I did a double take, hoping against hope I was mistaken. Blue highlights in black hair aren’t unique, right?

I didn’t waste any more time on hope; I delved into her mind, and although the thoughts were chaotic - fear, pain and confusion, warring with the drugs that the paramedics had given her - I recognised her. There was no mistake. The bloody body on the gurney was Gracie.

­“Call Dianna,” I sent to Mary. “Gracie has just been brought into the ER. She’s been shot, and is in critical condition.”

“You know her?” asked Jeevan from my side. Once again, he had picked up my thoughts, which must have come through to him as a scream. Since we were working together to Heal, my shields needed to be down.

“She’s an FBI agent,” I said, “and a friend. We need to help her.”

“She is badly injured,” Jeevan said as we followed the gurney into the trauma room. “She may be beyond anything even we can do.”

“Please Jeevan,” I begged. “We can’t let her die.”

He looked at me for only a moment. Everything he needed to say, he put into a single nod – including a warning that I needed to prepare myself for the worst.

Strangely, nobody in the room took notice of us. I wondered if Jeevan had somehow conditioned the staff here to pay him, and by extension me, no heed.

The doctors and nurses were busy cutting her clothing off and assessing the damage to her body. They attached monitors and bags of blood. The latter, two of the orderlies squeezed to get the lifesaving liquid into her as fast as possible. I didn’t understand much about medicine, but even I knew that a blood pressure of seventy over forty wasn’t good.

Once more I reached into her mind.

“Gracie,” I sent to her. “It’s Caleb. I’m here. We’re taking care of you. You’re going to be fine.”

“Caleb?” her mind responded. “It hurts. Please God it hurts so bad.”

“Can I block her pain?” I asked Jeevan. He was examining her carefully, and I didn’t want to do anything that would interfere with his plan.

“Yes,” he said. “Block it all.”

I reached in and saw a storm of pain signals coming from just about everywhere in her body. The worst were from her chest, but she had pain all over. Whoever had attacked her had been thorough.

I blocked all of them. Every pain signal from every part of her body, I switched off.

The response was visible on the monitor. Her heart rate began to fall. Unfortunately, so did her blood pressure. Pain, it appeared, was a positive inotrope.

“We need more blood,” yelled one of the doctors. “Do a full trauma panel, type and cross for eight units but get me another four O-neg in the meantime. Put them in the level 1 infusers.”

I saw Jeevan sweating and I watched what he was doing. He was concentrating hard, and I saw that he was repairing blood vessels in her chest and abdomen. The bullets had, miraculously, missed her heart and aorta, which would have been almost immediately fatal, but had nicked her inferior vena cava, the large blood vessel tasked with taking blood back to the heart.

I saw him gently move one bullet, guiding it back along the track it had taken on entry, until it was just in the muscle under the skin, as he began to heal the damage it had caused.

“You take that one,” he said to me. “Do exactly what I did. Squash the bullet into a smooth sphere before you try to move it. Also check around. Do you see how the cells react to the foreign bodies? Find any fragments and repair the damage they did.”

I searched around the bullet he had assigned me and, fortunately, couldn’t ‘see’ any fragments. It seemed that Gracie’s assailants had not used hollow points; from Dean’s memories, I’d learned just how nasty those could be. I squashed the bullet into a smooth shape so it wouldn’t do any more damage as I teased it back along the track it had come in on. When I first moved it, a small blood vessel began to pump blood, but I sealed it. The bullet had been plugging a hole.  I gently withdrew it, repairing what damage I could as I went.

By the time I finished, I saw Jeevan was done. He was pale and his face was covered in sweat. His energy bar was completely depleted. He looked at me. “I’m sorry, bhaiya. I have nothing more to give.”

“I do,” I said, looking at my own energy bar and seeing I had about three quarters left. “Show me what’s next.”

While talking to him, I had lost focus, and the bullet I had been moving popped out of Gracie’s wound and rolled down her belly, ending up in her navel. One of the nurses saw it.

“The angel’s here!” she said.

“Who?” snapped one of the doctors, looking around, but she didn’t respond. She simply picked up the bullet with a gloved hand and dropped it in a metal kidney dish on the trolley by the side of the gurney.

“We seem to have gotten her stable,” said the lead doctor, “although God only knows how. Tell the OR that we’re coming up.”

“OR say there’s a problem,” said the orderly who had been speaking on the phone. “They are saying thirty minutes before they can take her.”

“She might not last thirty minutes,” growled the doctor.

During those tense and heated exchanges, Jeevan had guided me to find the third bullet. It had passed through her lung and was lodged in the muscles of her back.

“It’s not doing any damage there at the moment,” he sent. “We can remove it later. For now, let’s concentrate on fixing the damage to the lung.”

Once again, I concentrated, allowing him to guide me. It was brute-force work, and we couldn’t let anything happen gradually. I pushed, pulled, and urged cells to bind and grow. The energy draw on me was massive, along with the strain on Gracie’s body.

“That is enough,” he sent. “She can do the rest of that herself. We still have another bullet to deal with.”

We found the last bullet lodged between two of the bones of her spinal column. Fortunately, it had run out of momentum before it had hit her spinal cord, but Jeevan warned that it would cause her a huge amount of pain and disability if we didn’t move it. On confirmation from my mentor, I crushed it into a smooth sphere and then eased it out along the track it had entered.

“Just drop it here for now,” he sent. “It will do no harm. You are running low on energy, so let’s fix what we can.”

I checked my energy bar and saw I had less than a quarter left. I panicked. I felt like we’d barely begun.

“We have to prioritize the injuries that will kill her,” Jeevan  told me. “We can always come back later to fix the other stuff. For now, let’s just keep her alive.”

We worked for another ten minutes or so, and then I felt a wave of dizziness wash over me.

“Enough,” Jeevan said out loud. “We are done.”

He took my arm and guided me out of the room.

“But…” I protested.

“If you stay,” he said, “then you will not be able to resist trying more. You are depleted. I’m sure we have done enough that they will be able to save her now. We can always come back and do more when we are both rested.”

“Are you sure?” I asked “I can…”

“I am sure, bhaiya,” he responded, “but even if I were not, I wouldn’t let you go back in there. To turn your own argument against you, if you kill yourself helping one person, how many children will die that you could have saved?”

I growled at him, but knew he was right.

Just then, the doors to the trauma room opened and we were pushed out of the way. The medical team  took her out, and off to the OR.

“Gracie,” I sent to her, “you’re going to be fine. I promise.” I sent her mind to sleep.

I overheard a nurse and one of the orderlies talking as they cleaned up the trauma room.

“You saw it too?” asked the nurse.

“I thought it was just a story,” said the orderly. “I’d heard about ‘the Angel’ but I’ve been here over a year and never seen a thing.

“You can’t tell anyone,” said the nurse. “It’s part of the legend of the Angel. If it gets out, then he - or she - will move on.”

“Okay,” replied the orderly.

Then the nurse turned to the back wall of the exam room and said, gravely, “Thank you, Angel. You helped us save that woman.”

“Yes,” added the orderly, self-consciously, apparently talking to the monitor on the back wall, “Thank you.”

I raised an eyebrow to Jeevan, and he smiled.

