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.

FEBRUARY 4th

Another morning in the Pawnee earth lodge, and another time being woken up by Ku-sox with a huge plate of breakfast. Unlike the previous nights, I hadn't been overly drained or under the influence, so I actually felt refreshed when he woke me up, and ready to get up.

None of the Pawnee had left. I got up, got dressed, and then went outside and went to the bathroom and bathed in the stream.

"Well, my time's up," I said to Ki-wa-go upon my return. "Should I make my way on my own?"

"The agreement was, we'd take you to the Territory border. But no way I do it."

"That's fine, I'll just go on my own," I said.

"Oh no, wait. Ku-sox and Sha-ku-ru volunteer."

And so, I found myself hiking alongside my two favorite Pawnee. Ku-sox, the warhawked one who had always seen to my every need while I was there, and Sha-ku-ru, the gentlest one that was so enamored with kissing me.

I certainly couldn't say I wasn't glad to see the last of the Pawnee earth lodge. I longed for real civilization, I was beyond sick of the constant dirt of the Territory.

Ku-sox and Sha-ku-ru were chatting chummingly in Pawnee as they led me east along the stream.

And then for a reason I could not divine, Sha-ku-ru turned suddenly angry, his voice becoming hostile as he spoke to Ku-sox, something I had never heard before in the mild mannered fellow.

Ku-sox tried to calm him down, but when more angry words were hurled at him, his tone of voice turned angry as well. I hadn't heard Ku-sox angry since he broke Ku-rux's abuse of me protectively.

Their voices increased in tone until they were outright shouting at each other. I wish I had been able to understand Pawnee. One thing seemed sure to me: their repeated gestures towards me indicated that they were fighting over me.

I was beyond shocked when Sha-ku-ru pushed Ku-sox. Ku-sox pushed back, more violently, and then the two of them started hitting each other, an outright brawl developing.

"Guys, please, please stop fighting," I said. I tried to pull them apart, but they just moved around me.

And then they started hitting each other with their Logan steel fists, the blows doing serious damage, as they kicked and wrestled at each other's bodies.

They were both carrying Tomahawks in their pants, and those came out and into play, and I knew then to back off and not try to split them up, for fear I'd end up getting sliced open.

Ku-sox hacked off Sha-ku-ru's bead tank-top, and Sha-ku-ru sliced off Ku-sox's pants. Soon, Sha-ku-ru's pants were hacked off as well, leaving both of them nude.

And then the blood started to come, as their weapons cut into each other's bodies with clear intention of killing, and the wounds were making me so lightheaded, I had to look away.

I heard one of them yell out, and I turned my head just in time to see Sha-ku-ru fall to the ground, his body a bloody mess. Ku-sox looked down at his brother with complete shock.

I, too, was in complete shock. "Why would he just suddenly snap like that?" I asked to deaf ears.

Ku-sox threw his weapon aside angrily, and looked me over, speaking to me in his language. He seemed to be making sure I was unharmed.

"I'm okay," I said, but of course, he didn't get it.

He put his hand on my cheek, looking into my eyes.

"Are you hurt? Are you able to continue, or should I go on my own?" I asked.

And then I saw his teeth pop out, and felt pain as he bit my throat.

Before I could fight back, he unleashed that Logan Blood venom, and I was suddenly out.

I felt a slap on my face.

When I woke up, I felt an odd coldness around my body. Something cold was pushing against my skin, everywhere. I shook them off, and I heard a loud metallic clank, and all too familiar sound.

I opened my eyes, and saw I was covered in chains. I was locked inside the cell of the secret earth lodge, naked except for the chains. Someone had built a fire just outside the cell to keep me warm in this state. There was a small chimney hole in the ceiling that must have been covered up before, and all of the food items had been removed.

The five Pawnee were assembled, and it was Ku-sox who had slapped me. His wounds had healed, but he still stood with no pants. The other four Pawnee looked on, with Sha-ku-ru of course absent.

Ku-sox had food in his hand, and he offered it to me. When I shook my head, he angrily shouted at me, commanding me, and forced my mouth open with his fingers, putting the food in, and forcing me to chew. His demeanor was unlike anything I had ever seen before on him.

Ku-sox said something to the others, and even though I didn't understand, I guessed that it had to do with how important it was that I stay fed and hydrated, so I could provide as much blood to them as possible.

I realized how everything nice Ku-sox had ever done for me seemed to only be about physically ensuring I wouldn't starve, go thirsty, burn too many calories, or be overly drained of blood. All of it was to make sure I provided as much blood as possible, that was all he ever cared about.

And given that they had taken the time to re-do this room for me, it was all too clear they would use me as a permanent replacement to their lost prisoner. I was fated to be locked in a room for an eternity and screwed/drained by these men.

Now it seemed all too clear that Ku-sox had told Sha-ku-ru of his change in plan concerning me, that that was what they had been arguing over. And when Ku-sox just couldn't convince Sha-ku-ru to agree to help him enslave me, he was fine killing him in order for his plan to see the light of day.

The other four would just go along with it all, clearly.

"Please don't do this to me," I pleaded to Ki-wa-go, but he ignored me, of course.

Ku-sox rubbed his warhawked head and walked around me, to my backside. He started to rub my hole with the fingers on his right hand, and I knew what he wanted from me.

"Please, you can't do this me, this isn't right, ISN'T RIGHT!"

"Shhhhh," said Ku-sox, putting his left index finger to my lips.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" I started to shout as loudly as I could, trying to ruin his pleasure.

Angry, Ku-sox again bit into me, and I went unconscious.

When I woke up, I was alone, but I could feel someone's fresh load inside me, and knew Ku-sox had violated me in my sleep.

After a few minutes, the two friends Ki-wa-go and Ku-rux came in, with the latter having one of his typical amused sneers on his face.

They both unlocked my cell and approached me in chains, looking my naked body lustfully.

"What do you want?"

"Shuttup!" Ki-wa-go said, slapping my face.

Infuriated, I started to shout again at the top of my lungs.

This time, it was Ku-rux who bit me, silencing my noise and making my body free for them too to rape as I was forced into unconsciousness.

I woke up shivering, confused.

I realized I was sprawled, still naked, over someone's shoulder. Clearly they were intending to move me somewhere while they expected me to be unconscious.

Behind me, I could see someone walking nearby, and I realized it was Ku-rux.

That's when I discovered my kidnapper had a buffalo helmet on. I fought and kicked and punched, surprising Ki-wa-go and getting him to drop me on the ground.

As soon as I started to run, both Ki-wa-go and Ku-rux came up and quickly and subdued me. When I started to hit and kick them, Ki-wa-go said, "Stop! We are letting you go, you fool!"

I stopped hitting them, and looked between their evil faces. "Why?"

"Because we never wanted you to come with us in the first place. Because you almost destroyed our tribe, all in three nights."

"Hey, it wasn't my doing."

"And `cause we made a promise to let you go today. We keep our promises."

"Do the others know?"

"Of course not."

Ku-rux laughed evilly at my nakedness and threw my clothes at me, followed by my backpack. I quickly threw my clothes on.

We walked in silence until both of them stopped.

"This is it," Ki-wa-go said.

"It's what?"

"The end of the Territory."

"But we haven't crossed anything."

"Still, this is it. Modern people are that way." He pointed. "You go with them, and never come back here."

"Uh, thanks," I said, only barely managing to say any sort of gratitude to them.

They left me, and I walked on in the direction I was pointed.

I found a road, and the moment I saw it, I wanted to get on my hands and knees and kiss the actual pavement. I walked along it for quite some time, always running off and hiding when cars passed, just to be safe.

After spending way too long just walking, I realized that Texas was too spread out to ever really get away just hoofing it. I knew I needed a ride.

I had never, ever hitchhiked before. Not only did I consider it to be highly dangerous, I thought of it as being tantamount to panhandling, something I would never allow myself to stoop to. But in this case, my safety depended on me getting away from where I was as quickly as possible, so I had no other choice but to stick my thumb out.

When I saw cars coming my way, I looked at the driver and tried to decide if they looked trustworthy. Anyone good looking enough to be a vampire was obviously ignored, as were any cars that looked official.

Finally, I got someone to pull over, a sixty-ish white woman in a beat up, dirty SUV. She had short blonde-grey hair, and looked at me suspiciously.

"Thanks for stopping, ma'am," I said. "I'm not looking for a free ride, I have money to help pay."

"Where ya headed?" she asked with that Texas accent.

"As far as you'll take me."

"I'll take ya to Amarillo for ten, deal?"

"Sure." I pulled out the money and handed it to her.

"Get in."

I stuck my bags in the backseat and sat in the passenger seat, buckling my belt. "Thanks again for the lift."

She looked at me briefly. "I don't normally pick up hitchers. But you could be killed doing that. Don't ya read the papers, son? We got a killer on the loose."

"Oh, really? I swear that's not me."

"Nope, I know that `cause the killer picks up and kills hitchers. Not the other way around. Didn't want to leave you out there to get killed. Especially since you're ethnic and all. So were all the other victims."

I bristled, not liking the term "ethnic" one bit. Everyone had an ethnicity, therefore everyone should be "ethnic." Yet she used the term as if she meant to say "ethnic minority" or "non-white." I thought about correcting her so she wouldn't embarrass herself in the future, and then decided not to, worried she might take offense.

"Thanks for the tip," I said simply.

I fell asleep for who knows how many hours.

"Wake up, son, we've arrived. Where can I drop ya?"

"Is there a train station or something?"

"Not that I know of. But there's an airport."

I absolutely refused to do anything that would make me show my ID or go through security. Jericho could easily have had bought out security agents at the airport, and they might be looking for me. "How about a bus station?"

The bus ticket from Amarillo to San Francisco was forty dollars more than I had in cash, more than I expected. I thought briefly about checking fares to Chattanooga, but I figured that was the first place Jericho would check. Even if he was sworn not to harm my family, he could easily have someone waiting there for me, as I knew all sorts of the Logan Blood knew that's where I was from.

But he didn't know where I went to school or about Ahmad. The only one I had told about that who I didn't trust not to share the information was Syd, but since he was banished, it seemed that secret would be safe.

And I really didn't have anywhere else to go. So it was forty dollars, or get stuck in Amarillo. But I couldn't just put it on my credit card or withdraw cash just in case my name was being monitored by the Logan Blood.

I found one of those businesses that will wire money without any bank account, and asked to make sure they'd be fine sending me cash without me having any ID. I went into the bathroom and pulled out my cell.

I called my mom's cell phone, but she had it off. She was probably at work. I called home just to be sure. "Yo," answered a voice that could only belong to my brother.

"Hi Jerry," I said.

"Jake? Been a long time since I talked to you, dude." He sounded vaguely angry.

"Yeah, sorry. Hey is Mom there?"

"She's at work."

"What are you doing home from school?" I asked.

"Not sure, Jake. Maybe I'm sick or something."

"You sound like you've been drinking again. What are those noises in the background? Are you throwing a party?"

"That's just the TV, bro."

"Whatever, I don't care what you're up to, I just need someone to wire money to me. Can you send me like fifty bucks? It's kind of an emergency."

"What, are you being held in a Tijuana prison or something? I warned you not to go south of the border if you were gonna be in California."

"No, I just lost my wallet and need you to send me some cash."

"Why does this sound like some e-mail scam?"

"Jerry, where's the stoli?" said a girl's voice, very clearly not my mother's, unless my mom suddenly got ten times more whiney.

"On the top shelf. Look bro, I'm too inebriated, I mean, too, uh, sick to manage a lucid conversation with you right now. I'll call ya back another time, and you can tell me all about your Tijuana trip, cool?"

"Jerry, I need--"

"Cool, later bro."

And he hung up. I groaned, beyond frustrated.

I dialed Ahmad's cell next, and after four rings, I assumed he wouldn't pick up either. But then I heard, "Hey hey, what's up, ex-roomie of mine?" Goodness, did it feel good to hear his voice.

"Hi Ahmad, do you mind if I come to stay with you for a while?"

"What? Yes! I mean, no, no I don't mind, of course not. I told you you're always welcome. You're my best fucking friend, right? When will you be arriving?"

