Author's notes:

I've been busy and the holidays are coming, so my initial plan of posting a chapter once per week might not succeed. Sorry about that.

About the language and notation:

The Baylon language is a predecessor to Latin, which is why it looks like Latin at a glance.

Mental communication is denoted by a < and ends with a >, so a mental communication will look like this: "< Who are you? >"

Some warnings:

This is erotic action adventure, meaning that there will be both sex and violence, but I don't mix the two.

This story is posted on the Literotica website and the author does not give permission for it to be reposted or reprinted anywhere else without consent.

P.S. I haven't gotten an editor yet, so any mistakes are mine. Interested editors are welcome :)

P.P.S. While you're here anyway, please rate the chapter and leave a comment :)

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Chapter 26 -- The Night of San Juan

Friday, 23rd of June 2000, Malaga, Spain

---------- Department 55 ----------

Myra Honeycutt was sitting in a chair in the shadow under a large umbrella, sipping cold lemonade while enjoying the summer, the warm air, and the feeling of being on vacation.

She hadn't realized how much she had needed a break, until she arrived in southern Spain from London, but the moment she had left the plane, it was like the air had been let out of a balloon and she had spent the two previous days doing as little as possible.

Fortunately, she had booked the hotel for two weeks, so the loss of a couple of days didn't mean all that much.

In the five years that had gone since her last vacation, she had gotten a new job, worked too much, slept too little, lost some weight, divorced her husband, moved to a new apartment in a new town and in general turned her life upside down. It was perhaps most telling about her new life, that she had chosen to go on vacation with her best friend from work instead of one of her few other friends.

The sound of feet approaching brought her out of her thoughts, and she looked up just as Sheena Rao, her work and vacation partner, took the last few steps to her chair.

Sheena Rao was of Indian descent and normally a young woman whose looks and easy smile turned more than a few heads when she walked down the street, but right now, her face was stern looking.

Maya sighed. She recognized that look and it meant that their vacation was over before it had even really started.

Sheena stopped right beside Maya and, without saying hello, leaned down and whispered. "The boss just called. We got an assignment."

With a sigh, Maya gestured to the chair next to her. "Sit down and tell me about it."

Sheena shook her head. "We need to go change. They've sent someone for us." She showed her teeth in a smile. "Most likely someone from the Department."

Maya nodded silently. They both worked for Interpol's Department 55 or 'The Department' as most employees called it.

Dating back to the 1970's, Department 55 had started as a special branch under Interpol, specializing in investigating 'unusual crimes', but as time went by and more psychics emerged, it had become a small and secret, but well-founded international police force, dealing exclusively with psychics and psychic crimes.

Unfortunately, most psychics developed megalomania when they discovered that they had special powers and these people tended to be heavily involved in crime, as they ruthlessly used their powers to get what they wanted.

Not that there were that many psychics in the world, that was powerful enough to attract the attention of law enforcement. The Department only knew about seven hundred, which was a minuscule number compared to a total world population of six billion people. Then again, most of the psychics the Department knew about, were the criminals and there might be many law-abiding psychics in the world that just wanted to be left alone, which was a blessing as there were only twenty-five psychics in the Department and the number of Psychics were rising year by year.

Personally, Maya suspected that the various intelligence agencies all over the world employed psychics for their own use and since these were rarely discovered, it could push the total number of psychics as high as eight hundred.

On the bright side, psychic powers weren't the superpowers displayed in films and comics, so hunting the criminals down wasn't nearly as exciting or wild as outsiders would think. If somebody ever got around making a movie about her job, it would play more like a boring version of X-files, instead of a superhero film.

Besides investigating crime, one of the most important tasks for The Department had been to find any psychics they detected and tell these people, that just because they had special powers, they were not above the law.

"I guess we can kiss our vacation goodbye then." Maya said sadly. "Too bad... I've just realized that I need one."

"No worries." Smiled Sheena. "I already said that to the boss and in return for our services now, the Department refunds this vacation, and they'll pay for a new one, when the case is over."

That brought a smile to Maya's lips. "Nice. Go change. I'll be there in a moment."

The Indian nodded and walked in the direction of their shared apartment.

Myra drank the rest of her lemonade, placed the glass on the table next to her and was about to stand up, when she spotted a man walking towards her.

Tall and slim with the typical dark complexion of southern Spain, Myra recognized him as Hector Zavala, a Spanish police officer connected to Interpol and Department 55.

Like most people connected with The Department, Hector Zavala was a Psychic and as far as she remembered from his file, he had physical oriented powers and an incredibly tough mental shield. More or less the perfect guard psychic, which was exactly what he normally was.

"Hello, Mr. Zavala."

"Miss Honeycutt," He greeted and sat down in the chair next to her. Then he lowered his voice. "I'm sorry to interrupt your vacation, but there was an attempted kidnapping last night and the fingerprints we found belonged to David Curtis. Care to join in?"

Maya widened her eyes and nodded slowly. David Curtis was not only a Psychic, but also one of the most appalling persons she ever had the misfortune to pursue. Most undiscovered Psychics used their powers to gain riches, sex or both and David Curtis had been no different. A banker by education, Curtis had used his psychic ability to not only steal a lot of money, but also hide them so well, that nobody could trace them once it was discovered that the money had disappeared along with Curtis.

Unfortunately, for the rest of the world, his taste in sex had been molesting underage blonde girls and it had been by trailing that, that they had almost gotten him in England some years ago. He had slipped away by using his psychic abilities on some unsuspecting local coppers that had tried to make an arrest before the Department's people had arrived.

After that, he had disappeared from England for good. At least as far as they knew.

In short, the news that David Curtis had been found again was good news and one they needed to act on immediately.

Myra stood up. "We're wasting time here. There's a limit on how long I can look back in time, so tell me about the rest in car. I assume that you have one ready?"

Zavala nodded with a smile. "Yes, and Miss Rao is being briefed right now. She will talk with the victims."

"Alright, we're moving." Said Maya and walked towards her room. Despite the gravity of the situation, she couldn't help smiling to herself, when she felt someone looking at her body. Feeling sexy was nice and she knew that even in this tourist-ridden city, her red hair, and pale skin was exotic.

She glanced at a window, using the reflection to see if her admirer was the cute bartender, but instead she saw Zavala looking at her, while smiling in honest appreciation.

After a quick change to shirt and pants, Maya walked to the front of the hotel, where Zavala was waiting in his car.

The Spaniard sent her another of his charming smiles when she got into the passenger seat, but it disappeared from one second to the next, as he handed her a folder.

"Here's what we know so far." He said while pulling away from the curb and into the traffic. "David Curtis broke into a secluded house last night and tried to abduct a pair of twins. The twins are here on vacation along with their mother and two of her friends, all of them who are students from America. The pictures and info are in here."

Myra opened the folder and looked at the first sheet, which contained a picture of the twin girls. Being blonde, blue eyed and pretty, they fit right into the type that David Curtis had hunted in England, though his victims usually looked younger.

Next were pictures of the students, which caused her to raise her eyebrows in surprise. The three women were all extremely good looking.

A detail caught her eye and she looked at Zavala. "Two twelve-year old girls with a 25-year-old mother? Are they adopted?"

"No." Zavala grimaced. "I called a friend in California and had him look it up. An early bloomer, Miss Baker was drugged and abused by an unknown man when she was twelve. She became pregnant, but hid it and when the pregnancy was discovered, it was too late for an abortion. Her mother kicked her out, but Miss Baker managed to find a shelter run by a charity organization and stayed there until her twin daughters were born."

"Wow. That's one stubborn girl." Commented Maya. "But wouldn't the government give the legal custody of the kids to Miss Bakers mother?"

"I can't remember the American laws about that, but that wasn't possible." Said Zavala. "The mother died of a drug overdose while Miss Baker was pregnant and without any other family members, she stayed at the shelter along with her twin daughters all the way through her high school years. After that, Miss Baker worked for some years, but eventually went back to school, entering University of Southern California on a Volleyball scholarship." He glanced at her. "There's a lot more to the story, but that's the core of it."

"Impressive woman." Mumbled Myra and looked at the pictures again. "Back to the case. What happened? The short version, please."

"David Curtis broke into the Baker Twin's bedroom, but Karen Chai heard it and interrupted him. Miss Chai happens to be an expert in hand-to-hand combat and kicked his sorry butt." There was a pause as Zavala steered the car around a cabriolet filled with tourists. "Curtis escaped, but in his arrogance, he wasn't wearing a mask and Karen Chai is working with a sketch artist right now, so hopefully we'll know how he looks now soon." He paused as he changed gear. "We caught another break, as he lost one of his gloves while fighting with Miss Chai. That's why we were able to get his fingerprints from the balcony railing."

Myra nodded slowly. "Two questions, Zavala. Why did you say that Curtis was arrogant? He picked a secluded house, inhabited only by women."

"According to the files, Curtis is 188 cm (6'2") tall, but he's thin and doesn't work out." Said the Spaniard and glanced over at her shortly. "Did you see the size of the women?"

"One moment." Maya opened the folder again and looked at the files. Then she read it again to make sure that she wasn't mistaken. According to their passports, Alice Baker was 191 cm (6'3"), Rita Meyers was 188 cm (6'2") and Karen Chai was 185 cm (6'1") tall. "Wow. These are some tall women."

"Yes, they're all about the same height as Curtis." explained Zavala and continued. "They all play volleyball on a high level for their university and are in excellent shape and yet Curtis walked into their house without a weapon."

"Well, as a psychic he would have the advantage not matter what."

"Unless he got surprised, which was exactly what I think happened. That's why I called him arrogant: He thought his mental abilities would save him, if something went wrong."

Maya nodded. "I see what you mean... Are we sure that the witnesses are protected? He will want to get rid of them if he can."

"They're under police protection and trust me when I say that not many of the policemen willingly would take their eyes of them." Zavala smiled. "But since it's Curtis we're dealing with, I've assigned Agent Rao to their protection detail. She should be able to withstand any mental attack he may launch. If we could join her when we're done here, that would be even better."

"Sounds like a plan." She paused. "I guess you want me to look at the crime scene first?"

Hector Zavala shook his head. "No. Miss Chai heard two people running away from the house and the sound of a car. The dogs found a trail and followed it for a while but lost it at the side of the road. Therefore, a description of Curtis, the other person and the car is my top priorities right now."

"Do you think he was arrogant enough to use his own car?"

"I hope so." said Zavala. "You said that you had two questions for me. What's the other one?"

"You said he broke into the children's bedroom... but how did he know it was their room?"

"I don't know." Said the Spaniard with a shrug. "But I assume that Curtis was able to detect where they were. He's a rather good psychic after all. He has also been known to stalk his prey, so he might just have seen it."

Maya nodded with a sigh.

Ten minutes later Myra was standing by the side of the road, focusing her mind, while Zavala kept watch.

At first it didn't seem like anything happened, but then the world started to slow down. The tall grass moved slower and slower in the wind until it stopped completely. Then it started to move backwards, like a movie played in reverse.

Slowly at first, but then it picked up speed.

The shadow of the sun became longer as Myra watched the day in reverse until night started. Then nothing for a long time until suddenly police cars went past. She kept watching until a slightly blurry van rolled backwards until it almost in front of her.

Knowing that the blur meant that this was almost on the edge of how far back she could see, Myra focused her attention on the plate for a moment and then looked up as the doors opened and two persons, a young and an older man, moved backwards out of the van.

Both were dressed in dark clothes, but none of them was wearing masks. The younger of them also moved with a limb and it looked like he was trying to protect his ribcage with his arms. Since she knew that David Curtis was about thirty years old, it had to be him, though he didn't look anything similar to the pictures in the file, but that only meant that he had plastic surgery done.

The older man looked ordinary, with glasses and a receding hairline. The image slowed down even more as Myra concentrated on the men, trying to remember every detail.

Then there was even more blur and the image disappeared as the normal world returned, causing her to stagger.

"Are you okay, Honeycutt?" said Zavala's voice behind her.

Myra turned around. Zavala was leaning against the car, looking slightly worried as he studied her.

"Yes. Why do you ask?"

