Chapter 24: Accessing the Psychic Dimension
[ Sebastian POV ]:
Sebastian watched Max as he swiftly processed his words, the emotions—however minor they were—sped across his face faster than most could swap expressions. Eventually, they settled on a calm, blank appearance, and Sebastian could hear the boy's heart beat evening out from its former, racing rhythm.
'He's a master at schooling his expressions and controlling his heartbeat,' Sebastian thought to himself as he observed the young man before him before turning his attention to the two men resting beside Maximus. 'Who are they?'
An unfamiliar twinge of jealousy sprouted itself from within the 600+ year old vampire as he noted the traits of the two men. One had a clever face, dark hair, a hunky, athletic and lean build; he looked to be around Sebastian's physical age, maybe a year or 2 younger, dressed in no shirt and a pair of black cloth pants (sweatpants).
Similarly, the second man was dressed in a pair of dark blue similar clothing—no shirt and green trousers. The difference? This one was younger than the first man by a year at most, with a more lean, but toned build. He had a sharp chin and strong jaws, with brown hair.
'They are all dark-haired,' Sebastian thought uneasily but with slight apprehension, before smirking when he realized. 'Seems like he has a type, to which it seems, I fit perfectly. Perhaps manipulating this guy won't be so hard… Er, where did he go?'
So deep in his thoughts, comparing himself to the two men before him, Sebastian hadn't noticed Max had already left the bed.
Turning around, Sebastian noticed Max was using the space in front of the black, box-like object with the slick front hard surface as a meditation circle, a candle before him as he sat in meditative form, eyes closed. The candle lit aflame itself as the late, adolescent witch concentrated on… something.
He stayed that way for the longest, and Sebastian watched the young witch in curiosity the whole time. He didn't even pay attention to the two men, who woke up during Max's meditation. They, of course, didn't notice him as he didn't want them to, but he didn't need to. His attention was solely on Maximus…
[ Maximus Westphall–Bennett ]:
Maximus spent the next few hours meditating, attempting to access his psychic dimension.
He knew when Bonnie first created hers, it was from the grief generated by losing Enzo. He also remembered Cade used his dying breath to erect the Hell dimension, in his rage at unjustness of sinners. He knew the common denominator was psychics experiencing severe emotions; he also knew both psychic dimensions were only as stable as their source.
And, for what he had planned for his psychic dimension, he needed it to be its most optimal level of stability.
To this, he had to access it not through emotion, but through willpower alone—or so his theory concluded.
And, while Kol and Kai had seemed to understand that Max needed to focus for whatever reason, it was predictably Sebastian who kept interrupting the silence.
"You know, my fledgling warlock, I was once told by a hermit witch that meditation is not good for the back."
"Are you certain you do not want to test weather the storm…?"
"So many attractive men in one room, and you would think something scandalous would occur, eh, sweetheart?"
At one point in the meditation, Max felt he was on the precipice of…something; some kind of understanding or a comprehension of sorts in relation to his psychic dimension. And then…
"So are you a virgin?" Thomas Doherty's voice asked, breaking Max's focus and distracting him from the absurdity of the sentence.
"Gods damn it, Sebastian, shut up. Just shut it. It's a little room and you're distracting me!," Maximus exclaimed, startling all three men present, of which had no idea that there was even a third one present.
Opening his eyes, Max glared daggers at the laughing vampire.
"My darling little witch, Maximillius?" Kol looked concernedly at Max and the empty spot he was staring at and then back at Max. "Tell me, who is Sebastian?"
"A vampire ghost who keeps talking while I'm trying to focus," Max said with irritation filtered in his voice. He did subconsciously notice Sebastian side-eyeing Kol in irritation (Or was that annoyance? Jealousy?), but Max was too annoyed to properly interpret the vampire's facial expressions.
"Damn, cheating on us with a ghost?" Kai snarked lightheartedly. "Didn't see that one coming."
Kol, meanwhile, was glaring at the spot Max was looking at. "And this vampire ghost… Do I need to worry about his intentions?"
"No," Max narrowed his eyes. "He's only 600 years old; you're over a thousand and an Original. Should he continue to interrupt me, I'll give his consciousness a physical form and you can handle him then."
Kol smirked at the bombshell Max dropped and Sebastian swiftly chose to stop laughing, becoming more wary of Kol now that he knew what he was. He chose to be quiet.
'Finally,' Max thought privately, activating the Rune of Focus and the Rune of Awareness, their white-blue glow low illuminating on his arms, briefly, before dimming to a faint glow as Max closed his eyes to focus.
