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                 K R I S T E N' S    C O L L E C T I O N
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Eternal War
by The Synthetic Divine (syntheticdivine@aol.com)

***

A powerful being named Thade hunts Las Vegas for a boy 
he believes can make him a god. But at the same time he 
himself is hunted by others who want him dead. As 
factions clash, the fate of the world rests in the 
balance. (MF, nc, sci-fi)

***

AUTHOR NOTES: For those who've been waiting, the first 
part of my new story is now complete. For everyone 
else, I bring up a very important issue. The story to 
follow is the continuation of four stories that came 
before it, The Cycle of Corruption (Directory 28, under 
Cycle), Dead People Aren't Toys (Directory 36), Fear 
the Void Below (Directory 38), and Bible Black 
(Directory 41). 

These stories were, before, only loosely connected to 
each other. However, this story will carry with it 
characters from all four earlier stories, as well as 
continuing several plot points from earlier stories, 
many of which came from Bible Black. For this reason, 
I'm offering fair warning that if you haven't yet, you 
should probably read all of my earlier stories before 
you read this one. If you don't, there are sections of 
the story that will likely confuse you or will simply 
make very little sense. You've been warned.

The first part did take a little longer then expected 
to complete, but that's also because I've put in a 
little work on the first part of my next story as well. 
This story, when completed, should be three parts in 
all. For those who wish to send feedback, I can be 
reached at SyntheticDivine@aol.com but be sure to use 
"Eternal War" as the topic or I might accidentally 
mistake it for spam and delete it. 

Feedback is always welcome, and tends to motivate me to 
write at a faster pace. I'm also considering getting an 
Author's Page at ASSTR to offer a secondary place to 
access my work in addition to the Kristen Archives. If 
you have any thoughts on this, feel free to add them to 
any feedback you might send.

Now for the regular warnings. The following story 
contains acts of sexual perversity. Not nearly as much 
or as intense as in my other stories, since this story 
is kind of a bonus to those who read the prior four, 
but there still are some. Mainly in the form of 
underage sex, and non-consensual acts by means of 
control-by-fear. Should such things offend you, please, 
do not read further. For everyone else, I offer my 
fifth story for your reading pleasure.


Eternal War


Leon still didn't know how he'd let himself be drawn to 
Las Vegas. It had all started with the group he'd 
fought, the ones who'd called themselves freaks. No, it 
had started before that. Months before, when Leon had 
first awoken to the ki in the surrounding world. The 
life energy of the people and things that lay around 
him, the thing that let him manipulate his 
surroundings. 

He'd had a partner for a time, a pupil that he himself 
had guided to the same awakening. They'd had quite a 
bit of fun for awhile, until Max started to think that 
he was the stronger of the two of them, that he was the 
more skilled. That had soon lead to a confrontation, 
and when it was over only Leon had been left alive.

He'd spent months enjoying his abilities, as well as 
honing and refining them. Until he'd come across them. 
Two girls and a guy in their twenties. Usually people 
were fairly easy to manipulate through their ki, but 
these three had been different. Their energy wasn't 
normal, it was like it was coated in a dark slimy 
substance. It didn't make it impossible to touch, but 
it did make it slippery in a weird way. It made it 
difficult to get a grip on, difficult to control.

He'd been studying it, testing it in very minor ways to 
try and discover what made it so different when it 
happened. They hadn't been paying any attention to him 
before that, but somehow they sensed what he'd been 
doing. No human had ever been able to sense his 
manipulation of their ki. Some had been able to see the 
differences after the fact, but none had ever felt it 
during. That these three had had worried him quite a 
bit.

They had moved extremely quickly, so fast that his eyes 
couldn't even follow it, but his sense of their energy 
seemed to track them almost in slow motion. He'd been 
able to forcibly take hold just before they'd reached 
him. It had been very difficult, maintaining his hold 
on their energy and keeping them at a short distance, 
but he'd managed it somehow, at least for sufficient 
time for him to convince them that he wasn't a threat. 

Well, he wasn't sure he'd entirely convinced them, but 
apparently he'd done well enough that they didn't 
attack when he released them. He'd wound up going with 
them to a building not far from there where they'd had 
a very long talk. And the revelations he'd discovered 
in the things they'd told him had been almost mind-
numbing.

It was enough to completely shatter your view of the 
world, when you finally understood the things they were 
saying were actually true, as insane as it all sounded. 
But the things they had said made sense. Leon had been 
able to tell for himself that their energy had been 
vastly different from every single person he'd come 
across before. They'd called themselves freaks.

That was how he'd wound up in Las Vegas. Late in the 
conversation, before he and the group had parted ways, 
they had mentioned in passing that there was something 
major going on in Las Vegas. That something they called 
a Shadow Mind was supposedly being hunted in that city. 
He'd been unable to extract many more details from 
them, so his understanding of it all was still sketchy. 
But it had got his curiosity going. The city of his 
home had started getting boring even weeks before he'd 
run into the group. 

A change of scenery hadn't seemed such a bad idea. 
Besides, the group had refused to give him any way to 
contact them before they left. He'd decided against 
trying to grasp their energy again long enough to force 
them, as he wasn't entirely sure how long he could keep 
his hold over them. And he was quite sure that if he 
took hold of them again, and his control slipped even 
for a second, the results could be very bad. 

He knew how fast they could move. A second would be all 
it would take. Yet he'd wanted to have contact with 
more like them. More freaks. He had never cared much 
for humans, even before he'd awakened to the ki. But in 
the freaks he'd finally felt as if he'd found people 
who could almost be his equals.

The problem was, now that he was here, he wasn't 
exactly sure what to do. How did one go about finding 
freaks, in a city as large as this one? Even if there 
were supposed to be a lot of freaks around, there were 
still vast multitudes more humans. He'd searched along 
the strip, to no avail. He guessed it really was just 
for tourists.

So, with no better ideas on how to go about it, he'd 
finally just started searching at random. Driving to a 
random spot, finding a place to park, and then walking 
around for awhile, hoping to spot the same kind of dark 
substance in someone's ki that he'd seen in the three 
before. He'd spent a lot of the time he was walking 
around trying to think of a better way of doing things, 
but he hadn't come up with much. Five stops, and no 
results, and he'd been beginning to give up hope. Then 
came the sixth.

He was strolling past some kind of warehouse when he 
heard a sudden noise from inside. He paused for a 
second, but when he didn't hear anything else he walked 
around the side of it in the direction he thought the 
noise had come from. The instant he turned the corner 
he saw a door not far in front of him laying wide open, 
and not a single person around within viewing distance. 
His first thought was that it might be a robbery of 
some kind, but if that was the case he had nothing to 
worry about. Humans weren't going to hurt him, even if 
they were criminals. So long as he could affect their 
ki, they'd be helpless regardless of what weapons they 
might be carrying.

The moment he stepped inside the building, though, he 
knew no one was there. He couldn't sense anyone 
anywhere. So what had made the noise? He was walking 
further in to find out when he heard another sound, 
behind him. Immediately spinning around, he found 
himself face to face with an impossible sight. A woman, 
a rather beautiful woman, was walking towards him. Only 
she was walking upside down, along the ceiling. 

The warehouse roof wasn't that high, as far as 
warehouses went. Her head came down to around his neck. 
The strangest thing, stranger then seeing the girl 
breaking every law of gravity, was what he felt when he 
looked at her. Where she was, there was no ki. No 
energy of any kind. Which couldn't be. There was energy 
in everything. Everything. But with every step she took 
towards him, it only served to further confirm to him 
that there was no ki there.