"Because you have been standing there for about half an hour."

"Sorry about that, but retrocognition takes time." Said Maya. "Your witness was right: There were two men and one of them looked beat up." She removed a lock of her red hair that had blown into her eyes. "Karen Chai must be really good at Martial Arts, because it looked like Curtis had some broken ribs and was limping."

"That fits perfectly with what Miss Chai said."

"Yes, and it looked so serious, that it would be a good idea to call the doctors and hospitals in the area and see if anyone comes in to have their ribs or knee taken care of."

"Good point and I'll do that in a moment." Said Zavala. "What about the vehicle? Anything special about it?"

"Not really. It's a dark grey Ford E-150 van. My guess is that it's about five years old. The plate number is MA 7862 BL".

Zavala looked pleasantly surprised, as he smiled widely. "That's a Malaga number." He said and took his cell phone from a pocket. "Hold on, I'll have it checked."

Myra nodded, took a protein bar from her bag, and wolfed it down. Using her mental powers always caused her to be extremely hungry and protein bars helped.

"No luck so far." Said Zavala as he closed the phone. "The plates were stolen from a carpark near the airport some weeks ago, but at least we know what we're looking for now and they're also contacting the hospitals." He paused and looked at her. "Miss Honeycutt, I've met a few others with your talent, but they rarely get any details. This is a pleasant surprise and I understand why Mr. Newport said that you were the best."

Mr. Newport was the leader of Department 55 and the unexpected compliment from both men caused Maya to blush, but she managed to say, "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Said Zavala with a slight bow. "Now, do you want to take a look at the house?"

Maya shook her head. "Too late, I'm afraid. This event was right at the edge of how long I can look back in time. Five-ten minutes more and it would have been too late. Add the thirty minutes we have been standing here and the only thing we'll see at the house is the police arriving."

Zavala accepted that with a nod "Okay. Then it's back to the station. We need to have a sketch made of the other guy... oh... and could you please take a look at the sketch we already have and see how accurate that is? We really need to get a precise drawing of David Curtis out there, so he doesn't slip away again. You can tell me about the rest on the way."

Maya nodded her agreement. David Curtis had escaped once and that was more than enough.

---------- Ivan ----------

A voice saying, "You better wake up, dude, or you'll be looking like a fucking lobster." woke me up.

I opened my eyed and discovered that the sun had moved. Now it was shining on my face and while I'm more resistant to sunburns than most light-haired people are, I'm not immune to them.

I looked in the direction where the voice came from and saw a man in a sun lounger a couple of feet away. The first thing that caught my eye was the fact, that he was wearing a wide brimmed hat instead of those caps many people used. Dark brown hair showed beneath the hat, along with a pair of friendly brown eyes and a smile in a face that would have been ordinary if he weren't about two days overdue for a shave.

Sitting up in the sun lounger, I turned away from the sun. "Thanks for the warning."

"No problem, man." He answered and lifted an almost empty glass of beer. "Cheers."

Seeing him drink, made me realize that I was thirsty, so I waved to a waiter and ordered two beers. Giving the guy next to me a beer was the least I could do, since he spared me sunburn.

Reaching into my backpack, I found a tube of sun lotion and applied it to my face.

"Two beers? You must be mighty thirsty." The other guy commented as I paid the waiter.

I chuckled and looked up "One is for you and thanks again for the warning."

"Well, let it never be said that I turned down free beer." He said with a friendly grin and took one of the beers. "What's your name, friend?"

His accent was fun listening to, I decided. There was a twang to it I had never heard before.

I took the other beer. "I'm Ivan."

"Julian." His eyes shifted to my backpack. "Nice sword. Good craftsmanship on the hilt."

I looked at the backpack and discovered that, taking out the sun lotion had exposed the sword, so I put the bottle back in the pack and covered up the sword again. "Thanks, I'm rather proud of it."

He drank some of the beer, sighed with satisfaction and asked, "So Ivan, what's guy doing sleeping on the beach with a real sword in his backpack?"

I drank some beer as well. It was cold and wonderfully refreshing. "Well, I was living with some delightful and sexy women, but things happened, and I had to leave in a hurry."

Julian looked at me and started to laugh. "Seriously?"

"Yeah." I said with a smile and got an idea for a cover story. "Let me put it this way: I had to leave so fast that I don't even have a passport with me."

He laughed harder. "Oh, dude, that sucks. So, you can't even get a hotel room, huh?"

I managed to hide my surprise, since I haven't known that I needed a passport to get a hotel room. That seriously screwed up my plans and I shook my head wordlessly.

"Dude, you're something else." Julian said, still laughing. "What are you gonna do now?"

"I'm gonna drink the rest of my beer, try to wake up and then I'll find a solution."

"Well, first of all, you need to hide that sword somewhere. It's fucking illegal to walk around with a blade that long."

I shrugged. "It's not like I have a room to keep it in."

"Try the safety deposit boxes over at the harbour terminal." Julian suggested. "It doesn't require a passport and unlike those at the train station, you can rent them on a weekly basis."

Put that way, it sounded like a good idea and after another beer Julian even showed me the way to the harbour terminal, where I placed most of my valuables and weapons in a safety deposit box.

That lead to me giving a late lunch at a small restaurant, where he let slip that he knew a place that was willing to overlook the need for a passport to get a room, if I didn't mind parting with a little extra cash.

I couldn't detect any deceptions from him and after the lunch, he guided me to a small hotel in a part of the city where there weren't as many tourists.

Julian still thought that my situation was hilarious, so he offered to do the negotiation with the desk clerk, and I happily agreed and paid for a week in cash.

The room I got was smaller than the bedroom in the house and there was an unpleasant smell to it I didn't recognize, but it was a place to stay for now and the room was better than some of the places I had slept over the years.

I placed the rest of my stuff there and walked out again.

"By the way, Julian," I said later as we were having yet another beer at the hotel bar. "What are you doing here? I mean, you don't really look like you're on vacation."

He was silent as he looked me over, but then he shrugged. "I'm looking for a guy."

I didn't think he meant romantically, so I simply asked. "Why?"

"Oh, the idiot skipped bail in the states, and I'm paid to bring him back." He explained and drank some beer before he continued. "I'm a bounty hunter."

I had no idea what a 'bail' was but catching criminals for money is a job almost as old as law enforcement. I had even done it myself a few times. "Nice... Does it pay well?"

He shook his head with a smile. "Not compared to the amount of work that goes into it... but I enjoy it and I'm good at it."

"What're you gonna do when you find the guy?"

He grinned. "I already found him... I wasn't at the beach by chance: It was the dark-haired guy with the glasses that sat near the chair you were sleeping in." He shrugged. "But since I not allowed to simply drag his sorry ass back to the states, I'm only watching him for now." He drank the rest of his beer. "But enough shop talk... Let's go get some more beer."

I was tempted to say yes, but I was still tired from the combat yesterday and my shoulder was aching, so I shook my head. "Thanks, but no thanks... I think I'll catch some sleep instead. How about we meet up tomorrow afternoon instead?"

Julian looked thoughtful and nodded. "Deal... Just knock on the door to number 9 when you're ready."

I chuckled. That he lived here explained why he knew the place. "Will do... See you tomorrow."

He flipped a wave with one hand and walked away, whistling to himself as he walked.

I drank the rest of my beer before I walked back to the room and went to bed.

---------- Department 55 ----------

The police station turned out to be a big white modern four-story building with a helicopter pad on the roof, but more important for Maya was the fact that it was air-conditioned, which was a nice change from the summer heat outside, as Zavala led her through the corridors until they reached a break room.

Sheena Rao sat in a sofa, looking thoughtful as she flipped through some papers, but when Zavala and Maya entered the room, she looked up with a smile. "Hey there. Just in time, as usual."

"Hey." Greeted Maya and sat down in the other end of the sofa. "In time for what?"

Sheena held up a drawing. "Allow me to present David Curtis as he looks now, according to Karen Chai."

Maya raised her eyebrows in surprise. The drawing looked a lot more like the David Curtis she had seen in her look into the past than normal for a sketch from a witness. She noticed Zavala glancing at her and nodded to him. "We don't need to make another drawing. That one is spot on... I mean really spot on."

The policeman smiled. "Good... I'll get it in circulation. See you later and please get the other one done as soon as possible. I'll send up the sketch artist."

Sheena waited until he was gone before asking. "Is it that good?"

"Frame it and it would be a portrait." Maya leaned back. "And Miss Chai hasn't seen him before?"

The Indian shook her head. "No, so if it is as good as you say, that is quite remarkable." She flashed her teeth in a smile. "But then again, we're talking about three remarkable women here."

"Yeah... I saw the pictures. They're stunning." Maya paused. "How about the kids? Are they okay?"

"Surprisingly, yes." Said Sheena. "And before you ask if they said anything useful, the answer is no. They're mute, but Alice Baker, the mother, translated their answers and they didn't see, hear, or smell anything useful... at least not that they can think of yet. We will try again later, but I'm not optimistic."

"Okay." Maya sighed. "I hate when kids are involved... hm... Where are they now?"

"The Baker Twins are talking with a child psychologist with their mother present. Karen Chai is in another breakroom in case we want to ask her more questions and Rita Meyers is at the house along with two police officers to pack some things." Said Sheena. "The local police will move them to a suite at a hotel here in Malaga."

"Good idea." Said Maya and looked around. "Is there a coffee machine around here somewhere? I could really use a cup."

Sheena nodded and stood up. "The one in here needs a refill, but there's one in the other break room. This way."

The break room was surprisingly cozy for a police station and Maya sighed with satisfaction as she sat down in a soft chair with a cup of coffee in her hands.

"This is... " she started but was interrupted when the door flew open, and Zavala looked inside. The Spaniard had a big smile on his face. "We're in luck. One of the local policemen recognized Curtis from the drawing and we're on our way to his farmhouse."

Sheena jumped to her feet, but Zavala shook his head. "We have this covered. I'll get you when we have cleared the area and confirmed that it's him." He looked at Maya. "Honeycutt, the sketch artist is delayed in traffic, but should be back in a moment to make the sketch of the other man."

He ran out before either of them could say anything.

"Damn it!" complained Sheena. "We're missing then fun."

"Relax. I just hope it's the right guy." Said Maya with a shrug and drank some of the coffee. "That pig really needs to be caught."

A while later, a knock on the doorframe made Maya look that way again, expecting it to be a police officer, but instead it was a beautiful Asian woman, whom she immediately recognized from the pictures as Karen Chai. Dressed in tight fitting purple top and a pair of ordinary jeans, she looked a lot taller in real life, than she did in the pictures, but just as beautiful, long legged and smoking hot.

"Excuse me?" Karen Chai said in English. "I saw to commotion, but nobody's telling me anything. Have they found the would-be kidnappers?"

Since Maya couldn't talk about an ongoing investigation, she smiled and said, "We have a lead and I promise you that as soon as we know anything, you will too."

The Asian nodded slowly in response as she looked around, seemingly studying Maya and Sheena for a few seconds each, before her slanted brown eyes returned to Maya. "You have an English accent, but you're police and you're here in Spain. Interpol?"

Maya lifted her eyebrows in surprise. Apparently, the young woman was as smart as she was good looking. She nodded. "Yes. We've been hunting this kidnapper for a while now."

"And you tracked him to Malaga?"

"No. I have to admit that we... Sheena and I... were just here on vacation, when the call came in."

Karen smiled, revealing a set of perfect pearly white teeth. "It's good to be lucky from time to time." She walked over to the coffee machine. "Sorry for disturbing you, but the Spanish police told me to stay in this room. I just had to go to the bathroom."

"No problem. We just needed to relax for a bit." Said Sheena and Maya noticed how her friend's eyes were glued to the tall Asian. Or to be more precise, to Miss Chai's well-formed behind, which looked extremely sexy in the tight-fitting jeans she was wearing.

She hid a smile behind her cup. For some reason, most female Psychics with detection abilities were bi-sexual and Sheena was no exception to the rule. According to the specialists in the department, it had something to do with how the Psychic powers were developed, but they had never given her a detailed description.

