Bloodlines Ch.02

"I tell you, she had no idea who I was!" Garth was telling Jeff about his experience at the lecture. He had waited until after the afternoon rush, and Dave had left a short while before.

"That is good I suppose, though don't take this as a reason to try again, you're not quite there yet, though I'll admit I'm impressed at your progress." Garth beamed at the praise but kept his tone serious. "Of course Uncle, I promise to wait until I know more."

"Good lad! Now go restock the shelf with massage oils and lube, we must have sold a dozen bottles today."

Garth was bent forward, placing bottles of lemon-scented lube on the bottom shelf when a hand grabbed his ass from behind. His herb had run out a short while ago, but seeing as it was almost closing time, he chose to go without. "Hi there handsome!" A mirthful voice said, sounding familiar. Before he had time to react, another hand grabbed his other buttock too.

"Hi there handsome!" Alyssa's dusky voice said.

Rising, he turned to them. "Alyssa, Erica, hi!" Unsure what to expect, he leaned forward and hugged Erica briefly.

"What!? No kiss?" He grinned sheepishly as she drew him in for a kiss, her tongue wrestling his as she drew him close. "Whoa there, leave some for me!" Alyssa said from the side. Erica slowly released him, holding him at arm's length to beam at him. Alyssa grabbed his chin, pulling him over and thrusting her mouth at his, just as aggressive. "Mmm, you still taste good!" She grinned wickedly and Garth blushed as he remembered Erica with his cum across her face as she had walked off to 'share' with Alyssa.

"Hey, stop harassing my staff!" Jeff called jovially from behind the counter. "Staff?" Alyssa asked as she arched an eyebrow at Garth. "Yes, Uncle asked me to come work for him. That way we can train while bonding and all. Say, would you girls be willing to let me try some things?" Garth didn't know where the sudden forwardness came from, but the girls smiled and nodded.

He rushed over to the counter, downing a capsule and telling Jeff they had agreed to let him try. "Good initiative, try to single out one of them today, you'll get better quicker if you push yourself." Garth decided to go for Erica; she was obviously the one who was more interested in him.

He trailed them as they walked around the shop, looking at the shelves talking softly, inspecting the odd item here and there. He got the impression they knew the shop well already, they were just giving him time to work. Studying their emotions he began to get a sense for their unique signatures, their hue he decided to label it. Once he identified this it became easier, and soon he felt he had a clear idea of which patch of emotions belonged to Erica. He started pulling on her already considerable Arousal, not bothering with subtlety as he was trying for isolation today.

Erica gasped, her left hand pressing to her groin as she steadied herself on Alyssa's shoulder. "Impressive," His uncle said from behind. "Impressive indeed. Now try to modulate your influence a little, ease up and try to add one more." Garth nodded, sweat beading on his forehead as he concentrated. He imagined squeezing the flow again, reducing it by half. Then he threw out a second wave, Lust, just as strong as the previous one. The effect was compounded; the two emotions fed off one another and flared. Garth was silently very pleased, half hoping for a repeat of the other night.

Instead, however, Erica attacked Alyssa in a whirlwind of kissing and groping, right there in the shop. "Remember what I said about what we can and cannot control?" Jeff asked quietly from behind. "She was attuned to Alyssa today. They had come here to look at some new merchandise, and you only flared Lust unspecifically, but did not make sure you were the target." Garth was mortified; not only had his uncle seen through his attempt, it had backfired as well. "All is not lost, however. Attend!" His voice rose. "Girls, shelf two from the back, lower left corner. You can thank me later!"

Alyssa passed by the counter, Erica clinging to her, a strap-on dildo in her hand, roughly the same size as himself, Garth mused. "Can we use number one?" Alyssa asked, holding her hand out towards Jeff. "Sure!" He smiled, handing her a key from his pocket. "Five minutes, then it's on!" Garth let his confusion show, but Jeff just signaled for him to wait. The girls walked through the door behind the counter, closing it. Jeff locked the front door, turning the closed sign even though it was still only a quarter to eight. He came back to the counter and opened the drawer with capsules. "Do you need more?" He asked. Garth shook his head. "I took a capsule not an hour ago, I'm good."

"Grab another," Jeff said with a sly smile. Garth downed another capsule, tapping into his power. The girls' emotions were a roiling mass, like a small pond being whipped to a fury by a passing storm.