The girl was gorgeous, there was no question of that. 
Long dark hair, eyes that when he took a closer look 
actually seemed to be violet. He'd never seen eyes that 
color before. A stunning face, full lips. It was a bit 
harder to tell upside down, but he thought her breasts 
were about a C-cup. She looked to be somewhere in her 
mid-twenties. 

Oddly enough she was wearing every day jeans and a t-
shirt, and despite the fact that she was upside down 
the shirt was remaining in place, gravity wasn't 
forcing it down. As she came within about ten feet or 
so of him she suddenly dropped off the roof. In one 
quick, deft motion she turned gracefully in mid-air and 
landed smoothly on her feet facing him. She was maybe 
5'5" or so, and she was watching him with the oddest 
expression. Like she was looking straight through him.

"A wielder of ki. How interesting." The girl said in a 
voice as beautiful as she was.

Leon was panicking. Not only was he confronted with a 
girl that according to his senses wasn't even there, 
but she somehow seemed to know way too much about him. 
Without being able to sense energy in her, there was 
nothing for him to grasp, nothing for him to 
manipulate. Very little way for him to defend himself 
if need be. And then suddenly an idea occurred to him. 
What he did next was primarily a matter of energy 
direction, it only required a slightly flick of his 
wrist to shift it ever so slightly. He could see the 
bands of energy winding themselves slowly, 
unobtrusively around her. If she had no energy herself, 
he was going to place a small layer of energy around 
her that he would be able to manipulate if needed. The 
problem was, the moment the last band of energy had 
been woven around her, all the bands suddenly unraveled 
at breathtaking speed.

The girl tilted her head slightly to the side. "You 
don't know what I am, so I'll forgive that, once. Do it 
again, and you're dead." She said softly, in an almost 
pleasant tone.

Leon just stood there in shock. Even the freaks, while 
they'd been able to sense what he was doing, hadn't 
been able to counteract it. Who the hell was this girl? 
Before he could ask the question aloud, however, she 
smiled and spoke. "I am a True Mind. And you.. You're 
the first ki wielder I've seen in hundreds of years. 
Rather impressive. I can use you, use your particular 
talents. You'll come with me." She said, before turning 
on her heel and starting towards the door.

"Wait, why should I go with you?" Leon asked, not 
moving from the spot where he was standing.

The girl didn't stop, didn't even look back at him, she 
just called out loudly enough so that he could hear. 
"Because if you don't, I'll kill you."

"Oh." Leon murmured quietly, and followed her.

***

The girl's car was nowhere near as sleek or attractive 
as she was, but Leon didn't complain. She didn't say a 
word to him as she drove, and though he considered 
speaking up a couple times himself, both times he 
eventually decided against it. She had some CD in, and 
the trip was long enough that several songs played, but 
there was only one he actually recognized. "Suicide 
King" by Machines of Loving Grace. The music actually 
seemed to suit the girl, strangely enough.

When she eventually stopped, it was in an urban 
district, in front of a fairly non-decrepit building. 
She just turned the ignition and stereo off and slipped 
out of the car without a word, so for lack of any 
better course of action, he followed suit. By the time 
he'd shut the door she was already striding up the 
drive towards the front door. As he approached she 
opened it and turned to look at him, gesturing him 
towards the door when he hesitated for a second. With a 
deep breath he stepped over the threshold and into the 
building ahead of her.

Immediately he found himself in a very large room of 
sorts. It might have once been a room in a house, but 
it had been converted into what looked like some kind 
of strategy room. There were a few tables spread out, 
as well as a few boards with diagrams drawn on them or 
documents and pictures posted to them. There were also 
a little over a dozen and a half people standing 
around. Some of them were staring at the door as he 
walked in, more turned to look at him soon after. Every 
single one of them, without exception, carried the same 
dark coating to their ki's that the three in the group 
he'd seen before had had. All of them were freaks.

A couple seconds of silence passed, and then suddenly a 
group of five freaks detached themselves from their 
discussion at the nearest table and strode towards him. 
They spread themselves out as they walked. It only took 
a second for him to realize that the ones to the sides 
were moving to surround him, but before he could react 
the freak in the center spoke. "You have ten seconds to 
tell us who you are and what you're doing here." He 
said in a cold, calm voice.

"My name's Leon. I was brought here by..." Leon was 
quick to say in reply, turning as he spoke to gesture 
towards the girl who'd driven him there under duress, 
only to find that she wasn't there. Quickly spinning to 
look left and right, he couldn't see her anywhere, and 
by that time two of the freaks had moved between him 
and the door. She apparently hadn't come in after him, 
and he couldn't look outside to find her. Spinning back 
to face the freak who'd spoken to him, Leon tried to 
explain as best he could through the fear quickly 
growing inside him. 

"There was a woman who brought me here. She said she'd 
kill me if I didn't come." Leon told the guy in a 
desperate tone. He knew that if the freaks decided to 
attack, he was dead-meat. It was true that with a 
little luck he could manage to take hold of their ki's 
even through the dark substance, but that was in small 
numbers. There were nineteen or twenty freaks in this 
room. There was no way he'd be able to hold them all at 
once. And with the speeds he'd seen the other ones were 
capable of moving at, it would only take one free freak 
to eliminate him in short order.

"And did this woman say who she was?" The freak in the 
center asked warily.

Leon quickly racked his mind to remember the term she'd 
used for herself. Aha, there it was. "A True Mind." He 
said quickly. "She called herself a True Mind."

There was a sudden hesitation by those around him. The 
freak in the center was uncertain now, Leon could see 
it in his eyes. Before either of them could speak, 
however, a melodious voice rang out from across the 
room.

"I brought him." Called the voice of the woman who'd 
called herself a True Mind. When Leon looked past the 
freaks in front of him, he could see her standing on 
almost the direct opposite side of the room, leaning 
against the wall. The heads of every freak in the room 
jerked around at the sound of her voice. Then something 
weird happened. The moment each of the freaks saw the 
woman, they suddenly bowed their head, casting their 
eyes downward.

The freak in the middle who'd been speaking to him was 
the first to move from that position, lifting his head 
just enough so that he could look up at the woman, 
though his head remained somewhat bowed. "Lord Raeth. 
My apologies. Of course anyone you bring is welcome 
here." Hearing the woman addressed as 'lord' was 
somewhat disconcerting for Leon, but of more importance 
at the moment was the fact that every single person in 
the room seemed afraid of her. Apparently she was even 
more powerful then he'd thought.

"It's alright, Thomas. The rest of you can return to 
what you were doing." The woman said, her beautiful 
voice carrying through the silence with almost 
unnatural clarity. At her words the freaks in the room 
seemed to bow their heads even lower for a second, 
before almost as one their heads raised and they went 
back to whatever had been occupying them before Leon 
had first walked in. The other four that had moved to 
surround him went back to their table, but the freak 
she'd called Thomas remained standing as the woman 
approached the both of them.

"Thomas, I believe you've met Leon here. He's a ki 
wielder." The woman said as she approached the last few 
feet.

Thomas had raised his head at the same time as the 
others, but still his posture seemed to speak a certain 
subservience. "I thought the ki wielders were extinct, 
my lord." Thomas said softly, his eyes fixing on Leon.