She guessed the same factors were the reasons why most men were physical orientated in their powers, while the women were more orientated towards detection, tacking, telepathy and looking back in time.

The strangest part was that having the powers of detection also tended to give the Psychic a higher sex-drive and there was evidence that lack of sex actually lessened the Psychics ability to detect and track other Psychics.

Consequently, the department had a lax view on Detectors that had sex during an assignment and Maya wasn't in doubt that given the chance, Sheena would love to take the tall beautiful Asian to bed.

A movement outside the room caught Maya's eyes and she discovered two police officers, a man and a woman, standing there, looking as Miss Chai as well.

Maya shook her head a bit and brushed a strand of red hair away from her eyes. Zavala had said that not many of the policemen willingly would take their eyes of them, but she hadn't thought he had meant it that literally. Then again, besides being a beautiful woman with a sexy figure, there was something vibrant and energetic about Miss Chai, that seemed to draw people's eyes like a magnet.

Done with making coffee, the Asian walked to a chair with a cup in her hand and sat down. For a moment, she was silent, but then she smiled. "I'm afraid that the two of your will have to start a conversation, because the only thing in my head right now, is about the case you can't talk about."

Sheena smiled back. "No problem... hmm... How long have you studied Martial Arts?"

"I started as soon as I could walk." Said Chai with a slight shrug.

"And what belt do you have now?"

"A slim black leather belt." Said the Asian deadpan, but then grinned. "People always ask me that, but it's a family style, so we don't use belts. I reached the rank of Instructor last year." She thought for a moment. "Normally, that's two levels above a black belt, if you need something to compare it with."

Sheena asked some more questions, but Maya didn't really listen as she just leaned back and relaxed, while thinking about Hector Zavala. There was something intriguing about the Spanish police officer, besides the fact that he was rather good looking, which haven't escaped her attention. She also liked the way he looked at her. Not that it unusual for men to do that, but Zavala had a certain air about him, when he did it, that somehow made it seem like a compliment instead of being creepy.

The sound of the door opening again brought her out of her thoughts and she looked up as a Spanish police officer entered the room. He wasted no time and said in broken English. "Honeycutt. Zavala downstairs for you."

Maya nodded to the police officer and followed him outside.

Hector Zavala was waiting in the parking lot and Maya hurried to his car.

The Spaniard sent her another of his charming smiles and appreciating looks when she got into the passenger seat, but as last time the smile disappeared from one second to the next, as he became all business.

"The drawing will have to wait. We found Curtis, but he is dead." He stated, while pulling away from the curb and into the traffic.

"What? How?"

"Crushed throat." Said Zavala with a grim, yet satisfied smile. "It wasn't painless."

"Oh." Maya nodded. The news that David Curtis had been killed was good news for the rest of the world, but the death of any psychic was subject to investigation, since there was a chance that the psychic had been killed by another and yet unknown psychic. "Can you tell it from the start?"

"Si. When we arrived there, the house was empty, so we searched it and found a whole album filled with trophy pictures in an antique safe." He sighed. "That alone will help on eight other cases involving the disappearance of kids."

There was a pause as Zavala steered the car around a tourist-filled mini-van. "Since the file on Curtis stated that he liked to keep his victims close and underground, we examined his basement and found a hidden door there. After opening it, we found a holding area with four cells. All of them were thankfully empty, except one, where David Curtis lay dead." He steered the car around another bunch of tourists and continued. "According to the doctors, Curtis died from a crushed throat... most likely as a result of a brawl, since he also had a shattered elbow... but we will know more after the autopsy."

"Okay." Said Maya slowly. "Any prints or other clues?"

"They're not done with that yet, but since they haven't found any prints yet, I doubt they will find any." said Zavala with a grimace. "The whole house was clean as a whistle, so whoever killed Curtis, not only wiped the house down, but also did a damn good job of it. However, one of local people said that Parker's best friend was an older Englishman called Samuel Otis. So, another team visited his house, but Otis was nowhere to be found. They took fingerprints from his house and when we ran them, Samuel Otis turned out to be no other than..." Zavala paused for a few seconds, but then finally said, "...Leonard Parker."

That message caused Maya to look up in surprise. Best described as a criminal mastermind, Leonard Parker was a psychic with a powerful mind controlling ability and the Department had been searching for him even longer than Curtis. There even was a rumour, that one of the reasons for the Departments existence was due to Leonard Parkers success.

"Wait!" She exclaimed. "Then the other guy in the van was most likely Parker, meaning that we know what he looks like now."

Zavala nodded with a satisfied smile. "Yes. Despite everything, we're in luck this time."

"We need to get him." Maya declared. "It's about time."

Very little was known for certain about Leonard Parker. Most agreed that he most likely was European, but that was based mostly on the language, as well as the accent, and they didn't even have a good photo of him. According to people who had seen him, he was a non-descript man, easily overlooked in a crowd and just as easily forgotten. Even his age was unknown, though most agreed, due to his criminal record and witness accounts that he had to have been born in the early 1940s, making him around sixty by now.

According to her files, Leonard Parker had started his criminal Psychic carrier, when he had been in Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War. They didn't know exactly what had happened, but according to unconfirmed sources in the British Intelligence, Parker had been the one that planned and executed the 1976 robbery of the British Bank of the Middle East in Beirut, getting away with almost 50 million British Pound. It was in the investigation of that crime, that they got a fingerprint, but not much else.

That was just the start.

In late 1983 Parker was seen in London and Agents from the Department had detected the use of Psychic powers. However, before the Department could pinpoint his location, the people Parker had been seen talking with robbed the Brink's-Mat warehouse in Heathrow airport. Then Parker disappeared again along with three tons of gold bullion worth £35 million, while his mind-controlled puppets got the minor share of £25 million. The puppets were later caught be the police, but Parker and the gold was gone.

Seven years later he was back, robbing the Isabella Stewart Museum in Boston, where he and a partner mind controlled a security guard and got away with thirteen works of art. Since that included a Rembrandt, a Vermeer and some drawings of Degas, the stolen pieces were estimated to around five hundred million dollars and true to form, none of them were ever seen again.

Parker also disappeared without a trace until he, according to rumours, surfaced in 1994 in Cannes, France, where he and two accomplices robbed the Carlton Cannes Hotel for a staggering 60 million pounds in jewellery and precious stones. Again, there were no solid evidence, except for whispers in the criminal world about Parker being behind the robbery, and Parker had yet again disappeared along with the loot.

At least from the view of the normal police, but the Department had detected him several times after that, without being able to locate and catch him.

That Parker had surfaced now, indicated that something was brewing. He usually only came out from wherever he was hiding to pull of something big.

She looked at Zavala. "That is excellent news... if we can manage to catch him, that is."

Zavala smiled back. "Yes, that was more or less my reaction when I heard it."

"Two criminal psychics working together are so rare that I can't really remember another case where that happened, and Curtis used to work alone." Said Maya with a light shake of her head. "To find them both in the same area is highly suspicious."

The Spaniard nodded "Yes. I have alerted the Spanish Police and told them that a highly skilled thief has been seen in the area... I just hope we're lucky and get him this time."

"Yeah, me too." Said Maya.

There were both policemen and crime scene technicians on the scene, but Zavala's credentials got them right through and soon, they were standing alone in the basement, looking at the cell-like room where Curtis had been found.

"Is this a good place for you?" asked Zavala politely.

Maya shivered and shook her head. "No... I can almost feel the helplessness of the victims here and it will overpower everything. Let's try the stairs."

They walked back to the stairs, where Maya stood still and tried to get a feel for the place.

The helplessness was still here, but not nearly as evident as it had been in the cell.

"Better." She said.

Zavala nodded and leaned against the wall, leaving her to do her job.

Closing her eyes, Maya opened her mind and went into a trance. Time stood still as she saw herself standing there, but then events slowly started to roll backwards as she looked back in time.

She saw herself walking backwards up the stair and then other policemen came. Curtis was carried away on a stretcher. More police, but this time they had guns drawn. Then some of the doors started to open and close as if a poltergeist was playing with them, but finally, she reached the vision she had been waiting for: A person carried an extremely blurry Curtis down the stairs and into the cell area, disappeared from her view.

That meant that she had two problems. One of them was that the person was impossible to see. No matter how hard she focused on seeing who it was, it was a blurry mass of nothingness, leaving the identity unknown and even the size and gender was impossible to see. However, the fact that person was able to effortlessly carry an adult down the stairs, suggested that the unknown person was a man.

The second problem was that since she saw the in reverse and there was only one way out, she should have seen the man walk up the stairs before coming down. That meant that the movement of the doors she had seen earlier, had to be caused by an person that couldn't be seen by her ability to look back in time.

She investigated into that and discovered that the blur around the person was only visible when said person interacted with something. Otherwise, he was invisible to her powers.

With a sigh, she closed her mind, opened her eyes, and looked at Zavala, who was leaning against the wall. "This time we're really not in luck. Curtis' killer, can't be detected by my abilities."

That caused Zavala to raise his eyebrows in surprise. "Are we dealing with a Negator?"

A Negator was a psychic whose only power was negating other psychic powers in the area and Maya thought it over before shaking her head. "Not unless it's a kind of Negator we have never seen before. I could see Curtis as he was carried down here, but not the person doing it. If it were a Negator, I wouldn't have been able to see anything at all."

"Okay. So where to next?"

Maya pointed towards the first room behind the hidden door. "We need to go in there. The unknown person took some things from the room. Unfortunately, due to the interference he creates, I can't see exactly what he takes, except that one of the things is a filled bag. We need to check it out in case our unknown person took something we can use to track him with."

Smiling, Zavala made a small bow. "After you, agent Honeycutt."

Two hours later Maya was dizzy, but at least she had a good impression on what had been going on at the crime scene.

"Curtis was killed here." She said as her and Zavala stood in the semi darkness outside the house.

Zavala looked around, but there was no trace of a fight. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. Curtis came out of the door, saw someone he recognized and was going for his gun, when he was pushed or kicked into wall there, which saved him from falling." She pointed at the wall by the kitchen window. "That gave him time to draw and shoot the gun three times, before he took a step forward. Perhaps to get away from the wall." She paused and demonstrated the move. "Then he stops for some reason, possibly because he realized that he missed the shots. Our unknown person moved into close combat range, which is where he must have crushed Curtis' throat."

"Barehanded?" Asked Zavala.

"I can't answer that." Maya said regretfully. "The whole thing is blurry, but shortly after that, Curtis drops his gun and is pushed away, landing there..." She pointed at a spot on the ground. "... and dies shortly thereafter. Then there's a long pause, before the body was carried into the house, where our unknown person then disappears for a while."

She opened the door and walked into the house, followed by Zavala. "From the movement of the doors, my guess is that he searched the house. He finds the hidden door and the cells behind it, check to see that there's nobody there, before he goes back to the first room, where he takes a bag from the hidden closet. Unfortunately, the blurring makes it almost impossible to see what he takes in there. Anyway, after that he carries Curtis' body down the stairs and drops it in a room. Next, he searches the ground floor, where he finds and robs the safes there. After that, he disappears for good."

Zavala was quiet and from the frown on his face, Maya assumed he was thinking.

Not wanting to disturb, she took a protein bar from her bag and slowly ate it.

"We may be looking at this the wrong way." Zavala finally said, "The two cases might be unrelated and that the attempted abduction and the death of Curtis happened at the same night by coincidence. I mean, while this was happening, only the American women knew about the kidnaping attempt and they were busy talking with the police."

Maya nodded slowly while she swallowed the last bit of the protein bar. "I agree. We don't know how much money there was in the bag the unknown person took and we don't know how much money there was in the safe the person cleared out. There's also the possibility that Curtis or Parker have angered some of the local criminal elements."

She looked at Zavala, who nodded in agreement, and continued "There is a thing more to think about: After the initial surprise, Curtis had time to use his psychic abilities before the combat went to close combat. From the look of concentration and then surprise on his face, I would judge that he did use them, but that his psychic abilities work didn't for some reason. Thus, our unknown person is either incredible resistant to psychic abilities, incredible lucky or both."

"And as always, Department 55 needs to know." Stated Zavala with a chuckle.

