Perion Ch. 13

"Jesus, Chris... AGAIN? Do we need to go get a Men's ball?"

Chris Weathers grimaced.

"Shut up, Jacqueline!"

Jacqueline Sullivan turned to Pam Warren.

"Can we go back to the beginning, Pam? Can we recut the whole segment, and make it about how much Chris sucks at throwing a Women's football?"

Warren, the famous College Football television sideline reporter, let out a warm chuckle.

"Don't worry, Jacqueline!" Warren assured. "We got plenty of quality content between you guys! The interplay between you too is, frankly, HILARIOUS! People are going to love it!"

Warren turned from one quarterback to the other.

"Don't worry, Chris! This is just some final B-roll of the two of you throwing together. We'll make sure to edit it so you come out looking fine!"

"What?" Jacqueline protested. "I think everyone should SEE: Chris Weathers can dominate the UDW Paladins, but he CAN'T dominate a football that's one size smaller than he's used to!"

As this exchange played out, Kelsie McCollum stood ten feet away, beaming with happiness. She still couldn't believe that her wonderful new world actually existed!

For the past several hours, Kelsie had cheerfully tagged along with Chris and Jacqueline as Pam Warren and a camera crew followed the two quarterbacks around Perion University. Warren was filming a segment that would air twice in the coming days: Both before the college football Bowl Game that Chris would be traveling to play in within a few days... and before the College Flag Football Playoff Semifinals that were scheduled for the coming weekend.

The storyline for the segment, of course, centered around the friendship between Perion's two Star Athletes. The Jacqueline & Chris relationship was a perfect advertisement for the sport of football--in all of its forms--and the TV Networks wanted in.

The whole thing, of course, was also a massive advertisement for Perion. The University had rolled out the red carpet for Warren, offering her and her crew every bit of the access that they had asked for: Footage of Perion Tackle Football Practices, footage of Perion Flag Football Practices, footage of Chris and Jacqueline strolling across campus in their Perion-branded cold weather apparel, and, now, finally, footage of a game of catch on the Flag Football field...

... and Kelsie had been present for all of it.

In public!

As Chris Weathers's girlfriend!

Kelsie could scarcely believe it was true... But here they were, together, finally, for everyone to see! Kelsie's dream of being with this enormous, sweet boy--the dream that had existed since the first day that she had arrived at Perion--had finally become a reality!

And there was no doubting just how truly public their relationship now was: Chris seized every opportunity he could to hug or kiss his shy blond sweetheart in front of other people. He had even, on camera, made multiple references to "My Girlfriend Kelsie" during his interviews today--as Kelsie had stood nearby in red-faced shock. Who knew if any of that would actually make it into the finished segment... but still, it was all enough to put Kelsie on Cloud Nine!

Chris, meanwhile, was as happy as Kelsie had ever seen him. Beyond that, he was brimming with confidence: The team leader with the killer instinct who had stunned the College Football world against the University of the Divine Word was here to stay... a fact that Chris absolutely could not wait to prove to the world when he took the field in his bowl game.

Jacqueline, for her part, had always radiated this level of self-belief, and she had no problem saying so. If Pam Warren had been searching for some sort of "One cocky quarterback helps another quarterback recapture his own cockiness!" narrative... well, she now had hours of camera footage to support that narrative.

And... well... as for how Chris Weathers had actually recaptured his edge...

Kelsie still blushed every single time that she thought about it.

She still couldn't believe that she had actually sat there--right in front of Chris--and touched Jason Lim like that, and then let him... in any case, Chris had made it quite clear in the days that followed: Kelsie was not to ever, ever ever ever ever ever, do that again!

But they both knew that it had worked.

They both knew that--as Chris had leapt to the bed, smacked his hand across his very-naughty girlfriend's tender backside, and then reclaimed her with dominant, hard passion against the wall of that bedroom--the competitive fire within Chris had been rekindled...

... And, of course... that moment had certainly not been the last time that Kelsie had savored the dominance of Chris's spanks, or reveled in the controlling touch of his fingers against her neck, or lustily demanded stroke after stroke from his massive penis as she tasted his passionate lips.

If anything, the joyous freedom that the couple now had to celebrate their affection publicly had only taken their private eroticism to another level.

