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.

APRIL 30th

Two days passed with Tahir and I pulling the same scheme with Marutuk every time Tahir dropped me off to his bedroom, getting more and more skilled at it each time. Most of the time, Marutuk didn't ask Tahir to stay, and I would wake up relatively quickly as Tahir moved out of range, leaving me with a lot of sex still left to perform. The times Tahir was asked to stay were much preferred, even though I often woke up feeling especially beat up. At least then the sex was almost over with, and I just had to finish an already excited Marutuk off before he was done with me.

One such occasion went on that evening, and I finished off Marutuk in just a few quick minutes, getting better at learning what parts of his body made him climax faster.

About an hour later, there came a familiar knock on the door that I knew was done by Tahir.

"God Marutuk?"

"Yes?"

Tahir poked his head in. "I'm sorry, but he's still not pregnant," he said with a trace of nervousness.

"Thank you, Doctor."

Marutuk walked over to me on the bed and slapped me hard on the face.

"Ah! What was that for?"

"You're clearly not letting me plant my King Cobra Seed inside you!"

"I'm not trying to stop you anymore! It must just be subconscious!"

He pointed at the glass tank filled with snakes, and he made them push Helina's face towards the glass. "Do you see your friend?"

"Yes."

"Well, in 5 days, if you aren't pregnant by then, it'll be the last time you ever see it alive! You hear me?"

"Yes!"

"Five days!"

"I understand!"

After that promise, he subjected me right away to angry, punishing sex. While most of the time, his sex was about using me for his pleasure (his pleasure usually involving my pain), this time, he specifically used his sex only to abuse me. Slapping me over and over again and he plowed me, or squeezing me so hard he nearly choked me.

When he was about to come, he pushed the side of my head hard into the mattress. "Say that you want nothing more than for my King Cobra Seed to fertilize your egg1 Say it!"

"I want nothing more than for your King Cobra Seed to fertilize my egg!"

"Say it over and over!"

"I want nothing more than for your King Cobra Seed to fertilize my egg! I want nothing more than for your King Cobra Seed to fertilize my egg!"

"And you better be meaning it! You better be focusing on this happening!"

I kept saying the line, and as I did, I focused on my body accepting his semen and getting pregnant.

He came then, and he forced me to say the line over and over until a couple minutes after, when he finally pulled out.

MAY 1st

The next morning, instead of screwing me like he usually did, Marutuk removed his penis jewelry, something he almost never did.

"Follow."

I kept pace behind him as he left his room, nearly naked as always, and not wearing his Shah hat. I was even more naked than he was, of course.

"Where are we going?"

But he didn't answer me, leaving me to worry.

He led me outside into the morning light illuminating the dunes of the gorgeous desert outside.

When he opened up the cover of the snake pit, I felt a bit queasy. This was not one of my top five favorite places in the palace to visit.

"What are we doing here?"

"Just shut your mouth and climb down the ladder."

Not the most reassuring answer I had ever heard, but I forced myself to obey for Helina's sake. I stepped onto the ladder and started to make my descent into darkness. Marutuk was right behind me.

Once again, I could hear the snakes before I saw them, a horrible hissing sound ringing in my ears. But it wasn't long before I could see all the writhing, wiggling creatures all around, a lake of scales. And as I continued down, the bodies started to appear as well. I noticed there were a bunch of fresh bodies here, impaled by the spikes.

"All the way down?"

"Yes!"

I jumped off the ladder until I was waist deep in snakes, and he followed behind me. He grabbed me and threw me onto the dais in center of the pit, my back against the stone.

His hand hovered over my chest. "I can feel your heart pounding. What's the matter, something about this place, something about these creatures, frighten you?"

I tried my hardest to calm my beating heart, not wanting to give him the satisfaction.

"How about this? I'll let you know exactly when you should start to panic. At the moment, we are only down here to cast another spell."

"Spell?"

"That's right. Another spell so powerful, you'll need the life-force of these creatures you fear so much. This time, you'll be casting the spell on me. Again, I'll be feeding you the lines of the spell, which you will need to repeat over and over. And in your head, I need you to keep in mind the purpose of the spell."

"Which is?"

"You are going to turn my phallus into an actual cobra head."

"Permanently?"

"That's right. My liquids will be spit out through the mouth. And this time, there better not be any unexpected side effects or subtle changes made by you. If this spell turns out in anyway to be not exactly as it's supposed to, I'm going to kill Helina without warning. Understood?"

"Yes."

This time, there was no anesthetic spell, just the single spell to change him. I wasn't sure if he wasn't afraid of the pain of the transformation, or if he didn't trust me not to hurt him while he was asleep, but either way it would be easier on me.

"Come my children," Marutuk said to the snakes, and they quickly slithered in all around us, covering us. "Again, when you say the spell, I want you to focus on using the life-forces of the snakes."

"I will."

"Repeat after me." He said the words of the spell in his offshoot of Sumerian, with me not understanding a word of it, but closing my eyes and concentrating on the result.

I started to speak the strange syllables as he did, and then once we went through the spell completely, he started at the beginning and we started to repeat it. It was so weird to me that when he said the words, I couldn't feel their power, they were just odd words. But when I said them back to him, I could feel the truth in the sounds somehow, could feel the spell without even understanding the language. All the while, I focused on the snakes' life-force energy, letting it feed the words inside me.

After a certain time repeating the spell, it suddenly engaged, and I knew it was over. I heard Marutuk scream in agony as he transformed. I felt the very abrupt feeling of being totally exhausted, and I wanted to sleep.

I gave into this physical weakness and let myself slip away.

"Wait! You are not allowed to just fall asleep on me!"

He slapped me in the face, forcing me painfully awake. I opened my eyes, still so physically exhausted.

He moved his snakes away enough so I could see his body, see what I had created.

His balls were the same as before, huge tan sacks covered with black pubes. But now, out of his messy black pubic bush, sprung a living, hissing cobra. It was about the same color as before, tannish brown scales on the body and reddish-purple on the head. It was about the same size as his erect penis was before, meaning, massive. It didn't have a tail; it just sprouted from his body at the full width of the stalk. The head had a typical cobra neck-hood expanded, and the head licked the air with a black tongue. It moved just like a snake would.

The cobra moved to my face, looking at me with its empty black eyes. It opened its mouth, showed its fangs, and spit a clear liquid all over me.

My first reaction was to shut my eyes, for fear the venom would sting it. But then I realized as the taste hit my mouth that it wasn't spitting venom at all. It was spitting precum.

Marutuk forced open my mouth with his hands. He pushed his cobra head inside of my mouth, and it hit me then that he expected me to give him oral, just like before. Only this time, I had a huge snake forcing its way into my mouth, making me jump in agony. He responded by pushing his cobra down my throat, holding the snake totally rigid so that it simulated an erection as he used his hips to buck back and forth into me, moaning.

I couldn't fathom that he would actually expect me to have sex with him like before after he had willingly changed himself so drastically. Nothing could prepare me for how awful it was to be forced to suck on his now literal cobra head. And so when he pulled out, pushed my ankles over his shoulders, and I felt the tongue of his snake start to lick my hole and splatter me with more precum, I knew what I had coming could only be better than the choking I had just been going through.

The good news was, for once, he didn't have his jewelry scraping my insides as he entered me. The bad news was that his new cobra shape was actually just as painful as his dick jewelry had been. The head especially was so wide with the cobra hood out that it shouldn't have fit at all if he didn't completely force it in me. The scales cut apart my insides all over again, me trying not to let him see me cry.

And then once it was all the way in, he started to hump me, first just hard, and then superhumanly hard. Given his ample sex drive, it actually made me want to kill myself realizing just how many more times in the future he would be forcing me to do this.

The screwing went on for a long time before he said, "My Cobra seed awaits you. Say your line and mean it!"

"I want nothing more than for your King Cobra Seed to fertilize my egg!"

"Over and over!"

I did as he asked, shutting my eyes and focusing on getting pregnant, figuring once I was pregnant, he wouldn't be able to screw me as much.

This time, when Marutuk hit orgasm, he did something completely new: his cobra actually bit into my insides with its fangs right before totally flooding me with hot liquid. It brought a whole new level of pain to me.

He made me keep reciting that line for a few minutes as his cobra continued to drip into me. And then I passed out again, and this time, he had no reason to wake me.

MAY 2nd

"Tahir, Blackbeard is doing it again!"

Tahir rushed into sunny courtyard and found me lying on the blankets. "What is that incorrigible pirate doing to you this time, Jake?"

"He's crawled up the back of my robe and is scratching my bare back and butt with his claws! He keeps trying to bite and pull at my robe! Can you do something?"

"Let me help."

Tahir laid down next to me, reached into the back of my robe, grabbed the mongoose in his hands, and pulled him out of my robe. Holding Blackeard's body tight with his hands to keep him from moving, he moved his head right ups to his face, looking at him reproachfully.

"You are a devilish-minded rascal, Blackbeard. Clearly you don't like Jake to be robed, would rather have him naked. Sometimes you are just as retched and lustful as Marutuk. I just hope dearly that Jake is not one of those people that believe that their pets are a reflection of themselves, because your actions frankly embarrass me. Your sweet brother and sister are so embarrassed to be related to you, they run and hide whenever you're being so naughty. Can you please, please try to hang up your evil pirate ways and be good for once?"

"He looks all too cute and pathetic now, doesn't he?" I asked.

"It's just a very deceptive act, I assure you. I'm immune to it. Now, Blackbird, go and leave us be!"

Tahir let the mongoose go, and he ran off out of the courtyard. Only when he had left did the other two return to our sides and cuddle with us in the sun.

"Tahir, did you finish the test?"

"I did."

"It better be good news this time."

He put his arm around me. "I'm sorry. Still not pregnant."

I was so frustrated I was holding back tears. "But we've had sex SO many times, and each time, I focus on wanting to let him get me pregnant. I'm doing everything right, Tahir!"

"I'm sorry. I know how hard you've been trying, for Helina's sake."

"If I can't get pregnant in a couple days, that's it, Helina is dead."

"You'll have to keep trying."

"But there's nothing else to try! I've been doing it all perfect. The results will not change if the same actions take place each time. The truth is, no matter how I try to fool my body, I don't think I'm physically capable of getting pregnant by that monster. My body just knows it's completely wrong. And if that's the case, I'm going to fail and Helina will be the one to pay."

Tahir squeezed my shoulder tenderly. "I'm sorry. I wish there was some way to help you."

I looked at him. "Tahir, there is a way. Don't you see?"

"What?"

I rolled on top of him. "You could impregnate me instead of Marutuk, and he would never have to know."

"Absolutely not. Don't you have someone else who could do this for you?"

I thought briefly. I could have asked Big Horn, but he would surely refuse since he believed having sex with someone would be a betrayal to his ancestors. Günther was too hard to track down. Maxim would totally jump at the idea, of course. "You are the only male friend I have who is Middle Eastern like Marutuk, and I need a baby that will look like his enough to not arose suspicion."

"What about your friend Ahmad?"

"He's both heterosexual and therefore would be completely mortifying to ask, and human. I need a vampire. The baby cannot be a human. Oh, wait a second. I guess he will probably have a paternity test, won't he?"

"He doesn't even know what that means, he's been sleeping through that whole period. And he is never exposed to these sorts of things. He wouldn't even know to ask about them. I would be the only one to inform him, and you have my word, he won't know."

"See? Will you please do this for me?" I clutched at his kaftan.

"What guarantee is there that even if I agreed to help you try that we would succeed?"

I laughed. "Tahir, you may not realize this, but I care about you a great deal. I do not want kids right now or anytime soon, that's for sure. But I do want them in my future, and you would definitely be someone who I would consider ending up with as partners, as fathers. I can take that future desire and pretend it's in the now easily enough. I am absolutely positive that if we tried, you would impregnate me."

He reached up and rubbed my forehead sweetly. "That's a lovely thing of you to say. However, I don't even know if I could sleep with you without breaking you apart."

"What are you saying? You already have slept with me while you were under Marutuk's orders."

"Every time I've had to sleep with you while you've been under my control, I've abused you so much in the process you would be ashamed of me. But I simply cannot hold myself back. If it was any other person, I feel like I could slow my desire and make myself be less hurtful. But you simply drive me crazy. Not just physically, but because I care for you emotionally so much. Somehow, the only way my vampire body knows how to express my amazing affection and desire is to abuse your body."

"If that's the only way, I give you my permission," I said. "Keep in mind that if Marutuk realizes that I am physically incapable of being impregnated by him, he'll have no need for me. He'll keep me around as a sex object until he tires of me, but then he'll just kill me. You really aren't risking anything by being rough with me."

He shook his head sadly. "If it were just a matter of me inseminating you, I would just do it artificially. But I think you realize that your body won't accept artificial insemination."

"Yes, that's right."

"And similarly enough, your body won't accept pain and abuse accompanying sex as anything worth inseminating. Your body needs tenderness. Someone needs to make love to you, not have rough sex with you. And I am just not capable."

"We have to try, at least. We have to give it a shot. Otherwise, I might as well march over to Marutuk right now and tell him to put Helina out of her misery early. And if it worked, no one would ever know the difference."

"This is a dangerous game we are playing, you know that."

"Yes. If he discovered my betrayal he would surely kill me."

"And me."

"No. I would tell him that I found your jerk-off rag full of semen and I used that to inseminate myself with without your knowledge."

"I wish there was some way to guarantee my parents' safety."

"Can't they just leave?"

"No, all the city borders are heavily guarded. And they are marked people who are not allowed to leave."

"What if we teleport them out?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Teleport them? My friend Big Horn is a special that can create teleportation portals."

He smiled big. "Yes! That would work wonders!"

"Okay, I have to just saw it was a bit suspect just how quickly you accepted the whole teleportation idea."

"When you spend most hours of ever day indulging delusions of grandeur that you and your pet mongooses are vampire pirates, it's rather easy to accept notions of teleporters."

