hard, grunting at each impotent impact against his shield. On the fourth try, he attacked, forcing her to abort her intended strike to parry his blow. She yelped as she flew backwards and fell to the floor.

Cassie gulped in air. Her lungs hurt, and every muscle in her arms and torso burned. The distracting pleasure in her pussy had faded to a very soft, gentle throbbing, but she could not get it to stop. Each time she let her concentration slip, it tried to surge over her once more to cocoon her in helpless lust.

The avatar raised his sword and advanced. Cassie scrambled to her feet, biting her lower lip hard to suppress a moan as her pussy throbbed harder until she could get it under control. Suddenly, he stopped, smiled, and lowered his sword.

It hit her the next second: another wave of roiling sexual heat, worse than the last, her pussy throbbing even harder. The sword slipped from her hands as she fell, skittering over the stones out of reach. She wrenched at the link for more energy and quelled her panic that they were near the limit of what they had pooled.

Yet the touch with the link had confirmed a fear that she had wanted to ignore. Her friends were falling to Victor and losing their ability to channel power to her. In the instant that she opened herself to them, she saw the situation degenerate before her eyes.

Cassie took what she could, pushed through the horror, and fought to reclaim her place in battle. Freeing Gina was all that mattered now.

The avatar had yet to raise his sword. "You do realize, of course, that you are no better than me or my Master."

Cassie shook her head, choosing to believe that he was trying to keep her off balance. The delay allowed her to regain some of her strength. "We're trying to stop you from taking Gina! You've already ruined Stephanie's life!"

"Ah, so the other trespasser is Stephanie. I will take care of her as well. My Master will be quite pleased."

"We don't take pleasure in enslaving people like Victor does!"

"Oh, but don't you now? My Master told me about Diane."

Cassie opened her mouth, but nothing came out, save for her own panting breath as her orgasm rose to reclaim her senses. A gasp wheezed past her lips as she fought it down.

The avatar smiled. "You get hot just thinking about your little slave, don't you?"

"No ... I mean ... Diane is ... i-it's a special case!"

The avatar laughed. Cassie's words sounded hollow even to her. Why did they use Diane? Why had they taken her as their slave? She would never condone such a thing, and yet it made sense.

"You are a slave mistress, Cassie," said the avatar. "But then again, you should be used to that. You're Cassie Kendall, after all. A rich girl. An influential girl. A girl who can get whatever she desires."

"I don't want that kind of power!" Cassie shouted. "I never wanted it! I don't want to give orders and make people jump at my command like my mother does. I'm nothing like her!"

"And yet, you have a slave."

"But ... but she ... I-I ..." Cassie sputtered. Her eyes glistened as her mind spun in circles. Diane was her slave. A Harbinger slave. She had to do what Cassie told her to do, and Cassie wanted to ...

Victor's avatar smirked. "Perhaps you have come in the wrong costume. Perhaps ... this is more in line with what you are."

Cassie's body tingled, and the air around her shimmered. She gasped and stumbled backward as she found her feet wrapped in tight, high heels. An elegant gown billowed from her waist, her bodice surrounded by bright silks adorned with flashing sequins. She lifted her hand to her head and felt the tiara encircling her head in her perfectly coiffed hair, adorable curls spilling down the back of her neck.

"Yes, this is more what you are. A princess."

Cassie shook her head, her throat refusing to work.

The avatar stepped towards her. "A princess. A royal lady who commands her lessers to do her bidding. Perhaps it was you who suggested Diane be taken as a slave."

"No, I didn't!" Cassie croaked. "I know that much. I never--"

"And yet, you let it happen. You took advantage of it. You used her."

A memory seared across her mind: Cassie struggling to get out of her clothes, demanding to be the first to use Diane to satisfy her lust. She felt her knees touch the floor beside Diane's head, her pussy grinding into Diane's face.

She still believed Diane was supposed to be her slave and would remain so for as far as she could see. It was the way things were.

"So you would deny my Master a slave, and yet keep one of your own," the avatar mused.

Cassie fell to her knees before the image of Victor, her pussy throbbing in terrible synchronicity to her thoughts of Diane. Her eyes flooded, tears dripping to the stones as she fell to all fours. She turned her head towards the blurry form of Stephanie, whose body appeared fuzzy and faded, as if she were about to wink out of existence. All because someone kept her body as a mindless slave for so many years.

Is that what she would have happen to Diane?

"You understand now," said the avatar. "You are no better than Victor. You cannot claim the role of the princess. You are a slave to your own desire to control others. Therefore, you should look the part."

