Kjootoo started to speak, and I held up my finger for a moment and shook my head. I needed to think. “Please excuse me,” I added, realizing that was probably disrespectful.

The unbelievable luck of Kjootoo’s survival. The fact that the Cartel had chosen the perfect girl that would take me to Kjootoo instead of them, and that was perfectly suited to become my slave. The fact that I would be perfectly in place to notice and react to Caelo’s ability to modify her own mind to communicate with me, and was an incredibly potent, potential S-class meta with what might be the very first true psychic gift ever discovered.

The choice of using Antonia as my officer, and the need to have Baldwin, a guy who was perfectly capable of explaining and helping me deal with the powerful girls that stumbled into my life, as her mentor. Was Callie’s new boyfriend a part of it? Things would have fallen very differently if I had a chance with her. And now, after Alison mentioned Akiko’s potential role to play, Sif, and Akiko’s clan problems, it felt more and more like the dice that were rolled with my life were weighted.

Would Sif miraculously fall into place? Would Akiko? Most importantly, was that why Alison hadn’t wanted me to scan her, would knowing her ability’s potential alter the way I reacted and affect my chances?

I sighed. They very well may have. Even if Alison was stacking the deck in my favor, after all that happened and the sheer work I had to put in, I would just look the other way and ignore it. It wouldn’t happen if I put in the work, but even yesterday I might not have had this attitude if I hadn’t figured it out on my own.

Alison might not be as much of a bitch as Lauren, but she was even more manipulative. Behind that unassuming exterior, submissive demeanor, and those coke-bottle lenses lurked a mind that could give Moriarty a run for his money. I was more determined than ever to scan her when I got back, will her or nil her, but I wondered if she would just let me, now that I had figured out her secret?

My phone tweedled with a message, and I checked it, knowing exactly who it would be from. Yep. It was from Alison. When I checked the message, it contained a single word, yes.

I sighed and turned back to Kjootoo, “My most sincere apologies, sir. I had a sudden life-changing epiphany and needed to work it out.”

He chuckled, “Is it something you can share?”

“In a moment. Umm… Caelo mentioned that perhaps I had an opportunity to assist Maximum, or her clan, and you might be the broker for that deal?”

He nodded, “Right. Yes, actually. Very good thinking on her part. I can try to make the deal, but can you wait a day or two while I get in touch with them and figure out what I can and cannot do?”

I smiled, “Yes, of course. I won’t waste any more of your time.”

He chuckled, “At the risk of sounding like I am courting you, you are never a waste of time, boy. If we are done, what was your marvelous thought? Can you tell me?”

I nodded, “Yes, actually. You don’t owe me a damned thing. I was in the right place at the right time, to have the luck to save you from your fate, because of a single young woman. I cannot tell you her name right now, but you owe her a debt, not me.”

He raised his eyebrow, “Should I try to repay her? I do not like having such debts hanging over my head.”

I shook my head and growled, “Nope, because she also was responsible for the situation that caused it in the first place. I can’t punish her, and I can’t really reward her either. But there is one thing I can do.”

He sighed, “Kill her?”

I shook my head, “Fuck her brains out.”

Okay, I was being a bit overconfident, as I wasn’t really the sort to take a girl without warning, although all things considered, would it really be that? She probably knew that I was getting antsy and would hold her responsible, she had to know I was coming for her and intended to make sure she came for me, so if I just grabbed her and took her, her abilities would not only have told her in advance but there would have been some sort of lucky break that ensured it couldn’t happen unless she allowed it. Would it really be involuntary? Or was I even considering it because her powers let her do it, and in a very real way, I would be the one that was being taken involuntarily because her powers manipulated me into it?

Man, I was sometimes smart, but this made my head hurt. That was twice, that a single word, yes, was enough to send my thinking spinning. I was willing to even bet that it was intentional.

I made my farewells to Tino, Caelo, and Kjootoo and had Lauren build us a bridge back to Virginia.

I was in a weird place. In general, I had a pretty good idea of how people would act under any particular circumstances. That’s why I would have won my not-bet with Baldwin about Antonia. She was of a type I had encountered a thousand times, what I liked to call good-cop-girl.

But I kept running into odder types, ones that I was not as familiar with. Baldwin knew a lot better than I did how to handle them, just like he understood that tweaking Antonia would have destroyed her when I didn’t. The problem is, I had no idea how to handle Alison. Her abilities, and her intelligence, were far past my own. I couldn’t just order her around. What would Baldwin say?

