"I gathered that. I was asking for your names." Scott said.
"Our names are unimportant, young man. You will see that in just a moment..." he started to say, but Scott turned to another man, who had pulled out a pistol and racked the slide, jacking a round into the chamber.
"I'd be careful with that, if I were you." Scott said. "It's far more dangerous to you than it is to me."
The man began pointing the gun at Scott, but as he brought it up, Scott just shook his head at him. A moment later, the man put the gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. His body collapsed straight to the ground, leaking a little into the dirt.
"Anyone else wanna play?" he called out, looking at each man in turn. "Now, I know you have orders to kill me, and that's okay. As long as you choose not to act on those orders, you'll be fine. Agreed?"
The other man, the one from the diner, got back in his car and left, leaving Scott and the short guy to face each other.
"So, what's your name, guy?" Scott asked.
"I'm not telling you my name." he hissed back. "It would be unprofessional."
"That's okay, Ricky." Scott chuckled. "Oh, sorry, only your mom calls you that, neh?" Scott sent two threads of thought at the man.
"Jesus-God!" the man stuttered. "What-" He was rising up into the air, grabbed by unseen forces. It felt like he was wrapped in chains of air.
"The Council will not bother me until I summon them." Scott said. "Is that understood? I could crush you right here and leave others to carry my message to them, if you want. Your other friend has not gotten away. I am in his mind right now..."
"I'll tell them." Ricky gasped. "No contact until you call. I got it."
"Good." Scott smiled. "Don't bother to stop at your friend's car crash. He's dead." He let the other man down, and Ricky wasted no time in getting into his car and getting out of there.
Scott and Tiana both got back into Maria's car.
"You can come up now." Tiana told her. Maria raised her head above the back window and took her first look around since their arrival.
"Is that man dead?" she asked, pointing.
"Suicide." Scott told her. "He shot himself in the mouth."
"Ri-ight." Maria said dryly.
"Ricky's making the call." Scott said. "Both of you be quiet and let me listen."
"Okay, he told them I'm TK, and reported the deaths of his colleagues." Scott said a moment later. "He's being re-directed to Salt Lake City for a full de-briefing."
"Don't let him get there, Scott." Maria said. "Can you kill him from here?"
"Why should I do that?" Scott asked. "He hasn't done anything to me."
"They can scan him and see what powers you used on him, and from that, they'll be able to tell how strong you are." Maria said. "I don't think you want them knowing that, do you?"
"I guess not." Scott said, closing his eyes for a moment. The car swerved in it's lane, but he regained control easily. "There, it's done."
"How did you do it?" Tiana asked, her eyes shining. "You really just killed that man?"
"Well, I was following his thoughts ever since he left." Scott said. "I just went back along the trail into his mind, and sent a ripple down the wave. That squeezed his mind closed, and the car he was driving crashed. I lost the link a moment later. I'm pretty sure the car was on fire, and that's what did it."
"So you didn't really kill him with your mind." Maria said. "Could you? If you had to? Could you kill a man with just your thoughts alone?"
"I hope not." Scott said. He shivered lightly. "That might become temptingly habit forming. Life isn't that simple."
"You killed Gregoir." Tiana pointed out.
"He threatened me and mine." Scott said grimly. "I'll end any threat that I can see, as soon as I see it." He paused, thinking a moment. "I can't just kill someone because of what they MIGHT do."
"Where are we going?" Tiana asked Scott.
"Well, our first stop is your house, Tiana. You need more clothes, and I need to talk to your parents." he replied.
"That's maybe not such a good idea." Tiana said uneasily. "I, uh, I'm not ready to face my mother yet."
"Better now than never at all." Scott said grimly. "There;s only one reason I can think of for your parents not coming forward to me last night, and that is because they side with the Council. I met everyone who wasn't in the Council's group. I did not meet them."
"Scott, we need to find Jordan Miller." Tiana told him. "You gave that young man a Kalastiel mate last night. The Council will be trying to kill him as much as you. Maybe more."
"How do we do that?" Scott asked.
"Try." Maria said. "Close your eyes and try to find him. Can you see heem?"
"I'm driving." Scott replied dryly. "Closing my eyes might not be such a good idea right now."
"Well then, we need to stop." Maria said, but before anyone could respond to that, a bullet hole appeared to the middle of the windshield and the headrest behind Scott's head exploded in a puff of foam.
Maria screamed as Scott floored the gas, and another bullet exploded the back window.
"Hang on!" Scott shouted, taking another dirt road at speed. He drifted around a corner, still mashing the pedal to the floor, and then they were behind some hills and away from the sniper. Scott brought the car to a halt, breathing hard.
"Everyone okay?" he asked, looking at both women. They weren't hit, but Maria had little pieces of head rest foam scattered all over her.
"We're okay, but Scott, do you believe me now? The Council wants all of us dead!" Maria said. She started brushing herself off.
Scott didn't reply. He closed his eyes and concentrated.
"There he is... both of them. A sniper, and a spotter." he mumbled to himself. "The sniper... can't get a reading on him... He's been to Dreamland. The spotter..."
Scott saw in his mind's eye with one of the tendrils of thought. The spotter was on one knee, scanning with binocs while his partner was laying prone beside him. The spotter pulled his sidearm and fired twice, point blank into the back of the sniper's head, then put the gun in his own mouth and fired once more.
"Where is he, Scott? Where's Jordan Miller?" Maria asked again. Scott remembered to look, and spread the tendrils out, calling, listening, questing.