"In a couple days. I'm taking the bus."

"You know, they have these things these days called airplanes. They're really great for travelling fast distances in very short time. Perhaps it's time you made your acquaintance with them."

"I can't afford to--"

"I can send my family jet for you, free of charge."

That sounded way too ostentatious for just me. "No, I'm fine."

"So what about your internship? Did something go wrong? You kind of have a weird tone of voice, and you never call me."

I tried to make up a lie to him, but I just couldn't do it. "You really want the truth?"

"Of course."

"The real truth was, I was never in Montana. I'm in Texas."

"Huh? Why there?"

"Because Syd kidnapped me and forced me to go there with him under extreme duress. I know this is hard to believe, but the truth is, Syd's a vampire, and he took me to the secret cowboy-vampire country, where I've barely managed to escape alive from, and now I'm stranded."

There was a long moment of silence.

And then he started to laugh. "Jacob, Jacob, Jacob, look at you! I was always the one playing practical jokes on you, and you were always the gullible one. But here you are, spinning this whole sci-fi story out of your ass. Okay, so serves me right for asking a dumb question, I get it, man."

I felt so hopelessly sad, I almost broke into tears. And I knew that it was wrong of me to involve him in any of this anyway. The second he really believed me, he would probably skip classes and come out himself to find me, and that could endanger him.

"Yeah, ha ha, fooled you," I said instead, just barely managing to say it without my voice cracking into sobs. "Anyway, I'll give you a call when I'm almost there, okay?"

"Jacob, I am so excited. This reunion is going to be killer."

"So am I Ahmad. Later."

I hung up, and those tears finally did come, tears of hopelessness, but worse yet, of isolation.

Just when I had convinced myself that my only option was to go out on the street and beg for money, my cell rang.

"Hello?"

"Jake?" It was my mother. "Jerry texted that you were stranded with a lost wallet and needed money. What's going on?"

"Mom, I'm trying to take the bus to Berkeley, but my wallet has escaped, and I can't pay the fare. Can you wire the cash to me?"

"Sure, wire it to Montana?"

I cringed. I needed to tell her where she had to wire it to me, I couldn't lie. "No, in Amarillo."

"You mean, Texas, Amarillo? What in God's good graces are you doing there?"

"I took a bus from Montana to here." I never lied to her, so I was very worried she'd figure something was awry.

"Amarillo is on the way to Berkeley? Since when?"

"It was a less expensive option to take the less direct route."

"But how did you get to Amarillo without paying?"

"It's a pay as you go system," I said. "And they kicked me off here because I couldn't pay the rest."

"Well, how much do you need?"

"Forty," I said. "I'll pay you back."

"I'll send a hundred, just to be safe," she said. "My treat."

"Thanks Mom!"

That evening, I was on the bus, reading a book and keeping close guard over my backpack, when I came across Parker's wallet and opened it up to find hundreds of dollars inside. Figuring Parker certainly would have wanted me to use his money on my bus ticket instead of calling my mother, I started to feel really stupid for not thinking about that wallet sooner.

There were about two dozen other passengers on the large bus, and everyone had spread out, with me having my whole row to myself. I noticed when we boarded that there weren't any children on board, which seemed to bode well for the rest of us getting some sleep. Perhaps it was because the bus was scheduled to drive through the night that I was clearly the youngest person there. Many of riders were already sleeping, and I was about to join in that activity. I used the bathroom and brushed my teeth, and went back to my seat.

Unfortunately for me, the loudest people had chosen to sit directly behind me. A couple that seemed to have a lot in common: they were both white, both in their fifties, both highly rotund, both sounded very Texas, and both seemed very surly. But in spite of all those similarities, the two of them couldn't get along at all, and were constantly arguing. Sitting directly in front of the man proved to be a recipe for repeatedly getting my seat kicked, so I had moved in front of the woman. When that had proved just as tumultuous, I had moved to the window seat. And even though the ride was a lot smoother, my ears were still assaulted by their loud bickering, so much so that I wondered how impolite it would look to move to the other side of the bus, and if their angry jabs would then by redirected at me.

Just when I decided to risk their disfavor, I noticed the bus was slowing down.

We were out in the middle of nowhere, having left Amarillo earlier. As the bus started to come to a sharp stop, the driver, an older white man, said, "Hold on, there's someone in the road."

Everyone that had been slumbering woke up.

"Whose there?" I asked.

"A man. He's waving for me to stop. Sure is dressed funny."

My spine went cold, and I looked up at the front of the bus.

"Hey, let me in, I need help!" shouted the mystery man from outside.

"Hold on," the driver said, clearly meaning to let him on board.

"He didn't pay for a ticket!" an older Hispanic woman who was a part of a couple sitting close to the front said.

"But he needs help," the driver said.

Just as the driver reached for the lever to open the door, I sprinted down the center aisle of the bus and dove forward, just managing to push his arm away.

"Don't let him in! He's dangerous!"

"How do you know?" the driver asked.

"He's dangerous, I just know." When the driver looked at me like I was crazy and reached to open the door, I knew I needed something better than that. "He's the hitchhike killer!"

"O.M.G.!" said a twenty-something white woman blonde. She was the same one who when she boarded and the driver told her not to sit where she did because the seatbelt was broken, the same warning everyone else had heeded, she told him to fuck off, that she hated seatbelts because she read somewhere that they cause body-wrinkles, and she sat there the whole time unbuckled as she texted her friends.

The driver looked dubious. "The hitchhike killer kills hitchhikers, not the other way around!"

"That's just what he wants you to think, so you'll be fooled into letting him on this bus, and he'll kill us all!" I said. "Please, I'm begging you, don't let him in here!"

"If ya don't open the door, I'm gonna break it apart!" yelled the man outside.

"Don't let him in!" said one of the male passengers.

The bus driver moved his hand away from the door latch, and back to the wheel. He started to pull the bus forward.

As soon as the vampire attacker outside saw this, he started banging violently on the door, yelling curses.

"Just go!" I said.

As the bus driver picked up his pace, the guy outside turned his fist to steel and used it to break the glass on the door, though even so, it remained intact.

"O.M.G., he's insane!" said the white woman texter.

Luckily, no one seemed to notice his fist had turned to steel but me.

As the bus picked up the pace, the vampire started to run on our right side.

"He's trying to catch us!" said a man.

"O.M.G., please, go faster!" said the white woman.

"I'm going as fast as I can," the driver said. "Did we lose him?"

"Ay dios mio, I can't believe how fast he's running!" said the Hispanic woman.

He slammed his fists against the side of the windows, making cracks in the glass.

But then the bus must have hit another gear or something because it picked up speed, and left the guy running after us down the road, in the dark.

"Okay, I think we lost him," I said. "But keep this bus going fast, just in case."

"Somebody call the police!" the driver said.

"I'm calling now!" said the white woman texter, pulling out her cell and dialing emergency.

I knew I absolutely could not have the police called, as they might track me down that way.

I ran over to the woman and pulled her phone away before she had a chance to hit the dial button. "No, don't call the police!" I yelled.

"O.M.G., what's wrong with you?" she asked.

"It's just that, what I meant to say was, don't call the police, because I'm going to call them. I know the lines to call for the detectives working the hitchhike murder case, so I'll call them directly on my phone."

"Well, did you really have to pull my phone out of my hands like that? Like, drama! You hurt my finger."

"I was really concerned about you. I don't want you wasting your good minutes while 911 takes forever to route your call." Goodness, did I hate to lie to people, and I hoped she would buy my deception.

She seemed appeased enough, I supposed, as I handed her phone back to her.

But that meant everyone was looking at me expectantly. I walked over to my bag and pulled out my cell. I realized I was going to have to fake a phone call, which meant more lies were required.

I dialed a fake number, and only pretended to hit the send button, and then put the phone to my ear. "Hello, Detective, um, Groves?"

No, why did you just use your own last name? Was that really the best you could come up with?

"Yes, it's me again, Mr. uh, Jake. Hey, the killer just made an attempt to attack our bus, but we sped away from him. He's on foot."

I proceeded to give the fake detective an elaborate geographical description of our location.

"Okay, will do."

I hung up.

"What did they say?" asked the white woman texter.

"They're going to send squad cars to investigate. They want us to keep moving at this speed as long as we can, and then just head onto our normal route."

"They don't need our statements?" asked the Hispanic woman.

"If they need our statements, they said they would call back."

Everyone seemed relieved.

I sat back down in my seat on the left side of the bus, putting my phone in my bag and my book away as well. I put my face against the window to rest.

In the corner of my right eye, I thought I detected movement. I anxiously turned to look out the window. It was so dark out there, and there were interior bus lights on, so I cupped my hands around my eyes as I put my face to the glass so I could see better.

We were still in the middle of nowhere, and I couldn't even see any lights out there. I tried to focus on the landscape, noticing it was particularly rocky in this area, and seemed dry. I saw nothing out of the ordinary, and figured it had just been my imagination.

But then I saw something, a flicker of something through the glass, something that I couldn't place. Once again, it only seemed to move instantaneously, and then was gone. My eyes searched the landscape, but I saw nothing unusual, no sign of any people.

I actually yelled out a terrified scream as a steel fist rose up from the outside and completely dominated my field of vision as it punched towards the glass, right for my face. I jumped as the first broke a hole into the glass right at my face level and then grabbed onto my face violently.

I heard screams as everyone else on the bus saw this as well, with the most surprised screams coming from the couple sitting behind me.

"O.M.G., O.M.G.!" I heard the texter say.

I tried to break free, but to no avail. The vampire pulled my face against the hole he had just created until glass scraped at my skin. I realized he was trying to pull me through the broken window.

Once my face was partially outside, I could see the face of the man the arm belonged to beneath me, clearly using his other hand and his legs to hold onto the underside of the bus, where people loaded their luggage.

"Think I can't figure out where ya are by smellin' yer AB neg?" he mocked me. "When I'm done with you, there ain't gonna be any blood left to smell."

While people inside the bus screamed and debated on how to help me, I used my hands to push against the glass, trying to keep him from pulling me out. I couldn't actually use my hands to hurt him, as he was safely on the other side of the window.

But he was much stronger than I was, and he kept on pulling more of me out the hole. Soon, my entire head was out, and then my neck as well, stopping at my shoulders.

My bag was out of reach for my arms, but I was able to use my legs to grab the bag and bring it closer to me.

I saw him excitedly lick some of the blood off my face, and then his fangs popped out. "Mmm," he said. "I'm gonna rape you with my giant fangs."

I could see he was moving to bite my exposed throat, clearly planning to use his Logan Blood ability to knock me out with a single bite, and then the struggle would be over, and I'd be good as dead.

I pulled out the revolver in my pack, pointed it against the window, prayed that I was aiming correctly since I couldn't see the gun, and pulled the trigger.

BOOM.

"O.M.G., he has a gun! Somebody do something!"

The bullet hit him right between the eyes, but it didn't look like it penetrated his skull.

Still, the shock was enough to knock him back, and he grasped for something to hold onto futility as he fell backwards and landed on the pavement below.

I carefully slid my head back through the broken glass, not wanting to cut anything else.

"O.M.G., he's okay!" said the woman.

"Should I stop the bus?" asked the driver, who clearly hadn't seen what was going on.

"No!" said many of us at once.

"How did he come back?" asked the Hispanic woman. "We've been moving this whole time."

"He must have grabbed onto the undercarriage right as soon as we left him behind the first time, though we never saw," I said, which was no lie.

There was no sign they had noticed his fangs or heard what he had said to me, since all of that took place outside the bus.

"Are we sure he's gone this time?" asked the driver.

Many people peered out of the left side of the bus. "Yes, I can see him lying on the ground, there," said the heavy man behind me.

I sat down again in my seat, taking a well earned sigh of relief.

My heart stopped short again when I heard glass breaking and people shouting. One quick look to the right side of the bus, and I could see a vampire using his steel fist to break through the glass, clearly dead set on making it on board. The fact that the first man was still lying on the road outside told me that this was a second attacker.

Before the texter could yell O.M.G. more than twice, I grabbed my revolver, ran over to the window on the right side where the vampire was trying to push through the hole, pulled the man who was sitting on that bench out of the way, and then fired all the bullets my revolver had left into the vampire's face. It wasn't enough to kill him, but it did result in him falling off the bus, hitting the pavement as well.