"Clearly. We just need to find a way to smuggle Big Horn into the clinic so he can create a portal here." I walked over and grabbed the key I placed in the drawer nearby my clinic bed. "Do you know what this is?"

"A key?"

"A key that I stole from Butler Ajam's ring. It has the label outer fence lock, southwest. That's the same side Marutuk's bedroom faces."

"Where are you going with this?"

"We'll have to smuggle him in at night, when the guards won't see him. You take this key. After Marutuk falls asleep, I'll get up in the night to use the bathroom, something he lets me do while he goes back to sleep. I'll go to the window. I can see the guards walking around with their big, white pants, and bare upper-body, even in the night. When there's it's safe, I'll motion you from the window and text Big Horn to make his move towards the palace. You'll unlock the gate for him and quickly sneak him inside. Perfect!"

He smiled. "While I admire your well thought-out plot, it's not safe, simply because the clinic is the only place in the palace we can be sure is not being monitored by those snakes. I have another plan."

"Tell me."

"We give back this key before she notices it's gone and likely blames me. We smuggle in Big Horn during the day. I have a man who smuggles contraband in for me from the outside, hiding it in my normal medical supply shipment. That's how I shipped in all my nautical books long after Marutuk banned pleasure reading from the palace because he thought it led to laziness. Medical textbooks were not covered by that edict, which is how I was able to bring those in. We'll have my contact bury Big Horn in so much supplies, no snake will ever be able to detect him. And it's the Butler whose job it is to search those shipments for contraband before letting them in. Luckily, she owes me a favor."

"I love that plan even better!" I got a suddenly sick feeling as I felt something hard and scaly rub against my bare back. "Ah, a snake, up my back! There's a living snake here! He heard us!"

Terrified, Tahir pulled up my robes to see. He pulled up the snake and showed it to me. "Don't worry, it's just a dead snake. Blackbeard was in the process of sneaking up your robe again in order to give it to you."

"He is a despicable pirate!"

"I agree with that statement wholeheartedly, but at least this time, I think he was bringing the dead snake as some sort of twisted pirate version of a consolation gift."

"Tell him in the future, please no gift. Tell him I forgive him."

Tahir smiled big and scratched the mongoose on the head. "You'd better cherish that, Blackbird. It's not every day someone will forgive you for your past misdeeds."

MAY 3rd

It took a whole day before we were able to get Tahir's plan to smuggle Big Horn into the clinic into action. Tahir didn't want me to have to bother undressing for when the folks delivered the supply crate, so I hid back in Tahir's apartment, keeping an eye through a window with the mongooses competing for my affection as I sat there until the people left, at which point I hurried down to the clinic.

I helped Tahir as he opened the large supply crate. After pulling out some legitimate supplies on top, my heart stopped and I gasped as we uncovered a lifeless person. He was chained up, with a piece of tape over his mouth. And his body was absolutely skewered with medical needles. I wanted to believe that it might be someone else's body, but as soon as I saw the long black hair and the familiar Native American loincloth, I knew exactly who it was.

"No! No! They killed him!" I started to cry.

"My god! Marutuk must have gotten wind of our plot somehow!"

That's when I saw the chains he had on him rustle for the first time. And a deep voice through a taped mouth could just barely be made out saying, "I'm not dead!"

"He's alive!" I said, excitedly.

Tahir started to dig through all the needles, trying to get to his body. I jumped in to help as well, before Tahir physically blocked me. "You keep out of this! The last thing we need is you bleeding as well!"

I knew there was sense to his words, so I let him pull all the needles away. While he was doing that, I found some keys taped to the outside of the crate. I used them to unlock the chains that were holding him to the inside of the crate. I pulled his tape off.

"Oh, the things I do for you, Crazy Kid."

"How did you get like this?" I asked.

"Everything was going fine. That is, until your wonderful little friend saw my green Logan Blood eyes. He was able to convince me that you needed me to be chained to the inside of the crate and have my mouth taped up just because you were worried about someone hearing me otherwise."

"Absolutely not, I never gave any such instruction," Tahir said.

"But once I was firmly chained in place, his true colors came out. He called me a Logan Blood rat. He opened up a box of needles and removed all the covers before pouring all of them on top of me, saying this won't matter to me anyway because me Logan Blood makes me able to change my skin to steel. I wanted to tell him he was sorely incorrect about my abilities, as I would only be able to change my fists like that, and only temporarily any case. But the Bloodist jerk wouldn't take off my tape."

"I'm sorry Big Horn, I didn't even know that Bloodist was an actual word let alone a concept that really existed. As if this world really needed another ist hate word."

"Well, I'm certainly never again relying on the service of such a bigoted jerk. I had no idea of this man's true colors, and I apologize greatly for this slight."

Big Horn started to get up.

"Wait, are you sure you should get up?" asked Tahir.

"I'm fine."

"I should help you up."

"No, I'm fine."

"He probably sustained a lot of bleeding. I'll go get the transfusion equipment ready." Tahir hurried out of sight.

Big Horn got out of the crate and onto his feet. As he did, I noticed there were still dozens of needles stuck into his skin. He started to pull out the ones on hid front side. "Can you remove the ones on my back?"

"Sure."

I started to pull out the needles of his muscled back and butt, and then went down the back of his legs as well.

"Do you need help removing the needles from your penis?" I asked.

"Why are you always trying to get your eyes on my magic phallus, Crazy Kid? If you really wanted to piss off my ancestors by laying eyes on it, then you should at least wait until after I use it to save Dr. Farhat's parents, shouldn't you?"

"I wasn't offering my own services. Honestly, nothing would disturb me more than having to pull out needles from that particular part of you. I was offering the services of Dr. Farhat."

"I can't have him see me naked either."

"Did you know he's a medical doctor?"

"I'm not so backwoods that I don't know what that whole `Dr.' title means. No, not even a medical doctor can see me naked."

"But seeing people naked is what they are here for!"

"My ancestors would never permit my phallus to be viewed by anyone who practiced White Man's medicine. I have hands and I can do it myself. Now, turn your back to me."

I rolled my eyes and did as he said while he got the last of the needles out, not even crying out as he did.

"Big Horn, it didn't seem like you lost a lot of blood."

"No, it seems the skin healed around the needles, keeping me from bleeding much. Tell your White Man doctor that I won't need that transfusion."

I went off to Tahir and told him, leaving out the part about him being a White Man doctor, of course. By the time we went back to Big Horn, he had made a new portal opening in the clinic courtyard. The red circle was showing the same corner of Badiya Ahmar that we had first teleported to upon our first entrance to the city.

Instead of any trace of my shock and unease at seeing my first portal, Tahir just looked plastered with happiness. "Incredible!"

"I'm afraid I may have permanently frightened away your rodent slaves with my portal creation rituals."

"The mongooses? They'll get over it, I'm sure."

"Let's go get your parents out of here. Should we take them back to Pradhaan Desh, another Blood entirely, or out in human lands?"

"Pradhaan Desh will be fine. I'm forever indebted to you for this, you know that."

"If I can help a friend of a friend, that's payment enough for my actions. And especially so if it means my actions will help save the life of Helina as well."

Big Horn led Tahir through the portal, and soon the portal closed on my end, leaving me alone.

I waited as long as I could, but Marutuk was expecting me back in his apartment for another wonderful session of snake-rape, so I reluctantly pulled off my robe and left the clinic.

MAY 4th

I got to the clinic that day earlier than Tahir was anticipating on purpose. After saying hello to the three mongooses, I hurried off to the shower and cleaned out Marutuk's residual semen from that morning. I also took a bunch of Parker's anesthetic serum inside me. I knew that it was addictive, but I felt like that was the only way I would get through sex with Tahir without being in so much pain I wouldn't be able to enjoy myself, and it was only the one time.

Tahir came out of his apartment dressed in a kaftan and fez, like normal, and gave me a robe to put on.

And then he surprised me by putting me in a tight embrace. "This is to thank you for your part in saving my parents yesterday."

"So it went successfully?"

"Indeed. You know how emotional I can get. Well, I looked at Big Horn, who I barely knew, and he looked like the kind of guy that never cried. He looked like he came out of his mother as stoic and adult as he ever was. So I tried very hard to not let myself get emotional. When my father started to cry after we first reached the safety of a new home, I held myself back because, like me, he was always the sentimental one in my family. But when my typically unemotional mother started to cry as well, I couldn't hold it back anymore, and I started to cry as well. Big Horn was the only one who wasn't a sniveling mess by the time we left them and I hugged them goodbye. All three of us are profusely thankful for your wonderful idea. And my parents are dying to meet you in person and thank you themselves."

"I would love to meet them."

"I told them just how dear you are to me. So dear, that I'm going to try and talk you out of what you had planned for me today. You are such a class act, Jake. You deserve to be impregnated by someone who can treat you with the gentleness that you deserve. Not with someone who would ever accidentally hurt you."

"I'm determined to go through with today, for Helina's sake."

"I understand. But while I'm not sure if I can make myself calm down, I'm all but certain I can stop myself completely if things get out of hand and give up on the matter. You just give me the word, `stop,' and that will be the end of this whole act."

"I'll keep that in mind. I hope with your family safe now, you'll feel a little bit better about what we need to do today."

"I do. Oh, you are probably waiting for me to invite you to my bedroom, aren't you?"

"You know, I had a slightly different plan in mind. I'm going to borrow a move from the Parker Logan playbook and ask you to tie this around your eyes."

I handed him a hand towel, and he tied it around himself, making a blindfold.

"Good, now plug your eras as well. That's it."

I used my cell phone to send a message to Big Horn, who I knew was waiting patiently like the great friend he was. Moments later, the portal he had installed in the clinic opened up again, revealing his camp, which was a little jarring since it was a totally different time of day than it was in Badiya Ahmar. I waved to him and made a silent motion with my finger, pointing to Tahir holding his ears.

Big Horn nodded in recognition, and shifted the portal so it showed a pristine beach. I smiled at Big Horn and pulled Tahir by the hand through the portal and onto a rock. Moments later, Big Horn closed the portal, leaving the two of us surrounded by beauty in every direction. We were on a tiny desert island in the middle of gorgeous ocean. Besides the rocks we were on, there were some palm trees, and other than that, just beautiful white sand in every direction. Big Horn really came through with that one.

"Okay, Tahir, pull your hands off." I moved his hands off his ears. "What do you hear?" I asked, with waves echoing in my own ears.

"What is that sound? Is it distant thunder? Is one of our rare Arabian storms coming in? Wait a second, what is that weird feeling in the air? That stickiness?"

I was shocked that he had never heard waves before, or experienced humidity. "What does it smell like?"

"Something very alluring. Salty, right? Are you cooking something?"

"Nope. Are you ready to be surprised? Take off the blindfold."

He pulled down his blindfold and I heard him gasp immediately and cover his moth. "Oh, god. How are you doing this to me, Jake? Is this some sort of illusion magic I never knew the One had?"

"No magic, Tahir. This is a real island out in the Arabian Sea. Big Horn brought us here on my request."

"It's real? This is real?"

"Yes!"

He started to cry, tears just pouring down his face instantly. "Look at the blue! All around us! Have you ever even dreamed of a blue so perfect?"

"It's beautiful!"

"Come on!"

As if pulled by a magnet towards the sea, he grabbed my hand and pulled me off the rocks we were on, through the palms, and onto the beach sand, right towards that water, his fez falling off in the process.

"Tahir, we'll get your clothes wet!"

"I don't care!"

He took that first step into the sea and dropped to his knees, pulling me down with him.

"This water feels so heavenly on my skin. It kisses me. Come feel!"

He pulled me down until we were both kneeling in the warm water. It felt almost like a religious experience for him, the way he was kneeling. He grabbed some of the seawater in his hands and brought it to his face.

"Oh god. Smell it, Jake. It smells better than I ever imagined it could!"

I took a smell of the water in his cupped hands that he was offering to me as if it was gold, all smiles. "It smells salty."

"But sweet too. Heavenly! It smells like heaven."

He brought the water to his face and kissed it. "And it tastes even better than it smells! Try it!"

"I've tasted it before. You have to take your shoes off so you can feel the sand in your toes, like I am."

He excitedly yanked off his shoes and threw them back on the beach. As soon as he put his feet back in the wet sand, his face looked so pleased, it almost looked like he was having an orgasm.

"You are so right, this feels amazing. Come on, we have to keep going!"

He ran with me out into the water, moving more and more into the sea until it was up to our chests. "Do you know how to swim?" I asked.

"No, I've never done it before."

"Well, the sea can be dangerous for non-swimmers. We probably shouldn't go any deeper, Tahir."

He stopped suddenly and pulled me right against him in a close embrace. "Jake, do you hear that?"

"What?"

"Waves! I can hear waves! That's what I was hearing before! I've never heard them before. Real waves! I used to dream of what these would sound like as a boy in my bathtub, but this is so much more blissful sounding than I ever even dreamt! Waves!"

"I hear them, they sound amazing!"

He put his hand to my cheek and looked into my eyes. For the first time his expression of overwhelming bliss turned into something else. Something that looked an awful lot like love. "You did this for me."

"Big Horn and I both."

"I'm not discounting the part Big Horn played in this. He provided the legwork, he is incredible. But it was you who came up with this idea. You who made it happen. This is something I've dreamt about every day of my long, torturous life. And you gave it to me. You are my angel."

He looked at me with those big, sad eyes, and then the eyes shut. His wonderful brown lips puckered up for the first time ever and he moved them towards me.

When he pressed his lips to mine finally, there was so much devotion there that I had to shut my eyes and just let it happen. I concentrated on the feeling of his wet kaftan pressed against me, his soft but huge basket resting right upon me, which felt so right.

He pulled away and opened his eyes to look at me again with devotion. "You gave me more than I thought anyone ever would, Jake. And now, now I'm so happy, I want to give you everything I have to give. I want to worship you for the rest of your life."

He kissed me again, his tongue flicking my lips this time, tasting wonderful.

"I always knew that your kiss would taste so good. How long I've longed for it. I hope you know with this kiss just how much I've grown to love you over all the time we've spent together."