He looked inward, feeling his psyche abilities and their source, grasping at it and, with a willpower greater than anything one would normally be able to access, Maximus pulled and outstretched, in his physical body, a powerful, almost invisible psychic wave expanded from his mind outwardly
He felt the psychic wave extend further and further outward, encompassing the states and, eventually, the world. And it kept going, stopping, eventually, at… the last planet of the solar system, Neptune, before near instantaneously receding back inside Max's being.
When he looked within himself, he noticed a mega world greater than any planet with two ginormous moons the size of Jupiter and a massive singular sun. He was looking down on this world, easily the size of every world in the solar system combined, with hyper continents the size of Earth and 16 billion square miles of oceans.
For reference, Earth's ocean is 139 million square miles.
'The overall realm is similar to Earth in environment and nature,' Max thought, landing on the foresty ground. 'I have even noticed my psyche realm has even replicated the stars. As for the 12 continents… All of them are pretty much untouched lands with no soul on them; most are thick forests, some are desert tundras and the 2 northern continents, and the 1 super continent at the southernmost point are frozen tundras.'
Subconsciously, Max knew that towns and cities that were on Earth at the time of his psychic wave were here on this planet somewhere, with key places across Virginia and the Carolinas as places he could instantly access — in both worlds — without expending unnecessary psychic or magical energies.
'I'll continue to mark communities in the physical world with my observation/transportationary rune. That way I can travel traverse to and from them— both, in this dimension and the physical world — without expending unnecessary psychic or magical energies,' Max thought as he returned to his physical self, noticing almost instinctively that someone was missing.
"Where's Kai?" he looked to Kol, curious, his voice startling the vampire-witch, who was reading one of the grimoires he had snagged from Marcus.
"Oh. You're finally decided to return. Your body had gone limp; I had initially thought you dead, until I heard your slow heartbeat." Kol eyed Max, concern hidden behind observing eyes.
'He was concerned about me,' Max thought, inwardly amused, and touched even when his outward appearance remained emotionless. 'How adorable.'
Turning to the left, Max noticed the ghost of Sebastian was staring at Max with something he hadn't seen on the older vampire before — Fear.
'No, that's not fear,' Max realized. 'That's dread. I wonder if he's sensed my psychic wave… If so, does that mean his mental abilities are more like psychic abilities that followed him into his vampirism? Was he psychic before he received the bite? Was he trained? Is this what happens to all psychics who get turned? Or just the few lucky ones?'
Unbeknownst to Maximus, Sebastian wasn't the only psychic who felt the psychic wave — and the witches, warlocks, psychics, sirens, seers, immortals, travellers, and the psychic-sensitives (whether vampire, witch, or werewolf) around the world had all felt it. And while some were afraid or hesitant to come anywhere near the epicenter of the wave, others were already plotting his demise…
[A/N: But that's for later chapters.]
'What a powerful psychic wave,' Sebastian had thought. 'And without a severe emotional trigger as well. What a terrifying boy — beautiful and stunning, yes, but also quite terrifying nonetheless.'
"I sent Kai to get you some dinner," Kol said, garnering Max's attention. Max noticed Kol looked at the spot Max had been staring at, briefly, brows furrowed before his gaze returned to Max again. "I figured you needed to eat something, and since he spent years in the prison realm learning to drive, he knew how to work the bloody machines."
'Knowing Kol, there's probably an alternative reason why he had Kai leave,' Max thought privately.
'While I don't mind the competition, Max is — and will always be — primarily mine,' Kol thought possessively. 'Keeping Kai busy lets me have more time with Maximillius. He can collect concubines all he wants, but he's still mine regardless who warms his bed.'
'What a possessive guy,' Max thought, his heartbeat quickening as he fought the lust that was growing within him at the thoughts he was reading from the Original. 'It's kinda hot, actually. Fuck. I'm not mentally well if I'm finding this kind of behavior attractive. I should not be attracted to these kinds of men. I should be running from them, escaping their very presences…,, And yet…. I'm collecting them like pokemon cards. I don't think that's a sign of a healthy mind.'
Turning from Kol and Sebastian, who was calmer now, and looking at Max with a hint of something in his eyes. 'Is that amusement or interest? Lust, maybe…?' Max wondered.
However, before he could even say a word or check to see what the ghost was thinking, a warm, smooth palm was felt holding the side of his face, somehow both tentatively and possessively. When Max looked over, he saw Kol had his face in his palms, as the original looked deep in Max's eyes with an addictive expression — One of wonder and lovesickness.
It was so intense, it had Max questioning if he had truly gotten his favorite Oriignal brother to fall for himself. It was hands down one of Max's new favorite expression for the man to wear, even despite it being the first time Max has seen it on someone else…At least, directed at himself in such a way. Well, that he thought was worth even remembering, anyway.
