The Aether Candle

"You, little man, need a break," his mom said. "Get off. Please." Smiling, she gave his shoulders another shove. One that also failed to dislodge him.

Did that remind him of how hard it had been to get him out of bed when he was a little kid? For a while there, Dan had driven his mom and dad crazy by staying awake long after they sent him to bed then refusing to get up in time for school the next morning.

Dan groaned, but despite the protest, rolled off her. He landed on the floor with a thud.

"Here," she said, patting the sofa cushion beside her after sitting up.

Without a word, Dan did as she instructed. Then she slipped off the couch and knelt before him, taking his limp cock in her hand. "Think I can bring this guy back to life?"

"If anyone can, it's you."

At first, she used just a few fingers to stroke him. Then she wrapped her lips around his shaft, just below the foreskin, and licked the head gently. Blood rushed between his legs and he started to harden in her mouth. Her soft palms worked his shaft and her fingertips his balls. Once he approached full bloom, his mom let him slip past her lips and began dragging her tongue slowly up the length of his shaft. Every now and then, before starting another journey upward, his mom would take one of his balls in her mouth and tease it gently with her tongue from inside. Dan shuddered every time she did that. Or anything else, really.

"Oh, fuck, Mom," he said as he played with her auburn hair. "This is amazing."

She smiled, continuing to stroke him lazily. Her robe had returned at some point, he realized. Dan decided he liked that, especially since it hung open and thus failed to conceal her breasts. Not only did it accentuate her creamy complexion, but there was something classy about it. Classy, yet casual. He'd never seen her wear anything like it, but it seemed like something she might wear around the house, if she were comfortable letting him see more of her glorious body. His dad had probably bought something like that for her years ago, though it would never have left their bedroom if so. He didn't think the same could be said for the thigh highs. Those weren't her style, though she certainly looked good in them.

"I know how to take care of my baby," his mom said.

"You sure do."

His mom stared into his eyes a few seconds longer. His heart started beating faster and faster. She didn't need anything but those green irises to finish him off. That, and her luxuriant hair, pink lips, and snowy complexion. Nonetheless, she bent down and engulfed the tip of his cock once more. And this time, he was in a position to enjoy it.

Dan didn't nut right away, but it felt like he was going to. He couldn't believe that it was even possible to make a man feel as good as he did just then. Had he thought Jane skilled at fellatio? Please. The recollection that he had a sister, and that he'd recently had sex with her as well, returned. But the comparison was not favorable. His sister had been too aggressive. His mom allowed him to sit back, relax, and enjoy himself thoroughly, whereas his sister had left him desperately hoping to achieve the climax she kept delaying, making him suffer. Things had gone better after she'd made her point, but even then, Jane hadn't managed to deliver endless pleasure while nonetheless keeping him perfectly at ease. His sister's blowjob had been every kind of intense, both good and bad. More the former than the latter, but still intense. He'd never felt calm while in her mouth.

He soon learned that she and Jane had more in common than it seemed, though. There was no doubt which of the two was better, but he couldn't fault his sister for coming on too strong initially when their mom gradually worked her way up to the same level of torture. One of them started off there, then pulled back, whereas the other worked her way up to it, but they both tested the limits of his nervous system. Assuming he even had one here.

Part of Dan prayed for an imminent end to the agony. Another, though, hoped that she managed to delay his release a few more minutes.

Neither quit got its way. The tension built rapidly inside Dan, going from intense to overwhelming to downright unbearable in a matter of seconds, before he shattered like a windowpane. That wasn't the end of his suffering, though. Even his second eruption, which came hot on the heels of the first, didn't cause his mom to get up off her knees. As before, she hungrily swallowed every drop of his cum, then went right back to it before he'd even passed through the refractory period, causing sensations more intense than any he'd ever imagined or endured. For which, Dan realized, he was grateful.

Excruciating as the blowjob was, his mom set a new standard. He might have been wrong to think her approach so radically different from her daughter's, but he'd been right to mentally award her the blue ribbon. His mom was without peer in that regard.

As in so many others.