But before anyone could celebrate, there came another crash of glass, this time back on the left side of the bus, though towards the back, and a third vampire started to break his way in. I was out of bullets, so I returned to my backpack to reload.

Somehow, amazingly, the passengers in the rear left of the bus were able to all combine their muscle power in order to push this vampire out and off the side of window, knocking him to the pavement below.

As two more vampires attacked simultaneously on the right, I finished reloading and emptied my gun out on the two of them, knocking them both to the ground.

But I was totally helpless when a vampire broke into the row that the texter woman was on, and she did nothing but shriek and run away. He used his steel fist to knock a substantial hole in the window before climbing on board.

For the first time, I got a good look at our attackers, as this one stepped into the interior light of the bus. As soon as I saw what we were dealing with, I felt sick. A handsome, muscular man with green eyes, he was wearing an outfit straight out of the mid 1800s. Dark grey trousers over black boots and a similarly colored frock coat, which had a short collar, long sleeves, large metal buttons in the breast, and came down to mid-thigh. On his head, he wore a grey kepi hat. In his hands, he held onto a long musket with a very sharp bayonet attached to the end.

"O.M.G., we are being attacked by Civil War hard-core authentic reenactment freaks!" said the texter when she laid eyes on the Logan Blood Calvary soldier.

"But they have grey on!" said the large woman who had sat behind me. "Don't they know that Texas was a Confederate state?"

"They must not know this is still Texas," said the elderly white woman in the front of the bus.

The Calvary soldier hit the nearby Hispanic woman in the face with his musket for no discernable reason, knocking her to the floor. The Hispanic man she was with angrily pulled a very modern handgun out of his bag and pointed it at our invader.

Before the man could fire, the soldier nimbly danced around his gun with so much superhuman speed and agility it left the man completely bemused. Before the poor man knew what was happening, the soldier had used his musket to break the man's arm, causing him to scream in alarm and drop the gun.

He stood at the front of the bus, where he could see all of us, and he pointed his musket at us. "Any of ya want to taste lead? No? Then reach for the fuckin' sky!"

Everyone including myself put their hands up; clearly he was concerned that we would have concealed weapons.

"That's what I like to see," he said, still aiming his gun back and forth at us.

Apparently he thought that the little old white lady sitting behind him wasn't a threat, as he positioned himself so that she was the only one to his back. I almost couldn't keep myself from showing him a face of shock as I saw her reach into her large purse, fish out another handgun, remove the safety, point the gun at the back of his head, and fire.

I heard many loud bangs in a row as she fired bullet after bullet into the back of his head. As he fell to the ground with cheers from the other passengers, the old woman said, "Shoulda known you were messing with a bus full of Texans. If ya had, you would've known, everyone in Texas has a gun."

"He's not dead, just unconscious," I said.

"How can we kill him?"

"Let's just throw him out of the bus," I suggested.

I walked to the front of the bus, and with the help of two other men, lifted the vampire up and carried him towards the hole in the window. It was too small to easily fit him through. We realized the biggest hole was in the back of the bus, so we moved him back there instead. We pushed him out, and saw his body crash into the road.

Right then, there came another crash of glass, and I turned my head towards the front of the bus to see another vampire soldier breaking into the window, only this time, he was on the windshield and he broke the glass right in front of the driver.

The driver screamed as glass flew into his face, shutting his eyes and putting his hands to his face defensively. I was worried he had been permanently scarred from the glass. In the pain and surprise, the driver hit the brake pedal, not so hard that it knocked all of us over, but still, we found the bus coming to a stop.

"No, no, no, we can't stop!" I yelled from the back of the bus.

All of the sudden, I started to feel queasy as I saw a good ten vampire Calvary soldiers starting to break through the windows. Two even pushed their way on board.

Finally, the bus driver pulled the glass off his face, opened his eyes again, and put his foot on the pedal, bringing the bus up to speed. But the damage had been done, as all of the vampires that had attacked us when we were stopped managed to hold onto the outside of the bus as we moved again.

When another man pulled out a handgun and started to fire at one of the vampire's heads, the second vampire raised his gun and did the same, shooting his musket into the man's head, killing him and leaving him a bloody mess as the rest of the humans screamed. I felt so, so guilty, knowing that man would have never died if I hadn't tried to run.

I put my pistol back into my bag and raised my hands up. "Please, don't hurt anyone else. I'm the one you want. Just take me, and let the rest of them go free."

"Ya fuckin' dolt, they seen us now," said one of the vampires. "We can't let `em free. They all gonna die."

I felt even more guilty.

"All you human rats get yer hands up!" screamed one of the Calvary vampires at the front of the bus, pointing his musket at us.

Most people did as he asked, but the soldier angrily swung his gun around to face the driver.

"You too, ya stupid fuck!"

"I can't, I have to steer."

BOOM. A crack of light appeared from the end of the musket, and the next thing I knew, the driver was missing a head. Another life on my hands, and many of the passengers started to scream.

"You stupid donkey, that was the man who was controlling this thing!" the second vampire snapped at the one in the front.

"Shit, ya fuckin' with me?"

"I ain't! And I don't know how to goddamn control one of these, do you?"

"Hell no."

The bus driver's body had fallen forward onto the wheel, locking it straight. At the same time, his foot fell on the gas, sending the bus hurtling forwards faster and faster.

"Everyone buckle up, now!" I yelled, sitting down and re-buckling my seat belt. I could see the other passengers doing the same.

"How come we're goin' faster?" asked the vampire in front.

"Find out where the brakes are!" said the second.

The vampire started pushing the driver back in his seat, looking around. "It must be this wheel here."

He spun the wheel, and we turned so sharply, all the vampires that were holding onto the outside the bus got thrown off, losing their grips on the windows, and went flying out into the darkness. The vampire in the front let go of the wheel, and it straightened just in time, moving straight down the road again.

Luckily, the road was as straight as an arrow, and after we left all the other vampires outside in the dust, I wondered if perhaps we would somehow be able to kill the two that were still in the bus, we'd be able to still make an escape. It seemed that we were going so fast, that the vampires would not be able to catch us, especially since all they had at their disposal were horses.

But we were going so fast, it made me frightened to unbuckle my seatbelt. I noticed then that up ahead, there was a turn to the right coming up.

"There's a curve in the road, you have to steer the wheel!" I yelled to the vampire in front.

"Right, this is a steering handle, I get it," said the vampire, gripping the wheel finally.

"Turn, now!" I screamed, seeing the curve was right in front of us.

"Yup, got it!" he said, and then he idiotically grabbed the wheel and started to turn it... counter clockwise.

Instead of steering to the right, we went to the left, and next thing I knew, we were off the road, hitting a fence on the road. There was so much violent shaking, I became disoriented, especially after the crashing noises started and the bus lights went out.

I thought I was going to die when I felt the bus turn on its left side. We continued to roll, almost going upside down completely, before settling back down on the left side, stopping finally.

The seatbelt was holding me hanging in the air in my seat, my left side hanging down and my right side facing up. Even though I was disoriented, I was so shocked that all I wanted to do was so stay in that seatbelt forever. Somehow, I made myself unbuckle my belt and crawl out over to the left. I realized quickly that I wasn't injured, and I thanked God for that. I grabbed my backpack and put it on my back.

I ended up on my feet, standing on what used to be the left window of the bus. To my left was the ceiling of the bus, which I used to support myself. To the right were all the other passengers, still buckled in. The ones who had been sitting on the left, like me, were on the lower part of the wall, and could easily scramble off if they were uninjured.

It would be more of a challenge for the poor people who had been sitting on the right side of the bus, as they were now pretty high up on the right wall. They'd need help getting down.

I moved through the bus, helping people out of their belt, making sure no one was injured. People were stunned, but physically okay. All except for the texter woman, who hadn't ever found a seatbelt, it seemed. What was left of her body was so broken, I knew she was beyond help.

As for the vampires, one of them was dead as well, somehow managing to decapitate himself in the accident. I tried not to look at the bloody mess that remained for too long, feeling woozy.

I found the other vampire alive but unconscious. This was the one who had killed the man who had pulled out his gun, who had killed the driver recklessly, who had failed to stop the bus. And I knew if he woke up, he'd continue killing us.

I did what I had to do, though it gave me no pleasure: I took his musket, pointed at his head, and fired, killing him. I dropped the musket and looked away before I saw any of the mess I had made.

The engine was still on, and suddenly I worried that we'd end up exploding. I pulled the driver's body aside until I found the key and turned off the engine.

"Everyone who is not injured, please help the people sitting up there to get down," I said, speaking to the people who were managing to get out of their buckles behind me. "I'll go and get help."

I carried my backpack through the hole in the windshield, stumbling to the pavement beyond. I ran off down the street, away from the direction of the vampires.

A police car approached with its lights on and its alarm blazing, and I ran over to it, my arms waving in the air. I ran over to the driver's side as the policeman in the driver's seat rolled down his window.

"Please, the people in the bus need help, but we're going to need a lot of reinforcements if the attackers manage to catch up!" I yelled at him.

"We can handle--"

"No, you can't handle them," I argued with the man in the cop uniform in the front seat.

"Now, hold on officer," said the man in the passenger seat dressed in a suit. "Just get in the car, and we'll take you safely away from here, and we'll make sure the other passengers are saved as well."

I started to move towards the back door, when I saw it was a familiar face looking back at me in the passenger seat.

I recognized Agent Macon, the man who had sold himself to Jericho so his daughter would be saved.

I turned and I ran into the dark wilderness, away from the scene.

As soon as he realized I was making a run for it, I heard the car door open and footsteps behind me, chasing me down. "Hey, stop!"

But that only made me run faster.

I heard him pull out his gun and stop running to shoot, but either the bullets missed me, or they hit my backpack. He kept on chasing me, but I soon lost him in the darkness. I felt so guilty for leaving the other bus passengers behind, but there was nothing I could do for them now. All I'd manage to do would be to lure the vampires towards them again.

I slowed my sprint to a jog, pulling out my cell phone and yanking out the battery, figuring that might have been how they traced me.

I jogged through the fields for over an hour, until I hit a narrow stream, and I thanked God. I walked into the stream, getting my feet wet, which felt ice cold, but knowing that as long as I walked in the water, they wouldn't be able to track my footsteps.

And so I walked in the water all night long, until the sunrise.

FEBRUARY 5th

As soon as there was light in the sky, I looked at the landscape around me, waiting until a good amount of dried grass came to the streambed. I hiked back onto the grass, knowing I wouldn't leave tracks. Just to be safe, every step I took away from the stream, I looked behind me for any possible signs I had left.

After an hour plus of walking, I came to hills covered with rock formations, so I left the level ground and moved up the hillside.

After some exploration, I came across a small cave. I looked carefully to make sure no other wildlife seemed to inhabit it, then climbed inside.

I took stock of my food and water situation. I had enough water for perhaps two days, but I could always go back to that stream to refill. My food would only last me two days, tops. I would need to stretch it out for as long as I could.

My clothes were all wet from getting splashed in the stream, and I was shivering in the cave. I stripped off all my clothes, placed them on the floor to dry, and then jumped in my sleeping bag.

I pulled out my cross and prayed to God for the poor souls on the bus. And I prayed that he would somehow see me through this. Only then was I able to sleep in peace.

My sleep was dreamless until the latter part of it, when I started to dream of Parker. He was making love to me, and I was so lovingly enraptured by it all that I was approaching orgasm.

But then I felt like I was drifting out of sleep, and I could feel myself still in that cave, on my sleeping bag.

And yet, someone had unzipped my sleeping bag and pulled away the top part. I knew I was on my stomach, my hard dick pushing against the bottom of the bag.

And then it must have been that I was still dreaming: I felt Parker's familiar weight on me, familiar arms around me, familiar voice moaning in pleasure.

He was loving me from behind. I knew it was him because I could feel the familiar size and shape and hardness of his penis.

"Mmmm, yeah, my sweet," he moaned, and I knew it must be a dream.