"They were." The woman called Raeth replied. "Leon 
appears to have changed that fact."

"So you brought him to join us, sire?" Thomas queried.

"Well, Leon here came to Vegas to find out what all the 
fuss was about, and to be around freaks. I think I can 
generously grant both desires by letting him join the 
hunt." Raeth answered, a hint of a smirk playing at her 
lips. It was starting to bother Leon that he was being 
talked about almost as if he wasn't there, but he 
figured that at the moment he could learn more by 
listening then by talking. "You're going to see Naro 
soon, yes?" Raeth continued.

"Yeah. He called about ten minutes ago, said he had 
information for us. He wanted me to be at his house at 
nine." Thomas told her. If Leon remembered the time 
display in the woman's car correctly, that was in 
around forty-five minutes.

"Good. Take Leon with you. He's a bit new to all this, 
so I want you to explain a little about how things work 
to him during your time together. By the time he gets 
back, I want him up to speed on the situation. His 
particular abilities might be of use to me, 
Understood?" Raeth asked.

"Of course, my lord. It will be as you say." Thomas 
said simply. Without another word, Raeth turned and 
walked away, stopping over at one of the more distant 
tables to talk to the three people who were seated at 
it.

Turning back to face Leon, when Thomas spoke this time 
it was to him. "Sorry about earlier. It's just that 
when we see a freak we don't know, we immediately go on 
guard. You never know who might be an enemy, and you 
can't be too careful."

Leon had never himself been called a freak before, but 
he supposed he didn't mind being grouped with them. 
"Uhm.. It's no problem, I guess." He told the guy, just 
shrugging.

Nodding once, Thomas just watched him for a few seconds 
before replying. "I'd heard the ki wielders way back 
when were pretty powerful, even though their powers 
were fairly different then most freaks'. But the touch 
in you feels pretty weak for some reason. Strange."

"The touch?" Leon asked, feeling fairly confused.

"Oh, sorry." Thomas said, offering an apologetic smile. 
"The void-touch. It's how we identify other freaks for 
what they are."

Almost instantly it occurred to Leon that that must be 
what they called that dark substance coating their 
ki's. He guessed they could see it as easily as he 
could. It was odd though, he'd never seen that 
substance in Max's ki, and he'd never sensed it in his 
own. "Are you sure I have this void-touch thing?" he 
asked softly.

"Oh, the touch is definitely there. It's weak, but it's 
there." Thomas told him, his voice sounding confident 
enough.

"Maybe it's because my powers are so different from 
yours that it feels the way it does." Leon replied. He 
still found it strange that he couldn't see it in his 
own ki though, if it was there. But it was possible 
that the things he saw, and the things Thomas saw, 
weren't quite the same. Close perhaps, but different 
enough that they could each pick up things the other 
couldn't.

"It's possible." Thomas said, looking thoughtful. 
"Anyways, there are a few things I need to do before we 
leave to see Naro. Think you could wait here for me for 
now? Later on I'll introduce you to the rest of the 
team and get you set up, but not until I've had time to 
explain more about what's going on, alright?"

When Leon just offered up another shrug and nod, Thomas 
turned to walk back to the group at the table he'd been 
at before Leon arrived. Leon took a seat in a nearby 
chair, just surveying the room. It was around a fifteen 
minute wait before Thomas finally came striding back 
over, car-keys in hand. "Let's get going." Thomas said 
as he walked past him towards the front door. Leon 
quickly rose to his feet and followed.

A minute later he was sitting in the passenger side of 
a Trans Am as Thomas pulled out of a parking garage 
that was attached to the building. "Before I get 
started, do you have any questions?" Thomas asked in a 
friendly enough tone.

"That woman, the one who calls herself a True Mind. 
Raeth. Why do you call her a lord? Shouldn't it be 
lady, instead? I thought lord was only used when 
referring to a male." Leon said, bringing up the point 
he'd been most curious about.

"All True Minds are referred to as lord." Thomas told 
him evenly. "It's not a male or female thing. Because 
True Minds don't really have a sex. I mean, you should 
understand that while yes, at any given time they might 
have a male or female body. And that yes, that body is 
fully functional when they're using it. It's not truly 
their body." He explained, taking a deep breath before 
going on. 

"The fact is they look however they want to look. They 
can change their bodies, their faces, their voice. They 
can change anything about them that they like. They're 
never truly the things we see them to be. Thus, we 
don't distinguish between male and female True Minds 
because they are both and neither at the same time. 
While True Minds will generally stick with one body for 
an extended period to make themselves more easily 
recognizable, they'll still change it anywhere from 
every few years to every few decades, depending on the 
True Mind in question. Lord Raeth, for example, three 
years ago wore the form of an eleven year-old boy, 
before shifting to the present female form. So it's 
simpler to always address a True Mind as lord despite 
whatever body they may be occupying at the time."

Well, that explained a couple things, at least. 
"Alright, so what is a True Mind, exactly?" Leon asked.

"So far as we're concerned? A True Mind is a god. Most 
of them don't require us to openly acknowledge them as 
one, but a couple do. And the truth is they're powerful 
enough that you could honestly consider them to be 
gods. They're not all-powerful by any means. They're 
not omnipotent or anything. But they are capable of 
truly unbelievable displays of power when they choose, 
and they're virtually immortal. It's possible for the 
True Minds to kill each other, but only once in all of 
recorded history was a True Mind killed by anything 
other then a True Mind." Thomas said.

"So how did that one get killed, then?" Leon prompted.

"It was killed by freaks, or so the legend goes. 
Usually the True Minds are so much more powerful then 
us that we stand no chance.. But the story goes that 
once, more then a thousand years ago two True Minds 
battled each other. One was killed in the fight, and 
the other was left extremely wounded, and near death. 
Given time to heal and recover, the True Mind would've 
eventually been fine. But almost immediately after the 
death of the first True Mind, nearly a hundred freaks 
who'd been in it's service struck at the greatly 
weakened True Mind who'd defeated their master. 

"One hundred freaks battled a True Mind who was already 
near the brink of death, and in it's weakened state 
they were able to defeat it. The surviving freaks 
walked away from the fight, all four of them. One 
hundred went in to fight a weakened enemy, and four 
came out alive. Now I can't say for sure if those 
numbers are true or not, but that's the way the legend 
goes. Anyways, the story then goes on to say that 
within a week of the triumph of those freaks over the 
True Mind, the four survivors were all killed by other 
True Minds, who were unwilling to allow any freak to 
live who'd had a hand in the death of a True Mind." 
Thomas finally finished.

"Sounds like the moral of the story is to discourage 
freaks from ever trying again. Because it seems to be 
basically that you stand next to no chance of killing a 
True Mind, and even if you succeed you're fucked." Leon 
commented.

"The truth is you're probably right. I doubt the legend 
would have continued to be passed on for us to have 
heard it if there wasn't something in it the True Minds 
wanted us to hear. If it had been something they didn't 
want us talking about, they'd have long ago nipped it 
in the bud." Thomas told him.

"And what about human weapons? They're incapable of 
killing a True Mind?" Leon asked

"Well, let's just put it this way. A True Mind has 
previously been caught in a nuclear explosion, and 
survived it. If nuclear weapons aren't sufficient to 
kill them, then none of the other human weapons could 
possibly be enough. Now, they might some day manage to 
invent something that could accomplish it, but as of 
now, no. There's no way for humans to kill them." 
Thomas replied.

