Chapter 1

"There! That should do it!" Alex exclaimed as he put the finishing touches on the circuit board. He slid the board into its place in the computer. The board was part of a project that Alex was working on just because it caught his curiosity. After hearing about Kirlian photography he became interested in the idea of a real time version of the camera. To his surprise however, the internet only provided cameras that would take pictures, not video. Not to be thwarted, Alex simply made his own.

Alex was a tall man, about six feet, short dirty blonde hair, brown eyes, and had an inquisitive nature. A self-made millionaire, a jack of all trades, and a fairly handsome look, at the age of 32 he was still alone. After experiencing one woman after another, finding out that they were either after his money and/or they expected him to do everything for them, he became fed up with them and became a self declared celibate.

Without women in his life, he found he could get a lot more done, and with the exception of some sexual frustration, his life was quite enjoyable. His sexual frustration seemed to tend to channel itself into his projects, his writings, his businesses, and recently, making a real time Kirlian video camera.

He had the camera itself situated above a LCD 17" screen that was mounted on his wall, with cables going from the camera to the computer where the image was processed and then from the computer to the screen. Alex had made a special program to take the image and just show the aura outside his body, and have the aura where it overlapped his body fade a bit. Further the image was altered so that the screen became a true aura "mirror" of whoever stepped in front of it.

Now the short few moments it took the computer to reboot was over and Alex excitedly activated the program. The "mirror" went black for a moment and then the room came into focus. Alex stepped in front of the mirror and was delighted with the bright violet and blue shifting aura he saw before and around him.

"Yes!" he said to himself, doing a little happy dance. Alex saw his aura pulse in response. Hmmmm, I wonder, can I control this? He thought.

Alex raised his hand till he could see it in the mirror and concentrated on it. After a few moments of this he looked at the mirror image of it and saw a correspondingly brighter glow around his hand. Cool. I wonder if I can extend it. Alex bent his will to the task, watching only the mirror, and slowly his aura stretched out about a foot further from his hand.

This is very cool, he thought excitedly.

Releasing his will, his aura slowly resumed its original shape. When he looked at the clock, Alex was surprised to see that he'd been concentrating for about half an hour. Not willing to give it up just yet, he tried the same thing again and was delighted when it came much easier and quicker this time.

Experimenting further, Alex got better range and speed until he was shooting his aura through the air, the furniture, the wall... "Hey!"

Alex stopped suddenly in confusion. He wasn't sure if he heard that last statement and was wondering about it when he heard a timid knocking on the door to his room.

Opening the door he found Susan on the other side with a confused expression on her face. Susan was amongst the half dozen people who rented rooms in his house and lived in the room right next to his. Susan was fairly pretty, but he felt no attraction to her whatsoever. He had also resolved not to get involved with any of his renters as he knew that would be just asking for trouble.

"Did you just call me?" she inquired.

"No, I was just working on my latest project, that's all."

"I could have sworn you just called me." she mumbled with confusion as she wandered back to her room.

Now that was interesting. I wonder what that was about.

Alex knew what that was about, or at least suspected. It happened when he shot his aura through the wall into Susan's room. It must have hit her, or at least her aura. Well, this requires some more experimentation, he thought.

Slowly, he extended his aura into the next room, aiming for the spot right in front of her computer where he knew she would be working. Eventually he felt a slightly warm presence. Carefully he edged his aura a little further and started to sense a feeling of focus along with the occasional spikes of happiness and frustration. Edging a bit further he started to "hear" her in his mind.

" ... now I have to figure out how to... <irritation> what does Dave want now... <happiness> that was a good joke ... where was I..."

Alex edged away again and sat down in shock so he could think about what had just happened. He was just in Susan's thoughts! This is incredible! I wonder what else I can do...

He slowly extended his aura again to edge his way back into her thoughts, and observed them for a time. Then he carefully inserted a feeling of being hungry.

"hmmm, I could go for some noodles..."

And then he heard her get up and head downstairs to the kitchen.

Cool!

With that victory, and a realization that the hunger suggestion was prompted by his own feelings of being hungry, he ordered a couple of pizzas and let the potential of all this sink in.

Later on, when Alex had nearly demolished both pizzas by himself, he had time of consider. He not only read someone's thoughts, but he even implanted one of his own! He was psychic! Alex looked upon his mirror with new found awe. He had unknowingly created a training device for psychic abilities. What should he do now?

Get a girl of course! With this new ability, he could ensure no consequences sex. Something he really needed at the moment.

After a few minutes, Alex was out the door and headed for the local bus station. He had enough money to afford a fleet of limos, but he never liked flaunting his money, loved the anonymity that being on the bus brings, and besides, there were quite a few good looking girls on buses.

Alex was always amazed at the number of pretty young girls that got on and off the bus at all times throughout the day, and today was no exception. Alex got on one of the longer lasting routes to give himself plenty of time to choose and soon found what he was looking for.

A pretty young blonde girl, about 18, had just got on and was looking for a seat. A brief bit of concentration and she selected a seat immediately in front of Alex.

She was an excellent selection, a petite blonde, about 5'6", slim but appropriately curved, and her hair stretched down to her lower back. She was, in a word, gorgeous.

She stared out the window with a bored look as Alex concentrated on her and considered what suggestions to implant.

"You find me extremely attractive" he thought at her, supplying a picture of himself, "You will want to know me. As you listen to me talk, you will get more and more turned on. As you get hornier you will start imagining having sex with me, pleasing me, doing anything you can to make me happy. You will let me do whatever I want to you."

He thought those commands to her over and over again, giving her the hairy eyeball for about five minutes, before he decided to make his move.

"Excuse me, can you tell me what time it is?"

"It's 7:35..." her voice trailed off as she got a good look at Alex and was mesmerized.

"Thank you."

"Don't I know you from somewhere?" She asked a bit quickly.

Alex decided to play around with her to see what she would do. "No, I don't think so."

"I'm sure I've seen you somewhere, do you work at a restaurant or something?"

"Well, you could say that. Have you've been to The Keg steakhouse downtown?"

"Oh yes! I go there all the time."

This Alex doubted very much, as it was a rather expensive place, but he was having fun so didn't point that out.

"Do you work at a restaurant?"

"Oh yes, I work at Hooters." she said proudly.

Figures with a body like hers. Based on the fact that she was proud of that, Alex concluded that there wasn't much upstairs. Then again, he didn't select her for her wit.

"Is that where you are heading right now?"

She had gone into a daze looking at Alex. Wow, this is really having an effect on her.

"Hello?"

Shaking herself out of it, "Oh no, I was just ... doing some shopping, how about you?"

"Just going to the bank ATM before heading home."

She got this real seductive look on her face, "Would you like to go out for some coffee?"

Smiling, Alex replied "I would love to."

During the next hour they talked about trivial things, during which Beth, as Alex later learned her name, was making suggestive moves and comments. Among them was her dipping her finger into the whipped cream on Alex's hot chocolate (He hated coffee) and slowly licking it off, rubbing her foot up and down his leg and suggesting that they head over to his place for some privacy.