Kelsie would walk down the hallways of Howard Hall, holding her famous man's giant hand, knowing that the entire campus knew that he now belonged to her... and by the time they would arrive at either of their dorm rooms, they each knew: Kelsie's lips were going to hungrily wet Chris's cock the second that they closed the door behind them... and then, who knew what they were going to do next.

All of it, this entire, magical new reality, had been made possible by Kelsie's intrepid passion, by Chris's performance against UDW... and by the cunning plans of Kelsie's friends.

Jacqueline had never told Kelsie exactly what had taken place within the gilded walls of Pi Pi Pi during her tete-a-tete with Cooper Deering... but since then, Kelsie had finally been able to embrace the fact that everything that her friends had attempted on her behalf had, truly, worked! Each and every day, Kelsie savored the degree to which Alexia, Jacqueline, Kaykay, Jason, and Erika had fought for her and supported her.

Kelsie had once been a timid, vulnerable, lonely girl, praying that she could find belonging within an elite sorority like Pi Pi Pi. Now, she was blessed to have a caring, vibrant, diverse group of friends... as well as the man of her dreams!

"Okay, I think we're good!" Pam Warren announced. "Jacqueline! Chris! This day has been a pleasure! I will let you know as soon as we've edited it all together!"

The journalist and her crew shook hands with the tall, red-headed quarterback, and with the even taller, brown-haired quarterback... and soon, Kelsie, Chris, and Jacqueline were the only ones remaining on the Flag Football field.

"Damn! What a day!" Chris grinned. He jogged over to his pale blond girlfriend, and, in one smooth, effortless motion, swept Kelsie off of her feet and into his arms.

"You were amazing!" Kelsie laughed. "You BOTH were!"

"I mean... I know I WAS amazing," Jacqueline returned. "I don't know about 'Shitty Throws Magee' over there. The betting line for Chris's game is gonna shift by a touchdown when everyone sees how bad he was just now."

"I'm holding my girlfriend," Chris answered, "So you'll have to just IMAGINE me giving you two middle fingers right now."

Kelsie looked up longingly into the eyes of her chuckling, happy, gorgeous man. She was never going to get tired of Chris saying "my girlfriend." And Chris's sweet lips were just so close right now, and so soft, and so kissable...

... And now, Kelsie was making out with her perfect man right in front of her fire-haired friend.

Jacqueline rolled her eyes.

"Get a room, Kelsie!" she joked.

"And by 'a room', I mean: The apartment that I literally pay for just so you two can fuck in it."

Jacqueline turned and headed toward the parking lot.

"Let's go, Chris!" she commanded. "I'm driving! I'll drop you two off, and then you can find your own way back."

"After all, I didn't sign that three-month lease so you could bend Kelsie over in a DORM ROOM."

****************

As Jacqueline piloted her Range Rover away from the apartment, she cast a glance back into her mirror at Kelsie and Chris.

The happy couple were walking, hand-in-hand, up to the front door of the building.

Look at those two sweethearts. Damn it if it isn't all working out for them! So far, so good!

As Jacqueline turned the corner, one small detail within the sappy scene she had just observed crept into her subconscious... but Jacqueline thought little of it.

Until a few minutes later, when her phone rang.

On the other end of the line was Jason Lim.

"Hey!" Jason announced. "I'm sorry to bug you... I know you've had a busy day..."

"No worries!" the freckled quarterback replied. "What's up?"

"Well..." Jason returned.

"... It's Cooper."

Jacqueline immediately swerved her car over to the curb and slammed on the brakes.

"What about her?" she demanded.

"So..." Jason hedged, "... I don't know where she is."

"You asked me to check on her today in the feeds... but I haven't seen her all day. Not once. I assumed that she's just been inside Pi Pi Pi..."

"... But then, a minute ago, I just watched basically every girl in the house walk out the front door. They're clearly all headed to a party or a bar or something. But, I mean... it looks like ALL of them. This is the kind of thing that Cooper would be right at the front of, right? But she's NOT..."

For a brief moment, Jacqueline rolled the Hawaiian programmer's news over in her mind...

... And then it clicked.

"OH, SHIT!"

Jacqueline yanked her steering wheel, spun her vehicle around, and floored the accelerator.

As she raced back toward the apartment, Jacqueline now fixated on the small detail that she had all-but-dismissed when she had beheld it in her mirror minutes earlier.

As Chris and Kelsie had traipsed up the walkway together...

... The front door of the building had been ajar.

