Outsiders Pt. 03

Ben glared after them with his lips pressed tight and fists clenched. He noticed that everyone around them was standing still, stunned and a little intimidated by his sudden display of violence. He looked around at the startled faces of children and the concerned faces of the adults and felt the tension in the air. It was enough to make him feel ashamed at what he had done. He put a contrite grin on his face and spread his hands, palms up, in an apologetic gesture. He gave a friendly shrug that was meant to convey how sorry he was about the disruption to their day, but that it couldn't have been helped. He broke into a sincere smile.

Everyone seemed to relax at his simple and charming gesture and the mall went back to its usual hustle and bustle, as if it had been a paused tape that was suddenly unpaused. He paid his surroundings no more mind as both the girls rushed to hug him tight. Raven's large breasts pressed into him on one side and Krista's smaller, but equally perky ones, did the same from the other side.

He felt Krista's jealousy at Raven's participation in the hug. He heard Raven sniff away a tear and whisper, "Thank you," in his ear. She buried her face in his shoulder and he felt her start to sob. He didn't know if it was in relief, or from her distress catching up to her, but it made him uncomfortable, all the same.

"Hey, girls," he softly said, "let's leave this mall before security comes along to ask questions. We can go to the other one and finish your little shopping trip. What do you say?" Raven looked up at him with tears in her eyes. "I'll be with you all the way." He felt Krista's jealousy reach near homicidal intensity as she witnessed the gaze he shared with Raven so he looked over into her green eyes and said, "Both of you."

Her jealous rage abated some and the three of them proceeded to the nearest exit, with Ben holding a comforting arm around each girl's shoulders. They got to Ben's car, deposited their shopping in the trunk and then he had to insist that both girls sit in the back seat. He feared their barely civil discussion, over which one had grabbed the passenger side door handle first, might erupt into violence.

He drove across town with the girls sitting in the back seat and telling him just how brave he had been inside. They thanked him for saving them, though Ben thought that they were exaggerating the danger they had felt. He suspected that Krista could have been able to handle the four dweebs all on her own. They might have been big and brash, but she was wily and resourceful. The girls started a competition to see which one could pay him the biggest compliment.

Ben tuned out the girls as he focused on his driving. He had only been in one fight in his whole life, before today, and he had been beaten up so badly that time that it had made him actively avoid physical confrontations ever since. Back then, he had missed with nearly each and every punch he had thrown, but today he had landed a pair of blows without even concentrating on them. He wondered how that happened. The closest he ever came to combat training was watching "Burn Notice" on TV. He should not have been able to hit those guys. It must have been simple chance.

Ben connected the words "hit" and "chance" into "hit chance", a D&D term. His jaw dropped as he remembered that being a level nineteen sorcerer also carried with it a +9 modifier to hit chance in melee combat. And his strength modifier added another two to that. He put his hand to his brow as he realized that he was literally fifty-five percent more likely to connect with a punch than he had been before his transformation. He had been so focused on the exotic skills and magic spells his transformation had bestowed upon him that he completely forgot about the basic ability scores and the effects those would have on him.

His character's constitution score had been ten, he remembered, so he hadn't been made any hardier by the transformation than he had been before. That was why he hadn't noticed. In D&D, an average human was rated to have an ability score of ten or eleven. Ben stopped at a red light, still ignoring what the girls were saying in the back seat, and recollected his exact ability scores and bonuses they gave him. His strength was fourteen and his dexterity was fifteen, which also meant that he had a combined plus six modifier to his ability to score a hit with any ranged weapon.

He had also been made much wiser by his transformation and he finally acknowledged that he was acting far calmer than he should have been this week. His old self would have freaked out completely at most of the things that have happened to him, but he was able to keep his cool and roll with the changes, as stupendous as they were.

His biggest ability scores were intelligence and charisma. He had been very intelligent before, so the bump to nineteen wasn't that big a deal for him. But his charisma was literally double that of the average human being. He couldn't believe that he had missed it.

