The Aether Candle

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Author's note

I'm posting the whole novel at once to keep individual chapters from getting assigned to other categories. The first scene involving incest does not occur until a little later on, but this is ultimately a story about a guy who falls in love with his mother. You might need to be a little more patient with this one than other stories on this site, but I hope some of you will find the journey to be worthwhile.

There is no connection between this tale and the Homelands, which I do intend to revisit. This was a side project that I felt I needed before I could return to the Homelands with a fresh perspective. I had meant for this to be a stand-alone but realize now that there's room for a sequel. Let me know in the comments if you'd like to see that happen.

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Chapter One

Dan plopped down onto the sofa, sighed, and put his feet up. "I don't get it," he said for the manyth time that night. "If she needed an excuse to dump me, why not go with the whole `I'm headed off to college, while you're sticking around here' angle?"

Caleb stared across the coffee table at Dan's shoes. He didn't stop grinding herbs with that old-fashioned mortar and pestle, though. Nor say a word. His thick tangle of a beard hid any expression that might have made its way onto his face as well.

All the same, Dan got the message. "Sorry," he said, feet returning to the carpet.

The guy wasn't a stickler for that sort of thing. He didn't make Dan use a coaster or take his shoes off as soon as he walked in the door. But Caleb did take his herbal stuff seriously. Or at least pretended to because that was somehow ironic. There was no telling with hipsters. Not that it really mattered—Dan knew better than to put his shoes up on the coffee table. His mom hadn't raised him to be so rude.

It didn't help that the coffee table had sat in his living room until a few months ago, though. After his dad had died, his mom had decided that the only way they could afford to stay in their house was to convert the attic above the garage into an apartment and rent it out for additional income. The refrigerator and microwave were new, but a lot of the furniture had come from the house. That made it easy for Dan to forget that he was a guest. He probably felt more at home in the apartment than its current occupant did.

Or maybe his broken heart had put him in a selfish mood. Convinced him that he had the right to do whatever he felt like doing, with no expectation of anyone calling him out.

"What does that even mean, she didn't trust herself with me?" Dan asked before taking a swig from the bottle Caleb had given him. Surprisingly enough, it contained regular beer. Well, if "regular" left room for it being so hoppy that it felt like his palate was being attacked by grapefruit and pine resin. It looked like something you could buy in the grocery store, at any rate, whereas it wouldn't have surprised Dan if the only thing on offer had been moonshine. Caleb liked to do things the old-fashioned way. He even made his own soap.

"The thing is, she was really into me." Dan took another sip, followed by a grimace. As a stupid teenager, his opinion on such matters only counted for so much, but he didn't see what was wrong with good ol' Budweiser. "At least, it seemed like she was," he continued. "I mean, the sex...," he started to say, before realizing how vain and insecure that made him sound. He hated being such a stereotype, yet couldn't help himself sometimes.

Did Caleb need to hear any of this? No. But Dan needed to say it, and he didn't think it bothered Caleb anymore than it interested him. Nothing ever did. He just kept working that stone pestle, like he couldn't even hear Dan. If someone tried to get him to shave that beard of his, that might get a rise out of him, but short of that?

"I know, at my age, everyone always think they're in love, and that it will last forever," Dan said. He sometimes thought that no one over the age of thirty realized that teenagers were self-aware enough to know when they were acting like teenagers. Granted, most kids his age probably didn't, but still. "Give us the smallest bit of emotional intimacy and we think it's a sign that we've found our soul mates. Give us physical intimacy, and we'll assume the emotional sort comes with it, as sort of a package deal."

"But you two were different?" Caleb asked, the corner of his mouth curling ever so slightly upward. At least, Dan thought so. It was hard to tell with all that brown shrubbery.

"I guess not," Dan said.

"Maybe she meant what she said," Caleb offered. He emptied the mortar into a bowl then scooped more herbs out of a mason jar. "Have you considered that possibility?"

"About not trusting herself with me?" The man nodded. Dan gave that some thought then decided that, no, it really didn't make sense.

"I suspect there was more going on than typical teenage infatuation," Caleb said. "But not because the two of you were special. Because you're special."

Was he...hitting on Dan?

"It'll be the same with the next girl," he continued. "And the one after that. Eventually, you'll learn to control it, though. Let their emotions develop without manipulation."

Dan sat upright. "Hey. Who said I—"

"I did," Caleb said. "And you did, though I'm sure you didn't realize it." He pointed down at his herbs. "You know what this is?"

It sounded like a rhetorical question, but one that Dan should answer. "Incense?"

"And what do you suppose it does?"

Dan shrugged. "Smell nice when you burn it?"

"Well, yes, that too. More importantly, though, it cloaks your aura." The man's words weren't laden with mysticism or reverence, the way they probably should have been.

"Meaning what?"

"Just what it sounds like," Caleb said. "Auras are real. Magic is real."

Dan rolled his eyes, then polished off his beer. He got up to get another one without asking if that was alright. Caleb offered no objection. "Are you messing with me?" he asked as he sat back down. "I can never tell how serious you're being," he added, which held true even when the guy wasn't claiming to be a fucking wizard.

"That's all I ever am," Caleb said.

"Pffft."

"Daniel, I'm telling you that you're a Talent."

So he even had a special name for it? Didn't that just figure.

"You can do things others can't. Such as intensify emotions."

"Come on," Dan said. "And is that even a real word?"

It sure looked like Caleb meant what he'd said, though. The reluctance on his face, laced with misgiving, would have made no sense if he'd been pulling Dan's leg. "I shouldn't say anything, but I've always been the sort to reach for a match when I see an unlit candle," Caleb remarked. Then he stood, walked over to the bookshelf against the far wall, reached into a shoe box, and came back with—what else?—a candle. "Place this by your bed tonight. Whisper a name into it, then light it. That should put your skepticism to rest."

"Funny how sleep does that. Put things to rest, I mean."

Caleb was unimpressed by his wordplay. He thrust the candle towards Dan.

Reluctantly, he accepted it. It was plain white and utterly unremarkable, save for its size. The damn thing was as thick as his wrist and as long as his forearm. It looked more like a club than a candle. "Any name?" he asked, with a sigh.

"Well, other than Jenny's."

"Why not hers?" Dan asked.

Caleb frowned. "Because you'd be asking for trouble."

Well, didn't that just settle it.

"Someone you know," Caleb continued. Of course the caveats and limitations were stacking up. "Who's spoken to you, and said your name aloud."

"Why? Will it not work otherwise?"

"There's power in names."

Dan scoffed. Though, in fairness, he'd set that up a little too perfectly.

"You can't tell your mother I gave you that," Caleb said. "Or anyone, for that matter."

"Why would I?" Dan asked. "So they could make fun of me?"

Caleb shrugged. "Should circumstances arise that make it seem okay to do so, don't." He said this with such finality that Daniel dared not argue.

"My mom sometimes comes into my room to tidy up or fetch my laundry."

She was weird enough about him spending time with Caleb already. If she thought the guy was trying to get her son into some weird occult shit, she might finally evict him. Or at least tell Dan not to go up to the apartment above the garage anymore.

Which would actually be kinda devastating.

Dan wasn't fat and ugly, a nerd or a goth, but he still had trouble making friends. People warmed up to him easily enough, but, then they'd either blow up for no reason or pull away abruptly. Something about him seemed to make people lower their guard, which was good, but also made them flip their shit over nothing at all. It wasn't like that with Caleb, though. His one and only setting seemed to be a out of ten on the scale of emotional intensity.

Because he knew how to guard himself against Dan's emotional manipulation? The sort he didn't realize he engaged in? No. That was crazy. He was not buying this magic bullshit.

"So hide the candle when it's not in use."

"Fair enough," Dan mumbled.

"I want you to swear a vow," Caleb said.

"Sure," Dan said. "Should I spit in my palm first? Or get a knife?"

"I don't practice blood magic," Caleb said, as if it was a serious accusation—one that warranted a prompt and emphatic denial.

Dan took a gulp of beer. "What kind do you practice?"

Caleb's lips tightened beneath a bristly brown veil. "When you're ready to hear what I have to say, I'll tell you more. For now, I want your word that you'll not speak of this."

No one could describe Caleb as sensitive, at least not if they had any idea what the world meant, but that expression suggested that Dan's skepticism bothered him. If he wasn't offended, he was at least disappointed. And unwilling to risk further mockery. This was no knee-jerk reaction, either. It had only taken him a moment to realize that Dan hadn't actually thought that he practiced blood magic—or known that there was such a thing—but this was different. "Okay, I swear," Dan said, in what he hoped was a placating tone.

Caleb's flat look told him that would not do.

After swallowing another mouthful of the obnoxious beer, Dan said, "May unspeakable harm come to me if I prove untrue—no word of this candle, the wondrous gifts it might bring, or magic in general, shall I speak to anyone save Caleb Blackthorne." Because anyone else would think him nucking futs. "Satisfied?" he asked.

He half-expected to feel something as the words left his lips. A heavy cloak settling over him, perhaps. Some indication that he'd accepted a great burden. Nothing like that happened, though. Because this was all "poppycock", as his mom would say. Dan almost laughed at himself for taking it seriously for even a fraction of a second.

#

A tall, blonde woman sat cross-legged on a stool at the front of the classroom. She stared intently at Dan, spun a knuckle against her ear, and said, "I must be losing my hearing, because it sounded like you just invited me to press my lips to your posterior." The class snickered at what passed for a joke coming from their teacher. "Care to try that again?"

Dan was about to protest, insisting that he hadn't said anything at all, when the memory of something that hadn't even happened formed inside his brain. He had told someone to kiss his ass. It just hadn't been Ms. Conklin, but one of his classmates.

Not that any of three-dimensional silhouettes surrounding him were capable of trading insults. They were colorless and insubstantial, and while some almost had facial features—the suggestion of a nose, for example—none had mouths. The classroom itself was about as well-formed. The parts that were there looked about right, but around the middle, everything turned to gray mist. Several desks managed to stand upright despite only having two legs.

"Well?" asked the woman he knew was supposed to be his former math teacher. She definitely had shape and form, unlike his classmates. Nothing like he remembered, but she did. Not altogether unpleasant, either. To put it mildly.

The real Ms. Conklin was in her early fifties and was a good twenty pounds or so overweight. There was something piggish about her upturned nose and she wore her hair too short. Some women could pull that off, but she wasn't one of them. Yes, he'd had a crush on her all the same—because of her huge breasts and the way her thighs looked when she crossed her legs—but she still wasn't attractive by conventional standards. Dan had never even admitted to his friends that he'd had a thing for her. No guy would be ashamed of being attracted to the woman sitting on the stool, however. Here, in his dream, Ms. Conklin looked to be in her mid-thirties at the latest, and wasn't carrying any extra weight—at least not in any unwanted areas. Her baby blue skirt was loose and long, so it was hard to tell for sure, but her legs looked even shapelier than Dan remembered them being, and while the two bowling balls stretching the fabric of her fuzzy pink sweater might not have been any bigger than in real life, they looked round and firm. Didn't sag down past her ribcage.

Dan tried not get distracted by that, but couldn't help himself. He drank in every detail, from her incredible figure to what was now a strikingly beautiful face. Her firm skin was more alabaster than ash, and her slender nose had an elegant shape to it. Her long hair had become impossibly lustrous. There were at least three or four different shades of blonde on display as well. It was dark enough to pass for a medium brown in some places, yet burnished like gold elsewhere. Her blue eyes seemed bigger and brighter, more like sapphires than a colorless sky. Her full lips were a bolder shade of pink than he'd ever seen her wear. Dan couldn't believe how much makeup she was wearing. Ms. Conklin rarely wore anything more than a little nude lip gloss. Now, though, her eyelashes were impossibly full and long; thick black lines framed her eyelids; and she wore heavy eyeshadow, fading from a dark navy to the baby blue of her skirt as it reached up towards her perfect, dark brows.

Come to think of it, her clothes were the only aspect of her appearance that really fit. Ms. Conklin loved pastels, long skirts, modest pumps, and fuzzy sweaters. That was the style of glasses she favored as well, with thick black frames. If not for that, and perhaps her attitude, Dan might not have known who the blonde bombshell was supposed to be.

Except he would have, because dream logic. But whatever. The point was, she looked really different, and the changes were definitely for the better.

"I'm speaking to you, Daniel Westbrook," she said, forcing him out of his reverie. Her appearance might have been altered by his subconscious, but apparently little else had. That tone was all too familiar. "Would you do us the favor of coming back to the real world?"

As if that was where they were. Dan might almost have been confused by that if he hadn't heard her use that exact phrase on both him and several of his classmates. His mind must have saved a copy for situations like as this, using the sound clip to establish verisimilitude.

"Sorry, Ms. Conklin," Dan said. "It won't happen again."

She laid a finger over her lips. The real Ms. Conklin had a habit of doing the same, but it had never turned him on before. Never drawn his eyes so unwaveringly to her lips. They were so reminiscent of cotton candy. If he kissed them, would they taste as sweet?

Silence reigned for a time—long enough that Dan lost track of what he was supposed to be in trouble for. Finally, Ms. Conklin slipped down off the stool. "I think the only way you're going to learn your lesson is if I make you kiss my ass."

Dan was still in the process of convincing himself that he'd heard her right when she turned sideways, planted one hand over the other atop the stool, and popped her booty out like a dancer in a music video. Her skirt didn't cling to her as tightly as Dan might have liked, but there was still no mistaking the size and shape of it. Were she to post a picture of herself on Instragram, especially in something more revealing, there'd be a dozen likes within the hour. And a few people suggesting that she'd gotten butt implants.

"Excuse me?" Dan said.

Ms. Conklin looked at him sideways, holding her pose. "You heard me," she said. His not-quite-there classmates murmured in surprise. Their teacher reached back and gave her ass a little slap. That got more of a reaction out of Dan than made any sense, given how tame it had been, and how much clothing she had on. "Now do as I said or face detention."

Dan's heart raced. Even with her being all sexed-up, the room mostly missing, and shadows-made-flesh sitting at the desks beside him, it still felt like he was really at school. Like that threat of detention wasn't hollow. Yes, some part of him welcomed the excuse to get closer to her. To put his hands on her, or press his lips to her...well, skirt. To start with, anyway. At the same time, Dan was paralyzed with fear. Of what, exactly, he wasn't sure. But he was. Greater embarrassment than he already felt, perhaps? That it was all a trick, and he'd get expelled for sexual harassment if he did? Either way, he couldn't move.

"I'm waiting," Ms. Conklin said.

Something inside him broke. Sure, it could be a trap. But Dan wasn't just going to sit there, feeling awkward and hoping that she'd inexplicably forget that he existed. He stood from his desk and moved towards his teacher. Or the sexpot playing her part in his mind.

With each step, he grew more confident. The murmurs became background noise. Dan grabbed his teacher's hips, paused for objections, then, hearing none, bent to his task.

Just as he was about to press his lips to the fabric of her skirt, though, he stopped. Though his heart was beating as loud as a drum, Dan slipped his thumbs inside the waistband and pulled the garment down over the swell of her ass. That drew a few surprised gasps from the audience, followed by stunned silence. Dan couldn't blame them. While the lacy pink boy shorts covered a good deal more than a thong would have, the bottoms of her butt cheeks were still in plain view. Dan could hardly believe their perfect size and shape. How closely they resembled tear drops. Even with her bent over, stretching those lovely muscles, there were faint lines of separation between them and her thighs. If she stood up straight, Dan suspected, there'd be some epic lines of cleavage there as well.

"What are you doing?" Ms. Conklin asked.

"Only what you told me to," he replied. "Cindy," he added, feeling brave.

"Ah," she said. Her tone was neither sharp nor chiding, despite his use of her first name. Merely curious. Perhaps even amused. "I suppose I didn't tell you to kiss my skirt, did I?"

"No, you didn't."

A few of his classmates laughed, and not at him. Dan felt a smile spread across his lips.

Bugs Bunny would have been proud of the performance he put on. He squeezed his eyes shut, puckered his lips up dramatically, then pressed them against her left cheek. He held that pose for a few moments then made a loud smacking sound before pulling away.

After doing so, he gave the other orb a good slap.

That was probably the stupidest thing he could have done. Or it certainly would have been if this wasn't all a dream. He just couldn't help himself, though. An ass like that simply cried out for it. Dan just had to know how much it would jiggle.

Not much, as it happened. Her backside was evidently quite solid.

By rights, Ms. Conklin should have been outraged. But she let out a little whimper that made Dan's cock throb then looked over her shoulder at him and grinned.

"Again," one of his classmates suggested.

Or maybe his subconscious was speaking directly to him. Who the fuck knew. Or cared.

Either way, Dan wasted no time delivering a second blow. Her right cheek shook after his palm made contact, a shock wave rippling quickly across her ass and hips before dying out a split second later. The sight left Dan positively enchanted. His teacher yelped, but when she looked back at Dan, the look in her eyes was pure, unadulterated lust.

He wanted to say that was the only reason he'd enjoyed spanking her. That he wouldn't derive pleasure from the act if she hadn't been into it. But Dan knew that wasn't true. Ms. Conklin had terrified him all throughout freshman year. Half of Lakeland High was afraid of her. She'd never given him detention, but she'd written some harsh things on his homework and tests. Said some biting things to him in class as well.

Moving slowly and sensually, Ms. Conklin slid her skirt down past her hips. Then she simply let it fall to the floor, revealing very shapely legs. "That's better, isn't it?"

Dan didn't bother answering. Just set to work on her backside. This time, he was not going for laughs either. He was determined to make his teacher cum, and cum hard. His hands glided smoothly over her skin, a soft and silky caress. Meanwhile, his mouth worked her surprisingly sensitive flesh. Eventually, Dan's teeth joined the party as well. He didn't bite hard, but he made sure she knew just how appetizing her found her ripe bottom.

Dan noticed a musky scent between her legs, and a damp spot in her panties. One hand abandoned her sweet ass and moved between her legs to rub below her mound. Then he started to lick at her through the fabric of her underwear. When this drew various sounds of encouragement, he pulled her panties aside and licked tentatively at the bottom of her vulva before moving up to swirl the tip of his tongue around her anus.

The smooth, puckered flesh was dark pink, though it wouldn't have stopped him at that point even if it had been brown. Dan continued rubbing her clit through her panties as he performed full-on analingus. That was nothing he'd done before, and it probably should have struck him as far too kinky, but he was so caught up in the moment that he just went with it. Ms. Conklin didn't seem to have a problem with it, either. She was pushing back against him, trying to get him to lick harder, deeper, faster.

Just as he sensed that she was about to explode, Dan pulled back. That elicited a most gratifying groan of protest. "I think you need more than my tongue," he told the woman who'd taught him how to find the slope of a line. "Do you want my dick, Dick?"

For a few heart-stopping seconds, Ms. Conklin didn't reply. At last, she said, "Yes."

Their audience began to murmur and whisper. Or had been doing so all along? Dan wasn't sure. Either way, their words were as indecipherable as their faces were inchoate, but that was still enough to excite his inner exhibitionist. Which apparently existed.

Dan stood up and fished his cock out. His classmates gasped and giggled at the size of it. A few guys swore. For his part, Dan was both surprised and yet not. Which didn't even confuse him, because he'd apparently flipped whatever switch controlled his power of disbelief. He was vaguely aware that none of it made any damn sense, but just didn't care.

He was huge, though. Long, and thick. Not unlike a soda can. His cock wasn't the only part that had been upgraded, either. Dan took his shirt off and found a perfect set of washboard abs. He was plenty lean ordinarily, but his muscles weren't that developed.

"Is this another form of punishment?" Ms. Conklin asked. "Of getting back at me for being so strict?" She gave her hips a good wiggle. "Or are you going to fuck me?"

Dan grabbed her by the hips once more. She placed her hands atop his, though, and guided them up under her sweater, to the cups of her bra. Then, in accordance with dream logic, the garment changed from a pullover to a cardigan whose buttons were undone. Her bra disappeared as well. Not that it mattered how he'd gotten her girls free—only that they were in his hands, where he'd wanted them for so long. They had just the right feel, too. They were firm enough to retain their shape without defying gravity too flagrantly or making one think of silicone. Her over-sized nipples were really hard, too. And sensitive. She purred when he rolled them between his fingers. For a moment, Dan thought he'd already entered her. But no, that wasn't his dick pushing her toward climax—just his fingers tweaking her stiff little ladies. She didn't complain about the delay, though, despite how eager she'd been only a moment ago. Apparently, a little nipple play was going to be enough.

Or would have been, if Dan hadn't decided to push as far into her as he could before friction brought him to a stop. Which was only about halfway, thanks to his massive size and how tight her canal was. That was enough, though. Ms. Conklin slapped her hands atop the stool, fell forward enough that he almost slipped back out, and howled in ecstasy. He might have thought she was faking if not for the spasms inside.

Dan wasn't nearly as big in real life, but neither was he small. So he knew what it felt like to be too big for intercourse. After several failed attempts, he and his first girlfriend had given up trying. The relationship hadn't lasted much longer.

This wasn't like that, though. It was a tight fit. A really tight fit. But he was going to get all of it inside her. He was sure of that.

"God, you're so big," Ms. Conklin said, reaching down to grab the base of his shaft. He wasn't sure if she was trying to tell him to give her a moment before resuming or coax him along. Either way, though, she clearly liked the size and feel of him. Her inner muscles had stopped spasming and were now massaging him fairly insistently.

The pleasure Dan took in this was nothing to be proud of. He knew that. Guys his age put way too much stock in the size of their members. If this were anything but a dream, he wouldn't get her off just by penetrating her. Something like three-quarters of women couldn't climax from intercourse alone. Only clitoral stimulation reliably got the job done. But knowing he shouldn't care so much about his member, or think that it had the power to please women all by itself, didn't keep him from confirming the stereotype.

"Mmmph," Ms. Conklin whimpered as he worked a few more inches in, slowly. Her throaty purr sent a thrill down Dan's spine. "I think I might cum again. Soon."

She wasn't kidding.

After her spasms died down, the tension went out of her back, and she mostly regained the ability to breathe, she said, "That was at least an eighty-seven. Maybe even eighty-nine."

"Not a ninety, though?" Dan asked.

"For that, you're going to have to stop holding back."

"Is that what I've been doing?" Dan asked as he delivered a sharp thrust.

"You tell me," Ms. Conklin said, sounding pleased with herself.

She might just have been egging him on. If anything he'd done up to that point had left much room for improvement, her body hadn't seemed to know the difference. But if she was just saying that for effect, it worked. Dan set a much faster pace this time. Soon, he was slamming into her furiously. He pawed at her tits, squeezing her nipples tight between his fingers and pulling them away from her breasts. Her poor ass suffered several hard slaps—each of which seemed to excite her more than the last. Through it all, her arousal grew and grew. Ms. Conklin worked her hips like the pistons of a race car engine, meeting Dan's thrusts with her own, and begged him to fuck her harder. At one point, Dan grabbed her hair, yanked back, and gave a sharp thrust with his hips at the same time. He angled them both as he did, so that his shaft would rub directly against her G-spot. It must have worked, because the resulting orgasm was of epic proportions. Her screams shattered glass.

Even that only earned him a ninety-four, however.

"Well, that's progress at least," Dan said. He spun his teacher around and sat on the stool himself while she took a moment to regain her balance. With the help of the blackboard beside her. Then guided her into his lap so she could ride him cowgirl. Which, more to the point, meant he could suck on those big tits and their stiff nipples while he fucked her.

"Oooooh, yeah," Ms. Conklin moaned a she descended, her womanhood slowly stretching to accommodate his size. After swallowing no more than half his length, she collapsed against him, shuddered, and very nearly climaxed. When Dan gave her ass a hard slap, then thrust upward, poking her in the cervix, she exploded.

They kissed, passionately. That shocked Dan, for some reason, though it didn't take long to get into it. She was so hungry for him. The feeling was mutual, he realized. Their bodies moved slowly, barely generating friction, as they attacked one another with their mouths.

By the time they were done, a long time later, Ms. Conklin finally gave him a hundred.

#

Dan woke up feeling great, which made no sense. He was not a morning person. Even on the weekends, when he actually got to sleep past seven, he'd roll out of bed feeling groggy. But from the moment he opened his eyes that morning, he was alert and energetic.

And horny as hell.

It wasn't just that he had a raging hard-on, though there was that. The Teen Titans poster on his wall was having an effect on him that it had never had before. Sure, Starfire and Raven were as hyper-sexualized as any other superheroine in the comics, but that post was from recent TV show, which had struck a goofier tone and favored a much simpler animation style. Starfire wasn't much more than a stick figure with long pinkish-purple hair and Raven was basically a bobble-head. Yet Dan found himself wondering what sort of orgies took place in that T-shaped tower, even fantasizing for a moment about having a threesome with them himself before shaking his head and muttering insults to himself.

That was when he noticed that the candle was still burning. Could it have something to do with how good he felt? No, that was absurd. Caleb could have given him a sugar pill and it would have had the same effect. Was the pool of melted wax about as big as he'd expect if the flame had been burning for ten minutes instead of ten hours? Maybe. But if so, that was only because Caleb had used some sort of hipster wax.

Dan blew the flame out and headed for the bathroom.

"You're looking chipper," his mom said when he came down the stairs. She leaned back against the kitchen counter and regarded him quizzically, her favorite coffee mug hugged tight against her chest. Against her very large breasts, in other words.

Her what now?

First cartoons and then his mom? What the fuck was wrong with him?

In his defense, those things were hard to ignore. His mom had put on some weight over the years, and most of it had gone to her chest. The few friends he'd ever had over the house had all commented on her ample endowment. That didn't make it okay for her own son to stare, but it had to be entered into evidence.

Besides, he wasn't exactly staring. Just noticing. There was a difference.

It didn't help that his mom was not only busty, but also really pretty for her age. Shit, for any age. She might not have the look magazines put on their covers, but Dan thought she was beautiful, and not just because he was her son. Yes, he was biased, but she was still easy on the eyes. That was pretty much an objective fact. Everyone loved her auburn hair, especially his late father, and it wasn't hard to see why. Then there was her fair complexion, her olive green eyes, and her full lips. Were her cheeks a little full and her chin a little soft? Perhaps. But not everyone went in for the skin and bones look, all hard angles that a guy might accidentally cut himself on if he caressed her the wrong way.

Okay, maybe he was staring at her. And maybe it wasn't the first time he'd done so either, even if it felt sort of like it because he'd never allowed the moment to last for more than a fraction of a second before. Never felt the need to ask himself why he was looking at his mom that way, whether he was genuinely attracted to her or just trying to figure out whether his friends made those comments purely to fuck with him. Still, it wasn't his fault. It was the damn candle, if only through the power of suggestion. Or, heck, perhaps it did have some power. Might that come with a lingering side-effect as a well? Could the stupid thing be the supernatural equivalent of Viagra? In case of an erection lasting more than—

No. There was no such thing as magic. If Dan was seeing his mom in a new light that was only because the subject of his dream had been a woman who was around the same age as her, maybe a few years older. His mental image of Ms. Conklin hadn't looked much past thirty, but just knowing that the inspiration for his XXX-rated dream was past fifty might have messed with his idea of an acceptable age range. That, and because the blender was just about the only thing he hadn't given at least some thought to sticking his cock in since walking into the kitchen some thirty seconds ago.

"That might be the quickest I've ever seen a broken heart mend," she continued. Suddenly, her expression changed, growing alarmed. "Don't tell me you got back together?"

"Haven't even spoken to her," Dan said.

He'd been too busy fucking his math teacher. Then fantasizing about cartoons, foodstuff, and various household appliances. Maybe even a certain parental unit. Jenny, though? She hadn't so much as entered Dan's thoughts until his mom had asked him about her.

Whether it was magical or not, the candle had done its job.

Too bad it couldn't pull that off without leaving him ready to fuck an apple pie.

"Good," she said with an emphatic nod. "I never liked her, anyway. She thought she was so smart, just because she got into some fancy private school."

His mom didn't specifically say that this bothered her because she didn't appreciate anyone talking down to her son, but Dan knew that was what she meant. After all, his mom had a degree from a pretty good school herself. That was where she'd met his dad. And it was why she found it so hard to accept that Dan had no interest in going to college. From his perspective, that was even more irritating than Jenny's thinly-veiled sense of intellectual superiority, but he kept that to himself. At least his mom meant well.

"What's with the past tense?" Dan said, pulling his mom in for a quick hug. "It's not like she died. She's just no longer my girlfriend."

His mom grinned. "That makes her dead to me."

Dan laughed as he bent down to plant a kiss on the top of her head and couldn't help but notice that her hair smelled nice. Like flowers.

That was nothing new. He'd picked up on it before, and even thought about recommending her shampoo to Jenny. But even though he'd wisely held off on that, it hadn't really occurred to him just how creepy it would be for a guy to tell his girlfriend—if not in so many words—that he'd like her to smell a bit more like his mom.

Was the candle responsible for the awkward feelings Dan was now struggling to suppress? Or had they been there all along? Perhaps he wasn't seeing her in a new light because he'd dreamt of Ms. Conklin, but had lusted after his teacher because she sort of reminded him of his mom. Particularly in the chestal region. The candle hadn't done anything but force him to confront what was already inside him.

Come to think of it, he still wasn't sure Jenny had ever looked down on him intellectually. She'd made no mystery of the way his lack of ambition turned her off, but was that so different from his mom's disappointment? To the extent that it was, did it matter to his psyche? Had Jenny not reminded him of his mom as well, and in more than one way? Including, again, her sizable breasts. He was starting to see a pattern.

His mom's eyebrows inched closer together and her lips tightened. "This have something to do with Caleb?" she asked. "You went over there after I went to bed, didn't you?"

Dan tensed up. "Didn't know I wasn't allowed to."

She sighed and smoothed away imaginary wrinkles in his tee shirt. If that seemed to give her an excuse to test how hard his abs were—not as impressive as they'd been in his dream the night before, but nothing to be ashamed of either—that too was a product of an overactive imagination. One that had not been tampered with by a magic candle, however much it might seem that way. Because that just wasn't how the world worked. "You're on your own for breakfast and lunch," his mom said. "Should be home for dinner, though."

If only Dan could tuck his mostly erect cock up into the waistband of his jean surreptitiously. At least his mom didn't seem to be aware of the effect she was having on him. It wasn't like he was the size of a freaking forearm here, after all. Much easier to ignore than the club he'd been wielding in his all-too-vivid dream. "Where are you going?" he asked.

Her frown confirmed that he'd already received this information. She was always telling him things that he instantly forgot. "Into the city. I'm having lunch with a friend."

"That's right," he said, pretending to remember. "The one from college, right?"

His mom shook her head disapprovingly. She might not have deigned to answer his question, but there was a bemused look on her face. She took one last sip of coffee, placed the ceramic mug in the sink, and ran some water in it. "Try not to burn the place down," his mom said as she picked up her handbag and started towards the front door.

"That was just one time!" Dan called after her.

#

"Here," Dan said, handing Caleb a sandwich wrapped in wax paper. "For the beer."

Caleb raised an eyebrow at that last part.

"Among other things," Dan mumbled. "Extra bacon and extra cheese. Mom wouldn't approve, but that's what she gets for leaving an eighteen-year-old to fend for himself."

Thankfully, Caleb kept his mouth shut as he went and knelt in front of the coffee table. Dan followed behind, claiming his usual spot on the sofa. He watched as Caleb unfolded the white paper and beheld the gooey, meaty goodness spilling out of the bun, face impassive. How could a guy behold such wonders and not feel a deep sense of awe? That wasn't natural. Or maybe that was just what getting old did to you. If so, Dan hoped he died young.

After they ate, Dan described his nocturnal adventure. Caleb was interested in the details, but not out of prurience. His eyes seemed to gloss over when Dan talked about how hot his dream version of Ms. Conklin was, or how great the sex had been. His ears only perked back up when Dan started musing about how strange the experience had been and how it hadn't been like any other dream he'd ever had.

"I won't make you say it," the bearded one said at last.

"Say what?" Dan asked.

Caleb gave him a flat look.

"Okay, fine. That little trick of yours was just what I needed to take my mind off Jenny."

Again, no reaction. He just kept up the pressure with those dark eyes of his.

Dan sighed. "It was just a dream, man."

"No, it wasn't," Caleb told him, in no uncertain terms. "And you know that."

"You're saying it was magic?" he asked, scoffing. "Are we using the term figuratively? Like trip-to-Disneyland magic? Very-special-and-I'll-treasure-it-forever magic?"

"No," Caleb replied. "The real deal."

"Because teenage boys have sexually explicit dreams," Dan continued, as though Caleb hadn't even spoken. "I don't know how long ago that was for you, but that's totally a thing."

Caleb snapped his fingers three times.

As he did, the coffee table changed. It went from wood to marble then glass then back again, all in a matter of seconds. Had Dan blinked, he'd have missed it. For that reason, he tried convincing himself that his eyes had deceived him. That he hadn't actually seen the table transform, at a very basic level, without any rational explanation for the changes.

He tried convincing himself of that, but it didn't work. "Holy shit!" he said at last.

That produced a broader grin than he'd have thought Caleb capable of.

"So, um, what happens if I do it again?" Dan asked. He still wasn't sure he was on board with the M-word, but he could at least entertain the notion, for the sake of argument. Maybe catch Caleb contradicting himself. "Magic's got to have consequences, right?"

"You mean visit the Aether?" Caleb asked. "Or pull your teacher, specifically?"

"The latter," Dan said. That wasn't what he'd meant, as it happened, but it might be worth hearing Caleb's answer to that as well. "Did anything happen on her end?"

"What do you think?" the bearded one asked as he steeped a tea bag in a mug of hot water—both of which had sat on the counter in the kitchenette a moment earlier. Right up until he'd decided that telekinesis might convince Dan even if transmogrification hadn't.

Which was not entirely ineffective.

"That you're about to tell me it's too complicated for a simple yes or no answer?"

A sly grin spread across his lips, nowhere near as pronounced as the one that had followed Dan's exclamation a minute ago. "She'll have no memory of it, as you obviously do. She was less there than you were." Caleb paused, waiting to see how Dan reacted to that.

How else? Skeptically.

"I know that sounds strange," Caleb continued. "You're used to thinking of presence as a binary, rather than a continuum. But that's really the best way to put it."

Gee, that didn't add to Dan's confusion. Not at all.

"Such encounters do leave an impression, though," Caleb finished.

"So if I keep summoning her...?" To, what was it, the Ether? No, Caleb had pronounced it differently. More of a long A. "The imprint won't get a chance to fade?"

"That's a very good question."

"Meaning you're not gonna answer it," Dan said, sighing. "You said when I was ready—"

"But you're not," Caleb interjected. The reply was not harsh, but neither did it lack finality. "You've allowed a seed to be planted. As that grows into a sapling, it will need nourishing. Watering damp soil won't make green shoots appear faster, though."

"That's a terrible metaphor," Dan said, tossing his napkin onto his plate. "Besides, the soil's not damp. It's dry as fuck, because you've hardly told me anything."

To his surprise, Caleb actually gave that consideration. "If you keep pulling the same person," he said at last, "a link begins to form in the real world. As the bond grows stronger, there's a risk that you might claim her as a familiar—whether you mean to or not."

"A familiar?" Dan said. "Like a witch and her cat?"

Caleb chuckled. "More or less."

"I see." The thought of turning his ninth grade math teacher into something like a pet cat gave him the chills. There had to be more to it than that, but it still didn't sound like anything he should mess around with. Assuming it hadn't just been a dream. Which still seemed dubious, if not unfathomable. "Tell me more about the Aether."

"Ordinarily, there's no way to enter it as you did unless you've been trained."

"As I did?"

"With your wits about you," Caleb explained as he took a sip of his tea. "Able to form memories. Not just an avatar that was pulled in by a Talent."

"You're saying that's what I did to Ms. Conklin?" Dan asked, though he knew the answer. Caleb had already said that she'd been less there than Dan had been. Apparently this was what he'd meant by that. "I grabbed some part of her essence and yanked into another world, while she herself remained behind?" Caleb didn't react, which Dan took for confirmation. "And I did this without her consent?" Maybe he was already less skeptical than he thought, because that thought made him shudder. "That sounds kinda rapey."

This time, he got a reaction. A sour one.

"Well, it does."

"She and her avatar certainly share a connection, but it's not her," Caleb said. "What matters is whether the woman you actually had sex with acted against her will."

"I guess so," Dan allowed. "And she certainly didn't seem to be." His cheeks warmed.

Caleb shook his head at the juvenile comment. "Until and unless you take her as a familiar, her life will be largely unaffected. And I only qualify that because there's one side effect she'll definitely experience—the chemicals normally released by the brain during orgasm will flow more freely. She'll go through her days happier and less stressed out."

That didn't sound so bad. "So I'd be doing her a favor?" Dan asked.

Caleb shrugged. "Some of your kind tell themselves that, though I don't know if I'd go that far. As long as you alternate between two or three different women, though, you're on solid ground." He gave Dan an accusatory grin. "I trust that won't be a problem?"

For fuck's sake. Caleb had basically put a loaded gun in the hands of a sociopath and then told everyone it was okay because the bullets were rubber.

Wait. He'd worded things oddly. "What do you mean `your' kind? Aren't you a Talent?"

"I am," Caleb said. "But of a different sort. I don't visit the Aether for the same reasons you and other empaths. I could, if I wanted to, but I wouldn't get as much out of it."

"What did I get out of it?" Dan asked. Aside from helping him get his rocks off.

The bearded one gave him a flat look. He was pretty fucking good at that. "Energy," he said, before sipping his tea. "Tell me you didn't feel it the moment you woke up."

Dan fell silent.

"Of course you did."

"But that doesn't work for you?"

"Each school of magic affords practitioners two ways of gathering energy. One direct and one indirect. In your case, that means causing someone in close proximity to experience a strong emotion, or claiming a familiar—in which case it won't matter why they feel what they feel, or whether you're nearby, just that they feel something. The stronger the better."

"So my abilities all revolve around emotions?" That sounded a little too plausible. It explained why everyone around him always seemed emotionally unstable, going from cold to hot and back again with little warning. He'd figured that was just because most of the people he spent time with were teenagers, like himself, but perhaps not.

"Evoking them, suppressing them, or simply detecting them," Caleb confirmed.

"So how do you charge your batteries?" Dan asked.

Unsurprisingly, Caleb chose not to answer. He'd dodged that basic question once already. Why it was so important to keep his brand of magic a secret was anyone's guess, but it clearly was. As if the answer would even mean anything to Dan.

"As I was saying," Caleb continued, "it's not easy for the untrained to enter the Aether as you did. The candle helped you do that."

"So anyone who lights will end up there? Maybe even accidentally?"

"No," Caleb said. "Only a Talent can use it. The more experienced among us have little need of such assistance, but for a novice such as yourself, it can be incredibly useful."

"Can you enter anytime you want?"

For a moment, it looked like he wouldn't answer. But then he said, simply, "Yes."

"You keep referring to Talents," Dan said. "Is that a term for people who've learned how to use magic? Or those who were born with the ability?"

"Some of us have greater potential than others. For the most part, we're the only ones who end up practicing magic. But in principle, anyone can become a Talent."

"So it's more like math?" Dan said. Ms. Conklin had disabused them all of the notion that mathematical ability was inborn. While it might come more easily to some than others, based mostly on overall intelligence, anyone who tried hard enough could get good at it. Assuming they weren't distracted by the huge boobs at the front of the room.

His question was met with a chuckle. "Somewhat more useful perhaps, but yes."

"I have a feeling you're going to say there are some things even magic can't fix, but here goes nothing," Dan said. "Is there any way to bring my dad back?"

Caleb gave him a sad look, saying nothing.

That was probably for the best. Even if it worked, he'd probably come back without his corny sense of humor, his obsession with telling Dan to do things that "built character" in some ill-defined way, or, most importantly, his ability to make Dan's mom smile.

For the first time in two years, Dan found himself wondering whether his dad had he really died in a car crash. The successful tax attorney been every sort of boring, though. It was hard to imagine him living a double life, or having any association with magic.

Maybe Dan just watched too many movies.

Okay, and read too many books as well. But his sister was the only one who knew that he'd enjoyed the Harry Potter series in both formats, and Dan meant to keep it that way. If Jane hadn't given him the first book herself, he'd never have earned so many nerd points.

"You want to talk about it?" Caleb asked.

Was that an attempt to get inside his head? See if he was strong enough for what was to come? "I may be on your couch, but that doesn't give you license to play psychiatrist."

Hands held up in protest, Caleb said, "Didn't mean to pry."

"Sorry," Dan said. "You weren't." Caleb gave an appreciative nod. "So is that the real reason you're here?" he asked. "Because of me?" The official story was that Caleb's parents had been born nearby and he was preparing a scrapbook for them, as an anniversary gift. But he never actually seemed to work on it. And how long could that take, anyway?

"Not exactly," he said, after a sip from his mug. "But I do intend to mentor you."

Dan started to ask the obvious follow-up question, but the look on Caleb's face kept him from doing so. He'd already gotten more out of the guy than he'd expected. If he wanted to keep the information flowing, it'd be best not to ask questions that were too personal.

Dan took a sip of the coffee he'd all but forgotten, made a sour face, and stared in disappointment down at the paper cup that had betrayed him by allowing its contents to grow tepid. "If I wanted to heat this back up, would I need to use the microwave?"

"You would, yes," Caleb said.

Well, he'd wanted limitations, hadn't he?

With a flick of his wrist, Caleb warmed Dan's coffee back up. "You won't be able to do much outside of the Aether for some time. Gather energy, yes, and perform a few small feats, such as reading auras or amplifying emotions to a limited extent, but only in the Aether will you really be able to spread your wings." He sipped his tea and gazed off into the distance, sighing wistfully. "To some extent, that never changes."

"Everything is easier in the Aether?" Dan asked.

Caleb nodded. "No matter how experienced you are."

"Figures," he said. It was all making a lot more sense than it should have. That was really messing with his effort to convince himself that none of it was real.

His self-appointed mentor must have sensed that too, because he was giving Dan the weirdest look. It seemed to be equal parts pride and gloating.

"One last thing," Dan said, feeling a rush of shame. "Does the candle, or the Aether, have any...side-effects?" He cleared his throat. That was probably too vague to be of any help, but he wasn't about to tell Caleb that he'd found himself appreciating his mom a little more than usual, in somewhat questionable ways, that morning. That it wasn't until he'd jerked off for third fucking time that morning that his blood had finally started to cool.

"Why, are you feeling any?" Caleb asked, brow furrowed.

Again, it felt like his mentor was trying to decide whether Dan was capable of fulfilling his destiny. He'd sooner walk into the girl's locker room wearing nothing but tighty whiteys than endure that. "No," he said, refusing to elaborate no matter how Caleb looked at him.

"I suppose it might," the bearded one eventually offered. "Particularly since you're so new, and your first visit to the Aether came a bit later in life than it does for most Talents."

"Huh?" Dan said. "I'm only eighteen, dude."

Caleb snorted. "When I first visited the Aether, I was thirteen."

"I'm real proud o' ya," Dan replied, though he had to admit he was a little jealous.

#

Dan was stretched out on the sofa, the tablet his sister had given him for Christmas in his lap, when his mom came home. "How'd it go?" he asked her as he casually closed the web browser, allowing none of the panic he felt at her sudden appearance to show.

So what if he was looking at porn? Which just so happened to involve a younger guy and a older woman, who was supposedly his (step-)mother? There was nothing wrong with that. In no way did that imply that he was incapable of handling the Aether's side-effects.

"Get your feet off the couch," his mom said as she took off her jacket. Beneath, she wore a pencil skirt, dark stockings, and a burgundy silk blouse—all of which she looked quite good in. Not that Dan was developing a crush on his own mother or anything. The only reason he took note was because she didn't normally dress that way for a casual together with a friend on the weekend. Yup, definitely the only reason. "Good, I think," she replied.

Dan held his hand up so she could see his crossed fingers.

"Suppose you've already guessed I might be changing jobs," she said. Drawing a deep breath, she added, "It might mean moving closer to the city." Ah, that was the reason for the secrecy. "I'm not sure I'm up for a longer commute. But it would mean a pretty significant pay raise as well. That would really help if you decided to go to college next year after all."

Dan frowned. "I didn't get in anywhere. You know that." Of course, he hadn't applied as broadly as he should have either. His mom had yet to accuse of him of ensuring that he'd have nowhere to go in the fall by targeting only a few reach schools, but he'd have a hard time denying it when she finally did. If that day ever came. Which he hoped it wouldn't.

"Well, community college then," his mom said. "After a year or two, you can transfer."

He shrugged. "Get the job first. Then we can revisit my plans for the future."

His mom flicked a was of paper at him from inside her handbag. Dan caught it, unwrapped it, and found that it was a used cough drop wrapper. Meanwhile, she headed down the hall to change out of her high heels and fancy clothes. The size of her ass, stretching the fabric of her skirt so beautifully, did not distract him in the least as she did. No sir.

Blood rushed to his head and Dan felt dizzy.

"Thought you'd be over at Caleb's," his mom said when she came back. She wore black leggings and one of his father's old shirts. Dan decided she looked even better in that, though he did like the business attire. The man's button-down was big enough to deemphasize her bosom, but not hide it. That only made it harder for Dan not to obsess over the subtle hints at their presence. And while the shirt tails hung halfway to her knees, knowing that her thighs were covered by little more than a coat of body paint made his heart beat faster. "Let me guess," she added as she climbed over the armrest and claimed the cushion beside him. The one he only removed his feet from when she swatted them with the tips of her fingers. "He's on a date, with a woman who doesn't shave her legs."

Meaning, of course, that she shaved hers. Not that Dan was surprised by that. Come to think of it, he'd seen her pink razor in the bathroom. He'd just never really cared how smooth his mom's legs might or might not be until that very morning.

Pushing the unwelcome thoughts aside, Dan told her, "He's home."

"But?" his mom asked.

He shrugged. "Well he's not gonna cook me dinner."

"Well, I've got news for you," his mom said. "Neither am I, after that drive."

"Should we order pizza then?" Dan asked.

His mom made a face. "How do you feel about Chinese?"

"Less than crazy."

She frowned.

"But I'll go with it," he said. "As long as you accept that you owe me one."

His mom raised an eyebrow. "And what exactly is it that I'd owe you?"

Dan's mind went straight to the gutter. His cock hardened, his heart raced, and he struggled to breathe. At no point had he considered saying any of the dirty thoughts aloud, but the fact that he'd even had them came as a surprise. One that filled him with guilt.

And adrenaline, truth be told.

"Not much," he said. "You just have to let me pick next time."

"Deal," his mom said. "Can you look up the number on that?" She pointed at his tablet as though it was more than a little strange and possibly radioactive.

"Yes, Mom. Welcome to ten years ago." He gave her a broad, sarcastic smile. "Believe it or not, you can even order online. No need to go dial the rotary phone."

The tips of her fingers lashed out again, but not with any real force. "How're you holding up, by the way?" she asked while he typed, voice soft and sympathetic.

It took Dan a moment to remember that he was supposed to be heartbroken. Over Jenny, of all people—a girl who looked down her nose at everyone, even though she was barely five feet tall. Sure, she'd had nice tits, and that mattered even more to Dan than it did most guys his age, but it only made up for so much. She wasn't the only one in the world who was blessed in that department. "Trying not to think about it."

