Evil Is a Man

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

If you like what you're reading, let me know: SellarDhor@gmail.com. And let me know where you want the story to go and who you want Jake to end up with. And if you have any ideas for the future, let me know, I might include them.

JANUARY 5th

I eased out of my heavy sleep, savoring a wonderful, manly flavor in my palette as I licked a tasty morsel in my mouth.

"Jakey looooves my dick. Oh, oh, oh. He's never seen one quite so thick."

I opened my eyes, confused, and I saw a naked, sexy stud right in front of me, standing next to me off the bed. My lips were parted, and I realized I had a huge, soft penis in my mouth, and I was sucking away at the wonderfully tasty head. The stud was lowering the huge thing up and down, moving the head in and out of my mouth over and over again.

The sound of his guitar right next to my face made me jump awake, knocked me out of my reverie, and I realized where I was and whose dick was in my mouth. I pulled back away and spat his penis out of my mouth.

"Syd, sick!"

I jumped up off the couch, away from his naked body.

"What the heck was that?"

"You asked me to make sure I woke you up, so I did it in my special way," he said, laughing.

"You are never allowed to wake me up like that ever again," I said.

"Christ, I guess someone just isn't a mornin' person. Well, grumpy, you have like three minutes to make it to your morning appointment."

I ran into the closet and started throwing clothes on. "Let me get this straight. You wake me up by molesting me, AND you didn't even get me up on time?" I asked.

As soon as I started to walk down the hall after leaving the apartment, I realized how horribly sore my legs were, and knew Boyd had been right. I walked through the Great Room, which was empty, and went down to Cornelius's office. He was sitting there playing his grand piano when I walked in.

"Hello, Mr. Groves." he said, stopping his playing.

"That's a very nice piano, Cornelius," I said.

"It's the only on in Mareshead, actually. I barely dabble in it, really. Sit down, please. I thought we could start with something amusing today."

"Oh, really?" I asked, hoping it had nothing to do with wedding planning.

"I know you're probably clamoring to officially invite your bridesmaids," he said. "Let's diagram out the feminine side of the bridal party today. Doesn't that sound diverting?"

"Oh yes," I lied.

"So, who did you have in mind as your maid of honor?" he asked. "Now, since you are from outside the Territory, you should be told that you cannot tell other outsiders about our existence, Mr. Groves. Not unless they too permanently come into our society. Therefore, your choices here should probably be restricted to people from the Territory."

So that ruled out Martine or my mother, not that I would ever willingly drag them into this mess. "Can I choose a male? I'd want Parker."

Cornelius looked dismayed. "You can pick a male, but Syd has already selected Parker as his best man. And frankly, because you've selected the bride's role, any male in your side of the bridal party will be referred to as the bridesmaids, and will have to wear bridesmaid gowns. I'm not sure Parker would be comfortable with that role. But I'm sure you know all of this already."

"Right, of course I do," I said, not wanting to sound like I wasn't taking this seriously. "And I already knew Parker was Syd's best man. I just got confused what you were asking. I thought for a second you were asking who the best man was. No, of course I know my maid of honor."

He nodded. "I'm sure you've had her picked out for ages."

"Well, obviously. Yes, you see... I asked, and she of course was honored to be my maid of honor, so everything is peachy."

He picked up his pen and got ready to write down on his book. "And that person would be?" he asked.

I hesitated, needing to come up with something fast. "Della. Della Logan."

"Ah, Dr. Logan, perfect," he said, writing the name down. "Of course, for this, she will have to wear a dress. I assume that is satisfactory with her."

"Oh, of course," I said.

"And your other bridesmaids?" he asked, readying his pen again.

"Well, there's Jennie Logan," I said.

"Ah, should have guessed," he said, scribbling the name down. "And?"

"Umm, Glaucia."

He wrote the name down. "And?"

My goodness, how many women would I have to name? I had to search my brain to figure out other people that would make sense. "Della and Jennie's daughter. Jess."

He raised an eyebrow. "I thought Syd wanted her to be the flower girl?" he asked.

Darn it! "Right, isn't that what you asked? Flower Girl?" I tried to play it off.

"No, I said bridesmaid."

"Oh, sorry, misheard you. Right, my other bridesmaid is... Lettie Tobler."

He looked surprised. "The madam from Lettie's? In Fools Gold?"

"That's the one."

He raised an eyebrow. "I would have never guessed you would have been close with that type of woman."

"Oh, we're very, very close. She's like an aunt to me."

"Great." He wrote down the name. "And?"

"And what?"

"Who is your last bridesmaid?!" How large could one bridal party possibly be?

"Right, her." I tried as quickly as I could to think of any woman I had met in the Territory. "Oh, Polly."

"Polly who?" he asked.

I tried desperately to think of any last name she had told me, but could not. "You know, who works with horses."

He seemed surprised and disturbed. "Polly the human stable girl? Is that who you mean?"

"Yes, her."

"That's a very unusual choice," he said, writing it down. "I'm sure you know that the bridesmaids have a lot of pre-wedding responsibilities. They have to try on their gowns, they'll have to prove to our stylists that they know how to walk in their dresses and in high heels, they'll have to sit for make-up. Each one is expected to give a speech about why you are so special to them in front of all the important guests, and their speeches must be vetted past several officials well in advance to make sure they meet the high standards of writing and ladylike etiquette, or else they are punished. Those are just the beginnings of their duties."

"Right, I know," I said. "Just typical bridesmaid stuff."

Oh my goodness, what had I just gotten all these poor women into? I had incorrectly figured they wouldn't have to do anything until the day of the wedding, and we would have called it off by then.

"Now, about the bridesmaids dresses," Cornelius said.

"Oh, right," I said. "Let's pick those out."

He looked confused. "I hope you know that the groom traditionally picks the dresses."

"Oh, of course," I said.

"And Syd picked them out yesterday," he said. He stood up and walked over to something underneath a large sheet. "Here's the design he chose personally."

He pulled the sheet off, revealing a dress on a mannequin. My eyes went wide. It was absolutely atrocious. Bright pink/red fabric, metallic shiny. Huge high heels and mermaid tight legs would make any besides the most graceful fall. And worst of all, the dress was off the charts risqué. Massive peek-a-boo gashes in the dress revealed so much skin in so many naughty places, only a stripper would be at home in this gown.

"I encouraged him to pick a more conservative dress, but he wouldn't have it," Cornelius said. "Anyway, the selection is final. We've already gotten the designer on board."

"Oh, great," I said, trying to sound pleased. "They're so, um, so majestic."

Cornelius's office was close to the mess hall, so after he let me out of our session, I popped in quickly for lunch, deciding my days of depending on Syd for food were over. The place was a little less crowded than it had been the night before, and the band wasn't on, but the place was still bustling with activity.

On my way back to Syd's apartment, I had to cross through the floor of the Great Room and go up the staircases again. I was surprised to see the room had gone from empty to quite occupied since that morning. Jericho was sitting in his throne again, the sight of him sending a chill down my back. I stopped for a moment to observe.

There were a number of other people in the room. Lewis, most notably, was sitting on that chair next to his father, looking somewhere between terrified and bored. I noticed sickeningly that there was a naked woman in the cage. All of the Cabinet members, including Cornelius, were seated on the long table. Clearly this was another working meeting, and I wondered if it was okay for me to walk through this. I noticed Boyd was sitting there at the table, and I realized he must have been a Cabinet member as well. Our eyes caught, and he smiled and nodded his hat.

"The situation in Mexico has only worsened, Your Honor," Cornelius was saying. "We should concede the territory and get out before it ruins us all."

"After all the resources we have invested, all the lives that have been lost, you would have us give up now?" Jericho demanded. "I own that country."

"You have always owned the drug lords there, Mr. Governor," said that child-looking vampire woman, with a sing-song, high pitched voice.

"More and more, the Mexican law enforcement has been cracking down," Cornelius said.

"That's because of those cunts, the Valmor Blood," Jericho said angrily. "They think I don't know, but I have no doubt that they're feeding all their resources into the wrong side of the Mexican drug wars."

"That's a guess, not a certainty, Your Honor," Cornelius said.

"They've been secretly plotting against us ever since I took Governorship. They've always contested our claim on Central America. They believed that any Spanish speaking nations should be under their rule. Those cunts forget that the deal was that they would get South America, and we would get North."

"How should we handle this, Your Honor?"

"I want all the drug cartels buffed up," he answered. "Send more of our arms to them. It's simply not a battle I'm willing to lose. What else have you got?"

I noticed other people walking through this room, ignoring the meeting that was taking place, so I decided to do the same. There was no other way to Syd's room that I knew of. I made my way towards the stairs.

"There's been some pressure to legalize marijuana in Hawaii," the girl vampire said.

"Assassinate whoever is responsible," Jericho said.

"Sir, you eliminated our marijuana trade decades ago," Cornelius said.

"I don't give a flying fuck," Jericho said. "It's a slippery slope. Today, they want pot to be legal, tomorrow, they'll be asking for crystal meth to be legalized. And suddenly, our income would go straight to hell. What else?"

"Mr. Governor," the curly blonde girlish vampire chirped. "Rose is recovering well from her gunshot wound, and should be back in a few days."

"Excellent."

I exited through one of the doors on the third floor into a hallway, thinking about Rose's recovery, unpleasant thoughts running through my head. I'd forgotten all about Rose, and now that I remembered, I was quite anxious about the whole deal. I needed to discuss this with Syd straight away.

When I got to Syd's door, I opened it and stormed inside. "Syd, we've got a big problem."

My eyes shot towards the settee, where I saw Syd's naked, muscular butt moving up and down, flexing with each downward thrust. He was sprawled out, naked except for those boots and that hat.

At first I thought he was dry humping my settee, but I soon noticed a pair of legs with nothing but heels on sticking up around his hips, digging into his naked flesh, as well her painted fingernails digging into his back.

Syd was making rhythmic grunts, while the woman was yelling in ecstasy. I was so startled and shocked, that I let out a scream.

Syd turned his head, and his cowboy hat stopped blocking her face for the first time. She was on her back, and her eyes locked onto mine. She started to completely shriek, her face looking like a banshee.

"Sorry, so sorry," I said, and quickly left the door and shut it behind me. "Syd, you are such an idiot!" I said out loud to an empty hall.

I sat there for a few minutes, trying to figure out where to go. I could have gone back to the mess hall, but that would require me to go through the Great Hall again, which I didn't feel like doing.

Just as I decided to just walk around the halls and go exploring, I heard the doorknob start to turn. I quickly ran around the corner of the hallway, out of sight. I could hear high heeled shoes click through the hall, going the other way, thank goodness. When I was sure she was out of sight, I went back to Syd's door and knocked.

"Ah, see? I told her you knew how to knock. Come in."

I walked in the room. "Just to let you know, you could always, you know, lock the door during moments like those!" I snapped.

"Oh, I didn't care," Syd said. "I like it when you see what you're missing out on by refusing to let me top you."

I turned to see him standing by my door, a cigarette in his mouth, totally naked and dripping with sweat. His dick was sticking straight up, covered with a condom that looked too small for his girth, and it made me think he hadn't managed to cum before she stormed off. But then I saw the large amount of white liquid collected at the end of the condom, and realized he had gotten his fill after all, which made me more angry somehow.

"I can't believe you had sex on my settee!" I said.

"Uh, I do believe that this is my room, and technically, that makes it my sit-tay."

"Settee!"

"Yeah, that's the thingamajig," he said, and as soon as I saw him open his mouth, I could see that his teeth were stained red, as if drinking red wine. But I knew well enough what it just was that he had been drinking. I noticed his hard dick was wilting quickly; not exactly shrinking in size, just turning more pliant and falling over. As soon as the huge unit was facing downwards, all the cum in his condom dripped downwards, creating a monstrous bubble of semen at the end of his head.

"Well, why couldn't you have sex in the bed like normal people?"

"She likes her pussy plowed while her bare ass is against the smooth velvet of the settee," he said.

"Eww, disgusting! Great, now I can't ever sleep on it again!"

"That's fine; you'll just have to sleep with me in the bed."

"Screw you Syd!"

"Mmm, yes please Jakey!"

"You just shut your mouth. I'm cleaning the settee off." I walked into his bathroom to get something to clean it with. "This backwoods outhouse of a home better have Lysol, or I will make you pay."

He blew smoke. "The cleaning staff has stuff like that. I'll get them to clean it up this afternoon."

I thought about the poor housecleaners who must have been all slaves. "I'd rather do it myself. Just tell them to leave the supplies here." I switched to the more important topic on my mind. "Syd, I was listening to your evil father discuss Rose. She's recovering from her gunshot wound, and is expected to return in a few days."

"So, deal with it Jakey," Syd said. "She may be a major bitch, but ya know what? So are most of the ladies here. And so are you, for that matter."

"Syd, I know it doesn't come natural for you, but I need you to stop and think for a moment. Remember about our ride up here in that stagecoach? You shared some choice feelings about me. You said that you had no emotional attachment to me, and that you'd be fine if they killed me. Remember?"

He rolled his eyes. "I don't remember much Jakey, that was eons ago."

"It was two days ago!"

"Yeah, I guess I remember something like that," he said. "Oh sweetie, are you sore with me about that?" he mocked. "Ya know I still love you."

"Syd, anyone who heard you would never believe that we were engaged. Now, I know Glaucia, Tucker and Lewis didn't hear you. Steely might have, but he's dead. Rose, on the other hand, heard you loud and clear, and she already hates me."

"Oh yeah," Syd said, it all clicking into place finally. "She'll do anything to please Jericho. All it would take was her word of that conversation, and Jericho would have the evidence he needed to send you to your death."

"Yes. There goes the month we thought we had, darn it."

"Come on, Jakey," Syd said. "Ya gotta think more creative-like than that. Thank god you have ol' Syd on yer side." He grabbed his cellphone.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

He didn't answer, but instead called someone and put it on speaker.

"Hello?" said a familiar voice.

"Hi Della," Syd said. There was something perverse about the way Syd was talking to her totally naked, still with the condom on.

"Well, hello Syd. Why do I have a feeling you didn't call just to catch up?"

"You got me," he said.

"The last time you called me, you needed help springing you out of a Tijuana prison. So, spit it out. What'll it be this time?"

"Della, I'm in a fake marriage proposal," Syd said.

"Lord, not again," she said. "The last time I believe it was to get a particularly beautiful but chaste woman to jump into bed with you?"

"It's not like that this time," he said, and I raised an accusing eyebrow. "Actually, I got hitched in order to save Jake Groves life. Jericho would have killed him otherwise."

"Oh, the poor dear," Della said, and it warmed my heart. "And now that you're engaged, Jericho can't touch the boy."

"Exactly."

"My my. Syd, have you actually committed your first selfless deed?"

"That's right, Della," he said, and I gave him a disapproving face, reminding him of the very selfish deal he made with me. He looked at me straight on. "Shoot, I'm a regular hero."

"Well, I knew you'd do right by me one of these days. Now, I assume you don't really mean to marry him?"

"No, of course not, that's just crazy talk," Syd said. "This only buys us some time. We have a month until our supposed wedding date. I'll figure something else out for Jake before that date comes. Only catch is, if Jericho can prove we're not a legit couple, he'll kill the boy."

"Hey, does this have anything to do with the voicemail message I just got from Cornelius congratulating me on my maid of honor assignment, and asking me to send in my measurements for the dress?"

"Hold on, Dell." Syd covered the phone's mic with his hand.

"Darn, Cornelius works fast!" I said.

"You made Della your maid of honor?" he asked. "What were you thinking, involving her like that?"

"I had no idea the crazy stuff the bridesmaids have to go through," I said. "And I was put on the spot. I also named Jennie, Glaucia, Lettie, and Polly."

"Polly?! Were you nuts?"

"Well, he didn't show me the bridesmaids dresses until after I told him the names," I said. "How come you had to pick out the worst dress designs ever made?"

"I wanted to see a little skin," he said. "I never expected you would make my family members your bridesmaids."

"Syd, you still there? Hurry it up, I got patients here!"

"Yes, I'm still here, Della," he said, taking his hand off the phone. "Yes, Jakey made you his maid of honor for some bizarre reason."

"Well, I guess I should be touched. And you called to make sure Jennie and I don't spoil this secret for you?"

"Yeah, that and something more important," he said. "I believe Rose Dixon is under your care? How is she doin?"

"She was real lucky the bullet never pierced her organs," Della said. "She's recovering quickly. I'll keep her for a few more days, and then she should be on her way home. Why, do you need her back sooner?"

"No, just the opposite, actually. Della, Rose was in the stagecoach that Jakey and I were traveling in, and she for sure knows we are not a couple. If she comes here, as soon as she hears about our engagement, she'll go straight to Jericho."

"I'm not surprised," Della said. "The girl's beyond decent to me. But to my human nurses, she's a real terror. I can't wait to get rid of her, to be honest."

"Della, is there anyway you can hold her there longer?" Syd asked.

"What do you mean?"

"You know, make up some complication that will require her to stay in bed for a few more weeks before she is discharged. Maybe slip her some Morphine to make her think she's still unwell."

Della laughed. "Have you heard of something called the Hippocratic Oath, Syd?"

"Yes, but is your honor really worth the life of poor, innocent Jakey?" Syd asked.

"Hmm. He was such a sweet boy. Alright, fine. I can't believe I'm agreeing to this. I'll make up a complication, as you said, but I'm not stooping to drugging her. That would cross the line."

I felt profoundly guilty. I would have never, ever asked her to go against her oath if it was me. Nothing is worth betraying yourself like that.

"That is fine, Della. Thanks, as always."

"Next time I see you calling, I'm going to think twice before answering."

"I love you too," Syd said.

"Bye!"

Syd hung up the phone. "See? All taken care of. I think that alone was worth a good bottoming session from you."

"Absolutely not."

"Fine, I'll accept just a blowjob then."

"If you wanted that, you should have thought to bargain before you called Della," I said. "Too bad."

"Damn it, yer right. Ah, Jakey, look at you. Yer thinking more and more like me every damn day! I'm so proud of you!"

"I am NOT taking that as a compliment, Syd!"

He pulled his condom off, milking his big dong of every last drop as he did. Once he had it free of his softening dick, which was wet with cum, he waved the used condom in my face. "Ya want ta jerk off with my huge load, Jakey, or should I throw it away?"

"If you put that anywhere near me, I'm going to punch you."

"Fine, deny your desires. I hate having such so much of my stud-juice go to waste, but what can I do?"

He tossed the condom in the trash before making his way over to the bathroom sink. He turned on the faucet, and I thought he was going to wash his hands. Instead, he absolutely shocked me by sticking his huge penis in the sink and running the water over it.

"Eew, holy crap, please tell me you're not really washing your penis off in our common sink," I said, thoroughly disturbed.

"Well, where else do you expect me to wash it?" he asked as he started to lather his huge unit up with soap.

"That's what showers and baths are for, Syd."

"Well, I'm clean except for this one part of me," he said. "So I'm using the sink."

"Why do I get the sinking feeling that this isn't the first time you've done this?"

"'Cause yer right," he said. "Been doing it the entire time we've been bunking together, Jakey."

"Remind me never to wash my face in that sink again." I looked at my watch. "I have to be outside for my riding lesson with Boyd, and I think you should come along."

"How come everything you ever invite me to do sounds like it would bore me to tears?" he asked. "Hell no, I'm not going."

"Syd, I don't care if you're not the one to teach me about the rodeo, I have Boyd for that. But when was the last time you competed in a rodeo like this?"

"I don't know, just a few years ago."

"What does that mean, exactly?"