I was oddly at a loss for words, so overcome with emotion he was making me. Before I could say anything back, he had his lips back on me. And this time, the passion, the desire, broke free of the love and almost knocked me to my knees. His wonderfully sweet tongue entered my mouth, sought out the deepest recesses of my teeth and gums with a purpose, making me tremble with desire. His fangs went fatally hard and sharp. I felt his enormous unit go totally stiff, pressing hard into me through the fabric of his kaftan, making my own hard as well, pressing him right back. His strong hands similarly sought me out, pressing through my soaking wet robe, first my shoulders and sides, and then moving back to my back and butt, pulling at them.

He ripped off my robe, leaving me naked in the water as he continued to give me his sweet kiss. And then he moaned through his kisses as his strong fingers touched my bare skin for the first time, first my back, and then my butt. There was something amazing about being totally naked but having him still in his wet kaftan. I pressed my body against it, loving the feeling of my hard dick against the warm and wet fabric of his larger unit. I felt him start to play with my hole.

But before I could really enjoy it, he ripped off his kaftan, actually totally destroying it in order to get it off of him, all the while still kissing me. As soon as he was free of it, he slammed his naked body against my own, every one of his hairless, taut muscles pressing against me, showing me their power. His kisses became hungrier and hungrier as he moaned when he pressed his wet, massive dick right against mine, pinning it completely under it. As soon as it was there, he started thrust against my body so hard it was just on the border of hurting, luckily not crossing over. At the same time, he started pushing his finger into me, making a huge pleasurable sigh as it went in. And quickly, one finger turned to two and three.

Tahir pulled my feet up and off the sandy floor and had me straddling his front, ankles clasped behind him. He never broke his passionate kiss as I started to feel his huge rod against my perineum, holding me up off the sea floor. He started to thrust back and forth in my crack, sending pleasant chills down my spine.

When I felt him start to push into me, I broke our eternal kiss and put my hands on his smooth chest. "Wait. We are moving too fast."

"We are?"

"Yes! Look at you! You are so beautiful. I want to get to know every part of you. Take my time with you."

"Okay, I'll try to slow down."

He pulled back from me and set me on my feet. I looked into his beautiful face, rubbing those sweet, purplish-brown, pouty lips with my fingers. I loved the way his tan ears were larger than normal, loved how long and luxurious his eyelashes were, and how groomed his eyelashes were. I loved his long, black hair, and drove my fingers through it, marveling how it looked even more pirate-like than ever sopping with sea water.

I used my hands to worship the tan, sizable muscles of his upper body, loving how smooth they all were. His arms were thick with muscle, so manly and powerful. Yet every vein was uniform, each muscle perfectly symmetrical. I noticed how his straight, black armpit hair was almost barely there at all, not because he groomed himself there but because it was just as naturally hairless as the rest of him.

I moved my hands to his large pecs, again totally symmetrical, loving their hardness. I rubbed his purple-tan nipples, hard and perfect. I lowered my face down into the water for a moment just so I could lick both of them, which I loved. I moved my hands down to his 8-pack abs, again, not the slightest trace of hair, and so, so symmetrical, even if it did not match the muscle amount of Marutuk's. But I preferred Tahir's masculine grace over Marutuk's messiness any day of the week.

My hands kept going down in that warm seawater. I got to his black pubes, as thin, soft, and symmetrical as the hair on his head. I got to his massive unit, as hard as steel. I loved tracing it up and down with my fingers in the water.

"Mmm, you are driving me crazy," Tahir said, and there was actually pain in his voice.

I kept on rubbing him, liking that I had such a pleasurable effect on him.

"I can't take this anymore. I'm trying to slow down but I physically an unable to. I'm sorry. Do you want me to stop? If so, now would be a safe time to let me know."

"No, I didn't say that. Just do what you have to do."

He pushed my hands away from his body and closed the space between us again. His eager kisses resumed, his hunger. He pulled my legs out from under me again and locked my ankles behind his hips.

Instantly, I felt his smooth, cut head pressing against my hole again. It pushed perhaps halfway into me with one sharp plunge. For Tahir, halfway was still a lot of substance, pushed into me all at once. While normally, I would have had him bite me before putting it in me, I knew that the taste of my blood made him cum prematurely, so that simply would not be an option while having sex with him. Luckily, Parker's serum made me almost totally numb down there, keeping me from pain.

But there was still some discomfort, enough to make me break the kiss. "I need you to pull out some, you went too fast all at once."

"I'm sorry, but I am using all of my willpower to hold myself like this and not push all the way in. I can't pull out. Do you want me to stop?"

"No. That's alright, the pain is already gone."

His kiss resumed with such eagerness it felt like my vocal interruption had led him to days of our lips apart. Soon, he had pushed all the way inside me, moaning with passion through his escalating kisses.

I wasn't quite adjusted to the pain by the time he started to thrust, but I didn't complain. And then the pain was gone, with Parker's serum working to its full effect. I tried to just focus on the pleasure, which was intense, given just how much I cared for this guy, knowing how he felt about me, and how much I wanted his unbelievable body.

But my own pleasure abated as his desire ramped up. He was bucking and thrusting in that water faster and faster, causing me more pain. I tried my hardest not to say anything.

But I had to say something after getting pummeled in the head with large waves. "Tahir, I think the waves are getting bigger. I keep getting knocked. Can we please move towards the shore?"

He looked as if I had just punched him; totally dazed by the need to pull out of his instinctual, physical sex-motions that required him to talk to me or change his behavior.

"Tahir, the shore! Let's go!"

"Oh, right. Sorry."

I expected he would pull out of me and we would walk back to the shore the same way we had come in, but instead, he kept inside me the whole time and carried me close to shore, where just the gentle waves were hitting us. The whole time he carried me, he kept on kissing me.

He set me down on my back in the sand, with me facing the ocean, and plastered his body on top of mine. It was so romantic, with the waves kissing our bodies as we kissed. When he started to buck his hips and thrust again, nothing but pleasure hit me.

But soon, his passion once again built up into frothy rage, and I started to feel a lot of pain. I started to wonder if I should have him bite me just to get it over with, which I knew wasn't healthy.

I managed to turn us both over, so he was on his back and I was on top. When he started to buck his hips again, I stopped his kiss and put my lips to his ears.

"Shh," I told him. "Concentrate on the sound of those waves. Do you hear them?"

"Yes. So magical. Thank you again for giving them to me."

"Concentrate on those waves, and let the waves make you still. Are you focusing?"

"Yes."

He shut his eyes and let the waves roll gently over our bodies. And his bucking slowed to a stop.

"Yes, that's it. As gentle as the waves, that's how you're going to be. As gentle as a wave."

I kissed him again, and this time, the fire was gone, and all that was left was sweet, adoring love.

I started to move up and down on him. At first, his reaction was to start bucking again, but I stroked his wet, black head hair until he calmed down and just focused on the waves.

Soon, through my motions on top, I was able to get to my prostate, and my own pleasure started to accelerate.

He pulled away from my kiss and opened his eyes. Those gorgeous dark eyes that always looked so sad. Somehow, the sadness had turned to love. "You did the impossible! You tamed my vampire sexual instinct and left nothing but the love that you deserve. I've never been able to make love before, and that's exactly what I'm doing with you in this moment. Which is the only way two people should ever create a new life, isn't it?"

"Yes, that's exactly right." I put my hands on his taut, tan pecs, loving squeezing them as I continued to ride him.

"While before I felt so consumed by desire that I would not have lasted long, I suddenly want this perfect moment to last for eons."

"I wish we had eons too, Tahir. But Marutuk is expecting me back before long, and the worst thing that could happen is for him to come looking for us in the clinic."

"No, that's exactly right. Well then, I don't want to climax before you do." He grabbed my dick and started stroking it.

"We can synchronize it."

While I was at it I synchronized my up and down movements to the waves of the ocean lapping our bodies and then pulling back. Having my pleasure inside me ebb and flow in time with waves made the sweetness all the more intense. It wasn't long before I was getting close to the edge.

"I'm ready when you are, Tahir."

"So am I. Jake, I want nothing more than to implant my love-milk deep inside you. There's no one else on this earth that I could ever call it that name but you, because you are not getting merely semen from me, you are getting the milky embodiment of my love."

"That's very sweet of you."

"When you suggested me donating my milk to you, I felt then that I was getting arm-twisted into doing something I wasn't totally comfortable with. Not by you, of course, but by the situation we were forced into. But now, everything has changed. Now, as we lie here making beautiful love, I know without a doubt that I love you so much that I want nothing more than to have my love-milk fertilize your perfect egg and make a whole new life. Because how could bringing a life into the world be wrong when it was done in this way, through complete love and devotion? I am so proud that you asked me to do this with you, so proud to be the father of your child. Because if the child will end up with just a drop of your endless virtues, it will have been well worth it."

I looked into his eyes and saw nothing but the sweet devotion his words contained, and it filled up my heart completely. "Tahir, I did want children. And while I did not want them anywhere near this early in my life, we don't always have the luxury of having these things turn out just as we planned. So, I'm going to pretend that this is happening much later in life than actuality. I would have loved children with Parker someday if he had been able to have kids, which he wasn't. I know Parker would absolutely approve of me picking you for this service. You may not look anything like Parker, but your personalities have a great deal in common. And as I loved Parker, I know that with just more time, I will love you too. It's with that in mind that I'm going to focus on not just permitting your seed to fertilize my egg, but to totally embrace it."

"Why is it that everything you say and do just makes me love you more? Now, I'm afraid your sweet words have put me over the edge. I can't hold it back any longer. I've been drenching your insides with pre-milk for a long time. I am in more pleasure than I ever knew I could be, and I know deep down that the volume of my love–milk will be far, far greater than I have ever produced before. So much of it, because it's a reflection of my love for you."

"Here, take my hands."

"I'm afraid I'll accidentally crush them. The sand is much less fragile than your body, so I'm holding on tight to that."

"Than let me kiss you while we go over the edge."

"Yes. I want you to taste my love that's even deeper than this sea while I give you more of my love-milk than I ever dreamed it was possible to give."

I lowered down and kissed his sweet, red-tan lips, shutting my eyes as our tongues met inside our mouths, kissing each other sweetly, his love coming through his kiss and rocking my entire body.

Beneath me, I could feel his body tighten suddenly in pleasure, his truly satisfied sighs coming through his lips as we kissed. I could only imagine what his hands were doing to that poor sand at that moment.

I started to feel his first spurt hit my prostate with such huge velocity; it sent internal shivers of pleasure all through me. My hand was on my dick, and that started to erupt as well, following just after him.

That first spurt of milk was just the very first sentry in what turned out to be army of semen, just as he had warned me. You would have thought he had never once released any semen and it had built up inside him his whole, long life. It first totally covered his unit inside me, which was no small feat considering just how gigantic he was in that department. I could feel it running out of my hole and landing all over my cheeks, all over his body. And at the other end, I felt it surging past what was now my cervix, and it was that part of it that I focused on letting fertilize me, telling my body that it was the embodiment of his love.

We continued our kiss long after the orgasm passed us both. I broke the kiss and lay down on his perfect chest. "Don't pull out of me until we are certain you have nothing more to give me," I said.

He laughed. "I know some folks would be ready to kick their partners out of bed by this point, regretting any romantic ideas that may have appeared to them when they were having sex but then quickly disappeared soon after, but Jake, right now, even though my penis is totally drained and exhausted, my deep love for you hasn't changed one bit. I'm not ready to get dressed. I just want to hold you like this as long as we possibly can, with me inside you if you will permit that of me, and the waves kissing our bodies."

"Of course I'll permit you to stay inside me, I think it's rather romantic. We can stay like this until Big Horn is about to come back, which sadly isn't too long from now, but at least we have some time together."

"Will you take a nap with me? Exactly as we are?"

"You're tired after expending all those calories, huh?"

"I guess so. The truth is, I've dreamt for a long time about something I can never have. You sleeping in my bed through a whole night, preferably with me inside you. You don't know how I've burned with resentment every time I've had to let you go each night into Marutuk's arms."

"Tahir, I promise you, someday we will find a way for us both to share a bed all night, with you inside me for as long as you want."

With that, Tahir fell asleep underneath me. I wanted to join him, but visions of Big Horn coming back and waking us up like this kept me from doing so. The last thing I wanted was for him to get any of his typically disapproving quips in, especially after our endless argument concerning his certainty that I was a bottom. I was not a bottom, that was the truth. The sex I had just had with Tahir was only enjoyable because I had been using Parker's serum to keep the pain away.

And so I watched Tahir sleep and kept track of time in my head the best I could. He was sleeping with his fangs still out, which were so adorable. I wondered if that was a side effect of him being inside me, as he wasn't fully soft.

After what felt like a half hour, I figured I should wake him up again, as sad as it was to do so. Since his fangs were just as out as ever, I decided to try and wake him up by feeding him, as I figured he hadn't yet had that day's share of blood.

I put my throat to his mouth and pushed against one of his fangs. The pain was only temporary as I made a cut, and as soon as the venom hit me, my dick went hard and my whole body went numb with sexual energy. I felt the same thing happen to his dick inside me, going from semi-soft to totally hard in an instant.

I felt his lips latch around my wound, the first thing that his body had done that wasn't an automatic response, a sign that he was waking up. I felt him start to drink me down, which felt so right.

"Wake up, babe."

But then he did something that was surprisingly rough: he pushed me into the sand and reversed our position, twisting me around so that he was behind me and I was face-down.

He kept on drinking, but this time, he started humping me so hard it hurt.

"Tahir, you're being too rough!" I said. "Tahir, listen to me!"

When he failed to answer me, I realized that he was either still asleep or in a sexual trance.

Still drinking me down, he bucked harder and harder than ever.

And then I felt his muscles all tighten as he came inside me again, absolutely flooding me.

"Oh my god, Jake. What happened?" His voice sounded normal again.