Smiling back, Maya nodded. "Yes, we need to know everything about Curtis and the same goes for Leonard Parker... or Samuel Otis to use his local name.... Friends, enemies, connections, the works. You know how it goes."

"The local police are already on that." Said Zavala.

Maya nodded and looked around in the living room. A painting on the wall caught her eyes and almost stopped her heart.

"Well, blow me!" She mumbled to herself, as she walked closer to the painting. It showed a black clad man, with a tall black hat, sitting down at the table as he is writing something.

Behind her, a surprised Zavala said, "Excuse me?"

"Well, unless that's a copy," Said Maya slowly, "we're looking at Chez Tortoni by Manet. One of the paintings we think that Parker stole from the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum in 1990, at least to our knowledge. If it's the original, it's worth more than a few million dollars."

Low whistle escaped from Zavala as he walked closer to the painting. "That's a lot. Not top of the list, but still a lot... hmm... Unless I'm mistaken, nothing was ever recovered from that heist."

"You're not mistaken, but we still need to confirm that it is the original." Said Maya looked around in the room. "If it is, we might find other masterpieces here... like the 'The Concert' by Vermeer, that disappeared in the same heist." She glanced over her shoulder to look at the Spanish police officer. "A lot of people will be happy if we retrieve a painting worth a whopping 300 million."

Zavala nodded and pulled out his phone. "I'll double the security both here and around Parker's house and have some art specialists look at the paintings."

"Good idea." Said Maya and thought about the case while Zavala made the phone call. Then she looked at the painting again and sighed. "You know, this case just became even more complicated. If Curtis or Parker sold one or more of the paintings, they would have had a lot of cash on their hands... Not to mention the possibility that Curtis was killed for the paintings, making Parker go into hiding from both us and whoever killed Curtis."

"The possibilities are endless." Admitted Zavala as he pocketed his phone. "But for now, let's take a break until the specialists arrive and then go for a tour of the house and see what else is here."

---------- Ivan ----------

The sound of sex woke me up. The people in the next room were having fun and the rhythmic banging of their bed against the wall, combined with a lot of moaning, made sleep impossible. Since it didn't sound like they were going to finish anytime soon, I stood up, dressed in the local style of dark pants and a white shirt, and walked out in search of something to eat.

The sun had set while I was sleeping, but the city was lit by countless lights in every colour imaginable, most of the shops were still open, the streets were filled with people and there was music everywhere.

Finding a place to eat took a while, but I finally managed to find a vacant table in a restaurant that had tables outside and settled down there.

The waiter brought me a menu, but since I didn't know most of the dishes, I just ordered a four-course menu along with some wine.

The food was excellent and I halfway through the seafood starter when I received a focused call from Cyra. "< Ivan? >"

I couldn't help smiling to myself. The mental communication was a huge improvement from last week and it was so focused, that I doubted anyone else could even detect the sending. It also felt like they were a lot closer than they had been yesterday.

"< Yes, Cyra? >" I sent back and suddenly I could feel Zena on the link, so I added. "< And hey to you too, Zena >"

"< Hey >" There was a pause. "< What're you doing? >"

"< Eating my dinner >" I sent with a mental chuckle. It was clear that the two of them were bored and just wanted to talk. "< Are you in town? >"

"< Yeah. The police moved us to Hotel Aleysa. It's nice and everything, but it's not The House >" sent Zena and Cyra added. "< But they have room-service and we don't have to do anything! >"

"< That's nice but remember to do your excises.... How have your day been? >"

That question was all the Twins needed to start a detailed explanation of their day, complete with mind-images, so I listened through the rest of my meal, gently correcting them any time they were in danger of losing their focus.

One of the key persons in their explanation was an 'Agent Rao', who was a black-haired and dark-skinned woman, that looked like she came from the area around Cinnamon Island or Bharat. A quick search of the knowledge I had gotten from the women told me, that the island was now called Sri Lanka and Bharat was known as India.

"< Hmm... She doesn't look Spanish. Do you know where she's from? >"

"< Australia >" stated Zena. "< She's an international cop that hunt kidnappers. Kinda like FBI for Europe... or the Inquisitors from your story... and she and two other agents are gonna protect us until we leave >"

As she talked, another mind-image followed. This time it was a friendly looking man, that looked like he was a local.

"< Yeah... They're cool! >" said Cyra and added. "< She even showed us a drawing of how they think the kidnappers look like and wanted to know if we had seen them before, but we only saw one of them >" There was a slight pause as mental images followed. The first one was a drawing of the Curtis guy, while the other looked like the one I had seen in Curtis' mind. The one named Parker. "< Do you know who the last guy is? >"

"< And what happened to the first guy? >" added Zena. "< The one that came into our room... They talk about him in past tense... Is he dead? >"

"< Yes, he's dead >" I answered and explained that I had happened upon him on my way to Malaga. He had recognized me and tried to shoot me, so I had to act in self-defense, which led to Curtis' death. They took it better than I had expected, judging from the info from Alice, Rita and Karen about how people looked at killing other people in this age.

"< Thank God! >" Zena said and a moment later Cyra added. "< So that's why you promised he wouldn't come back! >"

"< Yes, but don't tell anyone >"

"< We promise... and thanks >" The link was so filled with warm feelings, that I felt like I had just been given a mental hug and for a moment, there was silence.

Then I asked them about the police and that got them talking again. It had amused them to no end, that the police didn't know they understood Spanish, and they entertained me with stories about what the Spanish police had said for a while.

"< This is fun >" sent Zena as I was finishing my desert.

"< Yeah >" agreed Cyra. "< but we need to go to sleep soon >" There was a mental giggle. "< Right now, they think we're in here reading >"

"< What're Alice, Rita and Karen doing? >"

"< Karen is talking with the Agent Rao, while mom and Rita are watching a movie >" answered Zena.

"< The movie is finished >" Sent Cyra in hurry. "< Mom's coming to tug us in now. Good night > "

It was followed by a "< Good night >" from Zena as well and I just had time to respond with a "< Sweet dreams >" before the mental link disappeared.

The timing was excellent, because at the same moment I swallowed the last spoonful of ice-cream and was able to lean back in the chair and relax.

The international cops intrigued me and while the waiter brought me some tea, I searched my memory for information about the FBI they had been talking about, only to discover that it was a special branch of law enforcement in USA. However, most of the knowledge was from various TV-shows, so it was somewhat unreliable, but it seemed like they were competent and well-educated law officers, and there was no reason to believe that their European counterparts were any different.

Especially since they already had figured out Parker's name, so the plans I've had about searching for Leonard Parker's house would have to be cancelled, as the police would be looking for the guy as well and they would most like find his house before I did.

It also made extremely risky to meet the women, as they would be under police protection, and I highly doubted they would be allowed to enter the city without some form of bodyguards.

To make matters worse, they were scheduled to travel back to USA soon and once they were gone, there was no telling when I would see them again.

All in all, it boiled down to the fact, that if I wanted to meet Alice, Rita, Karen, and the Twins again, I would have to take a trip to USA. Then again, I have travelled the world more than once and there was no reason why I couldn't do it again.

Leaning back in the seat, I drank some wine, looking at the people passing by on the street.

While I had been eating and mind-talking with the Twins, even more people had appeared on the streets and most of them looked like they were dressed for a fun night in town.

They also reminded me, that I needed to find someone to share pleasure with, if I wanted to get rid of the feeling of tiredness in the body.

I was used to being self-reliant and this new dependence on other people was annoying. It hadn't been a problem with Alice, Karen, and Rita around, but now I had to use time and energy to get the Vis I needed. It was like being addicted to a drug and I didn't like it one bit.

I pondered the situation for a moment, but then had to laugh at myself: I was physical young, in good health and as a Baylon Mentat, most women found me sexy without even knowing why, so there was really no reason for self-pity.

With a smile, I signaled the waiter to come over and was about to pay for the meal, when I smelled burning wood in the air. I couldn't see any obvious fires, so I mentioned it to the waiter, but he just smiled and told me that there was a great party on the beach, where they celebrated 'The night of San Juan' by having bonfires, music, and food. It was the party the women had planned on going to, before the kidnapping attempt happened.

Since that sounded like my kind of party, I thanked him and walked in the direction of the beach.

---------- Department 55 ----------

It was late, before Zavala and Honeycutt could get into Zavala's car and drive back to Malaga. The aging specialist and his assistant had taken a tour of the house, appraising everything from furniture to pots and pans. The paintings would have to wait until a team of experts had the opportunity to take a closer look at them in a lab.

Aside from that, the result had been mind-blowing.

Almost everything in the house was either an antique, expensive or both and the specialist had recognized many pieces of stolen property that had been gone for years. All to the tune of more than two million pounds and that was without the paintings and the loot found in the basement, though Maya doubted that it would add more than a few hundred thousand pounds.

"Two million pounds." She mumbled to herself as she looked out into the darkness.

"Much more." remarked Zavala. "You're forgetting the gems and the watches." He steered the car around a corner as he laughed softly. "I wonder if our unknown Psychic know what he has."

Turning her head to look at the Spanish police officer, Maya asked. "What do you mean?"

"Most people think that unless it's Rolex, watches aren't expensive." Zavala explained with a slight smile. "However, you can get a Rolex... a legal one... for five thousand pounds. The watches in the boxes in the cellar were special edition IWC, Patek Phillipe and Lange, and I'm sure the ones he took are of the same quality. Those are prestige watches and among the most expensive watches in the world... None of them are sold for less than a hundred thousand pounds apiece."

"That's a lot of money for a watch!"

"Yes and besides the watches, there was a lot of expensive brands among the jewellery... Chopard, Piaget, Tiffany, Cartier and Van Cleef... and they're just as expensive as the watches." He glanced over at her, saw her surprised facial expression and chuckled as he looked at the road again. "Before I was drafted into Interpol and the Department, I spent a few years in the National Police Corps, investigating theft of high value items. Not art, though. That's another department."

"Are you sure these weren't fakes?" asked Maya as she shook her head a bit at his explanation. From time to time, it was easy to forget that some Agents came from the ranks of ordinary police.

"As sure as I can be, without a closer inspection."

"Can they be traced as being stolen?"

"I highly doubt it." said Zavala with a sigh. "Parker and Curtis would have made sure, that the former owners thought they sold them fair and square. Of cause, if we see someone other than a millionaire wearing a hundred-thousand-pound watch, we need to take a closer look at that person." He slowed the car and pointed to the front. "Take a look at that."

Maya did as he said and discovered that they had an unobstructed view over Malaga. The city lights glittered in the dark, but what drew her attention was the many fires on the beach.

"Oh... The Night of San Juan." She said with a chuckle as they came nearer. "Sheena and I had planned to go there. We wanted to jump over the fire, just in case the legend is true, and you really do get cleansed and purified from it." She shivered a bit. "I never believed in old tales, but after visiting Curtis' cellar, a midnight bath to wash away evil spirits wouldn't be bad either. I guess that will have to wait 'til next year."

Zavala looked thoughtful for a moment, before he said, "No. You have a point. Let's do that."

"Seriously?"

He nodded. "Yes. It's customary to jump over the fires during Hora de las brujas or The Witching Hour, as it's called in English. That the hour after midnight, so we have time to get down there." He smiled. "If you want to go, we go."

Maya nodded slowly. "I would like that very much."

---------- Ivan ----------

As it turned out, the beach party was exactly my kind of party. The beach was full of people of all ages having a good time, while listening to music and dancing around one of the many bonfires, when they weren't busy jumping over them and running into the sea.

Some of the bonfires had been dedicated to food. Around those, there were rows of wooden sticks stuck into the sand and on those sticks, fish were roasting.

With so many people having a good time, the beach was overflowing with positive Vis and just by being there, I immediately felt better.

Since it was the midsummer celebration, I decided to do something I hadn't done for a long time. I found some flowers, bought two flame grilled sardines and a glass of wine, walked to a fire, and sat down to silently pray the traditional prayer to the Goddess of Life, who ruled the summer months, thanking her for waking me up from the trance. That was followed by the equally traditional and silent prayer to the Goddess of Death, thanking her for not accepting my spirit while I was in the trance.