"Christ, Jakey, that requires real thinking on my part, and you know how much I hate the stuff."

"Syd, just answer me."

His eyes drifted off, and he made a painful humming sound. "Oh, I remember."

"See? All that thinking and you didn't spontaneously combust or anything. You should try it more often."

"No thanks, all that thinking has got me all petered out. Best not ask me to do it again for at least a few decades. Fifty-six years, Jakey. That's how long it's been since I competed in anything rodeo."

"Uh, wait a second, that was your concept of just a few years? So I'm guessing you have to be rusty, Syd."

"Maybe a little."

"Well then, you should be out training there with or without me, honing your skills."

"I ain't never honed my skills before, Jakey. Is there fuckin' involved?"

"Absolutely not."

"Drinkin?' Guitar pickin?'"

"No and no."

"Then I'll pass, thanks for the swell offer, though, honey."

"Well, at least I know you won't be wasting all your time messing around with the stable boy like you did last time."

"Alright, ya convinced me, I'm going. I almost forgot about that hot slut." He ran into the closet and started throwing his clothes on.

"Nope, no way," I said. "If you want to mess around with Donnie, you need to do that on your own time, preferably when the sun's down and you wouldn't be able to spend the time doing something productive. Don't you dare spoil another training session by involving him."

"Alright, don't get yer panties knotted, I hear ya."

Before long, the two of us were outside the east entrance of Mareshead, walking towards the stables.

"Anybody here?" I yelled as we stepped into the structure, not seeing any living thing besides the horses.

"You here, hot piece of ass?" Syd yelled.

When there came no response, I said, "I guess you'll just have to get a horse without his help this time."

Syd looked accusingly at me. "You planned this on purpose didn't you? Did you kill him? Listen, sweetheart, I know yer a might jealous, but ya don't have to take it out on the hot, submissive stable boy. If ya really want me to quit fucking him, you can always offer up yer own hotter ass as fair compensation."

"I'm not jealous of anybody you're with, Syd, and I had nothing to do with this."

"Sure, I believe that one, Jakey."

Syd put a saddle on one of the horses, and took it outside, with me following him.

"Oh, hey, there's Arlene with Donnie now," Syd said, pointing perhaps fifty yards away, in the fields, where Donnie was standing off to the side with a woman I didn't know while other riders moved about with their horses. "Come on, I want you to meet her."

I followed Syd and his horse towards the two of them, and pretty soon I could overhear the conversation. "It's just that it's been a long time since I've done anything even approaching rodeo," the woman, Arlene, was saying. She was pale with a very natural shade of red hair, was pretty in a girl next door way, her face covered in freckles, dressed in western riding gear. "And I heard you were one of the best there was. I'd just like a refresher on anything new that's happened since my days."

"And I told you, if you want riding help, yer shit out of luck, lady, cause that's not exactly my job description," he said. "I don't give a fuck what last name you have."

One of the horses approached them, and a strapping rider dismounted, a handsome white man who looked like he might have been in the black Irish category.

"Well, if that's how it's gonna be," she said. She looked at the new man. "Ryan, he's refusing to help us, honey."

Donnie looked at the guy up and down. "Oh, is this your husband?"

"Why, yes, yes it is," Arlene said.

"I didn't say I wouldn't help you two," Donnie said. "I just said it wasn't my job description. Even so, I'd love nothing more than to instill my entire well of rodeo knowledge on you two."

"Great, when do we start?" Ryan asked him.

"Now, there's not much I could teach Arlene here, because I'm more trained to handle Ryan's roles in the rodeo tournament. Maybe we could set up some lessons, just the two of us, and then once Ryan has it down, we can work Arlene into the mix some too, sound good?"

"Yes, that's fine, thank you," said Arlene, completely unaware about the not exactly saintly intentions behind Donnie's volunteering.

"Arlene!" Syd said, as the two of us reached the three of them. "How ya doin', girl?"

"Syd Logan," Arlene said with a smile. I noticed she had green eyes. "You know my husband, Ryan."

He nodded politely, and I noticed he had brown eyes.

"This is my fiancé, Jake," Syd said. "Jake, meet Arlene and Ryan Bilker. Bilker is one of the old Logan families."

I shook their hands politely, while Syd made quick eye contact with Donnie, who left for the stables.

"Better not be too nice to these folks, Jakey, cause yer starin' into the eyes of our fierce competitors," he joked. "These two will be the enemies come our first rodeo tournament."

"So, you two are one of the current rodeo couples champions?" I asked.

"Don't get too intimidated," Arlene said. "We haven't been holding that title for years, only because it's been that long since someone challenged us, ain't we, darlin?'"

"That's right," Ryan said. "But I still got all my muscles, and you still got all that crazy. That's all that matters. Now, if excuse us, we got practicing to do."

Syd looked at them. "Well, better get practicing myself, or my fiancé might refuse to let me fuck him four times a day like we've been doin.' Might make me go down to three times, right, pookie?"

I refused to answer, and just gave him a mean look.

"That's just his way of saying yes," Syd said.

They both looked embarrassed as they said goodbye to us and went on their way. Syd climbed up on his horse and started to ride around as well, while I saw Boyd riding one of the Clydesdales a ways off to the east, and waved to him. He saw me and started to steer off into my direction.

"Hey there, sweet fella, ya ready for the hotseat today?" Boyd asked as soon as he approached me on his horse. He dismounted, and pointed to the front of the horse.

"I see you put your riding clothes back on after today's Cabinet meeting," I said to him, pointing at his fetching buckskin riding gear.

"Yup, yup. You like these duds, huh?"

"They fit you well," I said.

"Oh, really?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. He looked down at the tight fitting clothes, including looking at his bulging crotch. "You like that, huh?"

"No, no, no," I said. "What I meant was, the buckskin riding gear seems very much suited to your personality. Not that I like the way they fit your body."

"So, you don't like the way they fit my body?" he asked me.

"No, no, no, that's not what I meant at all."

"Jake, I'm just playin' with ya, pal," he smiled and let out a hearty laugh, patting me hard on the back.

"Oh," I said, relieved. I guess I wasn't always the best at knowing when someone was putting one over on me. I wanted to change the subject. "So, how long have you a Cabinet member?"

"A long time," he said. Then he gave me a look. "I can see yer holding that against me," he said. "But I'll have you know that I didn't chose to be a Cabinet member, and certainly wasn't one of them on there that was picked by Jericho. It's just that my family has had a seat on that Cabinet forever."

"One of the old Logan families?"

"Have you heard of us already?" he asked. "Nothin' bad, I hope."

"No, just a lucky guess," I said.

"Enough stallin.' Time to get up and show us what ya got. Here, put these on."

He took off his leather work gloves and gave them to me.

"Now, let me help ya up. Hope yer ass is as sore as it ought to be."

"Oh, it's beyond sore today, you were absolutely right."

He put his hand on my butt again to boost me up onto the huge horse, and it made me wonder about his intentions. The previous day, he hadn't known about Syd being my fiancé until the end of the lesson. Before that point, he had taken numerous opportunities to flirt openly with me. Here he was, grabbing my butt again. Was he still flirting, in open defiance of Syd, or was he just being helpful? Either way, the contact felt good.

Once again, he had that double saddle on the horse, but this time, I knew I had to scoot to the front of it, keeping my feet in the stirrups. I picked up the reins, and felt him jump up behind me.

"Now, if you remember from last time, I want you to learn to control the horse with as little reins or kicks as you can muster," he said. "Why don't you take her out now, forward?"

"Uh, okay," I said. I leaned forward. "Go, horse."

The horse did nothing but bend down and munch on a nearby shrub.

"I said, `go,' please."

The horse gave me an evil look, and then went back to munching.

Boyd laughed. "Jake, you have to remember that the horse is a pack animal. Its instinct is to follow orders from a leader."

"That's me," I said. "The leader, clearly."

"She `s challenging your authority, Jake. She's testing you, trying to see if she should be the leader. You gotta show her who is boss."

"How do I do that?" I asked.

"Just demonstrate a little authority. Watch this." He scooted up so his front was flush against my back, and he reached his muscled arms around me and grabbed the reins. "YAH!" He squeezed his heels into her ribs, and that time, she responded by kicking off into a canter. "There, you take back the reins. In the future, if a horse gets stubborn, you need to quit being nice and get them in line."

He handed the reins back to me. "Okay." When the horse started to drift back into the brush against my will, I pushed my heels into her ribs, and yelled, "Hey, Ms. Horse, I'm the leader of the pack and you'd better mind me! Was that okay, Boyd?"

"Hey, whatever works," he said. "She's minding you already now. Go ahead forward and to the right. We have a destination we need to visit today."

I started to lead the horse off into the direction Boyd was indicating.

"Now, if this was the actual competition, there's a rodeo event where you'd be riding a horse like this, and it would be my job to hold on and try not to interfere with any of the directions you're giving our horse. So, I'll need to press my body as close to you as I can, like this."

He wrapped his buckskin covered arms, thick with ropy muscle, around my body, holding onto my chest with his strong hands. At the same time, I felt his large pecs press against my upper back, his hefty package pushing against my tailbone.

We approached an area to the side of the grounds that held twelve massive wooden poles all sticking up from the dusty ground. They were in a straight line. All of them were about 20 feet apart from each other except for the middle-most two poles, which were forty feet apart. In the middle of that forty- foot space was a huge line in the ground which seemed to separate the twelve poles into even halves.

"Welcome to Pole Bending," Boyd said. "This is the only Couples Rodeo Event that is done solely by the non-fanged partner."

"So, I get to do this all by myself, huh?"

"That's right," he said. "I never compete in this event, but it's just basically a challenge of riding competency, and I'm the best rider, so I figure I'd be fine coaching ya through this. It's also a nice place to start because it's the only event that really doesn't involve any danger to you. Well, not unless yer horse bucks you, or ya hit a pole."

"I wouldn't put either past me."

"This event used to be a lot more boring when there were just six poles and contestants took timed turns. Parker Logan invested Double Pole Bending a few decades ago, turning the previously timed event into a race between two riders. He added those six other poles as a sort of mirror reflection of the first course. I'll take ya through the race path."

"Will I be riding such a big horse?" I asked.

"No, you'll have a smaller horse of yer choosin.' But if ya can get the hang of this with the big horse now, you'll have no problem when ya mount a normal horse." He led us to the line in the brown dirt. "That be yer start line, same as yer finish line. And ya need to line up like this, making sure yer horse doesn't step onto the line until after the gun is blown."

We lined up so that we were just behind the line on the left side, looking towards the six poles in front of us.

"Once that shot happens, you'll race from here, moving along the right side of all the six poles in front of us, until ya reach the last pole."

I took the horse down in a straight line past all six poles on the right.

"Good. Now, this is where it gets hard. Yer going to turn the horse into a sharp left, doing a circle around that last pole."

"Like this?"

"Yup, only instead of closing the circle, yer going to weave around to that second to the last pole, moving around the outside of that pole. Ya see what yer doing? Yer making a snake path, weaving through all six poles."

"Holy crap, these corners are tight. Am I really supposed to do this quickly without hitting the poles?"

"I want you to take this slow, Jake. Just walk her through it at first. Once your form is perfect, only then can you start adding speed in."

"Alright."

"When you get to the last pole before the start line, yer gonna take a real sharp turn all the way around it until yer facing away from the start line, then yer gonna weave and snake yer way all they way through these six poles one more time."

"That's a whole lot of turning," I said. "Good thing I don't get motion sick."

He stuck his hands up my shirt, putting his callused bare mitts on my bare abs. "Yer upper body is too tight," he said. "You need to loosen it up a bit."

I tried to relax my abs.

"There, that's it," he said. He lifted his hands to my bare chest, and rubbed there too. "Wait, your chest is still flexed," he said. "Just relax it."

He started to rub me there with his hands, clearly meaning to relax me. I concentrated on letting those muscles go limp.

"Yes, you got it now," he said, rubbing my chest happily.

"I'm about to get to that last pole for the second time," I said. "What do I do then?"

"You swing around to the outside, this time to the left of the poles, the opposite side you started on. And you dash in a straight line towards the finish line."

"Is that the end?"

He laughed. "Normally, it would be. But this is Double Pole Bending, and that means that it's just the halfway point. Wonder why you haven't even touched the six poles on the opposite side of that finish line?"

"I suppose."

"Because when you cross that finish line, yer just entering the other course and you have to do the entire track again on that side. Only when you cross the finish line a second time, getting back to your exact start point, will the race be over."

"Holy crap! So, how am I doing with these turns now?"

"You're leaning okay into them, but your legs aren't doing enough work, Jake," Boyd said. "You need strong legs for horseback riding."

"I have strong legs," I said. "I work out all the time."

"But I doubt yer workouts have you putting so much squeeze to your thigh. Okay, so yer turning to the left. I'll put my legs against ya, feel it in my legs and do as I do."

His legs pushed up flush against mine, so that the inside of his thighs were pressed against the outside of mine. In the process, his soft but huge crotch ground even further against my butt.

He used his left leg to guide my own down firmly into the left stirrup. "This leg should be as solid as oak. Is it?"

"It is."

"Let me see." He reached forward with his left hand and grabbed my left thigh, feeling it up and down with his strong fingers. "Yer right, that leg is good and dense. That's your stability leg. Now yer right leg should be more up and forward."

He used his right leg to push my right leg up and forward, and then grabbed my knee with his right hand.

"This should be squeezing into the horse, like this," he said, pushing my knee into the horse's ribs. "And same with the rest of this leg."

Even after I had finished the entire race, completing both sides, Boyd made me do it over and over again until my turns were perfect, and then he had me speed the horse up slightly, to practice.

"There, ya got it real good now," he said. "I think ya need to switch to a smaller horse now. Since that's ultimately what you'll be riding. Here, take us back towards the stables."

I rode the boosted Clydesdale back to where we had started, and then Boyd got off the horse behind me, helped me down, squeezing my butt again, and then climbed back up without me.

"Get yerself a smaller horse and meet me back at the poles," he said. "Yah!"

His horse took off back in the direction we had come, and I walked into the stables. As soon as I had, I could hear disgusting familiar sounds, and knew something wasn't right.

My eyes caught motion, and I looked over to see Syd and Donnie, both nearly naked, over by the wooden ladder up to the hayloft. Donnie was hunched over a ladder rung, his body folded at the hips. Syd had his latex-covered dick all the way home inside Donnie's hole, and as I watched, he kept slamming the things in and out, moaning as he did.

I was so, so pissed off at Syd, for breaking his agreement with me not to mess with Donnie while he was supposed to be practicing, and I wanted to yell at him right then and there, to break up their little tryst, but I knew that might betray the image we were supposed to be conveying of a happy couple in which I was totally okay with all of his dalliances, and I didn't trust Donnie to keep the truth to himself, not in the slightest. So, I found the horse that Syd had saddled up before he got distracted. The animal was waiting for him to finish, looking very bored, and I pulled that horse out of the stables.

Soon, I was riding it towards the poles, feeling like I had gone from driving a semi to a sports car.

"Good, try the course again with that new mare of yours, while I wait from here," Boyd said as soon as I reached the pole course.

I started just like before, behind and to the right of the finish line. When he told me to go, I started out towards the poles.

"Not so fast," he said. "Take it easy this run through."

He had been right; after mastering the large horse, using the smaller one was much more efficient. I had some adjustments to make just to get used to the new animal, but then I was practically dancing through those turns.

After a few more runs, Boyd said, "Alright, ya think yer so good, let's do it like it's really meant to be done. Let's race. You get into the start position where you always have been," he said.

I took my horse behind and on the right side of the starting line, facing the six poles to the east. Boyd came up on his boosted horse and positioned himself on the other side of the start line, to my left, facing the poles to the west.

"Boom," he said, coolly imitating the starting gun, and I took of forwards across the start line, towards the east poles, running past them on the right. He did exactly the same but in the reverse, rushing into the starting portion of the course to the west. I realized Parker's coursing plan was a smart one; it really wasn't much of a possibility to collide with your opponent this way.

I raced through the poles, trying to beat Boyd. His Clydesdale was not the best suited to be running through a course like that, so I knew I naturally had the advantage.

I pictured racing this course with Arlene as my opponent. Would I be able to prevail? The fact that she was more than a little rusty would definitely be working to my favor, luckily.

When Boyd beat me in that first race, I made him do it again with me. And when he beat me a second time, I made him go a third. Finally, sweet victory was mine.

"Hey, kid, I guess third times a charm for ya, huh?" Boyd said, smiling his pearly smile and wiping the sweat off his moustache.

"Guess so," I said.

"Let's call it a day."

I followed him back to the stables, and both of us dismounted and started to pull in our horses. Panic hit me as I remembered Syd and Donnie were screwing in there, and Boyd would surely see it, but before I could offer to put his horse back for him, he was already inside the structure.

Thankfully, Donnie was once again dressed, and Syd was nowhere to be seen. Donnie took our horses, flirting with Boyd and acting icily towards me, and then Boyd and I were walking back towards the mansion.

"Ya did real good today, kid," Boyd said, putting his strong hand on my shoulder, his muscled, buckskin covered arm weighing down my neck pleasantly.

"I have a great teacher," I said to him.

"You got that event down, Jake," he said, rubbing my shoulder with his strong hand. "I don't need to be there no more, I reckon. Just practice it on yer own whenever ya have the time, and you and me will start something new on the morrow."

"I'm the best there is at practicing on my own," I said.

He pointed at the outdoor bathrooms we were approaching. "Wanna hit the showers? Get this horse smell off us?"

"Sure."

He led me into the men's bathroom. This time, it seemed like we were alone. He took off his hat and wiped his hands through his cute black hair, while I headed into one of the toilet stalls to take a bio break.

When I came out and started to wash my hands, I was severely disappointed to see Boyd was already stripped naked, his white towel around his waist. As I started to undress, he headed off into one of the four shower stalls.

When I was only in my towel as well, I headed over to the shower stalls. I could see steam arising from the one right in front of me, and there was Boyd's sexy foot appearing beneath the door again. He was in the exact same stall as the last time.

I started to head into the same shower I had been in, the one directly to the left of Boyd's, remembering how wonderful it had been to have the broken board between us. But then I remembered the ultimate problem that broken board had caused, it made one of Jericho's spies able to see into my stall, and Syd had used that broken board to coerce me into washing him off. I would not let that mistake happen to me twice.

I went into the stall directly to the right of Boyd's stall, feeling sad that there wouldn't be any checking out Boyd in the shower that time. Other than that broken board, the stall was exactly the same, so I hung up my towel, turned on the water, grabbed some soap, and washed myself really well, finding some special pleasure in showering in the bright sunlight, basically outside.

A few minutes later, I remembered one little detail about the last time I had been in these showers, and my eyes shot across the stall to the wall that bordered Boyd's stall. There, right where I remembered it, was that hole in the wood, about waist level.

I was feeling particularly bold, so I walked out of my shower spray, across my stall, and kneeled carefully down on my knees to get a look.

There he was, the total stud, standing naked under the shower spray. He was in the exact same spot in his stall that he had been before, but my perspective had changed, so instead of being right next to him, I was looking all the way across the stall at him. This meant instead of just getting a close up view of his upper body, his whole, wonderful body was in view. He was facing away from me, meaning I was looking at this backside.

He was soaping up that ripped, smooth back of his, so powerfully broad. White lather was pouring down his mocha skin as steam surrounded his body. And as I let my vision drift down, holy crap, there was his sweet, studly butt, his skin as smooth and perfect there as it was over the rest of his body. He washed the soap over the muscular globes of his butt, looking absolutely amazing.