"I thought I would wake you up by giving you my blood, but you got a little out of hand in your sleep, Tahir."

He spun me around so I was facing him. His face was dark and pained. "You cannot do that to me. Not ever. You should have known better. You know what your blood does to me!"

"It was a mistake. I won't make it again."

"Please don't forget that no matter how much I love you, there's still a dangerous vampire inside me. Parker clearly was one of the rare vampires who was able to turn off his instincts completely in order never to hurt you. I'm not built the same as he is. I wish I was, but I'm not. There will always be this animalistic side of me. I need you never to do anything that could set that part of me off. If I ever hurt you accidentally, I would rue the day I was ever born."

"You didn't hurt me. I'm just fine."

"But still, don't you ever take risks with me."

"I won't. I promise. And I'm sorry."

"You're sorry? You're not allowed to be sorry. It's me who has done this to you, not the other way around. I already feel terrible."

"Well, I was just trying to feed you, and get another load out of you in the process. Tahir, I want very much to be your only source of blood. So you can give up those blood packets. Do you think you can handle feeding off me daily without hurting me?"

"As long as I know it's coming and I'm not surprised, I won't abuse you. But I am concerned I'll hurt you in a whole other manner."

"What's that?"

"You are already the main source of blood with Marutuk, and I don't think he's the type of lover that takes just what he needs to survive. If I started to feed from you as well, I'm afraid I'd sap your strength needlessly."

"You can give me blood transfusions. That's what the prostitutes in Fools Gold did in order to allow many different vampires to feed on them in the course of one night."

"That's a lot of work on your part just to feed me."

"You are doing so much for me, Tahir. The least I can do is provide my blood for you. And unlike when Marutuk feeds from me, it feels so right when you do it."

"That's very sweet of you to say. Are you absolutely determined to do this?"

"Yes!"

"Well, we'll try it out, starting tomorrow. If you get tired of it, we can stop at any time."

"Thanks Tahir!"

"I should be the one thanking you."

"Big Horn will be here soon. We should be getting ready."

"I can't believe how hard it is to go back there after you've taken me to paradise."

"I know, same with me."

"Ah well, let me just give you the last drops of my love-milk before you make me separate our bodies with such sad finality."

"I will take all of your love-milk gladly."

"Ohh, how I love you."

I kissed him while he let every last drop drain out of him.

And then we couldn't avoid it any longer. He pulled out of me, and we pulled apart from each other. His soft dick looked so alluring, swollen as it was and totally covered with his milk.

We washed off in the ocean, and then retrieved our clothes. My robe was still a little wet, but still functional. Tahir's fez and sandals were fine, but his kaftan was beyond repair, so he had to suffer going nude. When Big Horn's portal opened up, he walked through it with his hands covering his junk.

"I'm pretty sure that's not the state you went there in," Big Horn said.

"No comment. Big Horn, thanks again for all you've done for me these past two days."

"That goes for me too," I said.

"I'm glad to help." He changed his portal back to his camp, stepped through, and the portal disappeared from the clinic.

"Oh no, look at the time! Marutuk is expecting me for his lunchtime rape in his room in ten minutes!"

"I never really understood the saying that time flies when you're enjoying yourself until I met you."

"I can't go up there covered in sand, smelling of seawater, and filled with your love-milk, Tahir!"

"No, let's get you into the shower."

"You need to shower yourself. You can use a different one, I can get myself clean on my own."

"Absolutely not. I'm the one whose milk is inside you. The least I should do is help clean it out."

"But Tahir--"

"No buts, I'm helping and that's final."

He actually lifted me into his arms, knowing he could carry me faster than I could walk, and then set me down in the shower. He gave me a bar of soap and told me to work on my front while he did the back. He scrubbed my skin down thoroughly before starting on my chute itself, scooping out buckets and buckets of his stickiness.

"Why does the thought of you cleaning out your love-milk like that make me so sad?" I asked him.

"That's such a sweet thing to say. And since you've said it, I'm going to admit that it kills me to do this to you as well. It feels like I'm betraying my love for you, somehow."

"One day we won't have to do this. I promise you that."

"I'll dream of that day."

Tahir got me cleaned up quickly, and then I realized there was still time to clean him off. I didn't have the time I would have like to wash off his tan muscles or his gorgeous unit like I wanted to, as I was in a huge rush.

When we dried off and I helped him put a new kaftan on, showed him my throat. "It's time to bite me again, Tahir."

"But I won't have time this time to get myself going again before I deliver you to Marutuk. If he makes me play his games again, he will see that I can't perform and get suspicious. But it's been ages since he made me do that. I think he's lost interest. There's no need for me to be controlling you."

"I have a need! It saves me from having to be awake while he does goodness knows what to me! Please, do it to me."

"Alright, let me just take off my kaftan so I don't make a mess of it."

He got naked, bit me again, and just as he said, he got hard and then blew another load right as I lost consciousness.

That afternoon, after another lunch sex session with Marutuk that was blissfully brief because Tahir hovered outside his room taking control of my body for as long as he possibly could, I went back into Tahir's clinic in a hurry. He had a nice lunch waiting for us, and he drew my blood for a pregnancy test before he gave me a blood transfusion.

While I was lying in the clinic with the needle in my arm, I noticed I got a new message on my phone from Ahmad. Ever since Marutuk had stopped paralyzing me, I had a lot more time to use my phone to keep up on current events or be in touch with my friends and family.

"This is an Intervention from your best friend, Roomie," Ahmad had written.

"But I haven't started abusing any substances since the last time you saw me. I'm in no need of intervening."

"Is that the only meaning of an Intervention? Concerning substance abuse? Sorry, this is totally an American concept I'm not too familiar with."

"Yes."

"Well, the Ahmad Intervention, newly coined today, needs to be added to your dictionary."

"What is the Ahmad Intervention?"

"It's when I tell you that I know you have not been completely forthright with information from you. I'm starting to feel very un-best-friend-like. As always, you know everything about my life, but you have been all too stingy with the juicy stuff, Roomie. That needs to end now."

"What specifically do you want to know?"

"I want to know about your love life. You haven't told me anything about it ever since I saw you last in person, do you realize that? Even before that point, you always saved the really good stuff only for Martine's ears. I think you believe, because of where I was raised, that I might have a part of me that is homophobic. A part of me that would be uncomfortable with the gay side of you. Let me assure you, you are wrong. That's why I'm sending you this intervention. So you can feel free to start telling me the truth."

He was wrong about one thing. I didn't ever tell him all the details of my love life when I was at school with him not because I was worried he might be homophobic. It was because I had a major crush on him, and I felt like sharing all those details would be wrong somehow. But now, after all that had happened to me, my crush on him had long waned. I decided to give him what he wanted. I'd just have to change the details to make it fit into his world.

"You're right, I have been leaving you out unfairly. The truth is, there is someone right now who I am sort of seeing."

"I'm so happy for you, Roomie. What's his name?"

"Tahir. He's a doctor with a huge amount of affection, even if his sense of humor is a bit on the quirky side."

"He sounds amazing! Tahir, that doesn't sounds English."

"I've been travelling through, well, Saudi Arabia. And met him here. He speaks English and Arabic."

"You are in Saudi now?! I am visiting home! I am so close to you, Jacob. Can I come to you and meet Tahir in person?"

"It's not the best time, Ahmad, sorry. Another time."

"Well, honestly, I'm just thrilled that you are starting to be honest with me again. Whenever we can meet, just let me know. In the meantime, I will relish my best friend giving me the truth again."

"Me too, Ahmad."

I turned my phone off.

After the transfusion, we were sitting together in his lab as he finished running the test. His face was clammy with sweat.

"I'm so nervous about this result," he said. "Today is the last day before Marutuk said he would kill Helina if you weren't pregnant."

"Nobody knows that better than I do."

"Quite right. I looked up the statistical odds of a male vampire impregnating another male vampire whom still had, unlike myself and most other top vampires, their female procreation parts. Remember, your female reproductive system is essentially the same as a male vampire's, except that your body can block unwanted mates from fertilization. The odds of a male vampire bottom getting pregnant from one session of unprotected sex with a male vampire top, assuming both are at reproductive age, is roughly one in twenty. Not very promising at all, I'm afraid."

"But we technically had sex twice."

"We did, but relatively quickly after the second time, we had to wash you out, so I'm not sure if that second batch of semen really had time to do any good."

"Well, if the results are bad, we have the rest of the afternoon to try again."

"We don't have much time at all before you are supposed to go back. Is Big Horn ready to take us back to the sea if we need him to?"

"I'm not sure. If not, we could always have a quickie in your bed."

His sad eyes narrowed. "I'm not sure I could make love to you again without having the ocean there to help soothe my instincts. I'd be worried about hurting you."

"I'd rather risk hurting me than have Helina die."

"I understand. I really want to save Helina's life too. Even though I've never even met her, I can't stand when Marutuk kills any potential innocent. But having one of your close friends' lives at stake is even more demoralizing. That's why I'm so nervous about these results. Because if it's negative, that could mean Helina's end. Honestly, the test has been completed for a couple minutes now, I'm just too nervous to actually look at results."

"The sooner you look, Tahir, the sooner we will be able to plan out our next move."

"True. Alright, keep your fingers crossed."

He looked in the microscope from a moment. Then his sad eyes moved off the scope and looked away, starting to cry.

I covered my mouth as panic hit me. "It's that bad, huh? Negative."

He wiped away his tears. "You don't know yet the difference between my sad tears and my overjoyed ones. It's positive, Jake! We are going to be parents!"

I was elated. "Are you sure?"

"Yes! I'll run it a second time just to be sure, but I'm all but certain."

"We did it!" I ran over to his seat by the microscope, and jumped into his lap, straddling his torso as I kissed his pink-tan lips, stretched into a huge smile. His tears were contagious, as I was soon crying tears of happiness and sweet relief as well. "We beat the odds!"

"We sure did!"

I reached down and grabbed his package through his kaftan. "You must be producing some very potent sperm down there, Doctor."

"It wasn't my body that helped us beat the odds. It was your magnificent body that is entirely responsible, I'm sure."

"Do you realize what this means? I have had sex countless times with Marutuk, trying to get pregnant each time, and it never once panned out, no matter how many times we tried. You and I get together one time, just one time, and we bang it out of the park!"

"Is that another one of your sports analogies that I never understand?"

"Yes, sorry. We got to the finish line in record time, is that one more understandable given your Shankarian upbringing?"

"Yes, I understand and agree completely. But it wasn't just random good luck, Jake. Your body accepted my semen because it knew deep down that it came from a man who loved you. Marutuk is only capable of loving you for what your body provides him, and so your body never would have allowed fertilization to occur. I am at a loss for words, in total awe that you are pregnant."

"I'm not pregnant, Tahir. We are pregnant together."

He moved me to my feet and got off his chair. And he knelt down on his knees, still completely sobbing. "I don't want to take away from your accomplishment by insinuating that I did or will do anything at all to deserve recognition. What exactly did I do? I gave you the only piece you didn't have by yourself, which was such a tiny contribution you can't even see it with your naked eye. That's all I did."

"Not all you did. If it was, I could have just artificially inseminated myself. But you made love to me and brought my body such pleasure in the process. That's what made the difference."

"Let's not pretend that making love to you was something only I am capable of. Most human men would have been able to do the exact same act. If had been Parker, he would never have even needed to tame his vampire instincts. Treating you with love would have been his natural instinct. You're the one whose incredible body, that everyone knew was supposed to be barren, miraculously changed its whole physiology in order to get pregnant. It was your power alone that accomplished this miracle, not mine. And it will be your body alone that has the burden of bearing a child for nine months, which is another miracle completely."

He started to cry all over my legs and kiss me over and over again on my lower half.

"Because of these miracles you've performed, I should be worshipping you. So much more than anyone ever should have worshipped Marutuk. You are so much more worthy of all of our worship."

I tried to pull him back to his feet. "I don't want to be worshipped."

"Of course you don't, and that makes you all the more worshipable. Because you have a kind soul to match your incredible beauty and miraculous body. If you were as cold as Marutuk, I would have never fallen for you."

"What is the subtext there? Does that mean you won't be a father here? That you are leaving it all up to me?"

"I'm saying that I'll gladly do anything you permit me to do. If you want me to be a father here, than I would be absolutely overjoyed. But I'm not pretending that you being pregnant with a baby who comes from an embryo that was fertilized by my sperm... that any of that gives me any sort of right to be a father. It's your body alone that is performing the miracles and all the hard work here, so I have no right to call myself a father unless you permit that of me."

I dropped down to his level, going to my knees and looking right into his sad, brown eyes. "Tahir, I would love for you, more than anyone else in this world, to be the father of my baby. As much as we can possibly get away with without setting Marutuk's suspicion off. I want you to be there for me through this whole pregnancy, and I want it to be you who does the c-section on me when it's time."

I knew him well enough to see his tears change from being in total awe and in worship to being utterly grateful with just the tiniest hint of pride.

"I want you to be the father after the baby is born too. I want you to help raise this child as much as Marutuk will allow us. When the child is old enough not to say anything, I want us to tell him or her that you are the father, not Marutuk."

He put his arms around me and looked me deep in my eyes, tears falling, as he smiled at me. "You are going to make the happiest vampire in the world." He kissed me on the forehead.

"Marutuk. It's past time. I have to go back. I'm sorry."

"How come the doctor isn't with you? He's supposed to deliver you."

"I told him not to this time."

"Why would you believe that your wish would matter more than that of a god's?"

"Marutuk, I'm pregnant."

His eyes went wide with shock. "What? Are you sure?"

"My blood tested positive for pregnancy just now, and the doctor ran a second test just to validate it, which again showed pregnancy."

His eyes looked from left to right, processing this news. "This is, this is insane."

"Will you please let Helina go now?" I asked, pointing at her in the glass case of snakes.

"Not yet. I need you to come with me." He would not look me in the eyes, and his demeanor seemed oddly removed.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"None of your concern."

"Can you please let Helina go before we go there, God Marutuk?" I asked in my nicest tone of voice.