"That's for the best," his mom said, trying to look solemn despite the relief Dan knew she must have felt. She even gave her head a gentle nod.

In the back of his mind, a voice suggested that he tell her that there was something she could do that would help him forget all about his ex-girlfriend. Because something inside him was seriously broken. Eyeing her up and down as best he could while she sat right next to him, Dan convinced himself that it wasn't even about her. Yes, his mom was an attractive woman. The fact that she was still single, two years after his father's death, reflected poorly on the male population of the greater metropolitan area. But there was still no good reason for Dan to be plagued by such depraved thoughts all of a sudden.

None, except for that damn candle. Which he was starting to believe might actually grant access to a place called the Aether, crazy as that was.

Almost as crazy as living under the same roof as a woman with that perfect a body and never really noticing. Yes, she was his mom, and that should have been enough to blind him to her charms. But now that he was aware of them, Dan could not imagine overlooking them ever again. Which was only somewhat alarming.

Damn, she had huge tits. And his dad's shirt did not hide them.

After they placed the order, Dan's mom asked if it was okay if they watched the last few episodes of some TV show she'd gotten into recently, since the new season was about to come out and she was nearly caught up. Dan assented.

"Are you sure?" she asked with a tentative smile.

"Well, I'm not promising to keep any smart-ass comments to myself," he said. Especially since they always got a reaction out of her. "But as long as you're okay with that, sure."

His mom rolled her eyes then snatched the remote from his lap. Which might have given him a cheap thrill. "When the delivery guy comes, you're getting the door."

"Okay, but you're gonna owe me for that too."

She chuckled. "Aren't you demanding all of a sudden."

"Are you having wine with dinner?" Dan asked.

"I might," she said. "One of the perks of being an adult is that you can make those sorts of decisions without needing to clear them with anyone first."

"I'm an adult," Dan said. "I'm old enough to fight and die for my country. Even to vote, which they keep telling me is like the most importantest thing ever. So why can't I drink? Because Mothers Against Drunk Driving is good at convincing Congress to tie highway funding for the states to their drinking age laws?"

"Where'd you hear that?" his mom asked.

"Civics class."

She frowned. "One glass."

Dan almost made a comment about how she'd probably take advantage of him if he got drunk around her anyway but managed to stop himself. It was a wonder his arteries didn't rupture, his heart was beating so fast. "Okay, we'll start there."

"You're something," his mom said as she leaned against him.

As she switched on the TV, Dan wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "Whatever I am, you made me. So what does that say about you?"

#

After his mom went to bed, Dan checked his phone and saw a message from his friend Nora. She'd seen his Facebook status and was wondering how he was doing. She'd probably messaged him there too, but Dan hadn't signed in all day. He hadn't felt like pretending to be heart-broken for the sake of "friends" who were only pretending to be concerned. He'd figured that anyone who really cared would get in touch privately. As of about an hour ago, his best friend Ray had been the only one to do so, but it didn't really surprise him that Nora eventually got in touch as well. If anything, he'd expected to hear from her sooner.

The actual content of her message, though, couldn't have been more predictable.

Or frustrating.

Nora told him to forget about Jenny, as he was too good for her anyway. Then she reminded him that girls their age were looking for all the wrong things. That was the usual crap he got from her. Dan reminded himself that he'd have done even worse in his math and science classes if not for Nora. Her idea of consolation left something to be desired, though.

For a while, he'd had a crush on her. Maybe even still did. She didn't date guys her own age, though—or anyone whose biceps were smaller than her waist. Not that these were the qualities she emphasized when explaining to Dan why he had so much trouble with girls. No, she talked about bad boys versus nice guys and the importance of having confidence. As if the reason she'd never hooked up with Dan was because he didn't make fun of her the way her boyfriends did, or that he tried too hard and came across as desperate.

There were guys who made that mistake, who "put the pussy up on a pedestal" as they said, but that wasn't Dan's problem. Even Ray didn't think so, and he would know. He was probably the only guy at Lakeland who'd hooked up with Nora. According to him, Dan wasn't doing anything wrong—aside from letting himself get discouraged a little too easily. But that didn't stop Nora from speaking to Dan like he was some hopeless dork.

He supposed that one of the reasons he'd been interested in Jenny was that she was friends with Nora, and he'd hoped that if the one saw him as boyfriend material, the other might change her opinion of him as well. But of course that hadn't worked.

Nora wasn't even that hot. Her ass was incredible, but her tits were pretty small. To some guys, that combination was perfect, but Dan couldn't have disagreed more. If he couldn't have both, which was ideal, he'd take tits over ass every day of the week. He might not have paid Nora any attention if they hadn't been friends since middle school. If the pitying tone she adopted whenever they discussed his love life didn't make his blood boil.

He really needed her to see him as something more than a loser. It didn't even matter if she hooked up with him, though that would certainly be nice. According to Ray, she gave great head. If the damn girl would just stop acting like it was obvious that no one would want to date him until they got into their thirties, when being nice and dependable and good with kids became more of a priority, that alone would do wonders for Dan's ego.

"Thanks," Dan muttered after reading through her messages for a second time, as if there was anyone there to hear his sarcasm. He started tapping out a boilerplate response, deleted it, and slipped the phone back in his pocket. He'd reply in the morning, when he'd presumably be in a better mood. At least, if the candle had anything to say about it.

Yeah, that was what he needed. And while Caleb had assured Dan that he was nowhere close to taking Ms. Conklin as a familiar yet, he'd also said that it was a good idea to rotate between two or three partners. Or more. So why not summon Nora?

And her friend Lucie, while he was at it?

The truth was, Nora and Jenny weren't that close. Dan knew that. The two of them were likely to be valedictorian and salutatorian, in an as yet undetermined order, but they didn't hang out. And while Nora saw Jenny as an intellectual peer, that didn't mean she respected her taste in guys. Jenny never wore makeup, or designer clothes, and while Dan wasn't the first to notice the size of her rack, he'd been her first real boyfriend. Lucie, though, was even more sought after than Nora. Which probably irritated the shit out of her. She had bigger breasts than Jenny and was insanely gorgeous. Not even Ray could get in her pants. If Dan could make her moan, that would be something. Even if it was just in the Aether.

#

Someone's phone buzzed. Nora's, apparently. She reached into her designer bag, fished it out, and swiped the screen. After reading the text message, she snorted. "My brother says not to wait for him. He met a couple of girls and thinks he might just skip the frat party and just go home with them."

As expected, Nora's Aether avatar looked better than she herself did—and the real thing was not exactly unappealing. Normally, her brown hair was plagued by frizz she complained about constantly. But here, her curls were perfect. Each lock seemed to be a different shade of brown. Dan had never realized how much he appreciated that. Her nose was still a little prominent, but her caramel complexion had become flawless and her lips, a dark purple, were most enticing. Her eyes were bigger, her brows thicker, and her features just a little softer and more feminine. That purple halter top made the most of her modest endowment, somehow managing to produce actual cleavage—which the real Nora was incapable of, by her own admission. If damn girl would spend a little less time in the gym, or at least something once in a while, she might not need the Aether's help filling out her tops, but he supposed that was the price to be paid for an ass that could easily have made her internet famous, were she interested in such notoriety. Dan could only assume this version of her had an even more impressive backside, though there was only so much room for improvement. Those thighs sure looked good. Her black pants were as tight as plastic wrap, granting them a decent view of her well-muscled legs despite the fact that she was sitting down.

Ray chuckled. "Well, that fucks our plans, but it's a baller move. I ain't even mad."

He too looked different. The bastard was plenty handsome to begin with, inviting comparisons to a young George Clooney. Here, he put the famous actor to shame. His jaw was prominent and angular, his skin nicely tanned, and his raven mane glossy. Like Dan, he'd gone from relatively slim to ultra-lean, acquiring serious definition if not much mass.

Lucie looked down at her nails. Softly, she said, "I'm not either. Can't say I was looking forward to it, after that comment from your brother about how the floors are always sticky." She looked at the other girl. "Could we maybe just stay here?"

Unsurprisingly, her avatar looked even better than Nora's. In the real world, Lucie had skin the color of milk, big brown eyes, jet black hair, and pouty lips that made guys venture guesses about her skills at fellatio. She had a bad habit of waging war on her eyebrows, though. Here, the dark lines above her gorgeous eyes were lush and striking. Her lashes had grown thicker too, not that they'd really needed it. The thick makeup on her lids and surrounding areas, a mix of black and brown, should have struck him as tacky, but didn't. Instead, it made her eyes pop even more. Not that anyone could miss those beauties. They'd become inordinately large, like those of a cartoon character. Her lips, somewhere between pink and red, were both thick and glossy. They weren't so swollen as to make it look like she'd had fat pumped into them or anything, but they were more than a little ripe. Twin sheets of black silk fell past her shoulders, to tops of her large breasts.

In short, she was gorgeous. Painfully so.

And that was just the strain Lucie put on his cardiovascular system when he looked at her face. Her body was pretty damn nice too. True, the slim legs that were barely covered by that short skirt didn't do much for Dan, but damn did she have an incredible rack. The gray tee shirt she wore beneath her white blouse wasn't as tight as it needed to be, but there was no hiding the size of those melons. And there was some meat on her calves. Some shape to her pale thighs. He'd not refuse an invitation to caress them. Or kiss them.

"I guueeess," Nora said to Lucie, making it clear that she was only agreeing under protest. "But we're definitely going out tomorrow night. I don't want to hear any complaints about how hung over you over or how much your head hurts."

Lucie frowned. "Fine. Then I won't drink tonight."

Ray shook his head. "Not an option." He looked to Nora for backup. She provided it.

"Whatever," Lucie said. "I'll have one or two. No more than that."

Nora gave her an impish grin. "We'll see about that."

Seeing an opportunity, Dan gave Lucie his best "can you believe these jerks?" look. She smiled at him before looking away. Were those spots of color in her cheeks?

"Speaking of which," Nora said, "I think it's time to start pouring."

With that, she led Ray into the kitchen of her brother's apartment. As they passed into the mist at the edge of the living room, they disappeared from view.

That made Dan wonder if they'd return. Didn't really matter, though. Ray could have Nora all to himself, if that's what that meant, just as long as he left Lucie for Dan. Yes, he'd come here expecting a threesome. Pulling his best friend in as well had been entirely unintentional. But a few short seconds of staring at the porcelain beauty—and her gallon jugs—left Dan more than willing to settle for some one-on-one action.

"You into video games?" he asked, gesturing towards the pile of consoles and controllers beneath the TV. "Looks like her brother's got a decent collection."

Lucie frowned by way of response. "I guess. If they're not too violent."

"Mario Party?"

She shrugged.

"Or not," Dan said. Which garnered no response.

Things were supposed to be different in the Aether. They certainly had been with Ms. Conklin. Why did he feel as awkward as he would have if he ever found himself alone with Lucie in real life? Why wasn't she throwing herself at him?

Was it just because he didn't expect her to? Had he done a better job of suspending disbelief with their former math teacher? Perhaps. In rather short order, that encounter had grown so implausible, despite the initial realism, that there'd been no room for skepticism. Plus, he'd thought it no more than a dream. Now that he was starting to believe Caleb had actually given him a magic candle that allowed him to enter a place called the Aether, into which he could pull various avatars, his doubts and insecurities had caught up to him. The girl sitting on the couch adjacent to him was no mere figment of his imagination. A product of his subconscious. She might only be an avatar, and it was entirely possible that she'd do things with him that the real Lucie never would, but that was hardly a foregone conclusion.

Or it could just be a sign that she wasn't the least bit into him.

Maybe Ms. Conklin actually was, on some level. Stranger things had happened than a teacher having a crush on one of her students. Or a generic fantasy of seducing a young man that would nonetheless provide Dan something to work with.

Without a word, Lucie grabbed her bag and went to the bathroom. Upon passing through the mist, she too disappeared. Fearing the thoughts that might come to mind if he didn't find a way to preoccupy himself, Dan decided to change into something more comfortable himself. That was all Lucie was doing, after all. She'd be right back. There was no telling about Ray and Nora, but surely his second trip to the Aether wouldn't prove a complete bust. Not in the first five minutes. So he replaced his jeans with mesh shorts and the black button-down with all of nothing, revealing the abs he only wished he really had.

He tossed a pillow and blanket onto the love seat then sat beside them. Hopefully, that way, it just looked like he was getting ready for bed—not trying to seduce anyone.

Did he look ridiculous without a shirt on? No. That was just nerves. Even in the real world, he had a decent body. If his luck with the ladies wasn't what he wanted it to be, it wasn't because of his physique. And here in the Aether, he had plenty to be proud of. But all the same, he worried that Lucie might laugh at him. If she ever came back.

A minute later, she did just that. And she didn't laugh at him, though she did raise her eyebrows. Dan bristled at that, not least because she'd removed her skirt and blouse, leaving only the tee shirt. Sure, it was big enough to double as a nightgown, but a tiny one at that. He couldn't tell what sort of underwear she had on, but below the waist, that was about all that was hidden from view. "That what you normally wear to bed?" Lucie asked as she set her bag down and reclaimed her seat on the sofa. Carefully, so as to deny him even the slightest glimpse of her panties. More was the pity.

Okay, her Aether avatar didn't have much of a lower body either, but those hips were definitely wider than the real Lucie's. And while he'd never seen so much of her bare thighs, Dan didn't think he'd be impressed if he did. The more he looked at this Lucie's stems, though, the more he grew to appreciate them. The curves were subtle, but they were there.

"Normally, I don't wear anything," Dan said. "But I didn't want you to run screaming through the apartment about a Burmese python being on the loose."

"Why do guys think that works?" she asked, tilting her head in a most condescending fashion. "Are girls really supposed to tear their clothes off after hearing a guy claim that he's got a dick so big that it would be terrifying if he was telling the truth?"

Dan said nothing.

"Or is that just the sort of thing that passes for funny when you're so immature?"

He'd almost forgotten that Lucie was an old soul, too sophisticated to be stuck in high school. Nora didn't date guys her own age, but neither did she make them feel like they were too childish to be friends with her. Hell, at times, she was worse than any freshman.

Dan was tempted to remind Lucie that he'd been there for her eighteenth birthday party, so he knew full well that she was a few weeks younger than him. But he knew it wasn't worth it. She'd only reply with some cliche about girls maturing faster. Then he'd ask how she explained Nora's penchant for drawing misshapen penises in her notebooks, or dipping her fries in ketchup and calling them used tampons—which would do him no good. At that point, Lucie would give him a dirty look for calling attention to the girl's shortcomings.

"Suppose I might leave that line out when I publish my memoirs," he admitted.

That, at least, Lucie seemed to find amusing. Somewhat.

"Anyway, you're one to talk, wearing nothing but a shirt," Dan said. "I'd ask you to cover those toothpicks up, but it's too late. I've already been scarred."

"Toothpicks?" Lucie asked, laughing. But she looked down at the legs she'd folded beneath her with doubt written across her face. "Are you chubby chaser?" she asked after a pause long enough to rob the accusation of it bite. "Prefer thunder thighs?"

Dan shrugged. "I prefer some kind of thighs."

"So I don't have any?" She covered them up with a pillow, giving away more than she no doubt meant to. "It's a wonder I manage to stand up."

"Really is."

With a malicious grin, Lucie said, "I suppose Jenny was a little on the heavy side."

"Tell me, when someone goes out of their way to criticize a friend's choice of partner, what do you think that says about them?" Dan asked. "It's one thing if you're expressing legitimate concerns about a rotten personality. But their looks?"

By way of response, Lucie studied her fingernails. There was nary a chip in the pink polish, of course, but it was suddenly very important that she conduct a thorough examination.

"I mean, if I said that I'd heard your boyfriend has a small dick, wouldn't that make you think—oh, wait," Dan said, snapping his fingers. "That's right. You don't have one."

Her eyes went wide and her mouth hung agape. She recovered quickly, though. Before Dan could squeeze in an apology for the comment that he now recognized as being a bit over the line, she said, "Like you'd know if I did."

"Oh?" Dan said. "So he goes to another school?"

"I'm not seeing anyone right now," Lucie replied. "But I go to back to the old country every summer. You've no idea what goes on there. Or how charming European guys are."

"Guess not," Dan said. "Maybe I should start smoking."

"That's exactly what I like about them," Lucie said, rolling her eyes. "Totally nailed it."

Dan moved over to sit beside her. She gave him a look but didn't say anything. Didn't slide away either. He put his arm around her, mimed taking a puff of a cigarette, and adopted his worst fake French accent—even though her family was from the Czech Republic. "Zose Ameriken boys, zey know nut-ding. Party wid Francoise. Oo shall not regret eet."

Laughing, Lucie gave him a shove. "I've never even been to France."

"I was going for German."

She snorted. "You know that's not where I'm from, right?"

"Of course," Dan said. "But I can't do a Slovakian accent."

Looking flabbergasted, she said, "They're two totally different countries, with different—" she began. Then, presumably seeing the grin on his face, she cut herself off. "Okay, you got me there," she finished, giving him a slap that lacked force.

"I really did."

A sigh of consternation was her only reply. Yet Dan sensed something else. A slight buzz building inside him. Energy flowing out of Lucie and into him, born of arousal.

Before he could talk himself out of it, Dan kissed her.

He expected Lucie to push him away, even after his sexploits with Ms. Conklin. And, in time, she did. Not right away, though. For a good ten, fifteen seconds, they shared a nice, sweet kiss. It wasn't overly passionate, but one might call it romantic.

"That was...nice," Lucie said.

"I'm gonna pretend not to notice how surprised you are."

She laughed and slapped his arm again, as playfully as before. "Most guys rush things."

"I'm not—"

"You're on a roll," she said, pressing a finger to his lipls. "Don't ruin it." Before he could respond to that, she added, "Think they're ever coming back with those drinks?"

Dan shrugged. "Thought you weren't interested in drinking?"

She smiled. "I'm not."

With that, she leaned in and kissed him. The Aether finally decided to start cooperating too. Or his subconscious stopped getting in the way. Either way, their second kiss was everything the first was not—and it hadn't disappointed. Slowly, Lucie turned towards him and lowered herself onto her back. Dan followed her down, propping himself up with knee and hand. It took some effort, but he kept his free one from exploring her body the way it very much ached to. After a few seconds, he decided it was okay to gently stroke her hair, but nothing south of that. His mouth did the real work—and did it well. Drawing upon powers that were already starting to feel familiar, Dan heightened her arousal, allowing her to experience greater pleasure from a mere kiss than she'd ever experience in the real world.

He didn't do anything to her physically. That wasn't how his powers worked. But it didn't matter that she was receiving perfectly ordinary stimulus. Her brain would respond as though it were more, because he'd put her in a most receptive mood.

By the time Dan came up for air, Lucie's pupils were dilated, cheeks flushed, and nostrils flaring. "Why'd you stop?" she asked through bated breaths. Her hands were on the small of his back, pressing down gently so that her mound would press against him as she raised her hips up off the sofa cushion. Not that he needed body language to tell that she was aroused. Now that he knew to watch out for it, he couldn't miss the invigorating sensation.

All he had to do was evoke emotions, be it in the Aether or the real world, and his battery would charge up. Any would do, but lust was definitely the most interesting.

"To make you wish I hadn't," Dan said, in response to her question.

Lucie groaned, peeled her shirt off in a manner utterly at odds with physical laws, and pulled him back down. They'd reached the point where it was impossible to proceed gracefully in the real world, but they weren't in the real world, so it didn't matter that she technically didn't have enough room to pull off that little maneuver.

Dan slowly started to move down her body, making love to her creamy white neck, then the tops of her swollen breasts, which were sadly still contained by a pretty pink bra. Until they weren't. This time, she didn't even remove the garment. It just vanished the moment Dan decided that it should, revealing the most amazing pair of breasts he'd ever seen, with lovely pink nipples rising up into the air like hilltop guard towers. Lucie noticed him staring at them, laughed awkwardly, and guided him down to the left one without a word. The moment he took it in his mouth, she gasped. Then soon began to purr. Her hips rolled and she hooked a slender thigh around his waist while digging her nails into the back of his head.

After less than a minute of working one beautiful nub, Dan got Lucie to explode in a powerful orgasm. He stopped sucking for all of three seconds, then went right back to it, though she was still spasming. That had the desired effect. Dan wasn't quite sure, but he thought he caught the end of one climax and the start of another. Whether she rolled right into a new one or not, though, he had her cumming for a good two or three minutes straight.

"Wow," she said, after recovering enough breath. "Didn't even know that was possible."

Dan gave her other pink protrusion a little lick, causing her to shudder. "What's that?"

"Nipple orgasms," she said, raking her nails through his short hair. "I've heard of it before, but I figured it was a myth. Like female ejaculation."

"That's no myth," Dan said. Another lick. Another shudder. He might have been mistaken, but he thought she was on the brink again already. That made his cock throb. He couldn't believe how quickly the tide had turned in his favor. "Europe's always behind."

Lucie gave a full-throated laugh. "Guess so." She rested a finger beneath his chin and pulled it upward, making him look her in the eye. He hadn't even realized how focused he'd been on her breasts, though that should have come as no surprise. He definitely had a fixation. She leaned down and kissed him softly, without even opening her mouth. "Femjac's really a thing?" she asked after their lips parted, before giggling at her own question.

"Play your cards right and you just might find out."

She scoffed. "What do I have to do to make that happen?"

Rather than answering, Dan went to work on her right nipple.

It turned out that she was indeed ready for another orgasm. Just a few licks and some light sucking later, Dan made her whole body go stiff. Lucie exhaled heavily then all the tension seeped out of her muscles and she turned to jelly beneath him. The ease with which Dan produced the climax more than made up for its short duration and the lack of thrashing.

"No need to set a record," Lucie panted as she came down from her high.

"As if he could," Nora said from the hallway.

She wore a fishnet body-stocking, plain black bra, and matching thong. No one dressed like that, outside of lingerie catalogs, but there she was. Her hands were planted on her lovely hips, which Dan couldn't help but note were surprisingly generous. She was fit enough for muscles to stand out, along with her hip bones, but still soft in the right places. Her tits weren't big enough to provide symmetry for that gloriously thick lower body, despite the effects of the Aether, but Dan was no longer sure that he cared. Much. There had to be at least a handful inside those demi-cups, and with thighs like that—to say nothing of the ass he couldn't wait to get a glimpse of—he was willing to bump her up a cup size or two.

Which still didn't let them compete with Lucie's. Hers were so big, even in real life, that Nora often called her Tits McGee or Chesty McChesterson. Lucie herself seemed to think they were too big. When she didn't think any guys were listening, she'd complain to Nora about how they made her back ache or kept her from participating fully in gym class. They were both crazy. The twin peaks he held in his hands were nothing short of perfect.

Actually, he'd not have complained if they were even bigger. Say, the size of his mom's watermelons rather than Lucie's cantaloupes, however ripe and full they might be. He probably had a problem, though. Especially since he was fooling around with the hottest girl in school—or, rather, and even hotter representation thereof—while a close runner-up looked on, presumably about to join in, and yet he found himself wishing his fucking mother, of all people, was lying beneath him instead. Just because her breasts were bigger.

Well, no. That was one reason, but not the only one. Not even close.

Man, he was seriously messed up.

Dan pushed the thought aside. He could deal with his budding Oedipal complex later. For the time being, his hands were more than full. "I think you forgot our drinks," he told Nora, before proceeding to act as though she didn't even exist.

Lucie gasped as he took her left nipple back into his mouth. Her back arched and went stiff. Then she released a contented sigh and settled back into the cushions. Meanwhile, energy continued to flow into him, giving him a nice jolt.

"Probably because I'm so traumatized by what I'm seeing right now," Nora said, as if anyone was listening. That didn't even make sense. She wouldn't have seen anything until she'd already fixed the drinks, had that actually been the reason for her and Ray to go in the other room. Or wherever they'd gone. "Thought you had better taste than that, Luce."

"So...mmph...did I," Lucie panted, much to Dan's disappointment. Or maybe that was exactly what he wanted to hear, on some level. "Until he kissed me," she said dreamily, as if the memory of it made it hard for her to think straight. Dan wished he could see the look in her eyes as she said it, but he was not about to take his mouth off her glorious nipple.

"That good, huh?" Nora asked, clearly skeptical.

"Better," Lucie replied, just before succumbing to yet another orgasm.

"Hmm," Nora said. Her attention turned back to Dan, who'd finally come up for air, if only to spare Lucie from sensory overload. "Okay, lover boy. Let's see what you've got." That Lucie might not be done with him obviously hadn't occurred to her.

And, to his surprise, Dan was pretty okay with that.

There was nothing particularly romantic about Nora commanding him to prove that he wasn't a complete waste. Even now that she was showing some interest in him, she was still talking down to him. For that reason, Dan probably should have told Nora to go fuck herself before turning his attention back to Lucie. But damn if he hadn't longed for a chance with her. Besides, Ray could show up again at any moment.

Heart thumping, Dan slipped off Lucie and strode quickly over to Nora, who was staring at him with a mix of amusement, defiance, and mockery. He slapped his hands down on her ass, giving the meaty globes a good squeeze, and pulled his annoyingly irresistible friend tight against his body. She yelped at the sudden gesture but threw her arms around him so quickly, and so deftly, that he had to wonder if she was merely feigning surprise. It was hard to say which one of them initiated the kiss that soon followed.

There was little question, however, about who set the pace.

As he'd pretty much figured she would, Nora soon proved herself to be a total a fucking dynamo. Ray hadn't been kidding about her generating more suction power than any vacuum cleaner. At first, Dan actually panicked. Not because he literally thought she'd suck his lungs out through his mouth or anything, but because he'd never experienced anything like it and wasn't sure he could keep up. That he'd manage to avoid breaking away to catch his breath after just a few seconds, like the amateur she thought he was. It didn't take long, though, to realize he was more than up to the task. To stop seeing it as a challenge and recognize it for the intensely pleasurable experience that it was. And not just because of her sweet lips and insistent tongue. Her ass was every bit as epic as he'd hoped.

The size and feel of it blew his mind. No matter how aggressively Dan pawed at those cheeks, they barely moved. They were so big and firm. Yes, there was a certain amount of springiness. A little give. Not much, though. Even Ms. Conklin's ass seemed soft and jiggly in comparison. On the one hand, Dan saw that as further evidence that she was too much of a gym bunny, whose breasts would never reach their full potential as a result. On the other, he had more fun grabbing at it and squeezing it than he'd have ever imagined. And he'd spent more time thinking about how that might feel than he cared to admit.

The longer he endured her onslaught, the more aroused she grew. Dan's body—or whatever vessel he occupied here in the Aether—was soon humming with magical energy.

Feeling ever more confident that he was not just her peer, but her superior, Dan put his nascent powers to use. He continued kneading Nora's ass like dough, only now he poured some of the energy she and Lucie had fed him into the effort. If everything worked as intended, Nora would find herself so excited that her buttocks would tingle, then really come alive with sensation. Waves of pleasure would roll over her, as though he were eating her pussy with abandon rather than simply groping her. He wanted her to know that she'd experienced something unnatural. Something no other man could deliver, however manly he might be. Wanted her to crave his touch the way a druggie did his next fix.

Only it didn't work.

Dan had no idea what was wrong. After something of a slow start, he'd hit his stride with Lucie and things had started to go as well as he could have hoped. But for whatever reason, Nora wasn't reacting the way she should have. No, his efforts weren't completely wasted. She moaned into his mouth and her body writhed against his. It wasn't like she pushed him away after a few seconds or anything. Or stopped to tell him that he was doing it all wrong, which was probably the bigger fear. She was defraying some of the cost of his attempt at manipulating her, too. The girl was definitely into it. But she wasn't cumming.

Still, after they peeled apart, Nora looked flatly, hand on her hip, and then grinned. That was it. No shower of compliments or expression of disbelief. But it was enough.

Sure, Dan wished he'd made a believer out of her the way he had Lucie. That he could make her regret having pitied him for the past four years. Compared to the way she usually looked at him, though, that slight curvature of her dark lips was serious progress.

"Ray's better."

"You're kidding," Lucie said. "How's that even possible?"

Nora shrugged. "He just is." Her grin broadened, growing more than a little sadistic. "And he's not the best kisser I've ever met. Not by a long shot."

Words failed Dan. He could still salvage things, though, if he just manned up. Took charge and showed her that he could be every bit as assertive and dominant as the guys she was comparing him and Ray to. So he grabbed hold of her again, relishing in the feel of her sculpted mounds, and pressed his lips to hers. To his surprise, Nora was a bit reluctant at first. As though she thought the battle over, her opponent defeated. If so, she couldn't have been too disappointed to realize he still had some fight in him, because she threw herself into the kiss as vigorously as before. Perhaps even redoubled her efforts. After a while, she climbed up on him until the only thing holding her up was his hand on her ass.

Well, she probably didn't need any help with that. He'd seen her climb a rope in gym class, and she claimed to have practiced with the stripper pole that a guy she'd dated for a while had in his frat house. Ascending Mount Daniel couldn't have been much of a challenge compared to that. Still, he kept one hand on her backside just in case.

The other made its way up to her hair, which was not as soft and silky as Lucie's. When he'd run his hand through her raven tresses, Dan had felt like he'd dipped his hand in a pool of water. Nora's thick curls offered much more resistance and had lots of texture. That was neither a good thing nor a bad thing. It was just something he took note of.

After a while, Dan spun around and all but dropped Nora onto the coffee table. He didn't release her until she was practically touching it, but it still wasn't the softest landing. As he'd figured it might, that seemed to excite her. For the briefest of instants, that interrupted the flow of energy. But when it resumed, it did so with a nice surge at the start.

Staring down the length of her body at him, Nora chewed her lower lip and pumped her eyebrows, inviting him to ravage her further. So he did. Starting with a bra that had no right to still exist then moving on to her modest breasts.

Fine, that weren't that modest. Not here in the Aether, anyway. A lot of guys would have said they were perfect. As far as Dan was concerned, though, the bigger the better. He did notice that she had beautiful nipples, though. They were dark, closer to brown than pink, and really prominent. A little longer than usual, perhaps, and much thicker. Not freakishly so, just very inviting. Even if his powers didn't work as well on her as they did on Lucie, which was probably only because he was more intimidated by her anyway, he shouldn't have trouble inducing a nipple orgasm or two. Not with that much hardened flesh to work with.

"And here I was thinking that all you appreciated was my ass," Nora said as he started kissing around the outer edges of one breast. She might not sound so smug if she knew how badly he wanted them to be bigger. "What?" Nora asked, in response to nothing. "You think I haven't noticed you glancing down whenever I've got my back to you?"

Lucie snickered. "Like that bothers you."

It was only after she spoke that Dan remembered Nora's crazy hot friend was still there. He wished there was more of him to go around. Having a threesome with two chicks sounded so awesome, and it usually looked great in porn. But in practice, there were certain logistical problems. Too many parts in need of attention, and not enough Daniel to provide it.

"Well, I didn't say that," Nora told her friend. "Those of us who weren't blessed with your sweater puppies have gotta work with what we've got." As if she had no ability to influence their size. Sure, genetics played a huge role. But so did diet and exercise. Simple body fat percentage. Was it okay for Dan to blame her for the size of her tits? No, not really. He only had so much sympathy when he heard her complain about it, though. She chose to prioritize having a big, muscular, jiggle-free booty. That was a respectable choice. Perhaps even enviable, given that so few girls who tried to develop their posteriors succeeded the way Nora had. But it was still a choice. "Course it's nice to get some recognition."

Her words finally sank in, making Dan realize that Nora wasn't so different from him after all. Sure, half the guys at school drooled over her, and she'd been with tons of college guys already, even though they'd yet to graduate high school. Dan's record couldn't compare to that. But so what? It was easier for girls. And that didn't mean she was any less insecure. Did anything else matter? No one was any more desirable than they believed themselves to be. And no one who was flattered by a guy's attention could claim to be out of his league. Because if they were, why would they care what he thought?

By the time Dan made his way to the nearest nipple, Nora was putty in his hands. He believed it, and that made it true. Hardly three seconds after her took the dark nub in his mouth, her hips started bucking wildly and a string of obscenities passed through her mouth.

"Oh, fuck!" Nora cried as she clutched him to her breast. "Daniel. Dan the Fucking Man. I'm cumming. I'm cumming so hard, al-fucking-ready, you goddamn fucking asshole!"

From the couch, he heard a voice say, "Some people like orgasms."

Just as her spasms started to die down, Dan moved quickly over to her other nipple, biting hard. He didn't hold it in his teeth long, though. Because she needed to feel his lips and tongue as well. Between that and the way he was twisting the first nipple with his fingers, Nora slipped back into orgasm the instant she'd finished cumming the first time.

"Get out of those panties," Dan commanded some time later, after he'd finally grown bored with chaining orgasms together. He'd lost count at five. Or maybe it was six. He ran a hand down her side, following the deep plunge in to her narrow waist and sliding out along the outside of her hip. "Keep the fishnet, though." He gave the top of her thigh a firm slap, earning virtually no reaction. "Just tear a hole a crotch so I can eat that pussy." Sucking on her nipples while the fabric was still in place was one thing, but cunnilingus was a bit more involved. At least if it was done right. Which was the only way he ever did it.

"Yes, sir," Nora said. There wasn't so much as a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

He looked up at Lucie, who was playing with herself. "You want to sit on her face?"

Lucie's eyes went wide. "How can you—you didn't even ask—"

"With her, I don't ask—I tell," Dan said. He looked down at Nora. "Isn't that right?"

There was a spike in the flow of energy she provided. "Fuck me," Nora said. It was neither request nor command, though that would would come soon enough. Just a breathless exclamation. A confirmation, that she was his, utterly and completely.

"That's okay," Lucie said, holding up her hand. "I'm good."

"You'll change your mind," Dan said.

The look on her face told him he was right. But that could wait.

Nora shuddered her way through another orgasm before Dan even added his fingers. Once he did, Lucie learned that femjac was, indeed, a thing. But Dan told her she wouldn't get to experience it until she let Nora go down on her. She agreed, if not without hesitation.

Dan pushed the coffee table closer to the sofa and Lucie spread her legs. Nora repositioned herself onto all fours and then buried her face between the other girl's thighs. Dan gave the two of them a few minutes to get comfortable with each other before he started in on Nora's ass, starting with her cheeks then working his way in towards her dark rosebud.

"Oh god, please tell me you're gonna fuck my ass," Nora said. "Not until after you've fucked my pussy, but still." She looked over her shoulder at Dan. "I'd have sworn my left tit that you were too vanilla for that, but if you don't mind tossing a salad, you've gotta be up for it. Because if you're not, I'm gonna beat the shit out of you then piss on your face."

Dan slapped her ass. Hard. "You'll what?"

"I mean, please?" she said, giving him a puppy dog face.

"Of course I will," Dan said. "Now get back to that pink taco."

Once he returned to the real world, Dan would find that Nora didn't remember any of this. Things wouldn't change between them in the least. Not after one session. If what Caleb said about a bond forming in the real world was true, then perhaps it would eventually. Even if he didn't summon her enough to claim her as a familiar. Either way, come Monday morning, Nora would still look at him like a lovable-but-not-fuckable-goof. It still did Dan's ego a world of good to see her being so submissive towards him, though.

So of course, that was when Ray made his triumphant return.

"Well, look who's back for more," Nora said, lower lip trapped beneath glistening white teeth. With a petulant whimper, she pushed her ass back against the space that had been occupied by Dan's mouth a moment earlier but was now empty. "Luce, go get some," she told her friend. "And you," she said to Dan. "Would you please give me the hard fucking I so desperately need? I don't even care which hole. Skip my cunt and go straight for my shit hole if you want. Just please give me that dick before I cry."

Dan almost made a mess in his pants. Earlier, Nora had told him Ray was better. She'd meant at kissing, but it was hard to imagine that she thought him terrible at everything else. Yet here she was, choosing Dan over him. Over the guy who girls always chose over everyone else, often including their boyfriends. The girl who'd long assured him that some day someone would be desperate enough to settle for him was telling her friend to go occupy Ray's attention so she could have Dan all to herself. Damn.

Though she'd just begged for his cock, Dan decided he wasn't done with his oral ministrations. Only after Nora experienced the second most intense orgasm of the night, with his tongue swirling around her anus, did he let up. And at that point, Nora decided that she should return the favor a bit before they got to the deep boning.

She didn't suck his dick for very long, though. It probably didn't help that Dan criticized her approach a few times, however politely. Was it his fault that he didn't like spitting, gagging, and so on? The girl had obviously watched too much of the wrong kind of porn.

Though he suspected that wasn't the real problem. Once she was no longer on the receiving end, Nora lost all interest in him. Or maybe Ray's hold over her wasn't so weak compared to his after all. Which would only have made sense.

So there Dan was, sitting on the glass coffee table, semi-erect penis in hand, watching as his best friend received a tag team blowjob from the two girls he'd summoned to Aether for himself. Girls he'd known for a long time, and lusted after for nearly as long. Girls everyone wanted, but couldn't hope to get. In Lucie's case, that had even applied to Ray—until now.

How pathetic must he have looked, all neglected and forlorn?

It was only happening because he was letting it, though. Wasn't that the theme of the night? When he doubted himself, he lost sway over the objects of his lust.

Dan slid a hand under Lucie's arm and pulled her up into his lap. She offered no resistance, and indeed quickly mounted him reverse cowgirl. Deftly, he guided his cock to her snatch. It took some effort to work his fat mushroom cap in at first, but eventually she loosened up. By the time her glistening labia reached his foreskin, the girl was already cumming. Dan probably should have shown mercy, then, but he didn't wait until her climax finished to start fingering her clit with one hand and rolling a stiff nipple between his fingers with the other, all while sucking on an earlobe and kissing her neck.

She tried, several times, to tell him how amazing he was. At no point did she gather enough breath, though. Dan wasn't even fucking her that hard. In fact, his hips weren't moving. His ass was flat on the coffee table. But he was guiding her down inexorably, and tending to other parts quite expertly, which was more than the girl could handle.

He was starting to get the feeling that she was a virgin, despite her many European boyfriends. For all the difference that it made. She still would be one, in real life. Lucie Kladivo was not having sex with him; her Aether avatar was. There was a difference.

Not enough of one to keep Dan from enjoying the way he had her suspended in a state of pure ecstasy, though, her next orgasm never more than eighty or ninety seconds away.

"Thought you don't care about size?" Dan said after deciding she'd earned some respite.

"There's such a thing as too big," Lucie countered as she wiped a lock of sweat-dampened hair away from her face. And rubbed her sore mound with a gesture too firm and rapid to be soothing. Like she couldn't stand to have the pressure let up, even for an instant, yet wasn't quite prepared to launch an all-out assault on her clitoris either.

"Am I hurting you?" he asked.

"No," she said, reassuringly. "You're big, but good-big, not it-hurts-big." She drew a deep breath and exhaled. "I think. For the most part."

"I can slow down."

"Were you not going slow already?"

Dan's voice hardened. "Is that a challenge?"

"No!" she blurted out so fast he had to laugh. "I thought it was sweet of you. Like you could tell that I was close to my limit and didn't want to push past it."

"That was the idea, yeah."

"Good," she said. "Keep that up." She leaned back and around as best she could and kissed him on the forehead. That was so tender and affectionate it took Dan completely off-guard. "Just don't expect me to try fitting that thing in my mouth. I'll leave that to Ms. Hoover over there," she said, pointing at Nora.

So they went back to it, working at a glacial pace set entirely by Lucie. Not once did Dan thrust up into her. He continued using his mouth and hands to stimulate other parts of her body, but from the waist down, he was completely passive. A human fuck-stick for her to play with. That was a little frustrating, as the animal inside him cried out for him to ravage her, but he had plenty of fun playing with her heavy breasts, teasing her nipples, running his fingers through her almost ethereal hair, and kissing her neck. Though inside she was hot as a furnace and tight as a vice, her skin was soft and cool. She smelled amazing, too. A pleasant melange of sweat, shampoo, and natural perform filled his nostrils. Her scent was light and sweet. It reminded him, faintly, of French vanilla and buttercream.

No matter how slowly she worked her hips, or how often she paused to steady herself, Lucie's orgasms just kept coming one after another. For the most part, she was a lot quieter than Nora, which was entirely predictable, but every once in a while she screamed at the top of her lungs. And, eventually, she started to really ride him. Not as furiously as Nora was riding Ray, but the timidity she'd shown earlier definitely faded away.

When he sensed that she was running out of steam, or at least light-headed from all the endorphins, Dan slid out from under her, then moved her from the coffee table to the couch. But the look in her eyes told him that she wasn't quite done. Which was good, because Nora seemed to have just hit third gear. She and Ray had changed positions as well and he didn't think they'd be ready to let him cut in anytime soon. So he propped Lucie's ankles up on his shoulders and slowly, gently, entered her once more.

"This is so incredible," Lucie said as she rubbed her clit with one hand and pressed the other to his cheek. Her dark eyes formed a twofold abyss. Dan nearly lost himself in their depths, she stared so intently at him. "I had no idea sex could feel this good."

Because she'd never tried it before? Or because her previous partners hadn't compared to him? Dan would have loved to know the answer to that question, but didn't ask. Lucie the Unattainable thought he was a god, and Dan figured he just might be. Near enough as made no difference, anyway. That was all he needed to know for the time being.

"Hey, Dan," Ray said some time later, after Lucie screamed her way through an orgasm so intense they all wondered if she'd survive it. She did, but it was clear that she wouldn't be up for more anytime soon. Or again that night. "Come fuck this ass," his friend said, giving Nora's butt a nice slap. Bright red palm prints were already visible, but the sound she made told Dan that she enjoyed the abuse.

"Soon as you're—"

"No," Ray said. "Let's double her up."

"Nora?" Dan asked, heart racing. In porn, double-penetration sometimes seemed to be an act of humiliation or submission yet other times looked like something the woman really enjoyed. That might simply have meant that some of them put on a better performance than others, or that different directors wanted to cater to different fantasies, but from what he read on discussion boards and what not, some women really did enjoy it. Still more fantasized about it but had never been brave enough to try. The notion of a woman fully embracing her sexuality, feeling no shame in it no matter the extremes it pushed her to, really turned Dan on. Yet so did the idea of getting Nora to agree to something she wouldn't necessarily enjoy, just because she was so eager to please them that she dared not say no.

That bothered him, but he couldn't deny that the feeling was there.

Would he want to hurt Lucie that way? Or even bring her discomfort? No. She thought she was too good for him too, in real life, but she'd never been a bitch about it. Had never gotten him all worked up just because it amused her, or because she enjoyed the feeling of being desired even if it was by a guy she had no intention of hooking up with. She'd never toyed with his emotions. He was friends with both girls, on some level, but only one had Friendzoned him in the truest, most pernicious sense of the term.

"That's kinda your thing isn't it?" he said, remembering all the times she'd shared too much information about her sexual proclivities at the lunch table with a friend she had to know wanted to fuck her. He wasn't sure how much of that she'd simply made up, but somehow he didn't find it hard to believe that she'd had two cocks inside her at the same time before. You didn't date a frat boy who had a stripper pole in his living room, and try that pole out at a party, without expecting to fuck a few of his friends. That was good, though, in a way. It made his head spin, but at least it meant she knew what she was in for. That was evidently important to Dan, no matter how she'd treated him in the past.

"Don't make me beg," Nora said, in tone so pleading as to render the request moot. "You want to hear me say it? I'm a filthy slut. I love being used. By as many guys at once as won't get freaked out by the sight of another guy's dick."

That made Dan's throat go tight. Those words reminded him of everything he didn't like about Nora. She wasn't just okay with the worst sort of behavior from guys, but was drawn to it. She judged men who refrained from engaging in it. Dan wasn't as "vanilla" as she thought, but he obviously wasn't as depraved as she was.

No, he could never satisfy Lucie in real life either, but the illusion that he could would lead him to choose her over Nora in a heartbeat—if he actually had the choice. With Nora, he'd constantly have to choose between doing things that made him slightly uncomfortable or feeling like he wasn't a real man. That he was only good for putting food on the table and paying junior's tuition bill. No other girl made him feel that way, though. It wasn't like that was a permanent feature of his sexual or romantic encounters.

Just at that moment, though, it didn't matter. He wasn't being asked how he felt about entering into a relationship with her. He might never decide to summon her again after tonight, but he sure as shit was going to follow the scene to its natural conclusion.

"Are you serious? Both at once?" Lucie asked.

Was Dan about to change her impression of him by participating in such an extreme act?

Did it matter? None of them would remember this. Besides him, of course.

Still, Dan met Lucie's gaze, silently asking her permission. She gave it, jerking her head towards Nora as if to say, "What are you waiting for? You know how impatient she can get." All she actually said, though, was"No one better ask me to do that after she's done."

"Honey, no one thinks you're that hardcore. Sorry," Nora said.

"Fuck you, bitch," Lucie said, as lovingly as one can speak such words.

Neither Dan nor Ray said anything as they set about lining everything up. Nora grunted and her back stiffened when Dan started pushing his glistening helmet against her sphincter, but her muscles relaxed almost an instant later. They tensed up again when he made another push, but she drew a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and her back door slowly opened up.

"Keep going," Ray said.

"Please," Nora added.

So he did.

She didn't climax before he'd even gotten as far as the foreskin, the way Dan was sort of coming to expect, but it soon became clear that Nora was beside herself with ecstasy. Or agony. Or both, utterly indistinguishable from one another.

"Fuck, yeah," Nora panted after he decided he was comfortable delivering actual thrusts. He still wasn't all the way inside her, but he was going to get there a lot quicker than he had reached the top of Lucie's pussy. "Give me those dicks!"

Ray's movements were more restrained, of necessity, but even he managed a few good thrusts. Nora did nothing but plead for more, so Dan gradually picked up the pace even more. Soon, he was slapping into her a dozen times a second. A human jackhammer.

"Yes, yes, yes!" she screamed. "Fuck my goddamn brains out, you pussies!"

Dan thought about all the times Nora had made him feel inadequate. About how obvious it was that she was in distress, physically, however thrilled she was emotionally. Was he exacting revenge? Or giving a friend exactly what she wanted? What she needed? Dan wasn't sure. If he dared stop, she'd surely rage at him. So there was that. It still didn't feel quite right, though. He wasn't going to stop, but he was more and more sure that this would be the last time he spoke the name Nora Skylar into his candle.

All three of them found a way to enjoy it, though. Before long, Nora was cumming hard. And once she started, she didn't really stop. For ten minutes straight, Dan and Ray held her in a state of near-constant climax, one pumping away furiously at her meaty ass while the other harmonized with a slower rhythm driving up into her snatch. There was only so much friction, so many delightful spasms of her inner muscles, the two of them could take before they joined her, filling both holes up with absurd amounts of hot cum.

The difference was, afterward, Ray looked utterly spent. Dan, however, was just getting started. He had more energy than he had when they'd started. That might have been strange, feeling more capable of physical exertion because he'd harvested mystical energy, except that he wasn't really sure that anything they were doing was physical, in the strictest sense. He might not be dreaming, but the Aether was not the real world either. It was not his body he used to fuck Nora's avatar. He wasn't sure what it was, since it was more than an avatar. At least according to Caleb. Whatever it was, though, it was less than corporeal.