“There has been a Healer working this hospital for over a hundred years,” he explained. “Let’s say that the last incumbent was a little less discrete about her interventions. The legend of the Angel has been around for about eighty years. When it first surfaced, she implanted the idea that it had been around for much longer into quite a few staff members, young and old, and also jump-started some convenient superstitions. It gets passed from staff member to staff member, and I occasionally reinforce the message. That way, if anything happens - like that bullet falling out of the wound - it won’t generate a lot of outside attention.

“I consider it one of life’s little jokes that healthcare workers are so receptive to fairy tales and ghost stories,” he said. “Given that people like you and I actually exist, it is a joke with many layers.

“We need to go and eat,” he said abruptly. “Then, we can go and wait for them to finish in the OR.”

My phone beeped: Dianna.

­_where are you?

­_heading for the hospital cafeteria.

_I’ll meet you there. Maggie is enroute.

Both Jeevan and I piled our trays high with food. The woman behind the register looked at us both as if we were mad, but rang up our purchases. The bill came to over one hundred and fifty dollars.

“I’ll get that.” The voice from behind me was Dianna’s.

After she paid, we settled down on a table in a semi-secluded part of the cafeteria.

“I presume that you need all that,” she said, indicating the piles of food, “because you used all your energy on Gracie?”

I nodded.

“How is she?”

I looked to Jeevan.

“She was in a bad way when she arrived,” he said. “She had been shot four times, but she had been beaten first. They broke both arms, both legs, and her jaw. Even with our help, she is in for quite a long recovery time.”

“Was she awake when she came in?” asked Dianna. “Did she say anything?”

“Not verbally,” I said. “I connected to her mind. That seemed to be okay, although she was in agony, confused, and afraid. Also, the paramedics had given her strong painkillers. I blocked all her pain and then sent her to sleep.”

Maggie came into the cafeteria, followed by Frank. They looked around and, spotting us at our table, joined us. I saw Dianna send the memory of our conversation so far.

Frank sighed. “She was supposed to come in last week,” he said. “She said she had found the evidence we were looking for, but needed to confirm something. That was the last time we had contact with her.”

Jeevan and I had both finished our food, and I was feeling much better. My energy bar was out of the red, and was increasing steadily. Based on past experience, it would take a few hours until I was back up to full strength.

“Let’s go up to the OR waiting room,” said Maggie. “Jeevan, thank you. Are you going to hang around?”

“No,” he said. “There is nothing more for us to do tonight. I will return in the morning.”

“I’m staying,” I said immediately, and he smiled.

“I had no doubt, bhaiya,” he said softly. “Call me if you need anything and I will come. For you, my brother.”

Maggie frowned, but said nothing. I realized that Jeevan was reminding her that he was not under her orders. I knew, though, that he would come immediately should I call.

­When we got up to the OR waiting room, all three of my girls were there.

“We thought you might like some support,” said Mary. I held my arms out, and the three of them enveloped me in a group hug.

We sat. Maggie went to the OR reception and identified herself. She let them know that we were there for the Jane Doe. She informed them of Gracie’s identity, handed them some papers, and asked to be updated as soon as there was any news.

“Is there a next of kin we can contact?” the receptionist asked.

“Her parents live out of state,” Maggie told her.

“What about a partner, or boyfriend?”

“He’s in the waiting room with us.”

My ears pricked up. I immediately looked around for Gracie’s ex, and already felt my hackles rising.

“We’ll get more information that way,” Maggie said to me as she sat down. “Officially it makes no difference, but unofficially they will be much more likely to tell you things if they think you are the partner, even if you are not listed as next of kin.”

I calmed down a bit, but I wasn’t happy that she’d so casually gamed the system. I kept my own counsel, but my girls could see that I was peeved.

We sat in the waiting room, which, it occurred to me, was tragically accurately named. I felt useless, and the temptation to play hero was rising with every uptick of my energy bar. I was sitting on a sofa, with the twins on either side of me. Predictably, Jules was curled up on my lap.

“I’ve sent a message to Kevin to say that you won’t be there in the morning,” said Mary to me quietly. “I’ve also warned him that you might not be there tomorrow night. I explained that a friend has been taken to the hospital. He said that’s fine and to let him know when you will be back.”

After a while, I had the thought to see if I could find Gracie’s mind. That struck me as a fair-enough compromise between being useless and bursting into the OR. I soon located her. She was still asleep, both the anaesthetic and my Compulsion keeping her there. I could have scanned her body, using her mind as a proxy, but I didn’t want to waste my power. I knew I might need it in a hurry. It was reassuring to know that she was still alive, though. I kept the connection open and shared what I had discovered with my girls.

It was one a.m. when someone finally emerged from the OR to talk to us. The girls and Jules were asleep. I had been dozing, but had felt something change with Gracie. She was being moved, so when the surgeon came out, I was awake and ready to hear his news.

Maggie stood as he entered. She identified herself and asked him how Gracie was.

“She’s a very lucky young lady,” he said. “I don’t know what they used on her. It was like they shot her with ball bearings  either from a low powered gun, like a musket, or even using something like a hunting slingshot.  I don’t understand what they were trying to achieve - probably just inflict more pain and suffering. They really worked her over before she was shot too. She has fractures to her left humerus, her right radius and ulna, both femurs and her jaw. Luckily, they are clean fractures. They probably used something like a crowbar on her. She also has several fractured ribs.

“We have immobilized her limbs and wired her jaw. We’re transferring her to the ICU overnight. You’ll be able to visit her…”

“We’re going there now,” interrupted Maggie.

“But…” began the doctor.

“Someone attempted to murder one of my agents,” said Maggie. “I’m putting a ‘round the clock’ guard on her. Starting now.”

The doctor nodded. “They said her boyfriend was here?”

Maggie indicated me. The doctor eyed me, sitting on the sofa surrounded by girls and with Jules in my lap. “It’s complicated,” said Maggie.

I woke Jules. We all went around to the ICU, and into the room, where the nurses were still busily getting things sorted out.

“Why don’t you guys go home?” I said to the girls. “There’s no sense in us all being here.”

They looked at me, knowing that I was staying no matter what.

“Okay,” said Mary. “Wake us if you need anything. We’ll bring you some breakfast in the morning.”

I kissed all three of them goodbye, and they left.

“I’ll organise an agent to come and stand guard,” said Maggie.

“I won’t let anyone get to her,” I said flatly.

Maggie looked at me, and for the first time, I think, she saw the suppressed rage I had been holding onto.

“Caleb,” she began.

“Nobody will hurt her,” I said.

Maggie nodded once and left the room.

Dianna, who had been standing beside her, put her hand on my shoulder. “I know that you and she shared,” she said quietly. “Is there more there than that?”

I thought about that for a second.

“I don’t know,” I said honestly, “but for now, it doesn’t matter. Anyone capable of doing this to someone needs to be taken out. It’s taking a lot for me not to go after them right now.”

“I know,” she said. “I feel like that too. But we have to do it right, Caleb. We can’t be seen as vigilantes. We will get them, and they will be punished. I promise you.”

I looked into her eyes, seeing the truth there. At least it was her truth. I also knew that there was another truth. A truth of corruption, legal wrangles, deals, and loopholes. Where innocents got hurt, and the guilty got away with it, usually because they had a lot of money or influence. I was determined to make sure that that didn’t happen, and if that put me at odds with the FBI or the Council then so be it. Whoever did this to Gracie was going to regret it.