Hmm. Yes she was a sub, but she wasn’t afraid of making decisions. She wanted to be loved and protected, and shielded, but not overly smothered. She probably liked being ordered, but she’d want her own say in how those orders were carried out unless there was a good reason to follow blindly. I probably couldn’t surprise her, so she wouldn’t expect me to. What she probably wanted was consistency… predictions that would come true about my and her behavior that wouldn’t really need her ability to trust. Something so close to 90% that she’d never feel the need to check on them, so if I did surprise her it would be a genuine shock because it broke all the rules of consistency, but hopefully in a pleasant way.

Sort of like a dog, I thought uncharitably. A dog was most comfortable when it knew exactly what to expect, and when any surprise was a welcome bit of excitement in an otherwise highly consistent and well-understood life. Most pets were like that. I wouldn’t treat her exactly like a dog, that would be a bit twisted, but that high level of consistency, that of a pet, would probably appeal enormously to her.

I also had some hint that her powers demanded a sacrifice, much as my own did. Maybe minimizing the amount of need she had to use them was the best way to handle her? So let her know if there would be a surprise, but don’t let her use her powers to discover what it was. Yep, a pet. She was both smarter and more talented than me, being dominant to her was going to be a special sort of challenge, and if I did it wrong, she would be unhappy, and the last thing I wanted was an unhappy pet.

So again, I was asking myself, what would Baldwin say? I think he would have said, “She is smarter than you, and probably knows what she wants, why don’t you just fucking ask her? Hell, she probably already expects you to, and has her answers already.”

And of course, as expected, Baldwin had already left, taking Toby and Alison with him. I sent him a message to let him know I was back and was going to be working until he got back, and asked Lauren if she knew how to cook.

She shook her head, blushing a little, and I nodded, “That’s fine. You are definitely going to have to learn. A lot of it I can teach you since I learned to cook when I was a kid.”

“I can sort of cook boxed stuff, as long as I pay attention to it, and I know how to boil eggs and fry bacon so it’s not gross.” She replied, and I smiled, “Good, that bacon thing is very important. I love bacon, and most people just think throwing it in the pan will make it taste good. Go up and change into a leotard or something skin tight. We are going to be working on making you some armor, and some for me too. It should be skin tight, but I don’t want to try and fit it to bare skin.”

She nodded, “May a girl speak?”

I smiled a little, “Yes.”

“Should I not simply wear what I am wearing now? This is my uniform, anyway.”

I shrugged, “Does that uniform have any possible connection to the cartels? Will anyone recognize it from your former profession?”

She thought about it carefully for a moment and then nodded, her brown hair bobbing. “Yes. It was rarely a problem, so I never worried much about cameras and stuff when I portaled out.”

I smiled, “Well, in that case, your new outfit will have armor. I don’t know where supervillains buy their stuff, so we get to make it.” I had an idea anyway, so I’d put off making the armor for a little while. “Let’s get dressed in public clothes then. We will be taking the baby.”

My baby was the new Dodge Challenger sitting in the Driveway. She was beautiful, the deep black powder of a matte coating rather than the bright flashes of a glossy coat. It would take a special wax to keep her sealed rather than standard wax, but she was worth it. V8 engine, standard transmission, and eventually, someday, I hoped to get a nitro system installed since she already had the old school EFI that could take it with minor modification. She was expensive, and I missed the bumper on the old Challengers, but she was worth it. I was never greedy before, but I was greedy about this car. I only hoped that when I was Hyde, I loved her as much.

I got into her and rubbed the new steering wheel. I wasn’t particularly fond of most new car designs, I much preferred the 60s muscle car look, but she had that in spades, plus a set of bells and whistles, from a phone link to a full electronic driving suite, that practically allowed her to drive herself.

I sighed in contentment at the new car smell. She’d been eighty big ones, with the SRT Hellcat Widebody frame, but sitting here, it was worth it. I hopped back out, leaning against the fender, and waited.

Lauren/Glinda appeared out of the front door, and I smiled when I saw her. She was wearing a terracotta turtleneck, loose, that looked lightweight but matched the season, and a calf-length dark blue skirt, both of which were solid colors. I had expected some kind of pumps, but her feet were actually in a pair of fairly sturdy-looking light brown boots, although they were somewhat short, like ankle boots.

“That’s a good look for you. Cute and respectable for now, but it still shows off your beauty.”

She beamed, “Yes sir.” and then looked at me shyly, “May a girl speak?”