Then I threw the flowers on the fire, before I ate the fish and drank the wine, as I watch the flowers burn and the cinders be carried aloft.

It didn't feel like it was enough, but something Rita had said the week before suddenly popped into my head and inspired me to a quiet prayer.

"Goddesses, grant me the strength to accept the things I cannot change, the power to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. "

Feeling better, I stood up and walked to the nearest beach bar to get some more to drink. I had almost reached it, when a female voice said, "Ivan?"

Looking in the direction of the voice, I saw Nahia Ibarra, Karen's volleyball partner, looking at me with a smile on her face. She was also dressed completely different than the sports bikini I saw her in at the volleyball tournament.

Now she was wearing a white shirt, with a red shawl tied around the waist and a long skirt that reached almost to the ground. I had seen several of the local women dressed the same way and guessed it was some sort of traditional costume.

"Hey Nahia. How's it going?"

She walked over to me. "Fabulous. My back is in better shape, than it has been for years." She hugged me lightly. "Where're Karen and the others?"

There was no way I could quickly explain the last two days to her, so I just said, "Something came up and they had to stay at a hotel."

"Really?" She tilted her head. "Are they okay?"

"Yes, but as you know, they're getting ready to travel back to the US."

Nahia nodded and changed the subject. "Were you going to the bar?"

"Yeah. I'm thirsty."

"Well, go get something to drink then." She said with a smile. "I'll go get some wine for my dad's wine bar and then we can meet up afterwards." She looked around and then pointed at a palm tree a good distance away from the fires. "Over by the tree there? It's something we both recognize."

I agreed and walked towards the bar, while she disappeared in the crowd.

-----------------

To my pleasant surprise, the bar had both pear and apple cider with the same alcohol content as a beer, so I bought two bottles of each and walked to the palm tree. Nahia wasn't there yet, so I sat down in the sand, leaned against the tree, and drank some pear cider, listened to the music, watched people partying and enjoyed the positive feelings on the beach.

I was halfway through the bottle, when Nahia sat down next to me. The red shawl was gone, and the white shirt had been exchanged with a purple halter top that showed off her breasts wonderfully, but she still wore the long black skirt from before.

"Welcome."

"Thanks." She said with a smile. "And sorry for the delay... I had to help my dad with the beach bar and then change into something less official, since my watch is over for now."

"No need to apologize." I chuckled and offered her a bottle. "Apple cider?"

Nahia accepted the bottle. "Thanks... hmm..." She glanced at her phone. "What does... eh... 'Vidi victus veni' mean?"

I laughed. "That you have been exchanging SMS with Rita."

"With Karen, but Rita was there as well." She admitted with a smile. "I wanted to know if they were okay with me drinking with you. They were."

I returned the smile. "Well, with that answer, it can't have been the only thing you asked."

"It wasn't, but what does it mean?"

"It's Latin for 'I saw, I was conquered, I came.'" I translated, still smiling.

"Why does that sound familiar?"

"Because it's a play on Julius Caesar's 'Veni, Vidi, Vici'" I answered with a chuckle. "Which means 'I came, I saw, I conquered' and since Karen isn't into history and doesn't speak Latin, I guess Rita helped her with that... So, what did you ask?"

"I'm not sure I should tell... but then again, those scheming witches must have known I would ask you, since I don't speak Latin." She smiled. "I study electrical engineering, not classical languages." Nahia paused for a moment to drink. "I asked, how good a lover you really are... I haven't really counted Rita's wicked sense of humour into this." A shy grin appeared on her face, but her eyes had a mischievous twinkle to them. "Sorry for being so up front about it, but the way you fixed my back simply rocked my world and I want more before your vacation ends."

I thought back at the massage I had given her, the feeling of her well-shaped, toned body in my hands and the lustful kiss she had given me before we parted. The thoughts had an immediate effect on me and suddenly, my pants seemed too confining.

Instead of saying anything, I reached out, took her gently by the neck and dragged her in for a kiss.

There wasn't a trace of resistance and as soon as our lips met, her tongue danced against mine.

"Awkward position." She panted as our lips parted again and before I had a chance to reply, she swung a leg over mine and sat down on top of me. Feeling my hard dick, she wriggled her bottom a bit and whispered. "For me?"

"If you want it."

Almost by themselves, my hands travelled to her legs, where they started to caress the flesh. Even through the soft material of the skirt, they felt smooth and strong.

Since I was leaned against a tree and she was sitting on top of me, she only had to lean forward a bit to kiss me, which she did. However, she also moved her hips ever so slightly, softly grinding against me and in spite of the fabric separated us, I could feel her pussy pressing directly against my cock.

"Mmm..." Nahia moaned into my mouth and pulled back a bit. "This is so naughty."

Being caught up in the moment, it took me a few heartbeats to realize what she meant, but then it struck me, that we were having what could only be described as foreplay on a public beach. We might be sitting in semi darkness, but we were still visible to people nearby.

"Too naughty?" I asked, but she shook her head, "No. It's too dark for anybody to really see anything, but we need to be careful. I have to live here."

She kissed me again, blocking any chance for me to point out, that she was the one that jumped me and not the other way around.

The kiss went on for a while, becoming hotter by the moment and I could feel her body heating up, as she moaned into my mouth.

Without breaking the kiss, she lifted her body a bit and sneaked a hand under her skirt, enabling her to fondle my now aching hard cock.

At least, that was what she was doing at first, but after a while she started unbuttoning my pants. With a quick pull, she freed my stiff cock from its prison, pushing the front of my briefs down below my balls and wrapping her hand around it, squeezing it lightly as if to test the hardness. She lowered her body until I felt her naked pussy pressing against the head of my cock, rubbing it between the wet lips of her pussy. The lack of panties surprised me, but I guessed she had planned for this or at least hoped for it.

Finally, she broke the kiss, whispering. "I've been wanting to do this since Thursday."

She slowly pushed down and back at the same time, biting her lip as her pussy spread around the head of my cock, opening wider and wider, gripping and slowly sliding down as the head was engulfed in her soft wet tunnel.

"Oh god." She moaned, rocking herself to push her pussy further down my cock, "Karen was right. You have a perfect size cock."

I swallowed a groan as I caressed her back. She was extremely tight, and the walls of her pussy massaged the head of my cock wonderfully, as she slowly and carefully worked more inside her, using small movements I doubted anyone could see in the semi darkness, even if they were looking directly at us. Even the fact that she was burying my cock in her tight wet pussy, was hidden from view by the long black skirt, that concealed our lower bodies like a small blanket.

Nahia went back to kissing me, her inner muscles squeezing me gently each time she lifted off after she had gotten a little more inside. She didn't get more than halfway, before the gentle squeezing turned into a ripple and her body shivered and shook as she came, moaning almost silently into my mouth.

I turned my caress into a hug, holding her tight until her shivers subsided as she came down from her orgasmic heigh. Breaking the kiss, she leaned her forehead against mine and giggled softly. "Karen did say that sex with you was good, but holy fuck was that an understatement."

That made me chuckle. "Don't give me the credit. I've done nothing so far." Holding her a bit tighter, I pressed her downwards on my dick. The orgasm had loosened her up and as I pressed down, my dick slowly but surely went deeper into her.

Nahia rotated her hips again, moaning and shivering with each spin. It took some time but eventually the smooth skin of her thighs and ass were firmly pressed my hips and I was as deep inside her as I could possibly get.

She sat still for a moment, clearly enjoying the feeling. Then she leaned forward and kissed me, gently rocking her hips, grinding her clitoris against me while her soft lips caressed mine and our tongues played.

Her rocking settled into a steady rhythm and to my amusement, her hips moved to the beat of the music someone was playing a little further down the beach.

"This is so exciting." She whispered with a smile when the song ended, squeezing my cock with her pussy. "People might see us, and I can't believe how much it turns me on!" She moved her hips in a circular motion and shivered. "Fuck... I'm already close to coming again!"

I slid my hands under her halter top and cupped her firm breasts, letting her hard nipples stick between my fingers, squeezing them each time I caressed her tits.

Nahia moaned softly and started to rock again, whispering. "God, this is good!"

"Very good." I agreed, enjoying the way her rocking made my dick slide into the warm wet pussy.

Again, she moved her hips to the beat of the new song, driving herself closer and closer to an orgasm, while I enjoyed the feeling of her tight pussy around my dick and her breasts in my hands.

An idea struck me, and I removed my hands from her breasts, and without warning, started to tickle her side, using exaggerated movements, leaving anybody who happened to watch us little doubt, as to what I was doing.

Nahia laughed, squirmed, and bucked as I tickled her, and the movements sent her pussy up and down much faster than before. I stopped tickling her the moment I could feel the orgasm start, took hold of her hips, and pressed her down on my cock, flexing the muscles in my buttocks to make my hips go up at the same time, effectively driving my cock as far into her as I could get in this position. Holding her there with one hand, I quickly reach up with the other and dragged her into an orgasm muffling kiss.

Her body tensed and her pussy contracted as she came with a shudder, screaming softly into my mouth. Using the muscles in the pelvis, I made my dick flex inside while she came, but otherwise, I just held and kissed her, while the climax slowly faded and the energy, she had released flowed into me, washing the tiredness away.

After a while, she broke the kiss, sat up and looked at me with a smile on her face and eyes that sparkled. "That was awesome!"

As she spoke, I could feel her still trembling pussy contract around my cock.

"Yeah, it was." I replied with a smile to match hers. "Even here on the beach."

Nahia hurriedly looked around to see if anybody was watching us, but nobody was paying us any attention as people everywhere was busy dancing drinking and having a good time.

A gleam of red hair caught my eye and as I watched, a good looking red headed woman walked towards one of the bonfires, drawing some attention from the men she passed on her way. I could understand why, as she had an hourglass figure and a large bosom. None of the men approached her though, which I suspected was due to the man walking next to her.

While somewhat short, he had broad shoulders and moved with the confidence of someone that could handle himself in a fight. As he looked around with a smile on his face, I suddenly recognized him as the male Interpol agent, the Twins had shown me in their mind-images earlier.

Nahia squeezed my still stiff cock with her pussy, making me turn my attention back to her as she softly said, "Damn, you have a nice thick cock. I could sit on this all night."

"I'm pretty sure we would be discovered then." I said with a chuckle. "But we could go to my hotel room."

"Yeah, we could..." She said, but then suddenly sighed. "Damn... I have to be here at midnight. I promised my sister, that I would jump over the fire with her... and I have to go visit my grandparents tomorrow and stay there for a few days."

"So, after midnight, but before tomorrow?" I suggested with a smile.

"You don't mind waiting?" She said, sounding a little surprised.

Laughing softly, I dragged her in for a soft kiss. "For sharing pleasure with someone as gorgeous as you, I would wait weeks."

Before she could say anything, I kissed her again, sneaking a hand under her shirt at the same time. She jumped a little, when my fingers slid up her leg until they reached her pussy, where I started to draw circles around her clitoris, making her moan into my mouth.

She kissed me harder and in response, I stopped the circling, placed a finger on each side of the sensitive organ and slowly moved them up and down, stroking the clitoris.

"Mmmmmm." She groaned and rocked her hips, pressing down on my stiff cock. I could feel her pussy trying to clamp tighter around me, as her rocking made it go in and out, stimulating her with each little move.

Keeping it slow, I continued to kiss and stroke her for some time, alternating between vertical strokes along the clitoris and horizontal strokes, that made my finger glide over her hard nub.

Nahia loved it, moaning, and groaning into my mouth, while gently rocking her hips to move my cock inside her. Her pussy clenching and unclenching in response to my strokes, her juices flowing freely down the base of my shaft, running down my balls.

With the slow pace, I was setting along with the limited movements we could make, it took a while before she was ready to come again, but I could feel her orgasm building.

Breaking the kiss, I whispered. "Ready?"

"Fuck, yeah!" She panted with a grin.

Leaning my head back, I dragged her closer to me, causing her to move forward and lift her hips.

With a quick move of my hips, I pulled my cock out of her, immediately replacing it with my fingers.