I saw him start to spin around, and I pulled my head away quickly, nervous he would see me. I walked back over to showerhead and resumed my own shower.

With the water pouring on my face, it was hard to hear, but I thought I heard Boyd's shower turn off. But by the time I finished washing my face, the shower was clearly still on in the stall next to me.

I got the powerful urge to look again through that hole, so I moved across my stall and got back on my knees, careful this time to move my head slowly in front of the hole, allowing me time to pull away again if there was any sign I was being watched.

This time, when I looked at the stall, Boyd was nowhere to be found. The stall appeared to be empty, yet oddly, the shower was still on, though no one was under the water. Had Boyd forgotten to turn it off when he left? If so, I felt disappointed that I had missed my opportunity.

As my right eye searched through the stall, suddenly my whole field of vision turned pink. Just as quickly, something hard poked my eye. I jerked my head back, rubbing my eye with my hand.

That's when I realized that there was a huge, hard penis coming at me through the hole. I got a thrill when I assumed it must be Boyd's manly dick, but then I quickly realized by the tone of the skin on the offending penis that this could not have been a black man's penis.

Then disappointment hit me as I realized that this huge penis was all too familiar.

"Syd, I know that's you," I said.

"'Course ya do, Jakey, no one else got a huge hunk of handsome meat like I got." He thrust himself all the way in until he slapped me in the face with his huge dick as his sandy blonde pubes and balls appeared through the hole.

"Ow Syd, that hurt! Careful where you stick that thing!"

"I can think of a couple fun alternative places to stick my meat," he said. "Come on, Jakey, give my huge Texas cock a good lick or three."

"Eew, no way."

"Cripes, Jakey, if ya didn't want to suck a huge cock, ya shouldn't have stuck yer face in a glory hole." He started moving his dick around in circles, seemingly to tempt me. "Come on, Jakey, ya know you want some."

I turned off my water, threw my towel around my waist, and walked out of the shower angrily.

"Where are we going?" I asked as I followed Parker through the halls of the mansion, though our path luckily did not lead us through the Great Room. I had already felt so much better about life the moment I was alone with Parker. I felt thankful for him, indeed.

"I know you think this house is detestable, and you're absolutely right. It's hard not to let the evil things that take place here crawl into your soul. I've found that I needed places I could go; sanctuaries that provide me respite and give me courage. One of those is a room in the house that I personally designed. Ah yes, right here." He stopped at a closed wooden door in the hallway. "Close your eyes," he said, with just a slightest hint of a smile on his face.

I shut them, and I felt him put his hands on my back and gently guide me into the room. It felt really good to have this simple touch.

"I built this room with people like you in mind. Open your eyes."

It was a large room constructed with the same wood-fashioning as the rest of the house, yet this one had been filled with exercise equipment. "You built a gym!"

"Yes," he said. "I was the only one here that seemed to be health conscious," Parker said. "It took quite a lot of convincing to get it made at all. Do you like it?"

"I love it!" I said.

"Of course, there's nothing electric here, because that would be too modern. Mostly just weights and benches, but it's something. You feel like a workout, Jake?"

"I sure do," I said. "Haven't had a real workout since we left Lake Tahoe. Do you mean right now?"

He smiled big. "Yes."

"Okay, but I should change first," I said. "I have my workout clothes upstairs."

"No need, what you're wearing is fine," he said.

I looked down at my khakis and sweater. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. If you get hot, just take your sweater off."

He unbuttoned his suit jacket, took it off, folded it, and set it aside neatly. He did the same to his suit vest and white button up, leaving him in just a cotton undershirt that clung to his upper body. It hugged his sexy pecs, showing off his nipples. His bare arms looked just like Syd's in size and proportion. In fact, his upper body looked so much like Syd's it almost made me uncomfortable. I had to remind myself that this person may look like Syd, but his personality was nothing like the man, before I was able to enjoy his complete beauty. I wondered if he knew how sexy he was. Probably not. Unlike vain Syd, Parker was extremely humble.

I reminded myself to stop gawking at the man's muscles and get ready to work out, so I removed my sweater, leaving on my tank underneath, and started to stretch.

"There are towels stacked in the corner. Though, I guess with you, you're not going to be picking up or leaving behind any germs, so feel free to go without one."

"Oh no, I'll use one just to give me some peace of mind."

I picked one up, and handed one to him as well. I put my towel down on one of the bench presses, and started to put 45s on.

He spotted me on my first set, where I went as heavy as I could, with two 45s on each side, feeling impressed with my strength. Parker urged me on during my set, which was helpful, and I stared up into his beautiful face, which normally would have distracted me, but somehow with Parker, it just made me try all the harder. After I had finished, I asked him if he would be doing the same weight for his set.

"I'd better use this one," he said, putting his towel on an identical bench. "And I don't think you should even try to spot me here."

I wondered why as he got a rack of 100s and piled them onto the bar until he was lifting over a thousand pounds. I was totally floored. "Yup, not unless I enjoy the sensation of my arms being yanked out of their sockets."

Instead, I watched him do the incredible set, and just counted for him encouragingly as his arms and chest flexed with their amazing power. I thought back to the times Syd and I had gone to the gym together back in Tahoe. He had lifted only a normal amount of weights for his size. He must have just been faking those workouts for my sake. Not the first thing he had faked with me.

When he was done, I asked, "Does working out like that make you stronger?"

"Male vampires don't really get stronger like this, no," he said. "But it does keep my muscles limber."

"So, should we do chest and arms today?" I asked.

"As long as it's not legs," he said.

"Parker, how did that accident happen, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Not at all. Just stop me if you get bored with the explanation. Let's see. Remember yesterday I told you that I totally mastered constantly being aware of my surroundings, and being able to respond at a moments notice?"

"Yes, you had to, because of your ability."

"Well, after decades without issue, I somehow let my concentration slip. I was following a target on foot outside in a busy street. He was discussing something with one of his people. An innocent woman had died recently, and they were talking about the tragedy. It became apparent to me that this was not just some random death, but in fact, some aggressive action by my father which resulted in this poor woman's demise. But the real kicker here was that my father had undertaken this action because of intelligence I had provided him. It really hit me that all of my actions for him over the years, though they seemed non-violent to me, in fact were just as deadly to people as if I had been the one doing the killing myself."

"That's terrible," I said.

"That's exactly how I felt. I was so overcome with self-loathing that I let my guard down, without realizing it. I knew we were crossing the street, but I hadn't noticed the truck plowing towards me at 60 miles per hour. And, of course, the driver never saw me. It hit me, ripping off my lower leg in the process."

"I'm so, so sorry," I said, grabbing his arm to support him. "You didn't deserve that. You have to know that."

"Ahh, it's alright. For about a year I was really, really depressed about it. I figured there was no hope I would ever learn to use my false leg. I didn't want my loved ones to even look at me. Then I snapped out of the self-pity, thank goodness. I learned to adjust to it. The best part was, after the accident, I made my father swear he would never assign me another recon job again. I was useless to him as a spy without a leg, anyhow. He actually put his agreement in writing, in front of Cornelius. After that, I've had a lot of time to adjust. Even got back into my old chemistry pursuits; built a Chemistry lab in the mansion."

"Well, you seem very happy and well adjusted, Parker," I said.

"Yeah, I certainly found my happiness again. My peace. Now, it's amazing to me how different people treat me since my disability. Like I'm less than a man."

"Parker, that's awful of them. Let it be known that I don't think any less of you at all."

He smiled at me, seemingly touched. "Thank you, Jake, that means a whole lot. I guess I can't blame the rest of them, though. I never let myself resent any of them. You know what, there's actually one other thing that still gives me a lot of grief. Worse, in fact, than losing a leg."

"What is that?" I asked.

He turned away from me. "In the accident, part of my, you know... my equipment, was permanently damaged. I feel emasculated about it."

I gulped with sadness. "You mean, you can't, uh, get it going anymore?" I asked.

"No, no, no. That part of me is working excellently, thank goodness. No, I've damaged my testicles. They still appear normal, but on the inside, some important tubing is ineffective. I've been firing blanks ever since. Della says I have about a one in a million shot that I'll ever be able to reproduce."

"I'm so sorry, Parker, that truly is sad to hear."

"Ha. Syd doesn't understand my sadness at all. He thinks, as long as I'm fully functioning sexually, who cares if I can't have any children? Problem is, I always wanted a family."

"Parker, I'm in the same boat as you," I said. "Always took for granted that I would have kids, yet now they tell me I'm infertile just because of this stupid gene I have."

"Huh, that's right," Parker said. "I feel for you, brother. I feel for you real bad." He put his arm around me, to comfort me, not in a flirty way.

"Thanks Parker, same to you. We'll just have to both adopt, I guess."

We moved to the room's bi stations, and Parker asked to hear more about me, just as he started doing bicep curls, his veined arms looking beyond powerful. I started where I left off the day before, going over my financially troubled teen years and my move to Berkeley. He was such a terrific listener; it wasn't just that he was good at letting me talk to remembering what I had said, it was more that he just genuinely was interested in every detail of my life I had to offer. When I got to the recent history with Syd, my description of the time before I found out he was a scumbag I pretty much was just honest about.

"So, when did Syd tell you he was a vampire?" Parker asked me.

"After Christmas," I said.

"And you just knew that it didn't matter? You knew you loved him anyway?"

"Yeah," I said, then stayed quiet for a moment. I thought about how I felt truly connected to this man. I hadn't felt like this since I last saw Ahmad, and unfortunately Ahmad was straight. I realized Parker was too good a man to ever tell me he had feelings for me, and frankly, I wouldn't have liked him half as much if he didn't have that integrity. I knew the only way two people would ever fall for each other is if both parties have been completely honest with each other. Here he was baring his soul to me, and I couldn't reciprocate. "Look, I'm sorry, I just can't do this to you."

"Do what to me?" he asked.

I paused. "Hey, look Parker, I know we just met and all, but do you consider me a true friend? Because after both yesterday and today, I really feel very warmly towards you."

"Yes, Jake, the feeling is mutual, for sure. Besides, you're family now."

"And would you still feel that way if I wasn't marrying your brother?" I asked.

He put his warm hand on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "You are a wonderful person, Jake," he said. "Your relationship to my brother has nothing to do with my friendship with you."

"Well then, I just can't lie to you. It feels so wrong. I'm just not able to do it like Syd."

He furrowed his eyebrows. "Lie to me about what?"

"Promise me you won't tell anybody."

"I promise."

"The truth is, I found out about Syd being a vampire under bad terms. I walked in on him killing someone I knew. And ever since then, he's kidnapped me and dragged me here, not exactly treating me with kindness. I can't stand the guy. The only nice thing he's done for me was to pretend we were engaged in order to keep Jericho from killing me, but even that came with certain terms."

Parker looked highly disturbed. "What terms?"

"I don't want to get into it. Let's just say, the whole marriage thing is a complete sham, just a way to buy me a month before Jericho kills me and my family. I've been pretending I want to be here, but the truth is, all I want is to go home. Preferably soon enough so I could still enroll in classes at Berkeley, soon enough so that I can spend my birthday on the twenty-first."

He shook his head. "I knew something didn't seem right! Syd, getting hitched? It just didn't make any sense at all. And watching you together, something seemed off. You seem uncomfortable with him, and he seems to overcompensate for that by being overly flirtatious with you. Thanks for coming clean about this. That really means a lot to me. Wow, and now I respect you a whole lot more. It's the same way I've always felt about Glaucia, whose always been a dear friend to me, but whom I just can't reconcile the kind person I know with anyone who would ever marry Jericho. And with you, I figured anyone marrying Syd must be totally off their rocker, and then when you seemed so perfect, it just didn't make sense to me at all." I was so flattered that he would describe me as `perfect.'

"I would never, ever marry Syd," I promised him. It felt so, so good to come clean, and I hoped that this made Parker feel like he was free to get closer to me as well.

"Do you mind if I tell Syd what I know?" he asked.

"I don't care what you tell Syd, frankly. I'm not worried about him getting mad with me."

"I'm glad you told me, Jake. It's nice to know you'd trust me with this. But that's it, from here on out, you can't trust or tell anyone else, okay? I don't want to see you get killed."

"Alright, I'll do my best to lie," I promised.

"You have to be more convincing, too," he said. "Ever since I've met you, you've seemed oddly chilly towards Syd. If you act like that in front of the others, it will be a red flag."

"Look, I'll do my best," I said, wishing I could call off my engagement with Syd and then announce my engagement to Parker instead. I wouldn't mind faking with him at all. "What should I do when my time is up, though? Do you think there's a way I can surprise attack Jericho when he comes after me? Perhaps take him down?"

Parker shook his head. "Jericho may be the strongest vampire in our Blood."

"I thought Big Horn was the oldest and strongest?" I asked.

"Big Horn is much older and very, very strong. Both of them feed only once a day, but Jericho totally drains his victims, slaughtering them. It's beyond vile."

"Detestable! But why would that matter?"

"A vampire's power doesn't depend upon their age, it just seems that way. A vampire's power increases the more blood a vampire drinks. Since most vampires drink the same amount each day, like Syd, Big Horn, and myself, who don't take enough to hurt the person, we grow in strength at the same rate. Because my father drains all the blood from his victims, he's drinking substantially more blood than most of the rest of us, so he's getting stronger quicker. But I'm oversimplifying this."

"How so?"

"It's more than the quantity of blood that makes him stronger. When someone is drained of their blood by a vampire, and it doesn't matter if the victim is human or vampire themselves, their blood actually undergoes a subtle chemical shift as they near the end of their life. It makes the blood consumed then, the last of the blood once the victim dies, much more potent to the vampire doing the consuming. It only lasts for a few minutes after the victim dies, so the vampire needs to feed quickly, but all the blood consumed during this window makes the vampire much stronger than any of the victim's other blood. So, unfortunately, for us vampires, it highly pays off to be a killer."

"So, Jericho has killed and consumed at least one victim every day, correct?"

"Yes. It's anyone's guess now if he's surpassed Big Horn in raw strength. But that's just physical strength, Jake. Often, it's the person who knows how to wield their strength that wins battles over even the strongest foes."

"But there's no way I can learn to wield my puny human strength in a month to be able to take him down."

"No, Jericho is quite the skilled fighter," Parker said. "I don't even want you trying it, you'll just get yourself killed." He paused. "Look, there's another way. Go through your month engagement, and then make an excuse why you two are breaking up just before the wedding. Really sell it all, that's important. When my father swoops in to kill you, I'll come forward. Tell him not to hurt you or your family."

"He's not going to listen to you, Parker."

"He has to. You see, remember I told you I made him sign a contract which said he would never ask me to go on one of his reconnaissance missions again? Well, a few years back, something major came up, and he begged me to go do what he needed. I agreed under one condition. He would give me a somewhat open ended IOU, to grant me whatever favor I needed, when the right time came. He agreed, and we had the thing written up by Cornelius. I haven't used it yet."

I shook my head. "You should be saving that for something you'll really need down the line."

"No, what better use for it would I ever have than to save your life? Anyway, it's my choice, not yours. So, he'll try to kill you, and then I'll use my favor to save you, and even buy your freedom."

I was so moved, I had to hug him. "That would be a dream come true, Parker. I will never, ever forget this. Thanks for being such a hero to me."

He hugged me back, smiling warmly. I noticed that as he was hugging me, his body seemed to flicker invisible for a moment, and then return to normal. It happened so fast, I had to wonder if it had just been my imagination. "You just have to promise me you won't do anything to rouse their suspicion that you and Syd are faking. Otherwise, I won't be able to help you, because you will have committed a serious crime by lying to the Governor."

"I promise. No one will ever know." I thought about something else that had been weighing on my mind recently. "Parker, can I ask another favor of you?"

"Anything."

"When our stagecoach was attacked by bandits on our way up to Mareshead, everyone knew how to handle a gun except for me," I said. "I felt useless. I don't like feeling like a weak damsel in distress. I want to be able to defend myself. I'm hoping you can teach me how to load and shoot a gun, Parker."

"Hey, it would be my pleasure," he said. "Syd's a better shot than me, but I'm a much better teacher. There's a gun range just to the west of the Mansion. Want to meet me there tomorrow afternoon?"

"Sounds perfect, thanks again, Parker."

As I walked through the hallways on my way back Syd's room, a happy sort of optimism surged through me for the first time since I came to this place. And it wasn't just the fact that my workout was getting my serotonin levels flowing.

Instead of viewing my future with impending doom, now I was certain I would live. And it was all thanks to Parker. I smiled to myself, thinking about the handsome, modest, kind man that was clearly the object of my affection. He was such a good match for me. Hearing how he overcame his disability only made me fall for him more. I didn't care in the least he was missing a leg. Having him swoop to my rescue just reaffirmed my feelings for him.

As I saw Syd's door, I cringed. Oh, how I wish I didn't have to stay with him, to pretend to like him. I was more aware than ever about my impending tryst with him, and it absolutely disgusted me. I was starting to feel like every empty sexual action I was forced to partake in with Syd was a slap in the face to Parker, the one I really desired. How could I pursue Parker when I was forced to live with his snaky brother?

I opened the door. Syd was fully dressed, thank goodness, and idly sitting on the bed, strumming on his guitar.

"There you are," he said. "I'm hungry as all hell, and been waiting for you to come back so we can go eat."

"Okay, well I'll be ready soon."

"Why'd you take so long with Parker?" Syd asked. "Did you two have an extra long fuck session this time? Is that it?"

"No, Syd," I said tersely.

"What did you do?"

"We just worked out."

He laughed. "Yeah, I'll bet ya got one helluva workout, Jakey. Bet your butt will be sore for days now, huh?"

"Syd, I told him the truth," I said.

"What?"

"The truth about the artificiality of our engagement."

"What? Were ya gettin' fucked so hard yer brains fell outta that pretty head of yours, Jakey?"

"Oh, come on, Syd," I said. "You just told the truth to Della. Isn't it the same thing with your brother?"

He shook his head. "I told Della because it was a needed strategic move," he said. "You told Parker because yer goddamned in love with him."

"I told him because he is a good, trustworthy person. Are you disputing that?"

"No," he said. "My brother's a boy scout. He'll never, ever betray you to anyone."

"Then why does it matter?"

"Because there's no way you could have known that for sure after knowing the guy for five goddamn minutes," Syd said. "You gotta think with yer head, Jakey, not with yer heart. Or you'll end up dead, like all the others."

"Okay, so maybe it was an emotional decision," I said. "But as it turns out, Parker says as long as he's around he'll make sure I'm safe. He has certain leverage over Jericho it seems. It's only enough to save my life, so we'll still have to win my family's protection in the rodeo. I asked him to teach me how to shoot tomorrow afternoon in the shooting range, just to make sure I'll know how to handle a weapon, and if that lesson goes well, I'm going to ask him to help with rodeo stuff, so I don't have to take up all of poor Boyd's time."

"Alright, so this time you got lucky. The next person you choose to trust will likely go straight to Jericho. So, ya gotta swear to me, you won't tell anyone else. Not without asking me first."

"Fine. That's fine." I agreed hastily, without really thinking about how much I wanted to tell Boyd the same thing.

"Ready to eat?"

"Can we join the Pariah Club again?" I asked, knowing that with Parker in on the lie, Syd's public advances would be far less embarrassing to me.

"I want to eat and I want to get drunk. It could be with Jesus Christ himself, for all I care."

I rolled my eyes at Syd's casual blasphemy, and told him I'd meet him in the mess hall after a bath. He left, and I got cleaned up and changed my clothes, trying to rush because I didn't want to possibly miss Parker. As I finished, I noticed a bucket, brush, and cleaner next to the settee, but I didn't have time to clean it right then, I had to be on my way.