"He's... far." Scott said. "On the other side of some big rivers. It's hard to go across the water like that, but that's as close as I can tell. He's over that way somewhere." Scott waved vaguely east.
Tiana looked unhappy. "Well, I guess we have to go to my house next, then. I can't go out East without packing first."
"They will be looking for us there, if what you say about her parent's is true." Maria pointed out. "They will try to kill us again."
"Bring 'em on!" Scott growled. "I prefer a straight fight!"
"They'll probably use her parents as hostages." Maria said. "If it comes down to it. I know these people. They will do anything."
"My father used to be ON the Council." Tiana said. "They won't hurt either one of my parents. They wouldn't dare."
"I hope you're right." Maria said, patting Tiana's arm.
Tiana looked at Scott. "You won't let them hurt my daddy, will you? He's a good man. You won't let anything happen to him, right?"'
"Of course not, Tiana." he said, reassuringly. "Let's get over there and make sure they're okay." He started the car back up.
"We can't go back out there! We'll get shot!" Maria said.
"I know what to look out for now." he said. I just have to scan ahead as I drive, that's all. I got lazy and let my guard down for a minute back there. It won't happen again, I promise."
They got back onto the pavement, and ten uneventful minutes later, they were pulling up in front of Tiana's house.
She led them up the few steps onto the porch, and her father opened the door.
"There you are. Who are these people?" he demanded, grabbing Tiana's arm. "Get in here, young lady. We have MUCH to talk about." He tossed her into the living room, where she fell on the floor.
"You can't treat her like that!" Scott snarled at the man, stepping forward.
"You!" Tiana's father spat. "How dare you speak to me, after what you did! After what you let HER do!" He pointed at his daughter, sobbing on the floor where she had fallen.
"What did I do, Daddy?" she sobbed. "Can't you be glad that I'm happy?"
"HAPPY!!??" he roared. "You little pervert slut! How could you do this to your Mother? Do you know how much we sacrificed for you? And you throw it all away on this... this wilder." he said scornfully. "And then, to make matters worse, you go and... with a KALASTIEL! Have you no dignity? Jesus Christ, have you no shame? They're so... big! How could you even..."
"It felt good, Daddy. He was gentle, and he loves me. Nothing we did together hurt me."
"You slut!" he said. "You... you liked it? Ohh, my God, where did I go wrong?" He turned to his wife, who was sitting unobtrusively in chair. "Where did we go wrong, Tia?"
"It's not our fault, Morgan." said the woman, getting up. "We did everything we could for this ungrateful little bitch." She took her husband's arm, standing over Tiana. "But let's not air our business in front of the whole neighborhood."
She grabbed the door and swung it shut, but Scott put a thread of thought out, and the door swung open so hard the doorknob buried itself in the plaster of the wall.
"What do you think you're doing, young man? Get out of my house this instant!" Morgan said, indignantly, as Scott walked in. "I'm calling the police!" He went over to an end table across the room and opened a drawer.
"Go ahead." said Scott, wrapping a tendril around the cell phone in the other man's hand. He squeezed and it crumpled to shards.
"You.. you can't just come in here like this!" Tia cried out, going over to her husband and taking his arm again. They both faced Scott and Tiana, as he helped the girl to her feet. "Get out! Both of you! Just go!"
"Go get your things." Scott said, kissing Tiana's forehead. "I'll handle these two."
"Handle us?" Morgan spat. "You'll... handle us? How dare you. Wilder!"
Scott sent the tendrils out again, wrapping the two of them tightly.
"Morgan, don't antagonize him!" Tia pleaded. "He's... he could do anything!"
"That's right, Morgan. You wouldn't want me to do anything... personal, would you?"
"What? Oh, no, stop it! Stop it right now!" Morgan shut his eyes and tried to pretend his pants were not coming undone and falling down to his knees. "This is quite enough. I hope you've had your fun humiliating me. Now, let us go."
"Not yet." Scott smiled. He changed the flows surrounding the husband and wife so that she was kneeling. He brought them closer together and tied the flows off. "There. I got it out of Tiana's head this morning that this is something you two have never done. In fact, Mrs. Bruce, you have told her repeatedly NOT to do this thing, ever. Haven't you?"
"It's disgusting and wrong." Tia said. "No real man would ever ask it of his lady."
"Then it's simple." Scott laughed. "If your husband doesn't get an erection, you won't have to suck it for him." He turned to go help Tiana pack.
"No! You can't leave us like this!" Tia said frantically.
"I'll be back in fifteen minutes to let you loose." Scott told her. "Surely your husband is man enough to withstand the feel of your breath on him down there and not get turned on by it."
"What if I'm not?" Morgan asked suddenly. "Tia, looking at you like this..." His cock twitched a little.
"Morgan! You better not!" Tia warned. Her voice changed, pleading now. "Morgan, what happened to the man I married? You told me that fellatio is dirty and disgusting act, that's it's against God and procreation! You said you would NEVER ask it of me! You promised!"
"I can't help it! I'm sorry!!" Morgan sobbed, as his cock rose up, pointing straight at his wife's mouth. "It's not my fault!"
"I didn't give you that hard on, Morgan." Scott chuckled. "Or did I? Are bent queer, old man?" Scott chuckled as he turned to go again. "Remember, you two. If you want to get free of the bonds before I come back to release you, Morgan's come in your mouth will do the trick, Tia."
"You can't leave us like this!" Morgan cried out to Scott's retreating back. "Please! This isn't fair!"
"You called your daughter a slut to her face." Scott replied, not looking back.
***
https://launchpad.net/~teammy