The air shimmered again. Cassie became naked, and a weight dragged her down to her knees. She lifted a shaking hand to her neck, her body quaking as her fingers fluttered against cold iron.

Sexual heat overcame her, and her pussy exploded into orgasm. The end of a heavy chain appeared in the avatar's hands. He snapped it once, and Cassie's fell forward as her collar yanked at her throat. She lay on the floor, her climax forcing her surrender to the avatar's reality.

In her shock, Debby had not shed her panties, and she abandoned all thoughts of faking Victor's control. His gaze fell on her once more, just as Jason straddled Diane, and Heather and Melinda descended into moaning sexual abandon.

Debby saw the expression on Victor's face change. He was figuring it out. She had only seconds.

In her mind, she had tugged Diane's essence as close to herself as she had dared. She had wanted to be gentle and work Diane free by a careful unraveling of the tentacles of his control to avoid the trauma of an abrupt separation. But Victor's power was too invasive, and time too short.

Victor's eyes widened.

Debby clenched Diane's spirit, opened herself wide to their remaining pooled power, and PULLED.

"What are you--?!" Victor began.

The tendrils of false perception about Diane's psyche writhed, stretched, and snapped.

Victor wheezed as if punched in the stomach. He staggered backwards, the cultists' chant faltering in mid-syllable. His eyes squeezed shut, and he pressed his hands against his temples. Some of his cultists raised their hands to their heads as well, or looked about in confusion or astonishment.

Among the Harbingers, false reality unraveled with the force of a broken, tensioned spring. Richie, Ned, and Jason scrambled away from Diane. Debby fell to one knee beside her and helped her to sit up. "Diane, it's okay, it's going to be all right now."

Diane's eyes opened wide, her face suddenly pale. "Oh God ... what was I ... why ..." Her voice grew more strident with each flustered syllable. She looked at Debby, and her eyes shimmered with grief and barely restrained hysteria. She turned her head and found Victor, and then her eyes blazed hellfire.

"Y-You did this ... you got into my head ... I ... I didn't want it this way!" Diane screamed. "I didn't want it like this! You ... you f-fucking bastard ... you ... "

Debby gathered Diane to her. Diane wailed into Debby's shoulder, her body shaking.

Victor's eyes opened, and his gaze became cold steel. Jason met it with his own icy stare. Richie and Ned drew behind him. Heather and Melinda panted on the floor, unable to hold a single coherent thought against the overwhelming desire that Victor still held as his remaining beachhead.

"No, Jason," Victor said through clenched teeth. "You will not have them. And you cannot do that again. You had your one chance, and now it is gone. I will be able to overwhelm--"

Master, help me!

Victor staggered. He spun around and looked towards the altar, then swept his gaze over his confused cultists.

Master, I need you!

"Why have you stopped?!" Victor shouted. "You will continue the--"

Master! Stop her! STOP H--

Victor stared, then let out a cry of anger, rage, and pain.

Cassie's perception stretched and snapped, and her mind reeled from the electric shock of emotions that had charged the link with renewed power.

"No better than a slave," said the avatar. "That is what you deserve."

Cassie drew in a ragged breath. Anguish and rage crashed like waves from the churning sea that was Diane's mind. It burst the remaining barrier that stood between Cassie and reality, carrying with it a cacophony of memories from Diane's mind. In that instant, Cassie witnessed what had transpired in Victor's office, and the words he had spoken to Diane's helpless subconscious.

The avatar snapped the chain, and her collar tugged hard at her neck. Her gaze rose to his.

"You see that now, don't you?" said the avatar. "Is this not the perfect way to deal with your guilt, to suffer the same fate you would so willingly bestow on another?"

Power flowed into her mind as the straw became a gaping tunnel. The memory from Diane crystallized in the center of it, a stone dropped into the lava of energy that now burned and ran molten with Cassie's growing fury.

"It is easier this way, isn't it? It--"

The avatar stopped as Cassie stood.

Cassie breathed hard, but not with desire. Her body trembled, but not with lust. She tried to quell her rage and halt the procession of violent thoughts that roared through her head. She tried to regain her calm and quench her fury.

She failed.

"I am not a slave!" Cassie bellowed.

The sword appeared in her hand. Metal flashed, and a single brilliant spark flared. The chain fell to the floor, the edges of the severed link glowing like coals.

The avatar stared in shock, then backed away when she advanced. "Master, help me!"

Cassie raised the sword over her head. "I am not a princess!"

The avatar thrust his shield forward as Cassie's sword came down. With a crack of thunder, the shield shattered.

"I am not Cassie Kendall!"

The avatar raised his sword. It splintered into sparks and shards at a single stroke from Cassie's blade.