I left Syd's room practically skipping, I felt so light and carefree, as I walked down the halls into the Great Room, so I could go down the stairs and off towards the mess hall.

As soon as I walked into the Great Room, I heard voices and saw figures down beneath me on the first floor, and I stopped, looking down inconspicuously from the third floor railing.

I could see Jericho and a number of his guards surrounding the cage in the room, inspecting the skinny, frail, dark-skinned woman inside. She was shivering, though I had no way to know if it was from her nudity or her fear.

"Oh yes, she will do," Jericho said with a smile after he finished his visual assault of her body. "Tell me, sweetheart, what's your name?" he asked as he unlocked and opened her cage door.

She answered so softly, I could not hear it.

"Jill?" Jericho said. "Well Jill, I want to help you get out of here. Tell me, do you have a talent?" He scratched at the fur over his lip.

"What kind of talent?" she asked hesitantly.

"Anything at all."

She thought about it for a moment. "I can play guitar real well," she said.

"Great. Great! Somebody get this woman a guitar!

One of the vampire guards zipped off through one of the doors.

"Now, Jill, do you like playing games?" The way he asked was beyond creepy.

"I guess."

"Great, we'll play a fun little game. I want to see you succeed. I'll have you play a simple song. If you can do it on the guitar, I'll let you go, you'll be free."

"And if I can't?" she asked.

"I don't even want to think of that, Jill. Because you WILL win. I can tell just by looking at yer purdy face. You are a winner."

The vampire guard came back with a guitar in hand.

"Come with me, Jill." He led her to the raised platform his throne sat on. "I want you to pretend that this is your stage, and this floor filled with your adoring fans, waiting to hear you play."

He handed her the guitar, and she looked at the empty floor in front of her, though if she was trying to look proud, her nervous trembling must have given her away.

"Now, I want you to play my favorite song," Jericho was saying.

"Will I know it?" she asked.

"Oh, I think so," he said. "You Are My Sunshine, My Only Sunshine."

"I can play that!" she said excitedly.

"But it's so short, there's no way you'll be able to satisfy this ravenous crowd with just one time through. So, you'll have to play it continuously for ten minutes, think you can do it?"

"I think so," she said.

"Great! Then you're practically walking out that front door already! Go ahead and begin, Jill, and the best of luck to ya."

I could see her hands were trembling, and I was so worried she wouldn't be able to play. When the first chord came out, I emitted a huge sigh of relief. And when she got through the whole first line, I was thrilled. I had been worried she might have lied about her talent, but now I could see she really could play.

"Somebody start timing her!" Jericho yelled, and one of the guards looked at his watch. "Jill, so far, you sound terrific! Your fans are goin' hog wild!"

She finished the first run through of the song, and even let out a simple smile. You could tell she was getting more and more confident, and I was happy for her. Was this some bizarre attempt by Jericho to scare her into nursing a true talent?

"You know, you are playing this song at a slow pace, making it seem kind of sad," Jericho said. "I don't want to be sad, Jill. You don't want me to be sad. Can you speed it up a little? Put some pep into it?"

"I can speed it up," she said.

She made it faster until it was relatively jaunty.

"Yes, yes, that's it! That's it! Her fingers are like magic, aren't they, fellows?"

The vampire guards nodded. She smiled bigger. And Jericho went to stand directly beside her, watching her play.

"Eight minutes left!" said the guard with the watch.

"Okay, now, Jill, it still sounds a little a little slow to me, can you speed it up?"

She started playing the song at a very, very fast pace.

"Almost there," Jericho said. "But I still need you to go faster."

"I can't go any faster," she said.

"I don't think you should say `can't' to me, Jill," he said.

I gasped as he reached over and grabbed the pinky finger of her right hand, the strumming hand, interrupting her playing. He wrapped his large fingers around her finger, and then squeezed hard. I heard a pop, and prayed it was just her knuckles cracking.

When she started to scream, my heart sank.

He took his hand away, and her pinky finger was left red and completely crushed, obviously broken in several places, totally bent the wrong way. It looked so, so painful.

Jill's terrified scream turned wet with tears as she looked down at her mangled finger.

"I don't hear any music playing, Jill!" Jericho yelled viciously, his previous gentleness doing a 180. I noticed the bulge in his jeans, once soft and benign, had grown thick, hard, and angry.

It was too much for me. I was so outraged, so angry, I started to run down the stairs.

"I can't play like that!" she yelled, tears in her voice.

"I told you not to use that word with me!" he said with a suddenly frightening level of hateful domination.

I winced as he reached over, grabbed her ring finger of her right hand, and in a moment, that was just as broken as the first, and her screams became stronger than ever.

"Play through the pain, Jill! Play through the pain or die!"

She forced herself to keep going somehow, not using the two broken fingers, and strumming with her other fingers.

That's when I finished running down the stairs. I shot through the ground floor and onto the throne platform faster than I knew I could run.

"You leave this poor woman alone, you monster!" I screamed, throwing myself at Jericho, trying to get separation between him and her.

"I'll kill you, you little twat!" Jericho said, his eyes menacingly evil as they focused on my own, giving me a shiver of fear.

I didn't care if I was scared, I would not back down. "You can't kill me! I'm family!"

"Grab my future son-in-law, fellas!" Jericho ordered, and the guards moved in to grab me.

They held me in place, and though I shook and fought back against them, it was to no avail. "Don't play, just run!" I urged the woman.

"Gag him!" Jericho said, and soon I had a cloth in my mouth, keeping me from talking. "Now, make him watch our musical prodigy. I want him to know what present I'll give him as soon as I can prove he is a phony."

"Five minutes!" one of the guards said.

"Jill, yer slowing down," Jericho said. "Remember I like it to be up tempo, darlin?'"

"I haven't slowed it," she said.

He quickly and cruelly reached over and broke both her index finger and her middle finger at the same time. She screamed again, and stopped playing.

"I don't think you want to disagree with me," he screamed at her.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" she said.

"Better keep playing or you'll lose!" he said.

She started to play again, with just her right thumb doing the strumming.

"Good, that's it," he said. "Keep playing quickly."

She lost all sense of timing in her music, obviously operating on pure adrenaline, but she kept the pace up. The result was the music turned into a dizzy, off-balanced, queasy number.

"Yes, that's the ticket," he said. "You don't want to lose this game, Jill. Let me show you what the cost of that loss will be for you."

He came up behind her and ripped open his cowboy shirt. This revealed his heavily muscled, powerful chest and torso. It was just wrong that such a beautiful body was given to such a heartless man. His round, tan pecs, covered with gorgeous, erect, pink nipples. His almost 8-pack of perfectly chunky abs. All of it looked so remarkably like Syd's body, only I noticed his fur was a bit darker than Syd's sandy blonde shade, and there seemed to be a bit more of it around his chest, a bit more around his treasure trail that disappeared into his dark jeans.

Speaking of those tight fitting jeans, he unbuckled his belt buckle, which was identical to Syd's "L" design, and ripped the button fly open hastily. His cock came bursting out without his touching a hand to it, that's how mightily turned on he had been, and it stood straight up out of his pants.

Wow, did he ever look like Syd in that department as well. In fact, at least from where I was standing, I would have said they were identical, even down to the vein structure of the massive dongs. Perhaps Jericho's head was a slightly darker shade than Syd's. I was also surprised to see dicktip was pierced, with a large piece of hardware stuck through it. I couldn't see Jericho's balls, because they were inside his jeans still, but they were creating a round bulge in his jeans that suggested they were just as big as Syd's.

He came up behind her while she played, embraced her, sticking his hard dick not inside her, but in the crack of her butt, threatening. His meaty left arm, still inside his shirtsleeve, grabbed her around the throat and pulled her head back painfully until his lips were against the right side of her throat. His fangs were already sticking out beneath his La Souvarov bushy upper lip, and he poked those against the flesh of her neck. She screamed again, but kept on playing, and I assumed he had bitten totally into her, but when he pulled his face back, I could see he just left two small cuts.

"Oh yes, darlin,'" he said. "If you lose this game, get ready for the real thing. Get ready to meet death."

"No, no, please!" she cried, so emotional that she missed her chord.

"You want to leave this house, you'll play the song!" he yelled, and reached around with his hand and crushed her right thumb, leaving her whole right hand broken.

She shouted again, and stopped.

"Play it!" he commanded, ripping off his cowboy shirt completely, leaving his huge arms completely and dangerously exposed.

She stopped herself from saying that she couldn't, and instead, used her maimed hand to limply do the strumming. Her face was in absolute agony with every strum she made, it must have hurt so badly, I was shocked that she could force herself to do it.

"Two minutes!" the guard yelled, and a bit of hope sprung into Jill's eyes. She played faster, pushing through the pain.

Then, after a few seconds, she skipped a chord.

"What was that?! WHAT was that, Jill? It sounded like absolute shit!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

But it didn't matter. Jericho reached his hand around, only this time he went for her left index finger. He snapped it broken, and she screamed again.

She stopped playing, as she tried to figure out how to make her chords without her index finger.

"I'm not hearing any guitar!" he shouted into her ear, squeezing her body sharply from behind.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, here it is."

She figured out the chord using a different finger, and played it, though it sounded a bit muddled.

"That was too long a gap," Jericho said. "You know I don't like to wait!"

He reached around and broke her middle finger as well, and she screamed once more, her face now covered with tears.

"You better get on it, darling, or you'll lose!"

"One minute left!" said the guard.

The next moment was one of the bravest things I had ever seen, and it made me cry. Instead of trying to figure out how to play her chords without her two main fingers, she summoned up all of her willpower and used her two broken fingers to keep making the chords. I could tell by her face how utterly painful it was, but she was doing it.

She kept playing that awful song, and she kept up her speed, her face defiant.

"Time's up!" the vampire guard said, and I cheered inwardly.

Jill dropped the guitar, and crumbled to the ground, crying. "I did it, I did it!"

"Yes, you did," Jericho said, and walked around to the front of her, to look her over. "And I'm so proud of you. Now you'll get the reward I promised you. Are you ready to be truly free, darlin?'" he asked, kindness filling his voice.

"Yes, I'm ready!"

"Good! Because there is only one way a slave will EVER be free," he said, his voice turning as dark as his face.

No, no, no! He couldn't do that to her!

He opened his mouth, and his fangs were vicious. He tore them into her throat as he held onto her with his arms. She screamed and fought, but it did no use. Instead of just puncturing her like Syd had done with me, he was using his two fangs to literally tear her whole throat to shreds, slitting it until there was no way she would ever survive the wound.

That's when he started to rape her.

There was so much blood, I passed out, for once glad I didn't have to watch anymore of it.

I woke up on Syd's hardwood bedroom floor. I hazily looked around, making sure whoever put me there was not lingering. Everything I had just seen was playing through my head in an endless loop. I had of course heard about deaths on the news, horrible gruesome deaths. My history books were chock full of them. But hearing about them second hand cannot prepare you for seeing the real thing right in front of you.

I cried. I cried for that poor woman, Jill, whose death seemed about as bad as I could imagine. I felt profoundly guilty, though every time I analyzed it for something I could have done differently to help her, I came up short. I felt guilty because I was alive only because of Syd's deceptions. There was nothing I did to earn the right to live beyond the life of that woman.

There was no way I was leaving the bedroom in the state I was. I just wanted to lie down and sleep, hoping the sleep would make the emotions go away. I looked at my settee, with the bucket still beside it. There was no way I was going to be able to clean that thing tonight, and I sure as hell wasn't going to sleep in Syd's bed. So, I closed my eyes, pressing my face against the hardwood floor.

I reminded myself that I had seen three other people die before this. But one of them had been trying to kidnap me, and the other two had taken advantage of me. This was the first good, innocent person I had seen killed. I thought about the guy in the cage the day before who had told Jericho that he was a good rider. I hadn't thought about what had happened to him, but now I was certain he had been killed by Jericho as well.

Somehow, the emotions of it all was making me feel exhausted. I was thankful when I finally cried myself to sleep.

The sadness was quickly replaced by fearful dreams. Jericho haunted every corner of my nightmares, making me play endless, cruel, meaningless games before killing me over and over again.

"Jake."

I woke up, feeling someone's strong arms constricting me.

"Jake."

It was Jericho's voice, I knew it, he was coming for me in my sleep, I was under attack. I fought back.

"Whoa, Jake! Stop kicking! I'm not as stable here as I used to be since I lost this leg!"

I stopped thrashing, hearing finally the subtle difference between Parker's controlled voice and Jericho's menacing growl. I realized I wasn't on the ground anymore, I was being carried. Parker was holding me against the chest of his old-fashioned suit. His vest smelled so good; manly, clean, smokeless.

He laid me down on Syd's bed, and then looked down at me with concern in his voice.

"Where's Syd?" I asked.

"Carousing with a lady downstairs," he said. "I was worried because Syd said you were supposed to be on your way, so I came to investigate. Found you passed out on the floor."

"Thanks, Parker," I said, touched.

"I brought you some dinner."

"Thanks, but I'm not hungry."

He traced his hands over my face. "You've been crying, haven't you? What happened?"

"I walked into Jericho torturing and murdering one of his victims," I said.

"Oh no."

The tears started welling up again. "I tried to stop him, but I couldn't."

"Hey, hey. You can't blame yourself. There's nothing you could have done."

He reached down to hug me, and the tears just became that much worse. "I hate this place, Parker. I hate the vampires, and I just want to go back to how things used to be."

"I understand," he said. "Though we vampires aren't all bad."

"I didn't mean you. I keep dreaming that Jericho's killing me."

He climbed onto the bed next to me. "How about I guard you until you fall asleep? Would that make you feel better?"

"Yes, very much so," I said.

I hugged him tight, and I took in another whiff of his sweet smell as I closed my eyes.

"You're such a sweet, innocent person Jake," he whispered, lulling me to sleep. "You belong far, far away from here. Promise me you went lose that innocence. Promise me you won't grow jaded."

JANUARY 6th

I woke up in the pale morning light with someone's warm body on top of me. I was lying on my back, fully clothed. The man on top of me was totally naked, his head resting on my shoulder. I could feel the sweet heat of his body cover me as he wrapped his arms around me.

Was it Parker?

I opened my eyes excitedly; only to stare up into Syd's smug face. I should have known by the smell of cigarettes on his body.

"Syd, it's too early for this," I said.

"It's morning, Jakey. Just barely, but it is. And guess what I want? The sex you owe me today."

"Ah, man. Can't this wait until later?"

"Absolutely not. I've been waiting for what seems like fucking forever."

"Alright then, let's get this over with," I said.

"Remember that you promised I could do anything to you I wanted," he said.

"Except being topped by you," I said.

"And you agreed that you would get into it, enjoy it, and cum, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember," I said. "Just tell me what you want me to do first."

"Get out of those clothes," he said, jumping out of the bed and running into the bathroom.

I got up off the bed myself and started to strip. Soon, I was naked.

He reappeared with a bottle of massage oil in his hand. "I want you to grease up every inch of my smoking hot body," he said. "Remember back when you gave me that massage, and you tried to pretend like you didn't have a boner? Had to pretend like my body didn't drive you insane with lust? Well, now you're free to worship my body without holding anything back." He tossed me the oil.

"Right here, Syd?" I asked, wondering if he was going to lie back on the bed.

"Right here," he said, standing on the floor.

I opened the bottle and poured some oil in my hands.

"Why don't you start with my fuckin' big guns," he said, reaching up his arms into a double bicep pose, flexing his arm muscles.\

I started with his right forearm, and he flexed it, leaving me to rub the oil into his the blonde fur of his lower arm, as I was amazed how veiny his forearm was. When I rubbed down to his bicep, he flexed it hard, making the round arm muscle pop, it was so big.

"Yeah, feel all those veins, Jakey?" he asked me. "Don't pretend like you ever felt such a studly arm in your hands ever before. Yeah, get those monstrous triceps good and oiled up too."

That whole time, he kept his bedroom eyes locked on me, his right eyebrow raised slightly above the left suggestively. I knew he was expecting me to get turned on by this, I knew that was part of the deal. But I hated him so much, how could I possibly enjoy myself anymore?

So I did what I had to do to keep my promise: I cut Syd's face off the mental picture of him in my mind, and I pasted on Parker's face. They looked practically identical anyway, except the expressions they made were so dissimilar. I would just fool myself into believing that this was Parker in front of me.

I oiled up Syd's, oops, I meant Parker's arm, moaning with pleasure as my fingers searched out every vein and ever ripple of the powerful instrument. It felt so good to finally be able to worship Parker's buff arms with my hands like I had done with my eyes.

My fingers landed in the sexy, straight blonde hairs of his armpit, surrounded by the muscles of his upper arm and upper/side back. There was a sexy warmth to him there.

"I seen you admiring my pits a lot, Jakey," he said. "You can taste them if you want. I bet they taste fuckin' good."

"No thanks," I said, broken out of my spell for a moment. No, this was Parker in front of me. Parker. I moved up to his hefty round shoulder, which he flexed for me as well. I massaged the oil into his upper traps.

"I can flex those too," he said, tightening his upper shoulders/trap muscles. "Pretty sweet, huh?"

I worked over to this left arm, massaging my way down to his hand. I could see that although he wasn't hard, his huge dick was hanging long and loose, clearly proving that this was turning him on.

"I think you'd better get my hunky back, Jakey," he said, turning around. He flexed again for my benefit. "Have ya ever seen a back more sculpted than this, Jakey?"

I massaged the oil into the hard ridges of his upper back, amazed how firm it was. Needless to say, by this time, I was rock hard; fantasizing I was worshipping Parker's body instead of Syd's was really doing the trick.

"Don't worry about taking yer time, kiddo," he said. "I know that there's a lot of flesh there to cover, with a back as wide as mine."

I slid my oiled hands down to his lower back, moving through the crevasses that his back muscles created along his spine. I wondered if he wanted me to keep moving down over his marvelous butt. He didn't bend over or anything, but he did flex and tighten his butt, making those ridges on the sides of cheeks turn practically concave. I put more oil on my hands, and I started to massage down over the smooth, slightly whiter skin of his taut bubble butt that was devoid of a single ounce of fat.

When I dropped to my knees and started to get to his thick upper thighs, he said, "I knew yer dying to get a handful of my tennis ball-sized Syd nuts. Go ahead."

He spread his legs a bit, and I could see the back of his wrinkled nutsack hanging down. I reached through and grabbed one of the balls in my right hand, squeezing and fondling it.

"That's it, Jakey," he said. "I know you love those gigantic nuts. Where else do you think all that cum that you love so much comes from? Come on now, use both hands and grab both nuts at once, don't even try to get both in one hand, `cause you will fail."

I reached through with my other hand and held onto his other ball, rubbing my greasy hands into his scrotum, his wonderful, soft penis hitting my fingers on the other side, teasing me.

After I got them good and oiled up, I moved my hands back to his thighs, and he flexed his legs hard, making every huge vein on his thighs and hamstrings pop out monstrously. It felt so good to be able to knead them freely.

"How does it feel rubbing up a pair of legs that could break you in half in seconds, Jakey?"

I moved down to his calves, which he tightened as well, and I oiled up all the cute blonde fur on his lower legs. I even oiled up his big, huge feet.

"Ya know what they say about guys with big, studly feet," he said. "I guess in my case they weren't kidding."

He turned around and pulled me up to my feet. "Plenty of time for you to be on yer knees later on, Jakey," he said. "Why don't you get my Adonis chest now?"