He had smooth-talked the used car salesman into practically giving away the car he was driving. The other day, he had chalked it up to having done the research online and he now snorted a soft laugh of derision at how silly his assumption had been. There couldn't be any doubt that he was a master of mesmerism, whether his subject was a lone smooth-talker, or a concerned crowd. The nonchalant reaction of an entire mall to seeing him assault four people was proof positive of his ability to charm people into compliance with but a smile. He shook his head to himself in amused disbelief. With his maxed out ranks in the Bluff skill, he could probably make people believe any kind of lie he wanted them to believe.

A soft, feminine voice caught his attention. "Uh, Ben," Raven asked.

"Yeah?"

"Wasn't that the turn we had to take to get to the mall," she asked, pointing with her thumb over her shoulder at the retreating intersection.

"Oh," Ben exclaimed in surprise. He had spaced out and missed his turn. "Yes, yes it is. Don't worry, I'll take the next turn and get us there safely. Sorry."

"No biggie," Raven said, sitting back to smile at him in the rearview mirror. She appeared to have completely gotten over her unpleasant encounter with the assholes.

"I'm sorry for leaving you all alone back there," he said.

He felt annoyance pop up in Krista's mind. "Are you kidding me," she said. "Sorry for leaving us all alone, in broad daylight, in a public place that has its own security? Geez, I dread to even think about what it would take for you to commit seppuku. Leaving us to stand in line for movie tickets while you went to the bathroom for a minute?"

Ben sighed in annoyance and said, "I meant to say that I'm sorry for those four gangsta wannabes troubling you."

"Did you send them to, uh, how did you put it, trouble us," Krista asked.

"Well, obviously, no," he said.

"Then what have you got to be sorry for," she asked.

Ben made the turn that brought them back on the right track to get to the mall and said, "I'm sorry that it happened, that's all. I said that I'd be there and I wasn't. I'm sorry for that." He looked at Raven in his rearview mirror. She was smiling radiantly at him.

"Oh, that's perfectly ok," she said to him. "You came and you saved us before things could get ugly."

Ben felt Krista's annoyance as she rolled her eyes at Raven's flirty tone of voice. "So, did you get those three killers you went after," Krista asked.

Ben grimaced. He hadn't been particularly eager to start in on that subject with Raven. Not after the upset she had just had in the mall. He had to, now that Krista had brought it up. "Raven," he said, "have you ever heard of The Order of the Hammer?"

Raven shook her head and said, "No. What is that?"

"It's the people that killed Simon and nearly killed you last night," he said.

Raven looked uncomfortable and shot meaningful glances at Krista. Krista leaned forward, in between the front seats and rubbed Ben's chest with one arm. She said, "Don't worry, Raven, I know all about my man Ben having magic. You can speak freely."

Ben ignored Krista's possessive claim. She gave him a quick, tickling peck behind his ear and then sat back down. He looked up into his mirror and saw a ghost of an expression leaving Raven's face. He didn't know what it meant, but he thought it was provoked by Krista's hug. Raven said, "No, I've never heard of this order before. Why did they attack Simon and me? Why did they kill him?"

Her question made Ben wonder. He had assumed that they had come to her house because of the website she had published and they had mentioned taking down. He had assumed that they had tracked the IP address back to her house.

"I was going to ask you that exact same question," Ben said. Raven shrugged with a fake-looking expression of bewilderment on her face. Ben realized Raven didn't know he had been inside her house for the whole duration of the attack. She was trying to fiddle with the truth and hide this website. Something about the website was important and he was going to find out what. "Raven, what exactly do you remember about the attack at your house?"

Raven gulped nervously and looked down. Ben could feel that Krista was staring at her intently, and he allowed himself to be informed by what she could glean off the blonde's facial expressions. Raven drew a deep breath and slowly let it out. She looked to be concentrating and summoning her mental strength. At last, she nodded to herself and said, "I remember them suddenly appearing in the living room and beating Simon to death. I remember them holding me down and standing over me to kill me, too. Then I remember your touch, teleporting me to safety. That's it. That's all I can remember."