"Master, I need you!" the avatar cried.

Cassie clenched the sword in two hands, her eyes blazing fire. "I AM STEPHANIE FOWLER'S AVENGER!"

"Master! Stop her! STOP H--!"

Armor splintered and steel screamed as her sword plunged into the avatar's chest, his last syllable echoing off the chamber walls and reverberating through Gina's mind.

In the space of the next few seconds, nothing moved. Cassie's hands gripped the hilt of the sword, muscles still strained. Finally, the avatar's face twisted in anguish, the edges of his form melting and fading to more putrid black.

The avatar vanished in a small implosion of psychic energy.

Cassie was tossed backwards, the sword thrown from her as she bounced down the steps of the dais. She leapt back to her feet, unharmed, panting with exertion and exhilaration.

"He's gone," Cassie declared. "He's gone."

New Gina -- now Real Gina -- slowly stood up. She stared at Cassie for a moment, then leapt towards her and almost knocked her off her feet once more. Gina embraced her and sobbed in her ear. "Thank you ... oh God, thank you ..."

Tears rolled down Cassie's cheeks. Her throat closed up, but it was just as well, as no words could do justice to the emotion of the moment.

Suddenly, Gina extricated herself from the embrace. "Wait, what about Stephanie?"

Cassie whirled around. Stephanie pushed herself off the floor and shuddered in either pain or exhaustion, Cassie could not tell which. They raced over to her. Cassie threw an arm around her shoulders, greeting Stephanie's now substantial form with a gushing sigh of relief.

"Stephanie, are you all right?" Gina asked as she helped Stephanie to stand.

"Yes, I think so," Stephanie said in a voice that surprised Cassie and Gina with its strength. Stephanie was no less perplexed. "I am okay, aren't I?"

"I thought we were going to lose you," Cassie said, her voice cracking. "You were ... well, fading away."

"I know. I don't understand why I'm still here. I know I felt Lydia's mind ... that it ..." She swallowed and shook her head. "I couldn't have imagined that."

"Does it matter?" Gina said. "You're here and you're safe."

"Don't you understand?" Stephanie cried. "I don't have any place to go back to! I'm just a disembodied spirit now."

"I can't believe that," Cassie said. "There has to be a reason you're still here."

"Wait!" Gina said. "Listen!"

In the distance, a wind sighed.

"Oh no, not again," Cassie said. "I thought once we destroyed Victor's avatar--"

"No, it's not that, it's something else ..."

Heather stopped masturbating as the last of their pooled energy suffused her. She was drawing it into herself without understanding why. She didn't need it; Debby and the others were pushing Victor back. His false reality had collapsed when Cassie freed Gina.

Imagery surged through her head. She saw Victor again in the dark chamber, the glowing pit before him. The Book twisted and wrenched in his hands. She saw it as clearly as if it were happening now, juxtaposed upon her normal senses.

She saw the Book smolder. She heard Victor's hoarse voice bellowing. She heard the anguished wail of the Darkness. Her breath quaked in fear as it passed her lips, but the emotion was not hers. Her senses reflected what Victor was feeling -- will feel. Tentacles of inky black thrust upward from the pit as the Book screamed, its pages combusting in glowing scarlet fire. Victor dropped the Book, beating out small flames that licked at his sleeves with hands already scorched.

The Darkness coiled around the Book and contained what had not immolated itself, then constricted like a serpent and crushed it. Its surviving pages flared into raw energy that was sucked down into the pit. A voice thundered from below.

"You would have betrayed me, you bastard. You would have let my energies wane and left me to rot. You should be happy I did not punish you further."

"Remove your taint from me, and from my cult!" Victor begged. Actually begged.

"No. I have no reason to trust them now, except as my slaves. Or you, but I am sparing you that fate. Consider yourself fortunate. Get out of Haven and do not come back. You will never find me as accommodating as you did before."

The Darkness pulled the charred remnants of the Book down into the pit, and the vision vanished. Heather sat up.

On the altar, Gina blinked, and her eyes darted about in confusion. Her mind had fallen into a chaotic limbo when everything that had made her what she was had suddenly been ripped away from her. Her body relaxed, desire fading like smoke on the wind, the glistening substance on her nipples and pussy only so much mineral oil.

She turned her head as a man stepped up to the altar and looked down at her. She thought she should know him, though she was not sure where she was, or even who she was. She remembered being chained down, but the reason escaped her.

"Sixteen years," the man murmured.

Gina looked at him in wonder. Sixteen? Wasn't that how old she was that year? Yes, that felt right.

"Sixteen years of work," the man said, his voice rising.