Leon was definitely starting to get an idea of why 
every freak in the room had immediately bowed their 
heads when they'd seen the woman. It only took him a 
few seconds to come up with his next question. "That 
True Mind I saw earlier, Raeth. She seemed to know a 
lot about me, about what I was doing here, about who I 
was, without me having ever told her any of it. You 
said that the True Minds aren't omnipotent, so how'd 
she know all that?" it was only after he'd asked the 
question that Leon realized he was still referring to 
Raeth as a she, but he got the impression that was 
going to be a habit he'd have a hard time breaking.

"Well.. This has never actually been confirmed, but a 
lot of freaks believe it to be true. Most of the time 
it seems like the True Minds can pick up a lot of 
information just by looking at you. They get this sort 
of look in their eye, like they're looking through you 
rather then at you. And after they do that they always 
just seem to know. We think they're able to read the 
information straight out of your mind. And if we're 
right, there's no telling if there are any limitations 
on it. It's possible they could be picking up your 
entire life, along with everything that you know. We do 
know for a fact that you can't lie to a True Mind. They 
always know, always. And most of them won't tolerate 
it." Thomas answered.

"How many True Minds are there in the world?" Leon 
questioned.

"I couldn't tell you for sure. But my best estimate? 
Somewhere between thirty and forty." Thomas said, 
offering a little shrug. "Most of them are Dark Minds, 
though."

"Dark Minds?" Leon asked when Thomas didn't elaborate.

"That's what they call themselves. As opposed to Light 
Minds, the other kind. There are maybe half a dozen 
Light Minds in the world, at most. And all of them are 
in hiding, working from obscurity. The rest are all 
Dark Minds. They're supposed to be like good and evil, 
you could say. But I saw a Light Mind in action once, 
years ago. To be honest, I can't see much difference 
between the two types, at least in how they operate. 
But then, with the True Minds, you never know." Thomas 
explained.

Something in what was said struck Leon as odd. Thomas 
only looked nineteen, maybe twenty at the most. Yet 
he'd said he saw the Light Mind years ago. "How old are 
you, exactly?" Leon queried.

"Forty-three." Thomas said, tossing a quick smirk his 
way when he saw the surprise on Leon's face. "You 
didn't know? Freaks age more slowly then humans. How 
much more slowly is different for each of us. For a 
rare few it's barely even noticeable, they'll live 
maybe a few years longer then they would have as 
humans, and that's it. For the rare ones on the other 
extreme, they might live a millennia, perhaps even two, 
before finally dying of old age. As for me? I became a 
freak when I was fifteen. You can judge the difference 
in aging for yourself." Thomas told him.

"And you're from Vegas?" Leon asked after a moment's 
thought.

"Actually, no, I'm from Michigan. The US is sort of 
divided between five Dark Minds who generally stick to 
certain regions. They're not territorial about it when 
it comes to other Dark Minds, but they generally take 
care of their own regions without branching into others 
much. Lord Raeth controls most of the north central 
states. Michigan is pretty much the eastern border. 
When the hunt for the Shadow Mind began, Lord Raeth 
gathered the strongest freaks from the region to come 
to Vegas to assist in the hunt." Thomas answered.

"So what is this Shadow Mind that everyone's supposed 
to be hunting, anyways? Is it anything like the True 
Minds?" Leon pondered aloud.

"Kind of." Thomas started, pausing to think for a 
little before going on. "It's a third kind of True 
Mind, but it's not like the others. Dark Minds and 
Light Minds are essentially the same except for 
methodology. Shadow Minds are unnatural. They're True 
Minds who are directly linked to what's called the 
Shadowlands. Such a link isn't meant to exist in this 
world, and while it continues to exist it begins to 
weaken the borders between this world and the 
Shadowlands wherever the Shadow Mind happens to be at 
any given time. For this reason, whenever a Shadow Mind 
comes into existence, the rest of the True Minds hunt 
them, to prevent holes from eventually opening between 
this world and that one."

"So what are the True Minds, exactly? I mean, how do 
they come to be what they are? How do the Shadow Minds 
come to be? I mean, are they all born that way? Or did 
they all just figure out how to access some kind of 
higher power, or what?" Leon asked.

"I honestly couldn't tell you. There are a lot of 
theories out there, and no way to be sure one way or 
another. If you ask a True Mind, the best you can hope 
for is that they'll laugh in your face. At worst, if 
you annoy them, it's usually unpleasant." Thomas said, 
offering a slight grimace. "The only thing I can tell 
you is that I've heard there's supposed to be a way a 
freak can potentially become a Shadow Mind, but it 
involves dying. As for whether or not a freak could 
somehow become a normal True Mind, without the aid of a 
link to the Shadowlands? I don't know. And if there's 
anyone out there aside from the True Minds who does 
know, I doubt they'd tell you."

Leon just nodded once. He had to think awhile before he 
came up with his next question. "So if the True Minds 
are so powerful, why haven't they found this Shadow 
Mind yet?"

"Because the Shadow Mind is able to mask it's presence 
from the others. In actuality, a Shadow Mind is 
supposed to be more powerful then a normal True Mind. 
That's why we have so many here for the hunt. There are 
four Dark Minds in Las Vegas alone. Another five are 
hunting in the surrounding area and cities. I couldn't 
even tell you how many freaks are involved in the hunt. 
There's at least a hundred, easy. Maybe even two. And 
some of those are on the other side, because the Shadow 
Mind has followers too." Thomas told him.

"So why the hell is the Shadow Mind in Las Vegas, 
anyways? And how do the True Minds even know he's 
around here, if he can mask his presence from them?" 
Leon prompted.

"Because the Shadow Mind is hunting someone. A freak. 
The True Minds won't say why. We just know that they 
have evidence that points to that freak being in Las 
Vegas. So they think the Shadow Mind is too, or at 
least that it's close by. Whoever this freak is, the 
True Minds don't want the Shadow Mind getting it's 
hands on him. We have a picture of the freak in 
question, you can see it after we get back." Thomas 
said.

"So, we're hunting someone who's hunting someone, then, 
huh?" Leon remarked.

"Yeah, pretty much." Thomas responded, grinning wryly.

"So all the True Minds in this hunt have a set of 
freaks working for them? Like your group is working for 
Raeth?" Leon asked.

"All but one that I know of. And you shouldn't forget, 
you're part of the group working for Lord Raeth now 
too. There's no chance you're going to be let go before 
the hunt is over." Thomas told him.

Leon just nodded, he'd expected as much. "You mentioned 
that you thought the ki wielders were extinct. How much 
exactly do you know about the ki wielders from when 
they were still around?"

"Not much." Thomas said, shrugging. "They became 
extinct long before I was even born. All I know is a 
few things I heard. Most of it was about how they..." 
There was a sudden hesitation as Thomas glanced over at 
him, before finally finishing with. "Died."

"And how did they die, exactly?" Leon pressed, suddenly 
quite curious.

There was another hesitation, but finally Thomas 
answered with. "They were hunted into extinction."

Leon felt himself go cold. "Hunted by who?"

