The Music of the Mind Ch. 16

He sat in silence for a long time after I had finished speaking. I had parked the car in the foothills overlooking Boulder, and the lights twinkled below us prettily as we sat. Finally he spoke, his deep base voice rumbling out of the depths of his chest.

"You trust me a great deal with this information." He said looking at me briefly before staring back at the lights below. I met his eyes for that moment, but did not speak.

"When you confront my father, what do you intend to do to him?"

I sat thinking about my answer. I knew my intent; I had known it from the moment I found his note in Jill's home. I thought about lying then, I have to admit that, but ultimately I know that if this man was going to help us he needed to know the truth.

"I intend to cripple him at the least, to take away his gift. If I can not do that I will kill him. He is too dangerous, has hurt too many people. I hate this Dimitry, I really do. I am not a killer, but..."

"You feel you have no choice, eh? Well you don't. You may not be a killer but he is. I will help you on two conditions." I nodded as he looked at me before continuing. "First, I don't want him crippled, I want him dead. A snake without fangs is still a snake. After everything he has done to me and those I care about, he deserves death." He stopped watching me through the slits of his eyes.

After a long moment I nodded my ascent. "What is your second condition?" I asked.

He sat for a moment staring down at the city below. When he spoke his voice was steady and firm, but somehow I could still feel the weight of the emotion as he spoke.

"You must help me try to free my sister before you go. She is a slave as I am only now fully beginning to understand I was. She is a beautiful person, but more then that she will be your greatest opposition should you approach my father." He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and lit one up, rolling down the window and hanging his arm out of the truck. The cold fall air carried the smell to me on the crisp air.

"Why is she so dangerous?" I asked. He glanced at me before taking another long pull on his smoke.

"Because she is the fulcrum of Dolkoff's power circle."

"Power circle? What is that?" I asked and Dimitry chuckled.

"A power circle is what you have formed with your friends. Though I have never heard them being formed in quite that way. Normally all the members of the circle are subservient to the fulcrum. The Fulcrum then wields the power of all of them as one. My father would never allow anyone to be that close to him to become the fulcrum himself, so he uses my sister to do this work for him.

She has taken the six most powerful of our conclave, and they are all bonded to her. Though not to each other, as you and your friends are. This is something new, as I have said. If we can save her, take her out of my fathers clutches, then he will loose his greatest weapon. Then you will have a chance."

My mind was spinning. Dolkoff had the same ability as we did, well after a fashion. Dimitry's sister Anna was the key to this power for them, and he wanted to try to save her, if that could be done.

"I am willing to try Dimitry, though we don't have much time." He nodded. We will not need too much. She has a weakness as I know her patterns, and she thinks I am dead. We will get her at dawn, but you must promise me that you will try to capture her, and not kill her."

"I will do my best, I give you my word. But, what if she doesn't want our help? What if she hasn't been conditioned and she really wants to help your father." Dimitry flicked his spent butt out the window before turning to me, and when he did his eyes burned with such fire I nearly recoiled.

"There is no chance of that. My father has hurt her far worse them he hurt me over the years in ways a father should not hurt a daughter. I know within her is a vast ocean of hatred for the man, but I think like me, she can not set it free. You will need to heal her as you healed me," He said, his steady voice rumbling over me.

"I promise you, I will do everything in my power for her."

"Good, I believe you will. You are a good man Mike. Now, let's go meet your friends, we have much work to do."

When we entered Suzan's house about an hour later, I was greeted by four blank looks, and one comprehending smile from Tuyen. I introduced Dimitry around to the girls, and explained to them all who he was. I saw comprehension on Suzan and Ellen's faces as they remembered me telling them about him. Tuyen of course had seen him the night he was at my house.

After an hour of discussion and many questions from the girls they were satisfied that Dimitry was okay, and that he really could help us get Jill back safe and sound. I was rather amused to feel a strong current of attraction to him coming from Tuyen through the bond. Given the sly looks Susan and Ellen were exchanging, I think they noticed it too. Though to be honest, the rapt attention Tuyen gave Dimitry every time he spoke was indication enough.