Gina opened her mouth as if to speak, but she was at a loss as to what to say.

"Sixteen years of work!" the man bellowed.

Gina flinched. Something told her she need not fear, that everything would be okay in a short while. She would understand, and for the first time, she would live.

It had already started. She knew now that this man had done something bad to her. She had not realized it was bad until now. Perhaps that was why she felt so empty, like a blank slate. Yet someone was about to write on that slate, and all she needed to do was be patient.

The Glorious One had failed.

The thought had come to Kelly first. She knew it before it had happened, before she had felt the power he drew through her and the other cultists suddenly stop flowing into Gina's mind.

It had come to the Prophet as well; Kelly could tell as much from the dread and uncertainty on his face. Perhaps he had failed as well. Her suspicions about the Prophet made far more sense once her doubts had been realized about the Glorious One.

Or whatever this man was. Certainly not glorious any longer.

The other cultists stirred, some by Terri's ongoing sexual antics in the far corner. Kelly reached out with her will and helped them quell their carnal urges so they would remain in the ranks. Yet dissent still rose like a tide. Others stared at Victor now, not daring to believe what they saw. Never had he appeared so ordinary or so fallible.

Kelly soothed them, but not for Victor, and not for herself. Above all else, the church must remain intact. It must not lose face before the evil. Evil had managed to cow its former messiah but would not cow them.

And yet, she held out hope. Perhaps Victor only toyed with the evil ones now, lulling them into complacency so he could strike. Thus she kept his followers calm, and did not turn them away from Victor. But she would not let them be taken down with him. They would not be allowed to prop up a false god.

If he did triumph and show he was indeed the Glorious One, Kelly would submit herself to whatever punishment he saw fit. She would be guilty of the ultimate heresy, and would deserve his divine wrath, even if it meant being enslaved for the rest of her life.

In her eyes, everything hinged on what this man did next.

The wind in the avatar's chamber spun like a tornado, tearing the stones from the floor and hurtling them into the air. The ceiling crumbled and was swept up into the void that had opened above the heads of the three. A stone flew towards Cassie, then passed through her as if it were no more than a vision. Crushed rocks and mortar rained down in a brief torrent.

The void ceased being nothing. Inky black became purple, then deep blue. The throne melted and twisted as it molded itself into a tall, branching form. The dais ran liquid and spread out in ropy masses under their feet.

The air shimmered as the vortex vanished high above their heads. The throne had now become a large tree, the dais its roots, and the bits of mortar and rock a carpet of fallen autumn leaves, woven in patterns of gold and red. Clouds billowed over distant mountains across a valley streaked with gold, red, and brilliant orange.

"What is ... where are we?" Cassie breathed.

Gina stepped forward, staring in awe. "It's beautiful! Stephanie, do you know what this ... Stephanie?"

Stephanie stood still as a statue, numb with shock. She finally let out a ragged breath and fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face. Cassie and Gina rushed to her side once more.

"I-I'm all right," she protested, her voice cracking. She wiped her eyes. "It's just ... it's a memory of mine. Something I hadn't thought of for a long time. I was only ten. My parents took me to the east coast in the fall, right at peak color. We stopped ... we ..."

Stephanie trailed off, then shook her head.

"What is it?" Cassie said. "Please, Stephanie, what's wrong?"

"This shouldn't be here. This is Gina's mind! Why is my memory here?!"

Gina stared at the gorgeous landscape, a beaming smile gracing her face. "For the same reason my room changed."

"But I didn't mean for that to happen!"

"Stephanie, Gina has ... I have nothing. Only a free will and some small comforts from a snowy country lane in winter. Maybe in time I'll have some thoughts of grander things, but right now, I'm empty."

"But I can't be the one to fill it!" Stephanie cried. "It's not right!"

"Why not?"

Stephanie's mouth worked, but nothing emerged from her trembling lips.

"You were wondering why you hadn't faded away," Cassie said, her voice rising in excitement. "Maybe this is it. Maybe you can stay here."

"I can't! This is Gina's mind!" Stephanie wailed.

"Which is filled with nothing," Gina said. "The house and the road. Maybe the school. That's it."

Stephanie said nothing. She stared towards the mountains, her eyes glistening with longing.

"I can't just turn you away," Gina said. "If my mind stays empty like this, Victor can take me again. Or someone else. There's more going on in this town than just Victor, isn't there?"

Stephanie's nodded once. Silent tears trickled down her face.

"I think Gina's right," Cassie said.

Stephanie wrapped her arms around herself.

"Victor stole your life from you when you were sixteen. You have a chance to live it again."