"Just come with me and shut your mouth!"

I certainly didn't like his tone of voice, but what could I do besides follow him as ordered?

My heart sank as soon as I realized, once we were outside in the palace grounds that we were surely headed for the snakepit. I would have much preferred the Sandfalls as a destination, and I hated that place ever since I found those bodies there.

Again, I tried: "Why are we going down there?"

Marutuk said nothing as he pushed me on the ladder and made me climb down, again first. My heart raced faster and faster the more I walked down into the snakes, feeling like I was descending to my doom.

"Get on the platform," he said to me after we were standing on the sandy ground of the pit.

I stood on the dais, not wanting to be in a position of physical vulnerability if he tried anything. He angrily and forcefully corrected my positioning with his muscular arms, forcing me to lie back down on the platform.

"We are down here to perform another new spell that I learned."

"What is the spell for?"

He said nothing.

"You know it won't work unless I know what the spell does and if I keep that in my mind."

He seemed convinced by those words. "I have doubts about this pregnancy, and this spell will alleviate my doubts and tell me the truth."

I felt sick at those words, and tried hard to hide my anxiety.

"What do you mean, you have doubts?"

"I have doubts, first of all, that you are really pregnant."

"The doctor ran tests!"

"I'm concerned he is lying, in an attempt to save your friend's life, since he knew this was the last day you had to get pregnant. I've seen the way he looks at her in that tank. He pretends not to care, but he clearly does. I think it's that he is highly attracted to her and doesn't want to stop losing the opportunity to see her naked in that tank. He hasn't betrayed me before, but there's always a first time for everything."

If I wasn't so nervous, I would have laughed at the absurdity of his suggestion. I had seen Tahir's glances at Helina as well. Clearly, there was no trace of any guarded lust there. The only guarded emotion was compassion, just as much for my sake as for hers. "Is that it? This is just a pregnancy confirmation spell?"

"Not just that. My other worry is that you are pregnant, but not by me."

At that, I felt my stomach knot.

"This spell will tell us the baby's parentage. As well as the sex and if the baby is a special or not."

My heart continued to pound as I processed this. My only hope was to somehow change the spell on my own or try to botch the spell completely.

"Do you remember the process? I'll tell you the words to say, while you focus on the results of the spell. All the while taking the life-force of the snakes."

"Shouldn't they be more around me like before?" I asked, looking for any reason to delay.

"This is not as serious a spell as the others. It won't tire you out much, and it won't require the snakes being so close. For the first part of the spell, I want you to focus on moving ten months forwards in time in terms of the baby's development. Got it? Ten months forward!"

"Yes, ten months."

"Repeat after me."

He started talking in that same offshoot of Sumerian that he always used, and I had no choice but to repeat the spell after him. I could feel the life-force of the snakes moving into the spell, and then as soon as I had finished it, I felt a surge of weakness go through me.

As soon as that happened, I was both creeped out and amazed when I could see my stomach grow in size in front of me, becoming fully pregnant in a matter of seconds.

Marutuk sighed. "That means the doctor remains as reliable as before. You are for sure pregnant. During the next part of the spell, I want you to focus on us getting the information we need. You need to make the baby visible, and identify its parentage. Repeat after me."

He finished the spell off, and I had no choice but to say the words as he had said them. I felt the spell engage again as soon as I was finished.

The skin in my belly went translucent, leaving the baby alive and visible for the first time, clearly a boy. He was so beautiful, I started to cry. The perfect mixture of Tahir and myself. I couldn't believe when he actually smiled at me.

Above my stomach, images appeared out of nowhere. First, Special appeared. And then the incriminating: images of me and Tahir, each one without clothes, clearly these were the parents. In fact, I could see an egg next to me and a sperm next to Tahir. I cringed as these two people floated in the air, trying to get a read on Marutuk's horrible face.

And then the spell finished. The images disappeared, my stomach turned opaque, making me unable to see the beautiful child any longer, and finally, my stomach deflated, returning to its old position. I was left, speechless, as Marutuk looked down at me in cold fury, saying nothing but searching me out with those eyes.

"So?" he said finally.

"So?"

"So spit it out already."

"Well, I don't know, maybe it was inaccurate? These things could be off."

"There's no such thing as inaccurate with this spell. It is dead on, a hundred percent of the time. Stop avoiding and tell me!"

"Tell you what?"

"What you saw!"

"You didn't see it too?"

"Nothing after your belly growing. I couldn't see the actual baby or anything else after that."

I was shocked. "Wait, so you were relying on me to tell you what I saw?" I asked.

"Of course. What, did you think I would be able to see your magic visions too? I'm not the One."

I felt so relieved I actually got the urge to hug him, as revolted as I was with him. "Right, I guess not."

"So who are the parents?"

"Well, me and you, of course."

"Oh, thank you, thank you!" He started beaming down at me. "I had this horrible dream that something had gone wrong with the spell that gave me an actual King Cobra, and any babies I planted in you in the future would always end up being horrible, animal snake babies. I was so worried. So it's a normal, vampire baby?"

"Yes."

"Sex?"

"Male. And it was a special."

"What about his eyes? What color?"

I thought about lying, but realized he would see the truth eventually. "Dark Brown."

"Hmm. That means he's Shankar Blood, like I am. We didn't succeed in making a new Blood."

"Well, maybe that just wasn't meant to be with the two of us. There could have been something magic that your little brother knew when those babies were conceived to create a new Blood. Or maybe your twin sister and you weren't as similar as you think. Maybe there was something about her that was different from you which means you aren't able to create new Bloods like that."

"Hmm."

"But don't be sad about that. What I saw was a beautiful baby, Marutuk!" When I was worried that he wouldn't care about the baby being cute, I kept going: "And so strong! I could sense his great strength. And no wonder, being from the two of us. I can tell that his special ability is going to be something quite grand. He'll grow up to be as strong as you are one day, you just watch. Your Zeus will have his loyal little Apollo."

Marutuk came at me so suddenly and furiously, I jumped. And my stomach lurched as soon as I saw his fangs were out and he was coming straight for my stomach. He wasn't okay with not giving birth to a new Blood and he was reacting by biting out the embryo inside me and perhaps starting over again.

When Marutuk instead lowered his lips to my stomach and kissed it sweetly, I felt faint. "We will have to think of a name worthy of the son of a Cobra god! I have waited my whole life to be a father, and now it's finally here!"

He further shocked me by kissing me, his tongue pouring his happy excitement into me. As he did that, he lifted me into his arms and spun me around for all the snakes to see.

"My snake children, it's now official! Meet your new Snake Goddess Mother! The sacred vessel of my God-child!"

He moved me around the snake pit, letting all of the snakes touch me.

"I'm so pleased, Jake, that you decided to follow your Cobra God's will and did just as he commanded of you."

"Oh, yeah, I did my best."

"You've made me the happiest I've ever been, Jake. I hope you know you are the only one in this world worthy of my Snake Seed. And now we are going to give birth to the most beautiful child the vampires have ever seen! And since it's a boy, it won't threaten my throne!" He kissed me excitedly again. "Come, let's say goodbye to the snakepit for the day." He carried me in his arms and started climbing the ladder.

"Marutuk, that's, um, well, sweet of you," I said, shocked that I was actually saying those words to him. "For carrying me like that. But I really didn't experience much tiredness from this spell, and am totally able to walk on my own."

"Jake, you are the Snake Goddess Mother. You are now by far the most important asset I've ever had. And you are oh so fragile. Aren't you at all tired from that spell? You should be."

"Yes, a little."

"Then I will carry you. Because the last thing I could ever let happen is for you to fall off this ladder and kill yourself."

He carried me carefully up the ladder, but when we were back on the ground level, he still held onto me. He carried me over to a group of guards and waved my body in front of them. "All hail the Snake Goddess Mother! Now that he carries my God son, you will all bow down and show him the respect he deserves!"

The guards all bowed down and started chanting Snake Goddess Mother over and over.

The Butler came out. She saw what the guards were doing and she joined them, dropping to her knees.

"Butler Ajam, since you've been loyal to me for so long, I'll let you kiss the Snake Goddess Mother. He is the bearer of my God-child, spawned and fathered from the powerful loins of the King Cobra God."

"What an honor, my dearest Gods."

"But you only are worthy enough to kiss the Snake Goddess Mother's feet. No more."

I felt so embarrassed as I watched the Butler obediently kiss my feet, thinking about how I'd been unable to wear shoes there and all the dirty places I had stepped since I washed them last.

"Now that he is pregnant with your god-child, since we are all supposed to show him the respect of god's partner, does that mean we should be following his orders now?"

"No. You will all worship him as the vessel of my holy-god-snake-spawn, but you will not accord him any more power than he can handle. Butler, let's not forget that his majesty is as being the person that I've chosen to be the vessel of my God-Child, an honor that people have been lining up many millennia to do, so the power of my gift to him should not be taken lightly. But let's not fool ourselves into thinking that choosing him as the bearer of the next Snake God that will enter this would has anything to do with his mind or wisdom. He is too young to understand any of the intricacies of even my minor servants. I will continue to be the only one giving orders here, understood?"

"Yes, God Marutuk."

"Go get the Doctor and bring him to our room, as quickly as you can."

"Yes, My Sweet God."

As he carried me to his room, he made everyone who we ever remotely crossed paths with bow down and show embarrassing levels of deference to me.

When he got me in the room, he carried me in a tour around the room, showing me off to all the snakes that dwelt there.

Very quickly, a knock that I knew belonged to Tahir came at the door.

"Doctor, come in," Marutuk said. As soon as he entered, Marutuk excitedly showed me to him. "Doctor, I'd like to introduce you to the mother of my Snake-God boy. As you know, we have finally succeeded! Bowing to him at this point would be appropriate."

"Yes, yes, of course, God Marutuk." He got to his knees and bowed to me. Unlike the others, he didn't have to fake it when he tried to show complete and total devotion to me.

"You can stand now. Dr. Farhat, I can't help but feel like you are partially responsible for this miracle."

It was all I could do not laugh out loud at that sentence.

"I am very, very happy for you both." He said it without the slightest bit of falseness.

"Jake and I recently have been made aware of just how far your loyalty runs deep. I often feel like I can't really trust anyone, but with you, I realize I can."

"You most certainly can, God Marutuk."

"I haven't let Jake go since I confirmed the results. I've been carrying around him like this since. I have half a mind to hold him like this myself until he gives birth. To hold him even while we are sleeping. To wash us together, feed us together, have us urinate together."

"Are you worried about him hurting the baby?"

"Yes."

"God Marutuk, I can assure you that he's fully capable of walking around on his own without damaging the baby."

"But what about assassins? There are so many jealous or insane folks who would try to kill him in a heartbeat. I have to protect him through the entire pregnancy. And after the baby is born, my protection will need to shift to him."

"You can't possibly carry around Jake through your entire life, God Marutuk."

"Do you forget who I am? I am fully capable of carrying him around endlessly until the end of time!"

"Of course you are capable, God Marutuk. What I meant was, with all the work you do leading these people, it would be very taxing on you to always be carrying around Jake like that. I hope you feel like you can entrust him, and your soon-to-be son, with me. After all, I'm your physician. I'm the one best suited to take care of their needs. And, even though my strength pales in comparison to yours and will always do so, I might be the next strongest vampire in this palace. Which means, there's no one better suited to protect them from attack. And my focus is unwavering. If you would have me never let him out of my arms, then that's what I'll do."

"Yes, yes. That is what I want of you. I know I can trust you." I marveled at how skillful Tahir was at manipulating Marutuk to our end.

"That you can, God Marutuk."

"I have some questions for you. I know you told me before that a fanged vampire baby won't miscarry. What did you mean by that, exactly?"

"Well, it means that unlike a human embryo, which can always miscarry without outside influence, a vampire baby will only miscarry if there's some kind of harm done to the mother. The first week is most critical, as any hits the mother takes could end up in losing the baby. After the first week, the vampire embryo becomes a fetus, and its superhuman healing ability kicks in."

"So, I can treat Jake roughly again after a week?"

"Well, it may not lead to a miscarriage, but any physical harm the mother comes to could lead to birth defects later. If you really are concerned with having this baby turn out to be just as strong as his potential..."

"Which I am."

"...Then you will need to keep the mother healthy and injury free through the entire pregnancy. Which includes not using paralysis venom on him, I'm afraid."

"I see. Well, if it must be done, then it must be done." Again, I found myself really appreciating Tahir.

"And, considering his using of spells is so physically taxing, I'd recommend he no longer do any further spells for the remainder of the pregnancy."

"That's fine. I believe I heard somewhere that sex with a pregnant woman will not hurt the baby. Is that true? Because him being the mother of my snake god-child has really ignited my fires for him. I cannot explain just how much tempted to spend these entire nine months screwing him."

"It is normally true that is safe, but in your case, given your recent physical manifestation." Tahir gestured towards Marutuk's snake penis. "I don't think you will be capable of having sex with him without damaging the baby."

"Really? Are you serious?"

"If your sex is causing him to bleed, it's a sure sign that it's not safe for the baby."

He sighed. "Sex without blood for the Father-God of vampire-kind is no sex at all. But what about oral? He can still give that to me, right doctor?"

"I'm sorry, God Marutuk, but given the particular size and shape of your manhood, I am positive that him doing that will risk blocking his airwaves. If oxygen fails to reach the fetus, that could be it."

"Wow. Okay. Being a father of a God-Child that looks just like me is reason enough to hold my typical level of passion back for nine months. Thank you, Doctor. You are dismissed. But please keep yourself ready at a moment's notice to take over looking after him for me."

"I will be, God Marutuk. It honors me to be able to serve you."

He gave me a quick look before he left, and then was gone.

"Marutuk, what about Helina? You told me you would let her go if I got pregnant, remember?"

"You heard the doctor. Your first week of pregnancy can be uncertain. If you should lose the baby, I need her to motivate you to get pregnant again."