But then his arrogant laughter woke me up, and I knew I wasn't dreaming. The reality was, I was face down in the cave, and I wasn't alone: someone was riding me from behind. Someone who looked and felt and sounded like Parker.

"Hey, Jakey," said his voice, and I knew who it was.

"Syd, how the heck did you find me?" I asked. "And what the heck do you think you're doing?" Apparently, he seemed to be under the false impression that the fact that I gave him my permission one time to top me, that he could repeat the task whenever he chose.

"I saw you sleepin' here in the buff, and I couldn't help myself," he said, and then I felt him rub my brand on my butt. "I saw yer new mark on yer sweet ass, and I got the hardest rod I ever had. Thought I could tolerate just licking the `L' burned into yer ass flesh, but shoulda known puttin' my face so close to yer hole would lead me to this road."

I felt his hands on my back, tracing along my whip scars.

"Ohh, soo pretty. Such pretty, long scars to go along with my brand on yer ass."

I felt his tongue start to lap up the crusty blood from the scars with mad desire, pumping me even further.

And I felt the unmistakable sense of facial hair rub against me. And I knew either Syd had grown a La Souvarov since I saw him last, or the person pounding me was:

"Jericho!"

I hear him chuckling evilly from behind. "Who else?"

"How did you find me?" I couldn't fathom any mistake I had made, any trace I had left.

He laughed again. "Come on, ain't ya smart enough to realize that specials tend to run in the family?" I knew he was referring to how Giggles and Parker were both specials. "My wife was no special, so that most likely would mean I was. Ya understand now, or should I restate it in goddamn retard language, just to make sure?"

"Your special ability let you track me?"

"My ability lets me think of anyone I ever bit before."

"You're aware right now of everyone you ever bit?"

"No, you fuckwad, I only locate people who I choose to think about. That's why you were able to escape with all yer slaves, cause I wasn't thinkin' bout you. Once I started locating you, well, how did ya think my guards found you and yer fellow slaves that night in the Territory? Cause I told em where ya were. Same with the Calvary attacking your motor vehicle. See, once I bite you, you will never, ever be able to hide from me, unless you die. And even though I usually just tell my people where my enemies can be found `cause I don't wanna leave Mareshead, this time, I thought I'd track ya down myself, and look at me now, reaping the rewards for my troubles."

I felt him put his beefy arm around my throat and start to choke me as he plowed me harder, excited by my pain.

"Now, I'm gonna give ya one chance to come clean right here and now and tell me where all the rest of those worthless shit slaves went."

"I can't tell you if you're choking me," I said.

"Fine, ya ready to spill your guts before I do the job with my teeth?" he asked me, pulling his arm off my throat, and spinning me around under him like a ragdoll, never stopping his penetration, until I was staring into his evil face.

When I was lying on my stomach, I managed to pull my gun out of my backpack and conceal it under my body. And as soon as Jericho spun my around, I raised the barrel of the revolver to his temple and pulled the trigger, the gun emitting a loud snap.

Even though I got the jump on him, he managed to turn his head just slightly before the bullet hit him, and instead of going in his temple, the bullet hit him in the side of his forehead. He pulled the gun out of my hands and tossed it away.

"Did you really think you had a chance of defeating me with nothing but a revolver?" he asked, pulling the flattened bullet out of his forehead as the wound disappeared. "I know you must think of Giggles, Syd, and Parker of being fuckin' tough. Well, maybe not Parker, he was nothin' but a weak cunt. But Syd and Giggles both got plenty of pounce to `em. And guess what? I was a big fuckin' century old stud when the two of them were pissing in their diapers. I'm so goddamn strong, ain't no way you'd ever best me, ya got that? Now, where did we leave off? Oh yeah." He started to strangle me again, this time with both hands on the front. "Tell me where the slaves are."

"I'd sooner die," I managed to stammer as he continued to choke me.

"That can be arranged," he said. "We'll do things the hard way, then. And as much as I want to blow my load in yer ass, we both know that ain't gonna happen without yer body ripped open." He pulled out of me.

He started stuffing everything I had into my backpack, including my clothes and sleeping bag.

"Slaves don't need clothes," he said as he put his jeans back on. "Come."

"You can't bark orders at me, I'm not one of your minions."

He slapped my brand. "That mark there says somethn' different. It says I own yer ass. Anyway, I like it better when I have to force ya," he said.

He grabbed my backpack and put it on his back. And then he grabbed me and handled me with even less care than he did the pack, pulling me by force out of the cave, in spite of my fighting.

He pulled me down the hill, and there I realized he hadn't come alone: his fanged, grey-suited Calvary were on horseback waiting for us, about thirty riders.

There seemed to be some sort of officer in the front of the Calvary, though at first, his outfit looked identical to the other Calvary men. But on close inspection, I realized that his frock coat had more buttons, and his kepi had a very small red band across the black bill.

"Captain Miller, throw this one in chains and take him back to Mareshead," Jericho ordered the officer. "I left Giggles in charge there. Tell her he needs to give us information still. And give her his bag, in case there's some clue to be found."

He tossed them my bag.

"Yes, Mr. Governor," Captain Miller responded. He was a handsome black vampire with green eyes, muscled body, and a bushy, unruly beard.

"I gotta head down to Mexico personally to execute some of the anti-drug leaders and judges, shake things up. I'll be a couple days."

"Yes, Mr. Governor."

I felt some small hope. If Giggles was left in charge of Mareshead without her father there, surely if she saw what was being done to me, she'd put a stop to it. I just needed to survive long enough to get to her.

"What about the other prisoners we saved from the automobile wreck, Mr. Governor?" asked the Captain.

"Put em in chains with this one. Take em all back to Mareshead. We got a huge vacancy in the pens that these new ones can fill up real nice." He smiled evilly.

After Jericho rode off out of sight to the south, I realized no one was really guarding me, all of them were on their horses, and I was on foot. I used that to try and make a run for it towards the nearby rocky cliffs that a horse would not be able to pass over.

They saw me running immediately, and before I could make any ground, a couple of them hopped off their horses and attacked me on foot. When I fought back hardily, I ended up being bitten by one of them and quickly went unconscious.

I came to just as I was thrown to my feet. I realized I was the caboose in a long single file line, filled with all of the survivors from that bus ride, all of them as naked as I was. They had all of us in a sort of chain gang, with manacles around our wrists being chained together, as well as ankle chains.

I reacted to the pure horror of being chained like a criminal so soon after escaping to the pens with yells of protest, but instead of words leaving my lips, all that came out were mumbles. That's when I realized there was something new that these Calvary men had added into their repertoire of cruelty: an iron and leather gag had been fastened in my mouth, forcing a large funnel into mouth cup side out, making it impossible to close my jaw, my lips stretched to their limit around the edge of the funnel. And it wasn't just a funnel in my mouth, the gag also had iron claws that held my tongue in place and made it immovable. A leather strap around the back of my neck held the gag on like a vice, constantly pushing the funnel so far into my mouth my jaw felt like it was going to break open, and as my hands went to my face to pull it off, I realized that my manacles were making it so I just couldn't reach. One look around told me that I wasn't the only one with these awful contraptions on, all the other prisoners were suffering through the same indignity as well.

Captain Miller was riding his horse around, peering down at us prisoners. "Better get used to walking, `cause you maggot humans'll be doin' it the whole way to Mareshead. If any of you misbehave or slow us down, you ain't gonna be gettin' no food or water or blankets at night. Any of you need to piss or take a shit, ya do it while we're walkin' in front of everyone. If any of you try to get away, we'll kill ya. Oh yeah, welcome to the goddamn Territory, folks."

Captain Miller asked the men to get us some water before we were on our way. Vampires on foot brought flasks around to all of us humans, pouring water into everyone's funnels. When they got to me, I felt the water come into my mouth through the small end of the funnel and fill my mouth. It was so strange, I almost choked, and my reaction was to spit out the water. But I realized quickly that there was no way to spit anything out with these gags, either you swallowed or you choked to death. It was most uncomfortable, but I found a way to stop my gag reflex and swallow the water offered to me, knowing I needed to stay hydrated.

The vampires all mounted their steeds again, and we were dragged by their chains along with them as they made their way west. The gags kept us from communicating with each other, which seemed like a huge disadvantage, as there had been so many times in the pens where the slaves were left to speak to one another. At first, being naked and exposed to the cold winter air was even worse that the funnel gags, but as the air heated up some in the afternoon, as well as the brisk exercise, kept our bodies warm. Being chained together, we could only go as quickly as our slowest members, which in that case was the old white woman who had shot the vampire on bus.

We got through the end of the day without drawing the criticism of any of the vampires, and as they stopped to make camp, Captain Miller told us that we had earned dinner, water, and blankets for the cold night.

As they started to heat something up in large pots over their fires, my stomach churned as my nose got a sickeningly familiar whiff.

"They be heating up somethin' we like to give our slave folk in the Territory, somthin' called slop."

I froze as I heard that word.

"But I personally don't think slop is all that nutritional-like for you slave folks. Anyone not want slop, and want something much cleaner and healthier?"

I thought there was no way I could keep down slop again, so I raised my hand and waved to the captain.

"Ah, yes, I see ya, AB Negative. Alright men, give the rest of these slaves warm slop, through their funnels, but give the pretty slave the healthier, more sanitary choice. On yer goddamn knees, all of you!"

Vampires came through and forced us to our knees, and then I had to watch the poor people being forced to drink down the warm slop they were putting into everyone's funnel, many of them crying out as they were made to swallow it. When some fought back, they were quickly restrained.

The vampires holding the slop pot left after they fed the man in front of me, leaving me unfed. But then I felt one of them slap my face, from behind, and when I turned around, there was a large, erect penis in my face.

I tried to stand up and get away, but two other vampires moved in to grab me from each side, forcing me to stay on my knees and not move. No amount of thrashing against them made their bodies budge one bit. The two of them used their arms to hold my head, immobilizing it as well.

Nothing prevented the vampire from putting his dick against my face again, rubbing it up and down against me. When I realized he was trying to stick his dickhead through the funnel into my mouth, I was so relieved when he ended up to be way too largely endowed to even dream of fitting.

"Ya gonna jerk me off like a good slave, pretty?" he asked, grabbing my hands and putting them on his dick. But I responded by trying to rip the schlong off instead of pleasuring it. "Fuck, careful boys, this one ain't the least bit tame," said the vampire, and all of them pulled my hands down and restrained them.

And then the vampire used his own hands to jerk himself off, rubbing his dick over my prone face as well.

"Fuck, gonna shoot, hold `im down, boys."

And then he grunted as his dick erupted all over me, with the good portion landing in the funnel and into my mouth.

I wanted so badly to spit it out, but that was not an option to me, so I either had to hold it in my mouth, or swallow it. Out of spite, I chose the former.

But then two more vampires had their soldier trousers down and their frock coats pulled up, and they put their dicks in my face simultaneously, jerking themselves off. One of them was getting so excited from smelling my blood that his grey kepi fell off his head and onto my face.

The worst part was, they were doing this to me in front of the whole camp, with vampires looking on lustfully, and the humans looking back at me with pity.

The two soldiers came at the same time into the funnel; forcing so much hot liquid into my mouth all at once I could barely stand it.

Even when I had the three loads in my mouth, I refused to swallow, feeling like it would be giving in.

But by the time I had eleven loads in my mouth, there was so much volume, my cheeks were bursting, and I realized not swallowing at that point might have led to me choking to death.

So I swallowed, forcing the largest amount of semen I had ever had in my mouth at one time down my throat.

By the time every last Calvary vampire had force-fed me their loads, Captain Miller came up to me, smelling my blood as he got close to me, pushing the hardness in his pants against me, and I knew he'd give me the same treatment.

"Oops, missed a spot," he said, wiping off some wetness that had splashed my face and sticking his finger straight through the hole of the funnel, depositing the juice into my mouth.

"I told ya I'd make concessions for someone with a body as hot as yers to get ya some balanced nutrition while yer in my care," he said to me, while his hands pulled off his coat and shirt, leaving his upper body muscles bare and glistening, his chest thick with black hair. This left him only in his Calvary pants, belt, belt buckle, black boots, and kepi hat. "Tell me, how'd ya like all my men strokin' their big muskets, emptyin' their musket loads into yer mouth? Pretty impressive collection of fine weapons, ain't it? Well, ya ready to see the biggest musket of all?"