When we got down to planning, the room was quiet and serious. I was tired, but the thought of Jill and what might be happening to her drove me on.

"Okay, Dimitry you told me Anna's weakness was that you knew her patterns, what did you mean?" I asked.

"Very simply that I will know when she will be away from the group. You see, most of the conclave lives in a small apartment building Dolkoff owns. They stick together for protection, and because my father demands it. My sister though goes out every morning to her own apartment. My father does not know of it, or if he does he tolerates it. Perhaps it is the little rebellion he allows her.

"I had a similar small vanity. Regardless, I know where her apartment is, and that she will be there this morning like every morning."

"How do you know she will be there?" Tuyen asked.

"Because she has to feed her little doggie, and take him for a walk. The apartment is really just a place to keep her pet. She was never allowed one as a child, no one at the conclave is allowed anything that may distract them from their duty." Dimitry spoke with a clipped cadence that betrayed the amount of anger he was holding in.

"Okay, so I will confront her with the help of you guys backing me up. Dimitry, you said she had six in her circle, will the four of us be able to stop her?" I asked. Dimitry sat for a moment thinking.

"I don't know. Your circle is strange, and your bonds are stronger then the ones I have seen in my sister's circle. But still, you are taking a risk. She will have a lot more firepower to pull from."

Suddenly a thought occurred to me. "Dimitry, when she came in my shop I was able to defeat her fairly easily. Why?" I asked.

"They formed the circle after that. You have to understand it is a powerful thing, and Dolkoff would not want it to exist without a purpose. It might grow to be a threat to his power." He looked directly into my eyes as he finished speaking, and I nodded.

"Well we will just have to do the best we can, and hope we have the strength to overcome her. We will have surprise on our side." I said quietly.

"Bullshit!" Wendy blurted out. "Why can't Meg and I join your circle? Then it would be an even match." Silence hung in the room as I looked from Tuyen to Suzan and Jill.

"Wendy, it is not that simple. You see, we established this bond by sharing everything with each other." I said softly, trying to think how to tell her and Meg what happened, but before she could respond Dimitry responded.

"Interesting. That might explain the difference. In Anna's circle the bond is formed through each of the members subjugating themselves to the will of the center of the circle. Though for it to work the spokes of the circle can hide nothing from the fulcrum."

"Well that is not exactly how we..." I began when Ellen, ever the pragmatist, cut me off.

"Oh hell, why are we pussy footing around this. We all had sex with each other and shared the experience together in our minds." There was silence at Ellen's blunt statement, before Suzan spoke up beside her.

"But it wasn't just sex, we loved each other. We shared our feeling with each other. We were fully vulnerable and yet protected by one another. It's hard to explain..." As Suzan finished speaking I thought her face might burst into flame she was so red in the face. Wendy looked from one of us to the other. Meg was blushing almost as red as Susan.

Wendy spoke up, "What? You mean all I have to do is have sex with all of you while using the gift? Where do I sign up?" she finished with a big grin on her face. Tuyen spoke up.

"No, I don't think you have to have sex with all of us, just one of us. I only shared myself with Ellen and Suzan, and now I am bonded to them. But it is a lot more than sex, I completely opened myself to them. It wasn't hard for us, we have been friends for over 10 years." She said quietly smiling at Ellen and Suzan next to her on the couch.

Suddenly something dawned on me, and things became clear in my head.

"But Tuyen, I can only feel you through my link to Ellen and Suzan. I think I have just understood something. Our strength can come not from being a linear circle of power, but a web, where we are all connected to each other. I don't think we have to all have sex together at the same time physically, I think each of us may need a partner, then we share our experiences all together through our minds." Dimitry was nodding his head, and then spoke.

"I think this would work. A web is stronger then a circle, able to receive strength from any other point in the web at any time. You will forgive me if I tell you I do not wish to be a part of your circle. I have only just discovered my freedom; I am not ready to give any of it up in any way."

"That is okay Dimitry, we are more than grateful for all you have done. Wendy, Meg, you see now that it is not an easy thing for you two to just join the circle." I said quietly.