Stephanie gasped and closed her eyes, though it did nothing to stop the tears. A wind sighed through the valley and rustled the branches of the tree. More leaves of bright red-gold wafted down around them. One alighted in Stephanie's hair.

"It's already happening," Gina said. "Your memories are flooding into my mind. I can sense them now, too." She plucked the leaf from Stephanie's hair. "And I don't want it to stop."

Stephanie hugged Gina, sobbing into her shoulder. "Th-thank you ... you can't imagine what this means to me."

Cassie smiled and wiped a tear from her eye. A few seconds later, the link flared hot. "Stephanie, Gina, something's happening outside. I think my friends have one last thing to do. They might need you." She grinned. "Well, both of you."

Jason stepped forward. "We freed her, Victor! She's not yours anymore. You've lost her."

Jason's heart hammered. He did not feel the least bit brave in taunting Victor, but he had to keep Victor off balance. They had managed to shatter his ubiquitous calm; they could not let him regain the initiative.

Richie and Ned stepped forward as well. Heather and Melinda stood. Debby cradled a still sobbing Diane, whispering what comforting words she had. She paused long enough to turn her eyes towards Victor and banished the fear from them as best she could.

Victor was right; she could not do that again. It had taken every bit of her own strength to pull Diane from Victor's control. Even the pool of energy from the spell was dry, now that Diane could no longer channel it.

Victor turned towards the Harbingers. His face was a stone mask, but his eyes burned like hot steel.

Jason retrieved the Book. He pulled out the pendant from a pocket of his costume and faced Victor again. "You want the Book as well," Jason said, fighting to keep his voice steady and authoritative. He lifted the pendant. It spun at the end of its chain before his face. "And you need this. You can't do anything without it." He wore the pendant around his neck. "And I'm not giving it up. With Gina freed, we can--"

Heather rushed forward. "No, Jason, make him decide which he wants!"

Jason gave her a nonplussed look.

"What the fuck, Heather?!" Richie cried.

Ned raised an eyebrow. "Uh, ya really think it's a good idea ta--"

"Ned, he can take Gina back if he wants to, if he really concentrates all his power!" Heather said. She looked at Victor. "We wouldn't be able to stop you a second time, would we?"

Victor drew himself straight. He folded his hands behind his back. "Not likely."

Jason frowned. Victor was reclaiming his mantle of calm. Even the cultists appeared more focused. "Heather, why are--?"

Heather turned towards him. "Jason, shut up," she hissed, her voice expressing an anger that her eyes did not. "You've done enough. Let me handle this." She mouthed the words: trust me, please.

Jason paused, then nodded.

Heather turned back to Victor. "You've worked on this for a long time, right? You can't just snap your fingers and take her back. You'd have to work at it. You can't have her and the Book. Don't pretend you can!"

"You presume too much," Victor sneered. "Do you really want to put that to a test? Do you really want to sacrifice yourselves as slaves to try to prove your point?"

"Yes! Because there's now way in fucking hell we're going to let you have both the Book and Gina!"

Victor laughed. "You dare to offer me this choice? I said from the start, I no longer bargain. I remind you that it is not yet midnight. Our power will only grow stronger as the hour approaches. You were foolish to force the battle so early."

Heather ignored the doubt that crept over her. She had to be right. She had no other way to interpret her vision. "We won't let it go that long."

"I will choose how we conduct matters from this point on, not you," Victor said, stepping towards them. "And taking the Book from you would be a trivial matter compared to what I would need to--"

"Victor."

Victor froze.

Heather exchanged a look with the other Harbingers. Both Diane and Debby looked up as well.

They had heard Gina's voice, but ... not quite her voice, as if its cadence had shifted in a subtle way. Debby stood up, and her eyes widened in shock. "Great Goddess ..."

Gina's psychic aura had settled down since Cassie had freed her, though many of the bands had remained pale and quiescent, as Debby would see in someone that was asleep. They had slowly brightened, but now a second set of bands expanded outward from Gina's subconscious. They mingled with the original bands, sometimes lending them strength, sometimes merging with them.

"I'm not going to let you take me again," said Gina.

Victor turned to face the altar and stared.

"I'm not going to let you repeat what you did to me twenty-one years ago."

Jason's mouth dropped open.

"Holy freaking shit," Ned murmured.

Richie shivered. "Oh fuck, this is creepy."

"It's not," Debby said. "I'm not sure what it is yet, Richie, but it's nothing bad."

Victor took several hesitant steps towards the altar, then broke into a frenzied run, stumbling as he climbed the dais. His stomach slammed into the edge of the altar and knocked some of the wind from him for a moment.

