What. The. Fuck. Those were the words going through my mind as I read Karen Smythe’s file. I had to admit that I maybe had some preconceived biases about her, but this wasn’t what I had been expecting at all. I had expected an egomaniac, like that big blue asshole, Terry. Or perhaps for her to truly be the Karen I had seen thus far, but holy fuck, this girl had more layers than a wedding cake.

I had started by reading her psychological assessment, hoping that it would give me a better understanding of what the fuck might be going through her head, and it did. From the way the report read, this girl was deeply broken, perhaps more so than my sister when I was first reunited with her. She supposedly had survivor’s guilt in a big way and a fear of losing people close to her that was so deep-seated that she pushed everyone away and erected that frosty bitch exterior to keep anyone from wanting to get close to her.

She had frankly told her psychologist in school that the rich assholes she hung out with weren’t her friends. The psychologist believed that the only reason she let them get close was because she didn’t care about them, their presence helped her to push other people away, and she had a hard time standing up for herself, despite the bitch persona she had developed. There was also the possibility that she was trying to punish herself by not letting anybody care about her.

All of this was confirmed by Vice-Commander Carpenter when she went through Karen’s mind. While I hated the thought of using her weakness against someone so broken, at least I could be fairly sure that she would follow orders if she had a hard time saying no. I had to wonder though, what had left her so shattered inside that she would willingly try to sever almost all human contact?

With that in mind, I started reading her file more thoroughly, starting with what was known about her previous to the Incursion that had made her Altered. She wasn’t the spoiled socialite that I was expecting, her parents had been middle class until her father’s hard work paid off to build a very successful business when Karen was very young. While she was likely a little spoiled, it looked like her parents had kept their values and work ethics intact and tried to pass them on to her.

The trip to Mexico had been a rare splurging of wealth to celebrate Karen’s sixteenth birthday, and the Incursion itself had happened on her birthday. As if that wasn’t bad enough, when the search and rescue people with the Vanguard found her, she was with her mother’s corpse. Her mother had been hit with shrapnel from an explosion and bled out before her eyes, and Karen was exhausted and still trying desperately to resuscitate her when the rescuers had to pull her away.

Then she found out that she was becoming Altered and that her father died when part of the hotel they were staying in collapsed, all of that amongst the destruction and dead bodies of the post-Incursion cleanup. She had to organize her own parents’ funerals at barely sixteen years old because her extended family was far more concerned about who was going to get the ‘family business’ and the money. When she moved to Amethyst Harbour, her aunt and uncle came with her, supposedly to give her a stable home life, but that didn’t last long before she cast them out and emancipated herself.

When that was first mentioned, I thought she might have done it because she wanted to push them away, but they were apparently part of the problem. The Vice-Commander’s notes said that they had tried to get some scummy lawyer to help them steal her father’s business from her and had stolen some things, including something important to her. It was the birthday gift her father had been planning to give her for her sixteenth birthday, he had it in his pocket when he died. Damn, it was no wonder she was so broken and wouldn’t let people in.

It didn’t seem like she actually hated people though, even if she acted like it. The Vice-Commander’s notes indicated that when she sold her father’s business, Karen anonymously made a very large donation to an orphanage for Altered kids who had lost their families. Vice-Commander Carpenter only knew about the donation, and where it came from, because the orphanage in question was funded in part by the Vanguard, and she was on the Board of Directors.

So, Karen cared about people and wanted to do good, but she didn’t want to let people get close to her because she was afraid of either losing them or of them using her for her money. This was not going to be easy to navigate. Not only did I have to make sure the others gave her a fair chance, without telling them what I had learned in her file, but I also needed to somehow convince Karen to let us in and take down her walls. That last one was going to take time and trust, and I had a feeling that Karen didn’t trust easily.

Just to be thorough, I also ended up reading the files on Karen’s known associates. That was a fairly apt term since she didn’t view them as friends, and I doubted that any of them viewed her as one either. They seemed to be no more than associates of convenience due to wealth and social status.