I nodded, “Yes, and while we are out, You don’t need to do that, because it might draw funny looks. The moment we get back, though, you are back on your best behavior, got it?”

She nodded, “Yes si… yes. Would you believe that I bought this outfit over a year ago and haven’t been able to wear it yet?”

I opened the passenger-side door for her, and she beamed as she slipped into the seat, tucking her skirt beneath her leg before I closed the door. I liked this demure side. Together with my flannel lumberjack shirt over a plain white tee-shirt, stonewashed denim jeans, and hiking boots, we looked like a young happy couple just out to enjoy the slightly chilly Wednesday morning. Perhaps a bit more photogenic than some, but in this part of the more wild areas of Virginia, we would fit in, instead of looking like a pair of supervillains hiding from the authorities that we likely were.

It was a bit of a trip, but I planned to do the date thing before picking up a couple more items from the surplus shop where we got the armors. “Hey, I am going to talk to you normalish. As Baldwin says, the bedroom door is closed, and we are playing civilians. Are you cool with that?”

She nodded, turning a little to smile at me. She had a cute little nose, that was ever-so-slightly upturned, and a hint of tasteful makeup. To be honest, she looked more like a movie starlet or one of those sponsored ‘influencers’ than a church girl, but wearing the outfit, she almost looked… wholesome.

“Of course. You want to ask me about Toby?”

I shook my head, “Not right now. The kid is awesome, but I am pretty sure he doesn’t have many deep, dark secrets to employ. I kind of want to talk about you, but that means talking about Ferron...Grumman?”

She sighed, “Okay, Lily used to protect me from him, but she protected me from everything, including boys, and almost any kind of stress. I am not a child, though. I like to play the innocent game, and it’s very fun when we are alone, but I know what you want to know.”

I nodded, “You probably do, but you are right. I am enjoying this, but I want to know who you are, and how you got where you were. This is not a punishment-type scenario, and while I sort of forgive you for what you did, There’s still a lot about it that pisses me off. You are actually a really nice person when you aren’t scheming.”

She laughed a little bit, “Believe it or not, I wasn’t really scheming. I mean, when you said you would own me I thought you were wanting to pretty much use me as the cartels did. They tended to not touch, though, since I was a courier, a very valuable one for the year I did it. One of the guys grabbed my boob once, and I had to watch while Renee gutted him, really slowly.”

“But when you started acting like you wanted me and were talking about a whole lot more than just running errands, at first I was angry, and then I just started wanting to do what you said. I kept seeing you naked, and only your commands kept me from umm… I mean, I know what sex is, but what you did last night was the closest I ever got to it, Lily was always in the way, sort of. I loved her, but every time I sorta wanted to do my own thing she was always there.”

I nodded, “How did she die?”

She sighed. “It was stupid. I umm… was trying to interest this cute guy where she worked, and I kind of accidentally forgot my bra. She just looked at me and left me in the car while she went upstairs to look. There was this huge rumbling noise, and then banging, and then it was dark, for almost ten hours, and I couldn’t get out. And then a crane lifted a piece of concrete off of the car, and I got so scared that I dropped through the bottom of the car and popped out in the air exactly where our apartment would have been if the whole building hadn’t fallen. I hit the ground really hard, from about thirty feet up, onto a piece of tile, went to the hospital, and then woke up when a guy at the hospital was telling me I was a meta.”

I nodded, that was a pretty normal story. “What happened to your building?”

She sighed, “I don’t actually know. I know Lily was in the apartment, and there was a Promethean fighting with some villain. The news didn’t know who either of them was, and I never really found out, but apparently, the Promethean threw him through the building before they both flew off towards Topeka.”

“You are from Kansas?” I asked her.

She nodded, “Born and Raised in KC. Or at least right outside of it. My dad was a venture capitalist, but he and my mom disappeared when we were babies, and my uncle and his wife raised us. Until she died, when Lily was about ten and I was six.”

I nodded slowly, “How long was it after your aunt died that your uncle started messing with Lily?”

She sighed. “Two years. She started to look like a girl then. He didn’t mess with me until I was almost 15, though, I was kind of a late bloomer. The thing is, he wasn’t really my uncle, he was my dad’s partner that took us in, and I guess in his mind, when we became women, he had a right to us. The worst part though…” and she paused.

I nodded, glancing back at her for a moment from the road as she frowned. “What’s that?”

“I don’t think if Lily was not around I would have said no. I mean, he was boss. It wasn’t about how he looked, it was just that he was the boss. I don’t even remember what he looked like other than black hair and brown eyes, and he always smelled like old meat and was really, really huge.”