"Freaks, not the True Minds. You have to understand, 
freaks tolerate having to serve the True Minds because 
we really have no other choice. And most will even 
tolerate having to live under the rule of another freak 
if that freak holds sufficient power in a certain city 
or area. But they really don't like being controlled by 
other freaks. And way back when, ki wielders had 
figured out ways to use their powers to influence and 
manipulate the freaks around them." Thomas said softly. 
"Finally the freaks got so tired of being controlled 
and used by the ki wielders that they turned against 
them. They hunted them down and they eradicated them. 
So long as you make sure you don't use your powers to 
try to manipulate the minds of other freaks, though, 
hopefully you'll be able to avoid such a fate."

"That makes me feel a lot better." Leon said, his 
sarcasm clear in his tone.

"Hey, you asked." Thomas told him, shrugging again.

"So who's this guy we're going to see? You said his 
name was Naro, right?" Leon asked.

"He's a local. A freak who lives in Vegas. As I said 
earlier, he called shortly before you arrived and said 
he had information, information he only wanted to offer 
in person. He lives out in the suburbs, we should get 
there with a few minutes to spare before nine." Thomas 
replied.

"Any idea what the information could be?" Leon queried.

"None whatsoever." Thomas responded. "If it was the 
location of the Shadow Mind or of the freak it's 
hunting, I doubt Naro would've set it up this way. If 
he was concerned about how secure the phone line might 
be, he'd probably have just come to us, as it would've 
been quicker. I couldn't tell you what might be 
important enough to draw us out there but not important 
enough for him to make the trip instead."

Leon just nodded and fell silent after that, watching 
the road ahead.

***

Just as Thomas had predicted, it was a few minutes 
before nine when they pulled into the driveway of an 
ordinary house in a middle-class neighborhood. It 
looked like most every other house on the street, and 
Leon wasn't sure he'd be able to pick it out again were 
he try to come back alone unless he had the address 
written down. Thomas just glanced over at him one last 
time as Leon was opening the door. "When we get in 
there, I'm going need to talk to Naro alone for a few 
minutes, given that he doesn't know you. Just wait in 
the living room for a bit, and hopefully it shouldn't 
be long, alright?"

"You're the expert." Leon answered, offering a shrug 
before climbing from the car. The door opened on the 
driver's side just as Leon was closing the passenger 
side, and Thomas climbed out without another word. 
Shutting the car door, he started walking down the rest 
of the driveway, and Leon fell in behind him. It was 
only a short trip to the front door where they paused 
as Thomas pressed the button to ring the doorbell.

The guy must've been waiting for them, as it only took 
maybe five seconds before they could hear the lock 
turning. The door opened smoothly, but it was only as 
Leon was following Thomas inside the house that he 
finally got a look at the person they'd come to meet. 
It was a tall guy, somewhere in his thirties, Leon 
would've guessed. But then immediately it occurred to 
him to re-think that. 

From what he'd learned recently, though the guy looked 
like he was in his thirties, given that he was a freak 
there was really no telling how old he might be. The 
guy definitely had the dark coating to his ki that 
meant freak. In fact with him it seemed to be even 
slightly more stark and clear then with the others.

The moment that they were inside and the door was 
closed behind them, Naro immediately gave Leon the once 
over, glancing him up and down. "Let's talk in back." 
He finally said to Thomas, turning away from Leon 
altogether. As Naro started to walk down a hallway, 
Thomas gave Leon a quick nod before turning to follow. 
The front door itself had led into a living room of 
sorts, so Leon assumed this was where he was supposed 
to be hanging around while the other two talked. He saw 
them vanish through a doorway near the end of the hall.

It was only a few seconds after they were gone that he 
noticed it. He had to actually pay attention to the 
surrounding area to see it, which he hadn't been for 
the short time the other two had been there. There was 
something subtly off about the energy in the 
surrounding room. It was wrong somehow. And the more he 
focused on it the clearer it became to him. It was like 
the smell of burnt ozone, like the feel of something 
that had been singed by flames, scorched on the surface 
but no deeper. He'd never felt anything like it before. 
Never even begun to imagine that there was something 
that could do that to the energy of a place.

He'd just begun to contemplate how it could've happened 
when he noticed a spot on the far side of the room 
where the scorched-effect on the energy seemed to run 
slightly deeper. It was concentrated around a door that 
looked like the sort to open into a closet of some 
kind. After only a second's hesitation he strode over 
to it, starting to get a queasy sensation in his 
stomach just from the feel of the energy around him. 
Carefully he grasped the doorknob and opened it. He'd 
been right, beyond was a small closet, but it was what 
was in that closet that was important.

Set in a sitting position against the far wall of the 
closet was a body. The energy around the corpse was the 
worst of all. Leon could barely even stand to look at 
it. But whereas his energy-sense couldn't stand to make 
contact with the spot, his eyes had already seen 
enough. The face on the body was unmarred by injury. It 
was the face he'd seen on the man just a moment before, 
the man who'd opened the door of the house. Naro's 
face. And just like that Leon had turned and darted out 
of the closet, taking off at full speed down the hall 
towards the room he'd seen them vanish into.

The door was closed, but he quickly flung it open, just 
in time to witness Thomas collapse to the floor. He 
could instantly tell from the energy that Thomas was 
dead, but worse it too seemed to have a deeply scorched 
feel to it, so he was only able to make contact for a 
second. Turning to face him, the man that was standing 
in front of the corpse, the man who was supposed to 
have been Naro, smiled at Leon. And then suddenly the 
man's face was changing. Not just the face, but the 
entire body, even the clothes he was wearing. 

It wasn't like Leon could see the flesh shifting, but 
more like there was a sudden distortion of his vision 
where the man was standing. For a couple seconds he 
could see that the person in his vision was changing, 
but he couldn't see clearly enough to tell how, or into 
what. After only those couple seconds though his vision 
suddenly cleared, and he found himself staring at a 
boy.

They were around the same height, and the boy looked 
maybe a year or two younger then him, for whatever the 
appearance of a certain age was worth anymore. The boy 
was platinum blonde, with a well-structured face and 
deep blue eyes. The awful thing though, was his aura. 
The feel of the ki coated with the dark substance that 
he'd always sensed in freaks, and that he'd sensed in 
the boy when he'd been using Naro's form, was gone now. 

What he sensed now was something far more similar to 
what he'd sensed from Raeth earlier. It was almost the 
same nothingness, but not quite. Because while he still 
couldn't sense any ki where the boy himself was, he 
could sense changes in the surrounding energy. It was 
like there was something emanating from where the boy 
was standing into all the energy surrounding him. Leon 
couldn't feel the thing itself, only the effect it was 
having on the energy of the room around the boy. It was 
the smell of burnt ozone, the feel of something 
scorched on the surface. Whatever it was, it was coming 
from the boy. There was no other explanation.

The boy just looked at Leon for a couple seconds before 
suddenly smiling as he began to walk towards him. "A ki 
wielder. What a pleasant surprise." The boy said with 
something like amusement in his voice.

At that moment Leon knew he had to be facing what 
Thomas had referred to as the Shadow Mind. The feel of 
a True Mind, but one who's very existence seemed to be 
causing something wrong to happen to the world around 
it. It fit perfectly. And in that moment Leon wasn't 
sure whether to run or kneel.

"So you know who I am. Good, that'll make things 
easier." The boy said as he continued his approach, 
seeming to pluck the thoughts right out of Leon's head. 
"And not running is the correct decision. If you were 
to decide to make a break for the door, you'd be toast 
before you could even move an inch."

"Why'd you kill Thomas?" Leon asked softly.