There had been close to a dozen wealthy kids who had been at ground zero of the Mexico Incursion two years ago. Of those only eight ended up in Amethyst Harbour to form a rough social clique, including Terry and Karen. I knew more than enough about the big blue asshole already, and he wouldn’t be a problem for much longer, so I went on to study the files of the other six.

The first was Stephanie Du Pont, a Fae girl who came from old money. She was a socialite through and through and, while arrogant, manipulative, and selfish, she was probably the least likely to cause any trouble other than getting plastered at a nightclub and doing something stupid. She was likely more dangerous to herself than anyone else, though she tended to cajole other members of her group to join in when she was about to do something stupid. If she had a special ability yet, she hadn’t revealed it to anyone.

Most of the half dozen people, at least according to the information the Vanguard had on them, were like Stephanie. They were wealthy and arrogant socialites who were used to getting their way, acted like assholes, threw money at their problems, and tended to follow Stephanie’s lead for the most part. Other than the occasional bribery and much more prevalent bullying of the less affluent, they didn’t have any major strikes against them yet.

Slightly more concerning was Marcus Conrad, who was some sort of Demon since becoming Altered. His father was the CEO of a major pharmaceutical and medical company and in the past two years since becoming Altered, Marcus was in drug rehab more than he wasn’t. His record said that he had a history of violence due to drinking and drug use.

Thankfully he had already developed his special ability, and it was relatively harmless, perhaps even a good thing since the ability manifested when he overdosed on something. The hospital wasn’t sure what it was, possibly some new drug that his father’s company was working on. His special ability seemed to be a complete body detox, that could be used on himself or other people. He was in the hospital now and seeing a mandated psychologist so he likely wouldn’t be a problem for us, and maybe he could be convinced to use his ability to help others.

The big red flag on the list was Alistair Davenport, a Satyr. Like Stephanie, he also came from old money, but he was probably the biggest concern of all of them. He had a reputation for being a predator even before becoming Altered, but charges never seemed to stick. Now, due to being a Satyr, he had pheromones that could attract almost any woman he wanted.

One would think that would satisfy him, but his psychological profile said otherwise. He didn’t like being told no and in the past two years, there were three restraining orders placed against him, five complaints of stalking, and nearly a dozen suspected sexual assaults. These cases usually weren’t pursued because of lack of evidence, the victims backing off, or out-of-court settlements. The Vice-Commander was just itching to get something solid on him or have some way for one of his cases to fall within her jurisdiction. After the sentencing of Terry and Karen, I figured he might be more careful to avoid that, but I was also worried that he might be a problem if we encountered him.

This was too much to think about and I was starting to get a bit of a headache. I was going to have to handle this whole Karen situation very carefully. I did my best to memorize the photos, names, and pertinent information, especially those of Alistair Davenport, and then I left the virtual environment that my comm ring had provided to read the files and opened my eyes.

I had gone to the den in my little house and started to read the files right after dinner, telling the others that I had homework to do, and now the clock function of my comm ring told me that it was just after nine-thirty. I had been going over the rules and regs book and those files for almost three hours.

Stretching to get the kinks out of my muscles, I got out of the cozy little office chair that faced my desk and left the den. I was a little surprised to find Poppy in the living room watching a movie through the holo-projector on her comm crown. She had been hanging out with Ainslee and my sister when I left them.

My girlfriend looked up and smiled as I joined her on the couch and snuggled close to her. “Hey, Love, did you finish your homework then?”

I let my head bob lazily in a nod against her shoulder before responding, “Yeah, I read all the stuff that I was supposed to. Now I just have to figure out some stuff, but I don’t need to be stuck in the den reading for that. Soo... I wasn’t expecting to see you here; you were settling in to watch a movie with Kelly and Ainslee in her room when I left.”

Okay, so maybe I kinda changed the subject there. I didn’t like keeping secrets from the people I cared about, especially when these secrets might involve them at some point. Unfortunately, I was under orders and those files I was studying were for my eyes only. Not only could I not tell them because of that, but if I did, even if it was only to convince them that Karen wasn’t as bad as she seemed, it would probably hamper any attempts to build Karen’s trust.