I don’t know what Dianna saw in my eyes, or my aura, but she shook her head sadly and patted me on the shoulder. “Be careful,” she said, leaning in to kiss my cheek. Then she left the room. I was left with Gracie and the nurse, who had finally finished all her setting up, and was perched on a stool by the computer typing something.

I sat down on a chair by the bed and reached out with my mind. I assessed Gracie once again. There were still myriad pain signals, but they were less chaotic. They were all still blocked.

“Are you keeping her asleep?” I asked the nurse, and she shook her head.

“No,” she said. “In fact, I’m a little bit surprised she hasn’t woken up from the anaesthetic yet.”

“She likes to sleep in,” I jested with a soft smile, and the nurse smiled back at the feeble joke.

Slowly, I woke Gracie.

“Gracie,” I sent to her. “Don’t speak. You are in the hospital, and you are going to be okay. I promise.”

“It doesn’t hurt anymore,” she thought.

“I’m blocking your pain,” I sent. “They really did a number on you.”

“I know,” she returned. “I was there.”

“Don’t think about that now. I’m going to stay with you. We’re going to get you better.”

“I got them. I have everything I need to take them down. I just need to…”

“Not now. I promise they will be punished, but right now you need to rest, and get better.”

The nurse looked at Gracie and noticed her eyes were open.

“Hey there,” she said. “Don’t try to move. You’re in the hospital. My name is Tracey and I’m going to be looking after you tonight. Your jaw is wired, so you won’t be able to speak, but can you blink for me?”

Gracie blinked.

“Excellent,” said Tracy. “Now, are you in any pain at all? Blink once for yes and twice for no.”

Blink Blink.

“None at all?”

Blink Blink.

Tracey frowned. “Okay then,” she said. “Your boyfriend, Caleb, is here. And you’re going to be fine. Just rest now, okay?”

Blink.

“Boyfriend?” I heard from her.

“Maggie’s idea,” I sent. “She thought we’d get more info if they thought you and I were a couple.”

“Shame,” she thought. “I kind of like that idea.”

I smiled at her. “Let’s discuss that when you’re better, Okay? Now it’s time for you to sleep.”

I didn’t give her a choice.

Throughout the night, the nurse pottered around, doing whatever it is that nurses do to keep their patients safe and well. I sat by Gracie’s bed. I considered starting work on her fractures, but thought better of it. I was a known quantity, as was Gracie. The chaos of the ER was long behind us both. I sat there for quite awhile, trying to weigh the risks and costs of doing something more with my powers to help her. I even wondered if, perhaps, Gracie’s association with the federal government might give me more leeway.

A man entered the room; immediately, I was on guard. He was wearing scrubs, and seemed to know what he was doing. I scanned his mind. He was a nurse, working on the ICU. He had come to relieve Tracy for her break.

Tracy handed over to him and smiled at me. “I’m just going to break. You want me to bring you something back?”

“Anything edible would be nice,” I said.

“Why don’t you go up to the cafeteria?” suggested the male nurse. “She’s asleep. She won’t miss you for a few minutes.”

I shook my head. “I’m not leaving her.”

He looked like he might argue for a second, but then just nodded and set about doing nursey things around the bed. Tracey left the room.

I was suspicious of him. I wondered why he was so keen to get me out of the room. Was he involved with whoever hurt Gracie or did he have different motivation? Did he just want to be alone with a young pretty girl who was unable to defend herself?

I dug around to find out, and was ashamed.

Dylan – that was his name – had been a nurse for about six years, loved what he did, and really cared about his patients. He took his job very seriously and knew that the patient wasn’t the only person he had a duty to care for. He knew that the relatives and friends of those in ICU were often more traumatized than the patients, and he did his best to make their stay as easy and comfortable as possible. His concern for me had been completely genuine, and I would have been able to leave Gracie in his very capable hands without any fear that he would do anything he shouldn’t.

I still wasn’t leaving though.

Tracy came back a while later, holding a sandwich and a can of soda for me. “I hope these are okay,” she said. “I didn’t know what you liked.”

“They’re perfect,” I said. “Thank you.”

Despite the amount I had eaten in the cafeteria, I was, as always, hungry. My energy bar was up around three quarters and still climbing, but anything extra I could take onboard would be a bonus.

I scanned for minds in the immediate area and monitored their movements. I took my job as first shift very seriously.  I guess I must have dozed off, but, true to form, my subconscious continued the monitoring, and I woke up as it alerted me to a new one on the floor. I recognized it, though:  Dianna.

I looked at my watch; it was after seven. There was another person with Dianna whom I didn’t immediately recognize, although he did feel somewhat familiar. I was certain that whoever it was, I would recognize them when I saw his face.

The door opened, and Dianna entered, accompanied by Agent David Spencer. He nodded to me as he came through the door. Then his eyes went to the bed. I could see the rage on his face. His aura showed the same. He was almost as angry as I was.

“How is she?” Dianna asked the nurse.

“She’s had a comfortable night,” the nurse responded. “The Doctors will be around in an hour. They will be able to tell you more.”

“Caleb,” said Dianna, “go get breakfast and a shower. David and I will stay until you get back. I presume you are coming back?”

I didn’t actually want to leave, but I realized that I needed to get cleaned up. It had been over twenty four hours since I had last showered, and it had been a stressful time. Healing Gracie had made me sweat, and I didn’t smell great.

“I’m coming home for a shower and change,” I sent to Mary, just so she didn’t make the trip to the hospital with breakfast, as she had promised.

“How’s Gracie?” she asked.

“No real change,” I sent. “I kept her asleep last night and blocked all her pain.”

“Don’t forget to wake her before you leave,” she reminded me. “If they can’t wake her, they might start doing stuff she doesn’t need.”

I removed my sleep Compulsion from Gracie, after making sure her pain was still completely blocked.

She opened her eyes. Tracy noticed immediately.

“Good morning,” she said. “Do you remember where you are, and what happened?”

Blink.

“Very good. It’s just after seven thirty. Caleb is still here, and there are two other agents here too. You seemed to have had a good night. Are you in any pain at all?”

Blink Blink.

Tracy frowned again.

Leaving Gracie with Dianna and David, I went home, had a quick shower and wolfed down the food that Mary had prepared for me.  I gave them all my memories of the time since I had first heard the radio call about the incoming patient, so there was no need for them to ask any questions. I was out of the house in twenty minutes and back at the hospital less than forty minutes after I’d left.

Jeevan was waiting outside the ICU. “Good morning,” he said. “How are you doing?”

“I’m good,” I said. “Gracie is awake.”

He nodded to me. “Let’s go see her.”

Tracy had gone off duty in the time I had been away, and another nurse, who introduced herself as Julie, was in the room when I arrived. Dianna was sitting in the chair by the bed, and David was standing against the wall.

We had just gotten into the room when the door opened, and several doctors walked in.

“Good morning,” the one in front said. “I’m Doctor Groves, the attending in charge of Gracie’s care. We’ve just come to see how she’s getting on.”

They looked at the screen that the nurse had been using to do all her documentation, and talked with her in low voices.

He turned to smile at us. “Gracie is doing really well,” he said. “I want to do some more tests today, and we’ll also speak to the orthopaedic doctors about an assessment. Her jaw is already wired. They’ll make the decision on what they want to do about her arms and legs.”

All the time he was talking, Jeevan was looking at Gracie. I could see his power playing over her body as he assessed her injuries.