He slammed into Nora's ass a few dozen more times, sending them both over the edge once more. His cum dribbled out of her ass and down onto Ray's balls, eliciting a cry of alarm. Nora found that amusing. Presumably out of fear of losing man points with her, Ray then laughed it off as well. Or maybe he was just that secure in his manhood. Dan wasn't sure he'd show such aplomb, but then Ray was the bigger man.

"Okay, I think we could all use a drink," Ray said after Dan pulled out.

"Amen," Nora said. "Every one of us," she added, glaring at Lucie.

For her part, the gorgeous Czech girl waved her hand in a gesture that could have meant anything. Including assent, apparently. "Excellent," Nora declared as she dismounted, a little unsteadily, and began wobbling towards the kitchen.

"Think she'll actually come back with drinks this time?" Dan asked Lucie as he plopped down onto the sofa beside her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder affectionately.

She rested her head on his chest. "I hope not. I'm already intoxicated."

Ray laughed, tried to get up, then fell back onto the ottoman. "I don't know about you all, but I'm done for the night." He grabbed his mostly limp cock and gave it a shake. "Couldn't get this guy to work another shift if I tried."

Lucie looked up at Dan, batting her eyelashes. "And you?"

"I'm game. Are you?"

She fretted at her lower lip. "Might need a shower more than a drink, but yeah."

Though he was pretty sure that wasn't necessary in order to get clean, Dan led Lucie into the bathroom, which took shape as soon as they entered. They did it a couple times in the shower, though the stall was cramped. Then once more while toweling off, because Dan couldn't be around Lucie's naked body and not get frisky, before returning to the other two.

It turned out Ray did have a little more in him. But after he pulled out of Nora and collapsed onto the floor, it was clear that he really was tapping out for the night.

From that point on, it was Ray who watched on in jealousy and sadness as Dan enjoyed two chicks, stroking himself lazily all the while in a vain attempt to get it up again.

On one level, the threesome was disappointing. The logistics of two-girls-and-one-guy were more awkward than two-guys-and-one-girl, as he'd discovered earlier. If he'd hoped that awkwardness would go away as the night went on, and everyone's inhibitions fell away, he was mistaken. Even after they finally did drink some alcohol, which had more of an effect than made any sense considering that they were in the Aether, it just didn't work that well. The two girls loosened up a bit and started to really get into one another, but if anything, that only made it more awkward. At times, Dan felt redundant.

Which wasn't to say that he was left out the whole time. Some of their combinations worked quite well. Such as when he lay flat on his back and had Nora ride him cowgirl while Lucie sat on his face and the two girls made out. Or when Dan fucked Lucie from behind while she fingered Nora, eventually finding her G-spot and making her squirt. Or when the girls sixty-nined and Dan took another go at Nora's ass. That girl really loved anal. It was his fat cock as much as Lucie's soft tongue that had made her cum then. But when Lucie was on top, there wasn't much for Dan to do, because she wouldn't let anyone's tongue get near her ass, let along Dan's huge cock, and every other orifice was occupied. And the tag team blowjob they gave him at one point didn't involve nearly as much cock-sucking as it did the two girls kissing one another while diddling themselves.

But psychologically, the threesome was everything he could have hoped for. There was no overstating the ego boost he got from having the two of them crawling all over him. Especially since he would never have a chance with either one of them in the real world. Having Ray sit there, envying him, amplified all of that tenfold.

His friend eventually caught a second wind. Or was it third or fourth by that point? Either way, he grabbed Nora and dragged her away from Dan and Lucie so he could ravage her another time. For all that Dan had enjoyed being the center of attention, and even his friend's jealousy, he was actually glad the guy joined back in. It felt...fair.

Plus, he'd grabbed the right girl.

How anyone in their right mind could pass Lucie over when they'd yet to experience her tight pussy, or anything other than her sadly inexpert fellatio, Dan didn't know. Perhaps his friend realized that she was a priority for Dan and respected that. Or maybe Dan had more influence over the guy's avatar than he realized, though his powers couldn't possibly work the same way with him. At least, he didn't think he evoked any strong emotions in Ray that could subsequently be manipulated as easily as the girls' lust. Whatever the reason, though, Dan was thankful for more time alone with Lucie. Not only was she prettier, and bustier, but she had little interest in acts that were outside Dan's comfort zone.

"I hope you're not waiting for me to say it's my turn to get DP'd," Lucie whispered in his ear at one point, before taking it between her lips gently. "I meant what I said earlier."

He slowed but did not stop his thrusts. Her pussy was so warm and tight. She didn't have the control over her inner muscles that Ms. Conklin did, but it still felt insanely good to be inside her. Especially because of the way she still shuddered every time he advanced so much as a quarter of an inch, no matter the speed at which he did so. "I'd rather prefer that you didn't," he said while giving her nipples the lightest squeeze. "Don't get me wrong. If you really wanted that, I'd agree to it. But in no way am I disappointed that you don't."

"Good," she said. "You're all the man I need."

Fuck. Those words should have felt cheap and hollow, coming as they did from a mere avatar. But they didn't. They made Dan absolutely giddy.

By the time he brought the scene to a close, Dan felt better about himself than he ever had. He felt sure he'd wake with newfound confidence and self-esteem.

#

The next day, Dan spent a few hours helping his mom out around the house. In addition to the spring cleaning they probably should have gotten around to a few weeks ago, they finally finished going through all his dad's stuff. There wasn't much his mom was willing to part with, but she seemed relieved to be able to say she'd looked at everything.

To thank him for all the help, as if that was necessary, his mom then took him to play mini golf. At one point, that had been just about his favorite thing in the world—when he was fourteen. Still, it was cheesy and fun and made him feel like a kid again. In a good way.

Especially since he kicked her butt. Pretty badly.

"We won't be able to do this anymore if I go away to college," Dan said on the drive home. His mom caught the "if" that should have been a "when" and gave him a flat stare. Dan pretended not to notice. "I mean, I'll find somebody else to beat at mini golf, but I'll miss spending time with you. And you'll miss all the free labor I provide."

She snickered. "Maybe I'll offer to lower Caleb's rent if he fills in."

"You could do that," Dan agreed. Of course, first, she'd have to make up her mind about whether she could stand being in the same room as him for more than ninety seconds.

His mom kept her eyes on the road better than he ever managed to while carrying on a conversation. "What would you do if you didn't go to college?"

Dan didn't reply.

"You can't stay at home forever, you know."

Of course not. Neither did he want to. But he wasn't ready to leave the nest just yet. Guys his age were supposed to be desperate to get out from under their parents' roof and exercise some autonomy, but he worried about her.

And, quite simply, enjoyed her company. However lame that might sound. That wasn't even factoring in his newfound crush on her, which he was sort of hoping would just go away, the way he'd wanted to marry his babysitter one week then never wanted to see her again the next. Of course, he was no longer seven years old, so it might take longer to pass through any sort of phase, and he was pretty sure that wasn't what he was dealing with anyway, but it was easier to lie to himself than admit he'd have to do something about it sooner or later.

"We don't have to settle this now," his mom said, reaching over to pat his thigh. "And you know I enjoy having you around." With a grin that only seemed lascivious because he desperately wanted it to be, she added, "Not just for the free labor, either."

"I know."

"I just want what's best for you."

Though he was facing the other way, looking out the window without actually seeing any of the strip malls and chain restaurants they passed by, Dan nodded.

"This doesn't have anything to do with Caleb, does it?" his mom asked.

He turned to face her again. "Why would it?"

"I just don't know what sort of ideas is he putting into your head."

She couldn't possibly know the guy was teaching Dan magic, could she?

No, of course not. That was paranoia talking. And a lifetime of watching his mom ferret out secrets he and his sister tried to keep. But even she couldn't have pieced that together. If she'd known about the candle, her reaction would have been be a whole lot stronger. She might even have made a phone call to Ms. Conklin.

Okay, that would be an extreme measure. Nonetheless, her primary concern would not be whether a desire to learn magic was contributing to his disinterest in college.

"C'mon, ma. If I had friends my own age, who actually made time for me, I wouldn't even talk to the guy," Dan said. Which would have been true a few days ago.

His mom sighed as she turned off the main drag, leading them down a row of nearly identical houses. "You know, it's natural for a boy who's lost his father—"

"Mom," Dan said.

"He's twice your age. Kind of weird, too."

They locked gazes, each one waiting for the other to back down. Neither did. Unless his mom's inevitable—and quite advisable—decision to turn her attention back to the road counted, which Dan didn't think it did.

"So what do you want for dinner?" she asked at last, breaking a silence that had just started to get awkward. "I've got some pork chops in the freezer."

Dan stared out the window. "Pork chops would be fine."

"I wish you wouldn't sulk like that."

"I wish you'd stop discouraging me from hanging out with the one person who actually wants to spend time with me," Dan shot back.

For a while, his mother didn't reply. When at last she did, her voice was small and slightly pained. "I want to spend time with you."

Dan rolled his eyes. "I know. But you're my mom."

"That doesn't count?"

"Of course it does," he said. More than she knew. She looked less than mollified, and guilt shot through him. "But Caleb never asks me to clean and dust," Dan added, grinning.

He chose not to tell her that one of the reasons spending time with her wasn't as good as hanging out with Caleb was that he didn't have battle unwholesome urges in the latter case. Didn't have to worry about his wandering eyes getting him into trouble, or filthy thoughts distracting him from their conversation. There'd been a few times, out on the golf course, where he'd been sure she'd caught him staring at her ass or tits. She must not have, or they'd be having an even more awkward conversation, but sooner or later she would.

So much had changed in such a short time. When he'd gone to school Friday morning, he'd had a girlfriend, there'd been no reason to believe in magic, and his mom had simply been his mom. Yes, that was a variegated role—she was equal parts meal-cooker, laundry-doer, and authority figure; Netflix buddy, emotional support, and all around caregiver. Not to mention the kindest, smartest, most understanding and frustratingly responsible person he'd ever met. Who even had a decent sense of humor, though he'd never admit as much if she was in earshot. What she hadn't been was a source of sexual frustration. A magnet pulling at his cock, causing a lump to form in his pants reliably whenever she was around.

His mom snorted. "I bet he doesn't," she said, in response to a comment Dan had almost forgotten that he'd made. "That place must be filthy by now."

In point of fact, it was spotless. But seeing as that probably meant there was a sorcerer's apprentice thing going on, Dan kept that to himself as well.

#

After dinner, he went over to Caleb's. The place was a mess.

Boxes ordinarily stacked against the wall or on the shelves were on the floor and the coffee table, their contents strewn about the room haphazardly. Precious little of it belonged in the twentieth century, let alone the current one. There was a pile of torches, an antique mirror, an hourglass, a coil of rope, a bronze bell, a hooded cloak, sheaves of yellowed paper, an ink pot with a wooden box next to it that probably held a bunch of quills, and so on. Dan felt like he was looking at an illustration from a D & D guidebook.

Not that he'd ever picked one up.

Damn Jane and her nerdy ways. Wasn't the corrupting influence of an older sibling supposed to lead to underage drinking, pot-smoking, and late-night watching of ultra-violent and/or sexually explicit movies? Something cooler than rolling twenty-sided dice?

"What's going on?" Dan asked his mentor. His mentor. He had one of those now, and not because of some reinvention of the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America or anything. More like Gandalf, Dumbledore, or Moiraine Damodred. Whose name he should not know.

Caleb still stood in the doorway, making no move to let Dan in. Behind him, a canvas bag packed itself. "I'm going to be gone for a couple of days."

"Big breakthrough on the scrapbook?"

Frowning, Caleb said, "I know, the timing's terrible." He could say that again. "I wish I could stay and monitor your progress. Those first few days can be awfully frustrating, as well as exciting." He might even have meant that last part, though he had a strange way of showing excitement. "And no, I can't tell you why I'm going. So don't ask."

Cynicism waylaid Dan, and for just a moment he wondered where it was all just a test. If he managed to keep Caleb's secret. continuing on as if nothing had happened, would he finally move into the fast lane? Or had some urgent matter really come up?

That was real anxiety on Caleb's face, though, wasn't it?

No, not on his face. The man wore a perpetual mask, never revealing the slightest emotion. The reason Dan knew his mentor was a hair's breadth shy of outright panic was because he was an empath. A Talent. He couldn't manipulate emotions yet, here in the real world, but if they were powerful enough, he could detect them. No matter how well they were hidden. And he'd been able to that for a long time.

"Don't suppose I can go with you?" he asked.

"You're not at that point yet," Caleb said. "Someday. Maybe soon. But not this time."

Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. Dan had never felt so useless.

"Promise you'll come back," he said, hating how frightened and childlike that sounded.

Caleb finally stepped aside and gestured for Dan to enter the apartment. He closed the door behind Dan then went over to the stove and pulled a brass teapot off the front burner.

"All out of coffee?"

"It's not for the caffeine."

Of course not. At least he poured two cups of whatever it was. Dan wasn't sure how it would taste, but if it had something to do with magic, as it surely did, he'd prefer not to be excluded anymore than was already the case. Though it probably just expanded the mind or some shit, allowing one to feel various energies flowing all around us, maaaan.

"I can't tell you much," Caleb said. Big surprise there. "But there are some things that will help you fend for yourself for a little while."

"For a little while," Dan said, scoffing. This was Ned Stark telling Jon Snow that when next they met, they'd talk about Jon's mother. He sooo wasn't ready for this.

He almost asked if there was cure for unwanted attraction. An anti-love potion, so to speak. Something to help him stop obsessing over his voluptuous, redheaded mother. That would have led to follow-up questions, though. And no potion. Dan was willing to bet his life on that. He'd only discovered magic a little more than a day ago but he already knew the first rule—nothing was ever easy, unless it was practically useless.

A warm mug floated into his hands, courtesy of his mentor. Dan took a sip. The tea was bitter up front, with a wretched aftertaste. There was a hint of honey, but it didn't help.

Caleb cleared a spot for Dan on the sofa but remained standing himself. "There are many more like us. Until you've got more experience, you're likely to draw attention to yourself in all sorts of ways without even realizing it." He placed the incense he'd prepared the other night on the table, making Dan wonder if whatever was pulling him away was so unforeseen after all. Or maybe he just kept that stuff in stock. He did seem the sort to prepare for all possibilities. "You're going to need to burn this, every day. It'll mask your aura."

"There an option that won't make me smell funny?"

Caleb gave him a look that asked if that was a serious question.

"Nevermind," Dan muttered beneath his breath.

"I understand it's hard at this stage," the bearded one said. "But that's precisely why I can't tell you much. Such as where I'm going tonight. That sort of information—"

"—could do a lot of harm, in the wrong hands?" Dan asked.

Caleb nodded. "You'd do the same, in my shoes."

He probably would. It made a lot of sense, unfortunately. That didn't make it any less annoying, but it did make it hard to argue with the guy. Caleb was afraid someone might kidnap Dan and torture information out of him. Or magic it out of him, maybe. Read his mind, or cast a spell on him that would make him talk. Whatever the fuck people like them did. And rather than protect him, Caleb was simply going to keep him in the dark. That way, it wouldn't matter much—to him—if someone got to Dan.

A warmth slowly spread across his body. Of course, that sort of thing was bound to happen after drinking a hot beverage, but what was experiencing was something more than that. If he'd wrapped his body in a blanket, or laid out in the sun in mid July, he might have achieved the same effect, but nothing short of that would come close. He felt more alert than ever before too, like the whole world had come into sharper relief. Smells that would normally escape his notice became impossible to ignore. Cars passing by out on the street made more noise than they should have, except of course they didn't. It only seemed like it.

"Heightened senses," he said, mostly to himself. "Fucking called it."

Then the final effect kicked in, allowing Dan to see Caleb's aura. Not just pick out a singularly strong emotion, but see his actual fucking aura. A golden nimbus surrounded his mentor, as it presumably did at all times though it had never before been visible. At least not to Dan, who was supposed to be good at that sort of thing.

At first, Dan simply marveled at the sight. Then he looked closer and saw purple streaks shooting through it like comets, sparks trailing in their wake. Those, he surmised, were temporary. Only the base color was permanent. It said a lot about who Caleb was and what sort of magic he practiced. The streaks spoke to his current mood.

Was Dan guessing at how things worked, based on a shamefully vast knowledge of fantasy fiction? Or intuiting things because of an inborn ability? He wasn't sure. There was a certain logic to the base color/school of magic, streak/mood system, but it felt like more conjecture.

Something stirred inside him, like a flower blooming. Suddenly, Dan did not just know how auras worked in general but what specifics colors and patterns told him. Only he didn't know those things—he felt them. And that was more reliable, when it came to magic.

Purple could mean a lot of things, but Dan felt its associations with extravagance, royalty, and piety were irrelevant at the moment. What those streaks signified was valiance. Caleb wasn't sure he'd return from his venture, but felt he had to embark on it.

The gold part eluded him, though. Caleb didn't seem wealthy, and Dan couldn't see his mentor as any sort of king. Too bad his aura wasn't red. That, Dan felt, would have been easier to decipher. Either blood magic or pyromancy, depending on whether tongues of flame accompanied the purple sparks. A cold, black aura might smell of death and reveal Caleb to be a practitioner of death magic—a necromancer. But gold?

"I take it the tea is kicking in?"

Dan nodded.

"What do you see?" Caleb asked. Was that trepidation in his voice? No, couldn't be. There was no way he was reluctant to hear what Dan saw in his aura, the way teenage girls feared portraits drawn by sidewalk artists. It had only sounded that way to Dan because he was imagining how he'd feel if the tables were turned and someone was reading his aura.

So Dan told him.

When he finished, Caleb simply said, "Hmm."

"Have I got that right?"

Caleb shrugged. "Can't read my own aura."

"Or anyone else's?" Dan guessed. He thought he remembered Caleb implying that aura reading was an ability unique to empaths. And he'd definitely confirmed that he practiced a different sort of magic. One that had some association with gold, apparently.

"But surely you know something about their interpretation."

After taking another sip of tea, Caleb said, "Something, yes. Less than you might think, though." He raised his ceramic mug to his lips once more. "For what it's worth, though, I agree with your assessment." He frowned. "Sounds like I'm showering myself with praise."

Dan waved the comment away. This was no time for false modesty. "So did the tea speed up the learning process? Or this just a temporary enhancement?" He stared down at his own, rather unassuming, mug. "Am I going to start seeing auras everywhere?"

"Let us hope not. Everyone has one, but for the most part, they're not very prominent. Maybe someday you'll be the sort of Talent who can read ordinary people, but for now, if you see an aura—any aura—get away from that person as fast as you can."

Dan fell silent, turning his attention back to the magical tea. If the horrid taste was the price for finally getting some answers, it was more than worth it. "Can I talk you into leaving me with some more of this?" he asked, raising his mug.

Caleb frowned. "I don't have much. It takes a long time to make."

Right. Special occasions, then. Nothing foreboding about that.

"Keep visiting the Aether," Caleb said. "If you get bored of that teacher, summon someone new, but don't feel you have to if you're having fun. A Talent as weak as you isn't going to turn someone into a familiar in a few nights."

"You keep saying stuff like that and I might start thinking I'm not that powerful," Dan said. "Besides, I've already moved on. Though I might go back to her at some point."

Not for a moment did it seem like Caleb would press for more details. He did not care who Dan had sex with. At. All. Which only made sense, Dan supposed, though it made him feel stupid and immature for continuing to fish for opportunities to elaborate. To boast.

"Try not to let the sex become an end unto itself," Caleb continued, looking over Dan's shoulder to check the progress of his packing. "You're there to gather energy and test out your powers. Nothing wrong with having a little fun along the way, but when the time comes for you to harness your powers in this world, I'll need you to be ready."

"I know," Dan said, though he didn't really. He had no idea what he was preparing for. Not the nature of it, nor the magnitude. Nothing at all.

Caleb raised an eyebrow. Then he gathered up a few jars of incense. No tea, though.

Eyes wandering over to the bookshelves, Dan asked, "Mind if I raid your library?"

"There are a few titles there that might be of use to you," Caleb suggested. "And, more importantly, would be safe to experiment with." He got to his feet and went over to the bookshelves. "Others, you'd best stay away from for now." He selected a few titles and carried them back to Dan. "Here. Go crazy. In fact, I'm quiz you on them when I return."

"Well now that you make it sound like homework..."

"Don't touch any of the others, though," Caleb said. Which he had to know meant "Skip straight to the ones I left on the shelves" in teenager.

"Am I going to be safe here?" He asked, changing the subject. "What about my mom?"

"I think she can take care of herself," Caleb said. Before Dan could ask what that meant, the bearded one added, "No one knows you're here. As long as you follow my instructions, it'll stay that way." He placed the jars of incense on the coffee table. "Every morning. That won't fool the most powerful Talents, but it'll work on most. And the others would need a reason to look closely. So don't give them one." He stared intently at Dan. "Under no circumstances are you to use your abilities outside this apartment, your bedroom, or the Aether. Assuming you progress far enough to draw upon them here in the real world."

"What about reading auras?" Dan asked.

Caleb frowned. "You know what I mean." Perhaps sensing another wiseass remark, he added, "That's safe enough. I mean, don't manipulate anyone's emotions save your own."

"I can do that?"

"Not as readily as those of others, but yes. In principle."

Perhaps he could fix his Oedipal problem all on his own then. All the effects of a cold shower, without having to take his clothes off. Which, granted, he kinda wanted to do in front of her. But that was the whole problem. The feeling was most certainly not mutual.

"How did you know about me?" Dan asked.

"I didn't," Caleb replied.

Dan regarded him skeptically, but his mentor didn't back off the claim. Nor did he elaborate upon it. Rather, he placed an antique doorknob on the table and said, "Worse comes to worst, stick that on a door—any door—and turn it. It'll take you to a safe place."

"Where's that?"

"Never you mind where it is. Just use it, but only if the situation's dire."

Picking the knob up to test its weight, Dan said, "Fine." It was surprisingly heavy. Or maybe that was just because it was big and bronze and solid.

"I've placed wards on the property," Caleb continued. "Before I leave, I'll check to see if they need reinforcing. Otherwise, you should be fine. Long as you use the incense."

It felt like he was being dismissed. "Guess I'll let you finish packing," Dan said.

Caleb offered no objection.

Chapter Two

Maria circled once more round the campsite, then deemed the sweep complete.

As she descended, her body changed from that of a raven to a woman. Tough, callused feet touched the ground as nimble wings gave way to strong arms and crest feathers became short-cropped black hair. Her father averted his gaze, but Wei eyed her naked form with plenty of hunger and little shame. Once upon a time, that stare would have made her uncomfortable, even from a lover. No matter what might happen in a tent at night, a woman did not expect to be ogled so brazenly, especially in front of her father. Maria had even gone so far as to forge a talisman that had allowed her to keep her clothes through her shifts. But she hadn't really been in touch with the Great Spirit then. After losing the talisman a few years later, she'd decided not to make another. The naked body was nothing to be ashamed of, after all. Clothing was necessary for protection from the elements, but shedding it whenever possible brought one closer to the Great Spirit. She understood that now. It was only because she had been raised by a society that was dedicated to moving itself into greater disharmony with each passing day that Maria had ever felt otherwise.

"Still no trace of any magic," she said.

Her father grunted, clearly unswayed by her words.

As he had been every other time she'd spoken them.

Maria was tempted to ask her father if he was sure they had the right place, but she knew he was. He was no flamegazer, seeking to divine truths from the fickle dance of hypnotic flames. He had a much rarer gift. In all the Nation, there were fewer than ten Folk who could hear the whispers of the wind. Her father was one of them. That was why he'd been appointed sagamore to the Great Chieftain of the Third Council, Jack Longtooth.

Still, part of her felt that if there was a Talent within fifty miles, she would know. The talisman she used to seek out magic was of her father's own crafting, and few could cover ground as swiftly and silently as she. If Maria hadn't found anything, that meant there was nothing to be found. No matter what the wind said.

Wei's attention shifted back to the fire burning in the pit he'd dug. He wore the same expression as he regarded the rabbits on the spit as he had while eyeing Maria a moment earlier. That would have bothered some women, but not Maria. No more so than his pretending not to hear the conversation between her and her father did, anyway. They each had a role to play, and his was burning the Great Spirit's enemies to cinder and ash. Still, Maria longed for him to take her side. Let him look at her like a piece of meat. It was only natural for a man to gaze upon a woman so. It was also natural for him to be possessive of her. To defend her against other males—even if they were her blood relatives.

He was the most frustrating man she'd ever lain with. A single touch from Wei could turn a spark of desire into a conflagration. His skin was not as dark as she preferred, but he was no paleface. And his body was warm. No, hot. Even in the middle of winter, he wore those mesh shorts and flip-flops, unless forced to dress more conventionally so as to avoid attention. Lying beside him was like sleeping in a fire, only his touch never burned her. It did a lot of things to Maria, but that wasn't one of them. The flames kissed him so often that his scalp, indeed his entire body, was as smooth as polished stone. And as hard. Maria was drawn to him like a moth to a flame, but he did precious little to reward her devotion.

Outside the tent, anyway.

Maria looked her father up and down. Dressed in a plaid sweater, faded jeans, and hiking boots, he didn't quite look the part. Should he go into town, he'd be mistaken for just another outdoor enthusiast. Maria herself hadn't thought much of him when they'd first met. She'd no more believed him a respected elder of the Nation than she had his claim that he was her sire. She'd been convinced that the blood of a fearsome warrior ran through her veins. But looks could be deceiving. He need but remove his sweater to prove that he was a true man of the Folk. Black feathers were inked into the skin beneath his collarbone. When the wind stirred, so did they. Storm clouds encircled his wrists and bolts of black lightning stretched up to his elbows. They crackled and glowed when the skies boomed. Though he spoke softly, when he did raise his voice, the wind itself listened.

"They are careful," her father said.

"Is it possible we're the only ones who know?" Maria asked.

Her father gave her a skeptical look.

Grumbling to herself, Maria found the clothes she'd left behind and quickly got dressed. She favored simple garments that didn't restrict her movement and were easily discarded when it came time to shift. At present, that meant canvas slip-on shoes and a strapless brown dress. No bra or panties, no socks, and certainly no jewelry—unless one counted the talismans dangling from her wrist. But seeing as one of them ensured that all the others changed with her, and each served a purpose, there was no reason to do so.

She went and stood by Wei, caressing his back with the tips of her fingers. That was like stroking a stone that had sat at the edge of a fire, only no harm came to her. Nor would it ever, from Wei. He might be less willing to speak against her father than she'd like, but she felt safe with him. Not just because he held her close at night, either. Lots of men had done that. Few of them had saved her life, though. It had generally been the other way around. As it was with Wei, from time to time, but he always returned the favor. He was one of the deadliest men alive, and he'd killed to protect her on more than one occasion.

"If I know, others know," her father said, long enough after she'd asked the question that she'd given up expecting a response. Like Wei, he looked not at Maria but the fire.

She shrugged. "Perhaps you're being too humble."

"Or you overconfident."

Wei glanced over his shoulder at Maria. What that look was meant to signify, she couldn't have said. That she should relent? If so, she hoped he was prepared to sleep alone.

Well, no, the sun would freeze and the moon catch fire before she deprived herself of man's touch for a whole night. Especially Wei's. But she'd make him regret it.

Her father often remarked that there was more animal in her than woman, even when she wore the skin in which she'd been born. He didn't know how right he was.

"He's that dangerous?" she asked her father, not for the first time.

No response.

"What do we even know about this warlock?"

Her father looked at her askance. "No more now than when last we spoke of it."

Maria ground her teeth. Yes, they'd discussed the matter before. A few times. That was all the more reason to be frustrated by how little he'd told her. Half the towns and cities in this part of the country had legends of old witches and warlocks. Few were taken seriously by the Folk. And this one was outside the Nation's territory.

"Maybe the Great Spirit trusts that we three are enough to handle him."

Even that did not get through to him, though she thought it a strong argument. Or maybe he'd just lost interest in talking sense to her, having judged her incapable of seeing reason. She hated when he did that. Usually, her father reserved that treatment for young wolves eager to prove themselves to the council the only way young men knew how. But this wouldn't be the first time Maria had found herself on the receiving end.

Ever since they'd arrived that morning, doubts had nagged at Maria. Why had the Great Chieftain sent only one triad? Even if the Great Spirit hadn't seen fit to share its warning with anyone else, shouldn't Longtooth have dispatched a larger force? The Great Chieftain had so much faith in her father that the only reason Maria could think for him not to do so was that he'd had heard a different version of the wind's whispering than she and Wei had.

"I'd say dinner's about ready," Wei said, bending down to remove the spit.

#

Maria slipped out from under Wei's arm, immediately mourning the loss of warmth. Spring might have finally arrived, a few weeks late, but the nights were still cold and he was charcoal made flesh. Well, with skin smooth as silk. Nonetheless, nature called. So, reluctantly, Maria slipped her dress back on and pushed past the tent flap.

She walked across the clearing and out into the woods. Every time her bare feet snapped a twig, Maria cringed. Was there anyone there the sound might alert to her presence? No. But she still didn't like making any sound. It made her feel clumsy and inept.

After finding a suitable spot, Maria hiked up her dress and squatted down to make water. As she did, her wrist lit up for a brief instant.

Or maybe it had been her imagination? Who could think straight when they had to go that bad? The pressure had just reached its peak, the way it does when one's body knows that the moment of relief is imminent. Maria wasn't fully awake yet either. In that state, she couldn't trust her senses the way she normally would.

Yet neither could she ignore what she though she'd seen. The glow she might not have imagined had seemed to come from the talisman she used to detect magic. Strictly speaking, it couldn't tell her whether another Talent was in the vicinity or if she'd simply stumbled across one of their totems. She didn't think any were nearby, but it was dark out and she was at her least perceptive when wearing her human skin.

The more likely explanation was that she'd caught someone in the act. Another Talent was there in the woods, and he or she had just performed magic.

Maria finished up, wiped herself with a leaf, and looked around. Panic rose up inside her, but she quashed the rebellion instantly. Even if she wasn't alone, that didn't mean she was in danger. Perhaps her father was having trouble sleeping. He was prone to waking in the middle of the night and consulting the wind. Wei could be up as well, though that would have been a little more unusual. After sex, he generally slept like a rock. Generally. But not always. Had he noticed her absence, he might well have exited the tent and decided to restart the fire, which he always did the easy way no matter how many times her father warned him not to take unnecessary risks. No reason to jump to conclusions then.

Besides, if there was a hostile element, Maria was capable of handling it by herself. She'd proven that time and again—most recently outside Pittsburgh, just a few weeks ago.

It only took a few seconds to determine that no one was in the clearing and that no fire burned in the pit. She considered calling out to see if her father or Wei was up, but decided against it. No sense giving her location away, on the off chance that whoever was out there didn't already know it. Or revealing that she knew she wasn't alone.

Maria counted to ten. Then thirty. Still nothing. Trusting her instincts, Maria slipped out of her dress and became a black panther. As a raven, Maria could circle the clearing quickly and quietly, but she had a feeling that she might soon be grateful for jaws powerful enough to crush bone. And if not, well, no one need know she'd made a fool of herself.

Which it seemed she had. Roaming through the woods for twenty minutes failed to produce any indication that someone else was out there.

It took a while for Maria to find her dress again, even with the panther's nose. She almost let it wait til morning, but the thought of a sorcerer acquiring a possession of hers dissuaded her. Yes, she'd decided that the flash of light had been a mere figment of her imagination, and fewer than one in a thousand Talents was a sorcerer, but it paid to be careful.

She made little noise as she climbed back into the tent, but Wei stirred all the same. "You awake?" Maria whispered, knowing the answer.

"Hmm?" he mumbled.

The dress came off one last time then Maria settled down beside her lover. She pressed up against his back and rested one hand atop his hard abs. Slowly, it traveled down between his legs. She was unsurprised to find him hard as a rock. "Did you miss me?"

Wei grabbed her wrist and sped up her pace. "Should have known twice wouldn't be enough for you," he said. "Didn't expect you to go looking for bears or wolves, though."

"You keep teasing me like that, maybe I will take an animal lover one of these nights."

By way of response, Wei rolled over and pinned her on her back. "No you won't."

Maria meant to tell him about the glimmer of light. She really did. But with that fire burning in his amber eyes, and his hard cock pushing past her labia, it slipped her mind. He was right. She'd never resort to such tactics so long as he was around.

A wave of heat followed his member, descending upon her a moment after he slid inside. Any man could warm a woman that way, but not like Wei could. When he was inside her, he shared a part of his magic with her. Their bodies became one, and Maria knew what it was like to be flamekissed. To embody one of the Great Spirits oldest gifts.

His dark eyes turned bright, flames dancing inside them, as brilliant and hypnotic as any campfire. Maria longed to feel his hands upon her breasts, or his lips against her skin, but neither was offered. It didn't matter, though. She wouldn't last long either way. Her stiff nipples longed for attention, and nothing drove her crazy like a warm mouth on her neck, but the pressure on her wrists did plenty for her as well. She liked when Wei got like this. With a thought, she could pop claws and spill his guts onto the dirt. But in this form, Maria was hopelessly at her lover's mercy—and it was wonderful. It made her feel like a woman.

"Harder," she panted.

Not that Wei needed any encouragement. His thrusts were powerful, and would make her ache delightfully once it was over. She wrapped her legs around his slender waist and squeezed tight. With her hips angled up ever so slightly, he penetrated her at an angle and his shaft rubbed against her G-spot. Every light brush made he shudder.

Soon enough, spots swam in Maria's vision. Her eyelids fluttered and her lungs pumped like bellows, though she still couldn't get enough air. The tension built and built, ecstasy turning into agony as the climax she so desperately craved continued to elude her.

"Almost there," she told Wei.

"Are you ever far?" he asked.

Had her hands been free, Maria might have given his bottom a good smack. Or not. She was rapidly approaching the point where she'd be unable to do anything but squirm and writhe and cry out his name. Wei had everything lined up just right.

Suddenly, he stopped.

"What is it?" she asked. Had he heard something outside the tent? Something that had escaped her notice because she'd been deep in the throes of ecstasy?

Had her sweep of the woods not been thorough enough?

Thin lips spread in a wicked smile. "Nothing," Wei said. "Just messing with you."

"You're evil," Maria said. He was lucky she couldn't reach his neck, or he'd have gotten a playful bite. Or one that wasn't so playful.

Wei leaned down and kissed her. She forgot all about the designs she had on his neck. His mouth was warm and his tongue hot, a blade fresh from the fires of a forge. The sweat evaporated on his skin almost as soon as it formed. She loved the smell of it, even if it was a bit acrid. It was the smell of passion. Of need.

Just as Maria began to fear that he'd diverted all his attention into the kiss, Wei pulled back and slammed into her hard. It was enough to push her over the edge.

It was not, however, the end of their lovemaking.

Chapter Three

Ordinarily, Dan spent the one free period he got every six day cycle in the cafeteria. Nora had lunch that period and it was pretty much the only time they ever saw each other, as they didn't have any actual classes together that year the way they always had in the past. But by the time Thursday rolled around, Dan found he wasn't interested in hanging out with her. Probably because he'd been spending way too much time with her in the Aether of late. Which, he had to admit, he really had been. Way, way too much time.

It wasn't that Nora was so amazing. After their first scene, Dan really hadn't intended to summon her again. But he'd gotten bored of Ms. Conklin after summoning her few more times, and the various other partners he'd tried out had failed to make a strong impression. For better or worse, he never got bored with Nora. Uncomfortable, maybe. Sometimes, Dan even felt guilty afterwards. But she always got his heart racing.

Which kept his mind off his mom.

That was the most important part. The ulterior motive he kept telling himself he didn't have. As nice as it was to feel a surge of energy, or make a girl who thought she was out of his league scream his name, as much as Dan enjoyed returning with a newfound appreciation for the solidity and mundane details of the world around him, deep down, he knew the reason he kept going back even after his body started to protest was because he didn't want to be alone with his thoughts. Because he knew that if he couldn't get his what he needed from Nora, he'd eventually look elsewhere. And he couldn't allow that to happen.

It was getting harder and harder to resist the temptation, though. One or two good scenes had be enough to satiate him at first, but he was up to three or four a night now. And sometimes one or two during the day. That wasn't sustainable. After his first visit to the Aether, Dan had emerged feeling alert and energetic. Now, though, his many trips left him feeling drained. The effort of crossing over so many times in one night completely offset any energy he absorbed while there. He'd barely managed to drag himself out of bed that morning, and had been more than a little late to his first period class.

That was on top of what it was doing to his friendships. How the prospect of spending time with Nora in real life had become so unappealing.

It really had, though. Even if pulling her into the Aether a whole bunch of times over the past few nights had created a bond between them already, Dan knew it had to be weak. That was mostly a good thing, of course. Turning people into slaves, or simply causing them to feel any more favorably predisposed towards him than they otherwise would, was not good. Dan had been quite concerned about that when Caleb had first described his powers to him. But all the same, Dan lamented the fact that it took so long for the side-effects to kick in, because he didn't think he could stomach the same old routine with Nora. Not while his breakup was still so recent that she'd shower him with pity. Maybe next week, when she'd be back to trying to gross him out by comparing ketchup to period blood.

Dan went to the library instead, where he did his best to dig up secrets about the town. Even after old newspapers and books by local authors failed to turn anything up, he decided to continue his quest—though at that point, like any good Millenial, he turned to the internet. Because another fruitless Google search, or deep dive into bowels of Wikipedia, would still be better than listening to Nora pretend yet again that "someday they'll realize what a great catch you are" meant anything other than "I can't really blame anyone for not wanting you to touch them, but I care enough about you as a friend to feed you some reassuring bullshit." As if telling a guy he was about as sexy as a mortgage lifted his spirits.

As luck would have it, Dan came across a website dedicated to the occult history of Westchester county. Most of it was of little interest to him—though he had to admit, he'd never realized that Washington Irving had set "The Legend of Sleepy Hallow" in nearby Tarrytown, making the headless horseman something of a local celebrity—but one particular entry jumped out at him. The illustration near the top of the page titled "Lakeland Witch Trials" was of a man being burned at the stake. It wasn't terribly detailed, thankfully, but Dan recognized the field in which the gruesome scene took place. It was the field where he and Ray used to toss a ball around on Saturday afternoons, in what was now the town park.

The other kids started gathering up their things, responding to the silent pre-bell that reliably goes off in every student's head a minute or two before the real thing. Dan stayed put, though. Without Nora to translate things into English for him, he had no hope of earning a decent grade in physics. Yet the odds of actually failing were still remote. So what difference would it make if he cut class just the once in order to keep reading about his town's probably-made-up-but-maybe-not secret history?

Bartholomew Wainbridge had been tried for witchcraft in 1756. The townsfolk had claimed that he'd consorted with demons and, through them, laid a curse on the land. For three years straight, every harvest had gone bad. After he'd burned, they'd been bountiful.

Had Dan read such accusations a week ago, he'd have snorted in amusement and chalked it up to superstition—then maybe felt bad about being amused by an innocent man being put to the torch. But now he couldn't help but wonder if the townsfolk had been right to think there was a warlock in their midst. The possibility couldn't be dismissed out of hand.

The town had continued burning witches and warlocks long after Mister Wainbridge, though. So either practitioners of black magic found the place a lot more interesting than Dan and his friends ever had, or the inhabitants were descended from ignorant shits.

Regardless of whether their actions were justified, the simple fact that there'd been so many of them should have made his town even more infamous than Salem. The book offered an explanation for why it wasn't on the very next page. The original settlers had formed a secret council, apparently, tasked with both witch-hunting and public relations. In time, the council had gotten quite good at keeping all mention of the town's actions out of reputable sources—which even the authors apparently didn't think their book was. There'd even been a few public book-burnings, because taking the torch to everything you disagreed with was just so much fun. If the book was to be believed, the council was still around. That meant that one of Dan's neighbors was the duly appointed Chief Witch-Hunter of Lakeland. A member of the PTA and the Rotary Club as well, no doubt.

#

"Dan the Man," Ray said, propping a hand against the lockers. "How was physics?"

Having little interest in being ridiculed for wasting his time reading about the witch trials that had probably never taken place, Dan said,"Fine. Boring." He wasn't sure whether to take of any it seriously himself, and he'd experienced the supernatural. "How was English?"

There'd been a time when Dan told his friend everything. But he and Ray had been drifting apart for years. That sort of thing happened at their age, he supposed, but it was mostly because Ray had started dating a girl from the city shortly after he'd gotten his driver's license. As a result, he was hardly ever around. And when he was, he didn't feel like getting in a car. Dan would have loved having someone to talk to about how crazy his life had become in the last seventy-two hours, but Ray was not person. Not anymore.

At least he had Caleb. Who'd left quite suddenly and might not be back anytime soon.

"Same," his friend said. "Only worse."

"Worse than physics?" Dan asked, raising an eyebrow. "Doubtful."

"We're reading The Odyssey. In the original Greek, as far I can tell."

Were he discussing the matter with Jane, Dan would have been free to admit that he was jealous of Ray. He'd never read any of Homer's work, but he kept telling himself that one day he would. That was probably a lie, of course. Without someone to help him digest it, he'd likely give up after a few pages. But he'd still rather that than physics. Too bad his sister was way out on the west coast, where she was of no use to anyone. "Lame," Dan said, hoping it sounded appropriately emphatic yet also disinterested.

Sometimes it was tough being a teenager. He was supposed to hate everything, but not too much. Because that would mean he actually cared, and caring about stuff was not cool.

"So, not to be insensitive," Ray said, "but Kelly made me promise to ask if you'd take Arie to the prom." Behind him, a couple of sophomore girls snickered. They must have read between the lines and guessed that Dan had recently been dumped.

Dan sighed. "I'll think about it."

The girls snickered some more as they stuffed books into their bags and headed to class.

"It's just that she really wants to go," Ray continued. "And I can't seem to convince anyone that I should be allowed to bring two dates."

"I get it," Dan said. And he did. The girls were best friends, and not just in that sense that they used to be but hadn't quite admitted to themselves that they weren't very close anymore. Like, um, some people he knew. When Kelly and Ray had gotten together, Arie had gained a friend, rather than losing one. That was probably why Dan didn't really like her, though she made that task a lot easier by acting the way she did. Arie had to be the center of attention at all times. Though she had a boyfriend, at least when they weren't going through one of their many short-term breakups, she flirted with every guy she met.

Worst of all, Dan kept letting himself fall for her act. Kept thinking that the next time she and Jason broke up, she'd turn to him for a rebound. It wouldn't go anywhere, but there'd be some crazy hot sex in it for him. Only it would never happen.

If he took her to prom, he'd get his hopes up again and think her flirting actually meant something, when in fact she'd just be there so she could have more pictures taken with Kelly, in different dresses than they'd wear to their prom. Dan could probably use his newfound abilities to get her in the mood, if he didn't mind stretching the notion of consent way past the breaking point, but in the end that would only make him regret taking her even more.

This late in the game, though, it was either take Arie or stay home.

"Just let me know when you make up your mind," Ray said.

"Shouldn't I ask her myself?" Dan asked.

"Wait, does that mean you'll do it?" Ray said hopefully. "I know she can be a handful."

More than handful, really, unless she had a knack for picking just the right bras. But even in the sense that Ray had meant it, the comment was a bit of an understatement. Still, Dan didn't really want to miss his senior prom. Arie wasn't the only one who wanted a few pictures with her best friend. "Yeah, fuck it," Dan said. "Tell her she's going."

"You're the best, man," Ray said, smacking his arm. "Gotta run."

#

Dan's mom looked dispirited when she got home from work. The bottle of wine in her hand could have been to celebrate good news, but he knew it wasn't. And she never kicked off her heels like that, flinging them across the room with no regard for where they might land. Should he ever do such a thing, he'd be in for a scolding. Maybe even finger-wagging. That was some pretty serious stuff, for her.

"Well shit," Dan said, rising from the sofa. "Let me guess—no promotion."

"Language, mister," she replied even as she welcomed his hug.

"Did they say why?"

She pushed him away and gave him a sad smile. Then she ruffled his hair like he was ten, handed him the bottle of wine, and pointed at the kitchen counter.

As his mom headed down to the hall to change out of her work clothes, Dan uncorked the bottle. He poured her a glass, then one for himself too. Ordinarily, his mom wouldn't allow that, especially on a school night, but he figured she'd make an exception.

When she returned, Dan greeted her with a glass in each hand. That earned a disapproving scowl but nothing more. Without a word, his mom took her glass and headed straight to the sofa, feet barely lifting off the hardwood floors.

Dan sat beside her. She turned sideways, facing him, and slid her feet under his thighs for warmth. One might think the fuzzy socks she'd traded her stockings in for would do the job, but no. His mother's feet were always cold. If not for the wine he could hardly believe she going to let him drink, again, he might have given them a massage.

"Now I really hope that other job comes through," she said.

"I'm prepared to double your salary as makeshift maid staff," Dan said.

His mom raised an eyebrow at him. "You going to pay me with my own money?"

"Summer's almost here. I'll be raking it in soon."

That earned him a wistful smile. When his mom saw him take his first sip of the wine, she asked, "So, what do you think of this vintage? Now that you're an expert."

Dan shrugged. "I'd prefer it a little more dry."

"Do you even know what that means?"

"Not really," Dan admitted. "I always sorta figured the only way for a glass to be dry is if there's nothing in it. But, hey, it sounded good."

"You're cute," his mom said with a smile that made his cock twitch. Before he could reply, not that he'd have known what to say, she asked, "So what're going to watch tonight?"

"Nothing with shades of gray," Dan said.

His mom snorted. "Like I'd watch that with you."

"You've forced me to sit through chick flicks before."

"None with kinky sex."

They stared at each other, trying to pretend there was nothing awkward about her saying that aloud. They should have been mature enough for that comment to pass without remark, but they weren't. Nervous laughter broke out on both sides.

"Besides, I'm not into the creepy stalker, super-controlling type," his mom said after a while. "I prefer men who are interested in a partner, not a play thing."

Dan wished he could introduce his mom to Nora and have her explain the appeal of nice guys to her. Not that he was sure he qualified anymore, with the thoughts that were running through his head. A nice guy wouldn't look forward to being able to use his powers in the real world because of how much they'd help him get laid. He'd not having to constantly remind himself that it would be wrong to manipulate chicks into having sex with him.

"Let me check Rotten Tomatoes and see what's good," Dan said, grabbing his tablet.

"In my day, we actually formed opinions for ourselves," his mom said.

"Before or after reading reviews in the newspaper?" he asked.

His mom tried to hide her amusement at the comment but failed. Though she pulled a foot out from under his thigh and gave him a little kick, there was a smile on her face.

"Bet you never went to see a movie just because your friends were talking about it either," Dan said. "Or some guy you liked mentioned that it he liked it."

"Watch it, buster," she said, but the smile hadn't yet faded.

She'd sure turned that frown upside down rather quick. Was Dan manipulating his own mother? No, he couldn't have been. Caleb had told him it would be a while before he could do anything in the real world. Besides, even if he was cheating at cheering her up, where was the harm? That wasn't nearly the same as making an end run around her power to consent.

It might even count as using his powers for good.

Some time later, after his mom paused the movie to refill her wine glass, Dan said, "You won't believe what I came across in the school library."