I nodded, sounded like obesity necrosis. Really obese guy in his forties or fifties would kinda stink like rotting meat all of the time unless he took six showers a day.

She suddenly smiled again, “The thing is, you are boss now, not like him. And you are gorgeous and clean, and you really FEEL like a boss should feel. I was kind of in love with you from the second I saw you, at the meeting, and it was especially weird because there were lots of other cute guys there. Even when I was shocking you I felt like you would do anything to protect me and Toby if you only knew. That’s why I agreed to take you to Kjootoo. He said that you were more valuable to him than the cartels and that they would take the money and give me Toby back, and every time I thought of maybe asking for help or something, especially when you told me to take off my clothes, I just heard a voice in the back of my head saying They will take the money for Toby.”

She laughed, “When you told me to take off my gloves, I swear it took everything I had not to just strip naked and lie on the table, even with the other people there.”

She beamed, “I was terrified when you were counting down the swats I was going to take. And then you started, and even though they hurt, I knew you were doing it because you cared.”

I smiled a little, “I was doing it because you needed to be punished.”

She giggled, “Liar, you cared and wanted to do that so you wouldn’t have to do anything worse. Trust me, I felt you pressing on my belly. Each time you swatted my butt it hurt and felt good at the same time and I could feel you getting harder the whole time.”

I sighed and shook my head as we pulled into the parking lot. “I am not a sadist.”

She nodded, “I know, you don’t like hurting people even though you are really good at it. But I bet you can tell when I am getting turned on, right? I mean, you knew my last name.”

I nodded, “Yeah, and I could tell you were getting turned on when I swatted your butt.”

She nodded, unclasping her safety belt and wriggling towards me. “So you can tell what I am feeling without me even having to tell you. You are like a perfect boyfriend, except that you aren’t, you are a Master and I have to do whatever you want, whenever you want. And the idea is driving me crazy.”

I shook my head, “It feels irresponsible, like you cannot say no.”

She nodded, “That’s exactly right. I cannot say no, except that I really don’t want to say no. If I didn’t want to it would be wrong, but even before you stood up, I was lying on my blanket, awake, wishing desperately you would wake up and touch me, hold me, even kick me. I wanted it. Have you heard the joke about the sadist and the masochist?”

I shook my head.

“A masochist says beat me, and a sadist says no. Sadists want to hurt people. You get off on spanking me, which is totally cool because I like getting spanked. It stings, but it also sets my nerves on fire and I came a bunch of times while you were doing it. I want you, I want you inside of me and on top of me and under me and any which way. So is it really irresponsible? If I need it? I am not a child, I know what I want, and I want you. Unless you still really hate me, and I don’t think you do.”

I was hard as a rock just thinking about what she was saying, and honestly, I sort of had come to the same conclusion via a slightly different mental route. I couldn’t say I loved her, but she was mine. Just like Mariah, and now Alison. Much as I hated to admit it, Sif felt like she was in that category too. They were mine. No one had the right to them but me. No one would hurt them, and I would kill or die before I let anyone do to them what they did to me. Mine.

“You are mine. Mine!” I said to Lauren, almost angrily. She leaned forwards, sat on my lap for a moment, and kissed me. She was inexpert at it, but when I started nuzzling at her lips, gently tugging at her lower lip with mine and then flicking my tongue over her own lips and tongue, she seemed eager to learn.

After a few minutes, or possibly hours, of devouring each other's mouths, I leaned back a little and pushed her back against the steering wheel. This was not the place, but she was beaming at me, tears in her eyes, and said, “I wouldn’t want to be anything else, Master.”

Okay, the bedroom door thing might not work, but she clearly knew when to call it quits, as she peeled herself off of my lap and gave me a few minutes to relax. “You know, you are dangerous,” I said to her as I was getting back under control. If the parking lot hadn’t had several people walking around in it I probably would have dragged her into the back seat right then and there, and baptized the damned car with her maiden’s blood, like something out of an ancient fertility rite.

She nodded, “Not that dangerous, but I am glad I am pushing at that restriction against sex. You value honesty so I am going to be honest. I intend to do everything I can to make you decide to give your permission, even if it means getting spanked again a lot more.”

I grinned, “You know, I can still use you without letting you have sex, right?”

She nodded and gave me a wicked look, “You can try.”

I laughed, “Do you want to make a bet?”