He pulled open his pants zipper and out sprang his hefty, hard dick, one sizable piece of dark meat, circumcised just like the rest of the Logan Blood vampires. He grabbed his unit just beneath the head and wiped his dick obnoxiously all over my face, though at least he wasn't leaking precum at all.

"Pretty goddamn' impressive weapon, ain't it?"

I was sure he was going jerk off into my funnel piece like all the other men had done, and so I was all too surprised when he forced me onto the ground, face first. I felt him all over my back, lying on top of me, and I tried to struggle as he spit a few times into my butthole, and then stuck his dickhead against me.

"Oh yeah, slave, ya want a real proper working over with my musket? Well, here it comes."

He forced his way hard into me, the lack of lube and lack of him having a precum making the forced entrance burn like fire. Any glances around me and I could see all the other bus passengers looking at me with such piteous horror, and a lot more shock than the seasoned pens slaves would have ever shown.

When I shouted in pain, Captain Miller forced his index finger through the funnel and into my mouth, his finger tasting of his dick sweat.

Captain Miller raped me with abandon, and it took him twenty minutes to reach orgasm.

"Oh yeah, feel my musket fire it's load inside ya, slave?" he asked as he shot a huge load inside me. Only then would he pull out and get off me. The other slaves comforted me as best as they could while pure hate floated through my mind in the aftermath of that treatment.

They gave us more water to drink, which I used to wash the taste of seed out of my mouth. And they gave us plenty of warm blankets, but made us sleep outside, still chained together in the least comfortable positions, making it extremely difficult to sleep, though I did finally muster some slumbering.

FEBRUARY 6th

A days later, after suffering through more "meals" of the most humiliating sort imaginable, my willpower plummeted as I had to watch helplessly as the old white woman with the gun in her purse had ended up falling to the ground and never getting up again.

It had been at the end of the day, and though we were close to stopping for the night, she had just been pushed too far for two days in a row by then, and that was it. Seeing her fall, our chain gang came to a halt, most of the people expecting the vampires to help her.

I wasn't the least bit surprised when the vampires pulled the chains off her body, removing their precious funnel gag from her mouth, before ripping her apart and licking up her blood as quickly as they could as before throwing her body to the side. All the humans, including myself, were brought to tears by their cruelty.

That evening, we ended up arriving in a larger company's semi-permanent camp, a Calvary group that was at least twice as large as the one headed up by Captain Miller. This group was led by a man they only ever referred to as the "General," a red-headed male vampire with a red handle-bar moustache.

The General's only real distinction from the rest of the Calvary men was his hat. Instead of the normal kepi, he wore a slouch hat with a fancy "L" insignia embroidered into the front of the cap.

When it became clear that Captain Miller's unit was being folded into the larger army and the General was leading all the men back to Mareshead himself, I became hopeful that the new men would treat us with improved decency. But once again, Captain Miller's soldiers took special glee in giving me particularly humiliating form of dinner. Even Captain Miller himself fed me his seed, which at least meant he wouldn't be raping me again that night, something he had done to me two times by then.

And then, the rest of the army men were goaded into giving me the same sort of treatment as Miller's cadre, and soon, I had over a hundred vampires jacking off into my mouth, feeding me their seed. They got so efficient at it that there was practically no time given to me between loads; as soon as one had finished his orgasm, the next one in line was already approaching his climax. My stomach churned painfully from all the disgusting liquid in it.

The only one who didn't feed me their juice was the General, but once he saw me, he had his men unlock me from the rest of the slaves and rinse me down, scrubbing me like an animal with soap. Afterwards, even though they dried me off, I was still freezing as they put me in the General's fancy tent, which had a fire set up inside it, keeping it toasty.

The General was at his desk, reading maps as he twirled his orange handlebar moustache, his slouch hat still on his head. Just like all the other Calvary soldiers, he still wore his musket and bayonet across the front of his body. Either the Calvary men considered those things mere accessories to their military uniforms, or they expected to be attacked at all times. "Fasten him to the bed," he told the other vampires, and they locked my chains to bedpost before leaving, with me seated at the head of his bed.

When the General finished with his work, he came over and looked me over.

"Look how purdy ya are," he said to me. "And I'm told yer blood tastes just as purdy, too." He ran his hands over my chest and stomach and thighs. "Ya like that, slave? Whadya say? Ya gonna be a good lil' slave and give me the lovin' that yer General deserves?"

I nodded in agreement, hoping he might remove my funnel mouthpiece.

"Good, good," he said as he ran his hands over my face. "You know how to make the General happy, ain't ya?"

He took off his shoes, unbuckled his belt, and pulled off his trousers and military drawers underneath. His legs were alabaster white, the whitest skin I could remember on anyone, and it suited him well. His muscled legs practically looked like a Greek statue.

His penis was alarmingly huge even though he was still semi-soft. His stalk and balls were as white as the rest of his skin, while his plump head was bright red, almost the same color as his red/orange, wiry pubes. Those pubes were in striking contrast to the colorless tone of the rest of his skin.

"Lemme feel yer sweet slave hand on my love stick," he said, waving his dick around right in front of me.

I raised my shackled hands to take the soft skin of the unit.

"Yeah, yeah, stroke that weapon to life," he moaned.

I perhaps overplayed the encumbrance the restraints were causing me, showing him that the manacles were preventing me from stroking him as I wanted to.

"Ah, I see, pretty slave, ya need yer hands free to really please yer master, ain't ya?"

I nodded sweetly.

He reached over and grabbed the key, unlocked the manacles, and removed them from my hands. It was the first time for days that I hadn't been wearing them, and I rubbed my sore wrists.

I started to use my freed hands to fluff his penis to life.

"Ooo yeah, lil' slave boy knows how to treat the General's general," he moaned.

That's when I grabbed his bayonet from the front of his jacket, pointed the sharp end towards him, and stabbed it through his coat, into his flesh. I had wanted to cut his throat, or his eyes, or his dick, but I had been worried that moving the weapon anywhere else might have given him enough time to avoid my attack. And so, I was going to be happy with the bayonet being stuck into his ribs, though I knew it wouldn't have been lethal.

When the bayonet became lodged inside his chest and wouldn't come out, I let go of it. He looked down at himself with shocked surprise, but didn't make a single scream of pain. His hands went to the bayonet as he tried to pull it out of himself.

I used this distraction to reach to his side and grab his musket rifle. I raised this up to his face and pulled the trigger.

Click. Nothing happened.

I tried again with the same results.

The General tsk tsked me as he finished pulling the knife out of his chest. "Did ya really think I'd be dumb enough to uncuff ya `round a loaded gun?"

He grabbed the useless musket from me and tossed it aside, along with bayonet.

"That's it. You don't get the privilege of gettin' fucked by me while yer conscious."

His teeth came out, and next thing I knew, they were embedded into my throat.

And then it went black, as I knew he was using the Logan Blood power on me.

I woke up feeling confused and disoriented. I seemed to be upside down. Was I hanging upside down by my chains?

But I realized by the sweet sense of freedom around my ankles that my leg shackles had been removed. In fact, all of the chains had been taken off me.

My back and butt was being supported by something soft and comfortable: a bed, I realized.

But my legs were up in the air, being held up against my will.

And my head was upside down, hanging off the edge of the bed, it seemed.

Something heavy, large, and wrinkly was being slammed into my nose, cheeks, and forehead. What on earth was that? I had to keep my eyes shut in order not to scratch them.

And then I realized that the funnel in my mouth somehow had gotten bigger. No, wait, there wasn't a funnel in my mouth at all anymore, I couldn't feel the strap against the back of my head. But my mouth seemed to still have the funnel in it.

That's when my senses cleared enough to realize that there was a mouth on my left leg, and I could feel the euphoric sense of fangs inserted there and warm wetness being sucked down.

Furthermore, I realized it wasn't a funnel in my mouth at all, but something far worse.

Finally, the horror of the situation sank in. The General had me on his bed, and he was holding my legs up, feeding from me, as he pounded his red dick into my unconscious mouth.

I reacted by biting down on this huge intruder in my mouth.

"Oow!" yelled the Governor above me, and I thought it was amusing how the pain to his unit caused him more of an outburst that being stabbed in the chest.

He responded by biting my leg again, harder this time, and I went out again.

The next time I woke up, I was still in the same position on the bed, but the General had moved. My upraised feet were now being held up by his shoulders, and instead of him standing on the floor, he was on the bed with me, and I could feel him inside me. My head, still dangling off the bed, was hitting the mattress over and over.

While he molested me, I could hear him yelling obscenities at me, even though he believed I was still unconscious. "You like to stick me with my bayonet, ya little shit? Well, how does it feel to get stuck with my gigantic bayonet, over and over and over?"

I opened my eyes, which was a mistake. He realized I had woken up right away, and I felt him lean over and bit my foot, and once again, I went out.

I woke up again, sad to feel that my chains and funnel gag had been replaced, and I was outside in the dark, tied to the end of the chained prisoners again. I was wrapped up in blankets, which I'm sure were put on me by the other humans, not the vampires.

I realized by the squishiness in my insides that the General had finished using me. Also, I felt very weak, and knew he had drained me of blood.

Which wasn't a good sign. While all the other soldiers had been subsisting on blood packets, if the General was free to drink my blood, once he tasted it, he surely would use me as his main sustenance until we made it to Mareshead.

I fell asleep.

FEBRUARY 8th

Two days later, I was being dragged into Mareshead's Great Room by the General and three of his soldiers. Seeing the old familiar ground gave me unpleasant chills; I had hoped so badly that I had seen the last of this place.

Giggles was sitting on Jericho's throne, which was a refreshing change.

"Here's the prisoner, Ms. Logan," the General said.

"There's little mister trouble maker himself," Giggles sing-songed, looking at me and turning her head sideways, chiding me. "But, Mr. General, sir, why does he look so weak, dirty, and naked? Did the big, bad, General man squeeze his lil' teddy bear too tightly again, hmm? Guards, get the poor naughty boy some decent food, get him cleaned up, and get him dressed for the ball. And then have him meet me in my ballroom."

"Yes, Ms. Logan."

If I hadn't still had the gag in my mouth, I would have told her how the Calvary's idea of nutrition, being fed nothing but semen and water for the past couple days, had left me so weak I could barely walk. And the General's repeated screwing and feedings hadn't helped matters.

Several hours later, after I had eaten as much mess hall food as I could and submitted my body to a proper shower and grooming, the vampire guards made me dress up in Victorian tuxedo similar to the one Parker had worn on my birthday. They brought me into a room I had never seen before, a large ballroom that had clearly once been simply decorated in typical Territory country western, but had been overrun by all sorts of pink, frilly, poufy decoration looking like it was handcrafted by a princess-obsessed eight year old girl. A four-piece country band, probably straight from the mess hall, was trying to sound as formal with their music as possible.

The guards took me to middle of the room, put me back in manacles and ankle chains, and then attached my manacles to a chain suspended from the ceiling, leaving me hanging by my wrists.

"Uh, I don't think Giggles would want me chained up like this," I said to them.

"Shut up, slave," one of the guards said with little imagination.

The guards left, and soon Giggles made her entrance. She was wearing the fanciest dress I had ever seen her wear, something between Glenda good witch from the Wizard of Oz movie and something Scarlett O'Hare would have worn, with a huge, huge skirt that was many feet in diameter. She had on a jacket over this frilly dress, as if to underline the formality of the occasion. And she even had a long, thick wand in her hand that she waved around as she floated around the room.

"Look how handsome Mr. Naughty-Pants is all dressed up!" she cried, clapping at my outfit. "Now, what little boring piece of information did Daddy want me to ask you?" She pulled a piece of paper and read it. "Ah yes, snooze-alert, he wanted to know where we can find the slaves that escaped."

"I'm not going to tell you, Giggles."

"I'm going to give you my sweetest smile here, Mister, and I'm going to ask in my nicest tone of voice. Will ya pretty please tell me where they are? All ya have to do is tell me, and I'll let ya down and you can be my date for the ball tonight. Otherwise, I'll have gotten dressed up for nothing." She put her lower lip out into the biggest pout I had ever seen.

