Chapter 37

At first, Melinda was worried that Heather would suck them dry over the link to help her against Ms. Hollis. Then she was worried when it didn't happen.

She wanted to contact Heather, but was unsure how to do such a thing. The link was more an emotional bond than actual telepathy. Her clumsy attempt garnered no response.

Melinda tried to project her concern over the link, and she sensed something in return from the others. Some of them were anxious as well. Cassie was the only one sensing anything from Heather, but it was jumbled: some mild sexual arousal, worry, and embarrassment.

Diane sensed the other Harbingers along with Melinda, but she struggled to bring her full attention to it. She was loath to pull herself from the gentle, relaxing torpor of the teacher's lesson.

Melinda's anxiety was strong enough to prompt the other Harbingers to attend to Heather. Their combined will forced the link to open, overriding Heather's resistance to using it, and her five senses trickled to Melinda.

Wait, a TEST? Melinda thought when the images became clear enough. Is that all she's worried about? But then why is she getting horny?

Cassie sensed both Heather's spiking arousal and rising humiliation. The test was embarrassing her? Cassie didn't understand.

Jason did. He saw from the patterns of Heather's psyche that her perceptions had slipped into Ms. Hollis' control. He could not see the questions on the test page, but the reaction he observed in Heather's mind was more appropriate for an intimate survey rather than any normal test. He surmised that Ms. Hollis was using the test to determine Heather's emotional and sexual weaknesses.

Ms. Hollis got her! Jason thought hard and "loud" in his head.

The sense of alarm was conveyed to the others, and Melinda glimpsed some of the writing on the test page, though Heather's answers were still a blur. That woman is a fucking perv! she thought.

Diane blinked. She put down her pen and rubbed her eyes. Her view into her lover's mind was somewhere between Melinda's and Cassie's perspective. She felt the tingling and wetness in Heather's pussy, mistaking it for her own for a moment.

Richie and Ned could not see the test page or detect the precise emotions, nor see the patterns of thought and power like Jason. What they felt was raw pressure, as if Ms. Hollis' power was a large weight. It was obvious to them as much as it was to the others that Ms. Hollis had overpowered Heather's defenses, and Heather was helping it by believing the reality that Ms. Hollis had manufactured.

What the hell do we do now? Melinda asked in her head, but she did not expect to get any sort of coherent answer.

Question 3: How long can you go without sex, and how does it affect you?

Heather understood the same thing that Jason had: this test was designed to find weakness.

Why was doing well on this test so important to her? Heather struggled to rationalize her question, but the more she fought, the greater loomed the potential for failure. Every moment spent in delay of answering the question was another step closer to failing the test and the course.

I hate going more than a day or two without fucking, Heather wrote. It has to be fucking. I have to have a cock inside me. Yesterday just wasn't good enough. Diane is

She stopped, even as her hand quivered with the need to write more.

Heather sensed the link for the first time since she started the test. She wanted to block them out, but the link kept surging. She covered up the part of the answer she had written with her other hand as she wrote.

a great lover, but she's not enough for me. I have to have cock. I think I had Jason's cock in my pussy more than in my little sister's pussy. Now I can have Richie and Ned, too.

Heather moaned and panted, her pussy aching. She cursed under her breath. She should have had Ned yesterday. The damned test question reminded her of what she was missing.

Sometimes having my pussy licked real good will help. I make my little sister do that for me. I love gushing over her sweet face when I cum.

"S-stop," Heather hissed when she felt the Harbingers in her head again. She covered the test paper with both hands and pulled it towards her, her next words riding a tremulous sigh. "Go away."

Were they intending to stop her from taking the test? Didn't they understand that everything was riding on this test? Or were they trying to sneak a peek at her answers just to find out all her secrets so they could manipulate her, too?

Heather clenched her teeth and shook her head. Not even Melinda would be so cruel. Or Richie. She wouldn't do it to them.

Unless it would get me more sex, came the thought into Heather's head.

Heather flinched. Had that thought come from her? Would her craving become so great that she would go to such an extreme? She had influenced Jason into sex as a matter of habit long before she had turned her attention to the other Harbingers.

I'm not like that dammit! Heather cried out into her own mindscape, and for a moment she had the sensation of someone reeling from her.

Heather picked up the pen. She had to complete her answer. Yet now she was a little more reluctant. Nevertheless, the tip of her pen rolled across the page once more.

I'm even thinking about it now. I really want Ned. He and Cassie go at it like rabbits. I need some of that myself. If I don't get it, I'll just be horny all the time and won't be able to concentrate on anything else. Then I'd do just about anything to fuck.