***********************

They stood together at the top of the stairs... staring, with curiosity, at the apartment door...

... which was cracked open.

"Did we forget to lock this last time?" Chris inquired.

"I don't think so?" Kelsie returned warily. "Is it... Alexia and Jason, maybe?"

Chris leaned his enormous frame forward and called into the apartment.

"Hello?"

There was no response.

The giant athlete stepped warily through the doorway, with his petite blond girlfriend trailing behind him. The space seemed empty...

... Until Chris and Kelsie arrived at the bedroom.

And there she was.

Sitting on the edge of the bed.

In a black cocktail dress, and black heels.

With her legs crossed and her hands in her lap.

Waiting for them.

"Oh, my apologies!" Cooper Deering offered with a devilish grin.

"I'm sure that you're both quite surprised to find ME sitting here! I'm so sorry to intrude!"

"I just thought..." Deering continued, eyeing the pair of stunned faces in the doorway, "That it was time that all of us... had a little chat."

"C-Cooper," Chris managed, "I don't know what this is... but YOU NEED TO GO!"

Deering stared up at Chris from the bed and slowly, unblinkingly, shook her head.

"Nooooo Chris... I won't be doing that."

"I think my days of listening to anything that YOU have to say are over... or did you have more details about your SICK FATHER that you wanted to share with me?"

Chris had no response. Instead, he turned and looked down toward Kelsie.

Two wide pairs of sapphire-blue eyes met for the briefest of moments.

And then Chris turned back toward Deering.

"I mean it, Cooper!" Chris demanded. "Either YOU leave, or WE'RE leaving... and then we're calling the police and reporting a break-in!"

"No one is going ANYWHERE, Chris," Deering returned icily.

"At least, not until after I... shall we say... make you a little offer."

Now, from outside the apartment, on the street below, came the screeching noise of tires sliding across pavement.

"Oh!" Deering exclaimed with glee, "Who could THAT be? And whatever could have sent her running back here so quickly? It's almost as if she's just learned an alarming piece of information!"

Now Kelsie could hear someone thunderously sprinting up the stairs...

... and a few seconds later, a wide-eyed Jacqueline Sullivan had arrived next to them at the entrance to the bedroom.

Utterly delighted by the redhead's frantic entrance, Deering clapped her hands together and hopped up off of the bed.

"Why, hello, Jacqueline! May I just say, you look much... CLEANER than you did the last time that I saw you!"

"Cooper, you twat!" Jacqueline levied with a pointed finger, "We had a deal!"

Deering watched as Kelsie pivoted toward her tall friend with an expression of confused shock. The Predatorette Captain sneered with realization.

"Oh my word... this is just so special! They don't know, do they, Jacqueline?"

Now Chris joined Kelsie in casting a flummoxed stare toward his fellow star athlete.

"We don't know WHAT?" he inquired.

Jacqueline offered no response. Deering was all too happy to seize that responsibility.

"Oh, Chris. You thought that the two of you could just rub everyone's faces in your little romance, publicly, all over campus, because, what, you thought that this was all just... OVER?"

"You thought Jacqueline just walked into Pi Pi Pi and straightened me out, and that was IT?"

"I'm getting the feeling that Jacqueline hasn't filled you in on ALL of the details of her visit... which I certainly understand!"

"You see," Deering proceeded, "WHEN Jacqueline came to visit me, she met a good friend of mine. My Dear Pi Pi Pi Sister, Tracey Harrington... who, in fact, you've both met as well!"

"Kelsie, you might remember Tracey? She led you down into the basement of our house once, so that your best friend could demand to swallow every drop of Chris's hot load? Does that ring a bell?"

Deering soaked in Kelsie and Chris's stressed recollection--and Jacqueline's silent rage--and then moved on.

"Well, Jacqueline clearly hasn't told you this, but... Tracey and Jacqueline have something of a... dark history together."

"A dark history within the world of modeling, that is."

"Ever since Jacqueline DESTROYED TRACEY'S MODELING CAREER."

"It's not that simple!" Jacqueline protested.

"Oh, it's certainly that simple to TRACEY!" Deering fired back.

"And, as Jacqueline already knows: When Tracey found out that Jacqueline and the rest of your stupid little clique had sabotaged my relationship with Chris, she couldn't WAIT to help me get my revenge!"

Cooper theatrically extended her open palm toward the Flag Football Captain.