Physically, she didn't do anything all that different. Her timing was impeccable, focus always shifting at the exact right moment, but that wasn't the reason she blew all her competition away—not that it was even fair to suggest she had any. It was because she used her powers to amplify his excitement. Every little thing she did brought unspeakable pleasure. A light drag of her tongue along his foreskin and up over his head would send shockwaves through his system. It was uncanny—yet not so different from what he'd done to her, Dan supposed. He'd asked for that. Not that he regretted doing so.

"That all I get?" Dan asked after watching her lips meet at the tip of his cock in a sort of parting kiss. He didn't mention that he was pretty sure he wouldn't have survived another thirty seconds, though she was probably well aware of that.

His mom leaned back, looked him in the eye, and gave him a smarmy grin. Dan couldn't believe how beautiful she looked when she did that. "I'd say that was pretty thorough."

"I suppose," Dan said with a shrug.

His mom planted a hand on her hip. "Excuse me?"

Holding up his hands in protest, Dan said, "Whoa, I'm not complaining." Of course he knew that was exactly what it sounded like. That was the point. She had to know he was messing with her, but it was still working. "A decent blowjob is still a blowjob."

His mom snorted. "Well I'm glad it was decent." Despite her words, she was back to stroking him with the softest palm that had ever held him. She didn't go much farther than the base of his shaft, whereas all the nerve endings were near the tip, but it still felt good. That was all he could handle for the time being anyway. "You always were a bit ungrateful."

"That's a bit harsh, don't you think?"

"Maybe it is, maybe it's not," his mom said. "Though I suppose all mothers think that about their kids from time to time. Even if some of them will never admit it."

"Yeah, but most moms don't have sons as awesome and perfect-in-every-possible-way as me," Dan said, flashing her an over the top grin.

His mom shook her head. "You know, I could almost think it's really you here, instead of some stupid avatar," she said without even looking him in the eye. Musing aloud.

Dan couldn't even see straight, her words had packed such a wallop.

"You don't even know what those words mean, do you?"

"Should I?" he asked.

By way of response, his mom bent down and engulfed his head again, but just as he thought that meant he was really going to get another blowjob, she stopped, rocked back on her ankles, and flicked his glans with a fingernail. Dan recoiled instinctively, though it hadn't really hurt. She'd barely made contact, but that was still enough to cause alarm. "Okay, okay, I take it back."

"Perhaps you'll like this better?" she asked as she leaned forward and squeezed him between her humongous breasts then started to bob up and down slowly.

"Perhaps," Dan agreed, reaching out to tease her hair. His eyes, though, were on her chest. Which was sort of the point. Fuck, her tits were BIG. And soft. And pale. In every possible way, they were perfect. And she knew how he felt about them.

Once, he'd titty-fucked Jenny. He'd found the experience rather disappointing, though. The idea of it was incredibly exciting, but in practice, it bore a striking resemblance to a bad handjob. Of course, his ex-girlfriend wasn't nearly so well-equipped for the job. She couldn't keep him from popping free, and what little friction she'd generated had only reached the middle of his shaft. His mom had more than enough to squeeze him tight.

She also had the power to make dusting and mopping exciting, he now knew, though he hoped she never abused those abilities just to get a few chores done.

Though he supposed that could be fun.

There were so many possibilities to explore—in the Aether. The fun had to remain there. Still, the sun would go cold before he tired of her, even with that restriction. Not for the first time, Dan chastised himself for waiting so long to speak her name into the candle.

"I know what you're thinking," his mom said a short time later.

"Do you?" His heart started racing. But his mom couldn't know that he was wondering why he'd never previously summoned her. She might or might not be the only other Talent he'd ever summoned—he still wasn't sure about Jane—but that didn't she could read his mind. Even empathic abilities had their limits. Emotions were not the same as thoughts.

"Mmm-hmm," she replied confidently. "You're about ready to go again, aren't you?"

He let out a nervous laugh. "You know me too well."

"I don't know if I'd say that, but you never could keep secrets from me," his mom said, climbing into his lap. "Though you always thought you could."

The safest response seemed to be pulling on her hips, burying his cock deep inside her.

Her eyes went wide and she slumped forward, her huge breasts softening the impact like twin airbags. "Fuck, baby. Give Mommy a little warning, will you?"

