XIII

Steve was on his bed, tied to the bedposts with silk ribbons. He was naked except for a pair of red satin boxers. Laurel was sitting on the edge of the bed wearing a striped T-shirt, shorts, and sneakers. He was dreaming. Shit. Laurel had invaded his dreams again.

“I thought we were friends,” she said, sad and disappointed.

“We were,” he argued. “We had fun together - the sex and just hanging out.”

“You used me,” she whined.

“And you used me,” he protested. “Neither of us was completely honest. We both did our jobs, and we had fun doing it. I didn’t work against your interests!”

“I guess that’s true,” she said. “But I still feel betrayed.”

She stood up and walked away. Now she was wearing a full-length white dress like a priestess of some dead religion. She faded from sight.

He was no longer in his bedroom but in a cave. He was bound not to a bed, but to a rock, tied up by entrails instead of silk. His ex Gudrun was there, wearing low-rise jeans and a tiny tube top just like in the last dream, but her face looked soulless. Above him, there was a giant serpent. Venom dripped from its mouth - venom that would bring agony enough to shake the world, he somehow knew. The only thing sparing him from that agony was the bowl Gudrun held over his head.

He prayed that he woke up before the bowl was full.

The next morning, Theo was high on life. His date had obviously been quite a success, and while he didn’t come out and say it, Laurel was sure he’d had sex for the first time. He hadn’t come home until near dawn, so he’d probably had a lot of it.

She didn’t mention the trouble at the gas station to anyone. Theo would blame himself for leaving her to go on his date, and she didn’t want to ruin its memory for him. Nonetheless, it left a stain on her mood.

It was humiliating, but Laurel texted Tyler and asked if she could blow the guys before band practice. She had work to do - she still hadn’t cracked the code for predicting fires. And while one of them had been a giant jerk, she had pretty good chemistry with them and felt safe with them. Theo insisted on coming along, but he waited in the car outside.

“Hey look, Laurel,” Tyler told her while she was taking off her clothes, “I just ... Bruce is an idiot.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry,” Bruce added. “Somehow I got it in my head that you’d take it as a compliment.” He rubbed his neck nervously. She hit him with a doubtful glare; it had sure seemed like he had intended to hurt her.

Tyler went on. “I honestly don’t know why you do this - what you get out of it. But I don’t want you to feel like we take you for granted. We appreciate this. You.”

Laurel managed a smile through her melancholy. She was now completely naked and, thanks to the effort she’d put into her glamour, she looked like an expertly photoshopped version of herself. Her nipples, thighs, shoulders, hair, eyes - everything about her painted a picture of a young woman’s sex appeal.

“I appreciate you guys too,” she said, sounding tired. “This is ... good for me. It’s hard to explain. I’m not really in a talking mood if that’s okay.”

Soon she had her mouth on Tyler’s cock. She let him guide her on how he wanted the experience to go: when to swallow him down, when to work the head; when to jerk his shaft, and when to go light. They didn’t say a word, but they communicated nonetheless like long-time partners.

It wasn’t long before Tyler came on her chest and she took a break to examine the magic hidden in his sperm in the privacy of the bathroom. She sucked Kevin off and likewise analyzed her results.

It wasn’t quite business as usual for Laurel. Smelling the boys, tasting them, and feeling their hands on her head reminded her of her last experience with them: when the three of them had worshiped her body all at once with their hands and lips and pounding cocks. It was an experience she would like to have felt again, but it was too impractical. Asking them to stop when one of them was ready to come, and then studying the semen patterns just wouldn’t work. Nobody had enough self-control to pull that off.

She was fighting her gag reflex and massaging Bruce’s dick with her throat when Skye showed up, early for practice. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!” She said. She walked right up to Laurel and Bruce, dodging Tyler who tried to block her path. “You know what? I take it back. You do deserve it. You deserve every little bit of blowback that comes your way from being an indiscriminate whore.”

Laurel did her best to ignore the other girl. She kept sucking his crown and stroking his shaft until he was ready. Then she cast her spell, made Bruce come, and recorded her observations. Once she was dressed, she walked up to Skye who was sitting at her drums. “What is your problem? Why do you even care what I do?”

“You mean apart from fucking with my band cohesion?” Skye answered. She twirled her drumstick as she talked. “You hurt Dylan. He’s a sweet guy and you jerked his heart around.”