Chapter 20

Ken became aware that Jane was kneeling at his feet. He looked down into her worried face and smiled at her.

"Master, are you OK?"

"Gee," he said jokingly, "I thought that you always knew how I felt." He looked closer at her - she looked like she hadn't gotten much sleep. "What's wrong?"

"I'm fine," she said, "except that I actually can't feel you. I can feel Ally, but not you," she looked very worried now.

Ken relaxed his thoughts for a moment and felt something shift; the flow thoughts and emotions that he'd become used to began again. Somehow, he'd shut everyone out.

Jane looked relieved, then, as she assessed his mood, even more worried than before.

"You stayed up last night didn't you," he asked.

She nodded. "As soon as I couldn't feel you anymore I woke up. I looked out here and saw you. You looked like you wanted to be alone, so I went back into the bedroom. Ally seemed a little restless too. Master, please tell me what's wrong."

He sighed. "I really don't want to talk about it, Jane." Pulling himself out of his depressing thoughts he continued, "I think it would be better for us to just think of what's happening tonight. We have a lot to do today and tomorrow. I don't want to bring Ally to the mansion until she can stay the night, but Lea said for you and I to come alone tonight. We'll have to explain it to her and bring her over tomorrow. She might get nervous if she sees us packing things up."

Jane accepted the change in topic, but wasn't happy about it. "I don't have that many things in my apartment to pack up. We could get them on Sunday or something."

He looked around, "Yeah, I'm not bringing anything much from here. Just a few items and my clothes. Plus, we're supposed to meet Genie for dinner tomorrow night."

"I won't be at work for the whole day. I could go to my place and pack up when I get finished."

Ken thought for a moment. "Lea wants a ceremony, and frankly, I have no idea what that will..." his words faded for a moment. Information flowed into his brain, telling him exactly what was required for him and Jane to build the Gate. He saw from the expression on Jane's face that the same thing had happened to her.

"OK," he said slowly, "it seems that we do know what to do for the ceremony."

"Sir," said Jane, "That's not the whole ceremony. There is still a lot we should do after, and some before."

"Would you get the supplies that we need?" he asked. "She wants us to turn off all the power to the place and I'm not sure I know how to do that. The mansion is huge but there should be a central location," he paused, "somewhere. We need to be there before dark to set everything up."

"I can pack Sunday," said Jane. "I'll get what we need for the ceremony while you take care of getting us the keys to the place and all that. Oh, and I'll need directions - seems I was blindfolded on the way there last time."

Ken grinned, "You look good in a blind fold."

She smiled brightly as it seemed that Ken was returning to himself. "Thank you, Sir. And now, I'd better get dressed."

"I'd like you to wear something very, very sexy," said Ken. "No bra, either."

She gave him a surprised look then shrugged, "Sounds good to me. What are they going to do, fire me?"

Ken had made coffee and was sitting in the kitchen with Ally by the time Jane made her appearance. They both looked at her and whistled. She'd done her hair up in a complicated braid pattern and was wearing just a bit more makeup than she normally wore to work. On top, she had on a sleeveless blue pullover. It was thin and her nipples, and the piercing bars, were easily seen; as was the outline of her breasts. Ken thought they looked a bit firmer in that top than when she wore nothing. Her skirt was several inches above the knee - or rather only a few below her pussy. It was black and he suspected she wasn't wearing panties. She sat, not taking care to keep her legs closed, and he was sure. She had on three inch heels and black thigh-highs, the bottoms of which could be seen when she sat.

"Will this do, Master?"

Ally giggled, "Depends on what you're trying to do!"

"Yes," said Ken feeling arousal rising in all three of them, "That will be just fine."

Jane sat down and ate some food, then ate some more. Ken was surprised at how much she put away, but then, he'd been eating a lot more lately as well. Hmmm. Jane kissed them both thoroughly, then left.

"Ally," said Ken, "Jane and I have some business to attend to tonight. But we'd like you with us tomorrow because we have a surprise to show you."

"I have to work tomorrow," she said.

"Please see if you can get off work. This is very important," he said. Yup - the idea he'd had earlier would have to be presented to her soon. He thought she'd accept, but he wasn't sure. "We'll be back either very late tonight or, more likely, in the morning."

Ally didn't ask where they were going. If her Master wanted her to know, he'd tell her. She was a little unsure, but told herself not to worry.

Ally left for school and Ken began to read another one of the books that he'd bought. It didn't take very much time, and when he finished, he took a shower and called Joan. He asked when he'd be able to come by and get the info on the house. Joan told him any time, so he headed over there. Fortunately for the sake of her panties, it was a short visit. Ken didn't think that he could absorb any more energy, but he was wrong. Even in the short time he was there, Joan's emotions were swirling with arousal. With a promise to call her if he needed anything, he left. They'd be in touch since technically the title transfer hadn't gone through yet. However, the guard company and the alarm company were well aware that he was the new owner. The internet connection was set up also. No phone or satellite TV yet. That was scheduled for Monday, as were a number of other things. Phone, pool up keep, grounds upkeep, the list was quite large. Who would have thought that being rich would be this expensive or complicated? He knew that eventually all the estate jobs would be held by followers of Lea. Until then, they'd just have to grit their teeth whenever someone came by. Maybe they'd have it scheduled for a specific day every week to keep the intrusions to a minimum.