"Why do you think?" the boy shot back, wearing a look 
that said he was surprised Leon was even asking. "He 
was working for my enemies. And I don't take prisoners. 
I either convert or destroy, and I didn't consider him 
worth the effort to try converting."

"So you must consider me worth converting then. 
Otherwise, I have to expect that I'd already be dead, 
too." Leon replied evenly.

"Now you're catching on." The boy said, flashing him a 
winning grin. "But I wouldn't really consider it a 
conversion, mind you. After all, you weren't really 
working for them yet. You just got caught in a bad 
position tonight. And now you're going to have a chance 
to make a much better choice of who to serve."

"So I'm actually going to have a choice in the matter?" 
Leon asked hesitantly, raising an eyebrow.

"Not exactly." The boy told him, still grinning. "But 
this isn't the right place to be having this talk. 
Here, let me show you something." And the next thing 
Leon knew, the boy was beside him with one hand on his 
arm. And suddenly the world around him twisted. There 
was a sudden strong disorientation and a surge of 
nausea deep in his stomach. For one second it felt like 
the whole world had gone out of focus and Leon was 
floating through empty space, and then just as soon as 
the sensations had come they were gone, only he wasn't 
in the same place he'd been just a short time before.

The room he was in now was illuminated by a few red-
tinted lights along the ceiling. The floor beneath him 
was no longer the carpet of the house, but was instead 
made of some kind of strange metal. The walls were made 
of the same. There was no furniture in the room, but a 
door in front of him was standing wide open. Almost 
instantly Leon was nauseous again, though. 

The feel of the energy in this place was so unnatural 
that it made Leon sick just to sense it. He wasn't sure 
how long he'd be able to face it without throwing up. 
Suddenly, the boy beside him released his arm and took 
a step around in front of him. The next thing Leon knew 
the boy's fingers were on his forehead, and just like 
that the nauseous feeling was gone. Only immediately 
afterwards Leon discovered, to his horror, that it was 
because he could no longer sense energy at all.

"Don't worry, it's only temporary, to keep you composed 
while you're here. I don't enjoy messes, after all." 
The boy told him, before his fingers lifted away from 
Leon's forehead to gesture towards the doorway. "After 
you."

With the boy's stare urging him on, Leon strode through 
the open doorway. He found himself in a large, 
luxurious room. It almost looked like a huge living 
room of sorts, except for the metal walls and floor. 
There were expensive couches and sofas, ornate chairs, 
a high-end stereo system. Even a huge TV at one end of 
the room, with stacks of DVD boxes and a few game-
systems littered around it. What caught Leon's 
attention though were the people lounging around. 

Sitting next to each other on a couch not far from the 
TV were a rather pretty girl who looked to be in her 
late teens, wearing a tight-fitting red outfit that 
matched her long red hair, and a somber looking guy 
with brownish hair who seemed to be in his mid-
thirties, wearing a dark suit and gold-rimmed glasses. 
Across the room, laying back in a reclining chair with 
his eyes closed was a boy who looked maybe sixteen or 
seventeen, with short black hair and a peaceful 
expression. Probably asleep.

"Lord Thade!" the girl exclaimed as she looked behind 
Leon at the boy who was entering the room, immediately 
moving from her relaxed position on the couch to sit up 
straight. Across the room the teenage guy in the 
chair's eyes snapped open at the sound of the girl's 
voice, his head immediately turning to find the boy 
beside Leon as well. At least now he knew what the 
blonde boy was supposed to be called.

"Ashley." Thade said, addressing the girl, and at the 
same time holding one hand out. Immediately the girl 
was on her feet, reaching into her pocket to pull out 
what looked like a simple gold ring. Quickly she walked 
over to lay the ring on the boy's open palm. "Good 
work." Thade said, smiling as his fingers closed around 
the ring. When he opened his hand again, it was gone. 
"You can relax for awhile."

Bowing her head slightly, the red-haired girl named 
Ashley turned to walk back towards the couch she'd been 
on. Thade just beckoned to Leon once before beginning 
to walk across the room, in the direction of a door on 
the opposite side. Leon took it as a sign that he was 
supposed to follow, and so he fell in behind him. As 
they walked Thade glanced over at the boy who was 
sitting in the reclining chair. "Seth. With me." He 
said shortly, and immediately the boy was rising to his 
feet, moving over to join them as they approached the 
door.

Thade didn't even need to touch the door, it swung open 
when he was still ten or so feet away from it. Without 
hesitation he passed into the next room, though Seth 
held back, watching Leon until he stepped through as 
well. The room beyond was hard to place for a moment, 
before Leon finally decided it looked like a weird 
office of sorts. There were no desks, no filing 
cabinets, nothing that gave off the impression of a 
place where work was done. But there was a short table, 
with a chair on one side of it, a chair on either end, 
and then a long couch on the far side. 

Hearing the click of the door, Leon glanced back just 
long enough to see that Seth had followed him in and 
shut it behind him, and by the time he looked back 
Thade was occupying the chair opposite the couch. 
Meeting Leon's eyes, Thade gestured him towards the 
couch, and so with a deep breath Leon walked over and 
took a seat as directed. Without needing direction, 
Seth strode over and dropped into the chair at the end 
of the table to Leon's left.

For several seconds Thade just stared across the table 
at him, before finally smiling. "Sorry, forgot to 
introduce you. This is Seth, my right hand. You might 
get a chance to meet Alex, my left hand, at a later 
time. If you should... Pass your interview. Any 
questions?"

After that it didn't take much to figure out the 
seating arrangements. Seth was positioned to Leon's 
left, which just happened to be Thade's right. And the 
seat on Thade's left was conveniently empty. "What is 
this place?" Leon finally asked.

"That's not your concern. I'll just say it rests 
between your world and the Shadowlands, although far 
closer to your world, and leave it at that." Thade told 
him.

After that Leon drew a blank, he couldn't think of 
anything else to ask, and Thade seemed to sense it, 
because once more the blonde boy smiled. "Beyond that 
door." Thade said, pointing to the wall behind Leon, to 
the right of where they'd first entered the room. 

"Is a place of torture, for both humans and freaks. It 
has most every device of pain that you can imagine. 
It's also where the humans I keep in this place reside 
when they're not being used. I don't however make them 
suffer through the devices except when they've been 
bad. They'd lose their minds from the pain if they were 
left in the devices constantly, which is a delightful 
idea by itself, but I'm getting off topic. We wouldn't 
want you to be bored during your interview, so hold on 
a minute while I summon you up a little entertainment."

Thade's eyes seemed to focus on a point in the distance 
for just a few seconds before returning to Leon. 
Nothing was said though, so Leon just waited, until 
half a minute later he suddenly heard the door behind 
him open. Swiftly glancing back, he saw a girl walk 
into the room. A very naked girl. She was maybe 
fourteen, fifteen at most, with brown eyes and light 
brown hair that went down to her mid-back. Her breasts 
were on the smallish side, but she was still extremely 
cute. Leon found his eyes almost immediately drawn to 
her pussy, which had been shaved completely bare. His 
eyes flickered up though when the door suddenly swung 
shut behind the girl without anyone even touching it.

"You called, master?" the girl asked, her voice both 
scared and worried as she stared at Thade. She was 
literally trembling, Leon could see it as he looked at 
her.