His hand travelled down to Max's chin, lifting Max's head to look fully at him as he smirked down at him at how submissive Max was to his touch. Then, voice smooth and silk-like, he said "You dosed off last night," he said, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "before we could properly thank you, darling."
"Get off of me…," Max struggled meekly, though evidently not hard enough, as Kol's grip on his chin only tightened, and the Original's free hand had a hold on his waist, keeping him place.
Max's heartbeat fluttered at Kol's words, his mind doing his best to regain control over the organ — To no avail. Unfortunately, Kol seemed to have sensed the struggle, as he tilted his head to listen to Max's racing heartbeat. When he realized it was only going faster, his smirk only widened.
"I don't think you want me," Kol snarked, wittily. "You didn't answer my inquiry, little witch. Why did you dose off last night, before I could properly ruin you? I didn't give you permission to pass out."
"I wonder whose fault that was," Max shot back his quip. "Oh, right. You and Kai assaulted me until I passed out."
Kol released a dark, insidious chuckle.
"Oh, my darling witch, that is not how I remember it and I'm pretty sure you were moaning my name, love," smirked Kol, eyeing Max's lips with an intense, hungry gaze. "But I wouldn't worry about it too much, because next time, I have no intentions of letting you pass out so swiftly. No, next time, I'll mess you up so horrendously, you'll feel it for days, even with your werewolf healing."
"Y-yeah, w-w-well," Max unconsciously released an unsteady breath, as he digested Kol's words and thought of a comeback to that. Then it came to him, how he could get in a sharp barb at the possessive Original vampire-witch. Smirking, he said "I do recall Kai' siphonning playing the biggest role in giving me the best pleasure last night." He knew exactly what was doing with his words and he was speaking them on purpose, too, twisting that metaphysical knife all the way through; his next words nailed the coffin. "Maybe next time I need to dose off, and get one off, I should go to hi—."
Max hadn't even finished sentence before he was grabbed by the throat and sped up against the wall with insane speed and strength, pinned by the abdomen. Kol, meanwhile, had a cold glare on his face. He was pissed!
"You are mine," he hissed. "You can have all the concubines you want, Maximillius. You can fuck every man on Earth. But in the end, you belong to me. You are mine to deflower. Mine to take. To jerk off. Whenever I want. Mine to—"
He said each of this with a shove on Max's abs, causing both pain and pleasure to sprout from the point of impact. Max suddenly felt incredibly hot, the urge to moan almost taking over.
Unfortunately, Max's pride wouldn't let him completely surrender to the Original.
With a gesture of his pointer and middle finger, Max magically forced Kol acrosss the room, bound him up against the opposite wall, as he unleashed his magic, causing the objects and furniture around the room to float as a great wind and telekinetic force in the room caused gravity to become none existent for everything within the room aside from Maximus.
"I see I've made a mistake," Max slowly crossed the room, mentally keeping Kol bound helplessly against the wall. "I've openly let you push me around — Mostly because it was kind of hot — but I see you believe any of you can control me. Simply put: You cannot.
"I am physically the strongest werewolf on Earth. I am amongst the strongest witches to ever walk the planet and I'm the first witch to master death and resurrection to the degree that no other has before me. There's no magic I cannot command. No force I cannot decimate.
"You only control what I want you to control. Do you understand, Kol Mikaelson?"
"Y–yes," Kol managed to get out, but what was written on his face wasn't apprehension or fear; it was something else — something that caused a thrill of excitement to traverse down Max's spine. 'What was that?' Max thought to himself. "I understand."
"Good," Max said, beginning to calm down. "Try to control me again, and we're gonna have some problems.
Max casually let Kol fall to his feet, but as he did so, he wondered what else that was written on Kol's face. 'That wasn't fear or apprehension… that almost looked like lust.. But that can't be right, can it? Is Kol Mikaelson freaky? And why does the thought excite me?'
'Fuck, that was hot,' a synchronized thought came from both vampires present, making Max want to slap his own forehead.
'These men…,'Max thought to himself as Kai opened the door with a tray of food, to a messed up room, interrupting his thoughts.
"Hey, guys, I've got—," Kai began, then noticed the messed up room, how the tv was shattered, the bedframe was crushed and dented and various appliances were ruined. "Well damn, what happened here?" Nothing of consequence, I hope."
"Revertis, Repairis," with a simple wave of his hand, Max reverted the room back to how it was this morning, everything neat and clean once more. "I just got a bit angry. What did you bring for dinner?"