"What's that?" she called from the kitchen.

Dan told his mom about their town's alleged secret history. "Crazy, huh?"

His mom shrugged as she settled back down on the sofa. "I've actually heard that before," she said, to his surprise. "Not that I believe any of that nonsense. You don't either, do you?"

"Mom," Dan said. "Give me some credit."

What she gave him was an approving nod. Close enough, he supposed.

"I just thought it was funny. I mean, can you imagine if it was true?"

"They couldn't keep it out of the news," his mom said. "Ready to turn it back on?"

"Yeah," Dan said, giving her bare calf a pat. Damn, her legs were smooth. And shapely. He went from rigid to so hard it hurt. It was a wonder his cock wasn't vibrating like a tuning fork. All because of a furtive touch that could easily have passed for innocent. "But if this has a sappy ending like that one review said, you're paying for dinner."

She laughed. "Was I ever not going to?"

"Well, only one of us has a job," he replied. "Not one that pays too well, but—"

Her eyes went wide and her mouth opened. The beginnings of a gasp escaped.

Dan threw his arms over his head, as if fending off a serious threat. That made his mom snicker, as he'd known it would. She did slap him a few times, but with no more force than a teddy bear might have mustered. "Just for that, I should make you pay."

"I can, you know," Dan said. "And not with your money."

"Oh, sweetie, I don't mind," his mom said. "What do you think this is, a date?"

Dan snorted. "Like you've been on one since dad died." He cocked his head to the side, as if a sudden realization had just come to him. "Is someone a bit picky?"

"You find a replacement for Jenny yet?" she asked, eyebrow raised.

"The girl who dumped me a few days ago?"

"How many years were you two together?"

"Fair point. Guess I'll give you a few more weeks before getting on your case."

She nodded appreciatively as she pressed the little triangle button.

"For the record, though, if this was a date, I wouldn't offer to pay."

His mom hit pause again. "And why's that? Because this is the twenty-first century and we believe in equality? Even though women still earn seventy-eight cents on the dollar?"

Dan snorted. "Heck no. Because I don't have to." He beamed at her. "Most girls are just happy to enjoy the pleasure of my company."

"I bet," his mom said, rolling her eyes. "With that attitude, it's no wonder you're single."

No wonder she wasn't thinking about the job she didn't get was more like it, but Dan kept the thought to himself. No point distracting her from it if he was going to bring it up again, whatever the context. "Admittedly, they don't always realize what a good deal they've got until I take them home," Dan said, somewhat surprised at how smoothly the words came out. Had he turned into Ray all of a sudden?

His mom wore her best scandalized face, but what Dan sensed beneath the surface was amusement. Maybe even something else, though that was probably just wishful thinking. She couldn't really be aroused by her own son. That was the stuff of fantasies so forbidden he didn't even dare bring them to the Aether—though the thought had crossed his mind. She probably didn't even realize he was flirting with her, though Dan himself was painfully aware of such. "I hope you at least take precautions," she eventually said, rather sensibly.

Dan flicked one soft thigh with the tips of his fingers. There was nothing sexual or intimate about the brief instant of contact, but it still gave him a thrill. "What kind of guy do you think I am?" He bristled. "I never put out on the first date."

"Good?" his mom said. Her tone said she wasn't comfortable with the direction things had taken, but Dan sensed no panic or discomfort as he scanned her with his nascent abilities. She was relaxed and enjoying herself. Maybe there was nothing more going on, despite his initial assessment, but neither did it bother her to hear about her son's sexual practices.

That realization emboldened him, leading him to say, "Of course, I've never been on a date with a woman half as attractive as you are."

His mom rolled her eyes. "Stop. I'm way past my prime."

"No you're not," Dan said, though some part of him already had its hand on the e-brake.

What was he doing? Had he even read her at all? There was no aura. No bright colors. Nothing but the power of suggestion telling him that it was okay to talk to her like this.

The look she gave him, though, was...interesting. She might not have been turned-on, because of course she wasn't, but she was flattered. And a little taken aback.

For a moment, he thought she might ask him if he really meant it. So Dan started rehearsing all the possible responses inside his mind. Should he lay it on thick and make her wonder if he was kidding? What would happen if he gave an honest answer? Would that make things awkward? Or would she still doubt his sincerity?

All she said, though, was, "Thank you, sweetie." Then she leaned against him, which made Dan happy as a clam. "I wish there were more guys like you out there." Her tone went from wistful to bemused as she add, "A little older would be nice, though."

"Um, `a little' older?" Dan asked. "No one told me my mom's a cougar."

She did her best to mimic the sound of one. It wasn't very convincing, but it was cute. Actually, it was sexy as fuck, but it wasn't like Dan could get any harder.

His mom started laughing at herself. Dan joined in before kissing the top of her head. Not for the first time, he was struck by how nice her hair smelled.

"I should let you drink more often," she said. "You're fun when you're tipsy." She slapped a hand over her mouth. "Quick, someone nominate me for the Mother of the Year."

"Relax," Dan said. "It takes more than one glass to have any effect on me."

Raising an eyebrow at him, his mom asked, "And you'd know that how?"

"The BAC charts they passed around at Driver's Ed, of course." Before she could react to that, he said, "So are we gonna watch this movie, or what?"

She snorted. "Soon as you stop interrupting."

#

A knock came at the door in the middle of English class. The principal, Mr. Lombardi, poked his head in before Ms. Jackson reached the door. "Is Daniel Westbrook in this class?"

Dan felt a dozen pairs of eyes settle on him. He cleared his throat and said, "Here."

"I need you to come with me," Mr. Lombardi said. Apparently remembering how teenage minds worked, no doubt aided by all the grins and snickers from his classmates, he added, "You're not in trouble." Giving Dan a smile that was probably meant to be reassuring, he swept his hand through the doorway and said, "Right this way."

Shamefaced, Dan got to his feet. He did not hurry, though, desperate as he was to be free of the collective gaze of his classmates. He'd not give them the satisfaction.

The principal gave him another reassuring smile as they moved out into the hall. "Here we are," he said as they reached his office. Inside, a man and woman sat waiting. The principal didn't explain who they were or why the wanted to see him, though. Just put a hand on the small of Dan's back and nudged him forward.

"Mr. Westbrook," the woman said as the door closed behind Dan. Her voice was so lovely that Dan couldn't help but let his guard down a bit. He found himself moving forward to get a better view rather than bolting out the door as the voice in the back of his mind urged. The two of them were so pale they looked like corpses. With their jet black hair and dark eyeshadow—which the guy wore as well—he almost took them for goths. They weren't dressed like it, though. Neither wore black. The man had on burgundy pants and a matching shirt, brown shoes, a brown belt, and a crimson tie. The woman wore a charcoal gray skirt and blazer over a silk blouse the color of her partner's tie. Her heels and lipstick were the same shade. "We would like to have a word with you."

The only empty seat was Mr. Lombardi's. Dan chose to remain standing.

He checked to see if they had auras, though he knew they'd see the strain on his face. One day, according to Caleb, Dan would be able to do so effortlessly. Maybe then he'd get in the habit of checking everyone he met without really thinking about it. Or giving anything away. For the time being, though, he had to make a conscious decision to look for them, which wasn't always a great idea. He figured it was worth it with those two, however.

They did indeed have auras. His was dark red, hers silvery and translucent. That meant one of them practiced blood magic. Dan knew he should be to interpret the second color, but at the moment, he was coming up blank. It didn't really matter what sort of Talents they were, though. Either way, it was bad news.

Dan's hands went to the tops of his thighs, feeling his pockets for he door handle Caleb had given him. But of course it wasn't there. He kept it in his bag, where it was harder to get to but wouldn't create an awkward bulge that everyone would ask about. Because he'd never really thought he'd need it. At least not in the middle of English class.

"We understand that you spent some time in the library yesterday, where you showed quite a bit of interest in a particular website," the man said. His voice was not at all like his sister's. Assuming she was his sister. Which she just about had to be. Their features were almost identical. They might even have been twins. Either way, the man's voice was not charming in the least. If Dan hadn't already tensed up, he would have at the sound of it.

He hadn't realized at first how well the man filled out his clothes. That he had one of those deceptively solid builds. Not big and bulky, but still quite muscular.

"I don't know what bogus tracking software you guys use, but I wasn't in the library yesterday," Dan said. The lie rolled off his tongue so easily that he almost convinced himself.

"Daniel, Daniel, Daniel," the woman said with impatience, "you can't fool us that easily." Her dark eyes grabbed him by the throat and squeezed. He tried to breathe, but couldn't.

Dan ought to have been terrified. Or at least a little panicked. But at that moment, he was too caught up in disbelief to experience any other reaction.

She was using magic on him. Right there, in the principal's office—a place where he should have been safe from all threats not involving suspension or expulsion from school.

Yes, he'd stopped thinking that Caleb was full of shit. There had been a dreamlike quality to his experience with the supernatural, however. Even the books Caleb had given him, which were surprisingly boring, hadn't convinced him that the world of magic was something that could intrude on his daily life. That it was anything other than a diversion he was spending a little too much time on—entirely by choice. Oh, he burned the incense every morning, just in case. No harm in that. Carried the doorknob in his backpack too, for all the good that did him. But it had never really hit Dan that he was in constant danger now, simply by virtue of the rather meager knowledge he possessed.

Finally, panic set in. Though it was arriving late, it made quite an entrance.

Spots swam in Dan's vision. He was moments away from passing out—or worse. He might well die in that office, without really knowing who his killers were or what their motivation was. Just two of many unanswered questions that would plague his afterlife.

No. That wasn't going to happen. He had to focus, so he could do something. How could Dan let fear get the better of him when he had power over emotion? That was who he was now and there was no better time for him to start acting like it.

Whether there was anything supernatural to it or not, Dan wrestled his fear into submission. It was still there, snarling up at him, but he had the upper hand—and enough presence of mind to remember that the pale-skinned woman was not actually choking him. Not with her hands, nor by any other means. It felt like she was, but that was only because he'd been so afraid that his own mind had inadvertently blocked his airway. She could take his sense of alarm and turn it into full-blown terror, but that was about it—because she was an empath, like him. Her brother might be a blood mage, and Dan still had no fucking clue what all that meant, but this one? She had no more power over him than he granted her.

Which was none at all.

Gasping loudly, Dan drew air into his lungs.

The woman gave a half-shrug, wearing a faintly amused look on her face. Dan felt her surprise, though, as well as the frustration that followed.

"This will go ever so much faster if you choose the path of candor," her brother said. "Easier, as well. Especially for you. Besides, we are—what is the modern parlance?—ah, yes, `the good guys'. We're the good guys, Daniel. Our family has safeguarded this town for centuries." So they were brother and sister. Was Dan supposed to think they'd been around since the town had first been settled? Was that why they talked that way? Talents lived longer than normal people, but they weren't immortal. Unless it was different for blood mages? "You know what we are, do you not?" His black eyes narrowed. Yes, his irises were black. Not dark brown, like his sister's. "I see that you do."

"You were reading about us," the woman said. "We want to know why."

Dan turned his gaze back to her. "I was bored."

Her frustration mounted. As did her brother's. Neither let it show on in their facial expressions, but that didn't matter to Dan. Now that he'd seen their auras, he barely even had to try. He wasn't sure how long that would last, but just then, they were open books.

"Do you know how long it's been since anyone's visited that site?" the woman asked. Only then did Dan realize she spoke differently than her brother. Or great-great-grandfather? There was no doubt that they were related, but it was starting to seem plausible that one of them had sat on the witch-hunting council a lot longer than the other.

"Eleven years," her companion said.

"Surprised it's been around that long. Explains the crappy web design, though."

"If you will not divulge the information we seek willingly, we shall extract it through other means," the man said. "I assure you, that will be far less pleasant."

One of Caleb's books had a chapter on divination, or magic that was used to acquire information. There was a subheading for blood magic that Dan had skipped over in his eagerness to learn more about the interpretation of auras. He figured he didn't need to read that section to guess the basics, though. The guy was going to bite him and drink his blood.

There was no such thing as vampires, according to one of the other chapters, but the myths about them often had some basis in reality, usually related to blood magic.

"Fuck you," Dan said, in the spirit of eighteen-year-olds everywhere.

The woman looked to her brother/father/distant ancestor. "Is he a Talent?"

The man sneered. "I think not. He is, however, in the service of one." Suddenly, a smile appeared. It wasn't the least bit convincing, but it was probably meant to be. "Are you being coerced, Daniel? If so, you need only tell us the name of the warlock and we shall tend to him. You need never fear dark magic while the town is under our protection."

"I don't know," the woman said. "He resisted—"

The man's black eyes silenced her.

"N-n-no one's coercing me," he said, forcing a stutter. He drew rapid breaths, the way he might if he was as freaked out as he should have been. "I was acting on my own, out of idle curiosity." He cupped his hands together in front of his mouth. "You have to believe me. I'm just a kid who wants to get back to class and pretend he's read Death of a Salesman."

The two of them eyed him skeptically, but neither lunged forward. Or made any other threatening move. "Maybe we should let him go," the woman said.

"Are you not the one who, mere moments ago, suggested that he might be a Talent?" her counterpart said, without taking his black eyes off Dan.

The shiver that ran down his spine was no affectation.

Sighing, the woman said, "I was wrong."

"Speak a word of this exchange to anyone and we shall have to pay you another visit," the man said, turning back to Dan. "During which we may prove less cordial."

"I promise I won't," Dan said, forcing relief into his voice. If the woman caught so much as a trace of his amusement, of his triumph, they'd probably end him. Or at least continue the interrogation. She must not have, though, because without speaking another word, they pushed past him, leaving him alone in the principal's office.

#

"How was school?" his mom asked after she got home from work.

"Fine," Dan said, lifting his head up off the sofa's armrest just enough to look towards the kitchen. Because it was polite to acknowledge people when they spoke to you. Not because he was dying to see what his mom was wearing or anything weird like that.

Okay, that was bullshit, and he knew it.

Dan wanted to behave himself. He really, really did. Wanted to be the sort of guy who wasn't tempted to stare at his mom's ass when she wasn't looking. But he was weak. And the fantasies he acted out in the Aether were quickly going from risque to blase. His obsession with his mom, however, was only gaining strength.

She wore a coal gray pencil skirt that hugged her hips just enough to drive him crazy without being anything less than professional. Nothing all that revealing, honestly. The guys she worked probably found it unremarkable. Should he, for whatever reason, offer a cash prize to any male coworker who could identify what she'd worn to the office that day, few of them would fatten their wallets. If Dan hadn't gotten his mind stuck in the filthiest of ruts, he wouldn't get such a thrill out of seeing her in that skirt. Wouldn't get a thrill out of seeing the sort of woman he was supposed to be attracted to in it. But in Dan's current state of mind, there wasn't much his mom could have worn that wouldn't excite him. It didn't matter that the fabric of her skirt was too thick, and the cut of it too loose, to allow anyone to appreciate the shape of her glorious ass. It still offered some tantalizing hints.

He was going to have to go to bed early so that he had plenty of time to fool around in the Aether. He only hoped that Nora would continue to distract him.

"You know the drill," his mom said, looking over her shoulder. "I want details, mister."

With a sigh, Dan stopped writing midsentence and held the marble notebook above his head. "You can read all about it when I'm done." That was just a bluff, though. If he were to let her look at the journal he'd started keeping to track his progress in the world of magic, he'd be in big trouble with Caleb—assuming his mentor ever came back.

"I still can't believe your English teacher's making you do that," his mom said.

"Me either," Dan replied. Because she wasn't. Ms. Jackson was all about the Digital Humanities. She went outside the curriculum from time to time, but not with throwbacks to the old-fashioned way of doing things. That was Caleb's schtick. And apparently Dan's now as well, thanks to the latter's corrupting influence.

"Well I think it's a great idea," his mom said, cuing off his tone. "You kids spend too much time looking at glowing screens. And everything's always now, now, now. It won't hurt you to slow down and reflect on things a bit."

Dan rolled his eyes. Was he supposed to hear anything other than "I'm as old as dirt, and your newfangled technology scares me" in comments like that?

Coming into the living room, and thereby granting her son a good look at the blue silk blouse whose buttons were more than a little strained by her enormous bust, his mom said, "I do wonder why she waited until the end of the year, though."

"Ugh," Dan said. "If this shit had started in September, I'd have dropped out."

His mom frowned at his use of profanity but didn't reprimand him verbally. "I'm just saying that I think it would have been better to have you do it for several months, so you could look back and see how shallow the initial entries were." With a smile that Dan did not like at all, she added, "I should make you continue with it after graduation. Maybe threaten to not serve you dinner until you show me your entry for the day."

"Gotta go pack," Dan said, placing his notebook and pen on the coffee table and making as though he was about to roll off the couch. "Looks like I'm moving out."

His mom smacked the foot he shouldn't have had up on the armrest then went to change. Dan's eyes might have followed her down the hall a ways, but that wasn't his fault. They had a mind of their own. Besides, it was impossible not to stare at a woman that fine.

She came back wearing her standard evening wear—black leggings and one of his dad's old shirts. There'd been a time when Dan was grateful that the shirt was so big on her that it concealed just about everything from view. What had been wron—

No, what was wrong with him now?

If he didn't get a hold of himself, sooner or later his mom was going to notice the way he was looking at her. Or he was going to summon her to the Aether, starting down a path that couldn't end anywhere good. Though he'd probably have a lot of fun along the way.

No. No, no. Dan forced his eyes to focus somewhere appropriate.

"You finished the lasagna? Already?" his mom called from somewhere near the sink.

"Who said I even had any?" Dan replied. He heard the umbrage in his voice and was ashamed. That tone would make him sound childish even if he wasn't guilty as sin. Which he was. But he still resented the fact that she was so quick to level the accusation before even opening the fridge. Before she had any evidence.

His mom leaned her head back into the living room and gave him a flat stare. "Where'd those dishes come from then? That big piece of Tupperware looks suspiciously—"

"Alright, alright," Dan said. "Busted."

"Well crap," his mom said, which was as close as she came to swearing in front of him. Her voice was more playful than frustrated, though. She swung her hand at the counter top as if to slap it, but her palm didn't even make contact. "I was really in the mood for that."

"DiMaggio's has lasagna," Dan said. That was his favorite pizza place. "There's a whole pasta section there on the menu." He pointed at the fridge, where a glossy piece of paper was held in place by a magnetized picture of the family. All four of them, including his dad.

His mom heaved a sigh. Dan didn't think it was because she was hoping to avoid another night of ordering delivery either. Why had he drawn her attention to the one thing held up by that magnet, of all things? "Yeah," she said, her voice sounding distant and weary.

It felt like he should say something, but Dan didn't know what to say.

They did order from DiMaggio's. Dan ended up getting a chicken parm hero instead of a whole pizza just for one person, while his mom ordered baked ziti.

"You on a diet or something?" Dan asked after his mom pushed her dish away, most of the pasta still remaining. Granted, it was a big portion, but she usually ate more than that.

She shrugged. "What's it to you?"

"Just asking," he said, hands held up defensively.

"You mean teasing?"

"No," Dan said. "I want you to be happy. That's all."

"Yeah, well, making some changes might help with that," she said wearily. Her voice made Dan want to hold her. Comfort her. Nothing dirty, even. Just cheer her up.

"Fair enough," Dan said. "I just don't want you to think there's anything wrong with you the way you are." Ugh. They'd had this talk already. How tepid and boilerplate did all of that sound, anyway? "I happen to think you're quite sexy," he blurted out.

His mom chortled. "Sexy, Daniel? I'm your mother." She was right, of course. He didn't need her to explain such things. Or did he? "I'm not sure whether that sounds awkward or just plain wrong." Despite the admonition, though, she then patted him on the thigh—dangerously close to his semi-erect cock. For just a moment, he thought that might not have been an accident. That she knew what was there and what state it was in, and was somewhere between amused and flattered by that fact. He had to be mistaken, though. "But thank you," she added, as the offending hand retreated. More was the pity.

"You know what I'm trying to say," Dan said.

"I do. And I appreciate it."

After that, Dan tried his best to focus on his journal entry while his mom watched one of those singing contests. It had been hard enough trying to find the words to describe his interaction with the two Talents as it was. Now that his mom was sitting beside him, though, Dan just couldn't keep forbidden thoughts at bay.

"What?" his mom asked at one point. Because he'd been giving her a few too many sidelong looks. Fuck. At least he'd been more fixated on her luscious lips than her tits. "I know you don't like these shows," she added with a frown. "But you're doing your homework." Well, he sort of was. "When you're done, we can watch something else."

"Yeah, that's fine," Dan said. If only that was the problem.

#

Once he'd retired to his room, Dan decided he wasn't ready for bed after all—or the trip to the Aether that would precede it. His mom had him too worked up, through no real fault of her own. She hadn't done anything but sit there, looking a whole lot better than she realized—than he'd realized, until quite recently. These days, all she had to do was be herself, in his presence, and he'd be off to the races. If Dan lit the candle right away, he'd do something really stupid. So he sat at his desk, opened his laptop, and checked his email.

Jane had sent him a message about some new game she was obsessed with. He had to the trailers were slick and made the game look like a lot of fun. But his sister was a hardcore gamer. Anything that could be mastered by the casual player would fail to impress her. And, at least compared to Jane and her friends, casual was exactly what Dan was. He spent some time reading reviews and the same criticism kept popping up everywhere he looked—the game was really hard on new players. He decided not to download it. Still, it had been nice of her to think of him. He hadn't heard from his sister in weeks. So Dan wrote back telling her that he might give it a try and asking how she was doing otherwise.

Then, while she was on his mind anyway, he pulled up her Facebook page. Which proved to be a mistake. Most of what Dan found there was harmless—links to YouTube videos of her playing the game she'd just emailed him about and so forth. But one of the pictures randomly showing under her "photos" tab was of her in full cosplay, and Dan's reaction to seeing it again was quite different than it had been the first time.

Back then, he'd thought his sister was a total dork. Her ornate staff had an enormous blue crystal on top of it that had to be fake, but the steel might not be. The bits of lacquered armor were really detailed, too. Whether she'd used fake metal or not, that was still a crazy level of investment, be it of time or money. He also remembered wondering who the heck Jaina Proudmoore was, and whether his sister had chosen to dress up as her just so she could write "Jaina Proudmore, or JANE Proudmoore?" beneath the photo.

Now, though? His mind didn't get much past, "My sister's got really nice tits."

#

After his third visit to the Aether since going to bed, his fifth since school had let out, Dan still felt unsatisfied. He didn't seem to be accomplishing anything but setting new records of sexual frustration. Well, and testing his limits—both spiritual and physical.

Something seemed to be trickling down his lip. Dan pressed his fingers to his face, held them there for a second, then looked at them. Yep, that was definitely blood.

Caleb hadn't warned him about that. Neither had the books his mentor had given him. Perhaps everyone just assumed that certain things went without saying. Like, if your body stops groaning in protest and starts threatening to go on strike or perhaps even sabotage the workplace, you should listen. Which did seem pretty obvious, he had to admit.

On the other hand, Dan knew he wouldn't be able to get to sleep until he released some of the pressure building inside him. Which none of the previous scenes had helped with in the slightest. If anything, they'd made things worse.

Well, except for that last one. But he felt bad about banging his best friend's mom, even if it was only in the Aether. She'd been pretty timid as well. Most of the thrill had come from knowing that Ray would die of a heart attack if he ever found out. Dan could try getting more creative with the number of participants, but he was starting to get bored of threesomes, foursomes, and moresomes. What he really needed to put himself at easy was one good scene with his mom. Only that was a line he could not cross.

So what was he to do? Another scene with Nora and/or Lucie, or Ms. Conklin or his neighbor's wife or Ray's mom, wasn't going to satisfy him. It would, however, place further strain on his body and spirit. Hardly worth the risk.

Then it came to Dan. There was someone who might prove a decent substitute for the one he desired most of all. He shouldn't summon his sister either, of course, but apparently he wasn't going to be satisfied until he fucked a member of his immediate family, and Jane was definitely the lesser of two evils. She didn't even live at home anymore. He'd not have to look her in the eye the next day and think about what he'd done.

#

The bathroom light was on but the door was ajar, so Dan figured someone must have forgotten to flip the switch on their way out. So he elbowed the door open, already fumbling with the button on his jeans, and took a few steps towards the toilet.

That was as far as he got. His sister shrieked, nearly piercing his eardrums.

"Someone's in here!' Jane snapped as she whirled around and retreated to the farthest corner of the small bathroom—which wasn't very far away. She'd been standing in front of the mirror, applying some makeup, but now faced Dan. Well, faced towards him, anyway. She'd turned her head to the side and had her fingers splayed in front of her eyes. That was the same way she reacted whenever there was graphic violence on screen. It was like morbid curiosity and revulsion warred inside her and she couldn't decide which had won.

"Shit! Sorry!" Dan said, realizing a little too late that he was also shouting. Not that anyone could blame him—it was a crisis situation. After a certain age, it was impermissible for a brother and sister to be in a bathroom at the same time. Gone were the days when they could brush their teeth side by side. Plus, he'd very nearly pulled his cock out. Only to piss, of course, but still. There was absolutely no reason for that thing to taste the open air while he was in the presence of his sister. "Thought it was empty."

"Ever hear of knocking?" Jane asked, trying to back up further. The granite counter top wouldn't allow it, however. She kept looking at him through the space between her fingers, her eyes occasionally darting down to his crotch to see if her worst fears had come true.

Refastening the button, Dan shot back, "Ever hear of closing the door?"

"I wasn't...exposed," she said. Perhaps realizing that her choice of words made her sound like a nun, his sister frowned. "Was just doing my makeup." Only then did Dan realize how different she looked. Ordinarily, his sister's skin was pale enough that people called her Casper. At present, her face was between purple and violet. A darker shade ringed her left eye, with rays shooting up her forehead and across her cheek to form a starburst. "Anyway, get out!" Jane added, swatting at him. "Before you have an accident."

"I can hold it," Dan said. "You look really stupid, by the way."

Jane leaned her head out the door and called after him, "Like I care what you think?"

"Enough to get defensive about it," Dan said. Then he closed the door to his bedroom.

"Jerk!"

Where he'd expected to find his room, there was only gray mist. At first. It began to coalesce the moment he'd closed the door, forming into familiar walls and furniture as though the Aether itself knew that the scene was moving to a new location.

The Aether. Right. He'd used Caleb's candle to summon Jane to the place where he acted out his sexual fantasies. Because he intended to fuck his sister.

Well, not Jane herself. Just her Aether avatar. In some respects, though, that was a distinction without a difference. Either way, he'd come here hoping to have tons of sex with a girl who shared all the key aspects of Jane's personality.

Of course, Jane and her avatar were quite different in other ways. And that had to be considered. Her spiritual projection was as idealized as anyone else's. In real life, his sister was overweight and too much of a freak besides for anyone to notice whether she had a pretty face. Not that anyone who called her a freak wouldn't be informed that the term "emo" was much preferred. Or was it "punk" instead? Dan couldn't remember which. She didn't mind being called a geek, though. That one she wore proudly. Whatever one labeled her, though, his sister was always dying her hair unnatural colors and wearing garish lipstick. Green and black matte were her favorites. Her wardrobe consisted of loose, unflattering clothes. In all likelihood, Jane was solely responsible for the internet being full of ads for geeky tee shirts. That was for the best too, as no one wanted to see her in anything more revealing.

Her Aether avatar, on the other hand, was a real knockout. Sure, there were some similarities between the two—the girl in the bathroom had orange-brown hair with redder-than-red highlights, which Dan seemed to remember his sister sporting for a while. The single white lock dangling off to one side of her face was pure Jane as well. It had probably been more than a decade since anyone had seen the coal black hair she and Dan both had inherited from their father. And that bluish-purple lipstick was absolutely something his sister would wear. It wasn't just her chosen aesthetic, either. The avatar's face had more or less the same shape as his sister's, especially the round nose and the amethyst stud in her right nostril. The Aether version was a whole lot prettier, though. If Jane had cheekbones that nice, Dan had never noticed. Nor had anyone else, thanks to her weight. Her eyes weren't that big and dark and mesmerizing. Outside of anime, no one's were. Her skin had become flawless, though it hadn't acquired any more melanin. The more he thought about it, the more Dan wished he could go back in there and stare at her some more. Especially since he hadn't gotten much of a look at her body. He could only assume that the Aether version of his sister was more impressive, and he had noticed that she was thinner, but the level of hostility she'd directed towards him had distracted him a bit.

Not only had that been distracting, but rather believable as well. Dan wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but it certainly took his breath away. The girl inside that bathroom might not quite like his sister, but she was still a reflection of her. No, more than a reflection—an extension. With the power to pass some of her experience on to the real Jane. It would take summoning her many more times for Dan to claim her as a familiar, though. All that would happen for now was that she'd have a little more spring in her step. All the way out in rainy Seattle, Jane would wake up feeling as though she'd had the best sex of her life. She'd have no idea that it was thanks to her kid brother.

Dan's heart thumped and his head spun, making him feel dizzy and delightful. Only Nora still managed to rev his engines like that, and even she couldn't do so reliably. Or without turning the crazy up to eleven. Nothing had even happened yet either. He'd never gotten so excited over so little. He was surely in for a unique experience.

Of course it would be unlike any of his other encounters. He was about to commit incest.

Not literally, perhaps, but close enough that it should have bothered him. That was a word you didn't even type into your web browser, unless you were a whole lot more trusting of Google, Microsoft, and the National Security Agency than Dan was. Yet he was completely undeterred. No part of him was the least bit tempted to abandon the scene.

It wasn't that the taboo nature turned him on either, though. Dan knew that was a thing for some people. He was less interested in the cheap thrill that would come from doing something "so wrong" than in sharing an intimate experience with someone he truly cared about. That was where his obsession with his mom came from. It wasn't that she was as forbidden as a woman could be, but as perfect as a woman could be. Someone he had real feelings for, and who cared about him in return. As was true of his sister, if not to the same extent. He figured this was his best shot at finally scratching the itch that had been nagging him for the past few days without having to worry that he'd wake up to find that life around the house would never be the same again. His best hope of going back to sleep feeling truly satisfied and content. The last time that had happened hadn't been so long ago, but it sure fucking felt like it. Spending almost every waking moment battling the urge to summon his mom was exhausting. If his sister finally brought him some relief, he wouldn't feel any guilt at all. That might be a horribly selfish way of thinking about things, but it was still true.

Suddenly, a knock came at the door. "You there, Squeak?"

The real Jane hadn't called him that in years. Not since he'd grown too tall for her a word derived from "pipsqueak" to mean much of anything. He'd never cared for the nickname in the past, but just then it brought a smile to his face. "Yeah," Dan replied. "What's up?"

"Can I ask a favor?"

Dan opened the door. "Depends on the fa—" he began, choking on the rest of the sentence when he saw what she was wearing. Or, rather, what she wasn't.

His sister stood before him in a silk robe that barely fell past the hip. It wasn't cinched tight, either. Dan couldn't help but look down at the long strip of flesh thus exposed, interrupted only by her lacy demi-bra. The skin was painted lavender, as was the rest of her, from head to toe, but the strange hue did not stop him from enjoying the view.

Like the real Jane, the girl standing before him was thicker in the hips than the bust, her body pear-shaped. But Dan decided that had some appeal. It helped that his sister had fairly sizable breasts. Bigger here than in real life too, where they were hardly tiny.

Plus, while the robe did obscure some things, making it hard to tell for sure, it looked like his sister's avatar had hips twice the size of her waist. That was only partly because she was thinner here than in real life. Her thighs remained quite thick, though they now had a most appealing shape and looked incredibly smooth. There had to be serious muscle involved, and the outlines of abdominal muscles were visible above the waist, but her lower body still lacked definition and that made her soft and feminine in Dan's eyes. In real life, no woman had such a physique—lean overall yet possessing a good amount of body fat in just the right places. But this was the Aether. Things were different here.

"—vor," Dan finished, before swallowing the lump in his throat.

"I know you think cosplaying is stupid," Jane said. "So you probably can't imagine why I'd want to cover myself in body paint. But I do, okay? And I can't reach everywhere."

"Looks like you did a pretty good job to me," Dan said, trying not to look her up and down appreciatively. If he could just keep a straight face, perhaps she wouldn't know how desperately he wanted to see just how much she'd missed.

Dan pulled his mind out of the gutter, forcing himself to focus instead on how brave his sister had to be to dress up like that for a nerd convention.

There was a reason she thought he held cosplaying in low regard. Back when she'd still lived at home, he had. Now that he'd had some time to mature, Dan respected that his sister knew exactly who she was and didn't care what anyone else thought of her as a result. He himself would never have the guts to risk ridicule the way Jane did on a daily basis. Which probably meant he hadn't matured all that much. But whatever.

In his defense, though, it was different for guys. Besides, that was how Jane earned a living. She might have had a hard time in high school, but she now made decent money from tournaments, advertising on her Twitch stream and Youtube channels, Patreon supporters, and writing the occasional column for gaming sites. Dan still wasn't sure what sort of career he'd end up having, but it wouldn't involve video games. Letting his geek flag fly in high school wouldn't count as some sort of investment in his future.

None of which took anything away from her, of course. The more he thought about it, the more Dan was in awe of his big sister. Fond as she was of cosplay, in a sense, Jane had never been anything other than herself, even as a teenager. And that was pretty impressive.

Especially when "herself" could fill out a bra like that.

Whoops. Right back in the gutter.

"I couldn't reach my back. Would you do it for me?" she asked. "Please?" she added, fretting at her lower lip. That was stupid sexy, whatever color the lip in question was. Especially with her looking up at him through such impossibly thick and long eyelashes.

"What's it worth to you?" Dan asked, because that was what he would have said in the real world. Then he forced a grin onto his face and hoped it looked appropriately sadistic.

Jane pouted. "Oh, forget it. I shouldn't even have—"

"No, wait," Dan said, reaching out to grab her arm even though she hadn't actually moved from the doorway yet. "I'll do it," he said. "Free of charge."

"What's the catch?"

"There is none."

She regarded silently for a time before declaring, "Well, that is how favors work."

Not true. Once upon a time, it had been understood that to ask for a favor was to promise one in return. And according to Caleb's books, that practice was still alive and well in the Nation of Free Folk. But they didn't belong to the Nation. Jane wasn't even a Talent. So Dan held his tongue, letting his sister have the last word.

She nodded then led him down the hall. In the real world, their mom had converted Jane's old bedroom into a home office a few years after she'd gotten married. But here, it looked pretty much the same way it had six years ago. The bookshelves were filled with paperback novels, gaming manuals, and painted miniatures. Harry Potter posters adorned the walls and the desk by the window had a computer tower, ergonomic keyboard, wireless mouse, and dual monitors. Atop one of the dressers sat a small TV, while prior gen consoles, controllers, and games that would qualify as retro now occupied the surface of its twin.

"That's the rest of my costume," Jane said, pointing towards the bed. There, he found a colorful wig, prosthetic ears, bits of leather armor with fancy copper embellishment, a halter top bra made of the same materials, and what Dan supposed could be a skirt. It consisted of a leather belt, long pennants in front and back, and round patches for her hips.

"Do wood elves have blue hair?" Dan asked.

"I'm not going to be a wood elf." Had Dan said "Keebler" instead, her reply might have carried more derision, but that's about what it would have taken. "There's no such thing."

"As elves, period?" Dan suggested. "That's what you meant, right?"

Jane rolled her eyes. "In Azeroth, there are four kinds of elves. Wood's not one of 'em."

From her reaction, one might think that they'd discussed Azeroth's elves before.

Which, come to think of it, they might have. The whole interaction felt really familiar—minus the sexual tension he sure hoped wasn't one-sided. Dan had never helped his sister put on body paint before, but he was pretty sure he'd seen this very costume a few years ago, or one very similar to it. Jane dressed conservatively most of the time, but whenever geek fest rolled around, she didn't let negative body image keep her from reveling properly. If she had worn that costume before, Dan had probably made the same lame comment about her wig. And she'd have given him the same lecture as the one he was about to endure. He'd have tuned out during most of it, though, explaining why he had no recollection thereof.

"There's the Highborne, who're extinct, the high elves, who are very nearly so, and the night elves and blood elves, who are everywhere," Jane said. Frowning, she added, "Well, and Felblood, but they're just corrupted blood elves, so they don't really count as separate."

"Obviously," Dan said. "Everyone knows that."

Jane gave him a flat look.

"So Highborne and high elves are not the same?"

To Dan's surprise, his sister did not interpret the question as mocking. That, or she just wanted an excuse to give a real answer, so she was pretending to think it had been sincere. Which Dan supposed it had been, if only to a very limited extent.

With no exasperation or condescension evident in her voice, Jane's avatar said, "Both night and high elves are descended from—"

"What?" Dan asked when she cut herself off. He wasn't staring at her tits or anything. To his surprise as much as hers, he'd been paying close attention to what she was saying.

"Even I think I sound like a total nerd," his sister said. Her cheeks grew flushed. She pointed to a silver tube on the desk. "There's the body paint. Let's get this over with."

With that, Jane turned her back to him and her robe dropped to the floor.

Part of Dan wanted to prod his sister to keep talking about the elves of Azeroth, if only to keep her from guessing what he was truly interested in. That, and because he'd just realized he actually liked listening to her geek out. Liked hearing the absolute glee in her voice. It made her sound like a child, though in a good way. Annoying as his sister could be at times, he'd always found her excitement a bit contagious.

Though whether that said more about her or him, Dan wasn't sure. Perhaps that was part of being an empath. Had he drawn energy from his sister in a more innocuous way years before deciding to seduce her so that her lust might fuel his magic?

Was that was this was about? Powering his magic?

All thoughts fled his mind as Dan's eyes fixated on his sister's ass.

Her lacy boy shorts covered the tippity top of each butt cheek, but no more than that. And, damn, were those cheeks perfect. It was like she had two ripe watermelon halves back there—big, round, firm, and cleanly separated from her thick, shapely thighs. The deep lines of cleavage, such beautiful arcs sweeping across her lavender skin, made Dan light-headed.

It took Dan a moment to realize his sister didn't need his help at all. She couldn't have. The only place he could think of that might have been hard for her to reach, between her shoulder blades, was the same strange shade as the rest of her. Her bra strap hadn't rubbed any of the makeup off, either. In fact, the more he stared at her, the less convinced he was that the chemical compound in the tube had tarnished his sister's flawless skin. Rather, the Aether had altered her skin pigmentation, leaving no oils or residue behind.

"Squeak?" she asked. "You gonna do my back or what?"

Dan cleared his throat. "Sorry," he said.

"If you make one joke about how big my butt is...well, you can say goodbye to any future that involves you having kids," she told him. "I mean it. One comment."

"Wouldn't dare," Dan said. And that was more or less true. He certainly hadn't intended to make any jokes about its size. Objects of such perfection were no laughing matter.

Dan absolutely could not believe the size of it, or how it defied gravity. Yet he suspected it would jiggle nicely when slapped, unlike Nora's, which was forged steel and barely reacted to even the hardest of impacts. There was probably more fat and less muscle on display before him than in the last ass he'd nearly lost his mind over, yet still no dimpling or cellulite. No way an ass that big, in real life, could be so smooth. Yet smooth it was.

"So, the night and high elves," Dan said as he squirted paint into his palms. Which wasn't paint at all, but a clear lotion that he hoped would double as lube.

Jane snorted. "You don't have to humor me."

"Maybe I am," he replied, pressing his hands gently against her back. She tensed up but didn't retreat from his touch. "Maybe I'm not. Does it matter?"

After a moment's hesitation, in which he noted that her muscles began to relax, Jane said, "I suppose not." At first, Dan merely slid his palms across her skin, spreading the lotion around until everything within a certain radius glistened softly. Then he started pressing his palms in a bit and kneading her skin with his thumbs. If his sister was enjoying the massage, though, she kept that to herself. She offered no more encouragement than she did resistance. She did, however, move her body in conjunction with his hands, rolling one shoulder and then the other as he worked the tension out of her muscles. "So, yeah, the elves."

Dan listened attentively, excited by the enthusiasm that crept into her voice the longer she spoke. That, as much as the proximity of her, the shapeliness of her avatar, made his whole body thrum with anticipation and arousal. He felt dizzy, but in the best possible way.

Time for her to experience some of that.

In his mind, Dan pictured a hand slowly turning a dial. With each click, his sister derived greater pleasure from the massage. Nothing changed for her physically—Dan lacked that power. His hands provided the exact same stimulus as before, but he altered her emotional state and that had more or less the same effect. The arousal she probably hadn't even recognized as such intensified, while the awkwardness inherent in having her brother's hands on her body and the fear of him mocking her for nerdiness, faded away.

"Since when are you so good with your hands?" she asked not long after.

"Some of us like to spend our time leveling up in the real world," Dan replied.

"Funny," she said.

It really was. Somehow, he'd delivered the line without considering the setting.

Ignoring the queasiness in his stomach, Dan slipped one bra strap down her shoulder. Nervous as he was, the motion was surprisingly smooth. Jane didn't even react.

So he lowered the other one. Then after working her shoulders a bit more, Dan unfastened the clasp. At that point, he was sure, his sister would finally object. Only she didn't. Instead, she pulled the garment away and tossed it onto the bed without a word. Then she covered her girls with her palms, though not before Dan caught a brief glimpse over her shoulder.

That was enough to make his knees wobble. Her breasts were incredible. Even without the support of the bra, they remained high on her chest. Ordinarily, Dan liked a little more sag, if only because that proved he wasn't looking at implants, but he had to admit he liked how perky his sister's pair was. Her nipples were a little on the small side, but they still stood out—both because of their deep purple hue and the fact that they were hard as rocks.

Never in his life had Dan ached so longingly to suck on a girl's nipples. Or just cup her breasts. His sister had him so turned on he wasn't sure he could bear it. Yet he decided to draw things out. Something told him that was Jane was more interested in slow seduction than wild, animalistic sex. That he would have sex with her was no longer in doubt. Energy was pouring into him steadily. It wasn't yet a torrent, as he hoped it would be later on, but neither was it a trickle. Plus, there was the nipple erection to consider.

He noticed then that her ears had elongated and grown pointy. The fake set was still on the bed, attached to the wig she wasn't wearing. Yet her hair had turned blue.

Dan leaned closer and tilted his body sideways so that he slide one leg between hers. His breath had to feel warm against her neck. The way her own breathing made her chest rise and fall was captivating, especially now that her hands fell away from her chest once more. The smell of her perfume and shampoo teased his nostrils. Neither was anything that could be found on the shelves of drug stores. There was an earthiness to them that reminded him of hiking through the mountains. And a hint of blueberries.

Jane laid one hand over his. At first, Dan took that for a reproachful gesture, but he knew that it wasn't. His sister was experiencing a rush of emotions, which had to be overwhelming, but none would have prompted that. Besides, the longer her hand lingered atop his, without any attempt to separate it from her body, the more intimate it felt.

That only seemed to confirm that this would be unlike any of his previous experiences. Those had been the equivalent of junk food—nothing but empty calories. This would be more than a mere act of nourishment. It would bring the two of them closer together.

No, it wouldn't. Because it wasn't his sister Dan had his hands on, but her avatar. A representation of her that only contained a bit of her essence. She wasn't there the way he was, and would have no memory that this had happened. How could he forget that?

Because she reminded him so much of the real Jane? Because it felt like they were sharing the first moment of real intimacy he'd experienced in the Aether?

Maybe. But she was still just an avatar.

"Daniel," she moaned as she leaned back, her shoulders meeting his bare chest.

"Shh," he said. "Just go with it."

"Does it seem like I'm not?" she asked. One soft thigh moved in, pressing against his. When she found his hard cock tucked into his boxers, she began rubbing against it. That excited Dan, yet still felt less bold than the way she'd rested her hand atop his. Or the admission that she knew exactly what was happening and had no intention of stopping it.

Her hand departed, and for a moment, Dan thought the light and warmth had gone out of the room. The breath caught in his throat and he had to stave off feelings of despair.

If something as small as having her palm on the back of his hand could have that big of an impact on him, what would happen when they took things to the next level? Afterwards, would he be capable of returning to the real world? Of connecting to women there?

Dan imagined himself becoming a cautionary tale. Whenever young empaths started to grow overfond of the Aether, their mentors would remind them of Daniel Westbrook.

That should have convinced him to finally make the smart choice and get out while he still could. But it didn't. Because he'd never needed anything like he did his sister just then.

Then he realized she was simply repositioning her soft palm. It came to rest on his cheek. Her hips started rolling in a circular motion, grinding that fat ass against him. Dan took the hint and gently covered her breasts with his palms, causing his sister to moan. When he started playing with her nipples, she gasped, let out a throaty purr, and said, "I've been waiting for you to do that. Ever since I took my bra off."

She couldn't have meant it, or she wouldn't have covered herself up. But it didn't matter. In that moment, she welcomed his touch. In fact, a torrent of energy was indeed pouring into him, far sooner than he'd expected it to. That made Dan vibrate at his very core. A deep thrum filled his ears and the world around him wavered like steam rising off a fire for a moment while he struggled to absorb all that power. Once he grew more accustomed to the rate at which his sister was empowering him, her bedroom grew still once more.

She was really working her hips, grinding her ass against him. He simply could not believe how good that felt. Or that Jane knew how to work it like that. He almost forgot to fondle her tits and tease her nipples. Almost.

"I love you, Jane," Dan said without even thinking about. He did love her, of course. She was his sister, after all. But it came out sounding like more, and if she heard it that way, he wasn't sure that he'd have given her the wrong impression.

He opened to his mouth again to explain, but didn't get the chance.

"I love you too, Squeak."

The way she said it, though, it didn't sound romantic at all. Just familial. Yes, she was grinding up on him, and they were going to end up in bed very soon, but that was only so different from one sibling fetching another cold medicine after hearing them cough. They were tending to one another's needs, because brothers and sisters were sometimes willing to alleviate suffering. And they were suffering, so intense was their desire for one another. But that was it. They weren't gonna run away together, abandoning her husband and their single mom, so they could start a new life together under fake names, get married, and have a bunch of kids. Or anything remotely like that. Who had even suggested such a thing?

Jane's avatar had spoken those three little words to him, somehow robbing them of their magic without devastating him. Not Jane. Her avatar. Dan had to keep that in mind.

She whimpered as he gave one nipple more of a squeeze than he'd meant to. It wasn't a sweet, appreciative whimper either, but one tinged with alarm. "Careful," his sister said. "They're really sensitive. That's why I never got them pierced."

"Sorry," Dan said, letting go. He couldn't stop himself from going off on flights of fancy, turning the encounter into more than it was, nor could keep the frustration he felt over that from tightening his grip. How many warning signs was he going to ignore?

Jane tapped the back of his hand. "I didn't say stop. Just go easy."

All of them, apparently.

"You're really okay with this?" Dan asked, rolling her nipple gently between his fingers. Jane's head lolled back and her pointy ear almost poked him in the face. The sounds passing through her lips made him leak precum. "Even though I'm your brother?"

"You kidding? That's the best part."

For some reason, that made Dan shudder. With excitement? Disgust?

"I'm kidding, Squeak," Jane said. "Of course I'm a little grossed out. But I'm also really turned on, and I don't want you to stop. In fact, if you do, I might cry."