"I did indeed. Leon, this is Erin. Up until a couple 
days ago, Erin was your average teenage schoolgirl, 
worried mostly about boys, parties, and her looks. Then 
she got brought here, and learned that there are far 
better things to worry about. At first, Erin was 
convinced she was in hell. That she'd died and been 
sent here, and that I was the devil. She's gained a 
little more sense since then, but it's not like it 
helps her. Does it Erin?" Thade asked, smirking.

"No, master." The girl said quietly, bowing her head.

"Erin, this is Leon. We're going to let him sample you 
a bit while he and I talk. So get on the couch and 
start blowing him until you're told you can stop." 
Thade commanded the frightened girl.

The girl didn't say another word, she just walked over 
and sat down on the couch beside Leon. As he watched 
with wide eyes, the girl leaned in and with shaking 
hands slowly undid his pants. In a matter of seconds 
she had them open and his cock out, and almost 
immediately her head tilted in to capture his flaccid 
dick between her lips. For a second Leon actually had 
the impulse to object. Because he wasn't entirely sure 
he could enjoy the experience when he still wasn't even 
sure he himself was going to survive the whole ordeal. 
But then, as he thought about it, it suddenly occurred 
to him that if there was a chance he might wind up 
dying, there was no better way to spend his final 
moments.

As the girl's lively tongue went to work along the head 
of his cock, he could feel himself starting to stiffen 
in her warm wet mouth. Within twenty seconds he was 
completely hard, the girl's lips just locked around the 
head of his dick now, her tongue lapping at it as if it 
were a popsicle. Though his cock was about seven inches 
long and two inches thick, it somehow seemed even 
bigger by contrast with the young girl's mouth. Just as 
he was starting to really enjoy the feel of her mouth 
around his stick, Thade resumed talking. "Now that 
we've got the entertainment in gear, it's time for the 
interview." He said, a smirk on his face.

"Uhm... So how does this interview go?" Leon murmured, 
his words interrupted by his own soft gasps now and 
again as the girl began to bob her head up and down, 
sliding about half the length of his stiff rod between 
her lips before pulling back up until just the head 
remained inside her mouth, her tongue sliding against 
the underside of his shaft all the while.

"Quite simply, I give you another chance to ask more 
questions. Which you have to think of on the spur of 
the moment, while.. Distracted." Thade said, the smirk 
widening. "Which questions you come up with to ask 
determines whether you pass."

"And the questions I ask.. You'll answer them?" Leon 
murmured, trying to buy time more then anything else, 
as he was having a hard time thinking at the moment. 
His eyes kept glancing down to take in the sight of the 
young girl's lips sliding up and down along his cock. 
The distraction only became stronger when she wrapped 
her fingers around the base of his dick and began to 
stroke him in time with the bobbing of her head.

"I might, I might not. We'll have to see what the 
questions are, first. But you better start asking them 
soon." Thade told him.

"I was told you're hunting someone. A freak. Why?" Leon 
asked, the question finally coming to him. Almost the 
instant he finished asking it he suddenly felt the 
girl's tongue swirl around the head of his cock, her 
hand continuing to pump smoothly back and forth along 
the base of his shaft. Given that she was supposed to 
be distracting him and making it hard to think of 
questions, she was doing a damn good job of it.

"Because of a legend. A legend about the only items 
capable of making someone into the type of freak this 
boy is. Items that have been destroyed before but 
always come back, which means that this boy carries 
them. A set of books. So the legend goes, that once the 
boy has completed reading those books, he will then 
produce a final book, one that will turn it's holder 
into a god. If I can find the boy, and keep him alive 
and protected until the books are completed, then that 
final book will be mine." Thade replied.

"How do you even know he's in this city?" Leon asked, 
not able to think of much more then to follow up on the 
previous question. Erin had lifted her head for a 
moment, her eyes fixed on his cock as her hand slid 
smoothly up and down the full length of his hard shaft. 
Every now and then on one of her hand's downstrokes her 
head would dart in and she'd deliver a swift lick to 
the head of his cock.

"It's because of the type of freak the books have made 
him. It's what gives him away. He leaves a trail of 
bodies wherever he goes. So long as you have the right 
connections to catch the necessary information, it's 
not hard to find out where he's traveling at any given 
point in time. The problem is he's usually only in a 
particular city for a day or two before he's gone 
again, and we find out only in time to know the general 
area he was last in, and not in time to catch him. But 
he's been in this city for almost a week now. And we're 
going to find him." Thade said, the last sentence 
sounding somewhat sharp.

Leon had the impulse to ask what made Thade think his 
own servants might not try to steal the final book he'd 
mentioned, when it came around, but he thought better 
of it at the last moment. After all, he might soon wind 
up becoming one of those servants himself, and it 
wouldn't exactly be a good idea to get the guy paranoid 
against the servants for no reason. 

Erin's hand was speeding up in it's pumping of his 
cock, her grip firm but not overly so as her palm slid 
smoothly back and forth along his stiff rod, her tongue 
teasing the head. Not only was that making it harder to 
think, but Thade's steady stare was mixing a lot of 
nervousness in with the pleasure, and that just 
complicated things even more. So he finally spoke the 
only halfway decent question he was able to come up 
with. "Why was I worth converting when Thomas wasn't?"

"As a ki wielder you have a very unique set of powers 
that I can't get in any other freak. I mean, there are 
powers that are rare among freaks, but if necessary 
it's still possible if you lose someone with such a 
power to find a freak to replace them. However, to my 
knowledge there is only one ki wielder around, namely 
you. Which makes you quite a valuable commodity. You 
offer a few abilities that no one else can. Also, the 
way you see things, your perspective of energies, is 
uniquely useful. 

"The freak we're hunting has discovered a way to shield 
his void-touch so that other freaks can't sense it. 
However, I believe you might well be able to see 
through that if you were to come across him," Thade 
explained. "But of course, the downside is that if I 
decide that I don't think I can use you, well, I can't 
exactly let any of the others have you either."

"If you decided you couldn't use me, would you honestly 
let me go, even if I wasn't quite so valuable to the 
others?" Leon questioned. Erin had finally taken the 
head of his cock back between her lips, and was just 
softly sucking on it as her hand pumped smoothly back 
and forth along the full length of his shaft, her 
tongue having let up on the teasing for now.

Thade just grinned at him for a few seconds before 
finally speaking. "No, I wouldn't."

"So, what about when you find the book and become a 
god? What happens after that?" Leon questioned. Erin 
had just started to bob her head again when Thade 
suddenly looked at her back, barely visible above the 
edge of the table. Instantly Erin froze, and then her 
head suddenly jerked up off his cock, her hand 
releasing just as quickly. As Thade's attention shifted 
back to him, Leon felt a sudden sharp spike of worry.

"What happens after that is that I kill every single 
True Mind on the face of the planet. And after that, I 
reign over the whole of the world, humans and freaks 
both. Of course, I'll have people ruling under me. 
After all, you still need provincial rulers to handle 
day-to-day issues. And there'll be plenty of other 
positions of power available on top of those. The 
freaks who serve me now will be first in line to gain 
power then. The more valuable the freak proves to be 
now, the more likely they are to be rewarded later. 
Which includes you." Thade said, suddenly grinning once 
more. "Because I've decided to allow you to join those 
who serve me."

Leon felt the spike of worry suddenly ease, relief 
rushing through in it's place. "So.. Now I'm in your 
service?" he asked, not quite sure how this sort of 
thing was supposed to work.