Ben felt Krista's displeasure at Raven mentioning his touch and ignored it. He himself felt that he had a spotty recollection of the events of last night. He knew, from his Psych 101 class, that the memories of a traumatic event were strongly recorded in a person's mind, but also deeply burried, so the person that experienced them could function without being haunted by them. It was a basic survival mechanism and he couldn't fault her for it. Even with his enhanced wisdom, he still felt the negative effects of witnessing a violent crime firsthand.

He decided to give her some small measure of comfort. "The three men that came to kill you are dead," he said. He was interrupted by a wave of emotions his words inspired in Krista. He felt her fear, exiliration, envy, desire and jealousy warring inside of her for supremacy. He couldn't make sense of her emotions because Raven threw herself forward and hugged him and his seat with both of her arms.

"Thank you," she whispered into his ear, again and again.

Her hot, moist breath in his ear had a profound effect on him and he found himself sporting yet another raging erection. He was starting to feel like he was a hormonal teenager again and it was not a pleasant feeling. He felt Krista's emotions settle down to allow for one to take point. Her jealousy.

He gently patted Raven on the arm and she sat back down. There were tears in her eyes and she said, "I'm sorry, I just don't know how to thank you for all that you've done for me. First you save my life, then you take me into your home and now you remove the threat to my life. I just don't have the words for it."

"No, you misunderstood," Ben said. "I didn't kill them. Someone else did, last night." Ben felt Krista's relief and disappointment at his words.

"If not you, then who," Raven asked him.

"I don't know," he said. "Do you have any idea who it might have been?"

Raven shook her head no. "I don't even have a clue as to why those three men had killed Simon."

Ben nodded his head. This was twice that she denied having heard the Italian assailant mention her website. He realized he couldn't categorically state that she was lying about the website. She might have simply forgotten about it. "Did you post any websites," he asked Raven.

"Websites," she asked. "What kind of websites?"

Ben felt like he had just revealed his tell at a poker table. "Any kind," he said and shrugged. He acted disinterested and hoped his Charisma and Bluff skill were still on the clock.

"No," Raven said, smiling. "I didn't. Like, never. I wouldn't know how. I suck at computers."

Ben could feel Krista's delight at having caught Raven in a lie. Once again, he found himself tempted to simply dominate Raven and order the truth out of her. It would be the fastest and surest way to find out what everything was all about. After he got the real story out of her, he could try to set her free with a spell of Break Enchantment, or by giving her orders she really didn't want to do and granting her additional chances to break free of his domination on her own. Both methods were long shots, but the game mechanics allowed for them to work. It would just take time.

Time she'd spend as his utterly obedient slave, void of her own free will. Ben grimaced unhappily. He wasn't prepared to do such a thing to her, just because he had caught her in two lies. From what he knew of her, she told him just as many true things. He decided to try and relax her and gently coax her to trust him enough to tell him the unedited truth. He forced a smile to his face.

"What makes you ask me about websites," Raven asked him.

"Never mind," he said, "it's all just nonsense, anyway. Listen! I don't want you to worry, you're still welcome to stay with me and enjoy my protection." He felt Krista seethe in anger at his statement and ignored it, but made a mental note to finally get the girl to tell him the truth about how she felt towards him.

"For how long," Krista asked. "I think Raven would like to be able to strike out on her own and not have to endure being the third wheel in our house."

Raven looked suddenly unsure of herself and Ben said, "Raven, you're staying with me until we find out why those men attacked you and until you feel secure enough to not need my protection anymore." Ben left it unsaid that she'd be asked to stay longer and longer until he felt that he got the truth about his magic out of her.

"Well, they're dead," Krista said. "How much more protection does she need against them?"

"And who killed the killers," Ben asked her. Both the girls looked genuinely concerned by that question. "Like I said, you're welcome to stay under my protection until we find that out and then some."

"How are you going to find that out," Raven asked.

"I have a few ideas," Ben said.

"Like what," Krista asked.

"Well, for one thing," Ben said, "their funeral is tomorrow, so I thought I'd pop by and discreetly see who's attending it. Follow them around with my magic, see what they're up to. I imagine that would reveal a lot about the three dead assassins." The girls nodded at the idea. "Now, on to more pleasant topics! Did you girls find everything you wanted?"