"Go ahead, Jacqueline! Why don't you tell your friends what Tracey wanted to do!"

Jacqueline sighed, looked down at the floor in anger, and eventually forced out a reply.

"She was... she was basically going to poison you, Chris. This crazy blond bitch was going to get you to eat some super-dangerous bacteria that she stole from a Perion research lab, and then you were going to get really sick, maybe worse. And then, afterwards... the two of them were going to blame it all on Kelsie. They were going to frame her for the whole thing."

"WHAT???" Chris bellowed in anger and disbelief, turning back toward Deering.

"What, so you were, like, going to try to fucking KILL ME? And then BLAME MY GIRLFRIEND? There's no fucking way even YOU would try that shit, Cooper! Who the fuck would EVER try that shit?"

"Chris..." Jacqueline managed, "... I know this sounds FUCKING INSANE. But, trust me... this girl Tracey was ABSOLUTELY going to try to make you sick and then frame Kelsie! She's a PSYCHOPATH!"

"Oh, come now!" Deering protested with a laugh. "That seems a touch harsh!"

"But then again... I suppose I can see how Jacqueline might have formed this opinion."

"After all, that night," Deering recollected with vile amusement, "Tracey DID spank Jacqueline's bare ass until it was cherry red... all while Tristan Anderson was fucking her."

"And then, Tracey DID jerk Tristan's cum all over Jacqueline's face."

"What the fuck? TRISTAN ANDERSON?" Chris howled.

Kelsie, meanwhile, cast an anguished glance up at her freckled friend.

"Is that... is that what really happened, Jacqueline?" she softly inquired

Jacqueline, her eyes still on Deering, rapidly shook her head.

"It's not important, Kelsie," she dismissed.

"What's IMPORTANT, Cooper, is that we had an agreement! You two got to play out your twisted little fucking fantasy with me and Tristan, and in exchange, you were going to leave my friends alone!"

Deering, shaking her head again, strode forward to address the Irish Amazon directly.

"NO, Jacqueline, that's NOT what I said."

"What I SAID was: We would leave CHRIS alone."

"What I SAID was: We wouldn't frame Kelsie for anything that happened to CHRIS."

"Speaking of which," Cooper added, "Where is the REST of your little clique today?"

"Where is Alexia? Where is Bridget?"

"Oh... that's right! They're on the road, aren't they? They're traveling to your big Flag Football Playoff game, right?"

"But not YOU, Jacqueline! You wanted to stay behind! You had to be the BIG HERO and walk around campus all day with Chris, and tell everyone how great you are! Before you came running back here, you were probably on your way to catch up with your team at their hotel!

"I'm curious, Jacqueline," Deering vilely inquired, "Do you happen to know the NAME of the hotel that your team is staying in tonight?"

The fire-haired model had no response.

"Oh, you DON'T?" Cooper offered. "Well then..."

"... should we call Tracey and ASK HER?"

"FUCK!" Jacqueline yelled as her hand shot to the cellphone in her pocket.

"DON'T. YOU. DARE!" Deering shouted.

"If you so much as TOUCH your phones, it happens! Tracey is watching your team right now! For all you know, she might be right around the corner while they're all sitting down to dinner! A simple message from me, and every damn member of your team has E. coli in their stomachs before you can so much as make your call! Throw your phones on the floor! NOW!"

The three stricken-faced individuals across from her complied with her command. Cooper Deering grabbed the phones... and then, she explicitly laid out the already-obvious details of her terrible plan.

"Yes, my sister Tracey has been quite the busy bee! Calling the super of this very building? Pretending to live here? Charming her way into a spare key for me? And THEN, following the Flag Football bus for hours just so she could sneak into the hotel right behind them?"

"What can I say, Jacqueline? She just HATES YOU THAT MUCH."

Now, finally, Deering's eyes pivoted to the true object of her own hatred.

"I DO keep my word, you stupid little bitch," Cooper spat toward a horror-faced Kelsie.

"But did you really think, for a SECOND, that I was going to just let you TAKE MY MAN?!"

"ME?! COOPER DEERING?!"

"I'm not going to hurt CHRIS. But I'm happy to hurt ALEXIA! I'm happy to hurt BRIDGET! I'm happy to hurt that ENTIRE TEAM!"

"And then, you know who's going to be blamed for it? YOU, KELSIE! And Erika Lim!