"Can't have that. Your makeup might run."

She snorted. "Then you'd have to reapply it."

Dan chuckled. A sharp thrust of Jane's hips proved that a butt that big could also be a weapon. Though the hip check did more to amuse Dan than hurt him. He fired back, smacking into her bottom with just enough force to produce a cute little yelp. The sound made him chuckle again. "Are you laughing at me?" she asked, as if there was any doubt that he was doing just that. Or any way of construing their continued hip thrusts as some form of wrestling, rather than the dry-humping it had obviously become.

"Suppose I was," Dan said, his mouth hovering just above her earlobe. "What would you do about it?" he asked before making good on the unspoken promise.

His sister moaned as he nibbled and sucked at her earlobe, but somehow still managed to say, "You think you're so big now that I can't take you?"

It was all so surreal. They were rubbing against each other, Dan nibbling at her ear, and he held her naked tits in his hands, but otherwise, the exchange couldn't have sounded more like one he and his sister might have in the real world. Or might have had a few years ago, when they were both a bit younger and less mature. And she'd still lived at home.

Why the hell had she moved to Seattle? Just because her husband had family in the area? And all the big game development companies were on the west coast? What about Dan, and their mom? Sure, their dad had still been alive when she'd left, but Dan now realized that only made him wish all the more that she'd moved back after the crash.

Some or all of that should have spoiled the moment for him, but it didn't. Dan didn't want to see her as some strange, unattainable beauty—even if she had pretty convincingly transformed herself into an elf. He wanted to make love to his sister. The girl he'd grown up with, couldn't wait to be rid of, and now missed terribly.

"Don't know," Dan said, giving her earlobe the briefest respite. His sister began to writhe more frantically and he felt an orgasm building up inside her. Just when he was sure she was about to climax, he stopped everything he was doing.

"Oh, you little shit," she said.

Dan flicked his tongue against her neck, just below her ear, producing the most delicious shudder. Then he dragged the pads of his fingers along her nipples, moving ever so slowly and barely making contact at all. That got even more of a reaction from her. At first, Dan thought he'd miscalculated and had allowed her to climax after all, then he realized it was something of a misfire, which amused him greatly. "Face it—I'm more than you can handle."

His sister was breathing heavy, her full breasts expanding against his palms then retreating again as her chest fell. That was nearly as delightful as the flustered look on her face, which he suspected had as much to do with his comment as the fact that he'd just denied her an orgasm. "You think so?" she asked, eyeing him over her shoulder.

There were a lot of things Jane was better at than him. Too many, in fact, and she was aware of them all. She didn't rub his face in it anymore, the way she had as a teenager, but memories from back then made it hard not to appreciate the reversal of fortunes.

"You look like you'd love to make me eat those words," Dan told her, giving her nipples some lovin' again. Her eyelids fluttered and she exhaled mightily. Damn, they really were sensitive. "Any ideas on how you might go about doing that?" he asked.

"What I'd really love to make you eat is my pussy," Jane said. The voice and intonation were so perfect, Dan could almost believe his actual sister had just said that to him. A shiver ran down his spine. "But first, I'm gonna suck your dick. Let's see if you can last ten minutes." She pulled his hands off her breasts. "If not, I expect an apology."

Dan snorted. "You're not gonna get one."

She turned to face him and slid his hands around her waist then back and down to the treasure awaiting him. He gave one cheek a good squeeze, eliciting a naughty grin. Fuck, his sister had a nice big butt. So round yet soft and smooth. It was unbelievable. Her breasts were nice, but her ass set a new standard. Jane planted a hand on her hip, careful not to displace his arm as she did. The look she gave him was probably supposed to be a glower, but it was more of a smirk. "Are you turning down a blowjob?" she asked.

"Oh my god. Are you smirking because you think that was clever?"

With a huff, Jane said, "I'm no expert on being a guy, but I think you're doing it wrong."

"Just had to finish that one, huh?" he said.

She smacked his chest. Then his sister kissed him like he'd never been kissed before. She had to go up on tiptoes while pulling his head down to do it, but that didn't slow her down one bit. Sudden as it all was, Dan expected to feel like he was under assault. But her lips made soft contact with his, and they tasted sweet. Not in the metaphorical sense, either. It was almost like she'd coated them in sugar. Flavored sugar. If her hair smelled like blueberries, her lips tasted like grape jolly ranchers. That should have been offputting but was strangely addictive. Dan could kiss those lips for hours on end.

If it didn't mean missing out on a blowjob.

Still, he was in no hurry to break things off. He wanted to get a better sense of what his sister was like as a lover. He was surprised by how tender and tame her kiss was, at least to start out. It was certainly affectionate, if not quite the way an acceptable kiss between brother and sister was, but it lacked passion. And tongue. The longer it went on, though, the more intense it became. Soon, Jane's tongue was darting playfully into his mouth. Then licking his lip furtively, and finally tangling with his in a lustful dance. Meanwhile, Dan pawed at his sister's epic ass with ever more aggression, and she dug the nails of one hand into his scalp while raking the others down his chest and abdomen.

Dan was about to toss his sister on the bed when she finally broke away.

She must have seen the disappointment on his face, because she said, "Who can't handle what now?" A smug grin appeared on her face that was all too familiar, despite the unusual color of her skin. It didn't matter that Jane was sucking air every bit as pathetically as he was or that her pupils were dilated and her cheeks flushed the same deep purple as her lips. Why? Because it just didn't, at least not to her.

Dan had flashbacks to all the games of Mario Kart he'd lost to his sister. Only those had been a lot less fun than competitive kissing with her elvish avatar.

"We'll see," Dan replied.

"Oooh, what a comeback," his sister said, sliding a hand over a hard pectoral once more as she closed the tiny gap between them. Her second kiss, it turned out, was just a quick peck on the cheek. Followed by a smile that was filled with affection, bordering on admiration.

"You are too cute," Dan told his sister. That made her blush and look away, which was even cuter. He assumed it was an affectation, that his words couldn't possibly have such an affect on her, but he felt something stir inside her that argued otherwise.

"I hope you're ready for a heart attack," she said as her hand slid down his torso.

"If you kill me, I'm gonna tell mom."

Jane laughed. Then without another word, she dropped to her haunches.

The next thirty seconds whizzed past, leaving only a blur. Dan couldn't remember if he'd felt nervous or just excited before his sister had started sucking his dick. Nor could he have said if she'd taken him in slowly, licking, kissing, and teasing the sensitive head and shiny foreskin, or if she'd engulfed the upper third—all that fit inside her mouth—in one quick gesture. Her kiss had started off slow, after all, before growing more intense than most of Nora's. Whatever she'd done, it had clearly been effective.

Some women liked to build suspense and anticipation until the need for something more grew unbearable. His sister did not appear to be one of them. She was more a wildcat, ready to devour her prey whole. The damn girl knew where his most sensitive parts were, too. Her lips and tongue attacked relentlessly, until he was sure he could take no more.

A few seconds later, Dan filled her mouth with a second load. This time, he realized he was cumming, and had a chance to savor the intensity of his orgasm as well as the sweet ecstasy and wave of euphoric relief that followed. His sister was swallowing with such force, generating so much suction, that Dan very nearly achieved a third orgasm by the time she was done cleaning up after the second. But the moment passed and his excitement ebbed.

The next volley was easier to endure, either because Jane actually let up a bit or Dan finally got his wits about him and managed to play defense. He wasn't sure. Either way, it felt incredibly good rather than oh-my-god-she-wasn't-kidding-about-the-heart-attack good.

In fact, it was less of a trial than something he got to truly enjoy. A few times, tears welled in his eyes and his muscles grew tense, but the pleasure never quite reached overwhelming. Eventually, Dan realized he was experiencing the best blowjob of his life, and it was at the hands of—err, in the mouth of—his geek of a sister.

The ability to think in complete sentences, with words that weren't monosyllabic, returned. As a result, countless paradoxes Dan had been previously unable to ponder now vexed his mind. The very last girl he'd ever expect to have squatting before him like that was his big sister. And yet, something about it felt right, in a very deep sense. Like the scene they were acting out in the Aether was not just plausible, but inevitable—maybe even fated. Dan didn't believe in any such force, though, so he wasn't sure what to make of that. Similarly, he couldn't decide whether it was surprising or utterly predictable that she was so fucking good at it. On the one hand, geeks weren't known for their sexual prowess. On the other, there were few things his sister didn't excel at once she took an interest in them. If she'd set out to become a world-class cocksucker, then of course she was one.

While his third orgasm still seemed a ways off, Dan began to lose confidence in his knees. The damn things just couldn't do their job right. So he stumbled towards the bed before toppling over like a tree cut down by a lumberjack. Jane laughed after he slipped out of her mouth, told him how graceful he was, then tossed the bits of armor he only knew to be greaves and bracers because of her onto the floor, got on the bed, and went right back to it.

While his sister was busy emptying his lungs through a most implausible and indirect path, Dan reached over and fondled her ass. He still couldn't believe how amazing it was. That made him wonder what her backside looked like in real life. Aether avatars were always more attractive, but their features were still based on their counterparts' actual physiques. In both the real world and the Aether, for example, Nora had a nicer lower body than Lucie, who had bigger tits. Both Janes were soft and pear-shaped, despite having a respectable endowment up top. Did that mean she had a nice round bottom that he'd never quite noticed? Or was it sizable but shapeless? How hard would it be to find out on Facebook?

The insane amounts of pleasure she brought him soon disrupted that train of thought.

For a while there, it had seemed like he'd built up some tolerance. Nope. Apparently his sister had been toying with him. And she was done with that now. Dan's vision blurred and he clenched his jaw as every other muscle tensed involuntarily.

He was fighting a losing battle, though. It was all just too much.

The physical pleasure was unparalleled, but it wasn't just that. Dan was overwhelmed in every sense of the word. He couldn't believe what was happening. How it was so intense and erotic, yet also loving and, well, beautiful. He was sharing a sublime moment with his sister, experiencing purest bliss at the hands of a girl whose idea of having fun with her brother had always involved polyhedral dice or video games. As it probably still should.

Dan knew incest was wrong, but just then, he was having trouble remembering why. Especially since they were in the Aether, where their bodies weren't quite corporeal, let alone theirs. It wasn't like Jane was going to get pregnant in the real world and give birth to deformed, mutant babies or anything. What possible harm could this do to anyone?

That wasn't a line of thought his sister allowed him to pursue any further, though. Her soft lips and warm, persistent tongue drove away all distractions, leaving nothing but ecstasy that bordered on agony. Dan balled his hands into fists, squeezed his buttocks so tight he rose an inch or two up off the bed, and hissed through gritted teeth. The tension lingered for several long moments before he let out a primal scream and reached climax.

As he so often did in the Aether, Dan ejaculated profusely. Once he started cumming, he didn't stop for nearly a minute. Each contraction of his testicles sent another wave of relief washing over him like a fine mist. After filling his vision with spots, that was. Jane gulped down one mouthful after another, moaning contentedly around his shaft. By the time he knew the next jet would be his last, he figured his sister had swallowed a pint of the stuff—and that wasn't counting either of his previous orgasms.

"Fuuuck," Dan moaned as he struggled to regain his breath. Merciless bitch that she was, his sister was already starting in on another blowjob.

Dan couldn't have said how it was possible for her to outdo her previous performance, but she did. Because his sister never stopped trying to break her own records. It wasn't that the level of intensity went up, though. There wasn't really room for it to do so. Just that, this time around, his sister took a more leisurely approach, which was exactly what he needed from her. Dan hadn't realized how versatile Jane's dick-sucking game was. Apparently, she didn't just excel at relentless stimulation of the glans. She could do teasing and playful just as well. Hardly five seconds ever passed without his whole body going limp in complete surrender—or seizing up in preparation for another orgasm. Dan cycled endlessly between the two extremes, ever more in awe of his sister with each iteration.

Not just because she gave great head, though he put a lot of stock in that. No less important was the way she intuited, and respected, his limits. After proving that she could shatter any defenses he might erect, reducing him to sputtering mess in a matter of moments, she eased up and allowed him to enjoy himself. Well, their path hadn't been quit that linear, but that was about the gist of it. She could have made the whole ordeal a lot harder in him, just to prove a point. But she didn't, and he loved her all the more for it.

For that, and so many other reasons he couldn't quite articulate.

A lifetime later, Jane sat back on her heels. "You alright?"

"Might need to start taking statins, but the prognosis is good," Dan said.

Jane pressed a soft palm to his cheek as she rose to her full height. "You've no idea how much I enjoyed that." She smiled and kissed him quickly on the lips.

It took Dan a moment to realize there was no edge to her words. He'd almost expected her to challenge him to do better. To get her off as many times as she had him. But while Jane's competitive impulse was a big part of who she was, all that was on display at the moment was genuine regard for her brother. Satisfaction over having made him happy.

He kissed her back, and with a lot less haste. His hands explored her fat ass, because how could they not, but he tried to keep things tender. There was a hunger growing inside him, but Dan was not a wolf about to devour his prey. He was brother who loved his sister.

Some time later, he found himself staring down at his sister as she lay flat on her back, legs spread to reveal the damp spot at the front of her panties. "Your turn."

"Not promising any heart attacks, but I'll do my best," he said.

"That'll do," Jane replied, with the sweetest smile.

Dan managed to get his sister off twice in quick succession. He hadn't even stuck his fingers inside her yet, just licked her glistening labia and swollen clit. Her third climax arrived much later than he'd expected it to, but it lasted almost two minutes, so he figured that made up for it. Once he found her G-spot and worked his way up for furtive taps to relentless assault, she ejaculated wildly, cursing up a storm as she did.

When Dan finally came up for air, afraid that if he didn't give her a break his attentions would no longer feel good, he found his sister staring at him with a mix of wonder and awe. That was a look he'd seen before, but never from her. It made his head spin.

"When did you change back?" he asked, realizing that her hair had returned to that bright, unnatural red that was more than a little fascinating. Especially since her complexion made it seem every bit as colorful as her wig had been. Her skin was no longer violet but its usual paper white instead. Her lips had turned a dark green. The elf ears had shrunk back to normal and her nipples and vulva were pink instead of deep purple.

"Why are you the one that's blushing?" Jane asked.

"Because," Dan replied as he struggled to regain his composure.

"I'm not doing anything," his sister said with a knowing smile. She ran the bottom of her foot down the shaft of his cock then teased his hard abs. That gave him more of a thrill than he'd expected. Feet did nothing for him, unlike some freaks out there, but there was something incredibly tender and intimate about the gesture. Sexual too, considering where the journey had started, yet not. Dan could almost picture his sister doing that to him in the real world, though more to make him uncomfortable than as an affectionate gesture. Like most siblings, they behaved as though one another's feet were disgusting and toxic.

"Are too," he said.

Her foot fell away. "Just admiring my baby brother. Who, it turns out, knows how to find the G-spot. And what to do with it once he does."

Dan her a slap on the thigh. Gentle shockwaves rippled across her pale flesh, hypnotizing him. Her body was so soft, yet at least in this form, she barely even had a waist. "Be that as it may," he said, "you look like you just met your favorite game designer."

"Please. You're no Ben Brode." She stroked her chin. "Missing the facial hair."

Dan had no idea who that was but didn't much care either, so he leaned down and kissed her on the lips. Jane encircled his waist with her soft thighs, pulling him in close, and teased the back of his neck with her nails. Again, he was struck by how innocent and pure the carnal act felt. There was plenty of lust in that room, of course, but love as well. He felt so close to his sister. And the energy she was feeding him tasted different. Or felt different? He wasn't sure which sense was more analogous. Either way, Dan knew that he'd awakened intense emotions inside of her, but they weren't the sort he was used to feeding off.

At that point, Jane got onto all fours and started to crawl towards him. Dan went flat on his back and crossed his arms in front of his face, as if afraid she was going to tickle him the way she might have in years past. "Back off or I'll use an Unspeakable Curse."

"That's Unforgivable Curse, you Muggle," Jane said as she made her way up his torso. She leaned in close to his face, wearing a predator smile, and kissed him.

Sweetly.

Some time later, their lips parted. Dan felt weightless and intoxicated. His sister's hands rested on his chest, while his had found their way to her ass. Go figure.

"I shouldn't want this," Jane said as she reached down to take hold of his stiff member. Her lips were slick and parted eagerly for him. Inside, her embrace was warm and tight.

"Probably not," Dan agreed as his vision blurred.

"But I just can't help myself." Jane's words were interrupted by stuttered breaths and her big brown eyes rolled back in her head. Her eyelids fluttered and, inside, her walls spasmed lightly against his thick shaft. Almost like she was cumming.

Eventually, they managed to meet one another's gaze. Dan almost forgot about the carnal pleasures being visited upon him by his sister's pussy. A thousand words passed between them, all unspoken. If Dan had thrown a curse at her, it had rebounded, like the one that had given Harry his scar. It must have, because he didn't think he'd ever be satisfied by regular sex again. He only hoped the same didn't go for her. Without the ability to visit the Aether, she'd only be able to scratch that itch when he summoned her.

He'd have to worry about that later, though, because she'd resumed her descent and that meant his brain was no longer functioning. At least not the parts responsible for higher order cognitive functioning. All he could do was marvel at how good it felt to be inside her.

With one sharp thrust of her hips, Jane finished taking him in. A tidal wave of pleasure, not entirely physical in nature, broke against his feeble body. Dan gasped for air, instinctively bolting up as he fought the drowning sensation. His sister pushed him right back down, though she seemed to be lost in ecstasy herself. She wasn't as strong as him, but he hadn't been expecting that. And he was in no shape, at that moment, to overpower anyone. Nor could Dan remember why that was even a concern. A tingling sensation spread from his lungs to the rest of his body. His manhood was on fire, but somehow that was okay.

A long time later, perhaps two or three whole seconds, Dan opened his eyes and looked up at his sister. She wasn't actually glowing, he didn't think, but for a split second, it had sure seemed like a silver nimbus had surrounded her. The smile she gave him, green lips arching softly, made his heart sing. "Yeah?" she asked, a question that only had meaning because they'd known each other for so many years they could anticipate one another's thoughts.

"Yeah," Dan said.

She nodded and rose up off him a bit so that an inch or two slid out. Then she pushed back down and repeated the process. Each iteration seemed to last a month.

Why had he ever bothered summoning anyone else? Who cared what Nora thought about anything? He didn't need to impress her in order to feel good about himself. All he needed for that was his family. They alone loved him unconditionally, in spite of his many faults.

The bond between Dan and his sister was deeper and stronger than anything he could hope for with any other woman. The two of them had so much history together. So many memories, both good and bad. They knew more about one other than any married couple ever could. Jane was no mere object of desire to him, desirable though she might be. She was a complex, multifaceted, person, whom he found alternately frustrating, amusing, helpful, lame, inspiring, unintentionally hilarious, and fun in geeky sort of way. And he could tell by the look in her big brown eyes that she felt much the same way about him. Minus the lame part, of course. Because that definitely only applied to her.

Without giving his sister any warning, Dan spun the dial to ten.

Jane threw her head back and let out an incoherent scream. Her hips sped up until she was basically pummeling him, while inside, she grabbed hold of his cock, squeezed hard enough to take his breath away, then relaxed and did it all over again. A thousand times a second, it felt like. All of a sudden, she fell silent and all her muscles contracted at once. They spasmed involuntarily for a while, on their way to relaxing, but still she didn't speak. Or open her eyes. For the longest time, the only sound was that of her labored breathing.

As he studied her face, Dan decided that green lipstick really worked on her. He remembered thinking the crazy colors she favored were, by turns, laughable and hard to look at without squinting. But he didn't think so anymore. They made her lips, which were admittedly a little thin even in the Aether, really pop. Of course, serene as she looked post-orgasm, it didn't matter what color her lips were. She was just so beautiful, and knowing that he'd put her in that peaceful state made his head spin.

Still, it had been a long time since she'd moved. "You okay?"

Jane nodded. Sort of.

"Too much?"

"Nope," she said. Eyes still closed, she reached down to touch his face and stroke his short hair. Without his help, she might have missed. "Mmmcremible."

"Was that supposed to be `incredible' or were you just moaning?" Dan asked.

"Dunno," she said.

"Had me worried there for a sec," Dan told her, brushing red hair away from her face.

"Pfft. If something had actually happened to me, you'd have kept going. At least until you nutted one more time." She offered a faint green smile. "Admit it."

"Did you just call me a necrophiliac?"

With a shrug, his sister said, "Not sure I'd go that far, but I was definitely implying that you wouldn't be above dipping a toe in that fetid swamp."

He gave her ass a slap. She rewarded him with a yelp. "You're gross."

"Me? You're the one who was just thinking about fucking a corpse."

"That's the opposite of true," Dan replied.

"You know there's a word for that, right?"

"Yeah," he said, giving her his best don't-be-an-idiot look. "Necrophilia."

"No, not that. I meant the opposite of tru—"

Dan silenced her with a kiss. And a few good pumps into her tight snatch.

His sister's hips began to rise higher and fall faster. A respectable clop accompanied each of her downstrokes. As did a gasp or a muttered obscenity. Jane's eyes alternated between tightly shut and bulging wide. Inside, her constrictions grew erratic.Dan decided it was okay to express his appreciation of her figure a bit more vigorously. The hand resting on her ass went from giving it the occasional squeeze to sinking deeply into her flesh or delivering hard slaps. Meanwhile, the one on her breast groped more forcefully and Dan started to tweak her nipple. He covered the other one with his mouth and flicked his tongue against it.

Sensitive as her girls apparently were, that drove her insane with pleasure. In fact, it seemed to border on pain. But she did nothing to discourage him.

Then suddenly Jane palmed the sides of his head like someone with much bigger hands might a basketball and pulled him away from her breast. For a moment, Dan thought she was going to tell him that he was coming on too strong again. Then it became clear that he hadn't been doing anything wrong. She just had other uses for his mouth.

His sister kissed him deep and hard. The flow of energy was headed back towards torrential levels, and the flavor was again that of pure, unadulterated lust. She ordinarily hated her ass, Dan sensed, viewing it as the least attractive part of her body. His utter inability to keep his hands off it was doing wonders for her ego. He simply couldn't get enough of her, any part of her, and that as much as the steady rubbing of his cock against her G-spot was driving her inexorably towards the finish line. He wasn't sure which one of them wanted the other more, and that only served to intensify every moment of their union.

The pressure inside Dan grew and grew, till he could no longer take it. He felt like an overinflated balloon that was still being pumped full of air. It was no longer clear which of them would cum first. His sister's thrusts were gaining force, though, and her kiss became even more passionate. She bit his lip a few times, and none too gently.

Then she exploded. As did Dan, almost in unison.

The impact was overwhelming. Dan felt like he'd been kicked in the balls, in that it was every bit as hard to breathe, or see or think, but he felt no pain. First relief then euphoria broke through his mental fog. Dan felt light as a feather, and his everything was tingling. A giddy smile spread across his lips. He tried to suppress it but failed miserably.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you've done this before," Dan said.

"I'm a married woman," she said, laughing. "You're the surprise here."

She knew that she was married? Even though they were in a bedroom that hadn't been hers since the days when she was still single? That probably didn't mean anything. The Aether was weird about time. And memory. And identity. Still, the mention of her husband was a little jarring, and not least because Dan was still inside her.

Dan decided the only appropriate response was to give her ass a good slap. One less restrained than its predecessors. Jane yelped, but the disappearance of her smile was brief.

"Might have asked for that," his sister said. She looked like she might have something more to say, but then she just started kissing him again. And working her hips, impaling herself over and over again on a cock that hadn't gone the least bit soft.

Her movements were slow at first, but it didn't take long for them to work up to a furious pace, making their previous efforts seem almost lifeless. Dan was forced to plant one palm on the bed behind him for support while Jane bucked on top of him like a woman possessed by a demon. Every now and then, Jane would lean forward to nibble at Dan's ear. When she wasn't throwing her head back to let out a primal scream, that was. Which was pretty often. He was half afraid she'd break his dick in half, though he dared not tell her to stop.

Jane didn't cum as often as he expected her to, but only because she was frozen at the peak state that immediately precedes a normal climax, and Dan figured that was just as good. The orgasms she did experience were all incredibly intense and long-lived.

Eventually, they slowed down. The need to make one another cum so hard they went blind passed, and they focused more on building intimacy. Brother and sister stared into one another's eyes as though all the wonders of the world were contained therein.

No more than half his length would slide out before her pussy would ensheath him again, and no sound was made when she finished doing so. Their motions were too unhurried to produce the slaps so characteristic of passionate sex. That did nothing to lessen the intensity, though. If anything, it made their union feel...sacred.

Grandiose as that might be, there truly was something spiritual about their union. Purifying, even. As he and his sister made love, Dan felt he was being absolved of all past transgressions in the Aether. It was not only okay to pull Jane into the Aether, it was what he should have been doing all along. For his sake, hers, and that of every other woman he'd ever summoned. How could anyone who wasn't family be worth the bother, or the risk that he'd insert himself into their life by inadvertently claiming them as a familiar?

Had Jane not silenced him with a finger pressed to his lips, he might have shared some of that with her. "Shh. Just go with it," she said, echoing his words from before.

"Does it seem like I'm not?" he replied.

She answered with a kiss.

#

Dan slept a lot later than he'd intended after spending so much time with his sister. Thankfully, it being Saturday, it wasn't too big a deal that he didn't get up until eleven-thirty. Had it been a school day, he'd have missed most of his classes.

His mom smirked at him as he came down the stairs. "Afternoon, sleepy-head."

"Ha ha," he replied, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "What's this?" he asked, looking her up and down. She was wearing black yoga pants, as tight on her as any pair worn by the young girls they were made for, a pink sports bra, and a long-sleeved tee underneath.

"I'm starting a yoga class at the gym," she explained.

"Good for you," Dan said, hoping his response sounded disinterested. His mom did not need to know how happy it made him to know that she'd look like this every Saturday morning for the foreseeable future. Now there was something to wake up to. Yowza.

Although, he was already struggling not to stare at her breasts. They were too damn big, and that bra was too damn small. This could present a problem. Actually, he already had one. That much had been clear even before he'd summoned his sister to the Aether, and vowed to never again pull anyone who wasn't family in to play with him. It could get worse, though, if he had to see her dressed like that every week.

His mom turned to rinse her coffee mug out, affording him a chance to look at her ass. That was no better, save for the fact that she was somewhat less likely to catch him staring when she had her back to him. Judging by its round shape and defiance of gravity, one might think she'd been doing yoga for years already. It was nearly as perfect as Jane's had been in the Aether, only he wasn't looking at an avatar of a girl in her early twenties, but a real woman in her late forties. Grading on a curve, that made her ass far more impressive.

Did she have any idea that big butts were in, according to those who decided such things?

As she turned back around, his mom looked down at her figure. "I don't want to keep looking like this," she said. The sadness he felt without even trying to read her emotions broke Dan's heart. "Hopefully, after a few weeks I'll see some changes. Maybe then I'll start dating again like you keep telling me I should."

"If it restores your confidence, I guess I can put up with seeing you in a sports bra every Saturday," Dan told her. He left unsaid the part about how any guy who didn't appreciate what she had to offer already wasn't worth talking to, let alone dating.

His mom gave him a flat look that seemed to suggest she knew full well that he didn't mind seeing her girls squeezed into the tight garment. That made Dan's heart beat so fast it almost burst. Until he convinced himself that the accusation in her eyes was much milder. It had to be. She'd have had more to say otherwise. "I made you breakfast," she said, jerking a thumb at a covered plate on the counter. "It's got to be cold by now, but seeing as you'll eat anything that isn't crawling with maggots, I doubt that'll bother you."

"Expiration dates are for cowards."

She grabbed her keys and started towards the door. Then she stopped, looked over her shoulder, and asked, "Did you and Caleb have a falling out?"

"No," Dan replied as he shoved a cold piece of bacon in his mouth. "Why?" He almost asked whether she'd be happy if they had, but didn't. He already knew the answer.

"When was the last time you went over there?"

"Last weekend," Dan said. "He went away for a while. Should be back soon, though."

He hoped.

"Oh," was all his mom said. "While I'm gone, could you do some things for me? I left a list over there." She pointed to a pad of sticky notes by the coffee machine.

"Maybe," Dan said. "If I feel like it."

"Thanks," she said, pretending he'd given the right answer. They both knew he'd do exactly as she'd asked in spite of his smart-ass response. "I'll make it up to you later."

How, exactly?

Probably by taking him out to dinner instead of ordering Chinese or inflicting her cooking on him. Or maybe she'd let him decide what they watched after dinner. But it was nice to pretend. To imagine that she'd let him shower with her after she got home from the gym. Or suck his dick for the same number of minutes as items he'd crossed off the list of chores.

Come to think of it, he might skip a few after all. Because he wasn't sure he could wait until bedtime to light the candle again. Even though he knew there were dangers to overuse. What was a bloody nose compared mind-blowing sex with the most desirable woman alive?

Of course, it might not be a bloody nose this time. Dan had to consider that.

"Do good yoga," he told his mom.

She rolled her eyes. "I will," she said, as though he'd offered more standard well-wishes. "That, or I'll come home sore as hell and ready to cancel my membership. One or the other."

"Maybe I should say `take it easy your first time' then," Dan said. "Wouldn't want you coming home and asking for a full body massage because you're so sore."

What was he thinking? Why would he say something like that to her?

One eyebrow climbed up her forehead. "What makes you think I'd ask my son if I wanted one of those?" Lips pursed, she ran her eyes up and down his body. That was remonstration, though, not flirting. Or appraisal. It had to be, no matter what Dan thought he was sensing with powers he still didn't quite understand. He was too much of a neophyte to tell the difference between the sort of low-level excitement that came from familial banter and the kind that suggested she was starting to think about whether she wanted to fuck him, though she hadn't quite made up her mind yet. "There are professionals who offer that service," she added. "Some of whom even work at the gym."

"Yeah, but they won't do it for free," Dan said. Because reasons. If there was any hope of her thinking it a joke, he had to really go ham. So he held up his hands and wiggled his fingers. "And I've got the golden touch."

For a moment, his mom didn't say anything. Her pupils dilated and he sensed a change in her mood, but he couldn't have said what from or to. Not with any confidence. "You do all those chores and I won't ask any other favors," she said at last.

"Good," Dan said. He realized he hadn't broken eye contact in a long time but couldn't bring himself to do so just then either. Not because he was nervous, though. It was just that he liked what he saw in her expression. Or what he thought he did, anyway.

It might have at least been a good idea to feign relief at hearing that she wouldn't ask for a massage, but Dan hadn't bothered with that either. Perhaps because he wanted to see how she'd react to her son adopting a tone that brooked no argument. That exuded confidence and all but challenged her to insist on the massage after all.

Her considerable chest was rising and falling a bit more than usual. That, or Dan was finding it harder not to notice how her huge breasts behaved. One of the two. She opened her mouth as if to say something more then without another word, and a somewhat flustered look upon her face, his mom went out the kitchen door.

Chapter Four

"I think we might have made a mistake," Maria said as he surveyed the contents of the refrigerator, which were unremarkable in every respect save one—they provided further evidence that the homeowners were little more than typical suburbanites. The shelves contained condiments jars and yogurt containers. She found the "fresh" fruit and vegetables in the bins, no doubt coated in chemicals, various cheeses and processed meats in the drawers, and bottles of water stacked in the door. To see one of the Great Spirit's most basic and abundant gifts treated like a commodity sickened Maria, but that was besides the point. What she didn't find was blood, as her father had predicted that she would.

She closed the refrigerator and looked over at him. He had his back to her. If being surrounded by flatscreen TVs, leather sofas, and postmodern art bothered him, he didn't let it show. He looked as calm in here as he did out in the open, beneath the skies that powered his magic. Maria wasn't sure if she envied him that or begrudged it, but she herself felt like a fish out of water. And was very much aware that the only living thing under that roof to ever have walked on four legs, or stretched its wings in flight, was Maria herself. Wei looked like he wanted to burn the whole damned house to the ground, irrespective of whether its owners practiced blood magic, but her father could have been exploring a peaceful grotto, for all that anything but curiosity registered on his face.

"This is the place," her father said, without bothering to look at her. He just kept right on exploring the coffee table and the stacks of magazines it held.

"The winds explicitly told you that Vigilance and Abner Lawton are blood mages?" Maria asked. She'd never challenged her father so bluntly, but after a week of doing absolutely nothing, she was a little on edge. If anyone in this town sought to hasten the return of the dreaded warlock, they weren't doing a very good job of it. In fact, they didn't seem to be doing much of anything. Not as it pertained to magic, dark or otherwise.

"Tell me, oh wise one," her father asked from his haunches. "How has this place been overlooked by every living Talent when so few east of the great river are unclaimed?"

"It's not very big."

"The population's over hundred thousand," her father said. "And it's close to one of the biggest cities on the continent." He shook his head. "Size may explain why some of the fishing villages along the coast, or vast stretches of farmland north and west of here, are devoid of magic. Not this place, though. Try again."

She knew as well as her father did that New York City was the Coalition's greatest stronghold. But they'd been pushing south and west lately, not north. "Through the help of a powerful warlock. Who can't do more than speak to his supporters in the Aether."

"You won't make light of his abilities once he returns."

"If he's so fearsome," Maria snapped, "why has he never exacted vengeance on those who sought to end him, or their descendants?" She shook her head in frustration. "You said he has the power to manifest a new form every hundred years or so. But they burned him alive over three centuries ago, and he's done nothing to terrorize this place since."

"When we stop him yet again, will that somehow mean that the winds were wrong to warn of his return?" her father asked, eyebrows raised. With a most infuriating grin, he added, "You have not starved to death once in twenty-some-odd years. Is it only for pleasure, then, that you consume the Great Spirit's gifts each and every day?"

She ground her teeth. "Who stopped him, then? Before us?"

Her father turned his palms toward the sky. "We are but the humblest of the Great Spirit's servants. Many have come before us, and many shall follow after."

"So if we decided to abandon our task, others would take it up?" Maria snapped. That was unreasonable of her, she knew. Bordering on irreverence. She just couldn't believe her father remained every bit as confident as when they'd first arrived. At what point would he admit that it was possible, just possible, that he'd misinterpreted the winds' words?

Wei chuckled. It was a good thing she enjoyed his touch as much as she did.

"Help me check these bottles," she told him. He wasn't doing anything but standing there looking pretty anyway. Not that she thought there was anything to do.

"Alright," he said. "For a kiss," he added, flashing a cocky grin.

Maria grumbled, then curled her finger at him.

Naturally, he didn't settle for a quick peck on lips. Never had or would. He kissed her long and deep, his warm hands sliding up under her dress to squeeze her buttocks.

If Maria was a little too in touch with her animal brethren, the fires of passion raged harder inside Wei than other men. Which, she had to admit, was probably her favorite thing about him. She did, however, wish her body didn't welcome his touch so eagerly. He should not feel as though he could kiss her or grab her whenever he pleased just because she always welcomed it. It was like her own body was in league with an adversary.

Her father cleared his throat, gently reminding them that this was neither the time nor the place. Maria might not understand the urgency of their task, but her father was right about that much. The couple who lived there might return at any moment. Whether they were as ordinary as Maria suspected or not, that would be awkward. Best they complete the search to her father's satisfaction then promptly return to camp.

She just had to stop kissing her lover first. Not the sort of thing Maria was good at.

Just as she was starting to debate whether to tackle him to the floor and mount him like a stallion, Wei broke the kiss. With an obnoxiously charming smile, he gave her bottom a smack and then turned to the wine bottles. He pulled the nearest one off the wooden rack with a smooth motion and held it up to his face, pursing lips in contemplation.

"You two," her father chided, sounding more amused than perturbed.

That bothered her almost as much as Wei's insouciance. Sometimes, she wished her father was a little less accepting of her relationship with Wei. That he'd be a bit more protective of her, the way other fathers were of their daughters. Mair knew neither man would understand that sentiment, though, so she kept it to herself.

Wei studied the label of his bottle for a moment then peeled away the foil and removed the cork. Taking a sniff, he declared that the contents were what they appeared to be.

Then he leaned over and whispered to Maria, "No surprise there."

She grunted. Would it kill him to let her father hear that? Using a talon rather than the shiny implement Wei had found in one of the drawers, she opened a second bottle then took a sip. "More spoiled grape juice," she said afterwards, smacking her lips in disgust.

When dulling one's senses became an integral part of daily life, was that not a sign that something was wrong? How could anyone live like that and not realize that they needed to be in harmony with the Great Spirit? How had she done so, in her youth?

Wei placed his bottle on the counter. "Maybe we should check the basement."

"That's an excellent idea," her father said.

No it wasn't. What they ought to do was admit that they had no reason for being there and then vacate the premises. But no one ever listened to her. "Fine. Lead the way, Wei."

He punished her with another slap on the bottom. Which she rather enjoyed. The man couldn't keep his hands off her backside, and Maria would have it no other way.

"Want to place bets on what we'll find down here?" she asked as he opened the door leading to the basement. "I say exercise equipment."

After fumbling for a light switch without any success, Wei snapped his fingers and produced a tongue of flame to serve as a makeshift torch. "Not a bad guess," he said. "If you're right, I'll go down on you. If not, you go down on me. Deal?"

"How about if I'm right, you tell my father you also have concerns about whether this town has a warlock problem," she said. "In addition to going down on me."

Wei laughed. "I'll think about—"

Before he could finish the sentence, they reached the bottom of the stairs. At the other end of the room, faintly illuminated by Wei's flame, a man sat tied to a chair. He was gagged and blindfolded, and there were cloth bandages around one arm. On the workbench beside him, there were various torture implements laid out on a kitchen towel. Several knives, scalpels, and a hammer. There was also a syringe, some plastic tubing, and a few glass vials.

"Shit," Wei said.

They rushed over to him and Maria checked his pulse. He was alive, but unconscious.

"Is that a mini-fridge?" Wei asked, pointing to a black rectangular shape in the far corner. "Looks big enough to keep a few bags of blood in, wouldn't you say?"

Maria busied herself with the man's restraints. There'd be time enough for admitting that some of them had been wrong later. Or not. Either way, she cut through the thick rope with her claws, removed the man's gag and blindfold, then slumped him over her shoulder.

"You want me to carry him?" Wei asked.

"Why?" Maria said. "I'm stronger."

"But I'm the man."

She laughed. "I hadn't noticed." Then she gestured towards the mini-fridge with her chin. "Go see what's in there. If it's what you think it is, grab it and bring it upstairs."

"You want to steal blood from a haemomancer?" Wei asked.

"Why is it that you only use big words to talk about magic?" Maria replied as she started across the room. "You think women sleep with you because you call yourself a pyromancer?"

As he unplugged the small appliance, apparently deciding that he just had to carry something heavier than a few blood bags, Wei said, "Nah, I just think all those syllables make what we do sound cool. Women sleep with me is because I'm so fucking hot."

"Or are you hot because of the fire magic?" Maria asked as she started up the stairs.

"So you agree that I am hot?"

She snorted. "Found what we're looking for," she called out to her father.

No reply came, even though he must have heard her. The house had been silent, aside from her bellow. Telling herself not to panic, that he'd probably just stepped outside to relieve himself, she tried again. "You were right. They're definitely blood ma—"

"Well, one of us is," a man said, before slapping Maria across the face.

Hard.

She dropped the body and went sprawling across the kitchen floor. A second later, she was crouched low offering as small a target as possible, claws at the ready.

"Don't," her father said.

"What?" she asked, turning towards the living room.

"I would listen to him, if I were you," the woman sitting cross-legged on the sofa nearest the kitchen said. She had Maria's father, who sat directly across from her on the coffee table, transfixed. When cartoons sought to convey to children that a character was smitten, they did so using expressions such as the one her father now wore on his face. Maria never would have thought him capable of feeling such an emotion for anyone woman, let alone one he'd met in the past few minutes. Even if she was uncommonly beautiful.

"What have you done to him?" Maria demanded. To the best of her knowledge, hypnosis was not associated with blood magic. But she had to be using her powers on him.

"Quench those flames," the man who could only be Abner Lawton said, facing the top the stairs. "And put that down. Gently."

"Or what?" Wei replied.

"I kill the two you're with. Then do the same for you, but much more slowly."

It was an empty threat. Her father was in no immediate danger. Vigilance had done something to him, but she clearly wasn't the muscle. No more than her father served that role in their triad. As for Maria? Well, it was time he found out about her.

The moment she leapt, however, Abner ducked and moved away. He was fast, too. Faster than her, even as a black panther. She landed on the other side of the doorway.

Close to the man they'd rescued.

"An exchange," she said, sliding over to the unconscious body. She rested a palm on his chest. "Let us go and we give your blood back. And this guy, whoever he is."

"No," her father called out. "Me. They can have me."

"Are you crazy?" Maria shouted. For a split second, she thought the absolute worst thing about the situation was that she couldn't see her father's face. Then she realized how stupid that was. The worst thing was their timing. If she'd spent a little less time dragging her feet, being passive-aggressive, they might have checked the basement sooner and gotten out of the damn place before the people who lived there returned.

Wei was less patient. He emerged from the stairwell, mini-fridge still tucked under his arm, and hurled the fireball he'd been threatening Abner with at the nearest set of cabinets.

"There was no need for that," Vigilance said with as much disappointment, and as little anger, as she might have if he'd knocked over a glass of wine rather than set her kitchen on fire. "Tell them," she said, turning not to Abner, but Maria's father.

"We were wrong to come here," her father said, his voice sounding airy and hollow. He looked not at Maria, but beyond her. At nothing. "Not just to this house, but this town."

He'd had his wits about him when he'd offered himself as hostage, though. That was just like him, too. He was so convinced of their mission, of the need to stop the dark master these two served, that he'd sacrifice anything.

She couldn't allow that, though. Especially since they wouldn't take his life even if he offered it. They'd torture him endlessly instead, like they had the bearded man lying on his back beside Maria. Take his blood and do foul things with it.

"Let me talk to him," she said to Vigilance, while ordering Wei to hold off with a gesture. "Whatever you're doing to him, stop it. Just for a second. Then we can sort this all out."

"I think not," Abner said. "Return what you have taken from us, renounce your allegiance to the warlock, and perhaps we shall allow you to leave this town alive."

He thought they were on the side of the warlock?

A shiver ran down Maria's spine as the implications of that dawned on her. Her father had been right about some things, but he'd gotten enough wrong that it might cost them their lives. The reason the Coalition had never established a foothold in the town, close as it was to New York, was that the Lawtons had already claimed it and weren't willing to share with anyone. Not the Coalition, and not with a centuries-old warlock.

Or perhaps they even saw themselves as the town's protectors?

She could wrack her brain over such matters later, though. For the time being, all that mattered was that the three of them get out of there alive. Preferably with the man who'd been held hostage as well, though that was far less of a priority.

If she went for the throat immediately after he delivered his threat, though, he'd simply step aside again. Then snap her spine like a twig, in all likelihood. She had to bide her time. With a crimson tint to her vision and a coppery taste in her mouth, that wasn't easy, but she managed not to pounce and instead simply ask, "Why were you torturing this man?"

"Home invasion," Vigilance said in an almost disinterested voice.

Abner positioned himself between Maria and Wei, on the one hand, and Vigilance on the other. "You have heard our terms," he said in a tone that suggested he already knew what their response would be. "They are not subject to negotiation."

"Oh, but I think they are," Wei said. "Here's our counteroffer—All four of us walk out of here alive, with your blood, or the two of you burn along with your cabinets."

Before Maria could urge a more tactical approach, Abner shot at Wei. He was like an arrow loosed from a bow string. No, a bullet fired from a rifle. She'd never seen anyone move so fast. The next she knew, Abner was crouched over her lover's motionless body.

With Wei's still-beating heart held in his hand.

"Noooo!" Maria cried. Pure madness followed.

Though Maria rarely had difficulty tracking movements in battle, she couldn't really have said what happened next. Only that when it was all over, she'd failed to either avenge her lover or to rescue her father. The only thing she'd succeeded at was resisting the impulse to turn tail and run without even taking a swipe at Abner. For all the good that had done her.

That, and rescuing the man from the basement.

As she loped across the backyard, towards tree cover and safety, she muttered to his unconscious form, "Whoever you are, you better have been worth it."

Chapter Five

Not twenty minutes after his mom walked out the door, Dan crossed the last item off the list of chores she'd left him. That was only so surprising, though. When she said she had "a few things" for him to do, that could either mean that she'd just killed his whole afternoon or that she needed a whopping ten to fifteen minutes of his time. There was no in between. Nor any way of telling by the language she used how big the imposition would be.

So, naturally, Dan then went up to his room and got out his candle.

He didn't light it, though. Just stared it, holding his nostrils shut without even realizing that he was doing so. There were so many reasons he ought to go sit at his desk and play that stupid game Jane had recommended instead. Or look or porn or whatever.

Yet it was getting awful hard to resist the temptation. Dan had never fantasized about a woman as ceaselessly as he now did his mom. Had never even realized it was possible to be so filled with desire—so preoccupied by it as to be nearly crippled, yet grateful all the same. It made him feel like he finally understood what all those songs were about, even if the woman he'd fallen for was a bit unconventional. How could anyone fight that?

Plus, just one encounter with his sister had been infinitely more gratifying than any number of scenes with Nora or Ms. Conklin. Maybe it had been a bit hyperbolic to tell himself that the right thing to do was to summon members of his family, like he had some moral obligation to engage in incest, but it hadn't just been the heat of the moment causing him to think such thoughts. Dan knew how it would sound if he were to ever voice such views aloud, but he did need to harvest energy, and there more and less ethical ways of doing so. More rewarding, as well. Having a real connection to his partner made a huge difference.

None of which argued in favor of returning to the Aether so soon after his last visit, though. Dan hadn't even been awake for a full two hours yet. He wasn't low on energy; didn't need nourishment. Not of that sort, anyway. He could at least wait until the trauma of projecting his spirit into another world over and over again was less recent. Until there was less reason to fear that his body might not take it too well.

With an exasperated sigh, Dan put the candle away and chose his computer instead. He reread Jane's email and some reviews of the game, then he decided to download it after all.

It looked like it was going to take a while to install, though. Meanwhile, the Aether was just a few seconds away. All he had to do was light a flame, speak a name, and off he went.

"I'm not even summoning her so I can have sex with her," Dan said to no one in particular. His conscience, maybe. "At least, not just for that reason. I want to tell her all the things I've been keeping from her and see how she reacts. Sort of a trial run before I come clean in real life. If anything happens after that, great, but that's not the point."

His invisible interlocutor was unconvinced, but fuck that guy anyway.

Moments later, Dan sat on the edge of his bed, his magic candle on the nightstand beside him and a disposable lighter in his hand."Prudence Westbrook," he said as he rolled his thumb, producing a small tongue of fire.

#

He found her lounging on the sofa, wearing next to nothing, hand in her panties.

That was just unfair.

The Kindle in her other hand suggested that his mom wasn't lying there waiting to seduce him—because why the fuck would she be?—but reading something steamy while under the impression that she was the only one home. Which still posed a problem for his I'm-mostly-here-to-get-some-questions-answered approach, but made a lot more sense than what he'd initially assumed. Lately, it sometimes seemed like his mom was flirting with him, or that she knew exactly how her son looked at her when he thought he could get away with it, but that had to be Dan's imagination running away with him. He saw what wasn't there, sensed emotions she didn't feel, because his teenage hormones had been amped up to eleven by all his trips to the Aether and the discovery of his empath abilities.