“She is in good shape,” he sent. “Her internal injuries are healing nicely. The fractures in her limbs are all lined up, and I have given them, and her jaw, a little help. I’ll stick around until the orthopaedic doctors come. Ideally, they only need to immobilize her limbs and let them heal. Surgery would be a poor option with us being involved. The only other thing that we probably should do for her is make sure her surgery last night doesn’t leave a scar. They opened her up like a tote bag.”

I breathed a sigh of relief.

“We’re going to keep her here for a couple of days,” continued the doctor, “and, if all goes well, transfer her to a ward - probably by the end of the week. We’ll have to tube feed her until her jaw heals, and with her fractures, she’s probably going to be with us for a month or two.”

Later that day, the orthopaedic doctors broke with their normal protocol. Seeing the x-rays – and thus Jeevan’s handiwork – they decided on a conservative course of treatment. That meant no more surgeries.  They opted for full leg casts, and casts on her arms. Jeevan smiled softly as they left the room.

Despite her being no longer in danger, I stayed with Gracie all day. The nurses didn’t mind my presence, and I sat by her bed, holding her hand and conversing with her, mentally, when she was awake.

The next morning, I went home, showered, and went to PSU. I had ethics, and decided the hassle of trying to get an official excuse simply wasn’t worth it.

I was starting to get the impression that the professor had bugged my house. The subject of the day’s debate was justice versus revenge.

“When we put criminals in prison,” he started, “how much of the sentence is about justice for the crimes committed, and how much is purely about revenge? We have discussed the death penalty in detail in the past, so I don’t want to rehash that, but consider: when the courts sentence a man to one hundred or more years in prison, what are they actually doing? Are they protecting the public, exacting justice, or merely wreaking revenge for whatever wrongdoing he had perpetrated?”

As expected, the ‘kumbaya crowd’ - as christened by Dana - were first to pitch in. “Prison should be about rehabilitation,” one of them said. “Those in there should be helped to overcome whatever problems they had that led to them breaking the law, and brought back into society as useful contributors.”

“My friend,” I growled, “was just beaten almost to death. They beat her bloody, broke both her arms, both her legs, her jaw, and then shot her four times. She is lucky to be alive. So, forgive me for not thinking about rehabilitating those who did that. Right now, all I want to do is rip out their throats and piss on their corpses. There is NO ‘problem’ that justifies doing that to another person, and when I find out who did it, then I’ll figure out the difference between justice and revenge.”

It was only then that I realised that my cheeks were wet. I saw Dana looking at me, an expression of concern on her face.

“Caleb,” the professor said. “Can I have a word?”

I followed him out of the classroom.

“What happened?” he asked.

“It’s as I said in class,” I said. “They beat her, broke her arms, legs, and jaw, and then put four bullets in her.”

“When did this happen?” he asked.

“She was taken to the ER Monday evening,” I said. “I’ve been at the hospital with her since then.”

“And you came to class today?” he asked incredulously.

“I need this class,” I said. “I can’t fail the course.”

“For god’s sake!” he exclaimed. “I didn’t ask for an excuse last time because it was your first absence, not because there are no good excuses ever. Go be with your friend.”

I turned to leave.

“Caleb?” he said, and I looked around at him. “I hope she’s okay, but do think before you do something you can’t undo. I have seen what you are capable of. Remember Confucius’ statement that those seeking revenge should start by digging two graves.”

I smiled grimly at him. “I suspect I’ll need more than two,” I said, turned, and walked away.

When I arrived back at the hospital, Dianna was sitting with Gracie, talking to her in a low voice. She looked up as I entered and smiled.

“I was just telling Gracie. We raided the business that she was undercover in. We caught them in the process of clearing out. Their discovering her must have spooked them, but they seem to have thought that they had succeeded in taking her out of the picture. We have those responsible for her attempted murder in custody. They are being arraigned this afternoon.”

I stayed with Gracie until just after lunch, then drove to the courthouse. I sat in the public gallery to watch that afternoon’s proceedings.

There were two of them that I was particularly interested in. They were each facing charges of assault and attempted murder in the first degree. They stood in the court, glaring at all those around them. I examined their memories. I wanted to be sure that they were the ones responsible for Gracie. They were. I saw the assault in graphic detail.

My rage bloomed again, and I had to suppress an urge to do something extreme to the pair. I wanted to hurt them, like they’d hurt Gracie. I wanted to break their bones, crush them, end them. I felt pain in my hands and realized that my fists were clenched so tight that my nails were digging into my palms. I closed my eyes, using the techniques I had learned to centre and calm myself.

I knew that, even setting aside the repercussions that such an action would provoke, my own conscience wouldn’t allow me to do that. I was, however, going to exact some kind of revenge on the pair. They had tried to kill my friend, and likely would have succeeded without my and Jeevan’s intervention. I decided they were going to get fucked - literally.

I extended a tiny tendril of thought into each, implanted and then locked off a set of Compulsions.

Each of them had a burning desire for cock. It was an addiction for them. They needed to suck it, to be fucked by it. They would seek out the biggest men they could find to get their fix, and beg to be used. They would swallow cum, drink piss, anything just so long as it gave them their fix of cock. While they were doing it, though, they would hate it. They would be humiliated, disgusted, and each time they were fucked, it would hurt like it was the very first time. Their own cocks would remain flaccid no matter the stimulation, and they would be unable to cum, despite anything anyone did to them. Each time they swallowed spunk or felt a throbbing cock pumping cum up their asses, they would feel worthless, knowing that they were being used and getting nothing in return. Despite how much they hated it, or it hurt them, as soon as it was over, they would be craving it all over again. They could, and would, try to resist, but eventually the need would win out, and it would start all over again.

I also implanted that they were not able to commit suicide or bring themselves to hurt anyone else.

Ethics be damned, these fuckers deserved every second of their ongoing miserable existence.

I was back at the hospital in time for the afternoon round.

“We’re going to move Gracie out of the ICU tomorrow,” the doctor said. “We may remove the feeding tube too. Her jaw is wired, but she can still use a straw and drink a liquid diet until it heals. That should take about four weeks.”

I sat with Gracie for most of the evening, but she insisted, since she was no longer in any danger, that I go home.

I went to the dojo the next morning. Kevin was there as usual. He was surprised to see me.

“How’s your friend?” he asked.

“She’ll live, thankfully,” I replied. “They are probably going to move her from the ICU today.”

“Mary said she got shot?” he enquired.

I nodded. “Four times. But thankfully they missed everything vital. They still broke all her limbs though, so she’s got a way to go before she’ll be up and around again.”

“Do you know why she was attacked?” he asked. He obviously didn’t know about her being an agent.

“She was working undercover,” I explained. “She’s an agent with the FBI. I guess she got made.”

Kevin shook his head. “I hope they get whoever did it and make them pay.”

I smiled. “They did,” I assured him. “And they will.”

After training, I went back to the house for breakfast. I was considering going back to the hospital to sit with Gracie, but the girls wanted to talk to me. Josh and Louise left for campus, and the girls and I sat around the table.

“You seem to have gotten closer to Gracie, suddenly,” Mary said.

I looked at her, surprised. I opened my mouth to speak, but then couldn’t think of what to say, so closed it again.

“No,” said Jules. “She – we – are not jealous.” The connection had betrayed my first instinct. “You should know us all better than that. But what we are, is concerned.”

