46

She looked at me for a moment, cocking her head to the side in thought, and then raised her hand and pointed at the standing stone.

"I agree. Now activate the damn rock."

I walked up to the stone with the strange markings on it, and just like in my dream I reached out my hand and smeared the surface of the ancient obelisk with my blood. In no time at all the stone pulsed with power and the strange symbolic writing began to glow with that sickly green light, and I turned to face the woman that had caused me so much grief over the past few weeks.

"Alright, you have your stone," and I pointed to her hood with a flicking gesture. "Now it's your turn. Who are you?"

The woman reached up to grasp the sides of the deep hood that had been keeping her face hidden from my view, and as she did I got a brief glimpse of her nude form underneath the cloak. She was not unattractive from that short glance, and any other time I might have commented to Kelli about it. Now, however, her hood was pulling back she flipped it off to settle around her shoulders with a sharp movement of her wrists.

The pale moonlight illuminated her dark, straight hair, causing it to almost glow black against the night. It was, however, the angry, hate filled eyes of Jasmine that were returning my open mouthed stare.

"I've only known you for what, two weeks," I yelled at her smirking face. "What the hell did Kelli and I do to you?"

Her sneer melted into a mask of rage and I could see that it was all that she could do to keep from attacking me again.

"What did you do," she cried in a voice that burned with her hate and her hurt, and she spat at me before she continued. "You had her! You fucking had her! And still you had to take him from me!"

I stood there confused, because I still had not known her long enough to have taken anyone from her, and she barked out an angry laugh at the sight of my befuddlement.

"Initially I thought you and Kelli were super cute, hell we all did. That kiss you both shared at midnight on New Year's was the definition of fucking hot."

I recalled, then, that Jess and her friends, including Jasmine, had been on that stage at midnight. Of course they would have seen everything. But I still couldn't wrap my mind around the rest.

"We talked about you for some time, and we were hoping that someone had a video of it to post. Then the two of you took off in different directions and the party got back to full swing."

"So what does that have to do with whatever is between us," I asked.

"Do you have any idea how long I had waited. Waited for him to grow up. And once he had, I gave every damn signal, and pushed every damn button that I knew how to use. I still got nothing. Four fucking years! I waited for two and tried for two, and in a thirty minute time span you moved in and cut the goddamned legs out from under me right before you carved out my heart."

She was openly weeping now, but the tears were not tears of sorrow. They held only grief and hatred. And in that one shocking instant I realized what had happened.

"You were in love with Paul," I whispered. "Oh god, I'm sorry."

"Of course I was in love with Paul you fucking whore! And even though you had a girlfriend, even though you had someone already, you just couldn't keep your cheating hands to yourself and you took him before I could tell him how I felt."

"I didn't even know you then," I responded. "How could I have known you were in love with Paul? I only met Paul that night, so there is no way I could have figured that one out."

"Then you should have done what any normal, decent, and right thinking human being would have done. You should have stayed with one fucking person! But you had to be a slut, and whore yourself out to someone else while your girlfriend was probably off doing the same goddamned thing."

Her tears were now tears of sadness as well, and I wished there was something that I could have done for her at that point. Unfortunately, she had made her bed now and she was laying in it for all it was worth.

"I was going to tell him that night. I had decided that I was going to cut through all the bullshit, all the flirting, all the damned hints, and just tell him that I wanted him. That if he wanted, I would follow him to the ends of the earth because I was in love with him. And I got there just as you lead him into the bedroom."

"I'll say it again, though I know it won't help. I'm sorry. I didn't know."

Jasmine found some measure of strength within herself, and stood a little straighter and wiped her eyes.

"You're sorry? No. You're not sorry, but you will be. Pretty soon, Matt is going to use some sort of magic to bind you to him in some sort of slave pact."

She was laughing about this now, and I was beginning to feel the first hints of anger that I knew would consume me if I was not careful, but Jasmine was on a tear and I couldn't stop her.

"That's right. Matt. He will use the collar, and your precious bitch Kelli's life force, to take control of your mind and soul. She will be dead, you will remember all of it, and you won't be able to do shit one about it. And after it all, when Paul is grieving over you both, I will rush in to comfort him and I will finally take back what's mine!"

She spat that last at me as she raised her hand and snapped her fingers like she was calling for something. A second or two later the twin Nekos walked out of the shadows, one of them carrying a matching black collar to theirs. The collar from my dreams.

"I gave you what you wanted bitch," Jasmine said to me as she stared at me with the wild gleam of realized revenge shining in her angry eyes. "Now you give me what you fucking deserve, and live however many god damned lifetimes you may last for, knowing that you could do nothing to prevent it."

I breathed a deep sigh and closed my eyes, letting all of the love I had for Kelli flood out over the bond that we shared and I hoped that the feeling of perfect trust I had for her made it to her as well. I stood straighter, and opened my eyes with a firm determination that I did not know I had, and I motioned the two Neko to me. As they approached me I knelt down so that it would be less difficult for them to fasten the collar around my neck, and my heart ached at the intense sorrow that I saw behind their eyes.

"We are sorry..."

"...sister, but you will soon..."

"...be his. Please..."

"...forgive us."

"There is nothing to forgive," I whispered to them. "This is not your choice. But if I can, I will see you both free tonight."

I smiled at them, and saw both hope and doubt war across their faces for a moment before Jasmine snapped at us.

"Just hurry the fuck up and collar the bitch already. Or do you want to be punished again."

They both shuddered at her threat, and reached up to affix the black metal around my neck, and I felt a bolt of pure fear shoot up my spine at the finality of the metallic locking mechanism snapping together. I waited for a short period, fearing that the events of my dream would suddenly take hold, but nothing happened. The shackles did not automatically spring to my wrists and ankles, Kelli did not die in a spike of pure terror, and I did not feel the sickening presence of the Puppet Master invade my mind. The ward had held.

It didn't take long before Jasmine seemed to sense that something was not right as well, and she stomped over to me and grabbed me by the chin so that she could stare at my face. The sisters just stood back a step, looking at me with a quizzical look on their faces, and for my part I looked back at Jasmine with a self-satisfied smirk on my lips.

"Something wrong," I asked, as she was getting more and more frustrated.

"What the fuck did you do, bitch? You should be under Matt's thumb right now."

She was shaking the chains that attached the shackles, clearly expecting something to happen, and she was getting angrier each second that it didn't.

"No. No fucking way," she hissed under her breath as she manually attached the shackles to my body, again hoping that the magic would take effect, shrieking at me when it did not. "What the fuck did you do?"

"I told you earlier that Kelli and I hold the only trump card in your little game, and that has not changed. We're still playing by my rule book."

I saw it coming but could really not do anything to stop the right cross that spun me around and knocked me onto my face. Jasmine was on the edge of a rage induced breakdown, and I hoped this put her right where I wanted her. I pushed myself to my feet and just grinned at her as I wiped away some blood from the split lip that she had so generously given me.

"You two, bring her," she screamed at the twins and spun on her heel and headed off into the woods.

"What did you..."

"...do? They are..."

"...very mad now."

"Not going to tell you yet," I replied as they grabbed me by the chains and began to drag me after Jasmine's retreating form. "But you'll all find out soon."

"You should stop..."

"...this. The more you..."

"...anger him, the worse..."

"...It will be for you."

"We'll see. I haven't even gotten started yet."