"Sorry," he said in a meek, apologetic voice that couldn't have been very sexy. Realizing that his mother was in something close to a state of distress, and knowing that it was his fault, the words had just tumbled out. "I thought—"

She leaned back suddenly, the hands that had been draped over his shoulders coming up to grab both sides of his head just behind the ears. Her eyes pressed into him like thumbscrews. "It is you, isn't it?"

Dan said nothing. Rather, he thrust up into her. Not too forcefully this time, though Just enough to stimulate her G-spot. And, hopefully, distract her with pleasure.

The shudder so produced was enough to send shivers down his spine. Those potent eyes of hers, so full of depth and capable of conveying a vast array of emotion, snapped shut. "Unngh," she moaned, as she began to roll her own hips.

"Should I stop?" Dan asked even as he picked up the pace. There was no telling how long his little delaying tactic would work. Every moment he spent inside her, held tight by her slick walls and warmed to his very core by the strength of her love, brought him closer to climax. But he still wasn't the least bit surprised when she said, "Don't you dare."

#

When he heard the door open, Dan felt two very different things at the same time. On the one hand, he was in rough shape and didn't want his mom to see him like that, both because she'd worry and because he still hadn't settled on an explanation. On the other, he was glad that she was home, as he always felt just a little more alive when she was around.

Contradicting emotions were nothing new to a teenager, but they were harder to deal with as an empath. So perhaps that was a third thing—resentment over the simultaneity of the other two. But Dan pushed that aside. No need to complicate things further.

She moved like the walking dead, arms hanging limp at her side and feet shuffling. Then she saw him stretched across the couch, wads of blood-stained paper towels on the coffee table beside him and Ziploc bag filled with ice on his forehead, and her back stiffened.

"It's nothing," Dan told her before she could even ask.

"Doesn't look like nothing."

No, he supposed it didn't. But he wasn't about to tell her that he'd been spending too much time in the Aether. That he'd only just stopped bleeding from several orifices as a result of summoning her to the Aether so he could have tons of sex with her.

Only he probably could have. And ought to. She knew what the Aether was, and would likely be relieved to know that there was some symmetry to their relationship. Not just because desire always brought its friend vulnerability along to the party, but because his mom had to have been living with guilt as well as grief these past few months. That was just how she was. No way she'd been summoning her son to the Aether, using him for sexual gratification as well as emotional distraction, without beating herself up over it afterwards.

Still, he said nothing. Yes, she had a right to know that it was okay to let herself out of the penalty box, but Dan just didn't have the strength for that conversation yet.

Nor to stand up, apparently. He tried, though.

Moving with speed and grace that she hadn't exhibited a moment earlier, his mom perched herself atop the coffee table. With a gentle but insistent touch, she tilted his face towards hers. "Your eyes are all bloodshot. I think there might be ruptured capillaries."

"I'm fine," Dan said.

"Stop that," she said, tsking at him. "You don't have to pretend to be mister macho with me." His mom turned his head the other way, examining his ear. If she found further sign of injury, it didn't show. Not even on a supernatural level. That wasn't to say the concern Dan sensed alongside her love and affection wasn't potent, though. While short of outright panic, it certainly bordered on alarm. "Besides, I can see for myself that you're not."

"Not macho?"

His mom snorted. "Not fine."

Perhaps not, but he was headed in that direction. Dan hadn't realized it at first, but the moment she'd put her hand on him, he'd start to feel better. Not just psychologically, either. It no longer hurt to open his eyes and his headache was rapidly dissipating.

Though perhaps that had less to do with the skin-to-skin contact than the powerful emotions she was experiencing. Dan kept forgetting that empaths didn't just feed on positive emotions. He didn't like the idea of deriving any sort of benefit from her distress, but it wasn't like he'd done that to himself on purpose. Yes, he'd known there was a strong possibility of an adverse reaction, but he'd lit the candle in spite of that, not because of it.

His mom must have noticed. She jerked her head back and the alarm he'd sensed turned to surprise. Her lips tightened and she furrowed her brow, but she didn't say a word. Didn't even remark upon the way his eyes were going back to normal, as Dan assumed they were.