Heather wanted to strike that last line. She managed to put her pen to the page at the opening "T," but could not send the stroke through the words. She instead lifted the pen from the page and moved it back to the end of the sentence.

Her pussy throbbed with her heartbeat. Now she was going to think about this for the rest of the day. Despite her need to obey her teacher's directive, her thoughts of Ms. Hollis remained dark.

Oh, goodness, what did I just do?! came Cassie's thought in the wake of her attempt to push her psyche across the link. All she had intended was to lend Heather some strength and ease the intensity of her arousal so she might find the will to resist Ms. Hollis. Instead, something unexpected had happened.

For a few fleeting seconds, Cassie had shared Heather's mind, somehow slipping into Heather's head as if entering her dreamscape at night. She had just become cognizant of what had happened when a barrage of emotion and thought overwhelmed her. During that brief contact, Cassie could not separate her thoughts from Heather's. Thus when Heather thought about manipulating people, Cassie's mind conjured her old doubts about Heather's motivations.

By the time Cassie could disentangle herself, a wave of guilt and self-doubt from Heather's mind swept her away like a riptide. Cassie was confused and angry at herself. She wanted to withdraw from Heather's mind before she did more damage, but sensed Heather's doubt turning towards the test instead.

Suddenly, a fuming rage swept towards her over the link, but it wasn't from Heather.

Cassie shock to Heather's mind had loosened the flow of imagery to Melinda. The test paper sharpened into clarity long enough for her to see the line: I think I had Jason's cock in my pussy more than in my little sister's pussy.

I'm going to kill the both of them! Melinda thought. First Ms. Hollis for being a bitch and making Heather tell her these things, and then Heather for being a boink-crazed bubblehead!

Melinda's anger was defused in seconds when her sister's words about maturity sounded in her head. She had spent so many years as the baby of the Sovert family; she refused to be seen as the baby of the Harbingers.

Jason's window into Heather's mind widened as well, her patterns of higher thought laid down on her mental canvas like lines in an abstract painting. He "saw" in those patterns something about sex with regard to himself and was gratified to learn it was complimentary, though tempered by the understanding that Terri Hollis now possessed this intimate detail about Harbinger relationships.

His mind raced to predict what she might do with the information. He was sure that Ms. Hollis' power came from Victor, but she still had an Aura. What she knew, the Darkness would know as well. The Harbingers had to be prepared for that.

Richie and Ned saw their chance. From their view, Cassie had blown the link wide open. The pressure was tangible. They had to push against it while they had the chance.

By this time, Diane was finally aware and alert, but kept the link at arm's length. She was seeing snippets of Heather's test paper as Melinda had, but more fuzzy, as if viewing it through thin gauze. Yet she saw many references to the boys of the Harbingers.

While Diane was afraid that Victor might use her to corrupt the Harbingers over the link, she feared reading Heather's test answers more. Her only solace was a glimpse of the phrase Diane is a great lover.

Question 4: Explain in detail how orgasm denial would affect you. Cite examples if you have them.

Her free hand clenched into a fist and thumped against the desk.

Why do I want to do well on this test?! Heather demanded. In the back of her mind, the link throbbed against the edge of her consciousness, swelling with a sense of alarm. Heather wanted to plead with her fellow Harbingers that she had no choice. She had to answer it.

It gets me so hot and horny that I can't think straight, Heather wrote. I don't let Diane do it to me too often. I usually make her finish me off by the time I get that far. Brad was really good at it, and

Heather stopped. Her fingers tightened around the pen, and her arm tensed. She lifted her head and glanced towards Brad. His eyes were lowered to his own test, his face screwed up in thought.

I think he liked watching me squirm until I was going mad. I think he was trying to get me to where I wouldn't refuse him if he wanted to fuck. I almost gave in a few times.

Heather moaned. Her pussy betrayed her, reacting to her thoughts by rising in pleasure, just enough to make her writhe and tempt her into touching it to bring her relief.

For the first time since the start of the semester, she was embarrassed by the number of sexual partners she had had in only the last few weeks.

I don't like going beyond that, Heather continued to write. I go crazy if it lasts too long. When I was thirteen and first started masturbating, I tried using a lube that was supposed to increase the time it took to cum. I used too much. I frigged and frigged and frigged and was almost in tears before I finally came.

"Melinda, if you ever say one word about this," Heather hissed under her breath.

The moment of righteous anger cleared her head a bit and allowed her doubts to shine through the fog. Did she really care about a grade in this class that much? Was failing the course really that bad considering what they were up against?

