Chapter 63

Mark found Karen in the band hall, warming up on a flute was just a bit more expensive looking, with a subtly different gleam, than those belonging to the other two girls already seated in the front row. She tossed it carelessly onto the chair beside her when he walked up and said he needed to talk to her.

She smiled as she stood up, then took a second to smooth her dress down, just incidentally stretching the already tight fabric across her substantial breasts in the process. She slithered between the music stands, an expression that could only be called 'predatory' on her face as she approached the out of the way corner where he waited.

He studied her for a long moment, wondering what was going on behind that smug, knowing smile, and wanting to make her speak first before he gave anything away.

She seemed more than happy to oblige. "Yes, Mr. Hasseran? You wanted to--" She paused significantly and trailed a finger down her chest, running it between her breasts. "--speak to me? Regret something you said, perhaps?"

The very bluntness of it took him by surprise. Kayla and Kris had both mentioned that many of the girls had been trying to attract his attention, but they'd never done so in any way that he'd actually noticed. This, however, was not subtle in the least, and he'd have to be blind and deaf to miss the girl's meaning. He hid his surprise, though, save for a raised eyebrow, and shook his head sadly. "You know, Karen, I thought you were a nice girl."

"I can be very nice, if I'm given a chance," she purred, leaning towards him and licking her lips. "Surely I deserve as much of a chance as ... anyone. Don't I?"

He couldn't claim to know the girl well, but that seemed out of character. It was too extreme even for a slightly unstable teenager with an unrequited crush. Chastity's description of her as acting as if she'd been possessed suddenly didn't seem nearly as unlikely. How would a person go about finding out, though?

Mark hadn't never 'looked' at someone he wasn't already bonded to, before, and he wasn't certain that he even could, since all he'd 'seen' had been the lines connecting him to the others. It was worth a try, though, so he lowered his lashes slightly, letting his eyes go unfocused as he searched for Karen's mental (Magical? Spiritual? Psychic? He wasn't sure of that, either!) energy. He wasn't sure what he was looking for, though, so it took him a moment to 'see' the sickly green haze that flickered around the girl. As soon as he focused on it, though, it disappeared. He frowned, wishing he had some clue as to what that could mean.

"--now that you don't have to pretend anymore?" the girl was asking sweetly, when he returned his attention to her.

"Pretend what, Karen?"

"No more baby," she said with a nasty, satisfied smirk. "You can have the marriage annulled. And since everyone knows now that you're not as lily-white as you pretended to be before..." She slowly ran the pink tip of her tongue across her upper lip.

He shook his head, biting back the urge to snap at the girl. "Karen, I hate to burst your bubble," he said carefully, "but she wasn't pregnant, and she didn't have a miscarriage. They did a pregnancy test as a matter of course, in fact, and I could show you the negative result. I didn't marry her because I had to. I married her because I love her." He studied her face, hunting some clue, some explanation of her behavior. "Why does the idea of someone loving Kristen bother you so much?" A horrifying thought occurred to him, and he took another 'look' at her, this time searching for lines-- lifebond type lines-- trying to connect her to him.

He could see something. Not a lifebond, thankfully, but something else reaching out from her towards him. To his inner eye it looked wrong, twisted. There was no room for two-way flow, no give and take, just a sense of hunger, an intense desire for possession. Instinctively, he shoved at it, rejecting it, utterly revolted, just as Karen took a step towards him, her face ugly with rage. "She doesn't deserve your love!" she hissed. "She doesn't need it! She has everyone else's." The hungry force groped for him, sending out seeking tendrils that slithered along his shields and left dark, brittle spots wherever they touched.

Mark fed energy into his shields and reached out through his bonds with Kristen, Kayla, and Aaron, wordlessly asking for help. "Karen ... are you that desperate for love? That you need to deny it to her?"

She glared at him petulantly. "Why did she have to decide she wanted you? She had everyone else. All she could want. But noooo, she just had to have the one thing I wanted, too!" She put her hands on her hips and stomped her foot. "She's so selfish! How could you possibly love her?" she demanded, her eyes wild and slightly unfocused.

He stared at her as he felt strength flow into him from the others. He could feel it, and could 'see' it patching the dark spots in his shield with emerald, gold, and silver. He could feel the wordless support and love that came along with it, and that steadied him as he looked at her crazed eyes, letting him make a decision.

Deliberately drawing on the bonds, and especially the healing energy that Kayla held, he reached mentally, trying to touch Karen. Not the Karen he saw, but the Karen that Chastity had described, trying to draw her back out from wherever she was hidden. He could see his effort, a solid blue rope of power with slashes of green, gold, and silver, reaching towards the girl. Then the alien presence lashed out, brushing against one of the gold patches, and he felt Kristen recoil in pain and nausea. The gold patch was left blackened and raw looking, as if it had been burned by the green mist. He was certain, then, that the sickly green wasn't just the girl's own power but something new, something added and likely controlling her. He urged Kristen back, feeling part of Kayla's healing power following her, wrapping around the 'burned' area, soothing and protecting. Then, working on instinct from lack of any real knowledge, he did his very best to attack the green mist, intending to burn it away from Karen.

The mist jerked back, singed, and then disappeared into the girl. A pink fog rose up and surrounded it protectively as Karen glared at him. He didn't let up, though, but kept trying to drive the green out without hurting the pink. "She hurts people," Karen snarled. "She makes people hurt each other. Can't you see that? Like you just hurt me?"

It was hard to keep up his attack and talk at the same time, but he managed it. "She's not selfish, Karen. She's probably the most unselfish person I know. She helps people," he said. "It wasn't me that hurt you."

She retreated a step, and the pink flared up, totally encapsulating the green, so that he'd have to burn through it to get to the other. "You don't think it hurts me that you'd choose her over me? That you give her whatever she wants, and won't even let me touch you? Are you so blind that you can't tell how I feel about you?"