Wendy spoke up again. "Well I am still willing. I have already had sex with Mike a couple times, so I wouldn't mind doing that again. Actually I have never had a problem with girls either if one of you would be willing." She said looking at the girls.

"I will join the circle too." Meg said in almost a whisper. Everyone looked at this small woman and the silence in the room grew until I found my voice.

"Meg, you don't have to do that, you don't know any of us that well, and it is..."

"Just shut up will you." Meg said her voice rising before continuing. "Just shut up and listen to me. I want to join okay? You people have been kinder to me than anyone I have ever known. I have always been shy, a loner. Now I feel like part of something important, and I want to help." Tears were flowing down her face now and she reached up to wipe her nose as she continued.

"Ellen is the only one of you that knows this, and that is because she counseled me after that man raped me, but before that happened I was a virgin." She looked up at us through her red eyes and tears and you could have heard a pin drop in the room. "I'm not a prude or anything, it just never happened. The guys never felt right, or the timing was off, or something as stupid as when the opportunity arose we didn't have protection.

"Anyway, I told Ellen I wanted to have sex with someone. I wanted to take ownership of my sexuality for myself, and not have my only experience be with that monster at the club. I feel like it will be the last thing I need to do to get over that, to feel like a normal woman."

"Mike that is why I asked you out the other night; I wanted to seduce you." She smiled at me through her tears and I felt my heart expand to fill with love for this woman. How brave she was to expose herself like this to us all. When I spoke my voice shook and I realized I too had tears on my face.

"It would have worked too Meg, if it hadn't been for those bastards that interrupted our evening in that alleyway. If you want to join, you too Wendy, I won't say no. But it isn't up to me." I looked to the girls, from Tuyen to Suzan and Ellen and each of them nodded their ascent.

Later I lead Meg upstairs to the ugly guest bedroom I had shared with Suzan and Ellen before. Tuyen and Wendy were spending a few hours on the fold out couch downstairs, and Susan and Ellen had adjourned to the master bedroom.

We sat on the bed, and Meg smiled at me. She was flushed, and I reached out to her note and sent a gentle note of comfort to her. She smiled, still new enough to the gift to be surprised by the mental touch and pleased by it.

"Are you scared?" I asked.

"No, not scared, but a bit nervous, and pretty tense. Not in the mood I guess you could say." She said with a small laugh. I nodded smiling.

"Yeah, not exactly a low stress situation to have your first time under is it?" I asked.

"Well it technically it is not my first time." She said the smile vanishing from her face.

"Hey, as far as I am concerned it is your first time, at least your first time with someone who cares about you." I said letting my feelings for her sing into her mind. The smile returned.

"Thanks Mike."

"Hey look, why don't we just lay down and evesdrop on the others for a while?" I said with a mischievous smile on my face. Meg got a big grin on her face.

"Now that sounds like a good idea." She said.

We lay down on the bed next to each other and I reached over to take her hand. It struck me as somewhat comical, these two adults fully clothed holding hands on the bed, but then the situation wasn't exactly normal.

I could feel Suzan and Ellen and Tuyen through the bond, and from the feeling of things Tuyen and Wendy had jumped in with both feet so to speak. I wasn't surprised, Wendy was at the age where sex drive could over power almost anything else. Suzan and Ellen however, were approaching things with a more measured pace.

I reached out to them and I could feel them sense my presence and welcome me into the warmth of their connection with each other. Gently I pulled Megs note to me, and shared there feelings with her.

They were gently kissing each other, sharing their love for each other. I could feel Meg's initial shock at being a part of this intimate moment, but then the love and caring of these two women reached out and enveloped her as well and she began to relax. After all, both of them had looked after her physically and mentally after her ordeal, and they cared for her a great deal.

Suzan and Ellen were being very tender with each other, taking the time to slowly explore each other's bodies and minds They could feel our presence in their lovemaking and it was as if each one took turns sharing little things they loved about each other.

The way one responded to a special kiss, or a favorite place to touch. It was quite a feeling to feel the intent of one to please, then the pleasure of the other a moment later. Like a dance between partners who have known each other for a long time, and each move is anticipated, but still delightful in its execution.