"Not quite. I usually allow my servant's to address me 
as Lord or some other respectful title, but when 
someone first joins me, they have to recognize me as 
and call me Master. Only then will you be in my 
service." Thade told him steadily.

Leon just took a deep breath. Given that his choice was 
between this and death, it was a very easy decision. 
"As you say, Master."

Thade just smiled and nodded. "Very good. Now, as your 
first reward, why don't you go ahead and fuck Erin here 
while Seth and I talk? Don't worry, you can use the 
couch, we'll talk elsewhere." Thade said, smoothly 
rising from his chair. Almost instantly Seth rose as 
well, waiting for Thade to turn and begin walking 
towards the door behind him before falling in. A few 
seconds later they'd vanished into another room and the 
door had shut behind them.

By the time Leon shifted his attention to Erin, the 
girl had laid back with her head on the armrest, her 
legs slightly spread, a nervous expression on her face. 
"Scared?" He asked softly as he turned towards her on 
the couch, still hard as a rock from the blowjob she'd 
given him. She just nodded slightly as he moved in a 
little closer. "Good." He said, before smiling a bit. 
"But don't worry, I'm not in the mood to hurt you. Just 
relax." He murmured as he reached in with one hand, 
running the tip of his middle finger lightly over the 
lips of her pussy. A hint of wetness, just enough for 
him to decide that what saliva of hers remained on his 
cock was sufficient extra lubricant.

Reaching down to grasp the base of his cock, he simply 
locked eyes with her as he moved in over her, guiding 
his hard staff in until he felt the head brush against 
the lips of her cunt. It only took a couple seconds for 
him to position the head of his cock against her hole, 
and then with one sharp motion he shoved forwards. 

He could see her eyes widen fractionally as her pussy 
stretched open, first the head and then inch after inch 
of the shaft beginning to slide into her. In a matter 
of seconds he was buried to the hilt inside her, his 
eyes finally separating from hers to glance down to the 
point where his stiff rod vanished inside her. She was 
fairly tight, and he was already pretty horny from the 
earlier stimulation. Without hesitation he began to 
slam his hips back and forth, not building into the 
speed but just pounding his hard cock in and out of her 
in long fast strokes right from the start.

Erin just closed her eyes, soft gasps emitting from her 
here and there as Leon drilled his hard dick back and 
forth inside her. Her hot young pussy was wrapped 
snuggly around his cock, and for once Leon was glad 
that his energy-sense was blocked off. Usually it was 
somewhat distracting, even during sex, but now he could 
focus entirely on the pleasurable feel of her tight 
cunt.

Leon kept his eyes fixed on the sight of his stick 
vanishing smoothly into her hole, enjoying the feel of 
her velvety teen cunt enveloping his hard cock as he 
slid it inside her to the hilt, only to pull it almost 
all the way out until just the head remained inside, 
before slamming it back in. In less then a minute the 
distinct glisten of her juices became visible along his 
shaft with every outstroke, so the girl was enjoying it 
at least a little.

He could feel his balls slapping against her ass with 
every stroke of his stiff dick deep inside her, his 
hips working almost as fast as they were able. When he 
next glanced back up he saw that Erin had tilted her 
head back a bit against the armrest, her body 
glistening with a light sheen of sweat as he fucked her 
at a ferocious pace. 

Slowing his pace for just a moment, he tilted his head 
in and let his teeth graze against the soft flesh of 
her exposed throat. He felt her body suddenly stiffen 
the moment his teeth made contact, but then she relaxed 
after a few seconds when she realized he wasn't going 
to bite. Delivering a quick lick to her throat, he 
lifted his head away, finding her eyes wide open and 
watching him now. With a little smile, he swiftly 
picked the pace of his fucking back up to max.

It took only about a minute more before his pleasure 
quickly started to build. With a soft grunt, Leon felt 
his cock jerk inside the young girl, jet after jet of 
his hot cum spraying into her tight teen pussy. The 
thrusting of his hips swiftly grew erratic as he pumped 
more and more of his cum into her, until he finally 
began to calm. With a long exhalation of breath, Leon 
slowly drew his softening cock out of the girl's hole. 
Before he could think of what to do next, though, the 
door Thade and Seth had gone through opened once more.

With precise steps Thade strode back into the room, 
though Seth seemed absent this time. Once more the door 
swung shut behind Thade without anyone even touching 
it. Almost immediately the boy's eyes seemed to focus 
through the table itself and onto Erin, and the girl 
suddenly jerked as if she'd been shot. Instantly she 
was scrambling to her feet, not even looking back at 
him before fleeing the room back through the door she'd 
come through earlier. When Leon glanced back next, 
Thade was smiling. The boy walked purposefully over to 
the table between them.

As Leon quickly scrambled to stuff his cock back into 
his boxers and get his pants closed, the boy reached 
into his pockets and extracted two items, which he laid 
on the table. A cell phone, and a sheet of paper. "The 
phone is to be used for business only." Thade said 
smoothly as he dropped into his chair. 

"On the paper are my current number and the address 
where I want you to start searching. Memorize them 
both, because that paper does not leave this room. In 
the lounge you first came through is a picture of the 
boy we seek, make sure you look at it before you leave. 
Should you find him, call me immediately. Do not, and I 
repeat this just to make sure it's clear, do not 
approach him. Because if you do, and he doesn't kill 
you, then I will. 

"Just call me, inform me of the situation, and I'll 
deal with him myself. Should you run into anything else 
of great importance, you can call me to let me know. 
Other then that, do not use that phone. If it isn't 
important enough that my immediate attention is 
required, then you had better not bother me with it 
until next we meet in person. Am I clear so far?"

"Yes, sir." Leon replied, bowing his head ever so 
slightly.

"Good. You are to search until dawn. The address is a 
place I got from the mind of the one named Naro. He 
received information implying the boy might be in that 
area tonight, but he didn't get a specific location, so 
look anywhere you think you might find him. If by the 
time the sun rises you're still empty-handed, you will 
break off the search at that point and return here. 

"I'm going to establish a minor link with you in a few 
moments. Because of the nature of your powers, it won't 
increase your strength much the way it does the others, 
but it will still be sufficient to let you sense the 
entrances to this place. They shift every few hours, so 
you'll need to rely on those senses to find your way 
back. 

"Once you've returned to this place, you are to wait 
here until you get further orders. When I create the 
link I'll make sure to effect a change so that the 
dulling of your ability to sense energy occurs every 
time you come here, that way you don't need to worry 
about suffering during the wait. You are not to take 
orders from anyone other then myself, Seth, or Alex, 
for now. When you get new orders you'll also get my new 
phone number. I change cells every day or two, so it's 
important that you memorize each new number when you 
get it, because the old number will be worthless 
afterwards. Is all of that understood?" Thade asked, 
watching him with a sharp look.

"Yes, sir." Leon repeated in a soft voice.

"Excellent." Thade told him, a twisted grin on his 
face.

***

(And so ends Part 1 of the story. To be continued in 
Part 2, which will serve as Alex's tale. How will the 
brewing battle between freaks and True Minds turn out? 
Will the True Minds find Thade first, or will Thade 
manage to find Zane? Or, perhaps, is it possible that 
Zane might manage to complete the books before being 
found by either faction? If you want to find out, stay 
tuned.)

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This story was written as an adult fantasy. The author
does not condone the described behavior in real life.

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Kristen's collection - Directory 44