She couldn't keep it up. The fog thickened once more. She almost reached for the link; it still felt like a distraction she didn't need.

She just wanted to finish it. Anything else was too exhausting.

Melinda snickered when she caught sight of Heather's answer. She did not hear what her sister had muttered in its wake, but she caught the sentiment. Not that this would stop her.

Her amusement was short-lived. Heather was still locked in her false perception. Jason wondered if this was a feint, a way to drain the Harbingers' powers so they could not assist Heather later. He wondered himself if it had been a mistake not to pursue sex the day before.

Ned and Richie, however, were anything but discouraged and continued their brute-force attack. Cassie was becoming aware of their efforts, and saw that they had barreled in through the accidental hole she had opened.

Cassie's heart thumped as she contemplated trying it again. The prospect of what could go wrong frightened her, but Heather's growing mental exhaustion was far more worrisome. Heather would have nothing with which to resist any "offer" that Ms. Hollis presented at the end of the period.

She took a deep breath, but it did little to calm her. She reached out to Heather's mind, intending a gentle push, only to fall in as if down a greased slide. Her head floated in a twilight between her own thoughts and Heather's.

A presence manifested with her, so tangible she thought she could touch it. It had more substance than simply an intrusion of someone's will. Cassie let herself be drawn towards it and was shocked to see Ms. Hollis herself.

Or, rather, a facsimile of her. It shimmered like a ghost despite its power. It felt like a weakened version of the specter she had encountered in first Stephanie's and then Gina's mind, but Cassie was convinced it could reach out and strike her as if it were as solid as the real person.

Caught in a unexpected situation, her rationality splintered between her own psyche and Heather's, she acted on pure impulse. She lashed out at the manifestation with a mental shout.

GO AWAY!

Terri Hollis suddenly flinched and lifted her head. Her eyes darted around the classroom, as if looking for the student that had just shouted at her.

Her eyes fell on Heather, who had stopped writing. She stared at her test and shook her head, the pen about to tumble from her limp fingers. The last time Terri had looked, Heather had made it to the last question on the first page. She had yet to turn to the next, and as Terri waited, Heather continued to stall.

Terri frowned. Resistance from Heather should be impossible at this point. She had secured her best hold yet on Heather's reality. It was so strong she felt a piece of herself residing in Heather's head. Now it had been reduced to the same tenuous grip as the days before.

How was Heather doing it unless she had help?

Terri folded her hands and narrowed her eyes. Could it be Laura? She dismissed that after a moment's thought. If Laura were capable of such a thing, making a deal with Terri would be moot.

Victor? Very doubtful. Victor would be up-front about his opposition. He had been very clear on that point several times in the past few days.

Yet that exhausted her list of suspects. No matter. She wanted Heather back on track right now. She was not going to lose what she had gained.

Terri stood up and started towards Heather's desk.

Heather felt as if a pall had lifted, hovering just above her head. She was now more aware of the link and felt the Harbingers clamoring at its portal. She felt strange. Thoughts swirled in her head that were not her own, but they were not from Ms. Hollis.

She resisted the compulsion to turn to the next page of the test, but her thoughts were still tangled. Her pussy was still flush with warm pleasure, making it harder to gather her wits.

This is a sham, Heather finally thought. No one would give a test like this. I don't...

"Miss Sovert."

Heather gasped and bolted up in her seat, the front feet of the chair lifting from the floor and thumping back down a second later.

Ms. Hollis tapped the test with her finger. "Did I not tell you how important this test was to your grade, Miss Sovert?"

Heather swallowed and nodded.

"You're not going to get a good grade by stalling. You have more questions on the next page. It would be in your best interest to get to them now."

"I was ... I was just looking over my answers, Ms. Hollis," Heather said.

"You've looked them over enough. Continue to the next page. Now."

Heather stared at her teacher, still unmoving.

Ms. Hollis smiled. "Good grades are very important. Especially this class. Especially if you wish things to go well this afternoon after school."

"What? I don't understand."

"It's simple, really. I won't need to be so hard on you in detention if you do well on this test. A good grade will mean I won't have to work you so hard later. So you see, it's in your own best interest to do well now."

Slowly, Heather nodded.

"Do well on your test, and things will go easy for you this afternoon. You want it to go easily, don't you?"

"Yes. Yes, of course."

"You must be so tired of fighting me. You don't have to. All I want is a good grade from you." She tilted her head and skimmed one of Heather's answers. "And you're already doing very well. These are excellent answers. Keep going."

Heather was indeed getting tired. She had gone a whole week resisting or helping someone else resist. She was at the end of her endurance.