"Do you promise to let her go after a week then? When we know I won't be able to have a miscarriage?"

"Hmm."

"Come on, Marutuk, you owe me this."

"Do you promise not to say things to embarrass me in front of my subjects again?"

"Yes, I promise."

"Then I agree to it. After a week passes where you are pregnant, I'll let her go."

"Thank you."

That night, Marutuk wanted us to have our fancy dinner be served in his throne room instead of the dining room because that's where the majority of the Palace's remaining snakes were. In his attempt to have as many of his snakes as possible be introduced to me as their newly pregnant "mother," he asked the servants to bring as many palace snakes as they could find, besides the ones in the bedroom or in the snake pit, and deposit them in the throne room. So, as we sat there, more and more snakes were brought into the room and shown to us. Marutuk always introduced me to each one and had me touch them briefly. At which point, they were set on the ground, which was getting so packed with snakes, it was getting hard to see a lot of the treasure the room was stuffed with. Me being me, all I could think about was how unsanitary my hands were getting, holding all these reptiles without ever being able to wash.

True to his threat, Marutuk hadn't let me go so far that whole night. When I needed to pee before dinner, he wouldn't even let me do that by myself in his own bathroom. He carried me over to the urinal and had me do it while holding me up. And when after that, when he decided he needed to piss as well, he held me against his chest with his hands and had me hold his snake to the urinal and shake it off when he was done.

Once we were in the throne room, he sat on his throne the whole time and set me on his lap, his snake/penis rubbing and licking happily at my rear the whole time. There really wasn't a table in there by his throne, so two poor vampire servants ended up holding up a silver platter which became our makeshift table, having to keep it perfectly balanced at all times. I was so worried they would lose their focus and drop something on the table, causing him to kill them.

An old woman busboy handed Marutuk a glass of wine, and then she did the same to me. I jumped as I saw him slap the wine away, causing it to spill on the floor, and at the same time bite the woman's ring finger defensively. She screamed, and he pushed her hard to the ground.

He had blood on his lips. "Alcohol is bad for the God-child I implanted inside him, you devious wretch!" He spit out the partial finger in his mouth, making me feel woozy. "Someone get me a sword so I can kill her and teach you all a lesson about treating my Mother with care! I would kill her with my teeth, but she doesn't deserve to her Cobra God use his holy fangs on her."

I moved my mouth to Marutuk's ear and said quietly, so no one else could hear, "You've already taken her finger. Why do you need to kill her?"

"Don't you see? Everyone in The Raajya West wants to do you harm. Every woman and bottom have fantasized their whole lives about being in your shoes, and now that you're here and pregnant, it makes them all the more insane with jealousy. And the male tops? They all hate themselves for not being manly and strong enough to deserve to have you, and they will kill you too to keep you from me."

The sad part was, I knew at least some of what he was saying was true, though I hoped it only applied to a small minority. "I think she's just a confused old woman that didn't know about alcohol during pregnancy. I wouldn't have had the wine anyway now, I'm not that stupid. Will you please not kill her, for me?"

"No, she deserves to die."

"Marutuk, feel my heart." I moved his hand to my chest.

"Why is it so oddly fast?"

"Because when I see you do violence like this, it terrifies me."

"You should have gotten used to it by now."

"I've seen a lot of violence, Marutuk. I've never, ever gotten used to it, and never, ever will it stop making me like this. Do you think killing this woman is worth risking me getting a heart attack? Won't that seriously risk the baby?"

He bit his lip in frustration. "Fine. I don't want to risk the baby. I'll let her go with a warning this time."

"Thanks Marutuk."

"But if someone makes any sort of attack on you, I'm not holding myself back. I'm killing them."

After dinner, Marutuk used a cloth napkin as a blindfold for me and then carried me in his arms.

"We're not going to your room?" I asked. "Where are we going?"

"It's quite obviously a surprise."

There was nothing that made me more uneasy than not knowing where Marutuk was taking me or why we were going there. That was an exaggeration, I realized, as I obviously didn't enjoy seeing him murder innocents in front of me, but this seemed like a close second.

He ripped off my blindfold and said, "Ta da!"

I took a sharp intake of breath as I realized I was staring at the outdoor fountain of sand. "The Sandfalls."

"You don't look happy."

"I'm happier than if you had surprised me with another trip to the dead-body laden snakepit."

"Alright, the snakepit can be gloomy, I can see that. But I thought you found the Sandfalls to be beautiful and breathtaking."

"I did. That was before you bit me here for the first time injecting me with your paralysis venom, and then forced yourself on me using sand as lube."

"The days of paralysis are behind us, you know that. And the doctor doesn't want me to cut your insides anymore, so that rules out the sand. I want you to forget all that. That's an order"

He kicked off his slippers and shook his royal turban off his head, leaving him just as naked as I was. With me against his chest, he carried me through the outer fall and into the octagonal basin of sand beyond, covering our bodies with sand.

"I want you to go back to the first time I took you here. Remember how fond you were of me? How ferociously you desired me that night?"

"Yes, I remember."

"That's why I wanted us to come back here to sleep tonight. To recover that night."

He kissed me then, and it was just like that first time at the Sandfalls. He sat down in the sand, holding me on his lap. The snake/penis flicked its black tongue all over my stomach lovingly.

"I want you to know that I totally love you now," he said to me, breaking the kiss.

I wanted to say that a monster like him was incapable of real love, but I had to hold my tongue.

"I love you so much more than I ever loved my traitorous little brother, who never delivered on his promises to impregnate him. You've made me prouder than I've ever been. I've always dreamed of being a father, and now, after so many lifetimes, it's finally happening. Can't you find it in your heart to love me too?"

I had to keep myself from laughing. "I can't love you if you continue to hurt people. I'm sorry. Can you stop hurting people, Marutuk?"

"I hurt people because that's the nature of a Snake God."

"What do you think would happen if you stopped hurting people?" I challenged.

"These people would lose respect for me. They would start taking advantage of me."

"You can't know that until you try. Please? Won't you try it, for me?"

"Hurting people is a part of who the Cobra God is. He's not changing for anyone. He enjoys it."

"Then I won't fall in love with you."

"But see how loving and romantic I'm being to you now, My Snake Mother? That's just as much who I am as the part of me that needs to kill. Can't you focus on the aspects that you like, the same ones that made you mad with desire when we spent the night here the first time, and come to love that part of me? The part that treats you so well?"

"I can't fall in love with just a part of you. It's either all of you or none at all, so that's why I'm always going to try to encourage you to stop killing."

"We have a long time together. Wonderful time as parents. With enough time, you may find you are capable of falling in love with me, killer and all."

"I'm not going to fall in love with a killer."

"But you have no way to predict how you will feel in the future, can you? Can't use a spell to foresee events?"

His snake turned hard and stiff, clearly ready for action.

"You know you are the only one who knows any of my spells."

"Then you cannot see the future."

"No, I guess not."

"Reach down and feel what I had the servants hide in the sand before we came out here."

I reached in the sand and pulled out a bottle of something. I shook the sand off and read the label. "Lube?"

"That's right!"

"I'm hoping this is for lubing machinery gears. Because I can't imagine why you would need this otherwise, given that you now it's bad for the baby to have you top me."

"Correction: it's bad for the baby to have me cause you to bleed when I top you."

"Which has happened to me every single time you have topped me ever since we changed your dick into a snake."

"But we have never used lube before. I figured it was worth a shot so that we could make love again tonight, to celebrate such amazing news. Ever since you told me, I've been so furiously attracted to your hole, I almost cannot hold myself back."

"But the bleeding?"

"I'll go slow and easy. If I start to make you bleed, I'll pull out. Otherwise, I want to be in you tonight."

He started by setting me down stomach first on the sand and then wiping all the sand off my rear. He licked me a good long time with his human tongue, his fangs popping out. And then he did the same with his cobra tongue while he dipped his finger in the lube and started to put it in me.

He slowly worked four fingers into me before moving his hand away and starting to lube up his cobra, getting it totally glistening.

The head started to slowly push against my hole.

"You'd better be watching to make sure there's no blood!"

"Did you forget who I am? I can smell the blood the second it comes out."

He pushed more of himself into me, forcing the head in.

"Ow, that hurts! I have to be bleeding!"

"You're not bleeding! Just relax!"

He kept pushing inside me.

"Ow! That hurts so bad! How could I not be bleeding?"

"You aren't. I'm stretching you just fine. Oh, hey. I haven't fed from you yet today. You want me to get my giant Daddy Cobra fangs in your throat?"

"To paralyze me? That's bad for the baby!"

"I'm not going to inject paralysis venom into you. Just my normal venom to make you numb. I was going to feed from you anyway. Might as well be now."

"I guess so."

He quickly pierced my throat, starting to drain my blood, and injecting his numbing, sexual venom into me. "Your blood somehow tastes better than before. It's like I can taste my boy inside you! And I'm so happy you are finally erect. In the past, I know I have just taken my due pleasure from you by force. But tonight, you've made me so happy, I want you to come too while I'm topping you."

"It's an automatic response, Marutuk! I'm not going to come like this, I promise you. But at least with the biting, it almost doesn't hurt anymore."

"Good."

Once he was all the way inside me, he bristled with pleasure. "Oh! Ohh! Do you realize what I'm doing, my Mother? I am sticking the tongue of my cobra through your cervix! I can taste our baby! It feels so good!"

I focused on the numbing the biting gave me, and tried not to think too much about the pain. After licking at my cervix for a while, he started to screw me with his totally hard cobra. Luckily, my constant cries of pain made him go slower than I ever thought he was capable of, and he kept on biting me the whole time.

After far too long, he started to get really, really revved up, and I knew he was getting close. He started talking about bathing me in his Cobra Seed, the magic that gave me my baby in the first place, and how only I was worthy of receiving it, and how happy that should make me. I somehow kept my mouth shut during all of that.

He pushed all the way inside me, cried out and forced himself against my cervix, and then started to erupt. So much liquid filled me up completely, pouring onto the sand. I thanked God in my head that it was over.

He licked my bite wounds shut.

"I'm sleeping inside you, just like I did that first night here."

"Marutuk, I need my sleep. The baby needs me to have plenty of sleep. It hurts enough just to have you inside me at all. I won't be able to sleep if you keep moving around in the night."

"I'll keep myself under control. From here until morning, I promise not to move. Just to cradle you, and hold my Cobra inside your magic snake hole."

"Thank you, Marutuk."

I shut my eyes and nestled into the sand beneath me, getting ready to fall asleep, with his furry muscles totally wrapped around me.

"But before you fall asleep, you have to admit one thing."

"Yes?"

"That this moment is at least a little bit romantic for you. With you in the arms of the father of our baby, with me in the exact same position as when the baby was conceived, with you being filled up with the same Cobra Seed that made our baby, with the white sand pouring all around us, and the starry sky above."

"There is something romantic about it, I admit," I said. I wasn't sure if I really felt that way or if I was just ecstatic that I would finally be able to sleep normally through a night without being snake-raped to the point of bleeding.

MAY 5th

I woke up in a panic, with pale early morning light starting to illuminate the Sandfalls.

"Marutuk!"

"Hmm. What is it?" he asked, waking up behind me in the sand, still spooning me and inside me.

I held my stomach. "There's something wrong with the baby. Please, I need to go see Dr. Farhat."

"On it." He pulled out of me quickly, which was surprisingly painful, and then lifted me into his arms.

I shut my eyes when we went under the sand and didn't open them again until we had stopped moving, but we got to the clinic surprisingly fast. Marutuk began pounding on Tahir's clinic gates.

Tahir opened the gate in an amazingly fast amount of time. He seemed surprised to see Marutuk

"I'm sorry, God Marutuk, I was sleeping and I didn't have time to put on clothes before I came down." Tahir was holding shut his robe.

"I don't care about that. Speed was the critical part. Doctor, Jake is having stomach pains. Please, please tell me it's nothing to worry about."

"Pains?" asked Tahir, looking in my eyes.

"Not pains exactly. I could feel something swollen and puffy coming out of my stomach. It felt like something was horribly wrong."

Marutuk lifted me up so I was more at face level, and Tahir looked over my stomach.

"I don't see anything. Do you mind if I take a feel?"

"Please," said Marutuk.

Tahir moved his hands away from his robe and moved them towards me. I noticed that this made his robe open up, leaving his huge penis just swinging out in the open.

Tahir put his fingers in my stomach, gently probing around. "I don't feel anything amiss. Can you show me what you felt?"

I moved my hands to my stomach and tried to feel it. "Huh, I don't feel it anymore. Weird!"

"You had just woken up. Maybe it was all a bad dream?" suggested Marutuk.

"No, it wasn't just a dream."

"Doctor, we have a long meet and feast in the Snake Courtyard for most of the day. I'd feel a lot better if you could run some tests and just make sure everything is alright before we have to be there."

"Sure, God Marutuk. Do you two want to come inside, and I'll see what I can do?"

"Actually, I have to be at my daily offerings right now. If I could trust you to look after him while I'm down there and then drop him off in my room in a bit? That way, I won't have to drag him along to the offerings. He's oddly sensitive to the violence, and I don't see how I can get through an offering without killing at least someone. Can I trust you to keep him guarded at all times?"

"Yes, of course, God Marutuk."

"Your clinic is the safest place for him because you always keep it locked. Please don't let him out of your arms unless you need to put him down for some medical testing reason."

"I won't."

Marutuk handed me over to Tahir. Tahir shut and locked the gate, and then carried me into the clinic. We both waited for a couple minutes until we were sure he was out of ear range. And then Tahir said, "There's absolutely no medical reason for anyone to be carrying you around like this. I'm ultimately here to do anything you tell me to do, Jake, because I love you so much I would do anything. If that means you want me to carry you everywhere and never make you take a step again, I would do it. But medically, there's no reason for that, as long as you're not ill."

"You can set me down then. Marutuk is being absolutely ridiculous."

He put me down. "You do know much of what I told him yesterday was a lie. You have a fanged vampire embryo inside you. Unless something hits you in the uterus, and very hard at that, he couldn't really hurt the baby. Especially not after the first week."