Dan considered popping back out of the Aether, if only out of consideration for her. Or her avatar. Whatever. It didn't seem right to intrude on the private moment.

Especially since there was zero chance of him going unnoticed. Dan wasn't hidden behind a wall or anything—he stood a few feet behind the sofa, very much in the open. At any moment, she'd notice that her son was right there, watching her masturbate.

He considered leaving, but he didn't. Because he was utterly incapable of looking away. Dan had already convinced himself that his mom was the most attractive woman alive, and that was in the real world. Unsurprisingly, her Aether avatar was even more desirable.

Her auburn hair was straighter, shinier, and more full of volume. Twin sheets of shimmering silk hung down to her pale shoulders—which, aside from her bra straps, were bare. A cursory glance might lead one to think her gorgeous hair was brown, but there were discernible red highlights that lent a richness, an elegant complexity, that Dan found absolutely breathtaking. Ordinarily, his mom had fair, lightly blemished skin. Here, her complexion was paler still and completely free of spots. Her lips were fuller, her lashes longer and thicker, and her eyebrows more luxuriant. Though she certainly didn't need it, she wore more makeup than she ever did in real life, and Dan found that he liked that. Her olive green eyes would have stood out even without all that eyeliner. They couldn't not, what with such porcelain skin. Yet there was no denying that they demanded even more attention thanks to the dark framing. And Dan decided that the dark pink lipstick she wore was the absolute perfect shade for her, while simultaneously believing that he couldn't possibly have found her any less alluring if she'd chosen red or purple instead. Because who needs logic or consistency?

Well, he was only guessing that her eyes were olive green. His mom's were. And filled with the most captivating flecks of brown, light green, and glittering gold. The woman on the couch was too close to climax, her eyes accordingly shut tight, for him to tell what color they were. That look only made her more beautiful, though. More irresistible. The way her lips contorted, one locked beneath glistening front teeth, bespoke an exquisite mix of agony and ecstasy. One Dan sensed on another level of reality as well. Emotions that intense couldn't be mistaken, even by a novice. Seeing as he wasn't the cause, Dan reaped no benefit in terms of magical energy, but it was still a pleasure to witness. To taste.

Beautiful as her face was, her body was even more impressive. Her skimpy robe did so little to hide the wonders of it, lying open as it did, that it might as well not have existed. Yet Dan appreciated its presence, because the shade of it—a purple so dark it was nearly black—made her skin seem even milkier than it was. She all but glowed. That had as much to do with how radiant and flawless her skin was as anything, but her shockingly pale complexion. The effect was positively breathtaking. Her lacy bra and panties, as well as garter belt and thigh high stockings, actually were black. That served a similar purpose, of course, but seeing as they lacked the luster of her silk robe, the outer garment definitely added to the overall ensemble. Particularly its ability to accentuate her beautiful skin tone.

Dan couldn't believe how voluptuous she was, either. Sure, he'd expected curves. The real thing didn't lack for them, after all. But damn, she was built like fantasy. Her breasts were well past big, and couldn't even be called huge unless one wished to do them a disservice. They were ginormous. Most guys would say they were too big, and Dan was almos inclined to agree. Except he wasn't, at all. He was, however, utterly captivated by them.

His sister had a decent pair of tits. They fit her body, Dan supposed, being big enough to fill his hands quite nicely without stealing too much attention from her hips and ass. He'd certainly enjoyed playing with them at the time. Looking at their mom's avatar, though, Dan wondered how he could ever settle for them again. For anything Jane had to offer. There, spread out on the couch before him, was a woman.

Thanks to her humongous tits, it was only fair to describe her as top-heavy. That didn't mean he found the rest of her body anything but impressive, though. Her waist was impossibly narrow, yet flared out into deliciously wide and well-rounded hips. Her thighs were incredibly thick and smooth. The legs she had sheathed in those dark, sheer stockings were shapelier than he'd ever seen. Like Jane, her avatar had an impossible physique, enviably lean in places yet soft and feminine elsewhere. The shape of her thighs and calves could only be the result of some serious muscle mass, but she lacked definition. Except where she didn't. As with Jane, he could see the outlines of her abdominal muscles. She didn't have a six-pack or anything, but her belly wasn't just flat—it was hard. A woman with a chest that ample, or thighs that thick and soft, ought to have had a bit of a belly. Stretch marks and cellulite, too. But his mom had none of that. Though he'd yet to inspect her as closely as he'd like, from what he could see, and what he knew about Aether avatars, there wasn't the slightest imperfection anywhere. Not so much as a shaving nick.

"Dan!" his mom said suddenly, both ends of her body jerking towards her core as if doing crunches. The hand inside her panties ejected like a pilot from a plane that was going down, while the one that had been holding the Kindle let go of it so she could pull her robe closed. The electronic device fell onto the edge of the sofa cushion then bounced to the floor. "I, um, didn't realize you were awake," she said, bending down to fetch it before sitting up. She sounded only slightly flustered, but her cheeks were flushed and her eyes avoided his. To judge by her voice, one might think that nothing out of the ordinary had happened. That he'd startled her, sure, but other than that, she had no reason to be embarrassed.

"Sorry," he said. And he realized he was. He didn't regret pulling her into the Aether, though he probably should. Startling her, though, and causing the swell of embarrassment he felt her trying to suppress? That was another matter. Even if it did give him energy.

On the other hand, he could already feel something else replacing it. Excitement. That, too, fed him. In a manner he was more accustomed to. Dan kept forgetting that any intense emotion could power his magic, because there was only one that he had any interest in.

"It's okay," his mom said with a sigh. Had he allowed his eyes to misbehave, he might have caught another glimpse at her panties and thighs before she adjusted her robe.

Though, come to think of it, holding her gaze with an intense stare of his own probably qualified as misbehavior. Guys weren't supposed to look at their moms that way. That sort of look left little doubt as to the guy's intent.

Or how difficult it would be to deter him.

Dan wasn't just communicating interest, he realized. He was projecting confidence, which he also felt. That was something he rarely did in the real world.

Until all this had started, anyway.

Had he not locked gazes with his mom the exact same way a short while ago, before she'd left for the gym? The realization made his head spin. In the real world, where Dan was not alone in the ability to form memories, he had absolutely, unquestionably given his mom the "I'm gonna fuck you so hard your knees will wobble every time you walk" look. Which had flustered her, but that had been the extent of her reaction.

Though she might have been too shocked to freak out the way she should have. Dan couldn't be sure. For all he knew, she'd had a breakdown in the car, first screaming at the windshield while pounding her fists on the steering wheel then crying hysterically. He'd have to worry about that later. For now, her Aether avatar required his attention.

Dan took a seat on the edge of the coffee table. Cool as a cucumber.

His gaze finally proved too much for her. She lowered her eyes and turned her head. The excitement he felt inside her did not ebb, though. Not one bit. If anything, it grew.

Sitting so close to her, Dan could not only sense some of her emotions but smell her perfume. Admire the flecks of gold, brown, and amber in her eyes, once they returned to his. That was all he allowed himself to admire, though. Besides the countless tones of red and brown in her hair and the gleam of her lipstick. The temptation to glance down at her breasts was almost unbearable, spilling out of her bra as they were, but Dan held strong.

For the most part.

No one could resist sneaking a peak at those snow-white mountains. That epic line of cleavage. Just by not staring and drooling, Dan figured he had to have distinguished himself.

His mom slapped her thighs and said, "So. What've you got planned for today?"

They were still in the Aether, Dan reminded himself. The way she'd asked that question had momentarily confused him. It would only surprise him so much if she followed it up by making sure that he didn't have more homework than could safely be put off until Sunday night. "Nothing special," he told her. "Why? What have you got in mind?"

"Hmm," she said. "Up for some mini golf?"

Dan shrugged.

Before crossing over, he'd told himself that the main reason he was summoning his mom was so they could have a conversation he wasn't ready to have in the real world. That didn't have to be a lie he'd told himself to bypass any lingering guilt or reluctance. It was actually a good idea. Sooner or later, he had to come clean and that would be a lot easier if he'd done so a few times in the Aether first. "I need to tell you something."

"Uh oh," his mom said. "Sounds like I might need some coffee first."

"Go for it then," Dan said, jerking his head towards the kitchen. "I'll wait." Had they been in the real world, he might have laughed nervously at her response, but he just didn't feel as awkward here. Knowing that any changes would only be saved to a version of the file that couldn't be accessed by anyone other than him took so much pressure off.

His mom nodded her gratitude and headed into the kitchen.

Why did her robe have to be so short? A little longer and it would have covered her ass. But no. It just had to stop short, granting him a tantalizing look at those ripe cheeks before she rounded the island counter top. A sharp line of cleavage formed in her pale skin, separating one marble globe from the flawless thigh below, then faded away an instant later only to be replaced by a twin beneath the other cheek. Her ass wasn't as big as his sister's, perhaps, but it was more than a little generous. And, like Jane's, soft yet round. It jiggled hypnotically when she walked, but did not sag towards the ground.

"You want one too?" his mom called over her shoulder.

"I'm good," Dan said, surprised at his own calm. The room should have been spinning and his head should have felt like a balloon, likely to float away if he didn't keep a firm grip on the string. The conversation they were about to have might alter the foundations of his reality. To say nothing of what would presumably come after. Yet he wasn't nervous, let alone apprehensive. Nor overeager, on the other end.

"You sure?" she asked, leaning over the counter.

Damn, she was gorgeous here. In the real world too, but her avatar was something else.

"Yup."

"Suit yourself," she said.

His mom returned with a steaming mug. "Alright," she said, sitting directly across from him once more. She adjusted her robe, which had fallen open in the process. Dan couldn't help but react to the brief glimpse of her tits, contained though they were by a rather sturdy bra. Inside his silk pajama pants, his monster of a cock twitched. His mom must have noticed, because her eyes darted down to his crotch. They didn't linger, though, and the pause between her words wasn't overlong. "Fire away," she said.

"Suppose I told you that Caleb's even stranger than he seems," Dan said casually. "That he can do things other people can't. How would you react?"

Her thick brows crept towards one another. "Are you just finding that out? Or have you known for some time and just chose not to tell me?" She sighed. "The latter, huh? Of course. You kids never tell me anything important until you absolutely have to."

"Seems you've been keeping some secrets as well," Dan said with a playful grin. With a different delivery, that reply would have made him sound like a sullen teenager. The way it came out, though, made him sound more like a bachelor charming his lady friend.

Or so he told himself.

His mom seemed to agree. Rather than getting defensive, she simply averted her eyes, fretted at her lower lip, and said, "Yeah, well...," she demurred. Head still tilted to the side, she brought her eyes back to his. Dan said nothing. Part of him wanted to exploit the guilt she apparently felt, pushing for a full confession. Another part wanted to apologize for putting her on the spot. But he did neither. Just held her gaze. That drove her wild. He felt excitement bloom within her, giving him a nice jolt. That was another reason he'd declined her offer. Who needed caffeine when there was that? "I guess you've got me there."

"How long have you known about Caleb?" he asked.

His mom shrugged, but the look in her eyes gave it away. That, or the flash of guilt Dan thought he picked up with his empathic abilities. Either way, she'd always known.

That certainly explained the weirdness between her and Caleb.

"I'm the mom," she said. "I'm allowed to keep secrets."

"Yet you always complain that we don't confide in you," Dan replied. Again, a different tone would have made that sound snide. But he didn't think it came out that way. "Like you did just now." He gave her a teasing grin. "Know what would help with that?"

"Being more open with you."

Dan pointed a finger-pistol at her, as if to say, "Bullseye."

"I guess I can't blame you for not wanting to tell me," his mom said. "You probably figured that if I knew Caleb was teaching you magic, I'd put a stop to it." She frowned. "Which I probably would have, if I'd thought there was any point to it. Once you start down that path, though, it's very hard to go back. Even if you want to."

"Meaning?" Dan asked, raising his eyebrows.

As he probably should have some time ago, Dan checked for an aura. Sure enough, she had one. It was silvery and translucent. The last time he'd seen that, he'd drawn a blank on what it meant. Until she'd started using her powers, revealing herself as an empath. Now, though, Dan didn't need to think about it. Even without that memory, or Caleb's stupid books, which weren't as helpful as they could be, he'd have known. Dan felt the truth of it, deep down. His mom was an empath, like him. She was afraid of what might happen if she embraced her abilities, but they'd been a part of her life for a long, long time.

Did that mean she would remember everything that happened? When one Talent summoned another, did the latter enter the Aether as fully as the former? Or were they still a mere avatar? Caleb should have explained such things before leaving, even if he did think Dan had no business summoning another Talent. It wasn't like he'd meant to, after all.

His mom sipped her coffee, saying nothing.

A different tack, then. "So why'd you let him move in? You couldn't stop me from experimenting with my abilities once he'd brought them to my attention, but you could have stopped him from doing that. And then I'd never have started down this path."

"Yes you would have," his mom replied without hesitation. "He's got you moving a lot faster, sure, but I assume he's also telling you what lines not to cross." Her chest heaved as she inhaled deeply. Fuck, that was distracting. "Besides, there were...other considerations."

Yep, she was definitely a Talent, and didn't consider that much of a blessing either.

Had she ever traveled to the Aether so many times in one night that her nose had bled? Then gone back the very next morning, in spite of the obvious risk to her body? Perhaps. If Dan had a problem, that might partly be due to his mother having struggled with magic abuse herself. It seemed he was the supernatural equivalent of a crack baby.

That should have freaked him out. Or at least been depressing. The last thing it should have done was turned him on. And yet the thought that his mom was every bit as depraved as he was had him hard as a rock. Rather than contemplating the risks and other, more practical implications, he found himself wondering who she'd summoned after discovering her powers. What sort of scenes she'd acted out. And how long it had been since she'd done so. Could a lonely widow resist the urge to hide from her grief in the Aether?

"You're not going to elaborate on that either, are you?" he asked, feeling intoxicated. It was probably good that she wouldn't. He could only take in so much at once.

She gave him a plaintive grin. "I'm afraid not."

"I see," Dan said. "Well, that still clears a lot up. I won't pester you with questions you don't want to answer. Especially since this is supposed be my big confession."

At first, he got no reply—unless one counted the movement of her eyes. His mom looked away initially, fretting at her lower lip the way she had just a little earlier. Then her eyes returned to his, though they took a nice detour along the way that happened to include his crotch. And his hard abs, which were on display now that his shirt had inexplicably vanished. "I'm sorry I couldn't say more," she told him, and seemed to mean it. Mostly.

Yes, Dan sensed regret, but also hesitation. Some of what his mom held back involved other people, and she didn't think it was her place to share. To some extent, though, she was worried about his reaction. There things she was free to tell him yet chose not to.

If he wanted to learn her secrets, then, he'd have to convince her that nothing would could ever come between them. That whatever she confessed, he'd still love her more than life itself. If only there was some way for him to show her how much she meant to him...

Her eyes met his and those plump, shiny lips curved in the hint of a slight smile. It was a look Dan was quite familiar with, though he'd never seen it in that context. Had never found it remotely sexual. It was a look she used to give him when they played chess, before his dad died and made it impossible for her to look at the nice crystal set she'd given him without crying. A look that said, "Go ahead, move that piece there. See what happens."

So with steady hands that revealed none of the anxiousness he now felt, Dan took his mom's mug from her and set it down on the coffee table. Then he leaned in close, paused to give her a chance to object, and, when she didn't, kissed her.

After just a few seconds, Dan pulled back. He didn't want to. Her lips were so soft and sweet. But he didn't want to turn her off by coming on too strong.

"I'd ask what you think you're doing," his mom said, putting her hands on his chest as if to stop an advance he wasn't making. "But I sort of encouraged you, didn't I?"

"You did," Dan replied. "And not by accident." He couldn't believe how forward he was being. Yes, he was nervous. How could he not be, when he was attempting to seduce the woman his whole life revolved around? Who was responsible for his very existence? It was the good kind of nervous, though. The sort that made one hyper-aware but was far from crippling. "We both know you want this," he told her. "No point denying it."

Her eyes went wide and Dan's buzz intensified.

He rested a hand atop one of hers, grabbed the thumb and index finger, and gave his bare chest a little pinch. "I do anything you're not comfortable with, anything at all, just do that and I'll stop." He leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers, though his second kiss was even more fleeting than the first. How Dan managed to exercise such restraint was a mystery even to him, but he did. "I'm serious. If you're not completely comfortable, hell if you're not experiencing the most intense pleasure of your whole life—"

His mom moved her hands up his chest, over his shoulders, and around the back of his neck. Her fingernails pressed against his skin. Not hard enough to cause pain or even discomfort, but hard enough to silence him. To tell him that she was less interested in hearing his words than feeling his lips. And perhaps his tongue.

Their next kiss started off smooth and unhurried, but gradually became something more. A sense of euphoria settled over Dan, then the tingling sensation grew more intense until his whole body felt electrified. Fireworks went off in his mind, complete with loud pops and the soft sizzle of sparks descending afterward. Despite all of that, Dan felt keenly aware of every sensation, from the feel of her soft lips to the sound of her moaning and her faint perfume.

Dan had never experienced the like of it. Not even in the Aether.

The pleasure was beyond intense and he'd never been more aroused. The latter probably had a lot to do with the former, Dan realized. He'd spent a lot of time proving to himself, and various partners, that one's emotional state had a big impact on their subjective experience of physical stimuli. Yet he didn't think it was just that. Yes, he got a huge rush from the simple fact that he was locking lips with his mom, the woman his entire existence revolved around. But the things she did with those lips mattered as much as the woman they were attached to. Put simply, his mom was a great kisser. She wasn't as aggressive as most of the other women he'd summoned, yet neither was she was shy or reluctant. She just knew how to build tension. Slowly, masterfully, and inexorably.

It was a wonder he didn't cum in his pants.

Except, no, it wasn't. While he was awash with sensation, the pressure was not mounting. His mom had taken him closer to the precipice than made any sense, considering they both still had a fair amount of clothes on, but she'd stopped well short of the edge. That wasn't to say he didn't enjoy the kiss. Just that he was able to do so without feeling the need to fight. To hold out a little longer lest she think him inexperienced and overeager.

When his mom pulled away a short time later, Dan almost thought that he'd done something wrong. Hadn't managed to match her pace, perhaps. Only he knew that he had.

Not so long ago, Dan had felt a bit insecure about his sexual prowess. After Jenny had made him feel like a prodigy, he'd bragged to anyone who would listen. Including Nora, who'd found his ability to please a "six or a seven" none too impressive, and Caleb, who wouldn't have cared if Scarlett Johansson raved about him in public interviews. That had been classic overcompensation, though. He hadn't really believed he was as good as Jenny thought. Now, however, he did. At least in the Aether, and when with someone he was strongly connected to, Dan was almost incapable of making mistakes. He never went any faster or slower than his partner wanted him to. Nor did he need any verbal instructions. As an empath, he felt their needs, and responded to them almost instinctively.

So it came as no surprise when he saw that his mom had only interrupted things so that she could slip her robe off—the old-fashioned way—and pull Dan on top of her as she settled onto her back. Here in the Aether, that sort of thing didn't necessitate a break in the action. Clothes seemed to melt away of their own volition, and the logistical challenge of changing positions often proved trivial. There was something very appealing about the way his mom skipped the shortcuts, though. It made the moment feel more genuine. Allowed Dan to fantasize about doing this with the woman herself, rather than just her avatar.

His mom dug her nails into his neck a little harder than she had before, but still caused no pain. When she wrapped those powerful thighs around him and squeezed, Dan couldn't help but picture a walnut in a nutcracker, but that didn't hurt either. Just brought them into close contact, allowing his mom to rub her mound against the bulge in his pants. Despite the layers of clothing, it seemed that she managed to generate some friction against her clit, because she started to moan into his mouth the way women only did when he went down on them. A shiver ran down Dan's spine. He couldn't believe how close his mom was to cumming. For him, her only son. He was tempted to push her over the edge but chose not to, opting instead to keep them at three or four thousand rpm. Their lips wrestled, their tongues fenced, and they rubbed their pelvises together as their free hands embarked on bold adventures, but neither one of them was going to overheat anytime soon.

"Dan. Daniel," his mom moaned between passionate kisses. Ever so slowly, the needle approaching the red line. He almost stopped to ask what was bothering her but didn't. He knew the difference between panting and a genuine attempt to get his attention. "You've no idea how badly I need this," she continued. Her fingers raked his scalp. That might finally have hurt, if he wasn't so caught up in the moment. His mom's lust was a heady cocktail, and he was growing pleasantly intoxicated. "I need my baby boy."

"No more than I need you," he replied. Then he reached inside her and turned a dial a few clicks, even though she was already near max emotional intensity. That used up some of his energy, but she was generating so much he almost needed to divert it. Though if that had been the point, he'd made a mistake, because his mom started feeding him even faster. He felt the spiritual equivalent of his capillaries swell, his veins and arteries threatening to burst, and existence itself seemed to vibrate and hum. His mom couldn't have derived too much pleasure, physically, from the way he clumsily groped at her bra or rubbing her mound against his cock through two pairs of underwear, but in her state of heightened arousal, his kiss alone was had to be better than anything she'd ever experienced in the real world.

Soon enough, his mom started to cum, and cum hard. She remained in a state of pure ecstasy for almost two minutes, limbs flailing of their own accord while her brain fought to reassert its control over such complex tasks as basic motor function. Dan could only imagine the sounds she'd have made were her mouth not covered by his.

"Mmm," his mom moaned when he finally pulled away, allowing her a chance to breathe. The rumble in her throat sent shivers down his spine, grounding out in his sac. It was a strange, delightful sensation. Her eyelids fluttered for a few seconds and that gave him another jolt, if not one that was quite as literal. Seeing her in that state did wonders for Dan's psyche. As did the way she stared into his eyes once hers finally opened. It was like she thought the secrets of the universe were contained within his brown eyes.

"I'm sorry," Dan said, hoping she didn't catch his amusement. Though if she really was an empath, same as him, she'd sense it no matter how flat his tone. "Won't do it again."

"Sorry?" she asked with a musical little laugh, like wind chimes tinkling in a soft breeze. "For what?" She smacked his bottom the way she so often had when he was little. Then she made his head explode by saying, "You know I love it when you kiss me like that."

For a split-second, time came to a halt. The scattered bits of brain made their way back inside his skull and Dan slowly regained the ability to think.

Did that mean they'd done this before? That she had summoned him? Or was there another explanation? Dan was getting stronger and more experienced by the day. And, at present, he had far too much magic inside him. It was probably looking for an escape. His subconscious could be relieving the pressure by using some to make her avatar say things he wanted to hear, even remember things he wished he had cause to remember. Dan didn't know for sure whether that was possible, but figured it could be.

He might have asked her who she thought had initiated the scene, or something along those lines, but there was no point. Either his mom was also a Talent—an empath, specifically—who had turned to her son's Aether avatar when the loss of her husband proved more than she could bear, or he was somehow causing her to behave as though that was the case without even realizing it. What response could she give that would distinguish between the two possibilities? The only way to learn the truth was to have a long overdue conversation in the real world, where his mom's thoughts and words were unquestionably her own.

Though, in the meantime, nothing said he couldn't enjoy the rest of the scene.

Especially since one of those interpretations—the less creepy one—seemed more likely to be correct. Yes, Dan was constantly discovering that the Aether was even more pliable than it appeared to be. There were limits to his influence over the avatars he summoned, though. And his mom had been flirting with him in the real world. He'd told himself that he'd read things wrong, because she was his mom and that immediately disqualified him, but he knew what he'd felt. New as Dan still was to the world of magic, he was a fast learner, if he did say so himself. He'd fooled a member of the town's witch-hunting council, hadn't he? With help from Caleb's incense, sure, but also his intuitive understanding of empathic abilities.

If nothing else, there was the look in those olive green eyes. No one had ever stared at him like that, with such devotion and awe. Not even in the Aether. His sister had come close, but not even she had made Dan feel the way he felt at that moment. Besides, for all he knew, she was a Talent as well. That was a heritable trait, after all.

Fuck. That was a crazy thought. One he didn't have time for at the moment.

"Of course I do," Dan told his mom. Who might, in fact, be his mom and not just an avatar. Or something in between? He was still struggling with the idea that there were many different levels of presence in the Aether. "I also know that you like being teased," he told her, brushing a nipple through the padded cup of her bra, which still managed to produce a shudder, thanks to the state she was in. "Though you'll never admit it."

"You lie," his mom said before initiating another kiss.

It lasted nearly as long as the previous one, and ended much the same way—with a bang. This time, though, Dan joined his mom in orgasm, making an absolute mess of his boxers.

"These might have outgrown their use," his mom said, tugging at the waistband. She pulled it back then let it snap against his tail bone. "Don't you think?"

Chuckling to himself, Dan followed her suggestion. He pulled the garment off and tossed it onto the coffee table without even moving his hips, because he could. The soiled drawers faded into gray mist before making contact with the pine surface.

His mom slid her hands down his back to his exposed bottom, cooing as she squeezed his buttocks. "It's like they're carved from stone," she said, giving one cheek a playful slap. Her green eyes bore into him with an intensity he'd never get used to. Not that he wanted to. "You have the most amazing body that has ever existed, Daniel Westbrook."

"I believe that honor belongs to you," he said. "But I'll settle for runner-up."

The tiniest of smile spread across her pink lips. "You usually say `I know I do, but seeing as you gave it to me, you deserve at least some of the credit' or some such." She gave him a quick peck on the lips. "I must admit, I like that answer better."

"Which one?" he asked, feigning ignorance.

She gave his ass another slap. One that wasn't so gentle. Dan didn't mind, though. It stung a little, but mostly it signaled her obsession with his physique, and that felt pretty damn good. That was more or less how Jane had felt each of the many times he'd slapped her ass. He'd sensed it at the time, and could now relate through first-hand experience.

Nonetheless, he said, "Don't you objectify me. I am more than just a great body."

Another quick kiss. "Sure you are."

"Hey!" Dan said, before giving one plump lip a soft bite.

"Do you need me to list all the reasons you're the best lover I've ever had?" his mom asked. "Sometimes I forget how fragile the male ego is, especially during the teenage—"

Dan didn't let her finish the sentence. His lips had been apart from hers for too long.

He did not kiss her as passionately as she wanted him to, though. Dan wanted that as well. How could he not? Her lips were like candy, only more addictive. Every time he pressed his to hers, he got a sugar high, at bare minimum. Her tongue seemed to touch his spinal cord, so reliably did it send shivers running down his body. But desperate as she was for him to stoke the flames, Dan had to refuse. Just to mess with her.

The whimper she let out when she realized that he was intentionally holding back was simply to die for. "Please?" She bit his lip, then kissed it better. "You don't really want to make mommy suffer, do you?" She grabbed his cock with one hand, the other remaining firmly atop his ass, and slapped his hard shaft against the front of her damp panties a few times before letting go. "Anymore than I already am, that is."

Without a word, Dan moved on to her neck and ears. The fragrance of her hair filled his nostrils. He loved the way it smelled, especially when she got all sweaty during sex.

Fuck. Was that why he'd nearly recommended her shampoo to his girlfriend? How long had he been in the habit of kissing the top of her head in the morning, and lingering to enjoy the sweet smell of her hair as he did? A few months, at least.

"Mmmm," his mom moaned, digging the nails of one hand into his butt. The other moved up his back, tracing his well-defined if not excessively large muscles.

His mom had been seducing him for months. What a crazy thought. That probably should have bothered Dan, but it didn't. In fact, he couldn't think of anything sexier.

A deeply drawn breath made his mom's chest heave. Seeing as he was practically lying on top of her, that meant Dan felt her soft pillows pressing against his hard pectorals. Fuck, that did things to him. An obsession with large breasts was no hallmark of mental sophistication but Dan couldn't help it. The feel of them awoke something primal inside him.

"Yep," his mom said, squirming a bit to offer him a better angle. "That'll do, for now. Just make sure you don't stop until I'm ready for you to move on."

"Make sure I don't what?" Dan asked, pulling back.

"Oh you—" his mom began. She gave his ass another slap. The peal of thunder echoed softly across the Aether, for all the sense that made. If possible, that made him even harder. "Keep this up and I might not be so careful with my teeth when I take you in my mouth."

"You wouldn't dare," he replied. Because he was an idiot.

She laughed. "Go ahead, put that theory to the test."

Without another word, Dan returned his attention to her neck and ear. He made damn sure not to disappoint her either. The sounds she made and the way she writhed, to say nothing of what he felt with his empathic abilities, certainly encouraged him to keep it up.

Nonetheless, just as his mom was approaching orgasm, Dan stopped everything and slid across to her far less sensitive collarbone before resuming.

The groan of protest his mom let out as he did almost made him cum. Whatever the consequences might end up being, that alone nearly justified his decision. Besides, when he finally did let her climax, it was going to be epic.

A fact that she herself was cognizant of. Yes, his mom longed for release, but she also trusted him implicitly. She'd placed herself in his capable hands and apparently knew from experience that she'd not regret doing so. Along the way, there'd be a few feeble attempts at persuading him to speed up or slow down, but no punishment afterwards if he disregarded all of them. At least not involving her teeth and his cock.

Or so he hoped.

If she really had been summoning him here for months, why didn't he have any memory of it? Dan supposed that meant that even a Talent did not enter the Aether too fully when summoned there by another of their kind. That she would not remember this encounter, though she came into it with memories of previous ones. Which probably made sense, but was a bit disappointing. Or maybe it wasn't. He didn't even know.

His mom was as into him as he was into her. That was a frightening and exhilarating thought. What was he going to do with that knowledge? Did he want to consummate their relationship in the real world? The sex would be disappointing, compared to this. It would have to be. At least on a physical level. It would breed greater intimacy, though. And he already couldn't be around her without wanting to do carnal things with her. It was probably inevitable that they'd give in eventually.

Which would totally fuck up both their lives. Wouldn't it?

Or be the start of something beautiful.

Dan pushed the thoughts from his mind and focused on the body she wore in the Aether. Which was absolutely incredible, though he figured the real thing had to be pretty damn impressive as well. Even if there were a few stretch marks.

Ugh. He had to focus on the here and now. He could worry about whether to go a step further, altering both their lives irrevocably, once he returned to the real world.

"Everything alright?" his mom asked, because of course she'd picked up on his anxiety.

Dan met her gaze. Those eyes of hers were just so damn breathtaking. When people raved about green eyes, they usually had lighter tones in mind. The sort that were almost blue, or the brighter and more colorful ones that were reminiscent of emeralds. His mom's were darker and more complex, with so many other colors present and accounted for that it made his head spin. They were less like emeralds than chips of green marble. And, like each and every one of her countless assets, he could go on about their beauty for days.

Perhaps he should do just that.

She'd mentioned just the other day that she might encourage him to keep a diary even after school ended. That could actually be fun, if instead of chronicling his progress with magic, Dan praised a different aspect of his mom's beauty with each entry.

He spent so much time kissing the pale tops of her breasts, gently fondling the big beauties through the fabric of her lacy bra, that he himself nearly lost patience. He couldn't have been more eager to see them. But still, he drew things out a little more, for good measure.

"Sure is," he said. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason," she said, tousling his hair.

At long last, Dan finally dismissed her bra.

For a time, all he could do was stare. Well, and hold the natural wonders he'd unleashed. He'd already been doing that, and he wasn't about to stop now that it was soft flesh rather than lacy fabric pressing against his palms. But the kneading, kissing, and licking stopped, so stupefied was he by their abject perfection.

Not only were they enormous, but they had the perfect shape. Firm and round to a degree, yet not so defiant of gravity as to look unnatural. They sagged, but no more than they should have. There were no prominent veins, stretch marks, tan lines, or other imperfections. Her nipples were just this side of too big. When people talked about perfectly-sized nipples, they always seemed to compare them to pencil erasers. His mom's were much bigger—more like the last digit of his pinky finger—but he so far as Dan was concerned, that just meant there was more to suck. And that she was more likely to cum when he did so. At least, that was how it worked in the Aether. Dark as her areola were, the lovely nubs at their center were surprisingly pale. Dan had once heard that nipples darkened after childbirth, especially if the woman breastfed her children, as Dan knew his mom had done with him and Jane, but hers were still a nice soft pink, several shades lighter than her lipstick.

At some point, Dan reminded himself that the body he couldn't stop marveling at belonged to someone. To his mom. He was objectifying her, depersonalizing her, the way he'd teased her for doing a little earlier. He supposed that made them even, but still felt guilty.

Not that she seemed to mind. At all.

"That way you react every time you see them," she said, cupping them from underneath as if they needed any help attaining prominence, "almost makes the back pain worth it."

"Only almost, though?"

She shrugged. "Sometimes I'm glad I have them. Others, I wish they were half this size."

"That would still be pretty big."

His mom gave him a smile and pushed one nipple towards his mouth. That was one request he didn't mind granting. The gasp she let out as his lips encircled her areola made his cock throb, and when he gave her stiff nipple a furtive lick, she shuddered delightfully. Before long, his mom was lost in her own little world. She arched her back sharply, forcing Dan to adjust his position if he wanted to keep that lovely nipple in his mouth—which he very much did. Her breath caught in her throat and those lovely eyes were squeezed tightly shut, depriving the Aether of considerable beauty. She remained in that position for a moment or two, then settled back to the sofa, exhaling mightily.

One could almost think she'd gotten off. The time for that was fast approaching, but had yet to arrive, though. So Dan released her nipple, ignored her groan of protest, and began kissing around the outside of her breast. He worked clockwise around its vast circumference, waiting until he'd traced a perimeter to start back toward the center and her proud nipple. Then, just as he approached it again, Dan switched to the other breast.

That made his mom laugh. "Go ahead. Take your time."

"I intend to."

She harrumphed, but said nothing more. Even though the glacial pace was clearly driving her out of her mind. When Dan finally did cross the border from pale flesh to dark areola, his mom immediately started to writhe and moan, a deep bass rumbling in her throat. He wasn't sure she'd last long but decided that was okay. She'd endured enough.

Indeed she didn't. Dan was getting ready to swirl his tongue lightly around her pink nub when his mom threw her head back and howled the first of many obscenities.

"You didn't see that," his mom said as she quickly recovered.

"Or hear it," Dan confirmed.

She frowned at him, flicked his earlobe, then pushed her breast towards his face. Dan needed no urging. He closed his mouth slowly around her nipple, flicked his tongue against it a few times, then withdrew it and worked his lips like a pump.

His mom gasped, body tensing, then slowly relaxed. "Baby, that feels sooooo good." She put just enough pressure on the back of his head to let him know that under no circumstances was he to stop before she got off again. "You were always so gentle with them."

Hearing that made Dan's head spin. He almost couldn't believe that she'd likened his current feeding habits, which revolved around magical energy, to an infant's need for milk.

"Did Jane use her teeth?" He flashed a quick grin. "Does she still?"

An image flashed through Dan's mind, of him taking his sister from behind while she buried her face between their mom's thighs and pleasured her orally. Dan had grown tired of threesomes, but perhaps that was only because of the participants he'd been choosing, none of which did much for him individually any more either. True, his mom was more than enough for him. The only woman he'd ever need. Yet something about the three of them making of love together, as a family, appealed to him. In a perverse sort of way, he found the idea rather heart-warming. But he had no idea if either of them would be open to it.

"How should I know?" his mom said. If she was surprised or offended by the question, it didn't show, on any level. Neither did it amuse her, though. "But back then? Yes, she did." She looked from Dan to the hard nipple that still glistened with his saliva. "Do you want to talk about your sister or do you want to be a good boy and make mommy squeal?"

Dan made an exaggerated frown. "Hmm. That's a tough question."

His mom grumbled something to herself as guided him back to her breast once again. As before, she gasped the moment his mouth closed around the circle of dark, sensitive skin and he dragged his tongue in a circle around the base of her nipple. As it had once already, her back arched dramatically. Dan followed the movement of her body, the same as before.

"It's not even fair," his mom said, playing with his short hair. "How am I supposed to keep my hands off you when you can do this to me without even trying?"

"Who said I'm not?" Dan asked. He punctuated the question with a flick of his tongue, producing a delightful shudder. "And where else should your hands be?"

She answered neither question. Just closed her eyes, rolled her head to the side, and motioned for him to continue. He did so. And, it seemed, thereby vanquished her ability to form words. Her lips moved, and sounds came out, but they were incoherent.

Naturally, Dan chose to interpret them as compliments. Because why not.

The monster orgasm she experienced a few minutes later left little room for interpretation, though. That was a nice, clear testament to his prowess. As was the one that followed shortly after he switched to her other nipple. One had involved an ear-piercing shriek, the other was nearly silent, but both were quite intense, judging by the intense pleasure and desperation he tasted moments before they occurred and immense relief and lingering euphoria after.

"I don't know whether to ask you to keep going or not," his mom said with a languid smile. "On the one hand, I want you to, because it feels so darn good. On the other, I might need a short break if I'm to have any hope of surviving."

Running the tip of his finger ever so lightly over one breast, though taking care to avoid her sensitive nipple, Dan said, "If you don't, I'll buy you a really nice headstone."

"Well that's reassuring," his mom said with a laugh. She grabbed the back of his head and pulled him up, until their foreheads were nearly touching. They held one another's gaze for a moment that felt like an eon before his mom kissed him. Then did so again. And again. The first two were quick, but the third lasted a good while. Not long enough, of course, because no kiss from her ever would, but it was nice. "What's it going to say?"

"She made the best lasagna."

That earned him a knuckle sandwich, right in the stomach. Dan was still laughing when his mom pressed her lips to his once more. "That wasn't supposed to amuse you," she said between kisses. "You should apologize." Another kiss. "And make it sound sincere."

"I'm sorry," Dan said.

His mom snorted. "On a scale from one to ten, that was a point four. At best."

"I'm not so good with words," he told her as he slid down her body. He kept his eyes on her green olives, attempting to locate her nipple by feel. "Let's try another approach."

Judging by the way his mom cooed, Dan figured his terms proved acceptable.

He decided to go just a little easier on her this time, both in terms of physical stimulation and the use of magic to intensify her arousal. That proved wise, because it wasn't long before his mom was deep in the throes of yet another orgasm. Dan was almost surprised by the intensity of it, coming so soon as it did after the last set. Not that he was complaining.

His mom seemed to get even more out of his ministrations than his past lovers had. And, of late, Dan hadn't exactly felt ineffectual. He wanted to believe that was because there was a special connection between them, but suspected that if he ever made the mistake of telling Caleb about the encounter, his mentor would offer a more arcane, and utterly unromantic, explanation. Whatever the reason, Dan had yet to shift into third gear, yet his mom was on the border between agony and ecstasy. He'd pulled women into the Aether who hadn't found double-penetration as intense as his mom apparently did nipple play. Dan wasn't entirely sure what to make of that, but it gave him one hell of an ego boost.

Besides, the special connection theory was at least plausible.

"This...mmmph...is...perfect," his mom moaned. Dan lifted his head to tell her he was just getting started. The throaty purr she gave in response sent shivers down his spine. "Oh, I know you are, sweetie. I'm just telling you that you've already convinced me that I'll never need another lover. That you're all the man I need, now that your father's gone."

Had Dan's obsession with his mom truly been Oedipal in nature, he'd have gotten a rush out of hearing that. But it actually saddened him. Almost enough to ruin the moment. Only almost, but it was a definitely buzzkill. He wasn't here because he had some psychological need for validation and his mom was the only one who could provide it. He was here because he loved her as he never could any other woman. And part of loving her was wanting her to be happy. Preferably with him, yes, but also in general. The thought that he was more a surrogate for her late husband than her ideal partner in his own right was depressing. Almost as much as the realization that she still wasn't done grieving. That beneath all the excitement and affection he felt near the surface, there was still a lot of pain.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I shouldn't have mentioned him."

"It's okay," Dan said.

"You're better than he ever was."

Dan shook his head. "Don't say that. Even if it's true." Dan almost said, "He wasn't a Talent, like us, so it's not a fair comparison," but stopped himself. That was a whole different can of worms. "I can't replace him. And I don't want to."

His mom ran her fingers through his hair softly. "I know. And you shouldn't have to." She bit her lower lip. "You don't have to. I'm happy with things the way they are. You're special because you're you, not because you're all I have left."

"Are you saying that because you mean it or because you know you should?"

She hesitated a moment before saying, "The latter."

That little pause spoke volumes though.

His mom sighed. "You're not usually this serious. What's up?"

Time slowed. She was offering him a golden opportunity and he had think very carefully before he let it pass him by. Dan didn't really think he was controlling her, anymore than he'd believed her actions innocent in the real world. His mom was an empath and she had been summoning him to the Aether because she couldn't cope with the loss of his dad. There was good news in there, but also bad. And a lot they had to work through together.

In person. Outside the Aether.

That wasn't his dick talking. Yes, the damn thing was still hard, and his mom's breasts were still exposed. But that didn't change the fact that this wasn't the place for conversations like the one they needed to have. In a way, the whole trial run idea was even more selfish than coming here for sex. An attempt to gain an unfair advantage or exert undue influence.

"Hmm?" he asked as he lowered his head to her breast once more.

"Daniel," she said. But he ignored the reprimand, and the next time she said his name, it came out quite differently. Equal parts praise and synonym for the four-lettered word that followed it. And soon enough, she couldn't manage more than grunts, whimpers, and howls.

Once Dan decided her nipples couldn't take any more, he moved down her body a bit and gave her ribcage the same treatment. Then her navel. Curvaceous as his mom was in the Aether, her hips bones still protruded nicely. They weren't as prominent as some he'd seen, but they demanded recognition—which he was all too happy to give.

When he reached her panties, Dan kissed the damp spot a few times before yanking them off abruptly. Or, rather, he pinched the fabric between his fingers and yanked his hand back, which was mostly for show. This being the Aether, her panties had turned to mist the moment he'd chosen to remove them. But the dramatic gesture still looked cool.

Laughing, his mom said, "Getting impatient, are we?"

"Me?" Dan asked, as he traced the edges of her pretty pink lips with a featherlight touch. They were slick with her excitement, glistening in the ambient light of the Aether.

"You're the...," she began, before his touch made her stop and draw a shuddering breath. "...one who just..." She paused again to exhale. "...ripped my panties off." Draping her wrist over her forehead, as if to the weight was needed to keep her from floating away, she said "Okay, fine. You win. But you could tell me...ungh, fudge...you're going to enjoy—"

His tongue silenced her.

Or, rather, kept her from finishing her sentence. As he slowly dragged the tip of it up the center, parting her inner labia, he was anything but silent.

For a good long while, Dan avoided her clitoris. Even after Dan decided that her little lady had waited long enough, he proceeded with caution. He kissed and licked around it, as if unsure where it was, so that his lips and tongue would just barely brush against it. Dozens of light swirls followed, interrupted by soft kisses or brief periods in which he fluttered his tongue like a hummingbird's wing against her nub.

Sharing a lunch table with Nora, whose idea of TMI bore little resemblance to anyone else's, Dan knew that most guys his age were simply too proud of the fact that they knew where and what it was. They'd attack it relentlessly almost from the get-go, whereas guys with a little more experience knew how to build tension. His friend had probably only shared that information to make him uncomfortable. To both arouse him and make him wonder if he was above such mistakes. But it had proven useful advice, whether it had been offered in that spirit or not. Thanks to Nora, Dan had learned that that a little patience was more effective than any magic he could yet perform in the real world.

Sensing that his mom was approaching climax, he paused to tell her how much he loved the way she tasted. That she was absolutely gorgeous down there. Her labia were puffy and prominent, reminding him of a pink carnation, whereas the tight-lipped Nora bore a greater resemblance to a clamshell. The reddish thatch sitting atop her mound marked her as a full-grown woman as well. Nora and Lucie were shaved bald. As was his sister, for that matter. Dan had never realized how silly that made them look. How undeveloped. His mom's pubes were lightly trimmed, so that they didn't grow too close to any of the important parts, but had otherwise been allowed to flourish. He liked that a lot.

"Daniel," his mom said. "That's all very nice to hear. But these are things you were supposed to tell me before you started. At this point, I just need you to keep—"

He went back to it, pushing her over the edge in a matter of seconds.

After that first climax, which was of epic proportions, Dan went easy on her. That wasn't to say he slowed his tongue down or anything, only that he stopped deliberately preventing orgasms. If anything, the various forms of stimulation he applied steadily grew more intense. He worked a few fingers inside her, showing her that he not only knew where the G-spot was, but the A-spot as well. Which, come to think of it, probably wasn't news to her. But whatever. They might have done this before, but he hadn't really been there for that, as Caleb would put it. In his mind, he was showing her all his tricks for the first time. If the fact that she'd experienced them before decreased their effectiveness, it didn't show.

"I don't know how much more of this I can take," his mom said, some time later. Her orgasms hadn't been too intense for a while there, but then Dan decided that he had to see her squirt. And she'd done more than that, though it had taken longer than expected. Once she finally did ejaculate, his mom was like a geyser. Now she was sucking air like she'd just finished an intense workout. Beads of sweat decorated her incredible body. "Though if you want to keep going, I wouldn't refuse," she added with a grin. "I should, but I wouldn't."

Dan massaged her swollen vulva with the pads of his fingers, taking care to avoid her sensitive clitoris. That wasn't the start of another round, just an act of affection, if not the sort most guys showed their moms. "I know you're not tapping out," he said.

She snorted. "No, sir."

"Just saying that you're ready for some dick?"

"I don't know that I'd put it that way..."

"...but yeah," he finished for her.

His mom smiled and traced the outer edge of his ear with her finger tips.

That gave him all the feels. Under different circumstances, it would qualify as perfectly innocent—unlike the way he was rubbing her vadge. Yet in that moment, it felt almost scandalous. It was one thing for them to have sex. That wasn't the sort of thing one spoke about in polite company, but everyone did it, and everyone knew that everyone did it. The need to couple, to climax, wasn't all that different from the need for food and shelter. To develop and express real affection for one's partner, however, was a bit different. That wasn't always part of the deal, as Dan had recently. Or perhaps always known, but failed to fully appreciate. He'd summoned quite a few women to the Aether by that point, but few had touched him like. Only his mom and his sister. And Jane didn't really count, because he'd only summoned her as a proxy for their mom in the first place.

"I love you, Mom."

He'd told Jane the same thing, and had meant it. But with her, it just wasn't the same. Maybe qualitatively it was, but not quantitatively. Not even close.

The most beautiful smile spread across her face. "I love you too, sweetie." Dan felt the truth of her words, but he wasn't sure if she meant them the same way he did. How could she, when she still wasn't over his dad? "Now fuck me with that big cock of yours."

In spite of himself, Dan burst out laughing. As did his mom.

There were worse ways of telling him that he should say that, he supposed.

Something strange happened then. Or maybe it was entirely predictable—the only thing that could have happened in that awkward moment. Either way, time seemed skip forward abruptly. It didn't speed up. There was actually a discontinuity. One moment, Dan was bent over his mom, who lay flat on her back, looking her in the eye and trying not to feel rejected by her words—nevermind that they conveyed rather enthusiastic consent. The next, she was on all fours and Dan was behind her, guiding his cock towards her wet slit.