"Giggles, I can't tell you, I'm sorry. Would you please just let me down?"

There was a brief flick of anger on her face before that constant cheery smile returned. "Did I ever tell you, I always, always get what I want? It's something I learned from my Daddy, never to accept `no' as an answer. And right now, I want you to tell me the truth about those sad, wittle slaves. I've giving you one last shot to tell me now and then we can dance all night in this fine ballroom."

"Giggles, no. I won't betray them. Please don't ask me again."

"Then I'm afraid you won't be needing the tux after all. Let me take it off you."

She pulled at her wand, and I realized that a secret sheathe was hiding a long, sharp blade within, which she held out in front of her like a large dagger. Seeing the weapon become unconcealed made me do a double take. She walked over to me and started to swish her deadly wand all over my body. I thought she would cut me, but with skillful precision, she cut away all of my clothes, leaving me in just my underwear and shoes.

"Do you like the band?" she asked, pointing to the quartet. "They sound a bit off, a bit wobbly, don't they? Daddy would kill them for their lack of skill, but I'll give them a pass. Look closely. What do you notice about their ears?"

I squinted in the direction of the band. "Is that blood?"

"Yes, isn't it splendid?" she asked cheerfully. "I didn't want them overhearing this conversation, so I cut out their pink, wittle eardrums."

I gasped, totally horrified. "Giggles, how could you have done that?"

"It's nothing I can't patch up later," she said.

"That's not the point. Just because you can reverse the damage doesn't mean it's not wrong in the first place. I'm shocked they can play at all."

"Well, I've threatened their lives if they fail to play well," she said. "Of course, I had to tell them before they went deafey-weffy." She giggled.

"Giggles, what do you intend to do with me?"

"I just want us to play," she said. "I want us to play until you tell me what you know, and then I'll let you go." She looked at my bare chest. "Do you know the best part about being to heal anyone with your touch is?" she asked me, wide eyed and innocent.

"Being able to save lives, I'm sure," I said.

"Oh no, that's not it at all, silly boy. The best part of having the ability to heal is being able to do THIS!"

She raised her wand and stabbed me in the chest with the pointy end, in the flesh of my right pec, laughing excitedly as she did. It absolutely surprised and horrified me; I let out a sharp scream.

"I can cut you over and over again, and when I'm done with you, you'll be as good as new. God, how I love to cut, love to see all that gorgeous red!"

"No, please," I said.

I could see her teeth come out as she lay transfixed on my blood dripping down me. She used her finger to get a bit of red and she brought it to her mouth like it was delectable cake frosting. "Oh yes, you DO taste good. You see, I can use my power to make the wound go away, make your blood reappear. Which means I get to feed on my victims over and over and over if I chose to, which I usually do. I've gotten so powerful from all the blood I've drunk that I'm nearly as strong as Daddy himself."

She twisted her wand into me with childlike glee, opening my wound and making me bleed more as I yelled in pain.

"But the ability has given me a different role entirely in Mareshead. Ya see, ain't no one better at making someone giggle, `cause I can play with them for days on end until I hear what I want. And now, Mr. Naughty-Pants, yer gonna tell me what I want to hear."

I started to go black, being so disturbed by the blood, and this time I welcomed the passing out.

When I came to, I was suspended upside down. Giggles had moved me so I was hanging by my ankles instead of my hands.

"Dum, dum dum, dum!" Giggles sang excitedly. "Congrats on achieving the award of being my playmate who fainted the soonest! What's your prize, you ask? You get to be hung by your ankles, making the blood settle in your head, making it impossible for you to faint again. See, not too shabby!"

She used her knife to further cut into my torso, breaking apart my rib cage as I screamed horribly, and this time, even though being carved open alive was the worst experience I could possibly imagine, my head would not let me escape into blackness.

"Want to see the neatest, bestest magic trick ever?"

"No."

"Sure ya do! If some part of you gets severed, say, if my magic wand accidentally cut off your finger, like so..."

She took her blade and cut off my left thumb, the pain making me cry in agony, feeling sick to my stomach.

"...I can use my power to reattach that part of you, like this."

She placed my cut off, bloody thumb in my hand, squeezed my injured hand with one hand, while she used her wand to point at it.

"Abracadabra!"

She opened her hand, and the thumb was reattached. In fact, I no longer felt pain of any kind.

"Pretty amazing, ain't it?"

"You could have saved Parker!" I yelled, knowing even though he had been cut in two that Giggle's ability would have saved him.

"I sure could've. When Cornelius came to ask me to help, I plain refused. Parker was always the weakest, broken, widdle birdy in the Logan tree. Now that he's dead, our family's so much better for it."

"You're just as bad as your brother. As your father."

"Ooo, Daddy would be so proud to hear you sing my praises!"

"Why would you save the life of one of your brothers and then let the other one die?"

"Syd's a lazy idiot, but he's almost as strong as me and Daddy. Parker had a weak heart, he was nothin' but a sentimental sap. I was so sick of him trying to impose his rules on my games. Telling me not to kill my victims, not to torture them. He needed to learn that Giggles plays by her own rules. How does this feel, sweet boy, does it make you giggle?"

She took her blade and stabbed it right through my penis head, as I let out another vicious scream, the pain unimaginable.

"Are ya gonna talk now?"

"I'm never going to. Might as well just end this now, even if it means killing me."

I tried to shut my eyes, shut out the gore, but she looked at me and tsk-tsked. "No ya don't, Giggles don't like snoozers, they are no fun at all, no they are not. I'm gonna make you so, so, so much better, just you wait and see!"

When she moved her blade towards my face with that ever present smile looming towards me, I shut my eyes.

I felt sharp pain in my left eyelid, and blood drip down my forehead, a sickening pain hitting me. And then she did it to my right eyelid too, and I had nothing left to shut.

"See?" she asked me in a fit of giggles, clapping. "Soooo much prettier! Ya can't shut me out when I have these little guys." She showed me my cut off eyelids. "And don't worry, small parts like this I can just grow back. So you won't mind if I just drop these on the floor and do a lovely pirouette over them."

She tossed my eyelids to the bloody ground and danced happily atop them with her ballet slippers.

"Please Giggles, just kill me, don't make me do this."

"Nope, Daddy wants you alive."

"He's just going to kill me anyway. Just finish the job now, send me to see Parker, and don't let me suffer like this."

"Oh, Mr. Bleedy, your little friend Parker wasn't as saintly as he seemed. I half believe Syd's explanation that he killed Parker because Parker was planning to kill him, yup yup yup, I suuuuurely do! Did you know that when Parker came back from Fools Gold with Annie all preggers, he asked me to use my powers to heal Enid's hymen, and I did? She was no virgin, nope nope."

"I don't believe you, you're lying to me."

"And then he told me he needed me gone from Mareshead, and he told me he was making up a crisis that didn't exist in Mexico, and when I got assigned to go there, I should just remain there until Big Horn came to get me? Yup yup, it was just the funest game of hide and seek ever!"

"You evil little lying rat, Giggles. You will die for your sins one day, and when you do, God will inflict so much worse pain on you than you will ever be able to do to me, only His pain will last for all eternity."

"Someone's tongue needs to stop flapping! Giggles has just the medicine for that, yup yup!"

I felt her fingers reach onto my mouth, and when I tried to bite her, her hands turned to steel.

"Oooo, naughty boy!"

She stuck her blade in my mouth, and then ripped it through my tongue, cutting it almost all the way off, blood completely gushing out of my mouth while Giggles laughed cheerfully, leaving me with nothing to do but scream in agony.

"You just wave your hand when you're ready to tell me what I know, and I'll put you back together again, just like ol' Humpty Dumpty."

She returned her attention to her carving into my torso, sending more and more blood spilling everywhere.

"What I learned from my sweet Daddy ever since I was old enough to crawl is that people look so very much prettier in red. And even prettier inside out, in my opinion."

She carved into my belly, pulling all the skin back away from her attention as I screamed.

"Wow, look how beautiful your cute, widdle liver is!"

She pulled my liver out of my body and showed it to me while I screamed in painful, almost surreal terror.

"And look, it's so all covered with blood, so delicious!" She licked the surface of my liver before putting it back.

Lord, let this be over, Lord, let this be over, Lord, let this be over.

"Let's see what happens when I poke at your pretty stomach, shall we?"

She stabbed into my stomach, and I felt such a sharp pain hit me. I quickly vomited everything that I had in me as well as a huge amount of blood, which landed on the floor beneath me.

"Uh-oh, look at the mess you made in the Ball Room! Oh yes, you will be cleaning that up later!"

"I see he spilled his lunch. Did he spill his guts too?" I looked over to see Jericho had entered the room.

"Daddy, you're home early!" Giggles said excitedly, jumping up and down. "No, this one here was just one big poopyhead. He didn't tell me a thing. But let me work him for a few more days, I promise I'll get him to sing."

Jericho shook his head. "Nope, if he ain't sung by now, he ain't gonna. Giggles, you failed me. It's the first time ya ever done failed me."

"Sorry, Daddy, I never had one so stupidly strong-willed. I'll make it up to you, I promise. You just want me to finish him off?"

"No, I wanted to do the honors myself."

Giggles used her powers to carefully mend all of the wounds she had inflicted on me. When she was done with me, I didn't just feel healed, I felt energized. It was incredible how quickly her power worked, though certainly some part of me was disappointed that she hadn't just finished me off.

The guards carried me off naked and hosed me down. In about twenty minutes they were dragging me back into the vacant Great Room, sealing me in the cage.

It wasn't long before Jericho came into the room, leering at me, grabbing his package in his jeans. "I'm gonna have all sorts of fun with you, slave," he said to me, sticking his fingers into the cage.

Giggles danced into the room, a cell phone in her hand. "Daddy, I got one of the quarantine docs on the line, Emory, his name was."

I remembered that was the same doctor who had examined Syd as we came into the Territory for the first time.

"Why the fuck should I care?" asked Jericho.

"He says he needs to talk to us, urgently."

"Well, put it on speaker."

Giggles pressed a button on the phone. "Go ahead, Emory, Daddy can hear you now."

"Hello, Mr. Governor, sir," said the doctor through the phone. "Let me ask you, when was the last time you heard from Annie Logan?"

Jericho squinted angrily at Giggles. "She took off on her horse a couple days ago from Mareshead without a word to anyone. I got my men looking for her now. They were involved in more urgent matters until recently," he said, looking over at me briefly. "Too bad I never bit her, or I woulda just used my power to find her," he whispered quietly, so the doctor could not hear.

I hadn't heard she was missing, but I hoped Annie had decided to take up Della's offer, and had run off to Fools Gold to raise the baby away from these devils.

"Well, no need to look for her, because she's dead. She killed herself, rode her horse off a cliff not far from here."

I was stunned, and Jericho gasped in shock.

"It can't be her, ya got your screws in loose," Jericho said.

"I'm going to put my camera on, so you can see her body," Emory said.

After a moment, the video screen on Giggles's phone flicked to life, and I could only just see the screen from where I was in the cage. The doctor moved the camera until a broken horse carcass was shown. I knew that horse, it was Curie, Parker's old horse.

And then the camera fixed on a similarly broken blonde woman's body.

"My God," said Jericho, covering his face with his hands.

"Isn't that her?" Emory asked.

"It's her," Giggles said.

Jericho shook his head angrily. "The baby. Doc, were you able to save the baby?"

"I'm sorry, it just wasn't possible."

"No," Jericho said, shaking his head.

I was alarmingly upset. It was bad enough to lose Annie, but Parker's only child was lost as well. The only hope that something of his would live on was gone. Every part of Parker was dead now. I cried.

"It couldn't have been a suicide," Jericho said. "Doc, someone must have drove her off the cliff."

"I'm sorry Mr. Governor, we have many dozens of witnesses saying they saw Annie, her face bereft in grief, drive the horse off the cliff, clearly aiming to kill herself. Shouts to her were ignored."

I could not believe she would kill Parker's baby, kill an innocent horse, just because she was unhappy. That seemed entirely selfish to me.