I moved my oily hands to his tan upper chest, rubbing into the perfect left pec, my fingers swirling into his short sandy chest hair. He flexed his pecs, turning them massively hard, and I rubbed my fingers around those perfect pink nipples. I was amazed how his thick pecs pushed together in the center of his chest, creating that crack that always looked so good when he unbuttoned the top of his shirt.

"I want yer hands all over my perfect abs, Jakey," he told me. "You could do your fucking laundry on those things."

I rubbed down over those truly perfect abs, oiling up every single ridge of his flexed oblique, moving my fingers down the center of his six-pack, right over that blonde line of hair that led to his beckoning crotch.

"Yeah, Jakey, follow that treasure trail all the way to heaven," he said, using his strong hands to push me down to my knees.

But instead I put both of my hands on his hips, dragging them down the diagonal lines between his lower obliques and hip muscles that both led right to his crotch. When my finger reached his warm, blonde pubes, I rubbed those up with oil too.

"Alright, enough teasing, Jakey, get those hands on my monster Texas cock already."

He bucked his hips forward, and gently grabbed the upper part of the meaty shaft, oiling up each thick vein on his perfect base.

"Yeah, that's it, Jakey. Give the elephant dick a good rub."

I used both hands, tugging the huge upper shaft between my oily palms, taking my time until it was good and wet, loving the feel of his huge ballsack hitting me on the other side. He bucked his hips, making his soft unit snap up towards my face before hanging back down towards the ground. I moved my hands slowly down, covering more and more inches of his dick, and it always seemed like there were always loads more inches left.

Finally, blissfully, my hands reached his massive dickhead. That beautifully smooth, tan-pink fleshknob looked absolutely mouth watering as I held it close to my face, wanting to soak in every detail.

"Now it's yer turn, Jakey," he said, grabbing the bottle of massage oil and pushing me back on the bed, so I was flat on my back.

"Are you going to give me another massage?" I asked.

"Yer about to get the hottest massage of yer life," he said. "'Cause I ain't using my hands, Jakey. I'm using my fuckhose."

He stepped onto the mattress, standing over my left leg, one foot on each side of my knee. It was so hot, looking up at his perfect body standing straight up, the dim light bouncing off every oily curve of his muscular body. He grabbed the bottle of oil and poured a huge amount of it onto the base of his dick. The gob of oil oozed down the entire front side of his dick, even rolling over that pink head, before pouring off the very tip of his dick, right at the piss-slit. I felt the oil drop down and hit my thigh below, tickling my senses with its warm wetness.

He kept pouring the oil down the base of his dick, creating a fountain of oil and sprung off the tip of his head before splashing onto my leg below. He stepped back above me, moving down my legs, so the wetness splashed all over my calf. When the oil coming from his dick started to splash onto my sensitive feet, it felt so surprisingly good, my foot trembled.

"Yeah, you like that?" he asked me.

He moved back up my leg, and started to pour the oil on my sensitive thigh. Each warm drop gave me shivers. He moved to my right thigh, and oiled the entire length of my right leg just as he had done with the left.

"I can see you staring slack jawed at this killer cock, Jakey," he said. "How excruciating it must be for you to want to touch it so badly, yet not be able to. You'll only get my monster cock, Jakey, if you prove yourself worthy. Right now, all you'll get is the oil."

He stepped over my body until his dick was over my right arm. He started pouring again, dripping all over my forearm, before moving up to my upper arm and shoulder. He did the same to my left arm, and I was in heaven.

He stuck his feet with his toes poking into my pits, his inner ankles against my ribs. He started to drip the oil right down the center of my chest, then he moved over a few inches, and the hot oil splashed onto my sensitive nipple. After he had my chest totally covered, he moved up my body, dripping the oil over my clavicle, up my throat.

I shut my lips, and the oil dripped from his penis to my mouth, dripped onto my nose and cheeks. He got my forehead with a couple of drops, and even my ears.

Then he moved back down my body, his dick hovering over my abs. Soon, they too were covered in warm oil. He dripped some of the oil onto my ballsack, making my jump. Then he dripped more oil onto the base of my hard dick, which felt incredible. He worked his way to my dickhead, then doused me with a huge gush of oil, absolutely covering my sensitive head.

"I wanna hear you beg for this cock, Jakey."

"Please, please give me your perfect phallus," I said.

"That's not good enough."

"Please, I'll do anything just to be able to touch your dick again."

"Alright, sweetheart," he said, "but you keep yer hands to yerself."

He set the bottle of oil down and he got down on his knees, straddling my left leg as the head of his soft penis finally touched my upper thigh skin. Holy crap, it felt so big, slimy, heavy, and downright wonderful. He moved his dick up, down, and all around my thigh, using the massive tool to massage in all that oil. It was amazing that he could give me such a great massage with that thing.

He slid his penis down my body, rubbing in the oil on my calf, then getting to my foot, massaging the thing with his dickhead. He got up and switched sides then, moving to my other foot, then oiled up my leg until he was back to my hip. He switched positions, getting on top of me in a raised pushup position, and he massaged his penis into my hips and torso, maddeningly avoiding my dick.

I felt his oily member drag all over my chest, finally rubbing my left nipple as I shuddered in excitement. He massaged in all the loose oil, then moved his dick upwards, over my throat. When his soft, wonderful dickhead moved slowly over my lips, all I wanted to do was open them, but I reminded myself how oily that would taste. He teased my lips endlessly, even lowering his heavy, greasy ballsack over them.

He moved his dick to my nose, which I was breathing out of, and I got a big whiff of his wonderful dick covered with the massage oil smell, which was intoxicating. He lowered his balls over my nose, and those too smelled wonderful.

He stuck his dickhead in both my ears, tickling me there. Then he dragged his still soft unit over my forehead, and finally, over my eyelids (which I only shut when I absolutely had to, as I didn't want to miss out on any views of his dick).

I was about ready to beg him to touch his dick to my own when he reached down and flipped me over onto my front side on the bed. He straddled my back, with his shins on the bed and his knees pressed into my pits. He grabbed the bottle of oil and poured it down his dick again, this time pushing his dickhead against my back as soon the oil landed, rubbing it in vigorously.

He slid his oily member up the back of my neck, making me shiver. Then he started oiling up my upper back.

By the time he covered my lower back in oil with his dick, making me shudder as he ran his penis over my lower spine down to the tip of my tailbone, he moved down to my left hamstring. He massaged his dick into me there, then moved to my right hamstring.

Eventually, he moved back up, running his dick over my left buttcheek, massaging himself into that sensitive area. He lifted up, never touching my buttcrack, and lowered his dick moments later on my right buttcheek complete with a new squirt of oil.

He lifted up his dick again off of my body, and I could hear him pouring more oil onto his dick. I felt the oil that fell off his dickhead land on the back of my balls, right against my perineum, and I sighed. He slowly, torturously, moved his dick upwards as the oil poured on my perineum, finally landing in my lower crack.

His drips continued upwards, until one landed right on my butthole, making me spasm with pleasure. "Ooo, you like that, dontcha?"

He dripped more oil onto my hole, then I felt the oil come down on my upper crack, all the way up to my tailbone.

"I want you to beg for my dick again," he said.

"Please, please give it to me," I pleaded.

"Alright, ready or not, here it comes."

He lowered his soft penis onto my tailbone, making me jump at the touch. It felt so, so hot against my sensitive skin. He slowly began to drag it down my crack, making me shudder anew with every hot centimeter.

He stopped right before his soft dickhead reached my butthole, torturing me. Then, just when I thought he wouldn't touch me there, he dragged his dick over the hole, making me cry out. He started twirling his soft head around the ring of my hole.

"So, so hot, Jakey," he said, and I could finally feel his penis start to harden. Or rather, I felt that he chose to let himself get hard at that point, and I had to credit him for obviously possessing the ability to stay soft even if he was totally turned on if the situation merited it. My dick had too much of a mind of its own to do anything like that.

Now that he was letting himself get hard, I noticed it happened at lightening speed. And even when it was just halfway there, he started to slowly hump my buttcrack, there being so much oil inside it that his penis just slid all over the place.

"Yeah, Jakey, take my huge cock, sweetheart."

His oily right hand grabbed me around my waist, his hug, hot inner-arm pressed against my right ribs. He used that arm to pull my butt up into the air, and started hump me harder and harder as he slapped my left buttcheek with his left hand.

I felt his left hand grab my shoulder while his right hand grabbed my forehead, using both of those hands to slam my body back against his grunting thrusts. His dick felt so, so huge and powerful in my crack. His right hand slipped down my face and ended up at my lips, his huge fingers trying to jab their way in my mouth. I wouldn't let them past my lips because I didn't want the taste of oil in my mouth, but they did feel very sexy against me. Then he moved his right hand into my hair, grabbing and pulling it just short of hard enough to take me out of the pleasure of the moment.

"Yes, look at you, Jakey. You don't even have to pretend to be turned on, you are absolutely a puppet in my hands, totally destroyed by your desire for me."

I felt both of his hands clamps around my waist as he pulled my body back flush against him. While normally there might have been friction between our bodies, the oil had totally eliminated it, and he rubbed back and forth against me without ever slowing. Holy crap, it was so hot to feel his hard nipples and oily chest hair scrape back and forth over my back, over and over again as he humped me. I felt his breath on the left side of my face, and realized he had planted his face against me. I felt his tongue quickly search out over my lips as his humping reached the fastest pace yet.

He stopped humping me, his dickhead coming to a stop right at my hole. He started to encircle my hole over and over with the tip of his penis, teasing me.

Then he started to push his way into my hole, less than a centimeter, perhaps, but his work was aided greatly my the layers and layers of oil we were covered in, not to mention all of his precum that must have been on me. I tried to struggle, but he pinned my hands and wrists into the mattress with his huge mitts. I felt out of control suddenly, like I was going to get raped. There was no way Parker would ever do something like that to me, and that realization snapped me out of my reverie.

"You promised not to top me," I said.

"I know, I know, sheesh," he said, pulling up off me.

He spun me around on my back again, got the massage oil, and poured it all over my front.

"I know yer drying to have my hot-blooded Texas cock smothering your own dick, Jakey," he said as he lowered his body on top of mine, touching his oiled up, massive dickhead against mine, sending electricity up my spine and through my arms and legs. He slowly lowered the rest of his dick on top of mine, a devious grin on his face. Every inch of my penis was smashed by his veiny shaft, and I felt his wonderful, oily balls totally cover my own.

Parker wrapped his brawny arms around my neck, put his weight on his elbows, and curved his back until his lips were against mine, his stubble scratching my cheeks, and his tongue pushing its way into my mouth, which I accepted eagerly, wrapping my right arm around his muscled neck. He dug his shins into the mattress, his knees straddling my thighs, and used that position to start to ram back and forth, up and down my hard penis, his dick sliding all over my greasy abs.

He broke the kiss and raised his head, looking at me in the eyes with a good foot of space between us. He stuck his right hand under the back of my head, squeezing my hair. With his left hand, he grabbed my right leg up into the air and pushed it up and around his hip, my calf against his taut buttocks. His strong left hand squeezed hard into the flesh of my outer thigh, and he used my raised leg to give him better access, and his fucking just got stronger as a result, driving me absolutely crazy.

Still pinning my leg up and against him with his left hand, he reached back with his right hand and pulled my left leg up over his right side. I realized he wanted me to clasp my ankles together behind his back, so I did, pulling our dicks firmly together. He stuck his right arm under my neck and reached around, grabbing the right my face with his right hand. Still above me, he locked eyes with me and flicked his tongue at me suggestively as he rammed harder and harder.

He pulled my head up against the headboard, locking it up as he kissed me hard, flicking that sexy tongue right in my mouth. As he continued to hump my torso, I felt his left hand reach underneath me and start to tease my hole with his fat finger. I moaned, and that really got him going, picking up the pace of everything.

I felt him licking the left side of my throat, and I knew what was about to come. Only this time, for the first time, I welcomed it. I felt two tiny points of pain, just enough to make me question myself, and then the pleasure swept through my neck as Parker's lips wrapped my wound, drinking me in.

He grunted, humping against my dick faster and faster, as the long swallows he took from my neck created waves of wonderful pleasure that spread throughout my body.

That's when his pleasure heightened to the max, and he started grunting and humping me furiously, as suddenly I could feel his first shot of hot semen launch out of that huge dickhead and land on my own tip. His second shot launched, and he rammed harder than ever amidst the climax of his orgasm, moaning and licking away at my throat.

I felt that beautiful tingle in my throat, felt his huge dick plowing against mine, totally saturating my in its wonderful cream, felt his big arms squeezing me hard, felt his finger stab into my butthole, all at the same time. It was much too much sensation for me to take, and I started to orgasm too, ecstasy floating throughout my being as my dick started to pour out my load, joining my seed with his.

As we started to go through the twilight of our orgasms, letting out the ends of our loads, he licked my neck wound healed and looked down at me with a smile. "Oh yeah, Jakey, Jakey, Jakey."

"Oh yeah, Parker."

His smile faded. "What did you just call me?"

"Syd, I meant Syd," I said quickly.

He brusquely pried himself off of me, leaving a trail of semen between the head of his wet dick and the pool of cum on my belly. "You just fucking called me Parker," he said, shaking his head. "That's so no cool, Jakey."

"Look, I didn't mean to," I said.

"Yes, you did. You meant it exactly. You did to me what so many exes of mine told me they did when they had to have sex with other guys, they got through the sex by picturing me. Only, this is the first fuckin' time anyone did that to me, and it fuckin' stings."

I stayed silent, not knowing how to respond.

"You were picturing Parker the whole fucking time, weren't you?"

I didn't deny it.

"I knew it. No wonder you were so into me. I told myself this time between us was going to be special. I was going to do everything right, and that Jakey that used to desire me so hard back in Tahoe would come back to me, that sweet, totally hot guy. And all along just now, I thought I had won you back, that you had come to yer goddamn senses."

"There's no going back, Syd," I said. "I'm never going to fall back into that huge crush with you again, that's over. You arranged for me to give you sex, and that's what you're getting."

"I arranged for the two of us to sleep together, Jakey. I didn't ever fucking arrange for you, me, and Parker to go at it. That's a threesome with my fucking brother you just made me do, and it's disgusting."

He angrily flipped over in bed and went to sleep. I got up and washed all of our semen off me in the tub. Afterwards, I was determined to clean the settee off, so I picked up the brush and bucket and cleaned the hell out of it.

I stormed into the closet and changed my clothes. While I did, I caught a glance at Syd's revolver, which was fully loaded, just lying there looking at me, next to his machete.

Jericho's actions flashed through my mind again anew, and I absolutely recognized that I could not just sit idly by and let Jericho's victims die.

I picked up Syd's gun. I knew that I'd be able to hand the gun through the bars to the next prisoner in the Great Room, but I had yet to see the person unguarded.

Inspiration hit, and I grabbed the gun and walked out of Syd's apartment.

In the hallway, I heard a woman coming through, probably a maid. I had nowhere to hide the gun but straight down the front of my pants. I stuck my whole hand in there, including the gun, hoping it would not chose to go off accidentally at the worst moment.

"Hi there," I said as the woman passed, looking at my hand in my pants cautiously, clearly suspecting some illicit intention on my behalf as she picked up her pace.

I moved into the Great Room. It was empty, like it always was in the morning, but still was full of ominous foreboding. I walked downstairs, fear gripping my stomach as I remembered what had taken place there just hours ago.

I made it to the cage, and tried to open the door, dismayed to find it locked. There was nothing inside besides a toilet with a lid. If I could hide the gun in the toilet when no one was in it, the person who would later be locked in would likely discover the weapon without anyone else seeing it. It was a reasonable plan, but the toilet was far away from the bars, and there was no way I could slip it in without a key. I didn't see any other potential hiding place for the gun in there.

Disappointed, I walked back to Syd's room and put his gun back. It was time for me to meet up with Cornelius, and I hated being late, so I hurried down back through the Great Room to his office door. I knocked, but today there was no answer.

"Ah, Mr. Groves, I'm right behind you," he said, and I turned to see Cornelius coming through the hall, carrying several plates with slices of cake. "I wanted to grab the cake samples for you."

"Here, let me help you with those," I said, grabbing a couple plates from him.

"Thanks." He got to his door, and then stuck his hand in his suit-jacket pocket. He pulled out a massive key ring completely filled with a hundred keys. He found one, and unlocked his door before putting the keys back in his pocket. Given his position as head of the Cabinet, I could only assume his key ring was filled with various mansion keys, most likely one of them belonging to the cage, which I knew I had to do everything I could to get my hands on. Simply asking him for the key would be out of the question. I would have to steal it.

"It's another diverting day for you, Mr. Groves," Cornelius said as he ushered me into the room. "You get to pick out your wedding cake." He told me like it was a surprise, though it was obvious from the moment I saw all the cake just what would be taking place that morning.

"Really? Wow, sounds like fun," I said. While normally I would have avoided cake, I was so starving, it actually sounded good to me.

We went through a couple of cake selections before I started fake-shivering. "Are you as cold as I am?"

"Not in the least," he said. "I feel quite toasty."

"I'm freezing. Do you mind if I borrow your jacket, Cornelius?"

He seemed a little weirded out. "Uh, no, I suppose that would be alright," he said.

He took off his jacket without removing his keys, thank goodness. Then I put it on, even though I wasn't the least bit cold.

I was waiting for a moment when I could get the jacket alone. I thought of telling him I needed to use the bathroom, but figured he'd ask me to return his jacket.

Instead, I took a bite of another cake. "Mmm, this one is excellent," I said. "I think I'll pick it."

"Oh, yes, quite nice."

"Actually, you know what would make this cake better? Strawberries. Sliced strawberries. Can we do that?"

"Strawberries on a carrot cake?" he asked, confused. "That's an odd choice."

"Yes. I'd like to see how that tastes. Can you get the chefs to put strawberries on, and bring it back?"

"Sure, of course," he said.

He grabbed the cake from me and left the office. This was way too easy.

I fished the key ring from the pockets and started flipping through the keys as quickly as possible. Luckily, I had gotten a really good look at the key Jericho had used to unlock the cage these past two nights. Unlike all the other old fashioned keys that people seemed to have around here, this one was totally modern.

Flipping through all of Cornelius's keys, I quickly realized he didn't have it. All of his keys were old fashioned. Darn, back to square one..

Cornelius soon came back, and I agreed that the strawberries on the carrot cake weren't as good as I figured. I gave him back his jacket, telling him I was all warmed up.

By the end of the session, I had picked a cake for the wedding totally at random. As I was leaving, Cornelius said, "Oh, I wanted to tell you that I've sent Meredith, our resident designer in Mareshead, on the stagecoach today to Fools Gold. Because both Dr. Logan and her wife are civil servants who find it difficult to take off enough work to make a trip up here, we thought it prudent to have Meredith go in person to fit them for their dresses and prep them on their speech giving responsibilities during the wedding. When she returns, we'll have to arrange for your other three bridesmaids to go through similar measures here, as well as Syd's groomsmen."

"I promise, this time, I'm not gonna touch the guy," Syd said as the two of us walked towards the stables.

"That's what you told me yesterday, and yet, you ended up spending all of your much needed practice time with Donnie sprawled out in front of you over that wooden ladder. What makes this time different?"

"This time, I'm all spent from our roll in the hay this morning," he said. "All I got on my mind today is winnin' this rodeo thing, Jakey. I ain't never liked the taste of losing, and I ain't about to start here."

When we walked into the stables, Donnie was sprawled out on a pile of hay, lounging as if he was basking in sunlight on the side of a world class pool, a cigarette in his lips and a glass of alcohol in his hands. When he saw Syd walk in, he smiled. "Ooo, I can see my day's about to get a whole lot more exciting."

