Chapter 22

When Mark arrived at the school that morning, there was a lot of whispering and gossiping going on. He was concerned, at first, that he'd been too obvious when Kristen got hurt, but no one was inclined to exclude him from the gossip this time, and it was with mixed emotions that he learned that, for a change, Kristen wasn't a part of the current rumor-mill at all. Relief, of course, but unease, too, because the subject matter was more than a bit disturbing.

It seemed that a dead dog was found on the school's front lawn. It definitely didn't die of natural causes. Details varied, but a consistent theme was that the animal was mutilated. Exactly how varied from tale to tale. Mark's history teacher friend, Jack Brenner, was a goldmine of information. It turned out that the student who'd found the animal first had gone immediately to Mr. Brenner, who was a favorite among the students, so Jack had actually seen it. The dog had been dismembered, hacked apart with an axe or machete or some such, and partially skinned. It also looked like both eyes had been burned out.

According to further rumor, this wasn't the first thing of this nature to turn up this year, though for the most part, they'd been found in open fields or abandoned lots, that sort of thing. That went a ways towards explaining why the sheriff had been so willing to come out personally on such scanty suspicion the night before.

There didn't seem to be any connection between the incident and Kristen or the dreams, but it made Mark nervous, anyway. He didn't see anything he could do to make her safe that he wasn't already doing, though, so, with difficulty, he tried to keep his mind on his work. Another bit of news, of a more official sort, was that Superintendent Stegar was returning to Prudence ISD next week. Up to now, he'd been working at Leilana ISD. The two schools shared a superintendent, since both of them were so small. Mark wondered if he'd have any trouble with the man -- he was getting away with a lot, at the moment, after all -- so he started quietly checking around.

The impression he got from the other teachers, as well as the students, was that Stegar was, in their words, laid back. A nice guy. Smart. A good Christian. Loaded. It was an interesting combination, and he decided to check with Steven when he went home for lunch.

"Stegar?" Steven said, when he asked. "I don't know him that well, but I've never had a problem with him."

Mark nodded. "Okay. I was just wondering if he was likely to cause a problem -- I suspect I've gotten more leeway than I'd expect since Ward's afraid of you."

"Hopefully, there won't be a problem," Steven said. "He'll only be here a month, anyway, then gone for another month. Hard to do much harm like that."

Mark nodded in agreement and went to find Kristen. She was curled up on the couch in the living room, fast asleep, and looking gaunt and tired. He reached down and brushed a bit of hair back from her face, and she stirred.

"Mmmm?" she murmured, then smiled weakly up at him. "Hi, lover. Carry me upstairs?"

He grinned at her. "Ready for..." he wriggled his eyebrows suggestively, "lunch?"

"Mmmhmm..."

Tenderly, he scooped her up and carried her to her bed.

The task of feeding her proved to be quite complicated, though. It was hard to accomplish anything satisfying without hurting her ankle, and she finally settled for giving him a really nice blowjob. When she was done, she looked better, physically, but didn't seem particularly happy.

He pulled her up and into his arms. "What's wrong?"

Kristen sighed. "I know it's silly, but ... doing it like this, where it seems like it's just a necessity ... ick. It just ... shouldn't be that way. Not with you."

Mark leaned over and kissed her, softly, licking at her lips. "I didn't think it was just a necessity, love. I really enjoyed it."

She smiled at him lovingly. "But if you didn't have to, though, you wouldn't be here. If you thought I'd be okay without it, you wouldn't have done this."

He gave her a little smile. "Only because I wouldn't have had the nerve to leave work to do it. I would still have wanted to," he assured her.

"I know it's a lot of trouble," she said softly, looking down. "I am sorry."

"I'm not," he said firmly. "I love you, Kristen, and I like to spend time with you." He grinned. "And you give wonderful blowjobs."

She cuddled up and kissed his chest, smiling now. "I love you, too. Carry me back downstairs before you go? I can sit on the couch in Daddy's office and draw. I really don't want to be alone."

He left her happily ensconced on the couch with sketchbook, pencils, warm blanket, and comfy pillows when he had to go back to work.

Deciding that their lunchtime difficulties in lovemaking could benefit from another viewpoint, he invited Kayla over after school. She happily accepted, and it proved to be a very good idea. Kristen was happy to see both of them, and though it'd only been a few hours since her 'lunch', she was already looking gaunt. Kayla was particularly clever at finding ways around Kristen's current handicap, as well as lightening the mood and making her see it all as funny rather than pitiful. Between the two of them, they even managed to make Kristen come, though not as frequently or as easily as she did when she wasn't on darvocette. After a bit more than three hours, Kristen was glowing enough that she wouldn't need a lunchtime 'feeding' the next day. After helping make Kayla come the final time, Kristen lay her head on the girl's chest, smiling happily.

She closed her eyes for just a minute, and ended up falling asleep, still cradled against Kayla's breast and glowing prettily. Mark looked down at her, a touch worried, but she was still on pain pills, she hadn't been sleeping worth a damn, and it had been a long, miserable day for her. Deciding it was really perfectly understandable and that she needed the sleep, he tucked the blanket around her and slid into bed beside Kayla.