He stared into Gina's eyes, stone silent. His teeth clenched, the muscles in his neck cording. Gina stared back, her eyes shimmering yet resolute.

"No," Victor said in a fraying voice. "You are not her."

She wanted to speak to twenty-one years of loneliness and hopelessness. She wanted to rail at him for what he had done. She wanted to twist her face into cold, hard rage and scream at him for stealing two decades of her life.

The essence of Cassie still inside her mind helped hold the reins on her emotions; Cassie understood as Jason did about how Victor's calm was his strength.

"You are not Stephanie!" Victor cried.

A strangled cry burst from the ranks of the cultists. One staggered forward and uttered choking sounds as if he was going to be ill. A fellow cultist caught him before he could fall. His hood fell away, and Melinda gasped when she saw Charles' face.

Gina did not react. She simply stared at him. Her chains tinkled as she trembled with her repressed rage, but that was all the reaction she would allow herself.

"Get out of Gina's head!" Victor shrieked.

"Knew the dickwad would freak out," Richie muttered.

"Hey, Vic!" Ned shouted. "Need the number of a good exorcist? Mebbe we shoulda come dressed as the Ghostbusters, huh? Who ya gonna call?"

Victor took several deep breaths and turned to face the Harbingers. "She is not a ghost. She is not a spirit. You know nothing of how this works!"

"I'd beg to differ with you on that!" Debby declared. Diane drew close, and Debby wrapped a protective arm around her. "You cannot tell me that I did not just witness a spirit transference."

"Stephanie is where she doesn't belong!" Victor exploded.

"It doesn't matter!" Debby roared back. Diane hid her face in Debby's shoulder. "You can't get rid of Stephanie now. Nothing you can do can reverse it. Stop playing games with us. You know how it works, you just insist on using your own cold, heartless terms for it."

"Then let her stay," Victor sneered. "She doesn't have the psychic energy she once did, and I can eject her protector Cassie from her mind."

"Not without a fight, you can't!" Heather cried.

"Then I will give her a fight, one that I should have done twenty-one years ago."

"Then you choose her over the Book. You can't have both. You won't be strong enough, not with Stephanie inside Gina's mind."

"Gina is more important to me than the Book! She is a life's work! The Book is nothing compared to--"

YOU TRAITOR!

Pain seared across Victor's skull. He clamped his hands to the sides of his head as his mental shields trembled against rage personified.

YOU LIAR!

Heather looked on in horror, having no idea how it would manifest. The amused look on Ned's face vanished. Jason could only stare as Melinda clung to his side. Debby's eyes widened as she was petrified in a moment of terror as she witnessed the virtual rape of his psychic aura by horrid spikes of Dark power.

Victor fell to his knees, his body shaking as if ready to explode.

YOU UNGRATEFUL BASTARD!

The cultists panicked. Kelly panted with the effort to calm them as her own heart hammered. Charles collapsed to the floor, sobbing. They felt it as Victor had, an icy chill that numbed the mind with terror and lashed at the will like sharp flails. The light from the torches seemed to dim as if smoke had roiled through the chamber.

On the altar, Gina yanked at her chains until Cassie could calm her from within. Cassie understood, even as horrified as she felt. No one should be subjected to the wrath of the Darkness, not even their worst enemy.

YOU WOULD LEAVE ME TO DIE. YOU WOULD LET THE HARBINGERS USE THE BOOK TO DESTROY ME.

Victor screamed.

"Ohmigod," Melinda breathed. "L-Look ..."

Victor's body was surrounded by spinning tendrils of inky black. Jason staggered back a step, gasping as he glimpsed the same form inside the whirling miasma that he had seen after the Rite of Power had failed: a vaguely feminine form wrapped in veils of Darkness.

Melinda whimpered and buried her face in Jason's chest.

"I will not let you take me!" Victor bellowed. "I am not your slave!"

YOU FORFEITED YOUR FREEDOM WHEN YOU TURNED YOUR BACK ON ME!

Debby finally had to look away, mumbling a short prayer to the Goddess.

"I AM NOT YOUR SLAVE!" Victor screamed.

Several cultists collapsed in a dead faint. Others clutched at their heads and staggered. Kelly gasped and winced, reached out once more, then shook her head violently and withdrew within herself, pulling Charles' essence to her as well. She fell to one knee beside Charles' body, laying a hand on his shoulder. She closed her eyes to gather more to her, but she had collected only a scant few before it happened.

Ropes of Darkness whipped from Victor's Aura and coiled around the cultists whose power Victor had wrenched into himself to do battle with the Harbingers. Several collapsed to the floor and moaned in helpless orgasm, then murmured words of obedience when Dark power filled their blissful minds.