Any single emotion was all but impossible to isolate, everything shifting and gliding together in a hot, molten mass. "I'll take Alyssa, you take Erica," Jeff said, nodding in the direction of the back rooms. With great difficulty he finally took hold of Erica's emotions, noticing that Jeff long ago had Alyssa sorted out. "Now try to copy me, we'll start slow." Jeff started carefully increasing Lust, Arousal, Desire and some others Garth just copied by look or feel, he could not quite tell which. They watched as the girls' emotions started boiling, the effect clearly more than their careful pulling. It rolled on and on, the sensations and emotions feeding back to Garth and Jeff, washing over them like a hot wave. Garth made no attempt to hide his rock hard cock, his pants pitched outwards like a tiny tent.

All of a sudden Pain shot through Erica's emotions, quickly followed by Determination. The Pain receded slowly, being replaced with Accomplishment, Satisfaction and Pride, all the while the other emotions churned around them. Then, as if on some hidden que, everything started rising even higher, pulsing in a rhythmic way, up, up, up. "Get ready," Jeff said, "On my count, surge your power and give them everything you've got. Three, two, one, go!" Garth pulled for all it was worth, a massive flare of emotions surging around them. He half expected the waves to wash over the shelves of the shop, tipping them over. A muted scream could be heard, and then his herb ran out and all was silent.

Five minutes later, the two women shambled out into the shop. Both were flushed and breathing heavily, Erica walking funny. "That. Was. Intense!" Alyssa's voice sounded raw. She handed the key to Jeff then left without another word, leaving both men standing there. The strap-on was nowhere to be seen.

Garth was still rock hard as he walked into his apartment half an hour later. The tram ride home had been torture, his pants still tenting visibly, though luckily not too many people were around. He held his jacket in front of him, but an elderly lady must have seen, for she huffed in disgust and promptly moved to the other end of the wagon.

He was on a mission, aching from the need to come, his pants wet with precum that had seeped through. He fell into the sofa, single-minded in his purpose. Almost ripping the button, he shredded his pants off, underwear right behind, leaving it bunched around his ankles. He sighed in relief as his cock sprang out, finally free of the constraining pants. It stood straight up, veins throbbing and precum seeping in a continuous flow from the slit. He grabbed it with his hand, groaning in pleasure as he started pulling the foreskin back, watching as it slid back along his bulbous head. He started masturbating furiously, not bothering with the pleasure of play and just chasing the much needed release. His hand flew up and down, wet sounds filling the apartment. He could feel it approaching rapidly, a pressure building from his toes, up his legs and converging on his balls. His head started thrashing from side to side, moans escaping his throat as he imagined Alyssa roughly ramming the dildo into Erica from behind.

He reached the point of no return. His hand gripped the base of his cock as it started tensing, preparing for the impending spasm. His head rolled to the side, pleasure making him dizzy as the first spurt shot forth, arcing over his head, hitting the carpet with a wet splat behind him somewhere. His eyes slid open and met her gaze. She was standing in her living room window, looking right at him. Garth froze; this time he was the deer in the headlights. All the while his cock sent spurt after spurt of cum across his sofa, chest and stomach. Her eyes grew wider and wider as he kept spurting, all the pent up excitement seeking release. After what seemed hours, though probably only twenty seconds or so, his cock lurched to a stop and started slowly deflating. Garth held her gaze through it all, past caring now. She mouthed a silent 'Wow' and slowly closed the curtains.

The next day flew by in a blur, lectures in the morning and work in the afternoon. He was constantly using his power, probing anyone he saw or met; dissecting their emotions, seeing how they mixed and merged, interacting and feeding off each other. He was getting better, he knew, but his uncle's ban on manipulating bothered him.

"What about the kineticists? Where do they fit in?" Garth waved his fork towards Jeff. They were sharing a simple dinner after closing the shop. Garth had asked to see those books Jeff had hinted at, wanting to see the other side of the story. Jeff wiped his mouth, putting his own fork down. "Kineticists belong to the bloodline of the other brother. Simply put, their power is telekinesis, moving objects around, though not simple parlor tricks. A few have made names for themselves as magicians, though that is a double-edged sword. Most professional magicians know how the various tricks work, after all, and so, actual magic would soon seem suspicious. Surprisingly many work as scientists, the really good ones are able to manipulate things on a microscopic scale by using powerful microscopes. For the neuropaths, we tend to go more into politics and leadership, where reading people's emotions become powerful tools. Not all are high profile, we all have different ambitions in life, after all."