Meg and I were not separate from this, but within the link of our minds we became part of the dance. Our emotions flowed into them, and theirs into us. As they moved deeper into their passion, I felt Meg's passion rise with my own. The intimacy between us grew as we opened ourselves to Suzan and Ellen's lovemaking.

Meg and I moved together and began to kiss, her soft lips gentle and supple. I let my hands roam down her back, and her small hips, delighting in the shape of her body. Her small hands slid up under my shirt, caressing my chest and then back. The pleasure of touch sung through both of us, mingled with the dance between Suzan and Ellen and multiplied itself.

I let more of the barriers in my mind down to Meg, and in turn I felt her relax and share with me; the awkwardness of her youth, the trouble with boys and then men, the feeling of being broken because "it" hadn't happened yet. The rape, the betrayal, the healing, and the new friendships with all of us were all part of her, yet she was much more then this.

I felt Ellen's understanding and wisdom flow through her and me, and Suzan's caretaking on top of that. To be so reassured and so loved, and in the midst of such love was more powerful then I can describe. Meg leaned over and whispered in my ear, her voice somehow distant and yet so intimate in the bubble of the rapport we were in.

"Lets get undressed, I don't want anything in the way." Her voice was husky, deep with passion and trance. We shed our cloths awkwardly, and in haste distracted by the bond with Suzan and Ellen. I could feel their humor as we tugged and pulled at stubborn cloths, discarding them haphazardly across the room.

As we lay back down together, our bodies together, the warmth of her flesh against mine sent shivers of pleasure through me. We began to kiss again, and our hands roamed over each others bodies. Meg's breasts were large for her frame, and very firm and smooth, and I played with her nipples gently with my fingers as she moaned into my mouth.

Her hand found my cock, and stroked it gently. Each touch of her hand send waves of pleasure up and through me, and caused a buzzing in the back of my head. Our pleasure poured out into Suzan and Ellen, and I could feel their pleasure join with ours.

But then, a small trickle of concern came from Ellen to me about Tuyen. In a moment I reached out and pulled her and Wendy gently into the bond with the four of us.

Wendy and Tuyen were giving it their best to share with each other, but they were almost strangers to each other. Also, though both of them were adventurous, neither were really gay and the tension and awkwardness was growing between them. I thought for a moment before an idea occurred to me.

I reached out to each of them, and shared all the wonderful memories I had of both of them. To Wendy I shared years of watching and admiring Tuyen's strength and grace, her sharp wit, and unceasing dedication to her friends. I shared how we came to be closer, and the things we had shared. I shared my love of her fire, her passion, and her warmth.

In a sense sharing is not the right words, for she could relive these thoughts and emotions through me and the link. She was becoming intimately aware of the beauty of Tuyen through these notes of memories that I let flood from me. I could feel then Suzan and Ellen share their memories, and their love of her as well. I learned more about my friend from them, and I felt my love for her grow within me.

Then I realized that Meg was gaining all this knowledge as well, and that she too was feeling love and joy for Tuyen. Tuyen poured back through to all of us her joy, love and wonderment at having all of us in her life.

Wendy's warmth for Tuyen went from physical passion to genuine emotional connection. She gained the understanding of years of friendship and trust in minutes, and it kindled a new level of passion within her.

Then I shared with everyone my knowledge of Wendy; of the countless mornings at the Grind, flirting and talking; of her apparent strength, and yet youthful insecurities. I shared all the lust and attraction I had for her over the years. My desire to be a good friend to her, and all the mistakes I though I had made with her with my clumsy use of the gift.

I shared our first encounter, and our later ones, and the fire of passion that burned within her that so attracted me. The intelligence and wit that when coupled with that turned her into a sexual goddess to me. All these things poured out and through Wendy and Tuyen and the others.

Each woman responded with love and understanding. The older women shared their youth with Wendy, their insecurities and strengths; there admiration for her maturity, and passion, and sexual strength. Wendy felt held, encompassed by all of us, seen for all she was and could be, and yet accepted, even celebrated. The passion that had grown in Wendy now bloomed in Tuyen, and in all of us.