"I am going to spread a rumor around the entire campus that ERIKA stole the bacteria, and YOU used it! Because you found out Alexia was cheating on you with Chris! Ever since Alexia tasted Chris's sweet nectar in our basement, she just couldn't keep from going back for more! Your best friend, taking your boyfriend's dick down her throat, night after night? Why, as soon as you found out, it drove you right over the edge!"

"I'll tell the police the exact same story, Kelsie! Maybe they believe me, maybe they don't! But I'll promise you this: THE ENTIRE PERION CAMPUS is going to believe that you're a vengeful monster who poisoned her best friend's whole football team! And nothing you say will change a single person's mind about that! That is the POWER that I have on this campus, Kelsie!"

As Deering finished her tirade, the rage that had punctured her veil of imperious smugness subsided. The Pi Shop President turned, strode back over to the bed, and, once again, took a seat.

"But, then again, Kelsie... I'm not a monster," Deering evilly offered.

"I did, after all, give Jacqueline a chance to save Chris. I suppose I could extend you the same generosity. Would you like that?"

Kelsie, her face blanketed with an expression of agony, stammered only a single word.

"W-what?"

There, again, was Cooper's cruel grin.

"Would you like my GENEROSITY, Kelsie?"

Kelsie stared downward, her shattered visage seemingly searching for the words.

At last, she managed a cowed nod, and summoned a reply.

"Y-yes, Cooper."

"Please, don't hurt my friends. Tell me what I have to do."

"Splendid!" Cooper replied.

"Well, Kelsie, it's quite simple, really!"

"I need nothing more from you than what you have already been so happy to show EVERYONE at Perion recently! I need you to show me just how into Chris Weathers you are!"

Deering patted the bed with delight.

"All you have to do, Kelsie, is come over to this bed, and take off your clothes. And then Chris will come over, and he'll do the exact same thing. And then you'll lie down on the bed, and turn on your side. And then Chris will lie down right next to you."

"And then," Cooper explained, "Chris will FUCK YOUR LITTLE ASS as hard as he can."

As Kelsie blanched, Cooper adopted a tone of mock-sympathy.

"Ohhhh... has Chris never violated your tight little hole like that? That is perfectly understandable! After all, his dick is absolutely enormous! How would you even get it IN there? And then, even if you did... my goodness, what would it FEEL like? To have that giant cock absolutely destroying your ass? I can see why you'd be so scared to try!"

"And Chris," Deering added, "It would be so hard for YOU, too! To have to watch your sweet Kelsie lying there, in agony, just to service YOUR pleasure? How could you ever manage?"

"But then again, Kelsie," Cooper reminded her pale, blond enemy,

"Your friends ARE depending on you!"

For a moment, Kelsie stood frozen in torturous silence.

Then she numbly stumbled toward the bed.

"NO!" Chris and Jacqueline cried in unison.

But Kelsie was already stripping away her clothes and revealing her slight, milk-skinned naked form to the horrid sorority queen next to her.

"We have to try," Kelsie offered sorrowfully to Chris.

"Maybe... we can... just do it... and then they'll be okay..."

Chris remained in place... until Kelsie padded back over, took his hand, led him to the bed, and then began, silently, to help him remove his own clothing.

"I... I don't even know if I can get hard right now..." Chris mumbled. "I don't want to do this to you..."

"Oh, don't you worry about THAT!" Cooper dismissed, as Chris's muscle-bound physique was fully uncovered.

"Remember, Kelsie," Cooper purred. "I have tasted Chris's dick SOOOO many times..."

The stunning brunette leaned down toward Chris's pelvis. She paused for a moment to stare upward, her perfect face tempting him from below.

Then Cooper, her eyes still on Chris, began to run her long tongue along his balls.

"Remember how much you liked this, Chris?" Cooper murmured as she orally caressed him.

"Remember how I would tease your massive dick, just like this, for sooooo long? How I would just taste these delicious balls of yours, and suck them between my soft, soft lips... and the entire time, your poor, massive shaft was just sitting there? Just craving my little whore mouth soooo badly?"

"And then," Deering proceeded, "I would wet that delicious, hard dick... just like this?"

Deering allowed a generous amount of saliva to accumulate on her tongue... and then began to spread it across every inch of Chris's rapidly hardening shaft. Her eyes still glued to the tormented boy above her, Cooper coated his dick with her oral lust until every inch of it glistened.