Kissing her to muffle the coming scream, I rammed two fingers into her, aiming right at her pleasure zone and finding it, as the palm of my hand connected with her clitoris.

She stiffened and the groaned, as I pressed the tips of my fingers against the pleasure zone and started to move my hand back and forth, massaging both the pleasure zone and the clitoris fast and firmly.

Nahia's body started to shiver, then tremble. Her pussy contracting around my fingers, clenching and gripping them as they went in and out.

"Uhhhhhhhh mmmmm" She screamed into my mouth as she came, her pussy squirting juice over me and her body spasming, while I held her tight until she collapsed on top of me, gasping for air.

We sat like that for a while, but eventually, she rose her head and kissed me softly. "Thank you."

I returned the kiss. "I'm not sure why you're thanking me, but you're welcome."

"For giving me the wildest orgasm in my life." She said softly and gave me another kiss, just as an electronic sound went off next to us.

Nahia looked irritated as she picked up her phone, but suddenly widened her eyes. "Shit. It's almost midnight and my sister's looking for me!"

"Lift your hips." I said and when she did it, I reached under the long black skirt, pulled up my briefs and buttoned my pants. Not exactly an easy task with a hard-on and not being able to see what I was doing, but after some fumbling, I got it done. "There you go."

With a smile she moved of me, sitting down to my left.

"Holy shit... was that me?" she said as she looked at the wet spot her juices had made on my pants.

"Yeah." I said with a smile. Since the pants were so dark blue that they were almost black, the soaked part wasn't easy to see, but just to be on the safe side, I took the rest of the cider and emptied it over the wet spot.

She looked at me. "Ehh why did you do that? It's not like people can see what caused it."

"I know, but now they can't smell it either." I said with a grin.

Nahia returned the grin. "Clever man... hmm... I better go find my sister before she finds me. Can we meet here in like half an hour?"

"I'll look forward to it."

She kissed me one last time, before she stood up and walked away.

Taking another cider, I opened it and drank some, before I stood, adjusting my hard-on, so it wasn't as visible. Something out of the corner of my eye caught my attention and looking over, I saw a trio of what looked like tourists, two women and a man, sitting on a blanket on the sand, drinking beer.

When they saw me looking in their direction, they all smiled widely and lifted their beer bottles in a salute. The guy gave me a thumps-up sign, while the two women placed their bottles on the sand and mimicked clapping.

Glancing at the palm tree, I realized that they must have arrived while Nahia and I was kissing and due to the position and the tree, Nahia haven't been able to see them sitting there. They might not have been able to see our faces for the tree, but they were able to see most of what we were doing and from their reaction, they had obviously seen most of it.

The only saving grace was that they were light haired, fair-skinned, and were wearing shorts, T-shirts, and sandals, marking them as tourists. That made in unlikely, that they would have any chance of ruining Nahia's reputation, so I raised a bottle of cider to return the salute and bowed slightly, which caused the trio to laugh.

With a return smile, I turned and walked over to one of the larger bonfires, where I sat down so my pants could dry. Looking at the partying people on the beach, I could feel the smile on my face.

Life was good, I decided and was about to drink more of the cider, when the strangest thing happened. It started as a tingling sensation in my neck and slowly spread all over my body. It was the feel of Vis Vitae.

At the same time, people shouted "Midnight!" in several languages and all around, people started to jump over the smaller fires.

The tingling sensation was still there, so I closed my eyes, focused on seeing the Vis and then opened them again. The air was like a thick fog as Vis energy materialized, flowing in huge amounts along the beach, engulfing everybody there.

I laughed to myself when I realized it was a temporary Dragon- or Ley line. One so old that its existence had been woven into the local folklore. There were several of these temporary Ley lines around the world and usually they were only there for four to ten glass (2-5 hours), before they were gone again.

I had no clue what caused them, because they weren't connected to any of the usual celestial phenomenon like solstices or eclipses, but an ancient theory said Vis Vitae moved like the ocean and that events like this one was the Vis equivalent to a local flood tide. It this case the 'flood tide' happened two days after summer solstice and must have done so for hundreds of years, but every temporary Ley lines followed a different pattern.

The old tale about being cleansed by midnight made a lot more sense now and I looked around. Having free flowing Vis Vitae around you does make you feel better, but for it to really work, someone must direct it. There was nobody to see, but the energy seemed to naturally convene around the bonfires, explaining where the tradition of jumping over them had come from.

On a whim, I inserted myself into the flow of Vis, enjoying the feeling as the energy ran through me. It also enabled me to see the Vis of the people around the fire I was sitting by and while some were shining brightly, others were dim, like they had been under a lot of stress or have had some bad experiences lately.

The fire also drew my eyes. Unlike what it looked like in the real world, it was shaping the flow of Vis into a pattern, that to my eyes looked a lot like the flowers I had sacrificed to the goddesses earlier. I don't normally believe in signs from the Goddesses, as they generally don't communicate with people in any direct way, but this time it did seem like a powerful hint.

I pondered it for a moment and then nodded to myself. If it were only my imagination running wild, it would make a lot of people feel good with no harm done and unless there were an experienced Vis user present at the beach, which was highly unlikely in this day and age, no one would ever know.

Taking a deep breath, I started shaping the flow of the Vis, twisting the fog of free-flowing energy into smaller rivers of more concentrated Vis that spread all over the beach like a wave coming from the bonfire I was sitting at. Since I was using the same pattern as in the bonfire, it looked like a giant bed of glowing flowers growing quickly across the beach in all directions, destroying any effect of negative Vis it encountered.

It would also give anyone embracing Vis Mortem willingly an exceptionally hard time, but I doubted that there were any of those on the beach tonight.

As the pattern came further away from me, it became harder to control, so I set up a self-replicating flower pattern within the wave of Vis and then released it, watching as it travelled down the beach until I couldn't see it anymore, going faster and faster as the pattern replicated itself.

The intensity of the flow increased, flared up in a sudden eruption that sent waves up and down the beach before it disappeared as suddenly as it had started.

However, the effect on the people didn't disappear and many of those who had shone dimly was now shining brightly.

"Happy Night of San Juan." I whispered into the air.

---------- Department 55 ----------

Maya drank the last of the beer Zavala had given her and looked around. There were partying people everywhere and just looking at all the happy people made her feel better.

A shiver ran through her body, as somebody near her in an excited voice shouted "Midnight!" in English. Zavala must had heard it as well, because he looked at her with another one of his charming smiles and extended a hand towards her. "Time to jump the bonfire and chase the darkness away."

Maya took the hand without hesitation and a moment later, they were running hand in hand towards the low fire, jumped over it and continued running into the ocean.

She gasped as she hit the water, but it was warmer than she had expected and after an initial cold feeling, it quickly became acceptable.

She stopped and looked a Zavala, who looked completely out of place, standing in hip deep water in his dark suit.

Abruptly the small hairs on her neck rose and she could feel a pressure wash over and through her, causing her to stumble and fall completely into the water for a moment, before Zavala pulled her up again, using his other arm to steady her. "Are you okay?"

Maya was about to say no, when she suddenly realized, that she did feel okay. The sense of dread from Curtis' house had faded, along with the sense of tiredness. She was in sunny Spain, standing in warm water in the arms of a gallant, charming and competent Spanish police officer, who knew what she could do and wasn't freaked out about it. On the contrary, he admired it, just as he admired her looks, without being creepy about it.

The light from the bonfires made his dark eyes glitter as she looked into them and the memory of her ex-spouse seemed to fade away along with the tiredness she had felt earlier.

Zavala must have felt the shift in her emotions, because without a word, he held her a bit tighter, turning her towards him and gave her a kiss, that made her world spin and her body tingle.

---------- Karen ----------

One of the few perks about having been moved from the vacation house to a luxurious beach hotel, was the view over the beach and Karen stood on the balcony attached to their rooms, enjoying the sight of the bonfires on the beach, when she felt something in the air. It was a pleasant feeling, like experiencing the first day of spring with friends, but it also reminded her of the feel in the small grove where she had trained with Ivan.

Concentrating hard, she tried to shift her vision, so she could see the Qi and after the third attempt, she succeeded. Then she gasped. The beach below her was a fog of energy, flowing freely from one bonfire to the next, creating beautiful flower shapes whenever it met the flames.

Then, without warning, it changed.

The fog of energy around one fire suddenly twisted and became a glowing flowerbed of energy, shooting out into the rest of the fog, changing it into more glowing flowers that did the same.

The flowerbed kept growing until it encompassed the part of the beach she could see, and she suddenly realized it would reach the hotel before she could move.

Energy washed over her, making her skin tingle. Curious, she tried to absorb some of it and giggled with joy, as the energy filled her, creating an incredible feeling of wellbeing.

Laughing softly to herself, she shook her head, whispering, "Ivan, you crazy man! What're you doing?" into the night.

---------- Ivan ----------

Feeling good about myself, I left the bonfire and walked back to the place, where I had agreed to meet with Nahia. She wasn't there yet, so I got another cider from the nearby bar and sat down to wait, enjoying the cold drink and the music coming from a group of people sitting a bit further down the beach.

Even this far from the fires the night was pleasantly warm, and I was just sitting there, enjoying being alive, when I noticed the lyrics from the music.

"Birds flying high you know how I feel

And I'm feeling good"

That certainly fit my mood and made me smile. It was a new life, with new challenges, but I had money enough to last for a long time, a cold drink in my hand and there was no shortage of good-looking women. Not bad at all in my book.

More lines from the song reached me.

"And this old world is a new world

For me"

Again, I found myself agreeing with lyrics, but before I had time to think more about them, I spotted Nahia walking towards me and she did not look pleased. I guessed something, or someone had interfered with her plans.

"Sorry, Ivan." She said as soon as she reached me. "I'll have to take a rain check on our date."

"I guessed as much from the way your look. What happened?"

"My mom." She signed. "I had to promise her to make sure my sister got home and into her bed."

There wasn't much I could do about that, so I gave her a hug. "Sorry about that."

She hugged me back. "Do you think you're still here in four days?"

"I'll try, but I can't really promise it."

"Just try." Nahia said with a faint smile. "I got to run. My sister is waiting. What's your phone number? Then I'll call when I get back."

"I don't have a phone at the moment but give me your number and I'll call you." I said, projecting the 'no need to ask question' into her.

She accepted the answer and gave me her number, before giving me a final kiss and walking away.

I watched her as she walked. I would have loved to spend the night her, but apparently the goddesses had other plans.

---------- Department 55 ----------

The trip back to the car, the short drive to the hotel and the walk to her room was a surreal experience for Maya.

Her body felt like it was on fire and her mind floated on a lust driven high, as she and Hector Zavala kissed and touched at any chance they got.

They managed to walk normally from the car and passed the guards in the hotel lobby, but as soon as the elevator started to move, Maya kissed him again, pressing her tongue between his lips until it found his tongue and then teased it decidedly.

Zavala put his arms around her and kissed her back with a passion, that made her head spin again, but not more than she could feel the growing hardness of his cock against her body.

She eased up the kiss to give him a smile, making him shake his head and whisper breathlessly.

"We shouldn't be doing this!"

"Why not?" Whispered Maya back, brushing her lips against his, before continuing. "As far as I know, we're both single."

Zavala groaned at the contact, but said, "I know, but we're on a mission and..."

"And nothing." interrupted Maya with a grin. "The Department has no rules against it."

Zavala blinked a few times in surprise. "Really?"

"Yes. This isn't against the rules." Said Maya, got on her tiptoes and threw her arms around his neck to kiss him again, grinding slightly against his now fully erect dick.

Giving up on protesting, Zavala kissed her back, hugging her at the same time.

A 'ding' announced they had reached their floor and Maya broke the kiss. "Your room. Now!"

They had barely closed the door behind them when Zavala drew her in for another kiss. It was a kiss filled with heat and desire and Maya turned her head slightly to better match the angle, when she felt his hand gently caressing her lower back, feeding the flames inside her.

Happily, Maya reached up and buried a hand in Zavala's thick black hair as she kissed him back. The hand on her back slid lower, caressing the top of her buttocks, causing her to gasp.