"Sorry, Donnie-boy, I can't mess around with ya today, I got riding to do," Syd said.

"Oh really?" Donnie asked. "And what makes you presume ya can resist me?" He ripped open his shirt and started rubbing his hands all over his skinny body, clearly taunting Syd.

"That's not going to help," I said.

"Yer very alluring, Donnie, but I got work to do today," Syd said.

"Can you resist this?" he asked, pulling off his pants teasingly, ending up naked on that hay.

For second, Syd's eyes went wide. "Yer feminine wiles ain't gonna work on me today," Syd said. "Could ya just saddle up two horses for us?"

"Sure, I'll saddle up for ya," he said.

Donnie got up off the hay, grabbed a saddle, but instead of carrying it to one of the horses, he brought it to a wooden barrel that had been tipped on its side. He sprawled out the leather saddle on top of the wood, giving Syd daring glances.

He draped himself stomach down over the saddle so his butt was sticking in the air. Then he pulled out a bottle of lube from lord only knows where, covered his fingers, and started to finger himself slowly, looking at Syd in the eye with pure seduction.

"Oh my lordy, am I really expected to resist that?" asked Syd. "When his pretty hole is all raring to go?"

"Yes, Syd, stay strong."

He whimpered like a sad puppy dog. "Christ, this is the most willpower I've ever needed," he said as he walked past Donnie, his eyes locked on his moving fingers. "Lemme wipe this drool off my chin and saddle up our horses myself."

"Syd, for once, I'm proud of you," I said as soon as we had taken our saddled horses out of the stables.

"Better go rustle up some cattle," he said, and rode off on his horse.

I was a bit early to meet Boyd, so I rode over to the pole bending course and practiced what I had picked up the previous day for a while. When the time came, I rode back over closer to the stables, where I usually met Boyd, and there the stud was, walking towards me, holding a wooden box in his big arms.

"Hey kid, ready to learn about yer next rodeo event?" he asked.

"Sure," I said. "Where's your horse, Boyd?"

"We ain't need horses today," he said. "I'm about to teach ya the one event that doesn't involve horses or livestock."

"Oh, I'll love it then, I'm sure," I said.

"I wouldn't be so quick to pronounce that one, kid," Boyd said. "Put yer horse away, then meet me back here."

I headed into the stable with my horse, wondering if I would find Donnie still on the saddle over the barrel, or if he'd be back in the hay by then.

I quickly noticed he was still on the saddle, but I gasped as I saw Syd standing there with him, riding him like a horse, plowing Donnie with his condom-covered, hard monster as he hooted and hollered and waved his cowboy hat around above him.

"Syd, you little bastard!" I yelled.

"Jakey, it wasn't my fault, I swear. It was all a big accident."

"Accident?!" I asked. "You accidentally came back and screwed Donnie?"

"Well, my stirrup broke off, so I had to come back here," he said.

"Then you should have gotten a new one and left!"

"I was going to, but I tripped over a log, and ended up with my dickhead all the way up Donnie's chute. It was a total accident, right Donnie?"

"Falling against Donnie wouldn't have mattered if your pants were still on, Syd. Did those accidentally come off too?"

He nodded. "It happened outside," he said. "I was fiddling with my horse's stirrup when a rattler went up my pants leg, and I had to shake my jeans off and leave em."

"Yeah, that's totally believable, Syd," I said. "I notice you're wearing a condom, like you always do when you have sex. How did you accidentally get that one put on you, huh? Did the rattlesnake do it himself?"

Syd groaned sexually as Donnie shifted positions. "Hold that thought, Jakey, I'm a bit distracted at the moment. I'm sure I'll be able to think of a world class excuse for that in two jiffies."

"Oh, I have all the confidence in the world in your ability to bullshit, Syd."

I put away my horse and left them to it, walking back towards Boyd.

"So, what exactly is this big and scary new event you were talking about?" I asked him, banishing Syd and Donnie from my thoughts.

"Why don't you open up this box and find out for yerself?"

I walked over to Boyd and pulled the lid off the wooden box he was carrying. Inside were a number of scary looking axes.

"Uh-oh, please tell me I'm not supposed to fight someone with those."

"Nope, nothing quite that grisly," he said.

"Is this some sort of lumberjack competition? Am I going to have to cut trees down? If so, I hope they've been farmed instead of having to cut down wild trees."

"Nope, wrong again," Boyd said. "Here, follow me."

He led me to a nearby dirt corral, where some large tree truck slices had been raised up and positioned on stands.

"Them's throwing axes, Jake," Boyd said as he dropped the box to the ground, picked up one for the axes, and threw it at the trunk slice. The axe perfectly went to the center of the round wood piece, and I realized its purpose was to serve as a target. "Yer gonna learn how to do that."

"Holy crap, you're good at that! Is that even a rodeo event?"

"Well, it ain't used to be, but just like the Double Pole Bending event, it was added recently by the Logans."

"Please tell me Parker wasn't responsible for adding this one," he said.

"Jericho actually," Boyd said.

"Figures."

"Though there ain't much danger in just throwing an axe at a target, Jake," Boyd said. He took another axe out of the box and showed it to me.

"What if it were to break when I threw it?"

"These axes are made really well. I promise ya, they ain't breakin." He handed me one. The wooden handle was little less than 20 inches long. "And look how clean the bevel is on that axe blade." He walked over to the target and pulled his axe from the bulls-eye. "Now, I want you to try."

"Are you sure I shouldn't wear protective clothing or equipment?"

"You'll be fine," he said to me.

"Maybe I will, but I'm not throwing this thing with you anywhere near my potential impact zone."

"I'll come behind you," he said, walking to my rear. "Make sure yer form is right."

"Shouldn't I be farther back?"

"Not to start with," he said. "Learn it from here, and then we can take it back. Now, I want you to hold the axe firmly in your right hand."

I grabbed it, and faced the wooden target.

He grabbed me around the waist from behind and used his right foot to push mine forward. "Keep yer right foot out in front, and face it directly at the center of the target."

"Like this?"

"Yup, now..." He moved his strong hands up to my chest. "Feel how there's that straight line all the way between yer right arm, yer right foot, and the center of the bullseye?"

"Yes."

"That's the key to aiming. Now, I want ya to bring the axe out at level with yer arm, bring yer elbow up, until the axe is about shoulder level."

I did as he asked.

"Good. Now, when you throw it, there's no need to throw too hard-like. The heavy blade will take the axe all the way to the target without a whole lot of effort. When you throw, be sure to release the axe when yer arm is straight and aimed at the target. Now give it a try."

I concentrated on all he had told me, and I went through the motions of the move, slowly and carefully tossing the blade towards the target. It was a failure: it didn't hit near to the center of the target, and didn't even stick to the wood, the back end of the axe ended up hitting the target. "Shoot, that was all wrong," I said.

"No, it looks damn good, Jake," Boyd said.

"What do you mean? It's not even in the target."

"It's true that in order for yer throw to count in competition, the blade has to stick," he said. "But yer aim is solid."

"It didn't even hit the middle of the target!"

"Jake, yer the first person I've seen to hit the target at all on the first try. You sure you don't have experience with this?"

"Uh, no. Where I come from, axe throwing isn't exactly a highly prolific pro sport, Boyd."

"Even so, ya got a natural leg up on yer competitors, you should be proud." He grabbed me another axe and handed it to me. "Now, the hardest part of axe throwing is getting the blade to hit squarely in the target, to make sure it sticks. The real trick is putting more or less rotations on the blade so that it hits yer target at just the right moment. Try throwing from here until you get it to stay."

I threw another axe at the board, and once again, it failed to land.

"Try again," he said.

It actually took three more throws before I started to get a feel for the rotations the axe was making. I worked on slowing down the spin of the axe, and then after a couple more shots, I finally landed one in the target.

"Nice one!" Boyd cheered. "Now, I want you to come back to this line here," he said, tapping on a white line in the dust with his boot. "This is the fifteen feet mark, and it's where ya non-fanged folks throw from."

I walked back to the first line, and started to throw, but once again, it didn't land.

"Now, it can be harder to control the spin from way back here," he said "One trick I tell folks I'm helping is that they require ya to throw no closer than this line, but you can go back as far as you need to."

"Why would I want to do that? It would just make it harder to aim."

"'Cause sometimes we have a sweet spot where we tend to throw with just the right rotation, and rarely is it right at fifteen feet for everybody."

He and I experimented, with me moving back half a foot and throw again and again until I found my sweet spot, about 17 feet back from the target. Oddly enough, every time I threw from that spot, it landed.

"Perfect, now ya just got to practice the hell outta yer aim," Boyd said.

He stood there with me for a good hour until I could consistently get the axe at least in the center- area of the target, even if it wasn't always hitting dead on in the bullseye.

"Ya got a real knack for throwing, kid," Boyd said after he had deemed it the end of our training, and the two of us walked back towards the mansion. "Ya gonna hit the showers with me again?"

"Sure."

I followed him into the outdoor men's room and into the changing area. He sat on a bench facing a wall and started to undress, first his hat and boots. I started to undress behind him.

"You know, now that I've gotten the hang of the axe throwing thing, I think I'm kind of liking it."

"Yeah, well, we're gonna continue where we left off tomorrow, and somehow, I don't think you'll be leaving as bright eyed and bushy tailed." He took off his buckskin shirt, leaving his ripped chocolate back bare for my viewing pleasure.

"Why, what happens tomorrow?" I asked, concern in my voice.

"Let's leave tomorrow for tomorrow." He pulled off his chaps and jeans at the same time, leaving him naked in front of me. It was so wonderful to see his naked backside this close, such a perfect fatless bubble-butt full of strong muscle.

My goodness, didn't any of these cowboys wear underwear under their pants? Parker, I remembered.

Boyd grabbed a towel and put it around his waist, ending the possibility of me seeing his dick real fast, and he walked towards that same shower stall. Soon, I could hear the shower running at steam came out from the top of the stall.

I finished undressing, grabbed my own towel, and took the stall to the right of Boyd's, the one in which I had discovered that lovely peep hole.

Halfway into my shower, I got bold enough to kneel down on the wall that my stall shared with Boyd's stall and slowly look through. I was hugely rewarded: Boyd was standing there in the spray of the water, his head down to just below his waist in my entire view, only this time, he was facing towards me.

This meant his entire upper body was in my sights. I loved watching him wash that soap bar into his huge muscles, rubbing each and every fold and crevasse of his physique with precision and care.

His big hands moved south of my view, almost teasing me as they worked on cleaning an area I couldn't see. But then, blissfully, Boyd took a step back, putting his black pubes into view. He was washing them with his bar of soap. Boyd slid back further, and I could see the first couple inches of his mocha dick, terribly thick, and behind that, the top of his dark scrotum.

I would have been satisfied with just a couple inches of that gorgeous meat, but then Boyd slid back some more, until it seemed about half of his huge, floppy dick was in my view. The mocha shaft was thick and tight, showing no signs of being uncut. Just like the muscles on his body, huge veins ran up and down the huge unit. Behind it, his scrotum was extremely wide, and I couldn't see the bottom of his nutsack. He washed the top of his dick with his hands, rubbing every huge inch slowly and mesmerizing. I loved the way the shower spray led rivulets of water down the V-line of his muscled lower abs and upper leg muscles, pouring down into the top of his unit.

I almost gasped when he took another step back, putting his whole dick into my view for the first time. He was so much longer than I had anticipated before, and I realized when I thought before that I was seeing half of his monster, I really was just seeing about a third of it. I could not believe how well hung these vampires were.

His dick was indeed cut. The huge, thick stalk, covered with veins, was the same mocha color as the rest of his skin. His huge, mushroom cockhead was a slightly pinker shade of brown. Water poured over and down this huge phallus, pouring down the end of the thick head to his feet. Behind the soft member, his balls were just as impressive, darker in color than the rest of him.

He soaped up this sweet stick with his white bar, until it was totally covered in suds. Then he turned to the left, and I got a profile view of the same scene, which let me see more of his deep hanging balls, which he was washing carefully with his soapy hands.

He rinsed off and turned the water off much sooner than I would have hoped. He got a towel and started to wipe down that gorgeous, muscled body. When he got to his enormous dick and balls, he had to wipe those down as if they were one of his limbs, they had so much surface area to them.

I felt sad when he finally put his towel around himself, covering up his wonderful dick from my view, but by that time, I had long been rock hard in my shower.

After Boyd left the stall with his towel around his waist, I briefly considered jerking off, and then remembered I was supposed to meet Parker soon for the shooting practice, and decided not to. I finished my shower, and by the time I got dressed in the fresh clothes I had brought with me, Boyd was long gone from the little changing room.

I walked back into the mansion. There still wasn't anyone in the Great Room when I went though it to exit the front door. As soon as I left the mansion out the western entrance, stepping onto the dirt road loop that led back to the road to Fools Gold, there was that odd, mysterious humming coming from the north again. I ignored it and walked to west, as Parker had instructed, following a dirt foot path through a quarter mile of more of the beautiful, rugged grounds until I came upon a huge but simple shooting range.

I certainly had never seen a shooting range before, but what it most reminded me of was a golf driving range. On the side closest to me, stacks of hay created a short wall which seemed to serve as the safety barrier for everyone. The wall stretched many yards, providing enough space for perhaps fifty different people to shoot simultaneously without interfering with each other. There weren't nearly that many folks using it that day, only a dozen cowboys and ladies were shooting.

On the other side of the safety wall, targets consisting of either bottles or cans stacked on cut logs and boulders, or of fancier propped up scarecrows, were spread around the grassy field beyond. Some of the targets were just ten yards from the safety wall, and others went out a good hundred yards.

Parker waved to me, smiling his beautiful smile, and motioned for me to join him against the safety wall. He was wearing one of his normal dark period suits, with old-fashioned slacks, vest, and loose-ribbon bowtie over a clean white button up. That day, however, he had a large black bag with him that he obviously had used to haul in the guns, most of which seemed to be set up and ready on the haystack behind him.

"Hi there, Jake," he said, giving me a wonderful hug. "It's so good to see you perked up again. After you were so rightfully upset last night, I wasn't sure if I'd ever see your sweet smile again." His words warmed me thoroughly.

"Eh, well, you know. Even when my life is utter insanity, I figure the smile has to make an appearance once in a while. And being outside again, surrounded by nature's grace, it certainly brightens my mood. Thanks again for doing this for me, Parker."

"Hey, it's my pleasure," he said. He pulled something small out of his vest pocket. "But before we get started, I wanted to give you this." He handed me a cell phone. "I want you to keep my cell phone. I want you to be able to call your family and friends anytime you get the notion to."

I felt overwhelmed by his kindness. "I can't take your phone, Parker."

"I never use it. Della gave it to me, but I've never used a phone like this before. Seeing it sit on my desk everyday is just a reminder of my unkempt promise to Della to learn how. If you take it off my hands, I shall be in your gratitude."

I had a feeling that he was just saying that to ease my guilt. "Parker, I couldn't call from this number anyway, it has a Texas area code."

"Oh no, you can actually dial to different area codes besides your own by hitting the 1 button, then the three digit area code, followed by the normal number. I recently picked that nugget up from Syd."

"That's news to you, Parker?" I asked, laughing at him. "No, I knew that piece already. What I meant was, they'll be able to tell my phone number is a Texas one when I call them. It's called Caller ID."

"Oh my, what an invasion of privacy those gadgets bring!"

"And it wouldn't fit with my supposed status of being in Montana at the moment to be calling from Texas."

"I never asked you to lie to your family, Jake," he said. "I would never ask anyone to do anything of the sort. Tell them what you will."

"Wow, that's very, very kind, Parker," I said. "But I think if I tell them the truth, they'll just try to hunt me down here. And the last thing I want is to get them more involved with Jericho than then already are."

"As usual, your sensibility and selflessness amaze me, Jake."

"I'll just convince Syd to let me call from my phone. Thanks anyway."

He put the phone away and pulled out something else. "These I won't let you refuse so easily," he said, handing me a pair of earplugs. "As a vampire, sometimes I forget how damaging these noise blasts can be to human eardrums. They can produce sounds as loud as a hundred and fifty decibels."

"Thanks," I said, gratefully taking the earplugs and putting them carefully in my ears, cutting the decibels of the world around me significantly.

He pointed at three weapons he had set up on the safety haystack in front of us. "Now, I don't know if you know this, but the Logan Blood uses three different firearms. The revolver, the rifle, and the shotgun. I'd be remiss if I didn't cover all three for you today. I figured we'd start with the easiest to use, the revolver."

He picked up the smallest weapon of the three. "This is reproduction of the classic Colt Single Action Army or Colt 45 model. It's the easiest to load, and the lightest, most convenient weapon. Most people in the Territory put on a belt holster with one of these units inside before they put on their underwear. Now, I've already loaded and turned off the safety. I'm going to hand this firearm to you, Jake, and I want to make sure you point this at nothing but shooting field beyond. Can you do that?"

"Sure," I said.

He handed me the weapon very carefully until I held the handle with my right hand. "Alright, I want you to point the revolver at the closest empty libation bottle over there. Concentrate on lining up the shot, and then squeeze the trigger whenever you are ready."

The whiskey bottle was propped up on a boulder about 15 yards back, and was clearly the largest of any of the bottles. I aimed my weapon towards it, taking my time to make sure nothing was amiss. Then I started to pull the trigger.

I heard a blast, and then saw the whiskey bottle explode in front of me. "Did I hit it?" I asked.

"I'm afraid not, Jake, you didn't fully engage the trigger," Parker said. I realized I hadn't felt any recoil or anything happen with my gun.

"Then who hit that bottle?" I asked.

"That would be yours truly," came Syd's intrusive voice, as he appeared from nowhere with another revolver in his hands, though his was clearly smoking. "Who else coulda nailed that shot from all the way back there?" He pointed to a spot many yards back from where we stood.

"Syd, what a, um, pleasant surprise," Parker said.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, much less politely.

"Saving you from having to learn how to handle a weapon from an academic," he said. "When ya want to learn how to sterilize a Petri dish, go to Parker. When ya want to learn how to shoot and kill some folks, come to me."

"Parker was doing just fine without you," I said.

"I may not spend my days out on the shooting range, but after a century and a half, I've picked up all these skills too, Syd. And most of them don't involve killing anyone."

"Well, now Jakey has two instructors, a pansy who's afraid of hurtin' people, and a real man who can teach him what has to be done. Lucky him. I see yer learning to use a Colt 45. I'll cover this one, Parker. This gun has always been my favorite."

"Fine, go ahead," Parker said to Syd, backing off.

Syd pulled out an unmarked cardboard box and opened it up, showing me bullets inside. "First off, we'll load these," Syd said. "In order to open the loading gate, we'll need to set the hammer to half- cock."

"I'm sorry, set it to what?" I asked. "I can barely hear you with these earplugs in."

"Earplugs? Are you fuckin' me with that pussy crap? Well, what should I expect to happen with Mr. Worst-Case Scenario meets Mr. Play-It-Safe? I said, set it to half cock," Syd said, a dirty smile coming over his face. "Ya know, Jakey. Half a cock. Like what Parker over there is packin' in his trousers ever since he had his accident."

"Hey now," Parker said. "Try to be a gentleman."

"That was me being gentlemanly," Syd said. "Otherwise, I'd a said something a whole lot dirtier."

"Can you please just show me?" I asked him, frustrated. "And stop telling me?"

"This ain't the first time ya begged me to show you my half-cock, is it?" Syd asked.

"Syd, pretty soon, I'm going to be the one that stuffs earplugs in my ear," Parker complained.