"I figured. He gobbled it right up. He's now worrying about things he never did before. Like not choking me when he forces me to give him oral. Or not cutting me when he has sex. But he's still topping me regardless of what you said."

"What else would you expect from the king of snakes?"

"At least he's trying for the first time to not hurt me. He used so much lube last night, it was actually the least painful sex session he's made me do since the got new and worsened man-parts."

"I'm guessing you made up the protrusion in order to get him to agree to leave me alone here?"

"No, actually. I really did feel something." I felt at my stomach again. "But whatever was there is gone now. You've yawned twice since I've been here. Sorry I woke you up at this pre-dawn hour."

"I'm always happy to get up if it means seeing you, regardless of how many hours I slept."

"How many was it?"

"Honestly?" He looked at a clock. "Two hours."

"Out partying again, huh?"

"I had a far better reason for not sleeping." He took my hand and kissed it.

"Which was?"

"I was much too excited from the last two days of such amazing events. I was just too giddy to go to sleep."

"Aw, I'm touched. Would you think anything less of me if I told you I slept very well?"

"You are pregnant. Of course you did."

"Wait, how come the mongooses aren't here saying hello to me?"

"I couldn't bear to wake them up. Poor things detected my excitement last night and didn't sleep until I did."

"Go back to sleep, Tahir. I'll rinse off and then come join you in bed."

"I can't refuse a command like that."

"Especially not from your Cobra-God-Mother," I joked.

He went up to his place, and I went into the shower. I washed off all the sand off me, and then I washed his load out of me, just because it was starting to gross me out. I had remembered to grab the lube, which I still held onto. I used that to lube myself up again, thinking as long as it was still moist in there, Marutuk would never be able to tell. And I was so sore back there from last night, I decided to put Parker's serum in as well, just to ease the pain.

When I was clean, I went up to Tahir's apartment. The mongooses were all sleeping around Tahir in the bed, looking all too adorable.

"You guys get down and make some room for Jake," Tahir said to them.

The two good mongooses yawned and got on the ground, where they started to sleep again. But Blackbeard remained firmly in place.

"Blackbeard! I'm so disappointed in you."

Tahir moved him down himself before I jumped into bed beside him. "You still have your robe on?" I asked when I got under the covers with him.

"Is that another order?"

"Yes it is. I want to feel your skin."

"Another order I can't refuse."

He pulled off his robe and threw it out of the bed.

I kissed him and pressed my body against his. "You're hard. And a little leaky. Do you always sleep like this?"

"No. Sadly, the mongooses don't inspire this sort of behavior in me, and they are my typical bedfellows. You, on the other hand, make me as lustful as I've ever been. So if your next order is for me to get soft, I'm afraid it will have to be the first one I'll be breaking."

"Nope, no need. Look, I have an idea. I want to try and recreate the exact position I was in this morning when I felt something in my stomach, and I need you to be a Marutuk stand in. Can you do that for me?"

"I would do anything you needed from me, Jake. Even if it meant you needed to cast a permanent spell to turn my penis into a cobra so that I could more be in character."

"You'd do that, for me?"

"As long as you didn't mind me cutting it off in disgust after you were done with me. I would even shave my mongooses and glue their fur all over my body to better mimic our hirsute leader."

"I don't need you to mimic him quite to that degree. Which is a saving grace for me, as you are perfect the way you are. Any closer to him you get, the less attractive you become."

"How did you ever get to be so kind? What do you need from me, then?"

"Can you hold me?"

"Aren't I already?"

No, that's way too sweet for Marutuk. From behind. Spoon me."

He moved behind me and pressed his muscled front against my back.

"Good, hold onto me tightly. Yes." I felt my stomach. "Still nothing here. Did I really imagine something?"

"Sometimes, when humans first wake up, their hands are numb from sleeping in awkward positions. Perhaps your hands weren't quite awake yet and so gave you a sensation that was inaccurate."

"Perhaps. But there was one more difference. When I woke up, Marutuk was inside me."

"Lucky him!"

"Feel up to getting inside me, Tahir?"

"I'm here to serve you. And luckily, I'm so tired right now that I can keep my desire at bay and not risk losing control. You ready for me to be inside you?"

"I am."

He started to insert himself into me with a pleased moan. "Anything yet?"

"No, but he was all the way in me. Touching my cervix, he said."

"Ah, I can do that." He pushed himself all the way in.

"Oh! There! I got it now! Feel this."

I moved his hand where I was feeling in my stomach. "Oh yes, there it is."

"What is that?"

"Jake, it's the baby."

"What? Shouldn't the baby be microscopic right now?"

"Not a fanged vampire baby. Remember I said the first week is critical? That's because a vampire fetus grows to about half an ounce in size by the end of it, or roughly 12 weeks into a normal human fetus's gestational age."

"That's insanely fast! Does that mean pregnancy time overall is much faster?"

"No. After the first week, a fanged baby slows down significantly. By the end of the pregnancy, the both the human baby and the vampire will deliver at the same time."

"How can the baby survive without blood until pregnancy?" I asked.

"It doesn't," Tahir said.

"Uh oh, do I even want to know what that means?"

"The baby will be taking your blood through the umbilical cord."

"Will that hurt?"

"You won't even be able to tell it's happening, and the baby never takes more than it needs. Your voice sounds rather disturbed. Are you sure you're okay with all of this?"

"It's just that this all seems so bizarre. I feel like my body is host to some bizarre parasite."

"That's one way to look at it, but in this case, one that has your genes, someone who you will love unconditionally, and who you will forever be responsible for. Did you not want children before?"

"I always wanted children. But I always assumed it would be my sperm creating the child, not the other way around."

"Oh. Does that mean you used to be a top?"

"No, I'm never topped in my life, and have no desire to. And I hated having sex with women. But I figured I would use my sperm to artificially inseminate a woman. That's typically what happens when a gay guy wants children, that or they adopt. But when I learned that being the One makes my sperm unable to fertilize eggs, that means this way this the only option that is left to me. The whole idea just seems kind of weird."

"Does that mean you are regretting doing that spell that makes you able to conceive?"

"No, I wouldn't go that far. What about you? When you feel this inside me, does it make you feel at all weirded out by it all?"

"Not at all. It makes me feel completely amazed and in awe by what your body is able to do. You are procreating, Jake. This life form inside you isn't some outside parasite, it's a reproduction of yourself. And since I love you, I love the life inside of you as well. I love every little medical aspect of this pregnancy because it's a part of this miracle that is bringing another you into the world. Is the pregnancy causing you any sort of discomfort?"

"No, actually."

"What do you feel in your stomach?"

"I don't know. I guess it feels good somehow. I guess I should trust my body." I put my hands over his, holding his hand against my belly. "I wish so badly you could have seen what I saw when we did it."

"Is that what Marutuk meant when he told me my medical diagnosis had been confirmed?"

"That's right. And it told me who the parents were. I was so happy to see you were the father and not Marutuk."

"You are ever darling."

"And it told me he was going to be a special vampire."

"Oh, what valuable news. Usually, there's no way to tell that one. We'll have to work with the boy to try and learn what his ability is."

"But the coolest part of the spell is that it let me see what the baby looked like ten months from now."

Tahir shook me excitedly. "Really? Oh, I wish I could have seen through your eyes for just a moment. I bet he looked just as beautiful as you."

"Actually, he looked like a perfect blend of the two of us. He's gorgeous, Tahir. Gorgeous!"

"Ooh, now I simply cannot wait to see him. Has nine months gone by yet? No?"

"The best part of it is, he smiled at me. I feel like he's going to have a good soul."

"He has your soul. I love him already, as miniscule as he is currently."

"He's both of us, Tahir. And I love him too," I realized. "And there's something else too I realize now. I don't just want you to be the loving father of our child. I want you to be my boyfriend, Tahir."

"I'm not sure I'm familiar with that modern word, and don't want to embarrass myself by assuming what that means."

"It means I want us to be romantic partners. I know I have nothing really to offer you in that regard. As much as I'd like to be monogamous, Marutuk makes that impossible. I couldn't even offer you any normal amount of physical contact, as it will always have to be a secret. There may be times in the future when we might go weeks without ever being able to touch as lovers. But I still want to badly to hold onto whatever scrap of normalcy that I can."

"Jake, I am nothing but honored." He was moved to kissing me. "I would love nothing more than to be your romantic partner."

"Even though I can't be monogamous?"

"Technically, I can't swear I will be either. What if Marutuk decides at some point to fulfill his sexual whims, he wants me to sleep with someone besides you for a change?"

"Has that ever happened?"

"No, but it's not outside of his wicked character to that he would start ordering me to do something like that in the future."

"But Tahir, if you found someone else, someone perhaps also working in the palace who wasn't forced by Marutuk into never being able to be a real partner, wouldn't you rather be with someone who could give you the commitment you deserve?"

"No. Because they are not you, and I am totally in love with you. Besides, who else but you would write off my mongooses and delusional seafaring fantasies as endearing instead of having me committed?"

"You'd be surprised."

"No one. The answer is no one. Jake, I want to be your partner."

I felt overwhelmed with emotion. Somehow, having the father of my child being my committed partner made it all so much tolerable. "Thanks for making me so happy, then. And the first gift your new partner asks for is for you to make love to me this morning."

He smiled. "That sounds like a gift to me, not the other way around. Once again, I must obey your commands completely."

He kissed me romantically as he started to gently move back and forth with his hips, rubbing my prostate sweetly. All traces of him being sleepy were long gone, and his touch poured his passion into my body.

His thrusts turned from gentle to more rhythmic and powerful, but with Parker's serum, still pleasurable, and I felt myself moaning.

But then he turned too excited. He was biting at my lip and his thrusts were getting more and more powerful.

I broke free of his kiss. "Tahir, slow down."

"Right, I'm slowing down."

He slowed down again, back to those pleasurable thrusts, and my body was elated. I kissed him again.

And then a few minutes later, it turned unpleasant again, as his body went on overdrive.

"Tahir, you're hurting me!"

"Okay, I'm trying to hold myself back, trying so hard."

After that, he did hold himself back so that his thrusts were just on the borderline of being pleasurable.

But though he kept his body at bay, his love and desire was replaced by total frustration, coming through every gesture.

Finally, the frustration mounted and his fist came up. I saw him swinging in the direction of me, and I thought for a moment he would hit me.

Instead, he punched the headboard above me, knocking a hole in it.

"Tahir, stop!"

I made him snap out of his lust as I pulled away from him, getting him out of me.

"You cannot destroy every piece of furniture in your room in the name of pleasing me!"

"You're right."

He jumped out of bed, walking naked away from me in frustration.

"Where are you going?"

"Away from your naked body and the bed that turns me into someone I don't want to be." He walked naked out of the room, shaking his hand.

I followed close behind him as he walked out of his apartment and then downstairs into the clinic. He walked his ripped, hairless muscles into the shower room and turned on the water. "I just need a cold shower right now."

He stood under the cold water, seeming to particularly aim it towards his hard dick.

"Your hand," I said, coming into the shower in order to get a look.

He put up his hand angrily. "Do not come near me! Jesus, especially not naked! I could lose control again and hurt you!"

I shook my head. "Now you're overeating, Tahir. We've been naked together plenty of times without you losing control of yourself and attacking me."

"I have never been in this state of arousal before!"

"I think you can handle it."

I forced my way into the shower with him.

"Now, let me see that hand." I grabbed his hand and looked at it. "Parker could have used turned his fist to steel and made that punch without damaging himself, but you are no Logan Blood vampire. Because of that, your knuckles are bloody and your fingers look broken. What were you thinking, doing this to yourself?"

"It will heal in a moment, and I was thinking I'd far rather injure myself and destroy my bed than injure you."

"Well, it was a gallant effort to give me what I asked for. I'm not calling this a loss, Tahir. We'll try this again. We'll get you to where you want to be. In the meantime, let me show you my gratitude for trying by washing you off."

I grabbed the soap and started to wash his body.

"No," he said.

"No to what?"

"No to it all. I cannot have you washing me right now. The second I you start touching my penis, I'm going to lose control again. You just do not understand what it's like to stop myself in the middle of something like this."

"That's fine." I handed him the soap. "I'll be fine just washing myself beside you and not touching you."

"No. I cannot have you so close to me, naked like this. The second I see that rear of yours, it could set my instincts off again."

"I think you'll be fine."

"Do you really want to take the risk? Because it's not just you you are risking anymore, you have to remember that. It's the baby too."

"Fine, I'll shower in another stall. I understand."

When I finished my shower and toweled off, Tahir was waiting for me, fully dressed. He handed me his robe. "Would you be able to handle yourself if I just stayed naked?"

"No."

I put the robe on.

"And you asked me what else my no applies to. Well, it also applies to your request of me that we become romantic partners. I have to rescind that yes. You cannot have a partner who can't control himself and threatens him sexually and therefore physically as well."

"That's not true, you are fully capable of learning to control yourself. You did it when we were together at the sea, remember?"

"That was only because of the magic effect of the sea itself had on me. And you said yourself, that was a one time deal. We cannot depend on Big Horn for our entire romantic life."

"What about when we are free of Marutuk and we buy a sailboat together?" I asked.

"Then I could probably control myself. But since that could be many years in the future or never arrive, I cannot call myself your partner in the meantime. We should just be friends, and we can revisit this issue then."

"I don't need the sex, Tahir. We could just kiss and be affectionate, and leave the sex off the table. That would still make me just as happy."

"You're wrong," he said. "Don't you see? You need Parker Logan."

"Parker's dead, you know that."

"You need someone who can live up to him. Someone who can give you the physical love you deserve without losing control. You said it yourself, if I was Parker, I wouldn't have hurt my hand. Well, isn't it plain as day? That's just adding another reason to the list of ways in which I'll never, ever be like Parker, and therefore, not good enough for your romantic affection, even one as innocent as what you are suggesting."