Zavala broke the kiss but used the hand on her back to pull her in closer, pressing her breasts against his chest. His lips moved to her ear, gently nibbling and kissing her earlobe before he kissed the side of her neck, twirling his tongue in the skin in a way that sent shivers of pleasure all the ways through her body.

Then he kissed his way back to her ear, whispering, "let's get you out of that wet dress."

"And you out of those wet clothes." Maya whispered back and removed the hand from his hair.

He nodded and took a step back, giving her room, while taking of his jacket.

Getting out of the wet dress was annoying, as it clung to her skin and made it impossible to do with any form of elegance, but as Maya finally got the dress over her head, she noticed that Zavala had stopped taking his clothes of and instead was looking at her with the most intense stare she had ever experienced.

"God, you're beautiful!" Zavala said, sending her one of his little charming smiles.

Maya could feel her cheeks becoming warm in a flush, as she took in the sight of his broad, muscular chest and powerful arms. A sight that just made her even more turned on. The Spaniard was so much sexier than her idiot of an ex-husband that it wasn't even funny.

They kissed again, hands exploring each other's bodies.

Suddenly, Zavala bent his knees, locked his hands behind her and lifted her a few inches of the floor before he carried her to the bed.

Maya gasped in surprise and then giggled as Zavala placed her on the sheets, but instead of just letting herself fall, she reached out and dragged Zavala down with her, ending with the Spaniard laying between her spread legs.

"Ohh." Maya moaned into Zavala's mouth as she felt his erection throbbing against the this panties covering her pussy and the feeling sent more lightnings of pleasure through her body and made her dug her fingers into his back in return. His skin was smooth and hot, and she felt his muscles move under her palms.

Zavala broke the kiss, breathing heavily. "Are you sure about this?"

Maya nodded and dragged him down for a kiss with one hand, while the other reached between her legs and grabbed his dick, feeling the warm hardness.

Still kissing her, Zavala let a hand trail down her body until it reached the edge of her panties. There was a second of hesitation, but then the hand slid under the cotton, finding her wet pussy.

Maya gasped as he gently traced her pussy lips with his fingers. She spread her legs more, grinding her pussy against his hand. One of his fingers slipped in between her wet lips and teased the opening, before going inside her and slowly massaged her from the inside.

It was sweet torture and Maya loved every second of it, but it couldn't continue. It had been too long since she last had a sexual encounter and she couldn't handle much more teasing, having been turned on since the kiss on the beach.

With a little tug, she freed his stiff cock and closed her hand around it. It was bigger than she had expected, mostly because it was larger than her ex', but still not too large.

She broke the kiss and looked into his warm brown eyes. "No more teasing. Fuck me. Now."

She gasped, as Zavala removed his fingers from her, took hold of her panties and simply ripped them off her. Then his hips shot forward and Maya guided the tip of his cock to the entrance.

To her surprise, he didn't dive right in and she held her breath as he moved the tip of his cock along her slit, enjoying the smooth wetness.

She gasped again, as he pushed all the way inside her. That was followed by a moan, as she felt her pussy stretch to accommodate his cock. It felt amazing, but a moment later it became even better as Zavala slowly moved in and out of her, savouring every moment.

"God, you feel as good as you look." Zavala whispered into her ear as he increased the pace slightly.

"Likewise." Maya groaned as Zavala went so deep, she could feel his balls against her ass. Then he surprised her, by raising up on an elbow and tilt over in the bed, so her right leg was caught under him, while she was laying on his left arm.

The reason for the change in position became clear to Maya a moment later as his right hand found her clitoris and started massaging it.

"Oh, shit!" She groaned, feeling his cock penetrating her again and again, while his fingers circled her clitoris. She vaguely felt his left arm move and then her bra sprang open, freeing her tits. Without stopping his movements, Zavala bent his head and used his teeth to lift the bra off, before his mouth closed on a stiff nipple, tongue dancing.

With another moan, Maya grabbed his head and pressed it against her breasts. The added sensation building more pleasure on top of the rest. Each time he thrust into her, she felt a wave of pleasure building up deep inside of her pussy.

In response, she tensed up her muscles, clamping down on his stiff cock.

Zavala let out a moan. "Easy, Maya... I'm gonna come too fast if you do that."

Maya shook with pleasure. For some reason, the sound of him saying her name was the trigger and suddenly the orgasm overtook her, making her cry out loud as pleasure thundered through her mind and body.

Strong hands held her and then Zavala suddenly went into a frenzy, hammering into her hard and fast, making her come several times over. It was magnificent, heavenly.

Just as she came down from the last orgasm, Zavala groaned. "Outside or inside?"

The question sent a shiver through her body. "Inside! It's safe."

He groaned again and hammered into her a few more times, as she felt his dick swell and then his hot semen hit the inside of her pussy, the feeling alone making her come again.

Maya felt all tension leaving her body and she let her head fell down on the bed, still tingling with bliss all over. Zavala pulled out of her and lay down beside her and with a satisfied sigh, she rolled onto his chest, smiling when she felt his arm around her waist, holding her gently as he bent his head to kiss her hair.

---------- Ivan ----------

Since my plans had been changed, I walked over to the nearest bar and bought more cider, buying two bottles of apple cider this time, since the pear cider had been too sweet for my taste.

Having bought what I came for, I turned around to walk away but stopped as I saw a flustered looking young woman saying something in a foreign language to a pair of young men, who were standing in front of her with wide grins on their faces.

She emitted a mix of irritation and insecurity, combined with a hint of fear, but the two young men seem oblivious to the fact that they were making her uncomfortable. The strawberry red hair and pale complexion looked vaguely familiar and as she shook her head, her face turned my way and I recognized her as one of the three tourists, that had been watching Nahia and I earlier.

For a moment, I pondered what to do, but decided on a plan and walked over to her, saying "Here's your cider, Honey.", as I handed her one of the bottles. She looked at me in surprise and since the two, now silent, men couldn't see my face, I sent her a wink, before looking at the two young men. "Are they friends of yours that I haven't met yet?"

"No and they were just about to leave." She said, sending the pair a stern glance. "Right, boys?"

"Right." They said and sent me a dirty look before they walked away, quickly disappearing into the crowd.

"Thank you so much for the rescue." The woman said, holding out the bottle of cider I had given her.

"You're welcome and just keep it if you want." I said with a smile. "Have a nice night."

I turned to walk away, but she stopped me by placing a hand on my arm. "What's the hurry?"

Turning around again, I shrugged. "No hurry. I just assumed that you wanted to get back to your friends."

"They can wait." She stated with a smile, that showed perfect teeth behind full lips and I realized that she was quite good looking. The strawberry-red hair framing a face that wouldn't have looked out of place in the fashion magazines in the hotel. The insecurity from before was gone and had been replaced with a spike of interest. "Or are you in a hurry to get back to your lover from the palm tree?"

That made me laugh. "No. Unfortunately, she had to go home and are leaving for northern Spain tomorrow, so I guess that's the end of that." Before she could ask any questions, I changed the subject. "I'm Ivan, by the way."

The smile became a little wider. "I'm Natasa... and I better explain the two guys from before."

"That would be nice, but can we find a quieter place? It's quite noisy here."

"Sure."

We relocated to a low wall away from the fires and the crowd, and she started her explanation by saying. "I'm from Croatia and in Croatia there's a famous pornstar by the name of Ginger Joy, who unfortunately looks so similar to me, that people often confuse me with her."

It took me a few heartbeats to remember what a pornstar was, as Rita and Karen had mentioned it during a conversation. Another thing was that she was from Croatia. The same country Curtis had claimed to come from in Ivan Kolba set of fake ID papers I had found in the bag at the house.

"And why would that cause them to harass you?"

"'Cause they were insisting that since Ginger Joy got money from having sex in movies, they could pay me to have sex with them." She said calmly. "I tried to point out, that I'm not Ginger Joy, but they didn't believe me."

"I guess that have happened before."

"Oh yes. Too many times and it's tiresome to explain that they're wrong."

I nodded, but a smile crept onto my face, causing her to say. "It's not a funny as it sounds."

"I know, but you're certainly both beautiful and sexy enough to be a star in such films," I said as my smile widened. "So, while the young men from before were braindead, rude and in dire need of a spanking, I can't really fault their taste in women."

That made her blush. "That's the strangest compliment I've ever gotten."

"Only the truth." I said. "But to be honest, next time don't waste time arguing with them. Just ask for an outrageous amount of money... to be paid upfront."

She laughed again. "And if they pay?"

"Either explain that you're not Ginger Joy or buy a house afterwards."

For some reason, that made her double over with laughter.

I smiled as I watched her and decided that I needed to seduce her. Not only was she just as sexy and beautiful as I had said she was, but if I were to use the fake passport at some point, I needed to learn both the language and details about the country, and she would be an enjoyable source. That she seemed like a good-natured person only made it better.

So, while she explained that she had just finished school and was starting on a combined acting and journalism education after her vacation here in Malaga, I listened carefully, asking question about Split, which was the city she came from, and the country in general.

"So, in all this you've only mentioned ex-boyfriends." I said when she had just finished an explanation and was drinking the last cider in her bottle. "Don't you have one now?"

"No." She said with a smile. " Why do you ask?" There was a spike of lust from her as she jokingly said. "Interested in the position?"

"Well, you're certainly beautiful, sexy, smart and sweet enough for that." I answered, returning the smile. "But you'll go back to Split in a week, leaving a relationship to go nowhere." I looked her into the eyes as I continued. "However, if you're asking if I'm up for some vacation fun, the answer is yes. I would like that a lot."

She was silent for a moment, hesitating to give me an answer as she thought it over. Deciding that she was thinking too much, I placed an arm around and kissed her softly.

At first the hesitation continued, but she must have decided for it, because she started to kiss back with passion, letting a hand run through my hair as we kissed.

Once she had made up her mind, things escalated quickly, and it didn't take long before she broke the kiss and suggested that we walked to her place.

----------------

To my surprise, she didn't stay at a hotel, but at a house and while she unlocked the door, she explained that her uncle owned the house that he used for vacations and as a reward for her finishing school with top grades, he had loaned her the house for two weeks and even paid for the tip to Spain.

Compared to the house the Trojan women had been living in, it was somewhat simply decorated, but it did have a homely, cozy feel to it that I liked a lot. Not that I had time to see much, because Natasa dragged me directly into her bedroom and locked the door after us.

I nodded at the bedroom's other door. "What about that?"

"Oh, that's the bathroom." Natasa said dismissingly and gave me another kiss.

"Excellent." I said and scooped her up into my arms. "After an evening on the beach, I guess we both could use a bath."

Natasa laughed all the way to the bathroom, where I placed her on the floor and gave her a kiss. She returned the kiss, but before it could get really heated, she broke it off and sent me a grin before taking off her t-shirt. "Your turn."

I used a few heartbeats to admire her upper body, while I took off my shirt. Unlike the other women I had been with lately, Natasa wasn't tall or sporty, but she did have a nice lean and slim body and when she moved, there was a fluidity to her movements.

As soon as my shirt hit the floor, Natasa took off her shoes. An example I copied a moment later.

Her grin widened a bit as she unbuttoned her shorts and ever so slowly slid them down her smooth pale legs before she straightened too look at me taking my pants off.

Looking at her undress had made me stiff, and she raised her eyebrows in what I hoped was appreciation or anticipation, when I straightened.

"Nice." She finally said and did something to her bra behind her back. Then she took it off, revealing a nice set of modestly sized, but firm and well-shaped, tits. Her areolas were delightfully pink, and the small nipples looked as hard as two small pebbles.

Without hesitation, I removed my underwear, allowing my hard dick to spring free.

"Ohhh... I look forward to that!" She said with a cute little laugh after studying it for a moment. Then she slowly turned around and peeled her panties off, bending over as she trailed them down her legs, and allowing me a free view of her round ass and hairless lips of her pussy.

Our many passionate kisses had done an impression on her and I could see moisture glittering between her legs, shining like small diamonds in the light.