"Alright, alright." He used his thumb to place the hammer halfway up, then he pushed open the `loading gate,' the round piece that held the bullets, and I did the same to my gun.

"Now I can put the bullets in?" I asked.

"If I wanted to get all technical, I'd tell ya that these are really cartridges. Bullets are actually just the part that gets shot out of the gun. But yes, I like to ram my big fat cartridge right in that round little hole there," he said, smiling mischievously again while Parker groaned. "Load the chambers in sequence."

I grabbed some of the cartridges and loaded up my chambers.

"Notice that there are six cartridges that will fit," Syd said. "Some folks used to just load five in these things for safety reasons, but we've evolved these revolvers over the years in the Territory `til ya can safely make them true-blooded six shooters. Close the loading gate, like so, and then draw the hammer to full cock. You know, like what I'm packin' in these jeans of mine."

I rolled my eyes, and then pulled the hammer back.

"Right, yer ready to shoot now, Jakey. Why don't you aim for that empty beer bottle over there?"

I held the gun up with my right hand and found the target he was speaking about. "That's too small, Syd. I'll start with some larger target."

"You'll be able to get it with yer first shot, with my help." He came up behind me, grabbed my left hand with his left hand, and placed it on the gun as well. "First off, use your left hand to help support and keep er steady. As a beginner, yer always gonna want to use two hands to fire. Now, let me feel if yer body's ready for this."

"Oh, mercy," said Parker.

From behind me, I felt Syd's body press up against my own, completely spooning me. He reached his arms around me, and felt his hands grab my arms, my chest, my legs.

"Yer much too tense, Jakey. If you shoot like this, the recoil's gonna hurt like hell. Ya need to relax," he whispered, his hot breath on my ear.

"It would be easier to relax if there was a little space in between us," I said.

"You need to get over that. Just relax."

He rubbed his hands all over me, slipping one under my shirt, using his rough hand to rub my torso. At the same time, he drove his crotch into my rear.

"Syd, you're supposed to be teaching Jake to shoot, not sexually assaulting him! Please tell me you haven't lost the ability to tell the difference between the two!"

"He couldn't have lost something he never had, Parker," I said.

"Hey, you want my help, or not?"

I focused on not being irritated with him for once, and just letting myself relax.

"Yeah, that's the ticket," he said. "Right then, you'll wanna use the sight at the end of yer barrel to line up the shot. But ya need to lift yer gun to yer eye level."

He used his free hand to guide my gun until it was in my line of sight. Then he pressed his cheek against mine, trying to see what I was seeing, looking at the sight knob on the barrel.

"There, yer all ready to shoot," he said. "Now, I'm gonna back up off ya. Just stay exactly how you are."

He gently pulled his body off of mine and took a step backwards.

"Now, pull the trigger, Jakey."

I squeezed my finger, felt the hammer go down, and felt an explosion in my hands that pushed my whole body back. The loud boom made me grateful I had those earplugs, and the smoke made cough. "I missed it, didn't I?"

"You got it, Jake!" Parker said, jumping up and down exuberantly behind me.

I looked at the stump the beer bottle had been on, and saw only glass remaining. I was so proud of myself.

"Woo-hee!" Syd hollered. "See lil' bro? I handled that perfectly, ain't I?"

"Well enough," Parker said. "Though I would have done without the coarse sexual innuendo and the gratuitous physical contact."

"Those two things are the heart and soul of all my teachings," Syd said. "You know I like to give my pupils hands on experiences."

"One of the many reasons Jennie has asked me to sub in her class on numerous occasions, but would never dare ask you."

"Can I take another shot?" I asked.

"Sure," said Parker.

I cocked the hammer again, aimed at a nearby can, concentrated on relaxing myself, and pulled the trigger. The can jumped up off the stump and landed on the ground. Yes, I had it.

"I think I'm ready to move on now," I said.

"Syd, you didn't show him how to put the revolver on safety," Parker told him.

"That's `cause safeties are for pussies. Oh wait, that would mean they're made for Jakey. Perfect."

I squinted in anger. "Just because I'm a fan of personal safety does not mean I'm a coward."

Parker showed me how to set the hammer on the safety, and then I put the revolver down. I picked up the next gun. "Who wants to show me how to use this one?"

"I will," said Parker, stepping forward. "Syd, you can sit this one out. Pay attention and maybe you'll learn something. Jake, the weapon in your hands is a modern replication of a Minie Rifle, a revolutionary re-design of rifles that became very popular in the 1800s. It remains accurate up to approximately 600 yards, which makes it the definite choice for far-off targets. The problem is, you need to load the Minie balls and gunpowder beforehand."

"Yer boring me to tears, Park," Syd said. "Get on with it."

"Let me show you how to load this," Parker said, putting the ball and powder in the gun. "You'll need to ram the bullet home with a ramrod," he said, pulling a small tool out and showing me.

"Jakey knows all about ramrods, dontcha, sweetheart? Only he's used to one a whole lot thicker than that one."

I rolled my eyes, blocking Syd out and copying what Parker was demonstrating. Once I had it loaded, Parker showed me how to hold it with the butt on my shoulder for greater control.

"Oh Syd!" came a woman's voice, and I turned around to see a human woman in a western dress approaching him, carrying a gun in her hand.

"What can I do for you, beautiful?" he asked.

"I was practicing my revolver, but when I saw your big, throbbing rifle, I knew I had to get you to show me how to handle it," she said, pointing at the rifle that he had by his side.

"Why, of course, miss," he said, grabbing his rifle and running off towards the woman. "Parker, you were doing lovely, go ahead without me. See you all later." Syd ran off with the woman and started to give her the same touchy-feely guidance that he had given me.

Parker laughed. "I can't even begin to guess how many times Syd has let his conquests spoil any other endeavors he's had. Ah well, I guess every man must have his weakness."

"Or in Syd's case, a few dozen weaknesses," I said. "Honestly, I'm glad he's gone. I'll learn this better from you anyhow." I looked back to see Syd and the woman had left the pretense of shooting altogether and were scurrying back off towards the Mansion.

"Thanks, Jake. Alright, now I want you to pick a far away target, concentrate on your aim, and shoot."

I did as he instructed, looking for a distant bottle. I missed with the first shot, but got it with the second shot.

We moved onto the third weapon, the short-barreled shotgun. "It requires less skill to use than the revolver, and it's the most powerful at short range. I don't recommend them for long range, however.

Parker showed me how to load the buckshot into cartridges, and then load it into the action.

"Why don't you test it out on one of the nearby scarecrows?" he suggested.

I pointed towards the head of a scarecrow that was propped up not ten yards away, and I shot. The recoil was painful, but the result was incredible: the whole upper half of the scarecrow was knocked off.

"Nice work, Jake! You made short work of that enemy."

"A defenseless man made of straw."

He laughed. "True, but shooting vampires wouldn't be so different. A blast of one of these to the head of a vampire can sometimes knock it clean off, killing them instantly."

"Parker, I really appreciate your tutelage here, you are truly a natural born teacher."

"Well, it comes naturally when the pupil is someone I care about. Consider me willing to teach you anything you need in the future, Jake."

I thought about that. "You know what, Parker? There's something else that would be amazingly helpful. You know that Syd and I are supposed to be competing in this couple's rodeo competition."

Parker's face turned terse. "And you know how opposed I am to the whole affair. You shouldn't get anywhere near the rodeo competition, it's much too dangerous."

"But I have my family's lives on the line," I said. "I have to do this, regardless of how dangerous it is, for their sakes."

"I know that," he said. "I understand your insistence to help. I would risk my own life for my family if I were in your shoes. But understanding your motivation doesn't make me worry about you any less."

"Syd's supposed to be teaching me all of the rodeo stuff, while also brushing up his own skills, but so far, he has managed to teach me a big fat nothing. He manages to run off chasing tail every single time."

Parker shook his head angrily. "I should be training you. I should have started as soon as you got here, but I'll make it up to you. I'll show you the basics, and we'll go from there. I won't rest until I'm confident you can win your competitions."

"Listen, that's very nice, Parker. Luckily, another nice man, Boyd Slade, offered to train me, and we've been doing just fine together."

"Oh, thank the lord for Mr. Slade," Parker said. "Is there anything else I can help with?"

"Yes," I said. "Boyd's helped me with the riding and axe throwing."

Parker shivered at the mention of that last phrase. "It hurts my heart to picture you having to be involved in axe throwing," he said. "Is there anything I can help with, perhaps the same time of day tomorrow?"

"Maybe you could teach me how to lasso," I said.

He smiled and lowered an eyebrow. "Did someone tell you about my previous awards as a roper? If so, I have to warn you that it's been many years since I rodeoed, not since before the accident."

"That's fine, just teach me what you can," I said. "I'd love that."

"See you out in the fields tomorrow afternoon then, Jake," he smiled.

Something painful whizz by my left ear, and I grabbed my ear, my hand coming away with blood. "What was that?" I asked.

"A bullet just grazed your ear," Parker said, alarmed.

Parker turned to look behind him, and both of us caught sight of Jericho, standing a ways off, a raised revolver in his hand. He had it aimed right towards us.

"Down!" Parker yelled.

Parker spun around to face me, stretching his body out to cover mine, blocking me from Jericho's sight. At the same time, he pushed me down to my knees, and slammed my back against the block of hay. This put my face right in the crotch of his trousers, my lips and nose slammed right against the massive package.

I heard a gun firing, and then I heard Parker yelling in what sounded like pain. For an instant, Parker's body went invisible, and then quickly became visible again.

"This better not be your idea of father-son bonding!" Parker yelled.

"Oops, I'm so sorry, I whiffed my target," Jericho said, putting his gun down.

"Jericho, you never miss," said Parker angrily as he got up off me. I got up off my knees, and looked around to see others in the range starting to notice us.

"You made the mistake of getting in the way of my target. Everyone who comes to this shooting range knows there's a certain unavoidable risk involved in the dangerous pastime. Accidents happen. You'll survive that gun wound, but Jake wouldn't have been so lucky. I would have been so, so distraught if we were to lose my future son-in-law in such a sad, senseless manner."

I seethed, staring him down.

"You've made your point, Jericho," Parker said. "But your window of opportunity has passed you by. Every eye in this range is on you now. You'd be foolish to try anything else. Come on, Jake, let's go."

"What about the guns?" I asked.

"Leave them."

I followed him out of the shooting range, back towards the dirt path. He was limping a lot worse than usual.

"Screw him," I said. "We were done with the lesson anyway."

"You know what this means, don't you?" he asked. "You can't go back to the shooting range."

"I won't go back. I am so, so thankful to you."

"It was nothing, really. No big thing I did."

"Parker, you just saved my life by taking a bullet for me. And yet, you're making it sound like you let me borrow a cup of sugar or something."

When we were on the dirt trail, out of sight of the Mansion or the shooting range, Parker yelled and clasped his hand to his backside. "He got me right in the butt. Why'd it have to be my good leg?"

"Here, put an arm around me," I said. "Is there some doctor I could take you to?"

"No, there's no time," he said. "Help me over this hill." He pointed to a short hilltop just twenty yards from where we stood. "We need to be out of site of this path in case Jericho comes through."

He put his arm around my shoulders, and I helped him hop up and over the hill until we were on the other side, well out of sight of the trail or the mansion. There was an evergreen tree he grabbed and used to steady himself as he stood.

"You saved my life. Please just tell me how I can help."

"Any amount of pain is worth saving your life, Jake. I can feel the bullet is still inside me, and if I don't remove it quickly, the skin will heal over the wound and someone will have to surgically remove it later on. I have about zero faith in the Mareshead surgical unit, who seem to have yet to discover disinfectants. I would probably make a trip to see Della in Fools Gold, if I couldn't remove it myself."

"Sounds grisly," I said, not even wanting to think about it.

"If you could, just turn around and make sure no one disturbs me."

"Alright, that's easy enough." I turned around and watched the trail.

"I'm removing my pants now, Jake, so don't look this way."

"I won't."

I heard him kick off his shoes, unbuckle his belt, pull down his zipper, and then remove his trousers.

"Christ, I can't even see this properly. Never mind, I'll put my pants back on and get Della to do this later."

I swallowed, trying to overcome my anxiety over blood in order to do the right thing. "Parker, I don't mind helping."

"That's kind, Jake, but I'd rather you didn't see me like this."

"Like what?"

"In just my boxers, for one, and with my artificial leg showing, for two. And heavily bleeding makes three."

"Parker, I really don't care at all about those things. You're supposed to be my friend, and I would never judge any friends of mine over physical trivialities like those."

"Are you sure about that?" he asked, sounding unconvinced.

"Positive!"

"Alright, if you're sure, I'll let you help me. But if you start to feel uncomfortable in any way, please tell me, and we'll stop."

"Okay, I'm turning around now."

"That's fine."

He was still standing up with his hands against the tree trunk, but this time his pants and shoes were gone, revealing his one meaty, muscled leg that looked so much like Syd's, and the artificial leg. He had just a pair of white boxers on his lower half, with his newly untucked white shirt hanging down to his knees. Before, his dark trousers had totally covered up any sign of his wound. After they were removed, I could see bright red blood soaked through his boxers.

I started to feel light-headed. No, no no, I would not let Parker down when he needed me most. I forced that response to go away.

"Parker, I'm going to have to pull down your boxers, is that okay?"

"Well, I suppose, as long as it doesn't make you uncomfortable. I feel very ungentlemanly exposing this much skin like this."

"I'm fine, Parker."

"Okay, go ahead then."

I pulled his red-soaked boxers down to his ankles, leaving him naked on his lower half, though his hanging white shirt covered up both his front and his back sides from view, which was clearly his intention. He grabbed on harder to the tree and tensed his body. "See what you can do," he told me.

I lifted up the back of his shirt, careful not to get any blood on it. For the first time, his whole bare butt was in view. It looked just like a carbon copy of Syd's, muscular and round, leading down to ripped thighs. He had his legs spread somewhat, and I could see he back of his huge wrinkled ballsack, and beyond to the backside of his soft donkey dick, though the vantage didn't give many details to see.

The bullet wound was right in the butt cheek of his good leg, amidst all the muscle. It was a round abscess of hardening blood, with lighter, brighter blood pouring down his butt, his thigh, and all the way down his leg.

Again, I felt light headed. I pulled out my hand sanitizer and disinfected my hands. The smell of it made me feel a bit better. "I'm going to touch it now," I said.

"Okay," he said. "Don't worry about causing me pain, just do whatever you need to do."

I cringed as I forced myself to touch the wound with my index finger, glad I was behind him so he wouldn't be able to see the very unprofessional expression I had on my face.

His white shirt was getting in the way. "Here, hold this up so I don't get blood on it," I said.

He grabbed his shirt and pulled it up to around his navel, both in the back, where I was, and in the front.

I moved my face closer to the wound so I could see better, though I wished I could do the awful task with my eyes shut. I stuck my finger inside the wound, and a whole bunch of blood oozed out.

I felt woozy. "Is it too late to warn you blood makes me pass out?"

"No. If it's causing you discomfort, please stop. I'll have Della cut it out for me."

"No, no, no, I can do this."

But I almost passed out as soon as I said it. I clamped my eyes shut. Since my fingers were already in the wound, I didn't need my eyes, I could feel my way through it. That strategy seemed to be helping.

The wound went through his skin and into his muscle tissue. That must have been why it had been so hard for him to walk. I dug a couple inches down into the warm, wet ickyness and my finger made contact with hard metal. I carefully grabbed the metal lump with my index and middle fingers, and then I gently started to pull it out.

"That's it, you have it!" Parker said happily.

Once it was removed completely, I asked, "What do you want me to do with the bullet?"

"I'll keep it," he said. "Leave it on my dresser in my room. It'll be my little reminder to myself how badly I want Jericho removed from his Governorship."

He took it from me, and I figured it was safe to open my eyes again. By the time I had, he had put his pants back on.

"My pants are ruined, I'm afraid. Thanks so much for helping, Jake, even though I know it must have been unpleasant to do."

"Hey, anything for the guy who saved my life. And, that won't be the first time you save my life either," I said, referring to his plan to intervene when Jericho inevitable tried to have me executed once the engagement to Syd was over.

"Nope, I guess not."

As we walked back to the mansion, Parker was already walking a lot quicker, and I wondered if his wound was starting to heal. He went inside, telling me he wanted to get out of those bloody clothes as soon as possible, while I decided I needed to wash my bloody hands before I went in the mansion. He told me how to find the outdoor water faucet, thanked me profusely again while hugging me dearly, and walked inside.

After I had washed up real well, I went back inside myself. On my way back to Syd's room, when I entered the Great Room, just as was the familiar pattern, the room was no longer empty. And Jericho wasn't there to give me the creeps either. Instead, there was a single vampire male guarding that cage, and inside the cage was another naked slave. She was a white woman, under thirty, who was pleasantly plump. I knew there would be another slave in there to keep feeding Jericho's endless appetite. But seeing the victim then in person was extremely disheartening, and reaffirmed my absolute need to save these people. She looked very scared, as she should be.

The guard saw me come into the room, and I didn't linger. Syd wasn't in the apartment; he must have been in that woman's room who wanted him to "help with her shooting." I grabbed his revolver, and put it into a backpack to conceal it, before leaving his room again.

I silently reopened the door that led to the Great Room, and tiptoed back inside. I sat down where I was pretty sure no one could see me unless they were heading in or out of the same door I had used, and I watched down from that vantage point. I was willing to wait as long as it took, and I was hoping there would be some moment where the cage was left unguarded, and I could slip the gun through the bars to the woman.

The first guard was on post for about a half hour before being replaced by a second one, who unfortunately came into the room before the first one left. The second guard was there for two long hours before a third guard came into the room and relieved him. After another two, very slow hours (thank goodness I was sitting down), that weird vampire woman Cabinet member came into the room, the one who looked like a pre-teen but dressed like a flamboyant whore. Her high pitched voice greeted the guard cheerfully, she took point, and the male vampire guard left. I thought it was quite bizarre to ask this woman to guard the slave, since she was much smaller than the woman in the cage and would clearly be overpowered by her in a fight, but I realized that the vampire woman's role would not be to physically interact with any slave, her role would be to alert others if any problem developed.

I sat there and waited for an hour before the door opened up behind me, and Syd appeared. "There ya are," he said. "Been lookin' for ya."

Alarmed, the vampire woman with too much make-up looked up towards us, and I quickly pulled Syd through the door into the hallway where he came from.

"Yes, what do you need?" I asked.

"Ya ready for supper?" he asked. "Parker and Glaucia wanted to join us in the mess hall."

I knew my cover had just been blown in the Great Room, and I was starving again, though I had done nothing but sit there all afternoon. "Sure, let me just put this away," I said. "I'll meet you down there."

I put the gun back in Syd's closet, and then walked down the stairs in the Great Room, eying the prisoner with frustration. The sad suspicion that there probably would never be a time that the prisoner would be left unguarded hit me. I needed some new approach.

The mess hall was just as lively as two nights ago, with the band playing once again. I put in my order and found Parker and Glaucia smiling and waving for me to join them at the table they were sharing with Syd. Seeing Parker's warm composure as I sat down was especially reassuring, and I smiled at him brightly. He seemed all healed from his earlier gunshot wound.

"Feeling better, Jake?" Glaucia asked, concerned even if I wasn't sure she knew why I had been missing the night before. "We were all worried when you didn't come down for dinner last night."

"I'm still upset," I said. "But the talk I had with Parker last night was enormously reassuring." I gave him a thank you smile, and his face turned proud.