"That's not true. If I could just prove to you--"

"Not another word! You deserve to have someone in your life who is as good as Parker was, not a poor substitute. And that's that. Please don't bring it up again. I still want to be as much of a father to the baby as you allow me to. I still want to be as close a platonic friend as you'll allow me to, but no more talks of romance, please. You'll only break my heart."

"I'm the one who feels like I got punched in the gut right now."

"Oh no, did I hurt you worse than I realized? I am such a fiend!"

"No, I meant metaphorically. I felt so hopeful a moment ago, but now, it's all washed down the drain along with that soap I just used to clean myself off with."

"I blame myself for your emotional pain as well, as I was the one who stupidly thought after the trip to the sea, I was a changed man. I just hope it will be brief. Oh, heck, take off your robe."

"Why? Did you have a change of heart about trying the sex thing?" I sked hopefully.

"No, good heavens, no. It's time for me to take you back to Marutuk. I hope you enjoyed what it felt like to walk like a normal human being on their own feet. Because it's the last time you'll experience it for who knows how long."

"Please tell me everything was in order with my Cobra-God-Son?"

We were in Marutuk's room getting ready for the feast.

"It was. Turns out I was just feeling the first signs of the baby growing inside me. I could not believe it would happen that quickly."

"He is strong and powerful, and capable of amazement. I want to feel my son too." He put his finger on my stomach. "Did you find any trick to it?"

"Uh, no," I lied, not wanting in the slightest to give him another reason to get inside me again that day. "It just seems to appear intermittingly."

"Well, I have a surprise gift for you, Jake. Befitting the Mother of Cobra-Gods. Close your eyes."

"Every time you mention a surprise gift, my heart goes crazy with fear that it will be something to rival your last gift to me," I said, pointing at Helina.

Marutuk felt my heart. "No, no, no, please don't get alarmed. This is a true gift that will bring you much happiness."

I shut my eyes, and I felt him placing items around my body. "Okay, look!"

I opened my eyes, and he was holding me in front of a mirror. I absolutely hated what my image had turned into. He had placed on me the same sort of outfit consisting only of snake-shaped chains and bracelets. My head and body were newly swarming with them. And while they could have been identical to Marutuk's, mine looked a bit different.

His looked masculine, while mine had a definite feminine look to it. Mine was filled with colorful jewels. The ones around my nipple were red rubies, making me sort of looking like I had breasts. I noticed the belly was totally clear of anything, clearly on purpose.

"Don't you love it?" he asked.

"It's wonderful, thank you," was all I felt like I could say without risking setting him off.

"But your heart is still racing."

"That's just out of happy excitement that you gave me an outfit that I've always dreamed of wearing. Thanks."

Even if it hadn't been totally womanly and instead was identical to his own manly chains, I would have still despised it. I realized there was a time when I was first getting to know him where I found his chains to be attractive, if over bold and very distinctly personal. But those feelings had long vanished, and now seeing these chains just made my stomach ache with anger and anxiety. So, it was all I could do to force myself to look down at them with such a big smile.

Making that false smile stick to my pour mouth was infinitely harder as he carried me into the Snake Courtyard, which was absolutely teeming with onlookers, showing off my new jewelry with absolute pride. I had never been in that courtyard before, and realized it was much larger and grander than the one in Tahir's clinic. Three story buildings filled with gorgeous pillars and horseshoe arches surrounded the space in architectural beauty, but the courtyard itself was just as impressive. Symmetrically carved channels of water were all over the place, and even more impressive, there were orange trees here. This was a statement room, showing off the power and wealth of its makers, able to turn a desert into a paradise, with these plants that would have never survived anywhere else around here naturally. The edges of the room were decorated in Arabic calligraphy. I asked Marutuk what they said, half expecting to hear that they were verses from the Quran, as would be typical. Instead, he told me they all detailed his most miraculous personal feats.

The edges of the courtyard held tables, and most of these were filled with perhaps the largest amount of food I had ever seen, Arabian delicacies all of them. There was a raised seat for Marutuk is the center of the other tables, clearly much more grand than any of the other seats in the room. It was actually built large enough for a Shah and their partner, larger than his actual throne was in the throne room. The benefit to this was that, for a change, he set me down seated to his side, and kept his arm around me the whole time, defensively. I did note that he placed me purposefully in the less grandly decorated half of the double seat, as if to let onlookers know, clearly I am of great importance, but I will never be as strong and magnificent as Marutuk.

"Marutuk, you know what gift I would love even more than the jewelry? For you not to hurt anyone here."

"I shall try."

Marutuk told the servants to let his subjects in, and very quickly the courtyard filled up with a couple hundred people from the city. Everyone had to bow down and verbally confirm their eternal elegance to Marutuk, and then they bowed down in front of me and spoke a sort of blessing for the baby inside me. Each family gave us three gifts, one for Marutuk, one for me, and one for the baby. After gifts were collected, Marutuk invited them to sit and feast. A group of Arabian wind instrument players came out as entertainment during the meal. I ate alongside Marutuk, choosing to avoid some of the wilder, unusual delicacies for more typical staples.

When Marutuk asked them all to leave, I figured we'd be calling it a day as well and go back to our room. Instead, I was shocked when a whole another group of folks came in with their own gifts.

"Just how many people will we be seeing today, Marutuk?"

"The whole city, if I can stand to see them all. We have thousands of folks in lines around the outside of the palace."

"The whole city?"

"Aren't you happy that they will all be able to see your new decoration up close, my Mother?"

"That I am," I said.

As more and more people came through, I was astonished how efficiently the servants were bringing in new platters of food and drinks. With every new group came a different set of entertainers as well. We had sword jugglers, not to be confused with the sword swallowers, the firebreathers, Arabian string-instrument band, belly dancers, and Marutuk's favorite of course, the snake charmers. He told me that when I watched them perform, I should be proud of myself, for managing to be the best snake-charmer the world had ever known, considering I alone had managed to charm his King Cobra, a much mightier, more dangerous snake than any of the professional charmers handled. I weakly agreed to this ridiculous statement.

It didn't take me long for me to notice a general trend with the gifts that were being given to me. Sometimes they were just general gifts, like a fine horse, that were sort of genderless. But a great many of them were just as effeminate as the jewels I was wearing. Clearly, this was the instruction Marutuk had given them. While Syd, during our fake engagement, had told everyone I wanted to play the female bride part of the marriage, this was clearly one of his many attempts to drive me up the wall just out of his own sadistic humor. But with Marutuk, he truly believed that these sorts of gifts were totally appropriate and would be received by me with nothing but pleasure. And so, I had to act so pleased to receive every womanly item offered, not just for his sake but for the sake of the poor givers, who were clearly giving me prized items that might cause them severe poverty, meaning I absolutely had to be as appreciative as I possibly could be.

At one point, a human couple gave Marutuk and the baby a gift, but failed to give me anything. "Guards, seize them!" Marutuk shouted, pointing at the poor couple. "For this slight, so insulting to my Cobra-Son's Mother, you will pay."

"Please don't do this, I don't care that they forgot me, really."

"Insulting you in front of everyone here insults me as well. Guards, I promised Jake there would be no bloodshed here, so I want you to take the family in back and kill them there. The boy is too young to kill, but let him see what fate his parents have met before you let him go."

All three of them started to cry, the small boy clutching as his parents.

"Marutuk, feel my heart," I said, putting his hand to my chest.

"It's so fast! But this time the violence was happening totally off-stage!"

"I don't care! Just knowing about it makes my heart go crazy. If you want the baby to be safe, you'll let this couple go with just a warning this time."

"If I do that, since I will stop hurting people at your request, does that mean you will start opening yourself up to reciprocate the love I feel for you?"

"For as long as you stop hurting people, I will love you, Marutuk." I absolutely hated lying about something so serious, but saw no other way to save these lives.

"Guards, escort them out of the palace, but see they receive no harm."

The family looked at me with such gratitude as they left.

Marutuk kissed me, and I kissed him back.

When he finally called it a day (which ended up being late into the night), I watched what he did with all gifts. Any of the animal gifts he had taken away to the palace animal pens. All of the gifts for the baby, which were a mixture of items that would be specifically for an infant or a child to meaning to be items for when he was an adult man, all of those he had put in the palace bed chambers that he was reserving for the child. He had most of his gifts be put in with his other treasure in the throne room. As for my gifts, there was really no sign that he actually thought I owned any of it. He put all of the items given to me that he could at all stomach in his throne room as well. The only items he had them put in our closet for my use were the super girly items that he would clearly never touch.

Marutuk carried me into the bathroom, where we both pissed, rinsed off on my request in the shower after that hot day in the sun, and I brushed my teeth.

As Marutuk set me down into his bed, I was already dreading the night to come. The major difference between this night and the one before was that I was obligated to act like I was trying to love him that night as a reward for not killing anyone. I knew that the only way I was going to get through this lie of an evening, since I was so bad at lying, was to go back to the days when I thought Marutuk was really hot, back before I learned he was a psychopath killer in his spare time.

He grabbed my dick. "I don't remember this ever being so flaccid when you were still lusting after me. What happened to trying to love me tonight?"

"I just need to get it warmed up, you'll see."

When he kissed me, it was this old, ultimately false idea of who I thought he had been that I focused on. I kissed him back with the passion I once had for this man, and I could feel how pleased he was to feel that passion again. That image got me hard again.

I moved my hands over his black beard and the rough, hard edges of his face. I moved my hands down his thick neck, and onto his massively large pecs, covered with black fur. Ran my fingers over the only part of his chest that wasn't covered with his hair, his tan nipples, and then moved my hands down over his crazy-chunky abs, rubbing the fur there as well. Eventually, my hands moved to his huge, black bush.

But I got knocked out of my reverie as I my hands hit scales. I opened my eyes, looking at the literal snake between his legs. While I had been hugely attracted at one point to Marutuk's human dick, this one did absolutely nothing for me. And since the man I had once been attracted to did not have this sort of horror between his legs, it was crazy difficult to pretend that I was merely back in time.

He must have noticed this in my face, because he said, "What is it? You seem disgusted by something."

"It's nothing."

"It's something. Clearly it's something. What were you looking at?" He followed where my gaze had been pointed towards his own crotch. "Ah-ha!"

"No, it's nothing."

"You were looking at... the snake tank behind me, weren't you?"

I almost could not keep myself from laughing. Clearly, he would never even conceive someone would be anything but lustful for his cobra-shaped penis. "That's right."

"I'm sorry. While seeing her like that helps my libido, I can see how it would be a mood-killer for you. I can take care of that."

He waved his hand, and the snakes moved Helina's frozen body towards the center of the tank, away from the glass and out of sight.

"Now, where were we?"

After that point, I had no reason not to, so I forced myself to grab his horrible snake-penis and stroke it as it flicked its tongue at me, while making my face look as filled with fake lust as I knew how to.

I subconsciously found my fingers moving towards his nuts. At least those were still human, still hot. Too furry for my taste but undeniably massive, I tried to get away with just rubbing those.

"That's it, rub the vessels that made the Cobra-God-Seed that impregnated you!"

"Yes, so hot!"

But after a moment, he was pulling my hands up towards his actual snake. "King Cobra wants a taste of those hands too!"

"No problem," I said.

It was all I could do just to move my hands over to his snake flesh on my own accord. Stroking that snake while keeping my dick firm was insanely difficult, but somehow I did it.

"Tell King Cobra himself just how much you love him."

"I love you, Cobra," I said to the snake-head as I stroked him. "Almost as much as I love the God Marutuk himself, for not hurting people."

As I talked, the snake in my hands swelled up and became stiff, going erect.

"King Cobra wants so bad to feel your mouth on him."

"Well, sadly, I cannot give King Cobra oral without risking damage to the baby."

"No. But you can kiss King Cobra to show him just how much you love him."

I moved forward and kissed, with my lips, the mouth of the cobra.

"Ooo, so sexy! King Cobra wants you to lick him up and down now!"

I felt repulsed as I made myself start to lick the scaly horror up and down. When I got to his face, I licked that too, acting like I was into it the whole time.

But the licking was so disgusting, it was making my dick go down fast. Worried he would see it, I only had one option I could think of. "I'm so hot with love for you, I cannot wait another second to have you inside me."

"That's what I want to hear! Tonight I'm really going to show you my love."

He asked me to lube down his snake, and then he was doing the same to my hole. Soon, I he was easing his way inside me, being careful again to go so slowly at first that he didn't cause me to bleed. Luckily, Parker's serum was still inside me, and that was keeping some of the pain at bay.

When he was all the way inside me, I felt him grabbing at my dick, and I was worried again the pain would make me deflate. So, I begged him to bite me, which he did. As soon as he had his fangs in me, I no longer had to worry about trying to trick myself into staying hard, it was an automatic process.

As he started to screw me, still gently enough not to make me bleed, he repeatedly asked me to tell him how much I loved him, which was not easy to lie to him about, but I simply didn't have a choice.

I was really growing tired of having him thrusting inside me, so I said, "You are going to drive me crazy if you withhold the, um, Cobra-God-Seed that I love so much from me much longer."

"I'm just holding out until you blow as well," he said.

"You are? For me to come?"

"Yeah. Part of loving me is about being so turned on that you'll come."

I had no idea that was what he had been waiting for that whole time. I turned myself a bit into the sheets. That way, every time he humped me, I could rub myself into the soft sheets. And, at least once his snake was inside me, I didn't have to look at it, and I could pretend it was his old penis doing the deed.

I was somehow able to do as he wanted. When he saw me shoot, he was majorly pleased with himself, and started to go off on how he was flooding me with King Cobra God Seed that was far too precious for any butt but mine. Goop gushed and gushed inside me.

After we were done, he again wanted to sleep inside me all night long. It was so unusual for me to come before bed like that; it was making me more tired than ever. And so there was only so much kissing that night that I could take before telling him he was keeping the carrier of his baby from getting enough sleep, and that finally stopped him.

I prayed to God silently again, begging forgiveness for all the lies I was telling.