"Do you want me to send the body up there to be cremated?" the doctor asked.

"Ah, no," Jericho said. "Just do it there, yourself."

"Good day, Mr. Governor."

Jericho said nothing as he hung up.

Giggles erupted into pleased, childlike laughter. "Good riddance, I say. Now Parker's weakness won't live on to infect any other part of our family."

"Giggles, are you sure you had nothing to do with this?" asked Jericho.

"I'm as surprised as you are, Daddy."

"Well, you're just having the best year ever so far, ain't ya, daughter? One brother dead, one banished and soon to be dead, and the other proven fake. And now, the only offspring of your brother's dead too. Ya better not be planning to do in yer ol' man, ya hear?"

"Daddy, I'd never, ever wish you harm," she said sweetly. "You're the one I love most."

She kissed him on the cheek, making an exaggerated, "Mmmwah," sound as she did, before dancing on her ballet slippers out of the room in a fit of giggles.

Jericho resumed his leering at me in the cage, and I quickly wiped away any tears I had on my face. "Guards, open the cage and hold `im out for me."

Soon, the vampire guards had me in front of Jericho's throne as he sat on it, looking down at my naked body. I felt very, very exposed.

"Tell me, slave," he said. "Do you have any talents?"

I knew two things as soon as he asked me that. One, that he was going to have me for dinner. And two, that he had to play his sick little game with his food in order to get off. And I knew his games so well.

"Yes," I said. "I am very talented at precision shooting with the shotgun," I said, hoping that answer would force him in his twisted reasoning to put a gun in my hands.

"I seen ya shoot myself, and trust me, ya ain't that talented."

"Well, I've improved greatly since you saw me."

"Nope, uh-uh, not gonna happen," he said, squashing my hopes. "Got any other talents?"

I quickly tried to think of anything else I could say that might put some tool of destruction into my hands which wouldn't seem like anything dangerous to him. But nothing came to me, so I thought about something else entirely. The only people in the room besides the two of us were his guards who would do anything for Jericho. I needed to get someone else with power, someone with reason, in the room. And the only person in Mareshead who fit that description was Cornelius.

"Piano," I said. "I'm good at piano."

Jericho rubbed his palms together, pleased. "Piano. Yes, yes, lets hear you play piano. Guards, bring us a piano, quickly."

The guards looked at a loss for words for a moment, until one of them said, "Mr. Governor, there's only one piano in all of Mareshead. It's in Cornelius's office."

"Yes, yes, bring it here."

"Mr. Governor, it's a grand piano. Way too big to fit through the door. Cornelius had to have it constructed inside his office, which took days."

"See all this latent piano talent this slave has, just waiting to burst out?" Jericho asked them. "A talent like his can't wait for days, fellas. If we can't bring the piano to us, then we'll go to the piano."

And then the guards were dragging me through the halls of the mansion as we followed Jericho, and I was happy that at least that part of my plan had worked. After all, when that first slave I had seen him play with had told him he was a talented rider, Jericho took him out to the horses to play his death games there.

My heart sunk when once we entered Cornelius's office, it became clear that it was all too vacant.

"Right, there's the piano," Jericho said, pointing to it. "Tell me, slave, do you like games?"

"Isn't the answer to that irrelevant? You're going to make me play your game or you'll kill me right now."

He went on like I had given him an affirmative. "I want you to prove your talent by playing my favorite song, `You Are My Sunshine,' over and over again. But I want your knees on the piano bench, not your ass. If you are able to play for ten minutes through any interruption, you'll win my game. If not, you know my price for failure."

My goodness, how much I wanted to spit in Jericho's face and tell him I would never stoop so low as to be a pawn in one of his sick games. But my only option was to play his sport and hope it would buy whatever time it took for Cornelius to return. This was my one hope of survival.

"Yes, I agree to these terms." And then I thought about how it would be good to stall for as long as I could. "I have to pee first, can I take a supervised trip to the bathroom?"

"Nope," he said. "Guess what? I don't even give a shit if ya have to take a shit. I'd better hear you playin' those fuckin' ivories, slave."

I went over to the piano bench, kneeled on it, and pressed down some of the keys. "Hmm, this is terribly out of tune," I lied. "We'll need to tune it first."

"Nope, Mareshead ain't exactly overflowing with piano tuners," Jericho said.

"I know how to tune a piano," I lied. "But could you bring me the tools I'll need?"

"The only tool ya need is this one right here," Jericho said, grabbing his crotch.

"Well, I can do it with my bare hands, just give me a couple minutes."

"You have two fuckin' minutes," he said. "Count `em down!" he ordered one of his guards.

I opened up the piano and started to pretend to tune it with my bare hands, hoping none of the guards would have enough random piano tuning knowledge to know I was faking.

Jericho lingered behind me. He ran his hands over all the lash scars covering my back. "Mmm," he said. "I thought you were fuckin' hot before, but this is a major improvement."

I felt him lean down and start to lick my whip scars up and down, perhaps hoping there would still be some blood to lap up.

And then he saw the "L," brand on my buttcheek again, and he moaned sexually. "I always wanted this ass, but now that it's got my name burnt into it, I want it a million times more. You belong to me, slave."

His hands traced over the brand over and over, and then I felt tongue take over, licking the L urgently.

"Time's up," said the guard.

"Alright, alright, just let me close this up."

I took my time getting back into position kneeling on the piano bench, my hands on the keys.

"Now, start playin,' slave."

"Yes, yes."

I still thought I might be able to read music from when I played as a kid. Cornelius had a number of songs sitting on the piano, and I quickly started to thumb through them. Would I get lucky and come across the one I needed?

No, there were mostly classical compositions in the pile, nothing as cutesy as what I was being asked to play.

I set my hands on the keys, trying to re-familiarize myself with the instrument. It had been so long since I played last, but I did have a good memory of my early years. I knew the song in my head; perhaps I could wing it and buy myself some time.

I used a single finger to press the keys in the octave that contained Middle C, with the guard starting to time me as soon as I hit my first note. I was able to punch out the "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine," with just one error, which I quickly covered up. I hit a more noticeable error in the "You'll never know dear, how much I love you ," section before correcting it again.

"Uh-oh, that ain't soundin' right," Jericho said. "Time to start adminesterin' yer punishment."

I made it to my second play through, that time confident that I knew the whole sequence, as he pulled his pants down to his ankles and ripped off his shirt. He came over and swung his dick in my face, and the cold realization that my least favorite person on earth had his phallus so close to me, it was practically touching my skin, sickening me to the core.

"Do ya like the new me?"

I noticed he had added a very large diamond to his penis piercing, definitely the gaudiest, most ostentatious display of wealth I'd seen since one of the guys on my floor made me watch pop and hip-hop videos on his computer, a pastime that I considered just slightly less torturous than what Giggles had just put me through.

"Oh, yeah, that's real, uh, pretty," I said, wanting to keep his focus off my childlike piano skills. "Is it real?"

"Fuck yeah, yah wanna know where I got it?"

"Oh, yes please. Do tell." I tried to sound interested, tried to hide the real emotion inside me, the internal voice that was urging me to grab a knife and cut the thing off for good.

"There was a time when the Logan Blood served as the Executor over the Vampire Council, which means very little `sides getting some extra responsibilities in return for the tie-breaker vote over the six Bloods in the Council. So, basically fuckin' worthless. Anyway, us Logans were in need of some money after some business ventures went south, and I managed to convince those Valmor Blood idiots how valuable that Executor shit was. So much so that they paid a pretty penny just to get their hands on that shit. I sold it to them for a shitload, and they got diddly squat, as the Council soon dissolved. Anyway, they threw in this old as fuck diamond ring as their gift to us, something no one in my Blood would ever care give a flyin' shit about. So, after I learned they fucked me over royally of late, ya wanna know what I did? I went down to storage, ripped the diamond off that ring, and had it fused to my dick. And every time I fuck some ass, I think of that punk Marquez, and swear that before long, it'll be his asshole I fuck with his diamond ring at my tip. And since he's a top like me and got his hole sealed, I'll just have to make myself a new one."

He moved out of sight of me, behind me again.

"Now it'll be you that gets to enjoy gettin' loved in high rollin' style."

I could feel him using his hands to rub his semi-hard dick against my back. I jumped slightly as I felt a sting of pain.

"Yeah, ya feel that? The diamond is goddamned sharp around the edges, something I'm kind of lovin.' I can even use it to open up your back wounds, like this."

I felt him digging into my skin with that diamond, opening up one of the largest wounds. As soon as he took a big whiff of my back and made a groan of pleasure, I knew I was actually bleeding.

I could feel him use his tip to rub my blood around my back before it landed on another one of my whip scars and cut it open violently, with me trying not to make a sound. I was at least grateful that I couldn't see what he was doing, and tried to keep my mind on the piano keys.

After he was done opening up all my back wounds, he moved his clearly hard dick to my butt. "I love this brand, but I gotta admit, it would look so much prettier in red."

With that, he used his diamond to carve into my buttflesh right over my still tender burn.

"Oooh yeah, so, so purdy."

He used his hands to rub the blood around , stinging my wound.

"Lord, do I ever want to lick that shit up. But ya know what that would do? It would make yer wound go away, and there ain't no way I'm gonna make this any easier on ya. So, instead, I'll just have to do with licking this."

I felt his hot tongue on my hole, and I wanted to gag.

"Mmm, tastes real sweet, but ya know what would make it even sweeter?"

"Whipped cream? We could pause while someone makes some for us," I suggested.

"Nope," he said. "Some of yer delicious red sauce."

He stuck his diamond on my hole, using it as a weapon to cut me there, so hard I could feel the blood trickle down my crack.

"Yeah, that's it," he said, and then I felt his tongue totally devour me. "Ah yeah, that's perfection now, absolutely the best hole I've ever tasted. But look, some of the bleedin' has stopped on account of my tongue. What's a guy to do? Guess I'll just have to cut into it again."

Once more, I felt his dick piercing into my sensitive flesh. Once more, I was happy I couldn't see the blood that was dripping out of my body.

"Oh, that's it, I can't wait another second to feel ya from the inside."

I almost cried out in pain as he forcibly entered me. It wasn't that it was too big for me. After the Logan Calvary, the Pawnee, Lucky Holden, and even back to Parker, I had gotten myself used to huge units inside me. But what was new to me was that diamond on his piercing scraping away at my insides, sending a whole new kind of pain that I had never even experienced with Giggle's games whipping through me.

"That better not be you stopping that I hear," he said.

I quickly resumed my playing, not even realizing I had stopped.

"And I heard enough of this one key at a time bullshit," he said. "I want to hear the song done right, or you die right now."

"Alright, alright."

I looked down at the keys, trying to summon back any knowledge I had ever had of chords back into my mind. I arranged my fingers into what I thought was the chord I needed, and pressed down.

Discord came through, and I knew I messed up.

"Nope, not right!" Jericho said. "Just for that, I'm gonna punish ya by cutting ya on the inside!"

I could feel him turn his dick in such a way so that the diamond piercing gouged hard against the lining of my rectum, cutting it, causing me excruciating internal pain, forcing me to cry out as tears rolled down my cheeks. I could not let him cut me again.

"Oooh yeah, I can the warm blood inside you, and it feels so hot against my dick."

He started to hump me back and forth again, this time each stroke hurt so much worse as it agitated the cut inside me.

"Try those keys again, or I keep cutting!"

I could actually feel the blood pour out of my hole, splashing all over my legs.

I forced myself to look down at the keys and try another chord, pressing down.

Yes! The chord sounded perfect, and I played the next one, which also was correct.

"Yes, yes, that's what I want to hear," he said, still fucking me, somehow finding a way to humiliate and degrade me sexually even worse than any others had done to me up to that point.

Just when I thought I'd get through the entire song in chords, on my second to the last chord, I messed up with the wrong key.

"Nope, failure," Jericho said, and he must have nodded at one of his guards, because they tossed him a very sharp machete. "Time to administer punishment, slave."

With a sickening hack, Jericho swung his blade quickly at my right hand, mind numbing pain rocking me as I realized, with a disheartening sense of loss, that he had just severed my right pinky finger from my hand. Blood gushed all over the keys as I stopped playing and shrieked in pain. I tried to convince myself that I didn't need my pinky finger, not really.