Victor clenched his teeth and fought to stand. He needed their belief in him. He had to tower in strength and push back the evil that tried to possess him. The cult was now everything he had left.

He rose to his feet and bellowed, "Begone from them! Release them as I have thrown off your--!"

I CANNOT OVERCOME YOU. SO BE IT. YOU DENY ME YOUR WILL, SO I TAKE THEIRS. YOU ARE NOT ABSOLVED OF YOUR DUTY. IT IS NOW YOUR ONLY DUTY. YOU WILL GET THAT BOOK NOW. YOU WILL BRING IT TO ME NOW. YOU WILL USE WHATEVER POWER I POSSESS TO GET IT.

"I do not want your power!" Victor screamed. "I do not want your taint!"

I NO LONGER CARE WHAT YOU WANT. NOW...

GET.

THE.

BOOK!

Victor panted until the Darkness that slithered around his body had settled.

"He has an Aura now," Heather said. "So do most of his followers. They can't hide from us anymore. We'll know who they are!"

Melinda lifted her head from Jason's chest. Her eyes darted towards Kelly. "B-But not her. Not Kelly. She doesn't--"

"It doesn't matter," Jason said, his voice quavering from the shock of hearing every thunderous word of the Darkness. "We know who she is."

Diane's mouth dropped open. She stared first at Victor, then the cultists. Her breath shuddered past her lips, her shaking hands cupping her face as her eyes blurred and dripped tears down her cheeks. Debby held her shoulders. "What is it, Diane?"

"I-I ... finally ... f-finally, I can see them. I can see the Auras. I can see the Auras!"

"Huh," Ned said. "Yeah, mebbe Victor was 'tainted' a lot earlier then he thought, huh?"

"Shit, dude, what the fuck were you thinkin'?" Richie said to Victor. "Even Nyssa was freaking scared of that thing, and you go cozyin' up to it like--"

"Shut up," Victor hissed. "Jason, give me the Book. Now. I will not repeat my request."

Jason pulled the Book close to him and looked at Heather.

"Give it to him, Jason," Heather said.

Jason's fingers closed around the pendant. The Book leapt in his bag.

No, Jason, don't!

Jason let out a slow, trembling sigh. His hand gripped the bag tighter.

"Jason?" Heather said in a warning tone.

Jason hesitated, then nodded.

NO!

Jason yanked the pendant, pain needling the back of his neck as the chain caught on a hair as it snapped.

NONONONONONO...!

Jason pulled the Book out of the bag. It heaved and trembled in his hands, eliciting a gasp from Heather and a disgusted sound from Melinda. Gritting his teeth, he slammed the pendant against the stylized eye on the cover. "I'm giving you up of my own will!" Jason shouted.

The Book uttered a thin, high screech as light glowed jaundice yellow from the eye.

Victor loomed over Jason like a gollum, his Aura churning as Jason approached. The Book uttered another screech and wrenched itself from his grip. Victor caught it before it could fall.

The Book writhed once more. Victor pounded his fist against the cover, and Jason winced as if he had witnessed Victor kick a dog. Victor grabbed the pendant and held its pentagram pointed down over the eye.

"I am your master now!" Victor declared.

The Book shuddered and became still, though its cover and pages slowly throbbed.

Jason hurried back to the other Harbingers. "You got the Book now, Victor."

"So fuck off, asshole," Richie said.

Ned dropped into his pirate voice. "Arr, ya mangy bilge-rat, take yer scurvy crew and set sail outta this here port!"

Victor's jaw tightened. He took a slow, deep breath and let it go, as if to regain his sense of calm and air of confidence. "Charles!"

"The Prophet is indisposed," said Kelly in a neutral voice. On the floor, Charles sobbed.

"Then you, Kelly. Hold them here until I return."

Richie glared at Kelly, as if daring her to try it now.

Victor's eyes slid over to the corner, where Terri still entertained several cultists. She was sprawled on her back, squealing in delight as one of the male cultists slid his cock into her willing and still wet pussy, a second one thrusting his cock between her boobs. One of the women straddled her head and mashed her sex into Terri's face, and Terri slurped the proffered pussy with abandon.

Richie snorted and smirked.

"And get control over them!" Victor thundered. "Then hold them for punishment!"

Kelly folded her hands before her and said nothing.

Victor turned to her. "Did you hear me, Kelly?"

"Yes, I heard you," said Kelly, then added almost as an afterthought, "Glorious One."

Victor's eyes burned. The Harbingers jumped out of the way as he plowed through them towards the exit.