"But what happens if someone has blood from both lines, getting both powers?" Garth asked, the idea one that had occurred to him earlier that day. "Surely after a thousand years of marriages and such, there would, statistically, be at least some who get both powers." "We work very hard to avoid that." Jeff said gravely. "There have been a few examples across the centuries of people of mixed birth, and it has almost always ended badly. The combination of both powers in one person creates a synergistic effect as the power matures in a person. Simply put, they become vastly more powerful than for example a neuro and a kine working closely together, the two powers are linked, after all."

"What do you mean, ended badly?" Garth asked, his curiosity up. "Have you heard the proverb, Absolute power corrupts absolutely?" Jeff asked. "No, not really, but it makes sense, when I think about it." Garth replied. "Well, imagine you can manipulate a person's mind, like we can, and then reinforce that manipulation physically, creating physical and physiological responses that complement the mental manipulation. All of a sudden, actual mind control and brainwashing become possible. There was a case some two hundred years ago, a mixed blood avoided detection for years until someone happened to notice some villagers acting strange. By the time the local lord could investigate, he had subverted hundreds of people, essentially making them slaves by conditioning them over years to do his bidding." Garth shuddered at the thought, seeing it all to clearly in his mind's eye.

"So you see; mixed blood people are essentially ostracized for fear of them awakening both powers. Nowadays we have a very good overview of both bloodlines and make sure mixing does not happen." Garth wanted to ask how they made sure of that, but decided he probably would not like the answer and left it at that.

Garth spent a couple of hours that evening going through some tomes at Jeff's house, deciding to break it up and read a little at a time, figuring he had years to study it after all. He found accounts of notable practitioners of both powers and some of their exploits, some cautionary tales of power abused, almost always neuro's that started sexually oriented sects, he noted with mixed amusement and trepidation.

He also found some information about the organization, it apparently had no specific name, just a crest; the two flowers that gave power intertwined, yellow St. Johnswort and blue Bluebellvine. The wrist tattoo the mark of a practitioner. Apart from the tattoos, there were no other symbols for members of the organization, at least not any listed in the books he had been given. Garth decided there probably was more, much more, but that information was being kept back until someone higher up had given the clear, or he passed some kind of approval. He decided to trust his uncle's mentoring and focus on the given tasks for now.

There had not been another chance to practice on customers, even though Thursday had seen a rush of what was obviously repeat customers judging from the way Jeff greeted them. When he left at eight, the shop was as busy as ever. His uncle had told him to take off, even though the shop didn't close for another two hours. "Education is just as important as, other things," He said pointedly. "Besides, who do you think did this before you came along?" His uncle's voice had seemed strange, and when he quested out, Garth found Anticipation pulsing through his uncle. Not wanting to come off as whiny, he did as requested; though Garth felt there was something going on he did not know about.

Friday was free from lectures, and Garth was opening the shop by himself. Jeff and Dave were due at noon, two hours later. He got the shop ready, turned on all the display lights and did a quick survey to check all was in order before unlocking the door and flipping the Open-sign at precisely ten. The first half hour crept by slowly, not a customer in sight. Garth sat behind the counter, looking through some order catalogues for various clothing brands, including a bikini brand with almost exclusively sheer, mesh or crotchless designs. As this was a catalogue designed for wholesale and not retail, the pictures were not censored in any way, all the explicit details on show, some even vulgarly so, to best highlight some design feature or other.

While in a way it would have been perfectly understandable to walk around with a prominent erection Garth was reasonably sure his uncle would rather he not. Putting the catalogue down, he instead started looking through the drawers and shelves beneath the counter. He did not find anything particularly interesting, at least not until he opened the bottom drawer. On top were a couple of unlabeled films, the type used in higher end video cameras. The only marking was a small sticker with a date, the more recent from only a week before. Beneath the films was a bag full of pills in blister packs, unmarked, but with a distinctive light blue colour and a stylized V embedded. Very strange. As he was looking at the bag of pills wondering if they could be drugs of some kind, the front door opened. He dropped the bag, closing the drawer with his foot hastily. He needed to ask his uncle what this was all about. Surely not something illegal?