“Concerned about what?” I asked.

“Concerned that the emotions tied up with seeing someone hurt like that,” said Amanda, “are confusing you about what you actually feel for her. You know we like Gracie, and if you had real feelings for her, would have no issues with it. But you need to ask yourself: are they real feelings?”

“And,” finished Mary, “are her feelings for you based on the thought that you saved her life?”

I considered that for a long moment. I thought about how I had felt about Gracie before she had gone undercover. We’d had some fun, but I hadn’t really missed her while she was gone - certainly nowhere near how I would have missed one of my girls. Then there’d been my reaction, when I’d first recognized her in the ER. I had felt angry and protective. I’d wanted to save her, to shield her, and to avenge her.

Was that love, or just my inherent, pathological need to make things better? Gracie was hurt and needed someone. Was I just responding to that?

The only way I could think of to figure it out, was to get some distance. I needed some time away from her. It was not like she physically needed me; she had everything she needed while in the hospital. Sitting by her bedside all day was bound to skew my perception. Once again, I remembered how relationships could be falsely forged by forced proximity.

I stood and walked around the table, kissing first Mary, then Amanda and finally Jules. The only reason I did it in that order, was that going the other way around the table, would have required climbing over a chair.

“Thanks,” I said. “I don’t know if you are right or not, but I do know that I could do real damage to both her and us if I get involved for the wrong reasons. I think I’ll back off for a while and see what happens.”

₊₊₊₊₊

I thought that I would be thinking of Gracie all day, but surprisingly, the classes that I attended caught my attention and distracted me. By lunchtime, I realized that I hadn’t thought of her at all, and I felt guilty about that too. I did decide that I would go and see her that evening. I thought that I probably should re-evaluate her pain, and lower my blocking, before the doctors started testing her for spinal damage or some neurological condition.

I asked Mary to restart my hypnotherapy courses for the following week, and resolved to get back into some semblance of a routine.

After I was done on campus for the day, I went home,  made dinner, and then the girls and I went to the hospital to see Gracie. She had been moved from the ICU onto the orthopaedic floor. Dylan, the nurse from the ICU, was sitting with her as we arrived. He glanced at me, and I could see a hint of something in his aura. It seemed like jealousy, or maybe guilt. I smiled to myself. He had been chatting Gracie up. From what I picked up from his thoughts, he had been looking after her all shift. Despite her fractured jaw, they had found a way to communicate. He was definitely interested in her, and from what I could see when I looked at Gracie, she wasn’t exactly opposed to the idea.

“I’ll get out of  your way,” Dylan said, moving to stand up. I put my hand on his shoulder.

“She lied, you know,” I said to him. “The old FBI lady. I’m not Gracie’s boyfriend. She only said that to get more information.”

He looked from me to Gracie. “But you stayed…”

“We’re friends,” I said. “Good friends, definitely, but…” I looked into Gracie’s eyes, “that’s as far as it goes.” I waited to see what reaction that statement would get from her. She cocked her head to one side a little as she regarded me, and then nodded. Perhaps there was a little sadness there, but she was definitely not heartbroken.

The girls and I visited for an hour or so. I checked her over, and did a little Healing on all her fractures. They wouldn’t heal overnight, but the process would be straightforward, and probably a little faster than expected. I did a little work on her scar too. By the time it was all healed up, it would be invisible. Finally, I looked at her pain signals, and began to unblock some of them.

“Gracie,” I sent to her, “I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to unblock some of your pain. I’ll not do a lot, and you need to ham it up a bit. The doctors will start to worry about you not feeling pain, if they are not already.”

Gracie glanced in my direction and nodded slightly. Then she winced.

“Are you in pain?” asked Dylan, the nurse in him never off duty. Gracie nodded. Dale pushed the call bell. When the nurse on duty came, he reported her pain, and asked for her to get some painkillers.

The girls and I took our leave, satisfied that she was being well looked after.

Since it was Thursday, we went to the range on the way home, and spent an hour practicing. When we finished, I noticed that I had a message on my phone. I hadn’t heard it due to the noise and ear protection. It was from Dana.

_I know you have the girls, but if you need to talk, I’m here.

I wondered how long it had taken her to pluck up the courage to send that to me. I was touched by it, and showed it to Jules. She smiled. “What are we doing tomorrow night?” she asked. “Please, not bowling again.”

“Weather’s getting warmer,” said Mary. “Why don’t we have a barbecue? We could invite Dana, maybe Alan and Anne, we could even see if Bob and Angela want to come. It’s been a while since you got a chance to ogle her.”

“It’s a bit short notice,” I said, “but, why not?”

I sent text messages to Dana, Josh and Louise, Bob and Angela, Sue and George, and finally Kyle and Jennifer, whom I hadn’t hung around with for a while either.

­_having a BBQ tomorrow night. You are invited. Let me know if you are interested.

A thought occurred to me then: our local HOA Nazi was bound to complain, so I needed to ensure I was conversant with the local regulations about noise, and anything else he might think to complain about. Then I had another idea.

­_Hey Debs. We’re having a barbecue tomorrow night. You could come and warm those cold feet if you feel like it – there will be lots of people here, so you’ll be safe…

Amanda, who had been looking over my shoulder while I was writing, grinned.

“Gracie replacement?” she asked. I laughed.

My phone beeped with the first of what would turn out to be a stack of message from all those I had sent the invitation to. All accepted - even Debs - and asked what they should bring.

I didn’t have Alan and Anne’s phone number, so I walked across to their house and knocked on the door. It was just after nine and there were lights on, so I didn’t think it was too late. Alan came to the door.

“Hey Caleb,” he said when he saw me. “Is there something wrong?”

“No, not at all,” I replied. “I know it’s short notice, but we’re having some friends over for a barbecue tomorrow night, and we wondered if you would care to join?”

He laughed. “You do like to live dangerously,” he said. “You know that barbecues aren’t allowed by the HOA without prior permission, right?”

“Seriously?” I asked.

“It’s in the HOA rules,” he said. “That was my first ‘infraction.’”

“Well, that’s unlucky,” I responded, “because we’re having one tomorrow. Are you in?”

“Sure,” he said. “What should we bring?”

“Whatever sides you like,” I said. “We’ll be firing up the grill ‘round six.”

“See you there,” he said, and I went back to our house.

I did consider texting Daisy to see if she would like to come over, but it was a bit out of the blue, and, since she hadn’t contacted me, I thought she might have decided that the one night had been enough.

I had just gone into the kitchen to make coffee when my phone rang. It was Debs.

“Caleb?”

“Hey Debs,” I said. “How are you?”

“I’m good, thanks,” she said. “Tomorrow night?”

“Yes,” I replied. “I’m firing up the grill around six if you’re up for it?”

“Just the barbecue?” she asked. “This isn’t going to turn into something else?”

“Just the barbecue. My girls will be there, along with a few of my college friends, and my next door neighbours."

"Oh,” she said. She sounded disappointed.

“Did you want it to turn into something else?” I asked her semi-jokingly.

“No,” she answered hurriedly, “I...” Her voice tailed off.

“Come for the barbecue,” I said.

“Okay,” she said.

As a final thought, I invited Kevin and Carys. Kevin declined, but Carys accepted, which did surprise me. She had seemed to show some interest in me at first, but more recently she had been keeping her distance. I looked forward to the following night. It was shaping up to be fun…and interesting.