Chris's breaths deepened. His erection was now full. Kelsie knew as well as anyone in the room: Her man was not capable of holding out against the wiles of this stunning temptress. No man would have been.

"And then," Deering lustily went on, "I would open my mouth soooo wide, and let the head of your dick just barely inside, just like this..."

Deering took Chris's quivering dick just through the doorway between her red-painted lips, making it chase further stimulation, making it jump as it tried, desperately, to fill her beautiful mouth.

"Fuckkkk..." Chris couldn't resist trembling.

Now Cooper withdrew, to swirl her tongue, again and again, around the head of Chris's enormous dick. Kelsie watched as her enemy eagerly collected the drops of precum that were pooling on the head of her boyfriend's penis.

"Ooooh, just look at it, Kelsie!" Cooper finally offered, turning to the petite, stricken figure on the bed. "It has a mind of its own! Chris can fight it all he wants... but this dick just NEEDS to try to fuck something now!"

"What do you think? Is your little asshole up to the challenge?"

Deering brought her hand up to her own mouth, wet her fingers with her tongue... and then guided her hand between Kelsie's legs. Kelsie jumped away instinctively.

"Oh, don't you dare..." Deering whispered as Kelsie relented. "You take this spit all over your little hole. We have to give you a fighting chance, don't we? We have to let you take your best shot! It's what your friends would want. It's what ALEXIA would want."

And now, Cooper reached those same wet fingers up to grab Chris's hand, and tug him, and his shimmering, pulsating cock, onto the bed.

"Can you do it, Chris? Can you save Kelsie's friends? Can you save Jacqueline's teammates? Can you give your poor dick the pleasure it needs soooo desperately?"

"I'm so sorry, Kelsie!" Chris whimpered as he took his position, on his side, behind her on the bed.

"It's okay, Chris," Kelsie returned bravely. "We have to try..."

"Oh, by all means, let me help!" Cooper offered. "What are friends for, after all?"

As Chris let out an uncontrollable shiver of desire, Deering wrapped her perfect hand around his shaft, then guided it against Kelsie's hole.

Chris's cock was absolutely aching right now... and it would have gladly forced open Kelsie's tightness... but for the simple fact was that his head was far, far too enormous to achieve this end.

"OW!" Kelsie gasped. "OH MY GOD!!! OW! OW!"

"Fuckkkkk!" Chris groaned at the same time. "I'm so sorrrry Kelssss..."

"Oh no! Is it not going in?" Cooper observed. "You'd better try harder than that!"

Deering began to lustfully drive Chris's cock against Kelsie's ass with her hand. The massive, wet head of the member pulsed against Kelsie's tiny hole, again and again, trying to split it open, trying to claim it, to open it, to conquer it... but to no avail.

"OWWWW!" Kelsie cried. "OH GOD, OWWWW! IT HURTS!"

"Oh MY!" Deering delighted, "I can only imagine how you must feel! Hurting so badly... but WANTING to hurt even MORE, just to help your friends! And not being able to!"

"I'll tell you what: I'll give you ONE LAST CHANCE..."

Kelsie looked back over her shoulder at the massive boy of her dreams.

"Y-you... you can really push it hard, Chris! Y-you have to try!"

Chris stared back into his sweet, shy girlfriend's azure eyes... then summoned a look of determination. He tensed his muscular hips and his rippled abs... then drove himself against her.

"AHHHHHHH!!!!!" Kelsie wailed.

"FUCKKKKK!!!" Chris moaned with erotic frustration.

But all of their effort, and all of their cries, were apparently for naught.

Cooper Deering gleamed with villainous satisfaction.

This--the failure of Chris's throbbing penis, no matter how hard, no matter how wet, no matter how hungry, to do anything more than bring futile pain to Kelsie's delicate body--was clearly exactly what the Pi Shop Predatorette had expected to happen.

"Oh NOOOO!" Deering remarked, hopping up off of the bed, "That's TOO BAD!"

"Kelsie, your goody two-shoes little hole just wasn't up to the challenge! Well... you tried your best! C'est la vie!"

With detestable relish, savoring a moment she had clearly been envisioning for days, Deering produced her own cell phone, dialed a number, and lifted the device to her ear.

As she locked onto the horrified lenses of the pale girl on the bed below her, Cooper delivered a menacing command.

"DO IT. FEED IT TO THEM."