"You, my dear, have a stunning body to go with your looks." I said and watched as she straightened and turned towards me. Like Alice, Rita, and Karen, Natasa had trimmed her pubic hair and had a little diamond of thick, red pubic hair.

Natasa held out a hand. "Come. Lets shower." She hesitated for a heartbeat and then added. "But no fooling around in the shower. Not with soap, at least." She sighed. "I'm sorry, but I'm really sensitive to soap and getting it into the wrong places would definitely ruin the night for both of us."

I nodded as I took her hand and followed her into the shower.

Even with the restrictions Natasa had set, showering with her was still fun, as we kissed and enjoyed each other's bodies, while getting cleaned.

I couldn't resist teasing her a bit as we dried off. A gentle tickle as I wrapped one of the enormous towels around her shoulders. The made her giggle and squirm, but as we looked into each other's eyes, she suddenly stood still.

Tilting my head a bit, I kissed her lightly on the lips and then kissed the tip of her nose, drawing a little smile. Our lips met again, lingering for a long while until I broke the kiss and continued downwards, kissing her neck and collar bone. I kissed across her upper chest, then slowly down between her breasts.

One of her hands traced lines on my back with a feather light touch, while I covered her breasts in kisses and licks, circling my tongue around the nipples from time to time, giving each side equal attention by switching my mouth back and forth as she moaned.

I had planned on continuing downwards, but with a smile, she stopped me. "Let's go to bed. I'm so turned on it's a wonder I haven't exploded yet."

"Well, we can't have that." I told her as I followed her back to the bedroom, grabbing a condom from my pants as I passed them on the way.

Her earlier shyness was completely gone as she lay down on the bed, expecting me to follow her. I didn't. Instead, I admired the sigh of her pale well-shaped body and red hair om contrast to the dark blue blanket, that was covering the bed. Simply put, she was a piece of art.

"You're just gorgeous." I told her, as I slowly crawled onto the bed. "I want to lick you."

That made her giggle and spread her legs a little, so I could kneel between them. Instead of just diving in, I started by caressing and kissing the outside of her right leg, going upwards until I reached her belly-button, who got a little twirl from my tongue. Then I kissed, caressed, and licked my way down the outside of the other leg, before I went back up, but this time on the soft insides of her thighs.

That made her gasp and as I came further up, her breath quickened, and even a non-mentat could have felt the rising lust and anticipation emanating from her.

Finally, I reached the top of the leg and carefully licked all the way around her pussy. She was dripping with anticipation, her small pink lips opening like a delicate flower, begging for attention.

I took my time doing exactly that, letting my tongue glide around her outer lips, teasing her with quick lips and kisses as she groaned in pleased frustration, her hips wiggling to make firmer contact with my tongue.

I dived deeper, parted her lips with my tongue and used small, but fast, licks as I made my way towards her clitoris. Her hands grabbed my head, fingers running through my hair as she moaned and shuddered. The moaning intensified as I buried my nose in her red bush and let my tongue play on the hood covering her clitoris.

"O da!" She moaned loudly, her hands tightening in my hair as her slender legs started to shake slightly. Pleased with the sign of an incoming orgasm, I wetted two fingers in her juices while continuing to let my tongue play, and slowly slid them into her wet pussy.

The shakes intensified as the fingers made their way into her, making her hips buckle as jolts of pleasure shot through her. The inner walls of her pussy squeezed my fingers gently as I moved them in and out of her in a measured pace, my fingertips finding her internal pleasure point.

"Fuck, you're good!" She gasped, shuddering with the rhythm of my tongue and fingers.

Moving my head a little, I used the tip of my nose to press into the top of her pussy, causing the hood over to clitoris to be drawn back. I sucked the sensitive little organ into my mouth, squeezed it with my lips and started flicking my tongue firmly over it, while the tips of my finger gave her internal pleasure point an equally firm rub.

Natasa's eyes went wide as she shuddered violently in her orgasm, hips buckling, mouth dropping open in a silent scream and her pussy clamped around my still moving fingers.

I released my hold on her clitoris and licked her lips as her trembling lessened. Then I removed both my finger and tongue from her. Leaning back, I quickly rolled the condom on, before I took hold of her legs, lifting and spreading them at the same time.

My dick was hard as Adamant and she gasped as it found her wet, hot entrance almost by itself.

I gave a testing thrust just to see how she reacted. Wet as she was from the oral sex and her orgasm, her pussy lips spread out, letting the head inside, so I gave her a few short strokes to wet the shaft before going further.

"O, Bože!" She half-yelled, half-gasped, going into another quivering state of orgasm. Her hips bucked against me, causing more and more of my dick to go into her with each move she made.

She lifted her head, eyes wide as she starred at me as if she couldn't believe what she was experiencing. I smiled and placed my hands on the bed, one on each side of her upper body, as I leaned down to kiss her, a move that made my dick sink deeper into her wonderfully snug pussy.

Throwing her arms around my head, she kissed me hard and passionate, groaning into my mouth, as I slowly stroked in and out of her, going a little deeper each time.

Natasa lifted her legs, crossed her ankles behind my back and as I thrust into her, she suddenly used the muscles in the legs to pull me in hard. My dick slid the rest of the way in, hitting bottom just before my hips meet hers.

Her body seized for a few heartbeats and then she cried out loud as she came in a thunderous orgasm, that made her shake all over and her pussy rippled as it clamped down on my dick.

I both slowed and shortened my thrusts into her until I was lazily moving my dick a palm length in and out of her, while she panted for breath. She opened her eyes and fastened her beautiful blue eyes on me, so I bent down and kissed her softly.

She kissed me back just as softly for a long moment, until I started moving again, gradually lengthening my strokes. Her body moved with me, tits bouncing and hips jerking as I drove into her with slow powerful strokes.

She broke the kiss, panting. "Coming soon?"

Even with the unfinished sex I've had with Nahia on the beach, the condom lessened the feeling enough for me to have reasonable control over when to come, so I said. "Only if you want it."

"Please, I want to feel you come and as fucking good as this is, I can't take much more." She gave me a kiss, groaning as I sank my dick as far into her as it could come. "Fuck. Shit... I'm going to come again!"

I stopped moving, causing her to send me an evil look, panting. "Not fair."

"I know." I replied with a grin, while moving down a little. "Now I'm going to continue until I come, okay?"

She nodded eagerly and I started moving again. Because I have changed position, I couldn't go as deep as before, but on the positive side, my pelvic bone connected with her clitoris every time I slammed into her.

Natasa went wild under me. Howling with pleasure, she kissed me hard as I picked up the pace, lost in the pleasure of being inside her, her cries of pleasure echoing in my ears.

It didn't take long before I felt the tingles of extreme pleasure that usually announced an incoming orgasm. At least it didn't feel like it took that long, but by the time my body was ready to come, Natasa had already orgasmed several times and was gasping for air.

"I'm coming." I warned as I drove into her.

That seemed to inject some energy onto her, and she came once more, her pussy rippling as she screamed out her orgasm. That feeling finally brought me over the edge and I spewed shot after shot into the condom, groaning from the intense feeling of pleasure that shot through my body.

Breathing heavily, I lay down on the bed beside her, lazily letting a hand slide over her sweaty body, as she snuggled up to me, mumbling. "Oh my God, that was fantastic!".

"Yes," I agreed. "It was really good."

I continued to caress her lightly, relaxing, and enjoying the feeling of the moment.

So did Natasa and it didn't take long before she fell asleep and started to snore. I waited a little while longer and then placed a hand on her head, entered her mind and activated the Ars Mentalis trick that allowed me to learn languages very fast. It was an advanced version of the trick I had used with Alice and Karen, meaning that it was faster and more effective, but also took a lot more power to use. However, now that I had been healed by the Salamander Vis power, I had that energy.

As most modern people, Natasa knew several languages, but I focused on Croatian, due to that being the nationality in Curtis' Ivan Kolba passport. After that, I concentrated on knowledge about the country itself, as I had no idea where it was or anything else about it.

I almost laughed, when I discovered that Croatia was the old roman province of Dalmatia and that Natasa lived in a city called Split, which was near Salona, the ancient capital of the area, where I had lived for a while. Then again, I've been living in a lot of places over the years.

However, it did mean that I was familiar with the climate and the layout of the land and could focus on the present, when it came to what kind of information I absorbed. To my surprise, Natasa could remember a civil war in the country, meaning that it had to be a fairly resent war, though it had been fairly peaceful in the city of Split.

I delved a little more into the war, but as always, war was depressing business and as far as I could gather from her memories, war was just as bloody now as it had been in ancient time.

Instead, I moved on to the present and spent the rest of the time learning about Croatia and the people there.

--------------------------

It was early morning before I left the still sleeping Natasa and walked back to my hotel to relax and think, but as I passed number nine, I heard fighting and wooden clubs meeting flesh.

For some reason, the door was slightly ajar enabling me to peek into the room. It was a mess and it looked like Julian was being beaten up by three guys using some kind of clubs.

A quick mental scan told me that there was a fourth man by the door.

I pondered the situation for a few heartbeats. Besides the women, Julian was the only person I knew, and it seemed like he was a well-connected guy who knew his way around.

Besides that, I had no idea how to get the police to come and with the beating he was taking, he wouldn't last long.

With a sigh, I got myself ready for fighting. Mental energy caused through my body again, making me stronger. Another burst of energy made me faster.

Opening the door as fast as I could, I surprised the guard and before he had time to do anything with the weird piece of electronics he had in the hand, I hit him with an elbow strike behind his ear. He went down like a sack of apples.

Adrenalin hit my system and I moved into the nearest guy, hitting him in the shoulder with a knuckle strike that paralyzed his arm as I snatched the club from his powerless fingers, decked him with an elbow to the jaw and whirled around to face the other guys.

They were only now becoming aware that the fight had shifted, so I took advantage of their surprise, hitting the nearest guy in solar plexus with the club and kicking the other guy in the head a heartbeat later. Both went down, but the guy I had hit in solar plexus weren't out, so I hit him with the club again, making him go limb.

"What? Who?" mumbled Julian, as he looked up through swollen eyelids.

I had to admire his toughness, since the beating he had taken would have caused most people to curl up in fetal position and pass out.

"It's Ivan." I said and waited for a little nod before I kneeled next to him, to avoid him lashing out at me. "Let's get you out of here."

He shook his head lightly and spat out some blood. "Wait. Take their wallets first. I want to know who the fuckers are."

Nodding, I quickly checked the men for wallets, but they didn't have any. Nor did they have any identification papers of any kind on them.

"Shitfire." He cursed through bleeding lips as he nursed his right arm. "Hired thugs."

I swallowed a comment about stating the obvious and walked over to him again. "You need get out of here."

"Yeah, I just need my stuff."

"I'll get that later." I said as I bowed down and picked him up, ignoring his protests. He wasn't that tall of a guy, but he was quite heavy, and I was glad that the Ars Mentalis trick that made me stronger was still working.

Julian passed out on the few meters to my room, so I placed him on the bed and went back to get his stuff. While I was there, I used an Ars Mentalis trick on the four guys to erase the last few minutes of the combat from their memory, so they couldn't remember how I looked like and cleaned the room with another Ars Mentalis trick.

That done, I walked back with the stuff, blocked the door with a chair and started to heal Julian.

I was able to heal some of the damage with Vis Healing, but he had taken some internal damage that could only be healed with Ars Mentalis, so I had to resort to that, to make sure that he would survive. It dawned on me, that it was a choice doomed to repeat itself over and over in the future.

It was almost impossible to hide the use of healing serious wounds with Ars Mentalis as it required that I transferred the wound to myself and healed it there, which to most people would seem like either a miracle or magic. Using Vis to heal was more discrete and could sometimes be camouflaged with Acupuncture or the use of herbs, but unless I had a source of Vis, using too much of it would kill me.

Gritting my teeth, I sat down, transferred his wounds to me and healed myself.

When I was done, I lay down to get some sleep. Not only did Vis healing take a lot more energy than using Vis Powers in combat but using Ars Mentalis that way to heal hurt a lot and I felt like my entire body was made from lead. Especially my eyelids seemed heavy, so to relax I closed them for a while.