The next morning, after training at the dojo, I went to campus until lunch time. Then I went shopping to get everything I would need for the night’s festivities. There was a brick built-in barbecue in the yard, and I’d already looked up what I’d need to run it properly. Even before I’d learned to cook, I’d loved a good barbecue, so I was feeling confident. I spent a small fortune on food and drink, but I didn’t mind it at all. It felt good to be letting my hair down for a change.

I spent a couple of hours getting everything ready. The girls came back with Dana, and Josh and Louise made an appearance too. In the end, I had lots of help, and even just setting up was a good time.

The first of the guests arrived at just after six-fifteen. There was a knock on the door and Jules let Sue and George in. Sue had lost even more weight and was pretty close to her ideal. She looked totally different, and really good.

She came over and hugged me. “Hey you,” she said. “How are you doing? We never see you any more.”

“I’m just really busy,” I said. “What with training, my hypnotherapy business, and everything else. There aren’t enough hours in the day.”

“I haven’t seen you in any classes,” said George. “For a while I thought you had dropped out.”

“I only have one class with mandatory attendance,” I replied. “For the rest, I just need to do the assignments. Anyway, Sue, you look amazing. How do you feel?”

Sue bit her lip. “I know I told you that I believed you when you said you could help me lose weight,” she said, “but I honestly thought I’d lose maybe twenty or thirty pounds and that would be it. You honestly changed my life. And now George and I are ‘together’ together. It’s like I’m a new person: mind, body, and spirit.”

“I’m happy that things turned out for you,” I said, smiling. “We are expecting invites to the wedding.”

George smiled. “You are all top of the list,” he said.

“Go grab a drink in the kitchen,” I said. “I’m just about to fire the grill up, so I’ll start cooking in a half hour or so.”

I had prepared everything ready ahead of time and was just about to light the grill when other people started to arrive. Kyle and Jennifer arrived with Bob and Angela, and before Jules could close the door, Debs arrived too.

Angela came straight out into the yard, turned, and wiggled her ass in my direction before coming over to give me a hug. Bob just grinned. After she released me, he shook my hand.

“How are you guys doing?” I asked them.

“We are doing well, thanks,” said Bob. “We’ve not seen you around campus so much these days.”

Once again, I explained my hectic lifestyle and why I was spending far less time going to class than I used to.

“You guys might want to go inside for a little while,” I said. “I’m about to light this, and it gets a bit smoky for a few minutes until it settles down.”

Out of curiosity, I checked my watch as I lit the barbecue.

It was less than four minutes later before there was a hammering on my door. I had a fair idea of who it would be, so I asked Bob to watch the grill for a minute and went to answer it personally.

When I opened the door, Carys was on the porch, standing next to Tom Prentiss, who was glowering at her.

“Hi Carys,” I said. “Come in.”

Carys pushed past Prentiss and I stood back so she could enter.

“Mr. Prentiss?” I said. “I assume there is a reason that you are hammering on my door?”

“What do you think you are doing?” he shouted at me.

“Currently,” I said, “I’m standing on my porch getting yelled at for no reason.”

“For no reason?” he yelped. “You’re smoking out the neighbourhood.”

“I think you’re exaggerating,” I said. “It smoked a bit when it was first lit, but even now, it’s almost stopped smoking altogether. Another few minutes and there’ll be no smoke at all.”

“You’re not supposed to light barbecues without...” he began.

“You’re forgetting,” I reminded him, “that I am not part of your HOA, and so not subject to your rules. I have already checked the city ordinance. If I was burning garden waste or other rubbish, then I would need a permit to light a fire, but barbecues do not require such a permit. I already checked that nobody had laundry out, even though that is not a requirement. So kindly go away and leave us in peace.”

He stood staring at me for a few seconds mouth opening and closing before he turned on his heel and stormed off. I closed the door. Alan and Anne were standing not to far away, identical grins on their faces.

“You haven’t heard the last of him,” said Alan.

“I don’t doubt it,” I replied as I walked through the kitchen and back into the back yard and checked on the grill. Bob had held down the fort nicely; it was almost ready to go.

The girls had set out all the sides and drinks in the kitchen. There was beer and wine for those over twenty one, and soda and water for the rest of us. That was the story, and we were sticking to it.

Of all the people at the party, only myself, my girls, and Dana  were underage. Everyone else had reached their majority. I asked the girls and Dana to stick to soda, because I fully expected what happened next.

I had been cooking for about an hour, and were all in the yard eating, drinking and chatting. Jules had a ‘boombox,’ which was playing music. It was not loud, but just loud enough to provide a backing track to the conversation.

I had finished the first round of grilling, and had taken a break to eat something myself. George, who fancied himself a grillmaster, had taken over, and wasn’t making a bad job of it.

I was standing with Dana, Carys and Sue, and we were discussing the benefits of learning martial arts. Sue was considering joining the dojo; Dana was definitely not convinced. There was a banging on our front door again.

I went to the door to find two police officers standing on the porch.

“Hi,” I said. “Can I help you?”

“We’ve had a complaint about noise and underage drinking from a neighbour,” said the first officer.

“Mr. Prentiss again I assume?” I asked.

“We’re not at liberty to...”

“Hi Danny, John,” said Debs emerging from the kitchen. “What’s up?”

“Hey Debs,” said the Danny. “Noise complaint and underage drinking complaint.”

“The noise level has been exactly as it is now,” said Debs. “All evening. Not to mention that it’s not even nine p.m.”

I looked at the officers. “Our neighbour,” I said, “Mr. Prentiss, tried to blackmail me into joining his HOA. Since that didn’t work, it seems that he is embarking on a campaign of spurious complaints. I guess he is hoping to build up some kind of a record so that, when I finally take him to court for harassment, he has some evidence for his defence.”

“Can we come in?” asked the officer. I was tempted to refuse, but I knew that wouldn’t help me. I stood back and allowed them to enter, closing the door behind them.

“George,” I shouted. “Put a couple of burgers on the grill for Debs’ friends.”

The officers looked at me but didn’t argue.

They looked around and, seeing a couple of young-looking people with beers, went over to speak to Bob and Angela, and also Kyle and Jennifer. Each showed their ID, proving they were old enough to drink.

After that, they grabbed plates and ate the burgers that George had grilled for them. When they were done, I walked them to the door. I couldn’t resist offering them each a soda, and not a beer. They politely declined.

“We’ll put this down as a malicious call,” said Danny. “I’ll go have a word with Mr. Prentiss about making false allegations and inappropriate calls to the police. He will probably claim it was made in good faith, and we have no proof otherwise, but it will start to establish a pattern.”

By the time the police had gone, most people had finished eating, and were standing chatting in the yard to the backdrop of the music. A few people were dancing on the grass. Josh was dancing with Mary while Amanda, Jules and Louise were all dancing together. Predictably, Sue was wrapped around George, who had abandoned his grilling duties to dance with his girl. Kyle and Jennifer were sitting talking to Dana and Bob, and I saw Carys and Angela looking in my direction.

Angela was quickest. She came over, grabbed my hand and pulled me onto the impromptu dance floor. I looked over to where Bob was sitting and he looked up and smiled.

“I wanted to talk to you,” said Angela.

“About?” I asked.

“Dianna told us...” she began, but I cut her off.