"What of the girl Gina, Glorious One?" Kelly asked.

Victor stopped at the entrance. A single, tired sigh rose from his lips, his eyes downcast. He did not turn around. "Let her go," he said in a low voice. He paused for another moment, then fled.

"Oh, shit," Melinda said. "This means we have to fight Kelly, now?"

"Let her fucking try it!" Richie yelled. He yanked the baseball from the pocket of his costume and gripped it like a pitcher would. "Come on, bitch. You just try it!"

Despite the threat posed by the cult, Debby's concern was with Gina. Her aura had settled, but it quavered at the edges, as if still unstable. She never thought she would see a real spirit transference. Gina's body now housed two essences, blending together in a way Debby had never thought possible.

Several cultists surged towards Kelly as soon as Victor had retreated up the stone steps. One beset her with a confused, tortured look on his face. "Kelly, what do we do?! Do we follow the Glorious One's orders?"

"We cannot!" another cultist piped. "He has been possessed by an evil entity!"

"Do not blaspheme him!" warned a third. "He must be working to a greater plan!"

"You cannot talk, you have been possessed as well. I can see the taint upon you!"

"Do not think to tell me my own mind!"

"Enough," Kelly snapped. She turned to the cultists that had presided over the ceremony, still standing in confusion behind the altar. "You two, release the girl." She pointed to three more. "You. You. And you. Pull the others from Terri."

"And the Harbingers?" another demanded in a shrill voice.

Melinda's eyes shimmered when she saw it was Lynn that had spoken.

"I want Melinda," said Lynn. "I want her sweet little face licking my pussy. She can be our sex toy again."

Jason wrapped an arm around Melinda's waist and pulled her towards him. Heather stood on Melinda's other side. Richie stood in front.

"Lynn, go help the others with Terri," said Kelly.

"But I want--"

"Do as I say!"

Lynn gave Kelly a flustered look, then stomped across the church towards the other cultists that were attempting to extract their brethren from Terri's bimbo orgy. Their fellow cultists resisted, and in the ensuing struggle, an occasional glimpse of erect cock or damp pussy betrayed what their assailants really wanted to do.

Kelly stepped towards the Harbingers. She stopped when Richie cocked his arm and tightened his fingers around the baseball.

"Make this easier on us," she said. "Release Terri."

"Not a fucking chance," Richie said.

Debby stepped forward. "Richie, I think you should do what she says."

"What the fuck for?!"

"Because we can't keep her like this," Jason said. "We took her only because we had to. You really helped us when you did that, Richie, but--"

"Yeah, and then this Kelly bitch just fucks over all our heads soon as I let the bimbo go. No way, man."

"I am not going to move against you," said Kelly.

A cultist behind her gasped. "But, Kelly, the Glorious One--!"

"He is not so glorious any more!" another shouted back.

"Blasphemy! You should be punished for--!"

"Stop it!" Charles shouted as he pulled himself to his feet and wiped his eyes. "Enough of this! Can't you see this is over? What's the point of keeping them here?"

Chains clinked to the floor. Gina sat up and bolted from the altar despite the protest from her stretched muscles and aching joints. Debby gathered her and embraced her, holding her tight as if fearing they would yet still try to take her back.

"But the Glorious One said--"

"He is not here, but I am!" Charles thundered. "And I am telling you we will let them go!"

"Richie?" Jason said.

Richie sighed. "Yeah, yeah, fine, whatever. One debimbofied and boring teacher coming up."

The sexual action in the corner of the church slowed like a clock winding down. The cultists besetting Terri faltered and became confused and uncoordinated. Terri gagged and coughed into the woman's pussy, pounding her fists against the woman's thighs until she finally moved. She kicked at the man withdrawing himself from her pussy, and he narrowly avoided a heel to his balls.

Terri stood, and her eyes blazed at the Harbingers, Richie in particular. "You fucking little bastard."

"I ain't the one that was doing all the fucking," Richie drawled.

Terri lunged. Richie raised his baseball, but both Kelly and Charles intercepted her. "Terri, stop it," Charles said.

Terri glared at Charles, then shoved him back. She cast a searing gaze at the Harbingers one last time before turning away, directing her vitriol to the cultists that had trysted with her.

Charles stepped up to the Harbingers, his face betraying both exhaustion and bitterness. "You got what you wanted. Now get the hell out before Victor comes back. Just get out."

"We have to put our clothes back on first," Melinda said.

"Do it outside!"

"It's freaking freezing out there!"

Heather grabbed Melinda's arm and tugged. "Melinda, it won't kill you, okay? I just want to leave."

Jason nodded. "Yeah, let's get out of here."

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