He called the guard company on the way to the mansion and told them that their services would no longer be required as he was taking possession of the house today. He told them he'd keep them in mind if he needed to have the place secured while he was on vacation or away for an extended period of time. Another call to the security company to explain that the mansion sensors would be going offline from tonight until morning. They took some convincing, but eventually they agreed. Once he got to the gate at the house, the transmitter Joan gave him automatically triggered the gate and he drove the X5 on through, stopping for a few moments to chat with the guard.

Finally, he pulled in front of the house. There was a garage, of course, that was supposed to hold at least ten cars, but he'd never been in it and didn't want to fuss with it now. Ken just wandered thought the mansion. He couldn't believe it was his. Oddly, the fact that it was his was more difficult to accept than him being an Avatar. The silence was nice, and he realized that up until now, there were always other people's thoughts and feelings pushing on his brain. With no one around, the silence was a bit of a relief. Not great, but a nice change. Taking the map he had laughed at the first day, he started trying to locate the electrical mains. Of course, since the map was supposed to be for people interested in buying the property, not someone who already owned it, none of that information was on it. Realizing that he could wander around for quite awhile and not wanting to waste the time, he put in a call to Joan. She told him that, according to her notes, there was a household plan in the main study.

He found the main study, and started looking around. Joan, still on the cell, directed him toward a nice painting of a landscape.

"There should be a button on the right side of the frame. Push it," she said.

There was the 'snick' of a catch releasing. The painting was actually a door, behind which was a safe. Totally cliché, he thought. The safe was not locked, just closed. There was, among other things, a note attached telling Ken where to contact a locksmith to help him set the combination. Inside there was a large, leather bound folder with the words House Plans embossed in gold on the front.

It was well organized and in a short time, Ken had found the utilities room. Well, the one for the electricity and water, anyway. There was indeed a master shut off. He was pretty sure the guard was packed up and gone, but he called the security company and asked how turning off the power would effect the system. They told him that there was a backup power system that had to be disabled and would he like a technician to come out Monday?

No, he damn well didn't. He had them direct him to the backup for the security system. The box was key locked and well hidden. Of course, he didn't have a key - they told him that only the technicians had those. He explained that if they didn't have someone here with in the hour, he'd get a key at the local hardware store (bolt cutters were pretty universal) and different security company on Monday. They said they'd have someone sent to the house, and he told them to call the cell when they got there so he could open the gate.

Ken went back into the utility room and decided to test things now, that way if anything else was fucked up, he'd be able to handle it now, rather than later. He pulled the levers and was immediately not plunged into darkness; there was emergency lighting in the room. Shit! He hadn't thought of that. Well, he'd have to find the emergency lights and disconnect them. Less than a minute later, her heard a hum, and all the lights kicked on again. The house had a backup generator. Ken found it, absently noting that the fuel tanks powering the generator were full, then shut it down. He spent the next hour finding and disconnecting the batteries in all the emergency lights he could find. By the time he was finished, and had turned the house power back on, the security guy was there.

He was a nice young guy who knew his stuff. It was obvious that he knew how to 'handle' irate rich people. Ken wasn't irate, anymore, even though he was rich. He was firm with the guy about removing the backup power, while explaining that it was just until tomorrow. The guy was curious, to say the least, but Ken did not explain why he wanted the power off, just that he did. Once he was inside the box, disconnecting the power wasn't very hard. Ken figured that if the system went completely down that the monitoring company would send someone out. He was also told that the fire alarm system was plugged into security as well. When the guy left, Ken once again pulled the plug, so to speak. He walked through and found that nothing seemed to be on anywhere. That was good, since he was tired and hungry.

Of course, there was nothing to eat in the house, so after turning the power back on, he decided to make a food run. He got a call from Jane just as he was getting ready to leave.

"Hello Master," came her voice. Boy did she sound horny.

"Have a good going away party?" he asked.

"Yes, Master. Genie and I even ended up with a little time to our selves," she replied.

"And was that fun?"

"Oh yes, Master. Frustrating too - for me, anyway. She has a wonderful tongue."

Ken smiled. "I'm on my way out to get some food. There's nothing here. I don't want to get too much because the power's going to be off tonight. But we should have something in the house. Maybe I'll drag out a cooler and put some ice in it."

"I can do that, if you'd like," offered Jane. Ken got the feeling that she was still upset about last night.

"How are we fixed for the candles and other stuff for tonight?"

"I have candles, and getting the rest of what we need will be easy."

Ken thought for a moment. He decided that he could hold out for food until she got to the mansion, then they'd go run the rest of the errands together. She got there in short order and he gave her the other transmitter to put in her car. There was a code pad at the gate, but they didn't want to have to use that.

Jane was looking just as fantastic as she'd looked this morning. Of course, he could tell from her scent that she was still aroused and had been fooling around a bit with Genie. They ended up getting quite a bit of food including a several bottles of very good wine and fresh bread that Ken knew was good.

Shopping was interesting, to say the least, since both he and Jane kept getting a lot of looks. Jane was somewhat used to men, and occasionally women, checking her out because she was a beautiful woman. Ken was not used to having anyone check him out. As they went through the various stores, he began to find a way to turn off the attraction he was putting out. Since he was getting better all the time at tuning into people, he could tell when it was working and when it wasn't and used that as a sort of bio-feed back method to begin refining his control.

When they got to the last store and were standing at the checkout stand, Ken decided to have a little fun - especially since he knew his 'target' would have no objections.