“This may not be the best time to have this discussion,” I said. “Perhaps you and Bob can come over for dinner one night and we can talk then?”

At that point the song changed, and a slower track began. Without pause, Angela closed with me, put her arms around my neck, and began to dance again.

“Okay,” she breathed into my ear. I felt gooseflesh ripple down my spine.

We finished the song, and Angela released me and went to join Bob. I turned to move towards the patio, and almost collided with Carys.

“Oh no,” she said. “You’re not leaving yet.”

She wrapped her arms around my neck and began to dance against me.

“Carys?” I said, moving with her. “What are you doing?”

“I’m taking ‘them’ up on an offer,” she said, her body pressed into mine.

“An offer?” I asked.

“One of the twins said I could borrow you,” she said with a grin, “so that’s what I’m doing.”

“Okay,” I said, “and now that you’ve ‘borrowed’ me?”

“Well, Louise said you could also cook,” she said. “I’ve seen you cooking tonight. I want to find out about the ‘also.’”

“You’ve had quite a lot to drink,” I observed. “That’s not a good time to be making those kinds of decisions.”

“But...” said Carys.

“Come for dinner one night,” I said. “If, when you are sober, you still want to find out about the ‘also,’ then I’ll be happy to show you. Besides, grilling on a barbecue is not cooking. Let me show you what I can do in the kitchen.” I leaned in and gave her a small kiss on her cheek, and led her over to where Mary was talking to Kyle and Jennifer. I had really wanted to catch up with those two.

I felt a hand on my arm: Dana. “Dance with me?” she asked. I smiled, took her hand, and once more went out onto our impromptu dance floor.

“Why didn’t you take her to bed?” she asked directly. The song was another slow one. Jules had apparently put a playlist together, and had had the idea to progressively wind down the night. I wondered if she’d considered that it might encourage some romance.

“She’s drunk,” I said. “I don’t want her waking up tomorrow regretting what went on.”

“You think she’ll scream rape?” she asked, eyes wide.

“No,” I said, “but I want to make sure that she is sure of what she wants. She is a beautiful girl, who I would love to take to bed, but there are so many other considerations. For instance: what does she think will happen after? I have four fiancées, and I’m not looking to expand my family. If we did have sex, it would be simply that: sex. Just playing together and nothing more.”

“Is that what it would be like for me?” Dana asked.

I met her gaze, her green eyes boring into mine. Before I realized what she was doing, she had pulled me down and kissed me. I didn’t pull away, allowing her to slowly explore my mouth with her tongue. Our tongues caressed for a few moments before she released me and put her head on my chest.

“I thought you might pull away,” she said, her voice a little muffled due to her position against me.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because I’m...”

“The only reason I might possibly not want to kiss you,” I said, “is because I don’t think that you know exactly what you want just now. I like you, Dana. We already had this discussion. If you want to kiss me, or more, then I’m happy with that, but as I said about Carys, I’m not looking for another fiancée. Is casual sex what you want?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “But I know I like being around you guys.”

“Then keep being around us,” I said. “Sex doesn’t have to come into it.”

The song finished; Dana released me, pecked me on the cheek and walked into the house.

I turned to go and get a drink, and came face to face with Debs.

“Hi,” she said.

“Hi.”

“I’ve been watching you,” she said. “At least two, if not three, girls just offered to take you to bed, and you turned them down. That Angela chick seems happy with Bob, but she put some moves on you, and her boy didn’t turn a hair. What’s the deal with those two?”

“They are both good friends of mine,” I said.

“And Carys?” she asked. “She was practically begging for it, and you turned her down too?”

“Carys is drunk,” I said. “Not falling-down drunk, but nowhere near sober either. When I take her to bed, I want it to be because she wants it, and can fully enjoy it.”

“And Dana?”

“It’s complicated,” I replied.

Debs looked at me for a moment. “And what about me?” she asked, a slight blush in her cheeks.

“Did you bring your cuffs and nightstick?” I asked with a small smile.

She grinned. “Do I need them?”

“If you would like to play,” I said, “either with me, or with us, we would be happy to accommodate you.”

“Us?” she asked.

“It would be me and the twins,” I said.

“Not Jules?” she asked.

“It’s...” I began.

“Complicated,” she finished for me.

“My life is complicated,” I said. “But I promise you a night that you will remember fondly for a long time.”

“You’re very sure of yourself,” she said.

I leaned forward and ran my tongue up the outer edge of her ear. At the same time, I reached into her mind and gave her the smallest of orgasms - just a tingle, but enough to illustrate what was being offered.

“Oh Jesus,” she said. “How did you...”

“It’s up to you,” I said. I looked across and saw both Amanda and Mary grinning at me.

I noticed that things were slowing down and people were starting to make noises about leaving. Anne and Alan were first to go. They came over to say goodnight.

“Thanks for the invite,” they said. “It was fun.”

“Thanks for coming,” I said.

I never did get to exchange more than a couple of words with Kyle and Jennifer before they too, left.

Bob and Angela, also, came over to say goodnight. “I’ll text you to figure out a night for you guys to come over for dinner,” I said.

Angela grinned. “I’m looking forward to it,” she said. There seemed to be a dual meaning to her words, and I wondered about that.

“I’m catching a lift back with Sue and George,” said Dana. I looked across and Sue and George waved at me from the door. They obviously had something on their mind, George had his arms around Sue, and she looked about ready to devour him.

“Okay,” I said. “You coming over for dinner tomorrow?”

She grinned at me and nodded. I smiled at her as she left with the lovestruck couple.

That left just Debs and Carys, who was even drunker now. Carys was dozing on one of the chairs in the yard.

“I think I’m going to have to take Carys home,” I said. “I don’t think that she’s capable of walking all that way on her own.”

“Josh and Louise are going to take her,” said Amanda from behind me. “You are still hosting Debs here. It would be rude for you to leave now.”

“Is that right?” I asked, looking down into Debs light blue eyes.

She looked up at me, a hunger evident in those eyes.

I brought my lips to hers and kissed her gently. Debs pressed up against me and opened her mouth to allow me entry. I slid the tip of my tongue past her lips, and began the dance, playing with her tongue as our hands began to explore each other’s bodies.

I heard the distinct sound of the gloryhole being opened up, and considered whether we should continue out here, or move the party indoors.

“Sorry guys,” I thought to my neighbours, knowing they wouldn’t hear. I took Debs by the hand, and led her back into the house. I had no problems performing for the neighbours, but it wasn’t fair to Debs for her to be displayed without her knowledge.

I led Debs into our bedroom and kissed her again. I could hear her wondering what she was getting herself in to. She was incredibly horny, but also a little afraid. She couldn’t make her mind up if she wanted the twins involved or not. Debs had been bi-curious for a long time but had never managed to pluck up the courage to do anything about it.

I began to undress her as we kissed. It was not a frenzied stripping off of clothes, but a gentle divestment. I used the time it took me to get her naked to learn all about her body. I tapped into her feelings and, by the time I was done, knew more about her body than she did.

I turned her around. I had meant to start to explore the back of her neck with my mouth, as I had with great success on other women, but saw a scenario play out in her mind. I quickly contacted the twins, outlining my plan. Debs wanted something different, so we gave it to her.

I yanked her backward, putting my arm around her throat and partially cutting off her air. She yelped and her hands came up to try and move my arm, but she didn’t try very hard. With my other hand, I started mauling and groping at her moderately sized breasts.