The sheer majesty of her form was more than Dan could comprehend. The stockings and garter belt remained in place, but neither did anything to conceal her ass, which was beyond captivating. Yes, he'd gotten a decent look at it when she'd gone into the kitchen, but that was different. She'd still had her robe and panties on, for one thing. And hadn't been waiting impatiently for him to enter her. More than that, though, he'd underestimated its perfection. The size and shape of it. He'd initially thought it smaller than his sister's, but he realized now that it just didn't define her physique the way Jane's did because her breasts were so much bigger. Though her broad hips tapered into a narrow waist, her ass was absolutely huge. It was also round yet soft, clearly undergirded by strong muscle yet padded with fat that would ripple like the surface of a stormy sea once he started slamming into her. There wasn't a hint of cellulite, however. The beauty of her pale skin was accentuated by the dark fabric of her lingerie. For such a small detail, that had a huge impact on him. Not that his mom would have been anything but irresistible had she been completely naked, of course. Just that the lacy garter belt put her even further over the top.

Her anus was tight, tiny, and pink. Almost invisible. Her labia, on the other hand, were swollen and glistening with her sweet juice, begging him to part them.

Unfortunately, time hadn't resumed its normal flow yet.

"That's it, baby," she said. "Mommy's waiting for you."

Or perhaps it had. Who could blame Dan for freezing up? For being hypnotized by her?

"Please, Daniel," his mom said, lowering her shoulders and pushing her hips back. Her face, turned sideways, nearly sank into the sofa cushion. "I need it."

As he snapped out of his reverie, Dan punctuated his return with a slap of his mom's ass. She whimpered delightfully then wiggled her hips, making those fleshy orbs dance. That almost sent Dan deep into a hypnotic trance once again, but somehow he kept it together.

He really had never seen anything quite like it, though. Nora had a great ass, which she was very much aware of. So did his sister, though Jane was self-conscious about what was probably her best feature. Neither could compare to his mom, though—not even in that department. Her breasts alone were more than enough to set her apart, but there wasn't a single part of her that compared unfavorably with the best any other woman had to offer.

Why, exactly, had he wasted his time with anyone who wasn't her?

"This?" he asked, rubbing the head of his cock, coated in pre-cum, along her wet slit. Then he slapped the shaft against her swollen lips a few times. A groan rumbled from deep in her throat, but Dan ignored it. When he rubbed his helmet back and forth against her stiff clitoris, she sucked in air and held it. The anticipation he felt growing within her was sweeter than any climax. "Your son's big, fat dick? Is that what you need?"

"Yes," she whimpered. "Please."

So, at last, Dan gave it to her. Several inches of it, anyway. That was all he could manage with his first push, astoundingly tight as she was. "Fuuuuck," his mom said as no more than a third of his length disappeared into her warm hole. Her inner muscles tightened, gripping him like a vice. They hadn't gotten the message that there was nothing in the world she wanted more than to have him deep inside her. All they knew, apparently, was that her body was being invaded by a foreign object. "I always forget how big you are."

"Did I push too hard?"

"Nooo," she said, combining the word with laugh that made the vowel sound rumble. Inside, her grip began to loosen. Which was good, because she'd held him it so tight it was almost uncomfortable. Now it was just right, though. Snug, but in a good way.

Her walls began to pulsate with a distinct rhythm, though not one he recognized. Dan felt like he was sitting at his computer, watching the sound waves as one of his favorite songs played. Well, being inside her felt nothing like that, but realizing that she was making music with her contractions reminded him of that. Even in the Aether, he'd never encountered a woman who could control those muscles so well. She might still be overwhelmed by the pleasure of taking her son back inside her, but that didn't keep her from showing off.

"Damn, Mom, how are you even doing that?" he asked, though not because he expected an answer. She probably knew how impressed he was, the same way Dan knew that she was experiencing deeper satisfaction and pleasure than most women ever would, but he figured that everyone enjoying hearing how amazed their partner was with their prowess.

"Doing what?" she asked, in the same trying-to-play-dumb-but-too-amused-at-my-own-cleverness-to-fool-anyone tone that Dan so often adopted without meaning to. There was a hint of distress in her voice, but it was fading. The flow of energy had resumed, as well.

"Nice try," he said, giving her ass a slap.

In response, his mom showed him what it was like to be on the receiving end of an empath's abilities. Every pussy he'd ever slid into had been warm and wet, by turns caressing him with silk then squeezing him tight. In that respect, his mom was not unique. She had greater control over her muscles, allowing her vibrate against him like a hand massager, which none of his previous lovers had done, but that was difference of degree rather than kind. Physically, she had talent. But what he was experiencing emotionally was the gifts of a Talent. He became infinitely more susceptible to her ministrations, reaching heights of arousal he didn't think he'd ever guided anyone to, let alone experienced himself.

"Don't hold back, baby," she said. "Cum for Mommy."

He did precisely that. As he would have whether she'd spoken or not.

Dan was used to cumming profusely when he was in the Aether. At first, that might have been deliberate. He'd liked testing the limits of Ms. Conklin's appetite for cum. After a while, it started to happen by default. He expected to, and so he did. Even by those standards, though, his mom milked him good. Dan filled her to overflowing and still felt nowhere near done. His testicles just kept rising and falling, each contraction proving less pleasurable than the last as he marched steadily towards the limits of what a body could handle even here. It was like he hadn't cum in months, and had been building up a reservoir the whole time, even though that couldn't have been farther from the truth.

"Atta boy," his mom said, caressing his sensitive glans with her inner walls. Meanwhile, she reached down to play with his tired balls, as if to congratulate them on a job well done. Her nails ran along his delicate flesh, applying just enough pressure to give Dan a thrill.

Dan huffed, which was the best he could do at that moment. His mom would know how to interpret it, though, even if she wasn't an empath. She knew him inside and out.

That was just one of many reasons why his mom was perfect for him, as he hoped he was for her. Why she was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

That was a dangerous thought. She was already trying to kick him out of the house, if only because the prospect of a diploma hanging on his wall meant more to her than it did to him. Maybe he didn't need to feel bad about doing horribly depraved things with her here, but that part of their relationship had to remain in the Aether. For all sorts of reasons.

"Sorry," Dan said. "Got a little ahead of myself."

"No need to apologize," his mom said as she started to vibrate against him once more.

He laughed. "I suppose not, considering you ramped up my excitement."

"No idea what you're talking about."

Only after she brushed the comment aside did it occur to Dan that he probably shouldn't have made it. That they hadn't yet acknowledged that they were both Talents. Not aloud. Their actions left no room for doubt, but Dan couldn't have known that his mom shared the view that it was best to save that conversation for later. As she apparently did.

"Ready to give me the rest of that big dick?" his mom said, even as she started sliding her hips back, doing some of the job for him.

"If you're sure you can handle it," Dan replied, though he wasn't sure he could.

His mom didn't reply. Just kept pushing towards him.

Endless waves of pleasured rolled over Dan as his mom took him in her warm embrace. He gasped and shuddered, trying not to let the sensations overwhelm him, though he wasn't doing a terribly good job of it. Another orgasm would be inevitable if she kept going like that, unhurried as her pace was. Yet Dan didn't ask his mom to stop, because it would be completely irrational to request that she deprive him of pleasure so intense and pure. That, and he wasn't quite sure he was capable of unclenching his jaw just at the moment. So instead, Dan thrust forward as hard as he could and buried himself to the hilt.

Their bodies connected with a loud smack that was music to Dan's ears. It was immediately followed by the sound of his hand making impact with her big ass.

"You like my big butt, don't you?" she asked, panting for air.

"No more than everything else," Dan said. "But that's still an awful fucking lot."

She laughed and gave him a few twists inside, which were unreasonably effective. His vision blurred and the breath caught in his throat, but he managed to keep from exploding. "I had you pegged as a breast man," his mom said. "The way you're always staring."

That caused Dan to panic for a moment. Until he realized there was no judgment implied by her words. It felt like there should be, because moms often shamed their teenage sons for being superficial horn-dogs, and he'd experienced that first-hand in the past. But all he detected in his mom's voice just then was amusement. And perhaps gratification.

Yeah, she definitely liked knowing that they had such an effect on him. If he hadn't been so distracted trying not to cum, he'd have felt that, whether she kept it out of her voice or not. Just as he'd noticed it in the real world, though he hadn't allowed himself to believe his supernatural senses. It was a wonder she still wore his dad's old shirts all the time, instead of something tighter and more revealing. Like, um, a sports bra.

Was her new workout routine for her or for him?

That was stupid. Of course it was for her. The choice of outfit might have been made with him in mind, but the was no reason to doubt that she actually wanted to get in better shape. Even if there was reason to doubt whether it was possible for her shape to be better.

"You weren't wrong about that," Dan said, working slowly back and forth. He dared not go any faster. It felt so damn good to be inside her that he didn't think he could hold out for long if he did. As it was, Dan would have to get used to never lasting more than a couple of minutes. "If I had to pick between the two, that's what I'd go with," he continued, through gritted teeth. The pressure was still mounting, and he didn't even think she was manipulating his emotions anymore. His mom was just that good at the simple mechanics of it. "But when I'm lucky enough to be with a woman who's blessed in both departments, as well as every other one, I try to appreciate all that she has to offer."

"Well said," his mom told him. Then she squeezed him so tight that his eyes almost burst like grapes. Dan gasped for air and slumped forward, using her broad hips for support. Meanwhile, she too leaned forward, letting a few inches of him slide out.

They continued like that, adjusting position a little at a time as Dan continued serving up feeble thrusts. Once his mom was flat on her belly, hips ever so slightly upraised, he started to pick up the pace a bit more. Not much, but some. And while his thrusts remained slow, he put a lot more oomph into them, driving deep inside her. He felt the rougher, spongier flesh of her G-spot rubbing against the base of his shaft. That was good. It meant he wasn't the only one who might not last another thirty seconds.

"So close," his mom confirmed, her voice rising in pitch.

He had just enough time to kiss the back of her head then her cheek and tell her again that he loved her before they climaxed in unison.

Neither orgasm was particularly intense. Dan didn't take his mom's breath away. Had she felt the need, she could have told him not to keep saying that. She didn't, though.

Nor did she say it back.

Kissing her hair once more, and lingering a bit to savor the smell, Dan straighted up so he could look down and admire her backside. He gave one alabaster cheek a little tap and watched the resulting shock wave ripple across the smooth surface.

"I almost wish I was into anal," his mom said, twitching her glutes so that those lovely lumps danced for him. "You keep saying you don't mind, but I know you'd appreciate it."

So they'd talked about that before?

"There's nothing we could do together that I wouldn't find a way to enjoy," Dan told her as gave her another light tap. He would never get tired of the way her body reacted to even the lightest impact. "But, honestly, I like that you're not into that." He started kneading her fat ass like dough, which he refused to believe undercut his position. "Just because I love your butt cheeks doesn't mean I want to put anything inside your butt hole."

He'd tried an with previous partners and found it pleasant enough. But he liked what it said about his mom that she'd not let a man talk her into doing something she wasn't comfortable with. Nora would disagree, he knew, but he couldn't help but think that only a certain sort of woman let a guy go in through the out door. The very fact that she seemed to be in pain whenever she had him and Ray double her up only seemed to confirm that, nevermind that she also experienced more frequent and more intense orgasms when she had the both of them inside her. That only proved that she got off on fulfilling what she saw as her role. Nora thought it was the guy's job to want and to take and the girl's job to be wanted and to submit. His mom did not. She might be uninhibited, as evidenced by her willingness to have sex with her son, but that didn't mean she was willing to endure pain.

Could she have been more amazing? Dan certainly didn't think so.

"Besides," Dan said, finally taking his hands off her ass, "I like other parts even more."

"Is that so?" she asked. "What `parts' might that be?"

Dan pulled out and stepped away from the sofa, allowing his mom to roll onto her back. She'd given no indication that she was looking to do so, but seized the opportunity once he'd presented it. Then smiled up at him faintly, lips curved more on one side than the other.

He realized then that it was an exact replica of one he'd seen many times in the real world. That gave him heart palpitations. Technically, yes, his mom looked better in the Aether. Everyone did. But she was so beautiful in real life that he felt there was no room for improvement, and refused to see any contradiction between the two sentiments.

Without speaking a word, she grabbed his wrists and guided his palms towards her breasts. Dan climbed back onto the sofa, knees planted to either side of her hips, and groped her breasts. He did so softly at first, then noticed how aroused she was already and so wasted no time turning his attention to her nipples, rolling them between his fingers.

"They do enjoy your touch," his mom said with a sly smile.

"Well I enjoy touching them," he said. "So I guess that works out."

His mom looked like she wanted to say something in response, but the pleasure she was experiencing was simply too intense for her to continue stringing words together. The buzz Dan had taken for granted grew stronger. Were it not for his empathic abilities, he'd have said she was humoring him. No woman could enjoy some light nipple play that much. He wasn't even working them that vigorously. Yet he knew his mom wasn't faking when her eyes rolled back in her head and she bit down on her lower lip in a failed attempt to keep sounds of enjoyment from escaping. Staring at her magnificent breasts, and feeling her intense arousal as he played with her nipples, brought Dan to levels of excitement that would ordinarily only make sense if someone was doing something to please him. He was tempted to lean down and suckle one of those pink lovelies but wasn't sure his mom could handle the sensation.

Such restraint proved unnecessary, as his mom started cumming a few seconds later all the same. Her climax wasn't particularly intense. She barely made any noise, and her legs only twitched a couple times, but there was no mistaking the fact that she'd had an orgasm.

Dan waited until the involuntary spasms faded, which didn't take too long, then lined himself up without bothering to take his hands off her breasts and buried himself to the hilt with a single thrust. Because they were in the Aether, where such things were possible, her legs went from being stretched out beneath him to propped up on his shoulders.

"Look ma, no hands."

She was too lost in ecstasy to process his words, it seemed. That was okay. It wasn't his best attempt at humor anyway. He tried to make up for it in other ways. Leaning forward so as to force her hips up off the cushion a little bit, Dan began to enter her at an angle. That wasn't the most natural position for him. He had to lower his own hips and hold his back at an awkward angle, but it did so much for her that it was more than worth it.

"That's...oh my god," his mom said. Again, she failed in her attempt to complete a single sentence. Her eyes refused to open and her body to remain still. His every thrust shook her like an earthquake, even though they were slow and shallow to start.

Was he immune to sensation? Not at all. And the fact that he wasn't driving deep should only have made it more likely that he'd cum prematurely. That shortened the time between his sensitive glans rubbing against her spongy G-spot on the way in and then again on the way back. Dan was too focused on his mom's pleasure to let that affect him, though. Too determined to make her cum her brains out to allow himself to do so.

Gradually, he picked up the pace. Soon Dan was slamming into her good and hard, generating miniature thunderclaps each time their bodies made contact. His mom remained too distracted to wage a counteroffensive, which almost surprised him. That was too good an opportunity to pass up, though. He just kept going faster and faster, becoming a human jackhammer, all without fear that he'd not last long enough for it to be worth the effort. His mom gasped a few times and still hadn't managed to open her eyes for more than a fraction of a second, but the way she dug her nails into the backs of his hands silently urged him to keep up the pressure on her nipples in spite of the furious assault down below. And the grip of her pussy, clumsy and erratic as it had become, was no plea for mercy.

After a few quick orgasms, his mom fought her way back from a state of helplessness. That didn't mean it was time for Dan to slow down, though, breakneck as his pace had become. Once she regained the power of speech, his mom simply began talking dirty to him. Telling him how great he was and how much she loved his dick.

She even demanded that he fuck her harder.

That, Dan was incapable of doing. But it didn't matter. He knew she wasn't complaining about the pace, just expressing her enthusiasm. At least, he didn't think she could handle any more than he was giving. Would it be so bad if she could, though? Yes, that probably ought to make him feel inadequate. No guy could celebrate the discovery that he was incapable of pushing his partner to her limit. Yet the thought that his mom was even more of a sexual dynamo than he'd realized gave him chills. He might not be able to dish out more than she could take, but it wasn't like she was unaffected by his best efforts. Not by any means.

In time, his mom started to fight back. Which probably answered the first of his questions. The walls of her vadge massaged him unnaturally, twisting and vibrating against him. Once she started doing that, Dan knew he'd be emptying himself inside her again before long. Especially now that she'd fixed her broken eyelids and was held him in a deep, soulful gaze. He fucked her with his cock, and she fucked him right back with those green marbles.

Somehow, he held out for a few minutes more. Long enough to ensure that his mom climaxed as well, despite having cum a half dozen times since he'd propped her legs up on his shoulders. That only seemed to make his eruption more violent, though. When Dan's overworked balls were called to do their duty once more, they worked their hardest shift yet.

For the longest time, the two of them enjoyed their mutual climax, bodies spasming first in unison then in complement to one another. Neither said a word.

Until Dan started pumping away at her again. He didn't realize he'd made the decision to do so. Perhaps he hadn't. That was just the unavoidable consequence of forgetting to pull out. He was inside her, he was hard, and he'd recovered from his previous orgasm. What else was there to do but keep going? "I want to take a break," Dan told her. "One that lasts more than twenty seconds, anyway. I really do. But I just can't seem to stop."

"That's okay, baby," his mom replied. The vibrations started back up, though for the time being they were light. "I like knowing that you can't help yourself around me."

Not with her, Dan noted.

"I really can't."

"So stop trying to," she said.

"You got it, boss," Dan said. A few years ago, when he'd been stuck in the life-sucks-and-nothing's-fair phase most kids go through, that had been his response to almost everything she or his dad said to him. Neither of them had been a big fan, but he figured she might appreciate the callback just then. That, or the way he was pumping his hips, driving in at the exact right speed and the exact right angle. If he wasn't mistaken, there was a good chance she'd ejaculate again, spraying warm fluid against his abdomen.

Which would be just fine with him.

"I think I got it right when I made you," his mom said.

Dan laughed and turned his head to the side so he could kiss a nicely rounded calf. "So you messed up with Jane, then?" He asked before turning his eyes back to hers.

"Why do you keep bringing her up?" his mom asked. "Are you trying to make me jealous? Testing the waters for a potential threesome?"

His heart nearly exploded. That, and a few other things. "No," he said, truthfully. He liked the idea, though. "I was just teasing." He adjusted his angle for the next thrust, so that he didn't just rub against her G-spot but drove into it with more pressure than she could endure for an extended period of time. Though not more than she could appreciated the once. He almost felt bad for her lower lip, so hard did she bite it, yet her non-physical reaction was almost the precise opposite. There was a brief spike in the flow of energy, which had been quite steady to begin with. "But would it be so bad if I was?"

Once she was able to, his mom laughed. "Maybe not."` Inside, she tightened her muscles, and did not relax them again after gripping him so hard he came to a complete halt. Dan had no choice but to slow down then. He did resume thrusting, of course, but he had to draw on every ounce of strength to make sure he went nice and deep, giving various muscles a good workout. "Ask me again some other ti—" she said, before his next thrust interrupted her. "Just like that," his mom encouraged, despite the resistance offered by her body.

Her cries grew steadily louder. His mom went from biting first her lip then her finger to then slamming her head back against the armrest so hard it was a wonder the furniture survived. Despite such signs that she was near the limit of what she could take, his mom urged him to keep going. Dan tried to tell his mom how good it felt to be inside her, how turned on he was, or how hard he was going to make her cum, but rare were the moments he had enough breath to speak. Like his insatiable partner, who never seemed to run out of stamina despite cumming and squirting and cumming again, Dan was either in the midst of an intense orgasm or on the brink of one for the next ten minutes. Or maybe it was twenty? It didn't matter. Those were just numbers. Time was a meaningless concept.

At some point, what had begun as a merely physical act, driven by the need to satisfy primal urges, became a spiritual one. The sense that he was purifying his soul through sex, first felt with Jane, returned. This time it was even stronger. More humbling. He forgot that some people would scoff at the notion that it was virtuous for a son to make love to his mom, that it was good for them to strengthen their bond with heat and hammering blows as blacksmiths did steel. For a time, he genuinely believed that everyone respected the obvious truth of that fact. When it finally came to him that, no, most people did not see it that way, but in fact thought that few things were more revolting, he was stupefied. He couldn't begin to comprehend such a mindset. His mom needed him as badly as he needed her. Who would instruct him to deprive her, to not invest in the most valuable relationship either one of them had, while claiming the moral high ground? That made absolutely no sense to Dan.

Even that didn't do it justice. Dan couldn't explain it. All he knew was that, in spite the sweating and grunting, the sheer carnality of it all, something good and right was taking place. Toxins he hadn't even realized were inside him left his body, carried away by beads of sweat and pearls of jizz. And when his mom stared up at him with those powerful green eyes, she burned away impurities. In his mind's eye, he saw a glowing shaft of light connecting her heart to his. Or maybe that wasn't just in his head. He was too lost in ecstasy to say for sure. The longer they went at it, though, the thicker and brighter that bar of light became.

Was that what happened when an empath took a familiar? Was his mom finally claiming him, after months of pulling him into the Aether, even though he'd been the one to initiate the current scene? If so, Dan wouldn't mind. He'd gladly serve her in that capacity, or any other. He didn't think that was what it was, though. Whatever was happening, neither one of them was subordinate to the other. There was a sense of parity to it. Of rightness, on every possible dimension. There was magic at work, and it was adding yet another layer to their already complex relationship, but there was nothing exploitative about it.

Overcome with awe, as well as piety, Dan slowed his thrusts. It didn't seem right for them to rut like animals anymore. He let her legs drop down to either side of him then bent low, so that his torso was nearly perpendicular to hers. They started to exchange dozens of soft kisses, lips pressing together without their mouths quite opening.

"I love when this happens," his mom whispered. "It's my favorite part."

"Mine too," Dan said, as if he'd ever experienced the like.

Who was Jane? And should he care? In that moment, there was room in his thoughts, and in his heart, for only one woman. His creator. The center of his universe.

The next thing Dan knew, his mom slammed her palms into his shoulders.

Abrupt as the transition seemed, he realized that it hadn't been. Some indefinite amount of time had passed between her speaking those words and her resort to violence. Dan had stopped making love to her as well, which was presumably the impetus for the latter.

Why had he done that?

Oh, right. Because he was completely spent. He was satisfied on a deeper level than words could capture, but he was also exhausted.

"You, little man, need a break," his mom said. "Get off. Please." Smiling, she gave his shoulders another shove. One that also failed to dislodge him.

Did that remind him of how hard it had been to get him out of bed when he was a little kid? For a while there, Dan had driven his mom and dad crazy by staying awake long after they sent him to bed then refusing to get up in time for school the next morning.

Dan groaned, but despite the protest, rolled off her. He landed on the floor with a thud.

"Here," she said, patting the sofa cushion beside her after sitting up.

Without a word, Dan did as she instructed. Then she slipped off the couch and knelt before him, taking his limp cock in her hand. "Think I can bring this guy back to life?"

"If anyone can, it's you."

At first, she used just a few fingers to stroke him. Then she wrapped her lips around his shaft, just below the foreskin, and licked the head gently. Blood rushed between his legs and he started to harden in her mouth. Her soft palms worked his shaft and her fingertips his balls. Once he approached full bloom, his mom let him slip past her lips and began dragging her tongue slowly up the length of his shaft. Every now and then, before starting another journey upward, his mom would take one of his balls in her mouth and tease it gently with her tongue from inside. Dan shuddered every time she did that. Or anything else, really.

"Oh, fuck, Mom," he said as he played with her auburn hair. "This is amazing."

She smiled, continuing to stroke him lazily. Her robe had returned at some point, he realized. Dan decided he liked that, especially since it hung open and thus failed to conceal her breasts. Not only did it accentuate her creamy complexion, but there was something classy about it. Classy, yet casual. He'd never seen her wear anything like it, but it seemed like something she might wear around the house, if she were comfortable letting him see more of her glorious body. His dad had probably bought something like that for her years ago, though it would never have left their bedroom if so. He didn't think the same could be said for the thigh highs. Those weren't her style, though she certainly looked good in them.

"I know how to take care of my baby," his mom said.

"You sure do."

His mom stared into his eyes a few seconds longer. His heart started beating faster and faster. She didn't need anything but those green irises to finish him off. That, and her luxuriant hair, pink lips, and snowy complexion. Nonetheless, she bent down and engulfed the tip of his cock once more. And this time, he was in a position to enjoy it.

Dan didn't nut right away, but it felt like he was going to. He couldn't believe that it was even possible to make a man feel as good as he did just then. Had he thought Jane skilled at fellatio? Please. The recollection that he had a sister, and that he'd recently had sex with her as well, returned. But the comparison was not favorable. His sister had been too aggressive. His mom allowed him to sit back, relax, and enjoy himself thoroughly, whereas his sister had left him desperately hoping to achieve the climax she kept delaying, making him suffer. Things had gone better after she'd made her point, but even then, Jane hadn't managed to deliver endless pleasure while nonetheless keeping him perfectly at ease. His sister's blowjob had been every kind of intense, both good and bad. More the former than the latter, but still intense. He'd never felt calm while in her mouth.

He soon learned that she and Jane had more in common than it seemed, though. There was no doubt which of the two was better, but he couldn't fault his sister for coming on too strong initially when their mom gradually worked her way up to the same level of torture. One of them started off there, then pulled back, whereas the other worked her way up to it, but they both tested the limits of his nervous system. Assuming he even had one here.

Part of Dan prayed for an imminent end to the agony. Another, though, hoped that she managed to delay his release a few more minutes.

Neither quit got its way. The tension built rapidly inside Dan, going from intense to overwhelming to downright unbearable in a matter of seconds, before he shattered like a windowpane. That wasn't the end of his suffering, though. Even his second eruption, which came hot on the heels of the first, didn't cause his mom to get up off her knees. As before, she hungrily swallowed every drop of his cum, then went right back to it before he'd even passed through the refractory period, causing sensations more intense than any he'd ever imagined or endured. For which, Dan realized, he was grateful.

Excruciating as the blowjob was, his mom set a new standard. He might have been wrong to think her approach so radically different from her daughter's, but he'd been right to mentally award her the blue ribbon. His mom was without peer in that regard.

As in so many others.

Physically, she didn't do anything all that different. Her timing was impeccable, focus always shifting at the exact right moment, but that wasn't the reason she blew all her competition away—not that it was even fair to suggest she had any. It was because she used her powers to amplify his excitement. Every little thing she did brought unspeakable pleasure. A light drag of her tongue along his foreskin and up over his head would send shockwaves through his system. It was uncanny—yet not so different from what he'd done to her, Dan supposed. He'd asked for that. Not that he regretted doing so.

"That all I get?" Dan asked after watching her lips meet at the tip of his cock in a sort of parting kiss. He didn't mention that he was pretty sure he wouldn't have survived another thirty seconds, though she was probably well aware of that.

His mom leaned back, looked him in the eye, and gave him a smarmy grin. Dan couldn't believe how beautiful she looked when she did that. "I'd say that was pretty thorough."

"I suppose," Dan said with a shrug.

His mom planted a hand on her hip. "Excuse me?"

Holding up his hands in protest, Dan said, "Whoa, I'm not complaining." Of course he knew that was exactly what it sounded like. That was the point. She had to know he was messing with her, but it was still working. "A decent blowjob is still a blowjob."

His mom snorted. "Well I'm glad it was decent." Despite her words, she was back to stroking him with the softest palm that had ever held him. She didn't go much farther than the base of his shaft, whereas all the nerve endings were near the tip, but it still felt good. That was all he could handle for the time being anyway. "You always were a bit ungrateful."

"That's a bit harsh, don't you think?"

"Maybe it is, maybe it's not," his mom said. "Though I suppose all mothers think that about their kids from time to time. Even if some of them will never admit it."

"Yeah, but most moms don't have sons as awesome and perfect-in-every-possible-way as me," Dan said, flashing her an over the top grin.

His mom shook her head. "You know, I could almost think it's really you here, instead of some stupid avatar," she said without even looking him in the eye. Musing aloud.

Dan couldn't even see straight, her words had packed such a wallop.

"You don't even know what those words mean, do you?"

"Should I?" he asked.

By way of response, his mom bent down and engulfed his head again, but just as he thought that meant he was really going to get another blowjob, she stopped, rocked back on her ankles, and flicked his glans with a fingernail. Dan recoiled instinctively, though it hadn't really hurt. She'd barely made contact, but that was still enough to cause alarm. "Okay, okay, I take it back."

"Perhaps you'll like this better?" she asked as she leaned forward and squeezed him between her humongous breasts then started to bob up and down slowly.

"Perhaps," Dan agreed, reaching out to tease her hair. His eyes, though, were on her chest. Which was sort of the point. Fuck, her tits were BIG. And soft. And pale. In every possible way, they were perfect. And she knew how he felt about them.

Once, he'd titty-fucked Jenny. He'd found the experience rather disappointing, though. The idea of it was incredibly exciting, but in practice, it bore a striking resemblance to a bad handjob. Of course, his ex-girlfriend wasn't nearly so well-equipped for the job. She couldn't keep him from popping free, and what little friction she'd generated had only reached the middle of his shaft. His mom had more than enough to squeeze him tight.

She also had the power to make dusting and mopping exciting, he now knew, though he hoped she never abused those abilities just to get a few chores done.

Though he supposed that could be fun.

There were so many possibilities to explore—in the Aether. The fun had to remain there. Still, the sun would go cold before he tired of her, even with that restriction. Not for the first time, Dan chastised himself for waiting so long to speak her name into the candle.

"I know what you're thinking," his mom said a short time later.

"Do you?" His heart started racing. But his mom couldn't know that he was wondering why he'd never previously summoned her. She might or might not be the only other Talent he'd ever summoned—he still wasn't sure about Jane—but that didn't she could read his mind. Even empathic abilities had their limits. Emotions were not the same as thoughts.

"Mmm-hmm," she replied confidently. "You're about ready to go again, aren't you?"

He let out a nervous laugh. "You know me too well."

"I don't know if I'd say that, but you never could keep secrets from me," his mom said, climbing into his lap. "Though you always thought you could."

The safest response seemed to be pulling on her hips, burying his cock deep inside her.

Her eyes went wide and she slumped forward, her huge breasts softening the impact like twin airbags. "Fuck, baby. Give Mommy a little warning, will you?"

"Sorry," he said in a meek, apologetic voice that couldn't have been very sexy. Realizing that his mother was in something close to a state of distress, and knowing that it was his fault, the words had just tumbled out. "I thought—"

She leaned back suddenly, the hands that had been draped over his shoulders coming up to grab both sides of his head just behind the ears. Her eyes pressed into him like thumbscrews. "It is you, isn't it?"

Dan said nothing. Rather, he thrust up into her. Not too forcefully this time, though Just enough to stimulate her G-spot. And, hopefully, distract her with pleasure.

The shudder so produced was enough to send shivers down his spine. Those potent eyes of hers, so full of depth and capable of conveying a vast array of emotion, snapped shut. "Unngh," she moaned, as she began to roll her own hips.

"Should I stop?" Dan asked even as he picked up the pace. There was no telling how long his little delaying tactic would work. Every moment he spent inside her, held tight by her slick walls and warmed to his very core by the strength of her love, brought him closer to climax. But he still wasn't the least bit surprised when she said, "Don't you dare."

#

When he heard the door open, Dan felt two very different things at the same time. On the one hand, he was in rough shape and didn't want his mom to see him like that, both because she'd worry and because he still hadn't settled on an explanation. On the other, he was glad that she was home, as he always felt just a little more alive when she was around.

Contradicting emotions were nothing new to a teenager, but they were harder to deal with as an empath. So perhaps that was a third thing—resentment over the simultaneity of the other two. But Dan pushed that aside. No need to complicate things further.

She moved like the walking dead, arms hanging limp at her side and feet shuffling. Then she saw him stretched across the couch, wads of blood-stained paper towels on the coffee table beside him and Ziploc bag filled with ice on his forehead, and her back stiffened.

"It's nothing," Dan told her before she could even ask.

"Doesn't look like nothing."

No, he supposed it didn't. But he wasn't about to tell her that he'd been spending too much time in the Aether. That he'd only just stopped bleeding from several orifices as a result of summoning her to the Aether so he could have tons of sex with her.

Only he probably could have. And ought to. She knew what the Aether was, and would likely be relieved to know that there was some symmetry to their relationship. Not just because desire always brought its friend vulnerability along to the party, but because his mom had to have been living with guilt as well as grief these past few months. That was just how she was. No way she'd been summoning her son to the Aether, using him for sexual gratification as well as emotional distraction, without beating herself up over it afterwards.

Still, he said nothing. Yes, she had a right to know that it was okay to let herself out of the penalty box, but Dan just didn't have the strength for that conversation yet.

Nor to stand up, apparently. He tried, though.

Moving with speed and grace that she hadn't exhibited a moment earlier, his mom perched herself atop the coffee table. With a gentle but insistent touch, she tilted his face towards hers. "Your eyes are all bloodshot. I think there might be ruptured capillaries."

"I'm fine," Dan said.

"Stop that," she said, tsking at him. "You don't have to pretend to be mister macho with me." His mom turned his head the other way, examining his ear. If she found further sign of injury, it didn't show. Not even on a supernatural level. That wasn't to say the concern Dan sensed alongside her love and affection wasn't potent, though. While short of outright panic, it certainly bordered on alarm. "Besides, I can see for myself that you're not."

"Not macho?"

His mom snorted. "Not fine."

Perhaps not, but he was headed in that direction. Dan hadn't realized it at first, but the moment she'd put her hand on him, he'd start to feel better. Not just psychologically, either. It no longer hurt to open his eyes and his headache was rapidly dissipating.

Though perhaps that had less to do with the skin-to-skin contact than the powerful emotions she was experiencing. Dan kept forgetting that empaths didn't just feed on positive emotions. He didn't like the idea of deriving any sort of benefit from her distress, but it wasn't like he'd done that to himself on purpose. Yes, he'd known there was a strong possibility of an adverse reaction, but he'd lit the candle in spite of that, not because of it.

His mom must have noticed. She jerked her head back and the alarm he'd sensed turned to surprise. Her lips tightened and she furrowed her brow, but she didn't say a word. Didn't even remark upon the way his eyes were going back to normal, as Dan assumed they were.

That was pretty much all the confirmation he needed that she was a Talent—not that he'd harbored much doubt by the time he'd left the Aether. A normal mom would have freaked out or demanded an explanation. Or something. She would just stare at him like that, subjecting him to greater scrutiny than he'd ever experienced in a doctor's office.

Was it weird that even as she did that, Dan found himself thinking that she had the most beautiful eyes? Admiring the tiny flecks of gold floating amidst a sea of olive and brown?

The restorative process came to an abrupt halt. It took Dan a moment to realize why. She was no longer panicked. No longer worried about her son's health.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to stop."

Dan let out a nervous laugh. "Stop, what? Feeling things?"

Her lips tightened. "Something like that." She pressed a palm to his forehead, as though there was any reason to suspect he might have a fever. "Didn't help much, did I?"

"More than I was expecting," Dan said.

His mom frowned. Then she slapped herself across the face.

"What are you doing?!" he asked, grabbing her wrist.

"Pain should work just as well as fear," his mom replied.

Dan tightened his grip as he realized she was gearing up for another slap, apparently thinking it wouldn't be too hard to break free. That sort of defeated the purpose, though. As he squeezed tighter, she winced, and his subconscious exploited the situation without asking permission. The already receding headache fell even further into the background. "Please stop," he said. "I feel better already, and I can't stand to see you hurt yourself."

"And I can't stand to see you suffer," she said, using her other hand to yank her hair hard enough to make her eyes water. "That leaves us at an impasse, doesn't it?"

He sat up and grabbed at her other hand. She twisted away before he could. Dan hesitated, but decided not to give up. A few seconds later, he had both her hands trapped between his and the coffee table. Which, he couldn't help but notice left him free to kiss her, should he so desire. But he didn't.

Kiss her, that is. Did he desire to? Is water wet?

"You should be mad at me for needing to heal," he said. "Not beating yourself up."

"Why, what did you do?" she asked, with more than a little heat in her voice.

Dan grumbled. "Nevermind. Just don't hit yourself when I let go, okay?"

She said nothing.

"Please?"

"Let go, Daniel."

"Not until you—"

"I need to go take a shower," she said, as though it would take an idiot to think she had any other reason for wanting to be free. Her eyes did not blink.

Dan let go.

She shook the needles out of her hands but her gaze did not relent. She wasn't waiting for him to ask if he could join her, was she? Weak as he was, Dan wouldn't refuse an invitation, but he wasn't exactly at his best. Besides, that wasn't lust dampening his pain, but anger.

Nonetheless, the mere thought of her wanting him to join her made a certain part of his anatomy stir. That might not be in the cards at the moment, but it might be soon.

"When I get out, there's some things we should discuss," she said at last.

Dan drew a deep breath, exhaled slowly, then nodded.

That brought his mom some measure of relief. It didn't show on her face, of course, but he felt it inside. And why shouldn't it? It was already clear that they were both Talents, and that they knew the other was as well, but they both knew he was stubborn enough to play dumb. It was only with that sigh that Dan revealed that he wouldn't.

Without warning, she surged forward and kissed him on the lips. It wasn't a motherly kiss, either, expressing concern for her injured son, but the sort they'd shared in the Aether.

As it might have there, the kiss started of slow and reserved, if not quite hesitant. For all the sense it made, neither one of them was unsure of themselves. They were just patient enough to let the tension build gradually. Several minutes passed before their mouths opened and their tongues braved initial forays. Just as Dan was convinced that his mom would climb atop him if he but pulled gently at the sleeve of her shirt, she broke the kiss off.

"It'll be good to have everything out in the open," his mom said, adjusting first her hair and then the position of her sports bra over her long-sleeved tee.

"It will be," Dan said. He gave the matter some thought, perhaps as much as a second, then pulled his mom into his lap anyway. That didn't go nearly as smoothly as it would have in the Aether, especially since he caught her by surprise, but after only a modest amount of fumbling, he had her straddling his hips.

His mom laughed awkwardly and leaned back, one hand planted on his shoulder. "Daniel," she said. He couldn't tell if that was a rebuke or not. With his empathic abilities, he sensed eagerness, arousal, and panic in almost equal measures. "Shower. Remember?"

Her soft thighs were pressed against his. He had one hand on the small of her back, the other a little lower. Her huge breasts were inches from his face. She wasn't comfortable with any of that, exactly, but neither was she scrambling to get away. Part of her hoped he'd disregard her protests and take her right there, on the coffee table.

But only part of her. And Dan was not okay with that. He wanted, needed, all of her.

"You are kinda stinky," he said, daring to give her ass a little slap.

She didn't move. Or say anything. Just bore into him with those gorgeous green eyes.

So he took the opportunity to kiss her. Passionately, but not as an act of seduction or foreplay. His hands got a little adventurous, because they had to, but after a few seconds, he let her go. He hadn't wanted to. It felt too damn good to have her on top of him. To grope her fat ass in the real world, where it just about had to be dimpled with cellulite. Where everything would be a little worse, and thus ten times better, as they'd not have to fight through a barrier of disbelief. He could wait, though. It wasn't like she took long showers.

"This is wrong," his mom said. For a moment, it looked like she'd initiate another kiss. But unless a quick peck on the forehead counted, she didn't. What she did do was climb out of his lap. "Over there is one thing. We can do whatever we want there. But not here."

Disappointment welled up within Dan, but he did his best to suppress it. Sulking wouldn't change her mind. "You're right," he said, planting a hand on her hip that he hoped was affectionate but not inappropriate. He must have been wrong, though, because after only a moment's hesitation, she removed it as one might a ball of lint. "I'm sorry. I just—"

"I know," she said, sighing. "Really, I do." She kissed the top of his head. He wondered if the smell of his hair was as intoxicating to his mom as hers was to him. "You can see that I'm not mad, can't you?" She paused, fumbling for words. "Sense it in other ways as well?"

Dan nodded.

"Then you know that part of me would like nothing more than to ride you until you pop like a bottle of champagne," she began, putting a hand on his shoulder and working the tension out with slow pulses of her fingertips. Because it was okay for her to touch him.

"Until I do?" Dan asked.

She blushed. "Or have you lay me across my bed and give me that massage you sort of promised," she continued. With each word, she hardened Dan's cock further. The damn thing was throbbing. "But you also know that's a terrible idea, don't you?"

"Yeah, I know. It is," he said, as much to convince himself as anything.

She must have sensed that, because she glowered at him for a second or two before shaking her head. "We'll talk about this later."

Dan took her hand off his shoulder, brought it to his lips, and kissed her knuckles. "Okay."

The smile she gave him was something both sadder and more loving than any he'd ever seen. "I had a great workout, if you're wondering," she said. "Can barely move."

"So you really could use a massage?"

"Down boy," she said, laughing. "I'm just saying I had no idea yoga could be so intense."

Maybe it wasn't the yoga. Could she be sore for the same reason he'd spent the better part of the last hour bleeding? The one who got summoned was less present than the one doing the summoning, but it was different with two Talents. Two empaths.

A mother and son who were deeply in love.

Or so Dan told himself, the same as he'd chosen to believe that her soft palm had healed him instead of her strong emotions. Because his most powerful ability was self-delusion.

"Don't go anywhere," his mom said, arching her back in what might truly have been the sort of post-workout stretch her body cried out for and not an attempt to hypnotize her son.

Whether that had been the intention or not, it had that effect. He marveled at the size of her tits and wondered if they might be as round and firm here as in the Aether. How appealing he'd find her stretch marks, if only as testament to their lovemaking being more than acting out a fantasy. Assuming she ever let him see them, that was.

She caught him staring and smiled. Flattered as that obviously made her feel, Dan really had to wonder if that stretch had been an innocent mistake. "Brew a pot of coffee and I'll love you forever," his mom said, crossing her arms over her chest as if that might somehow make up for it. Or because her triceps and deltoids were sore. One of the two.

"You wouldn't anyway?"

"A little more than I already do, then," his mom said.

"And what exactly does that translate into?"

She gave him a look that was at once playful and reproachful. "Behave yourself, Daniel."

He shrugged. "I just want to know if we can order from DiMaggio's for dinner."

Without bothering to answer, his mom finished her less revealing stretch and headed down the hall towards her room. Dan's eyes followed after. He might not be allowed to touch, but apparently it was now safe to look. Which was a good thing, because there was no way he could have resisted the temptation, even if she'd worn baggy sweats instead of tight yoga pants. He was glad she'd opted for the latter, though. The Aether version of her might have a more perfect body in a very narrow sense, but there wasn't a thing he'd have changed about the real one. Aside from her not letting him explore it, of course.

"Quit staring," his mom called over her shoulder, "and make that coffee."

"You got it, boss."

She snapped her hips to one side then the other, making her gloriously fat ass dance for him, then slapped the door to her bedroom shut.

#

The carafe didn't fill up any faster just because he stood there watching the coffee drip down from the basket, but that was just what Dan did. Out of nervousness, he supposed.

Since his mom had left, a powerful realization had dawned on him. He'd actually tried to have sex with his mom. Not in the dreamlike world known of the Aether, where memories sometimes failed to take hold and accidental pregnancies were not an issue because no one traveled there with their actual bodies, but in the real world.

On the very sofa where his dad used to sit and watch baseball, or play chess with Dan's mom—a woman who still wasn't over his death. Whose interest in her son had as much to do with filling the hole left by her husband's passing as it did anything the latter had to offer on his own. "Stupid, stupid, stupid," Dan chanted, slapping himself in the head.

As a result, he almost didn't notice that someone was knocking at the door.

"Coming," he called out after the sound finally penetrated his thick skull.

He found a dark-skinned girl on the front step, wearing a plain brown dress and canvas shoes—neither of which had been washed in some time.

His first thought was that there was something off about her, like she might be homeless. His second was that he'd have been less quick to jump to such conclusions if she was white. Not that he was even sure what her race was. Native American, perhaps? Or Latina? Either way, her appearance would have been unremarkable to Dan if he hadn't grown up in a sleepy suburb where the presence of blondes and redheads passed for diversity.

Only that wasn't true. He might have been less quick to notice her complexion or the picked-these-up-at-Goodwill nature of her apparel, but the one piece of jewelry she wore? That would have grabbed his attention. It looked like a crude charm bracelet, made of rope and wood and bone instead of silver or gold, and that fit the rest of the picture, but the symbols painted on all the dangling bits looked eerily familiar.

Then Dan realized why. She was wearing at least a dozen talismans, which were similar to Caleb's doodads but were made by shamans. That meant she was a member of the Nation, which did not approve of Talents living amongst ordinary people. Or the way ordinary people lived, for that matter. The Free Folk thought everyone ought to move out to the woods and learn some branch of elemental magic. They looked at the world of strip malls and drip coffee-makers the way the US government did most of Syria and Iraq.

Whoever this girl was, she was deep in hostile territory.

"Can I help you?" Dan asked, hoping she hadn't noticed the way he'd focused on her bracelet. Or the look of recognition that had surely flashed across his face.

Yeah, right. And maybe she hadn't noticed that Dan's skin was lighter than hers. He'd remembered to burn Caleb's incense that morning, but his second attempt at fooling another Talent into thinking that he was normal wasn't going to be as successful as his first.

Good thing the Free Folk weren't big on burning people at the stake.

"Are you Daniel Westbrook?" she asked.

Shit. She knew his name.

Okay, the latter part was on the freaking mail box. No need to blow things out of proportion. "I am," he said, clearing his throat. "What's this about?"

The doorknob Caleb had given him was up in his room, seeing as he'd never thought to need it in the comfort of his own home. Awkward as it was to carry around when he didn't think he'd need, the damn thing wasn't very useful. Why couldn't Caleb have given him a magic ring or something instead? Would he have to pay royalties to the Tolkien estate?

"I just carried your friend home," she said. "Caleb Blackthorne?" she asked, though Dan didn't believe for a second that she thought she might have made a mistake. "He wants to see you but he's too weak to come down here and tell you himself."

"Got it," Dan said. "Thanks."

"I shouldn't have to say this," she added, "but you Coalition types don't keep the old ways, so here goes—because I did him a favor, he owes me one in return."

"I'm not part of any coalition."

The girl sneered again. Then, without another word, she turned and loped away. There was no better word for it. She moved like someone who wasn't used to walking on two legs.

For all the time Dan had spent wishing that Caleb would return, then wondering if he ever would, the guy's timing sure fucking sucked.

Whatever state Caleb was in, he could surely wait a few minutes. But how easy would it be to peel himself away once his mom got out of the shower? Grumbling to himself all the while, Dan wrote his mom a note and slapped it on the carafe.

#

After handing the cup of freshly brewed tea to his mentor, Dan took a seat on the floor at the other end of the coffee table. That was Caleb's spot, but the guy was stretched out on the sofa, where Dan usually sat. He looked like shit. To put it mildly.

"Are you sure tea is what you should be drinking?" Dan asked. "Not water?"

Caleb frowned. "You're worried about the caffeine?"

Dan shrugged. "It is a diuretic. And you said you lost a lot of blood."