They could only learn about this stuff if Karen herself decided to open up and tell us, and for that, I needed her to trust us, and me in particular, so she would relax her guard and drop the act. I was going to have to walk a very delicate tightrope here or perhaps it was more akin to walking through a minefield in the dark. I let out a soft sigh and snuggled closer to Poppy as she shrugged.

“I was feeling a bit like a third wheel,” she explained. “It’s about time those two started making out after the way they’ve been looking at each other the last couple of days, but I didn’t think they needed an audience.”

Good for Ainslee and my sister. Speaking of making out though, I smiled as I shifted position to straddle her lap and said, “You know what they say, Poppy. If you can’t beat them…” I didn’t finish the sentence as I kissed her, banishing my worries about the Karen situation for the moment and igniting a spark of desire within my core as she began to passionately return my amorous affections.

Our tongues danced wildly as each of us tried to establish a rhythm and it wasn’t long before our hands began to roam, turning that spark into a blaze that filled my core with a pleasant heat until we had to come up for air. This was far from the first time that Poppy and I made out, and we both tended to have wandering hands when we did, but I knew that Poppy was holding herself back for my sake and usually the hands stayed on top of the clothes. I wasn’t going to let her do that anymore.

If she wanted to wait until I was ready, then I was going to let her know that I was ready. I let out a breathy moan as one of her hands caressed my right breast through my dress and the other firmly gripped my ass. “…Bedroom…” I gasped. “Let’s get out of… these clothes.”

“Are you… certain, Love?” she panted back huskily.

“I’ve never been more certain… in my life,” I replied in a raspy whisper. I felt hot and wet between my legs, and I flushed at the thought that my panties were quickly becoming damp. My nipples were painfully hard, aching for more than the gentle kneading that she was providing my one breast. It was so unfair; she should be giving them both the attention that they needed.

I stood up so quickly that it made my head spin a bit and grabbed her wrists to pull her to her feet. As soon as she was standing, she kissed me again, cupping my face in her hands with a tenderness that belied the passion of the kiss. When we broke apart and I opened my eyes, I found myself looking right into her dark orange eyes. She looked conflicted. Clearly, this was what she wanted, and she was she was practically trembling with excitement, but she also looked nervous.

“I… want you so badly, Love,” she whispered, “but I… don’t have a lot of experience with this.”

For a moment I could only gape at her in shock. She was such a natural flirt. Was she truly as inexperienced as I was? “I… but you…”

“Disaster lesbian, remember?” she said as she looked away. “Before the Incursion, I never really had the nerve to… and I was so awkward. Like I was with you at first, but mostly with straight girls, and you’re the first girl to actually show an interest. I mean, I kind of know what to do in theory, I read a lot of lesbian fiction, but I only really have experience with… myself. What if I’m no good and you don’t like it?”

I wrapped my arms around her and held her tightly, leaning close to kiss the pointed tip of her ear. “Poppy, I don’t have any experience either, not even with myself. We can both learn together and figure out each other’s likes and dislikes, learn more about each other. Experienced or not, I’ll be making love to you, so it’s gonna be amazing.”

When I pulled away, she was blushing and had a teary smile on her face as she said, “I hope you’re as good with that silver tongue in bed.”

A moment later, we were both in the master bedroom, hurriedly stripping out of our clothes. What followed wasn’t as rushed. No, this was no frantic sex. We made love slowly, exploring one another’s bodies, experimenting, and trying different things to give each other pleasure and hopefully bring each other to climax. We were a bit clumsy, and some things just didn’t work, but there was a lot more that did.

We had to stop twice for nectar breaks before we both finally collapsed in exhaustion. It was as much a learning experience as it was making love, but there was no feeling like figuring out something new that drove Poppy crazy and sent her screaming into climax. When she did the same for me, it was even better. It was a constant give and take as we discovered each other’s weak spots and exploited them and just like I hoped before we started, even with our mutual inexperience, it was amazing.