"Keep playin,' or I cut off more!"

Looking down at my severed finger was quickly making me faint, so I pulled my right hand away and just used my left hand to make the chords. That worked just fine, and I was able to get through the end of the song as I started to repeat it.

"Yer playing it like a death march. I wanna hear it as fast as I'm goring yer hole back here, got it? If ya don't speed it up, the game will get harder for you."

I tried to speed up the chords as he was demanding, and did manage to pick up the pace significantly.

"I need it faster!"

"I can't go any faster!" I blurted out, in spite of my better judgment.

Before I even knew what hit me, there came another swing of the machete, and excruciating pain, this time in my left hand. "That's for the lip!" he said.

My tears gushed as I realized my left thumb was gone.

"Ya better keep on playin,' slave!"

I put both my hands on the keys again. I would just have to play the chords with my hands, even though they were both missing fingers. Yes, I could still play.

But seeing all the blood pour out of my hands and spill all over the piano in front of me got to me, and I felt myself going black.

No, I could not faint this time. Fainting meant dying, and I would not let my weakness be the reason for my death.

I forced my head to clear as I used my injured hands to make chords. I resumed playing, first slowly, and then back to the fast pace that he was demanding.

"Yes, that's it."

It seemed more and more likely that Cornelius wasn't even around. He might have already left his office for the evening, or even worse, Jericho might have figured out he'd had a part in my escape from the slave pens and killed him.

Thinking about that made me play a wrong chord, and I heard Jericho say, "Nope, nada, wrong again!"

He swung his machete, and this time the pain and horror was larger than ever before as I realized he had completely chopped my hand off at the wrist. I howled in agony as blood poured out of me, all over everything.

Jericho grabbed my left arm and pulled it over my left shoulder so it was hanging over my back. I could feel the blood pouring from it down my back and into my crack. I could feel him drinking from the fountain, and his fucking got more and more severe.

"Keep playin,' slave, or next thing I cut off is yer head!"

I somehow kept myself from fainting and put my wounded right hand back on the piano keys. I was just missing my pinky finger, and found I could still play the chords. Of course, with just one hand, I couldn't go as fast as before, but Jericho didn't seem to notice, he was too busy pounding away at my hole, cutting up my insides more and more until that part of me was bleeding just as much as my left arm.

It was blood loss that was slowing me down, not an emotional reaction to the blood, but there was nothing to be done about that. It was how I'd die, surely.

My whole body went cold and numb, and I thought that would be the end for me. Yet, I could still hold my hand in front of me and play, I discovered, even when I couldn't feel that hand any longer.

Finally, I could feel my hand stop moving, and no amount of fighting on my part to keep it going was doing anything. I knew I was seconds away from dying, either through blood loss or decapitation, it didn't matter to me which one.

The music stopped as I fell forward onto the piano, and Jericho was too distracted to notice at first. Then I heard him grab the machete and raise it over my head to deliver the final blow.

The office door in my line of sight opened, which I assumed was just an imminent death hallucination. But then I saw someone walk through the door. Was it Cornelius?

"...ain't my problem, no how," he was saying, a bottle of whiskey in his hand.

No, I recognized the person as Tucker, not Cornelius. My hopes were dashed again.

But why was Tucker talking to himself? Was he THAT drunk?

"All I'm asking is that you look at this report, Tucker," said a second voice, and a man stepped out from behind Tucker.

Oh Lord thank you, it was Cornelius!

Both Cornelius and Tucker stopped their conversation as they looked at they noticed Jericho and what was being done to me. Both of them looked shocked, but Tucker's shock quickly faded, perhaps because he was more surprised that someone else had been in the room than he was dismayed at me being murdered. Cornelius's face looked more troubled, and it obviously took some effort to shut his mouth.

I just needed to say the words that I needed Cornelius to hear, it was as easy as that.

I opened my lips and moved my tongue, but all that came out was mumbles.

No, no, no, I couldn't speak clearly; too much blood had left my head, leaving my face cold and paralyzed.

I tried to form words again, but that time, I couldn't even move my lips or my tongue, and all that came out was a moan.

"Whoops, sorry, Mr. Governor, I didn't expect you to, uh, be in my office," Cornelius said.

"Well, I am, so you two can get the fuck out."

"Yes, Mr. Governor," said Tucker, and he started to pull Cornelius back through the door.

As all I saw were their backs leaving the room, I still couldn't speak. But I was able to wiggle my head just a little.

That wiggle was enough to push my head off of the piano keys, and I felt my head falling to the ground.

After a moment, the blood started to return to my face, and I could feel some of the numbness in my tongue and lips subsiding.

"I invoke the power of the Council!" I yelled finally, my words slurred but the meanings coming through.

But it was too late, I noticed with horror that Cornelius's office door had already shut, and I was alone with Jericho and his guards again.

"No ya don't," Jericho said. "You won't be invoking shit. All ya need to do know is die and let me fill up all of yer insides with my cum. Oooh yeah, here it comes slave, ya gonna get drowned in my seed!"

And with even what little feeling I had left, I felt Jericho's muscles tense and his fuck thrusts relentlessly hammer my insides apart as his semen gushed inside of me, drowning me from the inside out in his hot white cream, so very much of it that it burst out of my hole and dripped all over everything on the outside of me too.

He raised his machete right over my neck and I shut my eyes, knowing at least I'd be seeing Parker soon.

"Wait, stop! Don't kill this man, Mr. Governor!"

"Who are you to give me orders, Cornelius?"

"I thought I heard him invoke the Vampire Council as we were walking away," Cornelius said, him and Tucker bursting into the room again.

"Yes, yes, I do," I managed to say. "I invoke the Council!"

"See, Mr. Governor?"

"Are ya fuckin' with me here, Cornelius? I'm already seven squirts into my fuckin' load here, ballsdeep in this slave's blood. He's like five seconds away from dyin' for good."

"If he invokes the Council, you can't harm him, Mr. Governor," Cornelius said.

"He's right, sir," Tucker agreed.

"But he's not even a goddamned vampire."

"The Vampire Council is set up to make life or death situations on anyone whose life or death has a significance to all vampires, not just the ones in their local Blood," Cornelius said. "He's very much protected under that clause, now that he's said those words."

"Yes, he's right." Tucker said.

"But he's fuckin' on death's door! Look at him!"

"If he's harmed by you, Mr. Governor, I'm afraid you'll face jail time."

"No, no, ah fuck, guards! Get Giggles, and better make it fuckin' snappy too!"

They stormed out of the room, and I felt my consciousness slip.

I awoke with a surge of energy, and absolutely no pain. I opened my eyes.

I was on the floor of Cornelius's office, and I could see Giggles's frilly dress slide out of the door. I looked down at my body, in awe. My left hand had been reattached, same with my two fingers. The bleeding inside my body was no longer there. All of the cuts Jericho had made, gone.

And blessedly, as I turned my head, I could see the "L" brand was gone from my butt, and the whips scars gone too. I didn't have a single scar of any kind anywhere on me. I wanted to cry.

"Alright, Mr. Groves," Cornelius said to me. Trucker and Jericho were still in the room with me as well. "You're mended. You have two years to notify all six Blood heads personally of the requirement to reconvene the Council meetings."

"Otherwise, I get to kill him. And don't think I can't hunt you down and find you, you little shit. And don't think that if Syd somehow manages to notify some head of Blood before you do that his work counts for your dumbass."

"Well, I'm officially notifying you now, Jericho, so now I just have five."

"Once all five remaining Bloods have been notified, there will be a Council meeting in which you will get to plead your case, and your fate will be voted on by the Council members."

"If it came to that, which it won't, no way in hell you'd ever win that vote," Jericho said. "And now, I want this shit banished from my lands. Just like with Syd, I want him escorted down to the southern edge of the Territory and thrown out. If he survives the desert, he can live. I'm not letting him take any of his things with him, he'll be naked, just like the human slave he is."

Tucker shook his head. "Ya can't do that this time, Mr. Governor," Tucker said.

"I did it with Syd."

"Because all of Syd's things were bought with Logan money. This human came in here with all of his own things, we have no rightful claim to them."

"Fine, let him keep his bag, let him wear his clothes. He still won't last the many days it would take for him to get through the desert. `Cause I ain't leavin' him any food or water. Now, get him the fuck out of my sight."

The guards pulled me out of the room, and I didn't even get to say thank you to Cornelius or Tucker.

As soon as they let me dress in my own clothes and gave me back all of my things, I pulled out my cell phone and sent text messages to my mother and Ahmad, letting them know that I changed my mind and went back to Montana. Almost immediately, I got very disappointed texts back from Ahmad and annoyed texts from my mother, asking me why I needed her to send money for that bus ticket. And then my phone started ringing like crazy as well, but I turned it off, not wanting to lie to them further.

FEBRUARY 11th

Three days later, I watched as the last of the Calvary disappeared into the horizon, moving back towards the Territory.

My transport had been much more pleasant that the one that had brought me to Mareshead. Unlike before, none of the Calvary had been able to lay a hand on me. Furthermore, they were required to keep me fed and hydrated for as long as I was in their company.

My biggest regret was that I wasn't able to do anything to help the other bus passengers Jericho had locked up in the pens, and since I certainly blamed myself for leading the vampires to those people, the guilt I felt as I was let free but had to leave them behind was deeply profound. All I could do was swear that I would find some way to rescue them in the future.

Now I had a four day hike to civilization through the desert in front of me. I could understand why Jericho had been sure I would die.

I reached into my pack and pulled out the large gallon of water that I had managed to keep a secret from the Calvary men. I had it in there ever since breaking the pen slaves out. If parsed out carefully, it would be enough to get me through my trip.

What I didn't have was any food. I hoped that I would be able to find some lands less arid than the one I was in, find something edible.

I slung my pack on my back and started off south.

FEBRUARY 14th

It was the evening of Valentine's Day, and I was sitting by the fire in the darkness of the desert. It had been three days hiking through the desert, and I hadn't found a scrap of food in that whole time. I was sick with hunger, my emotions on edge due to my weak health.

I thought of Parker's special plans for me on this day. I tried to imagine what I'd be doing now with him at that moment if I had managed to save him. Picturing his sweet smile made me cry.

Even though I was beyond weak, I knew I would find enough energy in the morning to somehow get me through to civilization. I was confident in my immense will power to conquer my unwilling body.

I thought I heard a noise out in the darkness, approaching footsteps. I had just enough energy to reach into my pack and pull out my revolver.

"Whoever goes there, man or beast, if you try to make a meal of me, you'll end up dead."

I saw large, brown bare feet enter the circle of light created by the fire.

"Look at you. Coiled up and hissing, so much more lethal than the first time I came upon you out here."

He moved more into the light, and I saw a long loincloth and wooden staff.

"Put away your rattle, Crazy Kid."

I lowered my gun and smiled as Big Horn looked down at me. It had been so long since I had looked into the face of a friend. "How did you find me?"

"Your party crossed my stream a few days ago, and I've been on your heels for the past couple days. Here." He tossed me some cooked meat sweet potatoes.

I was so hungry, I devoured the food like an animal, without even thanking him.

When I had finished, when I was already feeling my strength return, I said, "Thank you so much, Big Horn. But what are you doing here?"

"Remember what I told you before about not being able to step in and help you because I needed to stay removed from the affairs of the White Man?"

"Yes."

"Well, screw that. I feel for ya, Crazy Kid, and I'm gonna do what I can to help ya. Now, put out that fire."

He started to make a new portal opening right there, just as I had seen him do before, cutting a ring out of reality with his loincloth covered penis.

"Where are we going?" I asked, looking into the inky blackness of the two-dimensional disc.

"To the Petrov Blood in Russia, so you can alert their head of Blood."

The inky blackness turned into a three-dimensional landscape, filled with light and with snow coming down.

"Good morning," Big Horn said to me, pushing me through the portal. "Hope you brought your furs, Crazy Kid."

AUTHOR'S END NOTE:

If this were a book series, this would definitely be the end to a book. This a good place to pause and come back another time, as the next portion of the story will be entirely different.