A very distinctive looking woman walked into the shop. Tall and slender, she looked to be in her late thirties, an air of command about her, as if she was used to being in charge. She wore a long black trench coat that almost reached the floor, form fitting black pants underneath and spiked boots with a bit of heel. Garth would never have called her pretty, but she was certainly memorable, bright purple eyeliner with black accents making her dark brown eyes the focal point of her face. Doing a quick count, Garth saw at least ten different piercings in her face. Eleven, he mentally added as she opened her mouth to speak, a thick metal rod through her tongue.

"Where's Jeff?" Her tone firm and commanding, though not unkind, more guarded. "He's not here yet, he'll be in around noon." Garth said simply. "And who might you be?" Her tone had a slight note of suspicion, Garth's neuropathic sense confirming it. "I'm Garth, the new shop assistant." Blank look. "Also, I'm Jeff's nephew." Her face softened, a little. "His nephew, eh?" A speculative note entering her voice. Curiosity blossomed slowly as she regarded him. Shaking her head as if coming to a decision, she took a step towards him. "Anyway, that does not matter. What matters is I forgot something downstairs last night, would you be so kind and open the door for me?" "Downstairs?" Garth's blank look perfectly showed off his absolute lack of comprehension. Confusion shot through her, quickly followed by Mortification and Apprehension. "Ah, I see... He must not have..." She trailed off. "Forget I said that, I'll come back another time when Jeff is here, it's not that important!" With a swish of her coat she was halfway out the door before Garth had time to answer. What was going on here? Garth decided he would have to sit down with his uncle and get to the bottom of this as soon as he got in.

Two hours later Garth approached his uncle in a quiet corner of the shop. "We need to talk." Jeff seemed taken aback by the serious note in his nephew's voice. "Are you involved in something illegal? I found the tapes. And the pills... And what's downstairs?" A jumble of emotions flickered through Jeff; Panic, Fear, Apprehension and Consternation. Confidence quickly resurfaced, however, and in a calm voice he said. "Let's go sit down in the back, I can explain. But no, nothing illegal is going on." Garth relaxed a little, Nervousness banking down, as he was sure his uncle had noticed.

"You remember I said Alyssa and Erica were friends, both privately and professionally? That we were part of a group?" Garth nodded, thinking back to the bar. "Well, it would be more correct to say that Alyssa and Erica are part of my group. As you have seen, we have a fairly open relationship where sex is a key component." "Key component sounds about right," Garth added with a self-satisfied grin.

Jeff relaxed a little, the tension in the room lower. "Well, simply put I realized a few years ago that being a Neuropath can be very profitable, provided you cater to the right type of people. I approached the organization with a proposal, allowing me to share part of the truth about my ability with select individuals. In short, I host events where I use Neuropathy to heighten the experience for everyone. For a price."

Garth was stunned. No wonder his mother had not wanted Garth to be around his uncle. "Now, this is not something to be discussed openly, you understand? I cater to a very select group, some of which are important people with specific tastes; though central to it all is my ability to enhance their experience, not few are part of the organization as well. We are not many, and the group is quite tightly knit together; this is not some prostitution-thing or such." His voice rose a little, the topic obviously a sensitive one. Garth saw his uncle's protectiveness and relaxed; this was not something illegal or shady, exactly. Just not something socially acceptable perhaps.

"But the pills? What about those?" "Ah, those. They are from my friend at the pharmacy, the one who makes the herb capsules. They are a trial batch of a new drug that is coming to the market in a few weeks, all the approvals are in order, they're just organizing the shipment to the pharmacies. It's a potency drug. It's originally meant to help people with erectile dysfunction, but if taken by a healthy person it instead acts as a potency boost. Bluntly put you stay hard for hours..." Garth whistled slowly. Thinking back to his weekend with Christa, he smiled to himself, thinking that hardly had been an issue for him, though he could see the obvious benefits of such a drug. His head was spinning a little at all the revelations, both those about his uncle specifically, but also about Neuropathy in particular. He saw the potential and all of a sudden he could see all kinds of opportunities in his future. "And what's downstairs?" "Come on, it's easier to show you."