That was pretty much all the confirmation he needed that she was a Talent—not that he'd harbored much doubt by the time he'd left the Aether. A normal mom would have freaked out or demanded an explanation. Or something. She would just stare at him like that, subjecting him to greater scrutiny than he'd ever experienced in a doctor's office.

Was it weird that even as she did that, Dan found himself thinking that she had the most beautiful eyes? Admiring the tiny flecks of gold floating amidst a sea of olive and brown?

The restorative process came to an abrupt halt. It took Dan a moment to realize why. She was no longer panicked. No longer worried about her son's health.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to stop."

Dan let out a nervous laugh. "Stop, what? Feeling things?"

Her lips tightened. "Something like that." She pressed a palm to his forehead, as though there was any reason to suspect he might have a fever. "Didn't help much, did I?"

"More than I was expecting," Dan said.

His mom frowned. Then she slapped herself across the face.

"What are you doing?!" he asked, grabbing her wrist.

"Pain should work just as well as fear," his mom replied.

Dan tightened his grip as he realized she was gearing up for another slap, apparently thinking it wouldn't be too hard to break free. That sort of defeated the purpose, though. As he squeezed tighter, she winced, and his subconscious exploited the situation without asking permission. The already receding headache fell even further into the background. "Please stop," he said. "I feel better already, and I can't stand to see you hurt yourself."

"And I can't stand to see you suffer," she said, using her other hand to yank her hair hard enough to make her eyes water. "That leaves us at an impasse, doesn't it?"

He sat up and grabbed at her other hand. She twisted away before he could. Dan hesitated, but decided not to give up. A few seconds later, he had both her hands trapped between his and the coffee table. Which, he couldn't help but notice left him free to kiss her, should he so desire. But he didn't.

Kiss her, that is. Did he desire to? Is water wet?

"You should be mad at me for needing to heal," he said. "Not beating yourself up."

"Why, what did you do?" she asked, with more than a little heat in her voice.

Dan grumbled. "Nevermind. Just don't hit yourself when I let go, okay?"

She said nothing.

"Please?"

"Let go, Daniel."

"Not until you—"

"I need to go take a shower," she said, as though it would take an idiot to think she had any other reason for wanting to be free. Her eyes did not blink.

Dan let go.

She shook the needles out of her hands but her gaze did not relent. She wasn't waiting for him to ask if he could join her, was she? Weak as he was, Dan wouldn't refuse an invitation, but he wasn't exactly at his best. Besides, that wasn't lust dampening his pain, but anger.

Nonetheless, the mere thought of her wanting him to join her made a certain part of his anatomy stir. That might not be in the cards at the moment, but it might be soon.

"When I get out, there's some things we should discuss," she said at last.

Dan drew a deep breath, exhaled slowly, then nodded.

That brought his mom some measure of relief. It didn't show on her face, of course, but he felt it inside. And why shouldn't it? It was already clear that they were both Talents, and that they knew the other was as well, but they both knew he was stubborn enough to play dumb. It was only with that sigh that Dan revealed that he wouldn't.

Without warning, she surged forward and kissed him on the lips. It wasn't a motherly kiss, either, expressing concern for her injured son, but the sort they'd shared in the Aether.

As it might have there, the kiss started of slow and reserved, if not quite hesitant. For all the sense it made, neither one of them was unsure of themselves. They were just patient enough to let the tension build gradually. Several minutes passed before their mouths opened and their tongues braved initial forays. Just as Dan was convinced that his mom would climb atop him if he but pulled gently at the sleeve of her shirt, she broke the kiss off.

"It'll be good to have everything out in the open," his mom said, adjusting first her hair and then the position of her sports bra over her long-sleeved tee.

"It will be," Dan said. He gave the matter some thought, perhaps as much as a second, then pulled his mom into his lap anyway. That didn't go nearly as smoothly as it would have in the Aether, especially since he caught her by surprise, but after only a modest amount of fumbling, he had her straddling his hips.

His mom laughed awkwardly and leaned back, one hand planted on his shoulder. "Daniel," she said. He couldn't tell if that was a rebuke or not. With his empathic abilities, he sensed eagerness, arousal, and panic in almost equal measures. "Shower. Remember?"