Their shopping trip continued in the second mall with lunch. After that, they spent a few hours hitting store after store and buying things the girls thought they'd need during their stay at Ben's house. Most of it was clothes. In the afternoon, they went to the movies at the multiplex and then had dinner at a pizza place in the city before driving back to his place. They spent their evening just chatting, watching funny clips on the internet and playing charades until it was time to go to sleep. During the evening, Ben casually took another pass at Raven's story, but she stuck to it. He was tired so he had Krista make a bed for Raven on the couch in the den.

Raven saw it and said, "Am I to be all alone tonight?"

"Of course not," Ben said. "Felicia! Come here, girl! Felicia!" His familiar woke up and lazily stretched her limbs before strolling out of his bedroom. "Felicia will keep you company tonight."

The cat yawned and then said, "Is that your way of saying that I need to guard her yet another night, Boss?"

Ben squatted down by her and stroked her fur. "That's right," he said. "She'll keep you company all night long."

"I need to talk to my union rep about these wonky business hours," Felicia grumbled.

"Good night, Raven," Krista said, sporting a huge smile. "Don't let the bed bugs bite!"

She grabbed Ben's hand and all but dragged him to his bedroom.

"Good night," Raven said, sounding disappointed.

As soon as the bedroom door was firmly shut, Krista put her arms around Ben's shoulders and planted a wet kiss across his lips. He felt her lust and arousal and returned her kiss, allowing himself to get lost in it. He felt his reaction give strength to her desire to give a very loud performance for Raven tonight and vocally mark him as her territory and that brought him out of his amorous mood. As much as he wanted to have sex with her again, he first wanted to finally know where the two of them really stood. He sent her the order to quietly tell him the truth of how she really felt towards him.

He felt her try to resist the order and fail. "I don't know how I feel about you," she said. Ben was surprised to hear her say that. She had always seemed very calculated and on top of things to him. To hear her say she didn't know something so intimate and personal, was just weird.

She looked him dead in the eye with an intense gaze and said, "I think that I'm in love with you, Ben, but I just don't know for sure.

"I've never felt this way before. I feel like I can trust you with anything. I've never had anyone in my life to feel like this about. Every man I've ever had in my life... They let me down, or used me for their own ends. It hurt to be used like that and I promised myself that I would be strong. That I would be the user, not the used. I made myself believe that love was just this great, big lie that the media perpetuate so smart people could toss that word around when it suited them and take advantage of the gullibility of the less smart. I'm not so sure about that, anymore.

"I do know for sure that you scare me." Ben frowned. "Not with your magic, though that shit is scary as all fuck, it's you, yourself. I'm afraid of what you would do if you knew the real me. I'm afraid that you wouldn't love me and I'm afraid that if I don't take a chance with you, I'll miss my one and only chance at happiness." She barked out a soft laugh and shook her head to herself as she sniffed. "I know. A gambler afraid to take a chance. Ironic." She wiped the tears from her eyes and took a big breath. "Yesterday, on the island, you made me feel things. Scary things. Intense things. Confusing things. I'm still trying to make sense of it all."

Ben was about to speak up when she said, "I do know that seeing you hug that big-breasted cunt and doing things for her makes me want to brutally murder her." She looked a bit sheepish at having said that and added, "If that helps clear things up."

He could feel how nervous her little confession made her. She was dreading his response. He gazed deep into her wet, green eyes and smiled warmly. Her mask was off and he was finally looking at the real her. He decided it wasn't a bad sight. "I think it might," he said. "I think it just might. There's just one thing that bothers me. Why did you try and take my money from me again?"

"I panicked," she said. "I was teleported and telepathically enslaved and had just been rescued from certain rape and probable death. I was feeling a little overwhelmed. I defaulted to my standard operating procedure and found comfort in it."

He felt her shame at her words and he reached out and put his hands on her cheeks, making her close her eyes and softly sigh. He kissed her forehead, bent forward and put his lips against hers. The kiss was slow and tender, meant to soothe the choking feelings that were threatening to drown her heart. He felt her slowly respond to it and give more and more of her attention to the feeling of his tickling tongue. He decided to give her sexual pleasure and thus break the circle of dark thoughts spinning around in her head.