At first there was a spike of delicious fear from her, which ran down her spine, and straight to her pussy. I followed it with my groping hand, and before she was able to formulate a response, I had run my hand down the front of her body, and was grabbing and pawing clumsily at her slit, spreading her lips and beginning to force my fingers inside of her.

Her knees went weak, and she shivered in anticipation.

“You little slut,” I growled into her ear. “You are soaked; your juices are already running down your legs. You pretend to be so pure and innocent, but I know. You want this!”

I kept pressure on her throat, so she was not able to answer. She was barely able to draw breath.

Spinning us both around, I fell backwards on the bed, pulling her with me, so she was laid on top of me. I looped my legs around hers, so she was unable to move, and pulled them apart.

Amanda stalked into the room, naked.

She approached the bed and loomed over Debs where she was lay, spread and restrained by me.

“Well well,” said Amanda. “Look what we have here.”

She leaned forward and brought her face towards her newest conquest’s, and at the same time pushed two fingers into Debs’ now soaked twat. She pushed them in and out for a few thrusts, as Debs whimpered and then pulled them out, and brought them up to her face. She sniffed them before bringing them to Debs’ mouth.

“Open,” she ordered.

Eyes wide, Debs complied, and Amanda inserted her fingers into the officer’s mouth.

“Suck,” Amanda demanded. Debs sucked all her own juices off her young lover’s fingers.

Twice more, with three and finally four fingers, Amanda returned to Debs’ pussy, fingering her violently for a few minutes until Debs was almost ready to explode, and then pulling out and making Debs lick up her own juices. The fourth time, nearly fisting her, Amanda didn’t stop. She continued on until Debs reached the first of a number of orgasms that she was destined to have that night.

While that was going on, and Debs was distracted, I had used TK to remove my clothing from the waist down. Debs was just starting to recover from her first orgasm, when I rolled us both over, and pinned her arms over her head. I rammed my cock, balls deep into her still spasming pussy. Debs shrieked as she came again. She was bent over the edge of the bed, her knees on the floor, as I began to plough roughly in and out of her.

Amanda moved onto the bed and took over pinning her hands, so I could kneel up behind her.  Amanda was sitting on Debs’ arms and had her pussy inches from our new slut’s mouth. After removing my shirt I grabbed her hips and fucked her hard, slamming into her with brutal thrusts. With each thrust Debs’ mouth moved closer to Amanda’s twat until, after a few seconds, Debs’ was unconsciously feasting on cunt for the first time.

Over and over I rammed my cock into her clenching channel, feeling her building to yet another orgasm. I continued my assault until she couldn’t stand it any longer; Debs came again, a wail escaping her lips as she twitched and writhed. At the same time, Amanda came too. I, myself, was nowhere near my own orgasm. I continued to pound into Debs all the way through her climax, and the next, before I finally let go, shooting rope after rope of thick creamy cum into her as she reached her fifth orgasm of the night. Debs’ passed out from the sexual overload.

I pulled out, a torrent of our mixed juices sliding out of her onto the floor.

I used my TK to lift the near comatose woman fully onto the bed, and onto her back. Then Mary began. She laid between Debs’ legs and began to clean her up, licking up our combined juices from her legs and up to her pussy. Then, as Debs was starting to regain her composure, she attacked her pussy, and began to lap at her.

Debs moaned, as she felt Mary’s tongue slither all over her slit, dipping inside her cunt, before slurping up and down her slit and around her still very sensitive nub.

I was laid on the bed beside Debs and her face turned toward me. Her eyes were wide and still a little afraid as Mary feasted upon her. She watched as Amanda knelt over my face, and I began sucking and slurping at her pussy. I ate Amanda to a very quick, very noisy orgasm, which Mary shared, and then Amanda moved across to my other side.

I turned on my side towards Debs, and as Mary brought her to yet another orgasm, I forced my tongue into her mouth, still coated in Amanda’s cum.  She slurped and lapped at my tongue, relishing the taste of the younger woman as she rode out her orgasm on Mary’s tongue.

Once her orgasm was over, she laid back panting.

“Fuck,” she said. “That was unbelievable.”

I chuckled. “You done already?” I asked, and she, once again, turned her head to look at me.

“You’re kidding, right?” she asked.

I wasn’t.

We continued playing with her long into the night. Debs hadn’t even noticed when Jules came to bed. Jules had watched for a little while and then fallen asleep, so used to the bed moving while we were having sex, that the motion actually helped her to drift off.

Debs had finally passed out around two a.m., after what must have been a dozen orgasms. She had eaten, and been eaten out, by both twins, had sixty nine’d me while Amanda, predictably, had eaten her ass, and I had fucked her to another couple of orgasms, dumping a final load of cum into her. Seeing she was done, Amanda and Mary gently cleaned her up with a warm washcloth and towel, and eased her into sleep.

Two hours later, I was wide awake again. I looked around the bed. Debs was leaning against my one side, with Amanda curled up behind her. Jules had managed to wriggle between Mary and me and was lay half across me with Mary spooning her.

I extricated myself and went out into the yard to train.

I heard the gloryhole open up as I went out onto the deck. Still sated from our play with Debs, I wasn’t particularly in the mood, so I reached out to Josh and Louise, waking them up. Louise was up for it, but Josh wasn’t sure. I left them alone for a few minutes to discuss it, and then checked in again. She had managed to convince him. I took control of them both.

That morning, I not only trained my body and my TK, holding all our vehicles and the hot tub up, I also trained my Compulsion, controlling Josh and Louise. Josh had his balls emptied at the hole twice, first cumming into their mouths and then into Anne’s pussy. Louise sucked one load down, and took another in her ass through the gloryhole. I was impressed at Alan’s recovery time, he had managed to recharge in the time it had taken Josh to fuck Anne.

I was in the kitchen making breakfast when Debs finally surfaced.

“Morning,” I said.

“What time did you get up?” she asked.

“I get up at four,” I said. “It’s a habit I can’t seem to break these days.”

I indicated for her to sit at the table and placed a plate of pancakes and bacon in front of her, along with coffee.

“How are you feeling?” I asked. There was always the danger that things that happened in the heat of passion, might seem a little less appealing when reviewed in cold light of day.

“I feel amazing,” she said. “Last night was incredible.”

I got the feeling that there was a ‘but’ coming. “But you don’t want a repeat performance,” I said. It wasn’t a question. Even without my powers I could see it in her body language.

She shook her head. “You guys opened my eyes to a lot, last night,” she said. “I’ve wondered what it would be like to have sex with a girl for a while. I never had the courage before. I liked it. I may do it again sometime.”

“But?” I asked.

“But you have four fiancées,” she said. “You already told me that you aren’t looking for a fifth. I know that it would be way too easy for me to fall in love with you, and Mary and Amanda too I guess. I’d never considered a polyamorous relationship before, but I am considering it now. If we were to continue having sex, I know I would want to be a part of what you have, and that wasn’t the deal.

“I’m going to quit while I’m ahead.”

I nodded at her. “I’d still like to consider you as a friend,” I said. “If you ever need anything...outside the bedroom I mean.”

“I’d like that,” she said. “And who knows, once you’re a Fed, it might be handy for me to have a contact in the bureau, not to mention your Patrick Jane tricks.”