"I didn't `lose' it," Caleb said. "I know right where it is." He raised his mug to his cracked lips. "Anyway, I'm less worried about replenishing fluids than sharpening my focus."

That those were his priorities was clear. The question was whether they should be.

"I'm just saying I don't see why you can't wait a day or two. Give yourself some time to recover." And, more importantly, give Dan a chance to talk to his mom.

"They have her father. She's not going to wait a few days to try and get him back."

"You said you don't plan on going with her," Dan reminded Caleb.

"I don't," his mentor confirmed. He tried to sit up, groaned, and abandoned the idea. Then he took another cautious sip of the tea, getting more of it in his beard than his mouth. "But if I don't repay the favor before she does, I might not get a chance to."

"Which would be bad...why?"

Caleb frowned at Dan. "Her death would not free me of my obligation. It would pass to her next of kin." Before Dan could point out that her father might not be long for this world either, his mentor added, "Or the Nation itself, if she doesn't have any."

"And the last thing we need is more of them showing up," Dan finished for him.

"Exactly."

He got up and walked over to the nearest bookshelf. Every thing there was probably enchanted. An answer for every problem. Why did they never seem to help, then?

No, that wasn't fair. If not for the incense, he'd have found himself in that same basement. Had his blood drained by witch-hunting duo, just like his mentor. Still, with all the time Caleb spent preparing for every eventuality, it seemed like they ought to have better options.

"So let's see if I understand correctly," Dan said, turning back to Caleb. "The warlock I read about on the internet, on a stupid website run by a guy wearing a tinfoil hat, is actually due to return. The wind told the Free Folk that they have to stop him. The witch-hunters can't wait to burn him again. Despite having a common enemy, though, they hate each other. And us too, simply because we exist. So of course we're going to stick ourselves in the middle of it, because reasons. That about the sum of it?"

"There's no such thing as warlocks. If you'd read the books I left you, you'd know that."

"Hey!" Dan said. "You didn't leave me shit. I asked if I could borrow them. And you only agreed to that after telling me not to touch the others." Which he'd totally forgotten to do. "Anyway, I have been reading them." Some of the time.

For all that any of that meant to Caleb, Dan might as well not even have spoken.

"There is a branch of magic that revolves around summoning Aetherials and forging pacts with them," Caleb explained. "Aetherials are beings of pure magic. They are neither good nor evil. But because they are not of this world, people once conflated them with demons and labeled those who consorted with them witches and warlocks. Practitioners of Aetherial magic have no more connection to Satanism than you or I."

"So you're saying we shouldn't even be worried about this guy?"

Caleb sighed. "I'm saying there's no reason to believe he's a devil worshiper. In your experience, is all the harm done in this world carried out by devil worshipers?"

"Fine," Dan said, kneeling across the coffee table from Caleb once more. "The witch-hunters have an outdated mindset, but that doesn't mean they're wrong. Better?"

"That's what we need to find out," Caleb said. "Aetherial magic is not intrinsically good or evil. The whole concept of `dark' magic is a relic of the past. But it is more powerful than any other sort, and its use has been instrumental in some of the worst atrocities in history."

"What, like the Holocaust?"

"No, that was ordinary people. The black plague, however, was started by Aetherial magic, and according to some estimates, claimed nearly a quarter of the world's population."

Dan frowned. "I thought rats takes the blame for that one."

"The spread, maybe," Caleb said. "The origin was decidedly supernatural, however."

"I see," Dan said. "Okay, I think I get it now. Just because terror attacks are always carried out by Muslims doesn't mean all Muslims are a threat. We've got an Islamic fundamentalist coming to town, though, and some people are up in arms. He might just hate bacon, beer, and women who can read, or he might be planning to blow people up. You figure it's at least worth talking to him before shit gets crazy."

"Eloquently put," Caleb said. "To continue the metaphor, we've got an terrorism expert on hand. He's young, hasn't even finished his dissertation, but could offer valuable insights."

"You want me to come with you? Fuck that noise. I don't owe anyone any favors."

Another trip to the Aether could lay him out for a week—or worse. Of course, he hadn't told Caleb about his obsession with his mom, or what that had led him to do, so his mentor wouldn't understand why he was reluctant to go back so soon.

"You don't owe me anything?" Caleb asked, quirking an eyebrow.

Dan sighed. "I meant that Maria chick, or whatever you said her name was." That got no reaction from the bearded one. He didn't even bother to confirm that Dan had gotten her name right, which he knew he had. "Suppose I've been making too many trips to the Aether. Teenage hormones and all that. And I'm starting to get worried about overdosing. Hypothetically speaking, of course. Would that change anything?"

Caleb frowned before making another attempt at his tea. "How bad?"

"Bled from my ears this morning." When that made Caleb grimace, which was unusually expressive for him, Dan sighed and said,"That bad, huh?"

"You'll pay a price," Caleb told him. "But I need you."

The conversation with his mom would have to wait, then. Which was no big deal, Dan told himself. Only a short while ago, he'd been eager to put it off. That had changed after she'd kissed him, but he had to know the conversation wouldn't lead to marathon sex the way the trial version of it had in the Aether. His mom had made that crystal clear. Mostly, it would consist of her expressing disapproval over the choices he'd made since Caleb had introduced him to magic, followed by a laundry list of all the reasons they couldn't bring their relationship to the next level. Was putting that off for a few hours so bad?

No, but the heavy bleeding from untold parts of his body might be.

"Just one last question—what's this got to do with repaying a favor to Maria?" Dan asked. When Caleb scowled at him, he said, "No, seriously. When I asked you what the rush is, you said that you've got to help her before she goes on a suicide mission to get her father back. Fine. But when I asked you why you're going to the Aether, you said that you want to talk to Barty so you can decide for yourself whether there's any reason for every damn Talent within a hundred miles to want to kill him."

"Barty?" his mentor said, raising an eyebrow. "Anyway, New York City's less than—"

"So I exaggerated," Dan cut in. "Whatever. Answer the question."

Caleb regarded him silently for a time before saying, "I'm going to summon her after we speak to Bartholomew." He carefully enunciated each syllable of the name, as if Dan might have forgotten how to say it. "I haven't decided yet what I'm going to tell her."

Now they were getting somewhere. "Why not?"

"It's been decades since we last fought a war against the Free Folk, but plenty of blood has been spilled since then. There's no love lost between us." What was with the `we' and `us' talk all of a sudden? If he was a member of the Coalition, he'd never told Dan. Whatever that even was. There was nothing about such an organization in his books. At least not the ones Dan had borrowed. "I wouldn't even be here if not—"

"Yes?" Dan asked when he realized Caleb had cut himself off.

"Nevermind," the bearded one said. "The point is, she's not our ally, no matter what she might have done for me. I have a certain obligation towards her as a result of that, yes, but there's a difference between minimally fulfilling it and handing her certain victory."

"You can do that?" Caleb didn't reply, which told Dan all he needed to know."What would make you choose one level of assistance over the other?"

"First, we need to decide whether Bartholomew really is a threat," Caleb said. "If so, we don't want her taking out the witch-hunters. They've probably got a vial of Bartholomew's blood. That puts them in a much better position to deal with him than any of us are."

"And we might want to take advantage of that," Dan said in a flat voice. "Even though you'll probably decide we have no choice but to fight them once they deal with Barty."

The only reply he got was, "If Maria can be persuaded not to hang around waiting to kill an innocent man, then I'll lend more assistance than is strictly required."

It was Dan's turn to fall silent.

"Does that answer your question?" Caleb asked.

Dan nodded. "I'm glad I'm on your side," he eventually added.

That drew an amused snort from his mentor.

"We are on the same side, right?" Dan asked. "What is this Coalition?"

"Nothing you need to worry about at the moment. When this is over, we can talk about whether it makes sense for you to join. Or whether you'll have any choice in the matter."

A chill ran down Dan's spine.

"I don't mean because I'd force you," Caleb explained, in what passed for a reassuring tone coming from Mister Monotonous. "At present, this is neutral ground. If Maria ends up killing the witch-hunters, though, there's no reason not to bring it into the fold."

"You're not worried that she'd claim it for the Nation?" Dan asked.

Caleb shook his head. "Too far from the rest of their territory."

"I see," Dan said, wondering if any aspect of his life would be the same come Monday. Not that he'd be able to discuss any of the seismic shifts with Ray or Nora when he ran into them at school. Assuming he even bothered to go. Ever again. "The Coalition doesn't require it's members to have high school diplomas, does it?"

His mentor gave him a wry smile. "I take it you're ready to head to the Aether?"

"Um, not quite," Dan said, standing up. "I think I could use some tea myself."

Just as he started to pour himself a cup, there came a knock at Caleb's door.

Dan looked a question at Caleb. Before the man could respond, though, Dan's mom stuck her head in. Her eyes slid right past Dan, locking onto Caleb with an intensity that might almost have made him envy the man, had her lips not been pursed so tight. "Daniel, baby, do you mind if I have a word with Caleb?" she asked without looking at him.

That was, until he failed to immediately provide the only acceptable response.

Once he became the focus of that glower, though, his hesitation and misgivings evaporated. Sure, he was about to leave a wounded man with a very angry woman, but he was only an apprentice anyway. Caleb could handle himself. Not that it was going to be that sort of confrontation anyway. More the sort that was none of his business.

Even if the odds were good that they'd be arguing about him.

"I'll just be right outside," Dan said. He finished filling his mug real quick, if only to give one or both of them a chance to tell him to stay—or instruct him to go farther out of earshot, as the case may be. Neither took the opportunity to do so, though.

Nor did they so much as acknowledge his continued existence. They just stared at each other so intently Dan almost expected to see streams of crackling light appear.

Wounded as Caleb was, Dan realized, he was more than capable of standing up to her—so long as the standing was purely metaphorical. He also realized there was more to their relationship than landlord-tenant. As they glared at one another, a dozen moves and counter-moves took place in rapid succession. It was like the opening of a contest between rivals with a long enough history together to anticipate one another's every move.

Could they be former lovers?

Was it possible that Caleb was his real father?

No, that made no sense. Once Dan stepped outside and started drinking his tea, his senses started to return. The two of them hadn't met when Caleb had come looking for a place to stay, that much was clear. As it probably should have been all along. That didn't mean his mom had horrible taste in men, or that Caleb was anything other than asexual. Besides, Dan just couldn't see his mom cheating on his dad.

For a time, Dan stood at the top of the steps. He didn't lean against the door with a hand cupped to his ear or anything, but he was certainly hoping to hear what they had to say once they raised their voices. Once the effects of the tea really started to kick in, however, he ordered himself to go down to the driveway. What he needed to know, they'd tell him. They had a right to keep everything else to themselves.

Or maybe that had nothing to do with the tea. Just because it heightened one's magical senses didn't mean it brought wisdom of every sort.

There wouldn't have been much for him to hear even if he'd stayed right outside the door, though. Had the shouting he'd thought inevitable actually arrived, Dan would have heard it. He wouldn't have been able to make out the words from the bottom of the steps, but he'd have known the standoff had escalated. It didn't, though. Nor did it last very long. Dan had yet to finished his tea when his mom opened the door and beckoned him up with a curl of her finger. She still didn't look pleased, but the storm front appeared to have passed.

"Your mother's coming with us," Caleb informed him once he entered the apartment.

Aware of how keen their interest was in his reaction, Dan allowed none to show. "Cool," he said, almost believing in his own nonchalance. "Takes some weight off my shoulders."

His mom snorted. Dan tried not to let the prominence of her chest or the deep line of cleavage that formed when she folded her arms beneath her breasts like that distract him. It didn't help that she was wearing nothing but a lace cami up top. The sort of thing she probably wore under a blouse most of the time and had never let her son see her in previously.

"That's the idea," Caleb confirmed. "You seem to have guessed that your mother is an empath. What you might not know is that she has more natural ability than you or I could ever dream of. Enough that she could probably make her way to the top of the supernatural world, should she ever decide to—"

"Can we just get on with it?" Dan's mom cut in.

The bearded one regarded her silently for a time then nodded.

#

They didn't use a candle. Caleb had something even better, which obviated the need for one to summon the other and protected them from what was apparently known as "Aether fugue" and all the memory problems it entailed. More importantly, they need only give the lengths of rope tied around their waists a good tug and they'd be yanked back to the real world in a fraction of a second. Dan wasn't crazy about the idea of summoning someone so dangerous as to make that worth worrying about, but that didn't seem to be up for debate.

As they walked through the mist, though, he couldn't help but think that his usual means of exiting the Aether wasn't all that slow.

"It's not that," Caleb explained after Dan idly shared the thought. "You've never been here as fully as you are now." His eyes drifted past Dan to the woman on the other side of him, who looked exactly as she had when Dan had summoned her but was thankfully wearing more than a robe and stockings this time. Her flowing green gown almost looked formal by comparison. It had a tight bodice and a neckline that didn't quite qualify as conservative, but at least wasn't scandalous. Dressed like that, his mom looked less like a seductress than a powerful enchantress.

Which, apparently, she was. Or near enough as made no difference.

"Few of us can manage that without assistance," Caleb said, raising all sorts of questions in Dan's mind. Perhaps answering a few as well. Before Dan could ponder that any further, though, his mentor said, "When you use the candle, you're in no danger. Should some harm befall you, which is rather unlikely given the nature of your visits, it'll simply knock you out of the Aether. You might feel some pain when you wake up—"

Dan's mom snorted. "Let's not overstate things, Caleb."

"—but you won't bring any injuries you might have sustained back with you, no matter how grievous," the bearded one finished, ignoring her sarcasm.

Reading between the lines, Dan said, "Whereas if this warlock-who-isn't-a-warlock-because-there's-no-such-thing-as-warlocks kills me here, I'll die for real?"

"That's why I said it's important you keep your hand on the rope."

Having already neglected that piece of advice, Dan reached back and gripped it tight. He must have looked as though he was rappelling down the face of an invisible cliff that was parallel to the ground, but better that than let this be his final trip to the Aether—one from which he'd never return. "Remind me again why we want to make ourselves so vulnerable?"

"Yes, please do," his mom added.

Dan thought he could hear Caleb grind his teeth, but that was probably his imagination. "I wouldn't be able to give Maria this otherwise," he said, holding up a bracelet.

Unlike the one she already wore, it was made of crystal. What exactly it did, though, his mentor hadn't seen fit to specify. Nor had he explained how it would be possible for Maria to carry it back to the real world. Though Dan supposed one of her many talismans probably let her enter the Aether as fully and as safely as they supposedly had. "Which you might not even end up doing," Dan said, focusing on the more relevant point.

No response.

"Unbelievable," Dan's mom said.

Caleb shot her a look that seemed to say, "I thought we agreed to a ceasefire." If so, the reminder worked. She looked away and held her tongue.

"You couldn't at least give us a setting?" Dan asked. He'd seen the gray mist before, but never so damn much of it. That was all there was, everywhere he looked.

"What, to put you in the mood?"

"Huh," Dan said. "Who knew you had a sense of humor."

To no one's surprise, Caleb opted not to dignify that with a response. He came to a halt, having apparently realized that he'd found the perfect patch of absolutely nothing. In a booming voice, he said, "Bartholomew Wainbridge, I beseech thee to join us."

"I beseech thee?" Dan said.

His mom elbowed him in the ribs, as he ought to have expected. She might not be captain of Caleb's fan club, but it was still her job to keep Dan from acting like a child. To remind him that there was a time and a place for such comments, and this was neither.

"BARTHOLOMEW WAINBR—" his mentor began.

A figure stepped out of the mist. He was dressed in a black three piece suit that looked perfectly modern, if a bit more formal than anything Dan would be caught dead in. Except maybe at the prom he was no longer sure he was going to attend. He wasn't exactly sure how men had dressed in the late sixteen hundreds, but he didn't think it was quite like that. "That is indeed my name," the newcomer said. "Might I ask yours?"

"I am Caleb Blackthorne. This is my nephew and apprentice, Daniel Westbrook." The outswept hand stretched further. "And my sister, Prudence Westbrook, nee Blackthorne."

She'd told Dan her maiden name was Ferguson. It made sense that they were brother and sister, though. No way they could have been lovers.

Granted, the former didn't rule out the latter. He'd been all too busy proving that himself, of late. He still didn't think his mom had ever fooled around with Caleb, though. That would just be too weird, whether they were siblings or not.

"What business have you with me?" asked the man Dan could only think of as Barty.

"I haven't decided yet," Caleb said.

"Man, you are not very good at this," Dan said, both for his mentor's sake and to encourage Barty to write him off as a joke. That just might keep them alive.

His mom didn't seem to appreciate the genius of his plan, though. She kept her elbows to herself, but those eyes of hers more than made up for it.

"Please elaborate," Barty said. The mist before him coalesced and Dan almost leapt in front of his mom, who he couldn't help but note seemed to have the same instinct. If either had been a little slower to rein in their instincts, they'd crashed right into each other. What they'd both apparently taken for a sword, or some other threat, proved only to be a cane, however. Though the man looked no older than Caleb, he leaned on it in a way that suggested it was more than a mere fashion statement.

"We know that you're going to return to our world soon," Caleb said. "As do some others, all of whom mean you harm. I might be here to warn you."

"I dare say you already have."

Had Caleb not already revealed his intentions back in the apartment, Dan might have thought old Barty had just punked him. That his mentor even knew what the rope-a-dope strategy was surprised Dan more than it probably should have. It was just that Caleb was usually on the nose about everything. For a while, Dan had taken that for hipster irony, but the guy hadn't been kidding when he'd said he was never anything but serious.

Something about Barty's words had made an impression on Dan's mom. Her back was no longer stiff. She seemed less wary of the man than intrigued by him.

"Yes, well...," Caleb said, chewing his lip in feigned nervousness, "I suppose I have." At least Dan thought it was feigned. Not for the first time, he wished he could read his mentor better. "I could tell you more about them, though. If you tell us about yourself first."

"No need," Barty said, waving the offer away.

At first, Dan thought the tone haughty, but then he realized that he'd just expected it to be. If anything, it was weary. Defeatist. That was why his mom had already let her guard down. Finally remembering why the two of them were there, the supporting role it was vitally important for them to play, he tried using his abilities not on Caleb but Bartholomew.

To Dan's surprise, that wasn't remotely difficult. In fact, he was almost taken aback by the brightness and intensity of the man's aura. It was gray, though not metallic enough to be called silver, and more opaque than translucent besides. The solid bits shifted about languidly, though. Like mist. More to the point, there were blue streaks shooting through the man's aura that Dan felt could only signify sadness. Not the sharp, aching sadness of one who has just received terrible news, but a deep melancholy.

His mom looked a question at him. Dan nodded.

"Why not?" Caleb asked, throwing the two of them a furtive glance.

"I have met their kind before. They have vowed to `protect' the town from me until the end of time. Seeing as they possess several vials of my blood, there is little I can do to prevent that. I'll not draw but a few breaths before I find myself here once more."

Barty didn't exactly sound terrified of the prospect. He'd have to care first, and Dan was getting the distinct impression that the man was no longer capable of doing that.

"What did they do to you?" Dan's mom asked with the sort of voice that had always made him feel safe and loved. How she could feel so much sympathy for a total stranger might have been a mystery to him, if he didn't know his mom so well.

Granted, she'd kept a lot of secrets from him, as he was now learning. That didn't change who she was deep down, though. Didn't make her any less caring.

Barty stared at his hand, as if expecting to find it charred. "I met the only end befitting a `warlock' such as myself. I was burned at the stake."

For a guy who'd been dead for hundreds of years, he'd sure mastered the art of the air quote. Didn't even use his fingers. "We didn't mean to remind you of that," Dan said.

Barty gave Dan a small, appreciative nod.

"Why did they do it, though?" Dan asked. "What did you ever do to them?"

"They accused me of consorting with demons. We'd had a bad harvest, you see, and the townsfolk could fathom no explanation save dark magic. That a terrible fever had swept through the town, leaving us short a few men who'd otherwise have worked the fields, did not seem relevant to anyone besides me." Barty reached up, as if to sweep a hat off his head so he could mop his brow, found he wasn't wearing one, and let his hand drop to his side. "With each passing generation, it seems, my crimes have only grown more heinous. The last time I was banished to this realm, they called me a baby-killer and a mass murderer."

"None of which was true," Dan's mom said.

"I suppose I was guilty of consorting, but not with demons."

Dan was no expert on linguistics, but he didn't think Barty's manner of speaking was any more authentic than his style of dress. Something wasn't right.

At least, he'd have thought so if his mom wasn't at his side. As she regarded the man silently, a growing sense of sadness found its way into her own aura. She didn't let it show on her face, which was probably wise, but Dan couldn't miss it.

If she didn't think Barty was deceiving them, then there was no reason for Dan to. He still wasn't sure how much to trust his own judgment, but he trusted hers. Who was to say the guy was incapable of looking in on the real world from his gray, misty prison anyway? That Barty hadn't done his best to keep up with the times because he still harbored some faint hope of being allowed to dwell there for more than a few minutes?

"You made a pact with an Aetherial," Caleb said. "And the townsfolk knew about it."

"Aye," Barty said. "After seeing the fever claim one too many lives, most of them belonging to children, I decided that any man who would not do everything in his power to save his wife and daughter, whether he'd spent his whole life eschewing that power or not, was no man at all." He hung his head. "They escaped the fever, but it might have been better to let it take them. They burned my wife for lying with a warlock. I never learned what became of my daughter, but I cannot convince myself that she led a happy life."

"I'm sure she did," Dan's mom said. Her words should have sounded hollow, but they didn't. Even Barty seemed to find some measure of solace in them. Momentarily, at least. The blue streaks grew fainter and the thinnest of red ribbons flickered into being.

Could anyone be more amazing than his mom?

"In exchange," the man continued, face impassive and voice despondent once more, "I agreed to serve the Aetherial until the end of time. I am permitted to return to the village of my birth once a century, there to dwell until I meet my natural end."

"Which hasn't turned out to be worth much," Dan said.

Barty cleared his throat. "Indeed not."

"Sorry to have disturbed you, Mister Wainbridge," Dan's mom said. Turning to her brother, she added, "I think we've got what we came here for."

Both men looked at her quizzically. One of them, however, had already decided that he didn't care what that meant. Nor was he interested in any further information they could provide about the various forces that meant him harm. Without a word, Bartholomew Wainbridge turned his back to them and faded into the mist.

"I agree," Dan said. "That man's not a threat to anyone." Not that it really mattered what he thought. Once his mom had vouched for the guy, his opinion had become moot. No one had told Dan that beforehand, but he could tell by the look on Caleb's face that, for all the tension between them, he still held his sister's opinion in the highest regard.

As well he should, if he didn't want his nephew to beat some sense into him.

Chapter Six

A fly slipped in through the window that had been left open to let the smoke clear out. It buzzed about the kitchen, landed on a charred cabinet, took a few steps, then flittered away again. Only once she was sure that no one was around did Maria change back.

The floor tiles were cool beneath her feet and the air stank of foul chemicals. Sensitive as her nose was, Maria barely picked out traces of burned wood and spilled blood. Only a few hours had passed, she knew, but it had felt like days. And it might as well have been, for all that anyone who hadn't been there to witness it could guess that just a short while ago, a man's heart had been ripped out of his chest not six feet from where she now stood.

She'd nearly lost her mind waiting for Caleb to contact her. Even now that he had, she felt an irrational anger towards him. Nevermind that he'd provided her with a bracelet that would allow her to be as aggressive, as reckless, as her heart demanded. Sixty seconds was more than enough to tear a man's throat out, no matter how fast he moved. Yet she couldn't help thinking that he ought to have given it to her in his apartment rather than leaving her to stew in her rage and grief and helplessness before finally summoning her to the Aether.

If things didn't go as planned, perhaps she'd tear his throat out. Just because.

In fact, should it come to that, she had valid grounds. He hadn't admitted as much, of course, but now that she wore one of his stupid trinkets around her wrist, given to her in a realm he ought to have been powerless to summon her to, she knew that he was a sorcerer. The very one she'd nearly stumbled upon that night in the woods. Did it matter that he'd moved on shortly thereafter, only to find that the witch-hunters were better than Maria when at detecting his unwelcome presence? He was still Coalition. He still had something of hers, if only a hair, which would allow him to summon her again. Or worse.

With a shake of her head, Maria pushed the thoughts aside. She was here for her father, and to avenge Wei. She could decide what to do about the sorcerer later.

Fingering the bracelet she hadn't been sure would shift along with her, Maria became a fly once more. Then she slipped under the door to the basement.

"Allow me to present the last vial," Abner said.

"I don't know if I can arrange another pick-up so soon," Vigilance replied. "Can it wait until tomorrow?" Abner must have glared at her, because she rushed to add, "Or I can drive it over myself." Her tone was so unctuous that Maria somehow found it within herself to hate the woman even more. "That won't take but an hour."

"Should they have any questions as to why we need dispose of two bodies in a single day, I trust you can handle them?" Abner asked as Maria made her way down the stairwell. "That is, if you've not pushed yourself past the point of exhaustion already?"

"I can handle it," Vigilance grumbled.

There were hundreds of reasons for that exchange to take place. Any number of bodies they might need to dispose of. At least, that's what Maria tried telling herself. Yet she knew what she'd find in that chair after she tore the two of them to bloody ribbons and was glad her chosen form could not experience nausea the way a woman's could.

Worried that even a fly might make too much noise, Maria turned into a spider. Each second of scurrying was an eternity. At long last, though, she was close enough to strike. When she pushed off the wall, she had eight legs, slim as stalks. By the time she reached her prey, she had four, heavily-muscled and covered in black fur.

She took him by surprise, but it wouldn't have mattered if not for her bracelet. He was that fast. His forearm smashed into her chest with enough force to send her flying across the room. She managed to rake her claws before he did, but they failed to connect with anything vital. Before Maria could regain her balance, he'd closed the distance and delivered a kick to her ribs that would have shattered concrete. Thanks to Caleb, though, it had no more effect on her than forcing her hind legs to slide across the floor.

Thirty seconds would have been enough. His blood soon filled her mouth and she felt a rush of cold air that did not disturb her fur as his life extinguished.

"Wait!" Vigilance shouted, falling to her knees. She crossed her arms in front of her face, as though that would do anything but slow the process of her dying.

Maria stalked slowly towards her, still in the form of a panther.

"It was all him!" the woman claimed. Tears streamed down her pale cheeks. The sight only made Maria want to end her that much more. "I'd have killed myself, a thousand times over, if I had your powers. You have to believe me."

Maria didn't have to do anything, though. Her father was dead, the same as her lover. She was the sole survivor of their triad, their mission an utter failure. Not that she even knew what it was supposed to have accomplished in the first place. In a way, Maria was freer than ever. Free to turn her back on the Nation. To claim any life she pleased, for no more reason than that it might help to quiet her rage.

No. She was not so weak as to let her grief destroy her.

On two feet, she approached Vigilance. Placing a hand on the woman's shoulder, Maria said, "I'm not going to hurt you." The voice that passed through her lips was distant and hollow. She sounded the way her father had when last she'd heard him speak.

"Thank you, thank you," said the woman who'd taken her father's will away from him.

Maria's eyes flicked right, to the body slumped forward in the chair. She barely recognized it, though they hadn't tortured him. It seemed they'd focused instead on draining his blood as quickly and efficiently as possible, wasting not a drop. Yet Maria had never seen him so still. Her father was as calm as Wei was passionate, yet she'd never seen him so still.

The anger welling up inside her was hotter than any flame Wei could produce.

Before the woman could gasp, Maria's hands were at her throat. It was not the first time she'd killed a woman, but it was the first time she'd killed as a woman.

Then she too collapsed to the floor and began to cry.

Chapter Seven

Dan tried to roll over but found his path was blocked.

Because his mom was in his bed with him.

She was sitting atop the covers, though, and was fully dressed. Or as close to it as could be expected if she wasn't about to leave for, or hadn't just gotten home from, work. One of his dad's old dress shirts up top and black leggings down below.

They hadn't had slept together, then. Hadn't had sex in the real world. And why would they? She'd made it clear that they could carry on in the Aether, but only there.

"Daniel?" she asked, looking away from the legal pad she'd nearly set afire with that intense stare. "Are you really awake?"

His first attempt at a response was swallowed by the pillow his face had made its way back to. Grumbling to himself, Dan slowly sat up. Sort of. Turned to face her, at least, and propped his chin up with one palm. "Are you really surprised?" Man, he felt like shit. It was tempting to fall flat on his back and go right back to sleep. Or head downstairs and pop a few Advil. "I do that from time to time. Wake up, that is."

"Not lately, you don't."

Why was she looking at him like he might turn into a frog at any moment?

Or, um, go back asleep—which he'd already given some thought to. Damn. It was no fair how moms could do that. Talent or no, they always knew what their sons were thinking.

Just to prove how wrong she was, Dan sat all the way up. It felt like his life's greatest achievement. All the more reason to wish she hadn't laughed at him and the groan he'd let out. "How long was I asleep?" he asked after sliding back to sit against the wall.

"Four days."

"Say what?"

She snorted in amusement then leaned over to kiss his forehead. "You had me worried for a while there. Even after the bleeding stopped."

"What blee—" Dan began, before it all came back to him.

His last trip to the Aether had been unlike the others, in almost every respect. Sure, it had still featured an insanely attractive woman, but not the way he'd have liked. Caleb and a long-dead warlock had figured just as prominently. Not that Barty really was a warlock, because that was a derogatory term born out of ignorance. That the man was about as threatening as a wounded sparrow didn't mean it had been entirely safe for Dan to cross over, though, considering how far past his limits he'd already stretched himself.

"How are you feeling?" his mom asked in a soft voice.

"Fine," Dan said.

His mom raised an eyebrow at him but said nothing.

In truth, he didn't feel that bad. At least not compared to what he'd expected when Caleb had told him that his assistance was required. Though falling into a coma that lasted for several days, and involved untold amounts of bleeding along the way, hardly qualified as dodging a bullet. There was no telling what his mom had done to ease his recovery, either. At least he'd slept through the worst of it. At that point, all he felt was groggy.

"Okay, I feel like I just woke up after having the worst time trying to fall asleep," Dan admitted. "So, yeah, not great. There's no need for anyone to jab pencils into the backs or their hands or anything, though. A shower and a cup of coffee should do the trick."

A wan smile formed upon her lips. Her lovely, lovely lips, which he really wanted to kiss. Even if they looked a bit dry. "It's a pen, dear," she said, raising the implement in question.

How long had she sat there beside him, neglecting basic needs like food and water? Surely not the whole time? "Shouldn't you be at work?" Dan asked.

Chewing her lower lip, his mom said, "About that."

"Is that supposed to be an impression of Jane?"

She flicked her nail against his thigh, though the covers blunted what was already a feeble blow. "Of you, silly." For a moment, Dan expected her to accuse him of once again putting out feelers for a threesome. But that might as well have been a different woman.

Even though it very much hadn't been.

"I'm temporarily unemployed," his mom said.

"They fired you? For staying home to look after your son?"

"I quit." With a frown, she added, "Without giving them two weeks' notice either, which was pretty stinky of me." His mom shrugged her guilt off. "Though I'd be more worried about that if I planned on asking for a reference."

"And why won't you be?" Dan asked, daring to stretch an arm across her shoulders. He leaned down to smell her hair, but only because he was curious as to whether she'd gone without showering during his convalescence. And that was only because he hated the thought of his bad decision-making leading her to suffer while he slept. Not because he was hoping to get lucky before they got out of bed or anything.

"If all goes well on Saturday, I'll be working for my mother."

Dan blinked several times. "I thought my grandparents were dead." Of course, he'd also thought their last name was Ferguson, not Blackthorne.

"I may not have been entirely honest about some things when you're little," his mom said in a voice that begged him not to hate her forever. "We should talk about Santa Claus."

He snorted. "Figured that one out on my own, thanks," he said. "Like, two years ago."

"That long ago?" she asked, before leaning in for a quick kiss...on the cheek. Then his mom leaned back and tapped her legal pad. "Anyway, I won't really be working for your grandmother. She's the head of a different division. I only mentioned her because it's time you knew my parents are still alive, and why I lied about them."

"They're like us," Dan said for her. "And you wanted to get away from all that."

His mom nodded. "I've seen that bleeding before," she said. "It happened to me." She didn't give Dan a chance to act surprised at that. Not that he really was. "I was a little younger than you when I first started visiting the Aether...recreationally." With that semi-admission, she looked away in shame. "I went a little crazy with it. Then tried to quit, several times. It wasn't until I met your father, in college, that I succeeded."

"I see," Dan said.

She looked a question at him, her olive green eyes all but begging for a response. He had none to give, though. There was simply too much there to process.

It was strange. Dan felt no shame over wanting to take his relationship with his mom to the next level. He'd once thought incest as wrong as wrong got, but no longer did. On some level, he now felt the worst thing he could do was offer any woman his heart when it rightly belonged to his mother. Yet he did have one reservation—would it not dishonor his father's memory to bed the man's widow whilst she still grieved?

Dan had always known that what they'd had was special. Once he and his friends had reached their teens, they'd learned to look past the surface and see the dysfunction in their parents' marriages. A few had even gotten divorced. Dan's parents, though? The thought of them separating had never even occurred to him or Jane. Yet he'd apparently still underestimated the strength of their bond, having failed to realize that his mom had been a junkie when she'd met his dad, who'd essentially saved her from herself.

How could Dan compete with that? All he had to offer was a relapse.

"Are they with the Coalition?" Dan asked eventually.

"You know what that is?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. He didn't, really, but that was besides the point. The way things were going, Dan figured he'd know all too much about the Coalition soon enough. "I suppose Caleb told you," his mom said with a sigh. "He promised he wouldn't, but I shouldn't have believed him. He never could keep his mouth shut."

"Are you sure we're talking about the same guy?" Dan said, moving a little closer to his mom. "Because I've always had the opposite problem."

She rested her head on his shoulder. "Well neither of us has to worry about how much he tells you anymore. At least not for a while. They've called him back to the city."

When it became clear that she wasn't going to explain unless he prodded, Dan did so.

"With hundreds of empaths on staff, you'd think they wouldn't worry about us lying. There's no way we'd get away with it, and they've got to know that I know that."

"Obviously," Dan said, in a tone that earned him an elbow in the ribs.

"It is standard procedure," his mom continued, "and if there's one thing the Coalition excels at, it's making sure everyone follows procedure. Still feels unnecessary, though."

"What's standard procedure?" Dan asked.

"Splitting people up before they file their reports or give testimony to a review board," his mom said, making the Coalition sound more boring and bureaucratic than he'd imagined.

Perhaps they should look into joining the Nation instead. Though Dan wasn't sure he could go that long without electricity or indoor plumbing.

"Like the teacher who gives a make-up test that only asks which tire to the students who claim they missed their final exam because they got a flat on the way to school?"

His mom chuckled. "I haven't heard that one before."

"You've gotta get on Facebook," he told her. "You're missing out on all the good memes."

"I thought kids are supposed to try to keep their parents off social media sites?"

Dan shrugged. "If they're lame, yeah."

She patted his thigh. "Well, now you know what I've been up to. Studying for that make-up test." The most beautiful eyes in the world turned towards Dan. They were as captivating in real life as in the Aether. "A Great Chieftain has come to New York."

"Did someone forget to tell him about the concrete and skyscrapers?" Dan interrupted.

His mom snorted. "He's come to investigate the disappearance of one of his triads. The Vice President of External Relations seems to think we might know something about that. Before they let the Nation interrogate us, though, they're going to do so themselves."

"Why do I feel like the former is going to be more unpleasant?"

"It might be," his mom allowed. "But they're the ones offering to put us on the payroll."

"What a job interview," Dan said. He lowered his voice and tried to sound all stuffy and authoritative, "We've looked over your resume and we're really quite impressed. Your references all check out as well. There's just one last thing—we need you to prevent an imminent war from breaking out. Do that and you're hired!"

"More or less," his mom said.

"And we're okay with that?" he asked, heart racing. It was a simple question, but he was going to have a hard time not reading too much into her answer. If she was willing to bring magic into her life, and not just in secret, what else might she be open to?

His mom sighed. "I think so." She kissed Dan on the cheek again, but this time it didn't feel as innocent. He wasn't sure how to explain the difference. Her lips still hadn't touched his. Maybe it was the way she lingered, as though the kiss was as much an excuse to get closer to him as a sign of affection. How little effort she made to avoid having her breasts press against him. Either way, it sent shivers down Dan's spine and made his cock stiffen. "I've spent twenty-something years lying to myself and everyone around me, tearing my family apart in the process, because I figured it was either that or let my power control me. It's time to find out whether I can embrace it without being destroyed by it."

"Agreed?" Dan said, unsure what sort of response was appropriate.

His mom laughed as she swung her legs over the side of the bed.

"Where are you going?" he asked with an indignant tone that was mostly in jest.

The look his mom threw him over her shoulder made his spine tingle and his cock stand at attention. "To shower," she said. "Care to join me?"

In the span of three or four seconds, Dan died of shock, came back to life, and nearly perished once again. "You sure about that?" he asked, because he was oh-so-smooth.

By way of response, his mom slowly unbuttoned her shirt, let it fall the floor, and then stepped out into the hallway. Dan smacked himself in the face a few times, afraid he might have fallen asleep and passed through to the Aether without realizing it, then jumped out of bed. That proved to be a mistake, though. A sense of vertigo reminded him that he still wasn't in top shape. Dan placed a hand on the bed to steady himself, drew a deep breath, and tried to process everything. They most certainly were not in the Aether, where it took a lot more than getting out of bed a little too quickly to make his head spin, yet his mom had just propositioned him for sex, starting to undress before him. He probably should have given some thought to declining the offer, but was incapable of doing so.

Yes, it would be different. Their bodies were different here, full of imperfections and tragically limited in their functionality, to say nothing of the long term consequences. There'd be no going back from this—no breaking up with his mom if things didn't work out, at least not in the sense of telling one another that they'd remain friends then proceeding to cut the other out of their life as quietly yet as thoroughly as possible. Dan didn't feel like he was taking any risk at all, though. If he was about to roll a die, it was weighted in his favor.

He found the door to the bathroom open and the rest of his mom's clothes on the floor. She'd closed the shower stall, but only to keep the heat in. As soon as he set foot on the tiled floor, she wiped the mist from the glass, smiled at him, and curled a beckoning finger.

Dan wasted no time stripping down then reaching for the door. As the cloud of steam hit him in the face, though, time seemed to slow. Not because any part of him was slamming on the breaks, though. His subconscious wasn't trying to get him to reconsider. Only to savor the moment. Commit every detail to memory, from the oppressive heat he'd need a moment to get used to, by which time he'd have worked up a sweat anyway, to the smell of soap, mildew, and cleaning products. And, of course, the sight of her body.

She had her back to him, so he couldn't tell how different her breasts were. Whether they sagged down to her hips or retained some of their shape. Yet, from what he could see, Dan knew he wouldn't care either way. Whatever she looked like here, she was perfect. The woman of his dreams, almost literally. No, her waist wasn't as narrow, and there were slight folds in her back. Her ass and thighs were dimpled with cellulite, and the latter was better acquainted with gravity than even her yoga pants had led him to believe. Yet while his eyes registered the differences, they meant nothing to his heart. Or his cock.

"Help me with my hair?" his mom asked, tossing a damp red mop over her shoulder.

Seeing as her luxurious mane was clean, Dan wasn't sure what she wanted him to do. Until she handed him the plastic bottle. He squeezed a glob of shampoo into one palm, returned the bottle to the shelf beside them, then started working up a lather. His mom purred as he ran his fingers through her hair and gently massaged her scalp.

For a time, that was all they did—shower together. Yes, their movements were slower and more sensual than they'd have been if their only interest was in getting clean, and they might have lingered on certain parts more than mere sanitation required, but Dan almost started to think that sex wasn't in the cards after all. That his mom only meant to tease him for her amusement. Or worse, test his self-control before recommending him to the Coalition or whatever. Until, at long last, she kissed him.

It was unlike any kiss they'd shared in the Aether. The world spun and his lips began to tingle. Neither sensation was as intense as it would have been in that other place, yet he still felt them. Somehow, he'd convinced himself that he wouldn't. That such things were impossible in the real world and he shouldn't be disappointed by that.

How wrong he'd been.

The heavy breast he groped with one hand did hang a little lower than he was used to, and there were stretch marks aplenty, but Dan had never been happier to hold such perfection. Their mouths moved awkwardly, as though performing a dance they'd forgotten half the steps to, yet that only served to differentiate it from all the ephemeral kisses they'd shared in the Aether. When their arms bumped into each other for a third time, uncoordinated as their attempts to fondle one another were, his mom broke away from the kiss long enough to giggle. That could have made him feel self-conscious, but it didn't. There was no reason to worry that his mom would change her mind, deciding he wasn't good enough for her after all. He felt the lust pulsing deep inside her, as well as the tendrils of nervousness and amusement sliding across the surface of her aura. The cool calm nearer the core, pulling at the tails of those tendrils. Dan had never been too bothered by how stylized everything was in the Aether, but was starting to wonder why he hadn't been.

"Slower, honey," his mom said at one point, pushing him back a few inches.

"Sorry. Guess I'm just a little excited."

She smiled. "I'd certainly rather that than the opposite problem." Her lips met his for a fraction of a second. "We'll enjoy this more if it's not over in thirty seconds."

Dan scoffed. "What are you trying to say?"

"That you might be a little too accustomed to the way things work over there?" she said, reaching down to give his hard cock a few good pumps. Dan groaned and gritted his teeth. "No one's judging you. I know what that's like." Her palm stopped. If it hadn't, he'd have shot his load against her hip. "Don't forget I have the same powers you do, though."

"And have been using them for longer," he said.

She smiled. Then finished him off.

"Fffuuuuck," Dan moaned as he ejaculated. He tried to fight it, but there was no point. Especially with his mom still holding him in her hand. Her grip wasn't that tight, but the last thing he'd ever do was deny himself her touch. Rope after stick rope shot past her or stuck to the top of her thigh. Then it was over. He didn't produce nearly as much cum as he might have in the Aether. Yet he felt spent afterwards, all the muscles in his back and legs relaxing, until he hardly stood any taller than his mom. "That wasn't very nice."

His mom laughed. "Is that how guys your age thank a woman for getting them off?"

"When they make a point of showing how easy it is to do, yeah."

"Oh, baby, I'm not questioning your stamina," she said as she slowly stroked him hard again. Not that he'd softened much. "I just wanted to get that out of the way."

Dan had nothing witty to say to that so he simply kissed her. Then, after a minute or so, spun her around. And gave her fat ass a good slap.

"Daniel!" she exclaimed.

For just a moment, he considered apologizing. But then he checked her aura and realized the chiding tone was for her own benefit as much as his. She felt like she wasn't supposed to encourage that sort of behavior but the truth was that his enthusiasm excited her.

He wanted to enter her slowly. To savor every moment, every constriction of her inner muscles. But he was too afraid that he'd cum before half his cock was inside her. So he decided to pretend her reaction to the ass slap served as impetus for him to take her more roughly. He grabbed one hip, lined himself up, and shoved all the way in.

"Ungh," his mom groaned. "Oh, fuck."

"Too much?" Dan asked as he gave himself a moment to recover. It had only been a moment of sweet friction, but that had nearly been enough. She was so warm and wet. So tight. He couldn't believe what had just happened, either. What was still happening.

"Nooo," she said, wiggling her hips. Was that to make her ass dance? Or because of what it did inside? Either way, he appreciated it. A little too much. "I just wasn't prepared for how big you are. Even though I had it in my hand a moment ago."

"Feeble attempts at flattery won't work on me," Dan said.

"You don't believe me?" his mom asked, pumping her hips back gently so her plush ass bounced against his groin. "That's too bad. Because it's never felt so good to have a man inside me." His mom let out a moan that he felt in his sack. "I think I've waited my whole life for this." She laughed. "Well, your whole life." Her mini-thrusts continued, managing to produce a whole lot more friction than Dan was prepared to deal with.

That left him with no choice but to pull her against him, hard, and hold her there. Dan's balls constricted and his cock twitched but he managed not to climax. Somehow. His mom cooed as she no doubt felt the war raging inside him. Once the victor emerged, she guided his hands up to her breasts and Dan started teasing her nipples. There was no way he'd get her off just by rolling them between his fingers here, but the sounds she made as he did so still sent a shiver down his spine. Meanwhile, he started working his own hips. Not too vigorously, of course, but enough to keep her moaning.

After he adjusted their angle, so that it must have looked as though he was sitting on a little ledge and she was stretching as if to yawn, Dan felt the spongy flesh of her G-spot rub against the underside of his cock. Her whole body started to quiver and the sounds passing through her lips went from enthusiastic to strained. Dan picked up the pace. He couldn't have held that position for long without something cramping up, but he didn't think he'd have to. And he was right. Less than a minute later, his mom was cumming hard.

Once she finished, she flopped against his torso like a wet towel.

"Now who's trying to prove a point?" she panted.

"Hmm?" Dan asked as he nuzzled her neck.

"Show-off."

He kissed her. Then reached between her legs and found her clit. The tufts of dark hair against his palm thrilled him, as did the softness of her belly. They reminded Dan that he was not making love to an abstraction, a supernatural form with only a tenuous connection to the person it represented, but a real woman. The only woman who mattered.

"Mmmph," she moaned. "Can't chain them together like that, here."

"No?"

"No," she said. "Going to be a few minutes before I'm ready to cum again," she added, voice rising in pitch. Meanwhile, she squirmed as if trying to escape, yet clamped both hands over his wrist to make sure he didn't stop. The way her big, soft ass writhed against his crotch, to say nothing of the pulsations inside, made Dan's eyes water. "Watch."

"I'm watching," he said, as he made a liar out of her.

Their bodies might be subject to laws that had no jurisdiction in the Aether, but they were still Talents. And while Dan still didn't have much experience using his abilities outside the Aether, save in the most passive of ways, he found it simple enough to amplify her arousal. Would an attempt to prevent a bar fight by calming a drunk and angry jock, something he ought to be capable of eventually, work as well? Perhaps not. He and his mom had a connection, though, and magnifying an emotion that was already near peak intensity was much easier than dropping it down to the other end of the scale.

They still couldn't go at it for hours and hours here, cumming their brains out every couple of minutes. At some point, he'd find it hard to maintain an erection, implausible as that seemed. But they were not limited to ordinary sex. Not by any means.

"Should we move back to my bedroom?" Dan asked as he slowly withdrew.

"Give me a minute," his mom said, through bated breaths. She was double dover, one hand pressed against the tiled wall. One could almost think she'd been punched in the gut.

Dan turned her around and forced her to stand up straight. Those green eyes of hers couldn't have been more beautiful, even if they were temporarily unfocused. He waited until they locked on his and her chest stopped heaving then kissed her gently. The connection lingered, but did not grow intense or passionate. It didn't need to, though. The warmth and affection were more than enough. When their lips parted, Dan said, "I love you, Mom."

"I love you too, Daniel," she replied. The red tint to her aura told him she meant it, too.

Of course, lust and passion had a similar effect. Dan was mindful of that. He didn't think that was what he was seeing, though. Maybe he'd only been a stand-in for his late father when she'd first taken interest in him sexually, but in that moment, he felt sure that her feelings had evolved. Or that there was room for them to, in the very near future.