She shook her head, “No, because then you would have too much reason to say no. It would be meaningful. Right now, it’s just something you are doing for the fun of it, and to help me realize what I did was wrong. I agree, it was wrong, and I feel guilt, and I know in the future I would beg you to help me instead. Knowing that I look forward to you relenting and driving me crazy exactly the way you wear Aquantis out. And then I want to watch you do the same thing to Alison, and then Sif.”

I chuckled, “You might get your wish with Alison. But Sif?”

She shrugged and leaned back into her own seat as I finally took my belt off. “Alison is wrong. I know how strong Sif is, I have seen her in action several times. You are as fast as she is, and just as strong, and you heal faster even if you cannot take as many hits, but that’s her training, not her abilities. Physically, if you fought her and found a way to keep her from getting one of her most damaging blows in, she would tire out in only an hour or two. She has several trademark moves that she likes to use, but if you can keep pushing her into using them without actually getting a good strike on you, she will tire out very, very quickly. If you can grapple her, you will win.”

She shrugged a little as I got out of the car, waiting for me to walk around and open the door for her. She was a very quick learner and gave me a smile of gratitude as I lifted her out of the car, clinging to me for a moment before lowering her feet to the ground. She had been paying attention, I had a thing for carrying girls and she knew it.

I looked around for a motel or something and didn’t see one, dammit.

I closed the door and she wrapped her arm around my waist, leaning her head against the side of my chest as we started walking towards my old stomping grounds, the Home Workshop.

There were a bunch of things I wanted to pick up, primarily a low-temperature welding gun, a number of different metals, and some glues and paints of various types. I had some new formula ideas I wanted to try, but I had been having a great deal of trouble finding ingredients that matched the aspects I needed. I was wondering if all the artificial chemicals that were sold for do-it-yourself type crafters might help, and I intended to scan as much as possible to see if I could find the aspects I wanted, especially multiple examples of the same aspect in entirely different substances so I could reinforce them.

When I walked in, I was surprised to see Kieran manning the help desk. Things had been rearranged a bit, with a set of self-checkout stands added to the cashier lanes, but the help desk was still where it had always been, simply with new ads and notifications decorating it.

“Holy Crap, is that you, Louis?” He said, lounging languidly on the long counter at the back of the booth. He looked older, and I realized that he had always been a little older than me, and now he must be over 30. He had a bit of gray stubble on his rouged cheeks, But his hair was a fiery crimson color, and his eyeshadow was a green that couldn’t have looked good even if he was a 20something female belly dancer.

“You look… amazing. God, how come I never slept with you?” He asked, flicking his eyelashes at me flirtatiously. I guess that worked for some people, but not for him, or me.

I sighed. “Because I was your boss, I have always been straight, I am into fitness and nutrition, And I spent all my time working?” I answered him. He glanced at me with a flicker of annoyance and then he licked his lips.

“Well, you look amazing anyway. You are bigger and buffer than ever. What on earth have you been eating?” He asked.

I tilted my head, very conspicuously turning to flick my eyes over the lovely girl still clinging to my waist, and then grinned back at him, “Brunettes.” I answered.

“Louis!” I heard a shriek come from behind me and saw Brandi rushing towards us. She was still fairly cute, with her red hair now cut short into a bob and an excited expression on her face, and looked a few… dozen… pounds heavier. It certainly filled out her chest, but she couldn’t hold a candle to the girls I was seeing now. Not even if it was a very large candle. “Oh, my Gawd! What happened to you?” She stopped for a minute and stared at me, repeating herself as she looked me over, “What happened to you?” She asked.

I grinned, “Hi Brandi, you look great. I kinda went to prison for a while.”

She stepped forward and enfolded me in a hug for a moment, but it was a little uncomfortable with the slightly-shorter Lauren still clinging to my waist, so she stepped back. “What on earth for? You were like, one of the most straightlaced and honest guys I ever knew.”

I shrugged, “Honestly?” I tried to shock her. “Unauthorized use of meta abilities while resisting arrest. Or committing a crime or something.”

She didn’t look even slightly surprised, although Kieran did. “I was always wondering when you were going to get registered. They get very grumpy about that kind of thing this close to DC. I am sorry about that, but when the guys in suits asked, I had to admit I knew about it. But it’s still great to see they let you out. I half expected you to be dressed in some kind of muscle costume or something, what with all the new teams running around. I didn’t think it would get you into prison or anything, they were just acting like it was a normal scan to find unregistered metas. You probably shouldn’t have refused to cooperate with the scan.” Brandi mumbled in a rush.

I sighed. Of course, it was Brandi.