"Park, your little pep talk the night before helped a little, but when Jakey woke up, he was beggin' to be banged by yours truly," Syd said. "Talks are well and good, but Jakey knows there's only one way to make him really feel happy, and it's stuffed down here in my jeans, if ya get my drift."

"Yeah, we get it," Parker said. "You're not exactly being subtle." I tried not to crack a smile.

"One good long morning session with my love tool, and Jakey's got a smile stuck on his face all day long, dontcha honey butt?" Syd asked, elbowing me and winking at Glaucia and Parker.

""That's right, Syd," I was forced to say, looking Parker straight in the eyes, trying to mentally communicate how much I hated agreeing with Syd. I compared Syd and Parker's methods for making me feel better. Parker had brought me dinner, lied with me fully clothed, talked me through the problem, and gently comforted me to sleep. Syd had apparently not even cared enough to come and ask me what happened, as he was too busy chasing skirt. And later, he woke me up demanding sex. Was there any way I could trade Syd for his brother?

"That's why Jakey always begs for morning sex," Syd said. "'Course, he begs for sex anytime of the day, really. I can't help it, I have that effect on folks."

"I came to look for you before dinner, Jake," Parker said, changing the subject. "Was hoping you'd be able to hit a workout with me again. I was feeling amazingly recovered. But you weren't in the apartment. I hoped I hadn't caused some new traumatic scar that made you upset."

I could have hit myself that I had missed it. "No, nothing like that. Want to hit one tomorrow, Parker?" I asked.

"More than anything," Parker said, smiling sweetly. Seems like he wanted some alone time with me almost as much as I did with him. "But I have a chemistry project planned for tomorrow afternoon. Can we make it before lunch?"

"Late morning? Sure."

"Meet me there at eleven."

"Glaucia, I don't see Lewis anywhere," Syd said.

Her smile faded.

"We're trying to keep Glaucia's mind off of Lewis," Parker said.

"Why?"

"Jericho wanted him this evening," Glaucia said. "When he has him, I just get so, so anxious. I wish he would let me stay with them so I knew what they were up to."

"Oh, I understand totally, Glaucia," I said. I'd be scared if I was her too. Then again, I would never, ever, have sex with Jericho. I certainly would never be able to understand why she wanted to have his baby.

"Hey Syd, do you happen to have the key to the cell in the Great Room?"

"The one where Jericho keeps his tasty little meals?" Syd asked.

"Way to phrase it delicately, Syd," Parker said. "Please show some respect for all the lives that have been lost."

"Yes, that one," I said to Syd.

He shook his head. "Do you really think he would trust me with something like that?" he asked.

"What about you, Glaucia?"

"Nope," she said. "He doesn't trust me anymore than he trusts Syd, as sad as that is to admit."

"He only gives that key to people he really confides in, Jakey," Syd answered. "I know Rose has one of those keys."

"That bitch has every key in the house," Glaucia said.

Well, that didn't help me at all when Rose was stuck in Fools Gold. I had to figure out who else would have that key, as there was no way I was ever going to manage to steal it from Jericho himself. If I could get my hands on that key, I knew I could get into the cell in the early morning before the prisoner got there and hide the gun. That was the real answer. I could even write a note for the prisoner just to let them know what to expect.

Glaucia's eyes focused on something behind us, then widened suddenly. "Oh my lord!"

"What?" I asked, terrified she had seen something horrible occur, which in this house would likely involve Jericho.

"The other member of the Pariah Club just walked in!" she said excitedly as she stood up and started jumping up and down, waving. "Annie! Annie!"

Parker looked and smiled big. "Oh, did I forget to mention Annie came back? I saw her when she came in a couple hours ago, figured I'd save the surprise."

I turned around to see a woman with a huge smile on her face trotting towards us, putting her cell phone in her purse. She was a slender, tall white woman in a layered brown dress that looked appropriately period, but seemed a bit more upscale than the usual woman's dress around here. Her face was extremely beautiful, with just the smallest hint of make-up on, and her smile big. As she came closer, I could see those telltale green eyes, and knew she was a vampire. Her hair, which didn't quite reach her neck, was sandy-blonde in color, not far off from Syd's shade. I wouldn't have been surprised if she was of a blood relation to the Logans.

Glaucia ran forward and gave Annie a huge, bouncing hug.

"Glaucia! I didn't know you'd be back!" the woman said, her voice smooth and confident, with that Texas accent.

"I didn't know you'd be in Fools Gold the week that I got here, babe!" Glaucia said. "The Pariah Club hasn't been the same without you."

Parker reached over and gave Annie a half hug. "I was waiting to put in my food order until you came down," he said. "You want me to get your usual, Annie?"

"Thanks Parker," she said, and Parker walked off to the counter.

Syd had stood up, and took off his hat, greeting the lady with polite charm. "Annie," Syd said. "Mareshead suffers without your presence."

"Oh, quit it, you," Annie said, hugging him, slightly awkwardly.

I stood up as well, smiling at this new person who already seemed so loved.

"Annie, I'd like you to meet Jake Groves," Syd said.

She made pleasant eye contact with me.

"My fiancé," he said.

Her controlled, polite composure exploded into laughter. "Fiancé?! Syd, I may be tired from the stagecoach ride over, but you can't fool me that easily."

"He's serious!" Glaucia said.

"Oh my lord, I know I can take Glaucia's word," Annie said. As Annie processed this, her face flashed through all sorts of emotions. "Well, that's great! Congratulations! Wow, I am just, just in total shock!"

"Jakey, I'd like ya to meet Annie Logan," he said.

"Dr. Annie Logan, technically," Glaucia added.

"Oh, please, just Annie. I'm just a chemist." She came over and gave me a hug. "Nice to meet you."

"Yes, so nice to meet you, Annie."

Her last name was Logan, which meant this must be Syd's sister. I remembered that Jericho had one daughter, and that would explain why they looked similar. She made a great first impression on me, and I instantly wanted to know more about her. I was impressed that she, too, was a scientist. We all sat down at the table.

"Wow, I would have never guessed when I walked in here that I was going to meet my future brother in law," she said, smiling. "Whew, I'm so tired. The ride up on that stagecoach was the absolute worst."

Syd, Glaucia, and I all looked at each other dubiously.

"Did a gang of crazy bandits attack you?" Syd asked.

"Uh, no," Annie said.

"Did one of the passengers end up beheaded, and another shot in the chest?" Glaucia asked.

"Nope," she said, confused.

"Did you almost get kidnapped and forced into slavery?" I asked.

She laughed. "Uh, no, and no. But the ride was really cold, and the person sitting next to me got motion sick and threw up on the floor."

"Annie, trust me, you ain't got nothin' on us in the lousy stagecoach ride department," Syd said.

"Glaucia, where's Lewis?" Annie asked as Parker rejoined us. "I'm dying to meet him properly."

"Jericho's babysitting him tonight," she said sadly. "Says he needs to teach him how to be like his father, whatever that means."

"Oh, poop," Annie said. "Well, let me know when he comes back."

A new concern popped into my head, one I didn't want to worry Glaucia about needlessly. I looked down at my empty dinner plate, and told everyone I was calling it a night.

I hurried back to the Great Room. Upon my entrance, my stomach knotted as I realized my dark suspicions had been realized. I slipped behind one of the log pillars on the first floor and watched the awful scene in front of me. Jericho was sitting menacingly on his throne, with a frightened Lewis sitting up beside him. Vampire guards were forcing the naked slave woman towards them.

"Bring her to me," he commanded. "Tell me, sweetheart, what's your name?" he asked when they pushed her a couple feet from his face. "I'm Jericho."

"Charisse," she said with a little spunk.

I saw that evil little grin of his. "Charisse, I want to help you get out of here. Tell me, do you have a talent?"

It was all like déjà vu, and seeing him start up his evil game made waves of fear knock my knees weak.

She shrugged. "I'm a computer programmer."

He squinted. "Look around you. That's utterly useless to me here. Pick something else."

"Well, I suppose I'm a good writer," Charisse said.

"Fine. Now, Charisse, do you like playing games?"

"Not really," she said.

"I have one that you'll be dying to try," he said. "We'll play a fun little game. I want you to succeed. Is your penmanship as pretty as your face, Charisse?"

"I guess so," she said.

"Perfect," he said. "All you have to do is show me your pretty handwriting. Write my name, and I'll let you free. Sound good?"

"Hmm. I'll need something to write on," she said.

"I'm fresh out of paper," he said. "Why don't you just write on your skin."

"I'll need a pen," she said.

He went fishing through his pockets. "Fresh out of pens, sweetheart. Why don't you use this instead." He procured a pocketknife from his pants and handed it to her.

She gasped. "You want me to write your name on my skin using this knife?"

"That's right, yes," he said.

Lewis suddenly looked completely shocked.

"No way," she said, and I winced, knowing Jericho would not be pleased.

Suddenly, he pounced on her, twisting her arm behind her until it was almost broken. "I don't like it when people say `no' to me, sweetheart. Do it again and you die."

When he stepped back away from her, she was much, much more frightened than before. "What do you want me to do?"

"If you want to win your freedom, you have to play my game," he said. "Take the knife, and carve my name into your skin, and do it legibly. You seem to have some real conviction, Charisse. I want you to prove it to me. Carve my name into your skin without shedding a single tear, and you can have your freedom. Fail to, and you die."

I couldn't take this anymore. I ran out from behind that pillar and rushed towards Jericho. "You are the worst kind of monster if you really intend to expose a child to this. Lewis, I want you to get up, and I want you to get the heck out of here."

Lewis started to get up.

"Guards, hold him back and gag him!"

I tried to avoid the guards, and looked at the poor woman. "Don't play his game, he's just going to--"

The guards gagged me again, and held me in place. It was so, so frustrating to be rendered physically useless so easily.

"I want him to watch again," Jericho said. "And Lewis, get back in your seat. Do you have a problem with any of this?"

"You shouldn't hurt her," Lewis said.

"I'm not hurting her, Lewis," Jericho said. "She's hurting herself. Go ahead, Charisse."

She grabbed the knife in her right hand, which was starting to tremble, and she looked at her left forearm. She brought the blade to the flesh near her elbow, and then held it there, hesitating.

"Do it, or die, Charisse!"

A look of determination took over her face, and she moved the knife down, cutting into her skin. I winced as I saw the blood trickle down her smooth arm. She cried out, but no tears came to her eyes.

"Yes, that's it!" Jericho said, almost sounding like he was suddenly turned on. Maybe it was the smell of the blood.

After a moment adjusting to the pain, she steeled herself and continued to cut. She did the first long horizontal cut, then moved her knife to the center of the wound and started to cut downwards. After a bit, she had managed to carve that first letter "J" completely.

"Still no tears, sweetheart?"

"No tears!" she yelled, though it was clear it was taking everything she had to stop them.

The vampire holding me from behind was keeping my body immobilized and my mouth gagged, but that left my arms free. As I watched the poor woman cut the "E" into herself, I tried to knock my captor away from me. Then I attempted to poke my captor in the eyes, but that didn't work either. I wanted to free my mouth long enough to tell this woman not to degrade herself by playing along with this evil tyrant.

She finished the "I" and still her cheeks were dry. "Yes, that's it, Charisse," Jericho said happily.

Finally, after what seemed like a tortuously long time, she finished carving "Jericho" into her arm. I swore she was going to cry when she carefully cut that last circle in; somehow the curved slices seemed more painful than the straight ones. But, she held it together.

"I did it!" Charisse yelled.

"Let me see it." Jericho grabbed her arm and pulled it towards him. He looked down at the bloody inscription pleasurably, smelling the blood. He smiled evilly.

He dragged the woman over to where Lewis was sitting. Lewis tried to turn his little head away, but Jericho stuck the arm in his face. "Look at this, my son. Is it to your liking?"

Lewis looked down at the arm, and immediately his fangs came out, and his eyes transfixed on the blood.

"I'll take that as a yes," Jericho said.

"That's it then, I won!" Charisse said, her voice sounding angry and traumatized all at the same time.

"Not yet, sweetheart," he said. "The game was to write my name in your skin. I only see my first name so far. My full name is Jericho Logan."

Charisse let out a horrified moan. "That's it? No middle name?"

"Nope."

Her left arm was totally shredded with his first name, so she started writing the "L" on her right arm. When she got to the "O," I was again sure she would start to cry, but she held it through. I wondered if she started to get numb to the pain, or maybe she was just being driven more and more insane.

"I'm finished," she said, this time much sooner than before.

"Let me see," Jericho said, and he gazed down at her blood covered arms. "I can't read the writing, there's too much blood. Let me wash it off."

He reached to the side of his throne and picked up a large bottle of what I presumed was water. He poured it all over her arms, washing the blood off.

Immediately, she started to scream louder than ever. As her arms trembled, I realized she was yelling from the stinging.

"Oops, I forgot this was alcohol, not water," Jericho lied gleefully.

I could only imagine what that pain must have been for her right then. She was so affected that she shook and trembled all over, and though she clearly did everything to fight back those tears, they finally burst through. I felt sickeningly awful for her, though logically I knew it couldn't have mattered f she had managed not to cry or not.

"Ah, a tear on her cheek!" Jericho said, pointing. "You lose, Charisse! Your life is forfeit!"

"No, no, I did everything you asked!" yelled the woman.

"Silence her, her voice aggravates me," Jericho said, and moments later she was gagged just as I was. "Bring her to the boy."

The guard carried her over to Lewis, who was still enrapt with the vision of her bloody arms, his fangs still out.

"Son, I want you to help Daddy kill her," Jericho said, and the sad realization that clearly this was the worst father of all time hit me. Syd actually hadn't been lying when he told me in Tahoe that he could empathize about me not getting along with my father.

Lewis moved his fangs closer to the woman, and at first I was sure he wouldn't be able to resist. Then, he got a hold of himself and pulled back, and I was so proud of him.

"What's wrong, son?"

"Mom told me never to kill."

"Well, your mother is a goddamn fool," he said. "It's time to undo the damage she's done. Stamp out the weakness she's put into your soul."

He shook his head again. "No, I won't."

"Fine, I can't force you," Jericho said. "This time, you can watch Daddy. Next time, I know you'll change your mind."

Jericho's fangs came out, and he started to lick the blood off Charisse's arms. He began ripping off his clothes, and I knew what was coming. Poor Lewis was staring at the woman, looking so, so sorry for her. This was way too much for any child to handle.

I yelled out, but the guard still muffled me. I waved my arms around until I got Lewis's attention. I put my hands on my ears, and then shut my eyes tight, trying to send him a message. When I reopened my eyes, I was glad to see it had worked: Lewis sat in his chair with his eyes locked shut and his hands over his ears, and he started humming to himself. I was glad that at least he would be spared from the worst of it.

When Jericho had stripped naked, he grabbed that pocketknife that had fallen to the ground, and he brought it to her skin. "Your writing was so pretty, Charisse, it has inspired me to start up writing myself," he said to her.

He started cutting into her skin, making far deeper cuts than she had, as he began writing words into her thigh skin., licking up all the spilt blood as he went. Even though her mouth was muffled, I could hear her scream, and her eyes were now flowing with pained tears.

He wrote "Charisse was born to be Jericho's plaything," on her leg, then started in on another demeaning sentence onto her belly.

After he carved "Charisse looks much prettier in red," into her and started in on her back, carving his evil words into her deeper and deeper, not just severing skin, but slicing right through muscle as well.

When he started to rip her apart with his teeth and drink the blood down, he stopped breathless and said, "Lewis, let this be a lesson to you. Always drink em down to the last drop, cause it's the last of their blood that was the strongest." This confirmed what Parker had told me.

One look at Lewis let me know that he was still covering his ears and shutting his eyes, and Jericho didn't seem to notice that his son wasn't paying rapt attention to his sick lessons.

I started really feeling that faint feeling that I had been fighting since this torture began, and even though somehow I felt so guilty about leaving that woman with no sane witness to the horrors she was facing, I passed out.

This time, I woke up before they could put me back in my room. Jericho and Lewis were gone from the Great Room, and I could see vampire guards carrying what was left of Clarisse's body out the front door of the mansion while a number of human slave custodians frantically tried to clean up any remaining blood on the ground, which there was very little of. Clearly Jericho was a quite thorough eater. But I did notice them washing up a great deal of what looked like semen off the ground.

The guards had let go of me, and I started to cry as I walked up those stairs to the third floor, feeling almost as traumatized as I had been the night before. Another life I had failed to save, though at least this time my presence might have saved Lewis's sanity.

As I walked through the hallways on the third floor, I heard voices coming from around a corner, and I stopped walking and listened quietly.

It was clearly a man and woman's muffled voices. The woman was giggling, and I could hear sounds of kissing and carrying on.

I heard the woman's whispered voice say, "Stop, someone will see us!"

I heard the man say, "No one ever walks through here." His voice was a little louder, and wow, did it sound familiar.

As the kissing continued, I tiptoed back away from that corner, and took another route back to Syd's room, positive that I had been hearing Syd's voice, surely he was making out with some new, random woman. I hoped that he would not bring her back to his apartment again.

I opened the door to the Syd's apartment, and expected to find it empty. Instead, Syd was in his bed.

Hmm. I knew it was possible that Syd had gone into his apartment faster than I had, after all, I had taken the long way to his place, and he had been so close to his door. But there was no sign of the woman he was kissing.

"Syd, did you just walk in?" I asked him.

He didn't answer me. I looked over towards his bed, and found him sleeping in the buff, his mouth open and drooling. He couldn't have fallen asleep that fast, was he faking it?

"Syd!" I said, but he gave no response.

It was an easy decision to slap him hard on the face, though I would never have given the same treatment to anyone I respected. Finally, he came to life, groaning and opening his eyes.

"Mmm," he said. "Jakey, you comin' to bed?" he asked, his voice slurred and his breath smelling of alcohol. "I was so wasted, Parker had to help me upstairs," he said. "Don't you fret though, Jakey, if yer lookin' for a roll in the hay, I ain't ever been a victim of whiskey dick. Come to bed and I'll show ya, sweetheart."

I threw the covers back on Syd. "Go back to sleep, you pig," I said, wishing I could find another excuse to slap him. As I got ready for bed and curled up onto my settee, I wondered about who had been in the hallway kissing that woman. Obviously it couldn't have been Syd if he had been lying there drunk for some time. I had been sure it was Syd's voice, but it had been pretty far off, I could have been wrong.

Though, it occurred to me, the other Logan men had very similar voices to Syd's, and would be easy to mistake them for him. Could it have been Jericho in that hallway? Perhaps, though it seemed unlikely.

Could it have been Parker? Jealousy rushed through me at the thought. I reminded myself that Parker was a vampire that needed blood daily. Did I expect that he had been drinking out of those plastic blood bags this whole time? Syd told me cold blood would only do in a pinch. That must mean he was feeding off of people every day. So, if this was Parker in the hall, did that make me think any less of him? After all, he had to watch Syd molest me repeatedly when we were eating in the mess hall.

Well, I thought about how Big Horn had paid for blood from a prostitute at Lettie's. He never let on that he was enjoying the process, or had any sort of sexual attraction to the woman. He just had to do what he had to do to live, unlike Syd who thoroughly enjoyed his women on a sexual level. I would expect if Parker was out there looking for blood, he wouldn't be enjoying the chase as much as the vampire in the hallway had been.

No, it must not have been Parker. I must have mistaken the voice. Every male around had a Texas accent anyway. But this could go on no longer. I had to tell Parker how I felt about him. No more trying to guess his intentions towards me.

With that resolved, I fell asleep being haunted by thoughts of Jericho. I had to find a way to get the key to that cage the next day.